1978–1992[]
The first regular opening sequence had the title on a blue background, with a Union Jack flag as the P in "Monsterpiece", with the camera zooming out on the flag to reveal the title. Most of these skits with this opening had Alistair Cookie with a pipe and then usually eat it at the end. A handful of sketches that originally featured this opening ("Upstairs, Downstairs", "Chariots of Fur", "The King and I") also ended with a shot of the title card.
Around Season 20, the library that Alistair Cookie was in was changed, and the pipe was dropped.
1992–1995[]
In Season 24, this opening was replaced with a longer opening, which panned around a room, showing pictures and books referencing past and then-current segments. The opening theme music was also re-recorded to sound more full and orchestral, though using the same tune, and was also presented in its entirety with Cookie Monster eating cookies (lines taken from a sketch involving eating cookies of various shapes). The name of the skit was also spelled as "Monsterpiece Theatre" in this intro.
1995-2001[]
In Season 27, another new opening was produced with the title sliding in front of a computer-animated green curtain.