WEBVTT - We want our MTV! 0:00:01.480 --> 0:00:04.960 Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:11.119 --> 0:00:13.600 Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's 0:00:13.800 --> 0:00:16.840 Chuck and Jerry's here too, and we're just a few 0:00:17.560 --> 0:00:22.119 MTV generation babies hanging out talking about MTV on this 0:00:22.320 --> 0:00:25.479 MTV episode of Stuff You Should Know About MTV. 0:00:26.040 --> 0:00:32.800 D Dan Dan, Dan Dent, dan At, dann Nnett, dann Nnett. 0:00:33.520 --> 0:00:37.080 That's I'll be able to do that with my dying breath. 0:00:37.360 --> 0:00:38.760 It's so ingrained in my head. 0:00:39.240 --> 0:00:42.080 Yeah, I mean, how can you not picture Neil Armstrong 0:00:42.240 --> 0:00:45.520 jumping off onto that moon yep with an MTV flag. 0:00:46.320 --> 0:00:50.800 For sure, and like a multi changing MTV flag that's 0:00:50.840 --> 0:00:54.560 just drawing over the American flag. It's just iconic. 0:00:54.840 --> 0:00:57.840 Yeah. But hey, people, uh, the answers to who wrote 0:00:57.840 --> 0:01:00.400 that song and who came up with that idea, they're 0:01:00.440 --> 0:01:05.040 all in this jam packed episode about MTV where we 0:01:05.080 --> 0:01:07.680 are surely going to wax nostalgic. 0:01:08.880 --> 0:01:10.960 I think it would be impossible not to. As a 0:01:10.959 --> 0:01:13.200 matter of fact, I challenge us to try not to 0:01:13.240 --> 0:01:14.600 be nostalgic in this episode. 0:01:14.600 --> 0:01:18.160 I've already ruined it. I just air guitar the MTV theme. 0:01:18.680 --> 0:01:24.720 We'll exclude that Okay, so we're talking about MTV. I 0:01:24.840 --> 0:01:26.840 don't think there's many people out there who don't know 0:01:26.880 --> 0:01:29.800 what MTV is. It's a global juggernaut, or it certainly 0:01:29.880 --> 0:01:31.800 was at one point in time. But for those who 0:01:31.880 --> 0:01:35.560 may not be familiar, MTV stood for Music Television, and 0:01:35.720 --> 0:01:40.600 it was what most people consider the first network dedicated 0:01:40.680 --> 0:01:44.919 to playing music videos. It's not true, but it's close 0:01:45.040 --> 0:01:47.520 enough that you might as well just say, fine, we'll 0:01:47.520 --> 0:01:48.880 go with that as the definition. 0:01:49.400 --> 0:01:51.720 Yeah, for sure. And this was not the beginning of 0:01:51.800 --> 0:01:55.440 music videos music videos where MTV did not create the 0:01:55.480 --> 0:01:59.200 music videos. They just were the first channel. Well that's 0:01:59.240 --> 0:02:01.160 not even true either, so I'm just gonna shut up now. 0:02:02.120 --> 0:02:04.680 Some people point to the song Chantilly Lace from nineteen 0:02:04.760 --> 0:02:07.720 fifty eight from The Big Bopper as maybe the first 0:02:07.800 --> 0:02:10.960 music video because it was not just a film of 0:02:11.080 --> 0:02:13.399 a band playing their song, but there was some performative 0:02:13.440 --> 0:02:14.359 theatrics to it. 0:02:14.960 --> 0:02:18.120 I saw one earlier by sixteen years with Cab calloway 0:02:18.240 --> 0:02:19.280 doing Mini the Moocher. 0:02:19.919 --> 0:02:23.240 Yeah. Well, the Beatles are who people usually point to. 0:02:23.760 --> 0:02:26.760 It's kind of starting out the music video thing where 0:02:26.760 --> 0:02:29.320 they showed the band doing other things and they were 0:02:29.320 --> 0:02:32.600 a little more elaborate and had different scenes and you 0:02:32.600 --> 0:02:34.840 could see those on Top of the Pops on BBC 0:02:35.080 --> 0:02:39.119 or the Ed Sullivan Show. And then that Bohemian Rhapsody 0:02:39.240 --> 0:02:42.520 video from Queen from nineteen seventy five was one of 0:02:42.560 --> 0:02:45.760 the big ones, and they expressly did that so they 0:02:45.800 --> 0:02:47.840 didn't have to lip sync a performance on Top of 0:02:47.840 --> 0:02:48.280 the Pops. 0:02:48.760 --> 0:02:52.000 And that's a full eight years before MTV