Gary Portnoy (born June 8, 1956)[1] is a singer/ songwriter from New York, best known for co-writing and singing the theme songs to two U.S. television sitcoms:

• Cheers Theme: "Where Everybody Knows Your Name"
• Punky Brewster Theme: "Every Time I Turn Around"

Both songs were written by Portnoy and Judy Hart Angelo. (They also composed the theme to the long running television series Mr Belvedere.) In addition, both shows aired on NBC.

Career

Gary Portnoy and Judy Hart Angelo were composing the score to an off-Broadway musical, Preppies, in the early 1980s when Glen and Les Charles, two of the producers of Cheers, heard their opening number, "People Like Us". They wanted to use the song as the theme for their upcoming sitcom. However, the producers of Preppies wouldn't release it. Portnoy and Angelo then set out to write a new theme for Cheers. After their first two attempts were rejected, "Where Everybody Knows Your Name" was finally selected as the theme song for Cheers.[2]