“Audi Orchestra: Mary Tyler Moore,” unspools to the classic theme “Love Is All Around” by Sonny Curtis. (Photo courtesy Audi)

Audi’s “Orchestra” TV campaign, which premiered during the 69th Emmy Awards and is now playing online, consists of three spots paying homage to classic TV shows that collected the coveted gold statuette during their heyday. The commercials use the theme songs to connect the programs with the orchestral vignette, featuring instrumentalists whose renditions of the jingles are accented by the hum of Audi motors as the cars join the symphony. Models featured are the Audi R8, SQ5 and TT RS.

“At Sony/ATV we look after an unrivaled number of classic TV themes so we were the perfect partner for this campaign,” Sony/ATV president and global chief marketing officer Brian Monaco said. “It is testament to the depth of our catalog that we ended up providing all three themes which are all exclusively published by us”

In “Audi Orchestra: Star Trek” a female harpist plays duets with a French horn on Alexander Courage’s classic theme from the original 1966 Star Trek series, touting that the show as “Outstanding Drama Nominee, 1957.” Courage was reportedly hired by Gene Rodenberry on the advice of Jerry Goldsmith, who turned down the gig but later signed on as composer for 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture and wound up interpreting Courage’s original score.

“Audi Orchestra: Cheers” features a solo pianist tinkling the ivories to  “Where Everybody Knows Your Name” by Gary Portnoy and Julie Hart. A billboard reminds viewers  Cheers was “>Outstanding Comedy Series, 1991.” The song actually has quite a bit of Emmy history, having received its own Emmy Award nomination in 1983 for Outstanding Achievement in Music and Lyrics. And in 1985, Crystal Gayle performed “Where Everybody Knows Your Name” on the Emmy telecast.

The song was voted “Best TV Theme of All Time” in a 2011 Rolling Stone magazine reader poll, so it’s not surprising that it rated the highest of the three in terms of viewer engagement according to iSpot.tv, which gave it an 8.9 rating.

“Audi Orchestra: The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and its “Love Is All Around” theme by Nashville-based Sonny Curtis was a close second at 8.8 (The “Star Trek” theme, which is barely identifiable, landed at 7.7).  This entry features the largest ensemble, and opens with notice of “Outstanding Comedy Series, 1977” and ends with a simple “Thank you, Mary.” Moore died in January of this year. Curtis played guitar with Buddy Holly and wrote the rock classic “I Fought the Law.”

Each “Audi Orchestra” spot ends with a logo as “Official automotive partner of the Emmy Awards,” and the tagline is “Progress is celebrating performance.”  San Francisco-based Venables Bell & Partners was the creative agency, with production by New York’s Radical Media.