MTV DEBUTED 30 YEARS AGO

[reallyhateskateonlost]

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=8VVvK7pNgYY

The last time I saw anything on MTV was Michael Jackson's funeral. They are not even showing the anniversary you have to see it on VH1 Classics.

[JackPeyton]

MTV, as much as people bitch about it not showing videos, really made a smart move. It has reinvented itself many times over to stay current. It still is one of the top cable stations and is actually delivering good content on a lot of fronts: reality (teen mom, the real world sometimes, 16 & prego, true life...), scripted (teen wolf, awkward), game (the challenge). A station that shows music videos 24/7 is just needed now. They do still play hours of videos a day, usually from like 2-6am or so.

The VMA's are always a big production and i look forward to them, same for the movie awards.

Some of the programs i enjoyed on MTV over the years:

Cribs, Diary, Making The Video, True Life, Made, The Buried Life, The Hills/The City/Lagina beach, 8th & Ocean, Undressed, Spyder Games, Fanatic, Fear, Highschool Stories, Jersey Shore, The Real World, Road Rules, The Challenges, Taking The Stage, Two a days, Jackass, Ashlee Simpson Show,, Runs House, Singles Out, Say What, Together, Awkward, Daria, bevis & Butthead, The mandy Moore Show, Singled Out, The Blame Game...

Also, Bevis & Butthead will make a comeback later this year with like 8 new episodes, and rumor has it Daria might too. With The 90;s are All That doing well on teenick id love MTV to run a late night 90's block.

[All My Shadows]

I'd rarely watch MTV if they were all videos, all the time. That's what YouTube is for. I often find that the people who most want them to back to music videos are the people who also bash current music, so what exactly is it that they want? oh yeah...a time machine back to 1986.

I love basically all of those shows, JP. As well as the fake/trashy/hilarious dating games Next, Room Raiders, and Date My Mom. We used to stay up until the wee hours of the morning watching the Friday night Next-a-thon.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Even in the 80's and for the better part of the 90's, MTV never really played music videos 24/7. They played videos yes, but they had a healthy balance for a while of more entertainment-based shows with music-related programming. What I think pisses a lot of people off is that the network barely, if ever, even acknowledges its music-based roots anymore. While videos are dead, MTV used to air concert specials, interviews with music stars, have music-news specials, air rockumentaries, and other non-video related music content. None of that exists anymore. For a while sister-network VH1 carried on some of that tradition, but now that's become a second-rate imitator of the current MTV itself.

Even Vh1 Classic has become an embarrassment. There's still MTV Hits, which airs only music videos, but you won't get the 360 music coverage and specials MTV in its heyday used to be known for. Fuse tries, but seriously, that network has never really caught on anyway.

I think MTV was best in the late 80's and early 90's, when they had reality shows, music programs, cartoons, and game shows all existing in a healthy balance. I don't even know if they have much of an identity as a network anymore. It's just that network that airs Jersey Shore now...

[Y&RWorldTurner]

BTW, VH1 Classic is airing classic MTV programs all week long, or at least they did this past weekend...

[Shawn]

If MTV insists on NOT airing anything music related anymore (and showing music videos at 2am is b.s. in my opinion), they should just change the name of the network.

I suggest calling it the Teenage Trash Network, or TTN for short. Lord know it's living up to that name nowadays.

[alphanguy74]

Did I hear someone call my name??? LOL!! I just bash current music because it isn't any good, and if MTV still played music videos, then I suppose I wouldn't watch it, either. But during it's heyday, I watched it all the time for the four months I lived in the city where one could actually get cable TV. Street Party on Saturday nights was my favorite, I'd watch it all the time, when I wasn't going to the gay bars with glitter in my hair, that is. I think that's why MTV DOESN'T play videos or concentrates on music news, etc. anymore... the music business is going down the toilet faster than you can flush, CD sales are plummeting with no end in sight, downloads aren't making up for it. At the time I was watching (1990-91) there was a lot of good stuff out, Ace Of Base, Roxette, Soul II Soul, and YES, Milli Vanilli! LOL. Of course, Madonna was a HUGE presence at the time on the network. I think Real world was interesting, and I watched some of that for the soapy content, but like Alvin pointed out, the balance is what's missing, and MTV has turned into the Gilligan's Island of cable channels, good ratings, but a laughing stock. I'm assuming people still make videos for every release, but they certainly aren't a media focus in any way like they used to be. Maybe theyr'e not very interesting or creative? I'm of the opinion that Rap, Britney Spears, Justin Bieber and Autotune has strangled the life out of the music business, and it's a damn shame. Amy Winehouse was a real force, and she just basically killed herself, and Gaga, while interesting, seems to be more interested in gratuitous wierdness... it just doens't feel organic to me like it did with Grace Jones. Is anyone today doing anything remotely this good?