came out, 0:02:52.040 --> 0:02:54.960 so that was like a definitive music video that they 0:02:55.040 --> 0:02:58.760 played on MTV for like decades to come. It was 0:02:58.840 --> 0:03:01.960 just a great video, but it also kicked off something 0:03:02.040 --> 0:03:05.840 really important that led to MTV, which was it became 0:03:06.000 --> 0:03:09.680 kind of standard in the recording industry to create a 0:03:09.800 --> 0:03:13.200 music video for maybe the top single or something of 0:03:13.240 --> 0:03:15.280 a big album that a big act was coming out 0:03:15.280 --> 0:03:18.160 with to use as a marketing or promotional tool. So 0:03:18.720 --> 0:03:22.040 apparently Queen kicked that off with the Bohemian Rhapsody video. 0:03:22.440 --> 0:03:27.280 Yeah, for sure, there were some countries had like, you know, 0:03:27.400 --> 0:03:29.440 music video shows. It would be on maybe late night 0:03:29.520 --> 0:03:32.360 or something on a weird station. New Zealand had a 0:03:32.480 --> 0:03:36.120 radio with pictures in nineteen seventy six on the nose 0:03:37.600 --> 0:03:40.880 the USA Network, And I do remember this. In nineteen 0:03:40.920 --> 0:03:43.360 seventy eight, they had a show called Video Concert Hall. 0:03:43.760 --> 0:03:45.320 Oh yeah, yeah. 0:03:45.160 --> 0:03:47.440 I remember. I didn't like sit there glued to it 0:03:47.480 --> 0:03:49.360 like I did MTV because I was still just seven 0:03:49.440 --> 0:03:51.000 years old, and I think it was a late night thing. 0:03:52.200 --> 0:03:55.080 But it was really you know, the MTV story goes 0:03:55.080 --> 0:03:58.160 and locks up with the story of cable television. By 0:03:58.160 --> 0:04:01.200 the way, big thanks to Olivia for this and little hint 0:04:02.240 --> 0:04:04.320 up coming on Thursday, we're gonna round it out with 0:04:04.360 --> 0:04:07.840 an episode on VH one. What Yes, you knew that? 0:04:08.040 --> 0:04:08.240 Real? 0:04:08.920 --> 0:04:11.480 You didn't know that? No? Yeah, I told you in 0:04:11.520 --> 0:04:13.600 an email, let's do MTVMBH one this week. 0:04:13.800 --> 0:04:14.680 I must have missed that. 0:04:14.920 --> 0:04:17.880 All right, Well, I'm glad we you're talking about MTV. 0:04:17.960 --> 0:04:22.400 We'd be in bad shape for real. But the rise 0:04:22.440 --> 0:04:27.120 of cable as like ten million subscribers in nineteen seventy 0:04:27.120 --> 0:04:30.919 five to forty million in nineteen eighty five. That was 0:04:31.240 --> 0:04:36.160 really what grew MTV was cable being a thing and 0:04:36.320 --> 0:04:39.839 the US government saying, hey, cable, it's a little looser, 0:04:39.880 --> 0:04:41.520 you can kind of do a little more, and then 0:04:41.680 --> 0:04:44.440 cable company saying, hey, maybe we should start thinking about 0:04:44.520 --> 0:04:47.120 kind of different kinds of channels we've never had before. 0:04:47.520 --> 0:04:50.280 Yeah, because there were a lot more channels that the 0:04:50.320 --> 0:04:53.760 FCC opened up on the bandwidth, where before it was 0:04:53.839 --> 0:04:57.320 just over the air channels, and those were full, so 0:04:57.400 --> 0:04:59.919 don't even ask shut up, the networks have those lockdown. 0:05:00.320 --> 0:05:03.400 When cable opened, it was like, what do you want 0:05:03.440 --> 0:05:06.240 to do. You want to make a channel off for kids, Great, 0:05:06.520 --> 0:05:09.680 let's found Pinwheel and then eventually call it Nickelodeon. You 0:05:09.720 --> 0:05:12.320 want to show reruns, We'll call it Nick ad Knight. 0:05:13.360 --> 0:05:18.640 You want to show little kids, even smaller kids programs, Great, 0:05:18.760 --> 0:05:21.440 we'll make a channel called Nick Junior. What else do 0:05:21.480 --> 0:05:24.640 you want? And people said, we got enough Nickelodeon, Let's 0:05:24.640 --> 0:05:26.599 think of something else. And one of the other things 0:05:26.640 --> 0:05:30.200 that was thought of was something called the Movie Channel. 