MEET THE FLIGHT ATTENDANT CREW WHO
MADE THOSE OPENING TITLES SOAR

Kaley Cuoco was passionate about having an opening credit sequence on The Flight Attendant. As a self-professed “major TV viewer obsessed with main titles on TV shows,” the executive producer and star of the hit HBO Max series “ wanted The Flight Attendant to have a unique title sequence because it’s a little window into what our show is.”

Executive producer/showrunner Steve Yockey was equally on board for a dynamic opening. “Titles give a sense of identity. Our main titles take the viewer from aspirational to paranoid psychosis in a very short period of time. They give you a mini-glimpse into what our main character is going to be experiencing across the season. The fact that you can cram all that into a minute is really amazing.” What they ended up with is what Yockey proudly and affectionately calls “Saul Bass on an acid trip!”

In early conversations with producers, composer Blake Neely, who has scored everything from The Mentalist to The Flash, discussed using some percussion for the score. Neely went all in on the idea and decided to create a score using nothing but percussion, hammering away at household objects like his bike and his refrigerator. And together with the innovative, outside-the-lines animation, they created something that Neely labels “bonkers” with a broad smile. “They’re doing something crazy with the animation, I’m doing something crazy with the music. This is going to work. This is going to be a lot of fun!”

The Warner Bros. design team, consisting of motion graphics director Jim Jones and senior motion graphics designer Taka Ikari, discussed influences with Yockey and were provided with Neely’s score as a jumping off point. And they ran with it. Ikari describes the end result as “a reflection of the show in a cracked mirror. You see the story, but not in a linear way.” Jones was equally thrilled with the result: “When we put Blake’s music against our imagery, it really just fit the tone and feel of the main title.”

Karen Miller, Executive Vice President of Warner Bros. Worldwide Television Marketing, oversaw the team and worked with Cuoco and Yockey in crafting and honing the off-the-wall titles, finding herself surprised when they “asked us to make it more weird and bloody, which is not a note you get every day!” But what they ended up with was truly unique and memorable. “Taka and Jim created the perfect marriage of Blake Neely’s jazzy, cool score with eye-catching, vibrant graphic elements. It’s hard to hit the ‘skip’ button on these titles, which is exactly what we wanted to achieve!”

Now gearing up for production on season two, Yockey and Cuoco are proud of what the team accomplished.

“It really has the energy and anxiety of the show,” enthuses Yockey. “It’s this great juxtaposition of color and fantasy with really dark images that tees up what you’re about to watch.”

And Cuoco couldn’t agree more. “These are so brilliantly well done,” she says. “And I want this group of people to be recognized, because I know how much work it took. To be able to describe an entire show in a minute is…brilliant.”