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=KA1fiFPKWUg

[quartermainefan]

I don't think Youtube or any site could do what MTV should be doing: playing some music and maybe I will hear a song or see a group I never heard of and like the music. On Youtube if there is a song that is popular or good it has no way of reaching me because I don't know to seek it out. With MTV back in the day you could turn it on and let the music play like the way we did radios before.

I can think of more than a few songs I heard thanks to MTV even as recently as ten years or so ago, and some were good and some were just catchy. It is because of MTV I can do this at karaoke if called upon.

<iframe width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/xat1GVnl8-k" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[DRW50]

When I first started watching MTV, I watched because of shows that had nothing to do with music. Liquid Television, Remote Control. I loved those shows so much. I would watch the Liquid Television reruns time after time, especially to see the Aeon Flux cartoons.

I also watched, faithfully, the early seasons of Real World and Road Rules.

I don't care about videos that much, but I also don't care about shows that follow the same script, just with different people. That script is - we love getting drunk and beating each other up and screwing around, and if we can, let's throw in some stereotypes against women and minorities.

I can see that anywhere. MTV is a dime a dozen.

[DRW50]

Why are they bringing Daria back? That was pretty weak after the first season.

[DRW50]

I also think the big failure and generally poor quality of their shows like Skins shows how limited they have become.

[JackPeyton]

And Teen Wolf doing well, both with critics and ratings shows what?

MTV pretty much created the reality craze over 20 years ago, and it is still producing hit reality shows (Teen Mom, Jersey Shore). They have always struggled with scripted shows, and Skins totally failed however Teen Wolf is doing well, even getting double digit gains in the ratings and it is pretty well liked, for what it is, by critics. Critics also really liked Awkward and i believe it is doing well for them, as is RJ Berger & My Life As Liz. Id actually say in the past year MTV has moved to a more scripted front than reality.

This is a very typical view point from someone who hears about the shows in the media and doesn't actually watch them. You say their shows are all the same with different people, im sorry but there is honestly nothing in common with The Hills and Jersey Shore. Even shows that are similar, like jersey shore and the real world, are vastly different.

You mention them hitting eachother, when the fact is Jersey Shore is the only show where if you hit somebody you are not kicked off, and as for "lets throw in some stereotypes against women and minorities" is argue that MTV has the most diverse canvas. People of different sexuality and race are all over that network, and they are all different from each other.

perhaps its just a generational or even lifestyle gap, but i myself felt connected and totally related to the people in The Hills on a oddly deep level while the cast of jersey shore is nothing like me, their group dynamic does remind me of my friends. I love watching them come together and support eachother through the hard times (Jenny's boyfriend stealing her stuff; Snooki getting punched; Their Sammi/Ron drama; etc). There is so much more to them that getting drunk, hookin up, and fighting. the shows like Teen Wolf, that are similar to other shows, are so well done. I never know what to expect to happen next on TW. And Awkward/RJ Berge/Life as Liz are actually very different than anything else on other networks. Not the mention how emotional and heatbreaking, and sometimes heartwarming, their docu shows like Teen Mom, Made and True Life are.

[DRW50]

The reason I didn't mention The Hills is because it's not on MTV now. MTV actually dropped a Hills spinoff because it didn't suit their style (the one with, who was it, Lauren?).