0:05:30.560 --> 0:05:32.599 And there's a guy named Bob Pittman who was working 0:05:32.640 --> 0:05:35.279 on it, and he happens to be the CEO of 0:05:35.360 --> 0:05:39.960 iHeart Media, who we work for, and he's one of 0:05:39.680 --> 0:05:43.400 the big players with the founding of MTV. And it 0:05:44.000 --> 0:05:47.440 is usually the person that people will tell you who 0:05:47.560 --> 0:05:49.720 know about this kind of thing, who if you ask 0:05:49.800 --> 0:05:53.120 him who founded MTV, the answer will usually be Bob Pittman. 0:05:53.480 --> 0:05:55.839 And that is true to an extent, but he wasn't alone. 0:05:56.320 --> 0:05:59.040 One of the other founders, who is sometimes called the 0:05:59.160 --> 0:06:03.320 architect of MTV, was already a very famous person by 0:06:03.360 --> 0:06:04.680 the time MTV came out. 0:06:06.240 --> 0:06:07.400 Are you talking about Mike Nesmith? 0:06:07.760 --> 0:06:08.680 I am okay. 0:06:09.720 --> 0:06:12.559 This was in nineteen seventy five. Mike Nesmuth of the 0:06:12.640 --> 0:06:16.680 TV Show and the musical group The Monkeys. He made 0:06:16.680 --> 0:06:22.120 a pilot called pop Clips, which was backed by TV production, 0:06:22.279 --> 0:06:25.279 Legend and Juggernaut Norman Lear and it was, you know, 0:06:25.279 --> 0:06:31.119 it was basically prot MTV. They had comedians introducing music 0:06:31.200 --> 0:06:34.479 videos like promotional videos that these record companies were making, right, 0:06:34.720 --> 0:06:37.200 And there was a guy named John Lack. I don't 0:06:37.200 --> 0:06:40.960 think we mentioned that time. Warner Cable Corporation was one 0:06:40.960 --> 0:06:43.960 of the early cable companies that they launched Nickelodeon. They 0:06:43.960 --> 0:06:46.880 were kind of experimenting around, and in nineteen seventy nine 0:06:46.920 --> 0:06:50.120 American Express bought half of that and that new company 0:06:51.120 --> 0:06:54.520 John Lack worked for. He was the COO and he 0:06:55.000 --> 0:06:59.000 ran Nickelodeon, and Nickelodeon did very well, and he eventually 0:06:59.040 --> 0:07:01.440 hooked up with Bob Pittman, who, like you said, was 0:07:01.480 --> 0:07:04.400 developing the Movie Channel, which I sorely missed. The Movie 0:07:04.440 --> 0:07:05.320 Channel was great. 0:07:05.680 --> 0:07:07.599 That was my favorite one too. I don't know why, 0:07:07.680 --> 0:07:09.400 but it was my favorite. 0:07:09.000 --> 0:07:12.000 Because it was only movies. Yeah, I guess that's actually 0:07:12.040 --> 0:07:14.840 that was it because for a kid, even though HBO 0:07:14.960 --> 0:07:17.240 was great, they had other stuff, and as a kid, 0:07:17.240 --> 0:07:19.720 you were like, I just want movies, and that's what 0:07:19.800 --> 0:07:20.680 the Movie channel was. 0:07:21.760 --> 0:07:24.240 So Bob want to see Outland? What's the problem? 0:07:24.360 --> 0:07:27.800 Oh man, you know you kidding. So Bob was running 0:07:27.800 --> 0:07:31.800 that lack John Lack came to Bob and said, hey, 0:07:33.760 --> 0:07:35.880 what do you think about doing something? If you're doing 0:07:35.920 --> 0:07:38.880 this movie only channel, what about a music only thing? 0:07:39.760 --> 0:07:42.720 And so Bob Pittman said, great, let's call it TV 0:07:42.800 --> 0:07:45.440 one and they went, oh, no, that's already a thing. 0:07:45.480 --> 0:07:48.320 And he went, all right, how about TVM like TV music? 