I Want My MTV: A Collection Of Nostalgic Complaints
Published on November 29th, 2008 in: Issues, Music, Retrovirus, TV |
Totally Pauly Shore
Comedy was once an essential ingredient to the old era of MTV. Though now a thing of the past in the age of extreme gross-out comedy, a sillier, more genuine humor tied all the shows together. The network experimented with many of these odd comedies throughout the late 80s and early 90s, including Liquid Television and The Idiot Box.
You Wrote It, You Watch It was defined by viewer involvement. Host Jon Stewart (yes, that Jon Stewart, but younger and more awkward) read concepts and story ideas sent in by viewers on the air. These storylines were then acted out in a deadpan style by the always-amazing sketch comedy group The State. The show only lasted for one season, as did many low-rated efforts that MTV never promoted or gave time to grow, but it was always one of my favorites. It was genuine and weird and had a goofiness to it that only young people could understand. Like many shows in MTV’s past, You Wrote It, You Watch It was low budget, shaped around both writers’ ideas and viewer participation and delivered to us by kids screwing around on national television. Left with little money and a broad concept, they were obliged to be creative and fill up time, and back then, they could try it out for a few episodes and see if it worked. The viewer participation allowed us play with and shape it like we wanted and laugh at the outcome. And like TRL, just the possibility of our ideas and names appearing on the screen made it worth watching.
The talk shows, comedies, and do-it-yourself programs were all vital to MTV at one time. Sure, just as with TRL, there were flaws. Half of the early 90s schedule was devoted to an intoxicated Pauly Shore partying with chicks in bikinis before introducing the next video. But so what? It was real and sloppy and fun. It took a lot of footage of Kennedy bumbling through an interview to get to a hilarious instant of silliness or a solid hour of 80s hair bands until a genuinely innovative music video came on, but that was what made it worth watching. Now MTV is too perfect. Shows like The Hills are polished, fake, and disingenuous. And it’s therefore no different than any other network.
Total Request Live is the last show that harkens back to the epitome of what MTV is (was) to me. The personalities and crowds and creativity and music and spontaneity and loudness all came together to make up the feel and culture of the music video generation. In the modern age of the Internet and The Hills, there is no room for silly humor and genuine fandom. As Total Request Live pulls down the shades of its famous Times Square studios for good, it signals the ultimate end of an already suffering era of popular music. More importantly, the cancellation of TRL marks the demise of real TV with real personality, the reflection of a generation who lived and thrived on this music.
2 Responses to “I Want My MTV: A Collection Of Nostalgic Complaints”
December 2nd, 2008 at 2:42 pm
I really loved this article. Even though I’m pretty young in the spectrum of MTV and wasn’t around for a bunch of the shows you mentioned, I really got what you meant and feel the same way about the lack of videos, and the eventual pre-tapings of TRL. Excellent article, really interesting and fun to read, and relatable even for someone who missed all of the 70s and half of the 80s!
December 4th, 2008 at 5:53 am
I am NOT young in the spectrum of MTV, as I recall it’s inception and how innovative and exciting a time it was to actually visualize what you only could hear unless you were able to get to a live perfomance. This article totally captures the recollection of that time – It was truly genuine and fun early on . . . But times change, just as radio gave way to TV, the availibilty of internet access to whatever past or current visual musical performances you’d like to see has had an impact on MTV. You don’t have to vote to see what you want to see – you just type it into your computer – TRL no longer required. It’s not as fun and doesn’t require any social interaction (not that MTV did so much but at least there was some social connection there) but it is what it is, and this article exemplifies that, as it very accurately recollects and depicts what once was.
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