It's nice that MTV has a no-hitting policy, but doesn't that kind of become irrelevant when you have physical fights or almost fights on show after show after show? That's one of the reasons I stopped watching the Real World/Challenge stuff. It just seems so predictable, and in the case of the Real World, very ugly. They look for the worst in society. Bitter racial conflicts with a self-loathing gay man (the one who kept trying to sleep with his female BFF in the house - his family were Christians and hated him, or whatever). Bitter conflicts with a nasty gay man and the anorexic he torments. It became a freak show, just as, a few years before that, it became all about leering at people who just got drunk all the time and had sex. It sort of defeats the purpose of what the Real World used to be about. That era was more like something you can see on a late night cable channel. If the show has improved, great, but after 5-6 or more years of this I got tired of giving them more chances.

Skins was the show they seemed to have the most banking on, complete with the prized timeslot. That and RJ Berger both got a very poor reception.

All I ever hear about with Teen Mom is women who hit their boyfriends and women who have their kids taken away. Perhaps that's not MTV's idea for the show, but ultimately that seems to be the public appeal. It's something for viewers to look down on, feel superior to.

[JackPeyton]

It wasnt a spin off at all, it was an all new show that just followed her at work. I saw the pilot, and it was interesting yet a bore. Nothing to keep people watching week to week.

No, it doesnt because the fights are usually all very different, over differnt things, and usually someone is kicked off.

You say they look for the worst in society, and cite Davis from RW: Denver, but where else are you going to see that? RWDenver showed the pain, hurt, and chaos caused in Davis' life by his parents and their religion being forced upon him and them not accepting him. He did hate himself, because he was raised to. Its been interesting to see him change over the years, and the girl he tried hooking up with, Brooke, was also interesting to see on a challenge where she had a lesbian fling.

And the show has found a great balance in the party seasons that get high ratings and the true to life social issue seasons of early on. brooklyn and DC both were much more emtional that fun, and Cancun while a party season dealt with some serious issues. I honestly feel the real world follows what that 18-24 demo are going through. In the New Orleans/New York/Chicago season it was polotical and social issues, then Vegas came along and they had a detach from the world, didnt care, and just wanted to sleep with eachother. That kept on for awhile until young people got simi-passionate again in politics and social issues in like 2008 and the real world showed that. The real World is very hit or miss based on the cast tho.

I dont know, The media was very focused on Skins but i personally have seen just as much, if not, promotion from MTV's part on Teen Wolf.

I completely disagree here. You may only hear about Amber hitting her boyfriend, but thats not at all what the show is about. The show does show it, and they portray it as a serious issue and show what happens on the legal side of this. it isnt okay, and they dont try to make it so.

I also dont think the people who watch the show watch it to look down on them. Everyone i know who watchs the show feels for them and wants them to do well and roots for them, not against her. its great to see caitlynn do the right thing and give her baby up, even tho she doesnt want to but knows she needs to. She deals with a major backlash from her family but never apologizes for it. Watching maci try to balance motherhood, school, her family, and her romance and actually doing it is a great sight. Then there is Farrah, who surprised everyone and has really stepped up and is being the best mom she can be and taking everything thrown at her and dealing with it, despite having an awful mother herself.

[DRW50]

To me a spinoff is any show that features an existing cast member moving into a new venture.

I'm sure it was dull, but wouldn't giving the show a chance have been an example of MTV wanting diversity in programming?

Self-loathing gay men who have been oppressed by their parents? I've seen that in quite a few places over the years.

Since MTV treated this as a car crash, I don't know if any point about his struggle ever got through. All I ever saw was comments calling him a racist, and various other insults. There were about 2-4 consecutive seasons where gay men seemed to be presented mostly in negative ways focused on conflict and rage within the house. I still don't understand the point of that man who was in a war with the anorexic. I could only watch a few episodes of that season.

Of course a lot of gay men do behave horribly towards other people, and deserve to be called out, but somewhere along the way I felt like they had decided to cast based on stereotypes, manipulating for big screamy melodrama, and not a lot else. The whole idea of people from different walks of life being in a house together doesn't work when a show tries too hard for conflict. I don't need to see another screaming match between the bitchy queen and the various women in the house, or some type of perpetually race-fueled raging between the gay man and the man edited as the angry black guy, etc.

I will take your word about Teen Mom. I will have to try it sometime.