0:07:48.760 --> 0:07:51.920 And everyone went, well, what about MTV. We think that 0:07:51.960 --> 0:07:54.200 sounds a little better, and he said all. 0:07:54.120 --> 0:07:58.200 Right, yeah, And don't feel bad for Mike Nesmith. He 0:07:58.240 --> 0:08:00.559 wasn't like squeezed out or they didn't steal his idea. 0:08:00.640 --> 0:08:02.600 He was invited to be a part of the whole thing, 0:08:03.400 --> 0:08:07.320 and he was not interested. He has always considered himself 0:08:07.320 --> 0:08:10.280 an artiste and didn't run and get into the corporate 0:08:10.480 --> 0:08:12.320 nitty gritty of it. So he said, just buy me 0:08:12.360 --> 0:08:16.040 out and I'll go along my way. But he did 0:08:16.160 --> 0:08:19.360 essentially kind of come up with the concept in the format, 0:08:20.000 --> 0:08:22.280 and then Pittman and Lack took it over with a 0:08:22.280 --> 0:08:25.160 couple of other guys, Fred Siebert and Allen Goodman, whose 0:08:25.240 --> 0:08:28.000 experience I think up to that point had been working 0:08:28.040 --> 0:08:33.400 together at a Columbia University student radio station. So these 0:08:33.440 --> 0:08:36.720 people were all young, pretty hip. It's the early eighties. 0:08:37.800 --> 0:08:43.480 And again the idea that there are promotional music videos 0:08:43.640 --> 0:08:47.960 already in existence out there and that the record companies 0:08:48.000 --> 0:08:51.000 give them away for free was the basis of where 0:08:51.160 --> 0:08:54.199 MTV and all of the other like music video programs 0:08:54.240 --> 0:08:57.839 came from, because you could make this thing on the cheap, 0:08:57.920 --> 0:09:01.640 because again, record companies were giving these things away for 0:09:01.640 --> 0:09:05.160 free and saying, yes, play them via condios. It will 0:09:05.200 --> 0:09:07.480 only help us if you play these things on TV. 0:09:07.960 --> 0:09:11.079 Yeah. I remember when I met Bob for the first 0:09:11.120 --> 0:09:14.880 time in New York at the iHeart offices. Our boss 0:09:14.920 --> 0:09:17.760 Connell took me by. I think we had an official 0:09:17.800 --> 0:09:20.320 meeting with him, but I was like, oh, like, I 0:09:20.320 --> 0:09:22.920 gotta say something about MTB I said, is that for boten? 0:09:23.040 --> 0:09:24.760 Is that not the kind of thing. He's like, oh no, man, 0:09:24.840 --> 0:09:28.120 He's like, you should definitely say something. And I met 0:09:28.160 --> 0:09:30.000 Bob and I was like, mister Pittman, I said, I 0:09:30.080 --> 0:09:32.160 just want to let you know. I was like, I 0:09:32.360 --> 0:09:35.960 was the guy. I was that kid who sat there 0:09:36.080 --> 0:09:40.600 at ten years old, gulued to my television watching MTV 0:09:41.800 --> 0:09:43.840 as many hours as I was allowed to consume it. 0:09:43.880 --> 0:09:46.040 I was like, I was that kid. And he was like, 0:09:46.120 --> 0:09:49.480 you know, he said, we counted on you and everyone 0:09:49.600 --> 0:09:52.080 like you doing that same thing, otherwise it would not 0:09:52.080 --> 0:09:54.079 have been a success. So he thanked me, which I 0:09:54.120 --> 0:09:57.200 thought was very cool. Well, you have to finish the 0:09:57.240 --> 0:09:59.400 story all the way at at well what was the end? 0:10:00.240 --> 0:10:02.880 Around his desk with tears in his eyes and embraced 0:10:02.920 --> 0:10:04.760 you for a good minute. 0:10:04.840 --> 0:10:09.200 Connell said, no, no, no, no, he did not. 0:10:09.360 --> 0:10:11.079 But I think I touched him maybe a bit. I 0:10:11.120 --> 0:10:13.240 don't know. Who can tell. He sent me a ball 0:10:13.280 --> 0:10:14.319 of tequila one Christmas. 0:10:14.320 --> 0:10:17.600 No, I like that one of those two. Oh we'll see. 0:10:17.679 --> 0:10:20.200 I guess you didn't make him cry though. 0:10:20.080 --> 0:10:20.880 Did you? 0:10:20.920 --> 0:10:22.439 No? But I touched him. 0:10:22.360 --> 0:10:22.800 That's right. 0:10:23.440 --> 0:10:24.000 Uh? 0:10:24.040 --> 0:10:27.720 So he hires these kids from the radio station. Like 0:10:27.760 --> 0:10:30.880 you mentioned, they've got these videos, they need the other stuff. 0:10:30.880 --> 0:10:33.280 They need the logo, they need the theme song, they 0:10:33.280 --> 0:10:36.600 need the stuff in between the music videos, not only 0:10:36.679 --> 0:10:38.320 just a cast, which we're going to talk about, but 0:10:38.640 --> 0:10:40.400 you know, the like the bumper the video bumpers and 0:10:40.400 --> 0:10:44.840 stuff like that. So they brought in again teams of 0:10:45.000 --> 0:10:46.120 friends to do this stuff. 0:10:47.240 --> 0:10:49.679 Yeah, there was a I guess a guy named Frank 0:10:49.679 --> 0:10:53.320 Olinsky who was a friend of Fred Sebert, remember, one 0:10:53.360 --> 0:10:57.600 of the Columbia radio station guys, and he was creating 0:10:57.640 --> 0:11:01.160 a design studio and he created the logo and apparently 0:11:01.280 --> 0:11:03.280 just got it right out of the gate like it was. 0:11:03.320 --> 0:11:05.520 There were not many iterations of it, like he just 0:11:05.600 --> 0:11:10.400 nailed it. And there are very few logos that are 0:11:10.559 --> 0:11:14.360 more recognizable than MTV. Yeah, in part because it spells 0:11:14.400 --> 0:11:16.400 out the name in the logo, so you kind of 0:11:16.440 --> 0:11:20.080 know exactly what the logo's for, but it's still pretty recognizable. 0:11:20.080 --> 0:11:24.080 It's a logo, it really is. And then the musical riffs, 0:11:24.160 --> 0:11:27.080 including the one that you did at the top of 0:11:27.120 --> 0:11:30.199 the podcast, those were created by a couple of guys 0:11:30.280 --> 0:11:33.800 named Scott Elliots and Jonathan Peterson, and they based it 0:11:33.960 --> 0:11:36.560 on the Kinks. You really got me. 0:11:36.960 --> 0:11:40.280 Yeah, it's you know, similar, I guess. 0:11:40.080 --> 0:11:43.320 Yeah, yeah it is. I mean, you can definitely tell 0:11:43.320 --> 0:11:45.640 when you hear that. But I never thought like. 0:11:46.200 --> 0:11:48.720 Yeah, yeahs rip off, you know yeah. 0:11:48.760 --> 0:11:52.560 And then that moon Man, the moon landing became as 0:11:52.720 --> 0:11:56.800 as sort of tied to MTV as anything else. And 0:11:57.200 --> 0:12:01.120 is it because they thought, hey, where also embarking on 0:12:01.280 --> 0:12:04.960 a journey not yet known? Sure? Is it because it 0:12:05.040 --> 0:12:08.920 was one small step for television and a giant leap 0:12:08.960 --> 0:12:13.199 for the music industry? Of course? Was it also because 0:12:13.600 --> 0:12:17.120 that stuff was public domain and rights free. Absolutely? 0:12:17.559 --> 0:12:21.199 Yeah. If the US government, which NASA is an agency 0:12:21.200 --> 0:12:24.280 of the US government, the US government owns something, you 0:12:25.320 --> 0:12:27.160 all own it too, as an American. It's in the 0:12:27.160 --> 0:12:31.040 public domain, buddy. One of the other reasons, though, that 0:12:31.120 --> 0:12:33.640 I saw, was that they were trying to basically say, like, 0:12:33.720 --> 0:12:37.320 this is as monumental a cultural event as landing on 0:12:37.400 --> 0:12:38.080 the Moon was. 0:12:38.440 --> 0:12:42.960 Yeah, for sure. They initially had a version with Neil Armstrong, 0:12:43.080 --> 0:12:48.200 and I could swear I remember hearing, you know, one 0:12:48.280 --> 0:12:51.520 small step for me, one giant leap for mankind, And 0:12:51.640 --> 0:12:54.400 I guess I watched the first few days. I mean, 0:12:54.440 --> 0:12:56.120 I know I did, so that must have leaked in there, 0:12:56.160 --> 0:13:00.000 because I definitely remember hearing that version. But Neil Armstrong 0:13:00.120 --> 0:13:02.000 came forward and he was like, no, no, no, no, no, 0:13:02.520 --> 0:13:04.480 like that may be in the public domain, but that's 0:13:04.480 --> 0:13:07.640 my voice. You can't use my voice. So John Lack 0:13:08.120 --> 0:13:11.760 said he replaced that by saying a recording of himself 0:13:11.840 --> 0:13:15.839 Ladies and Gentlemen rock and roll, and that was it. 0:13:16.280 --> 0:13:20.680 Apparently after the Challenge Disaster, that branding ended in nineteen 0:13:20.679 --> 0:13:23.960 eighty six. But yeah, I didn't know that. I know 0:13:24.040 --> 0:13:27.439 the moon Man is still the VMA Trophy, so maybe 0:13:27.480 --> 0:13:29.560 just parts of it continued on. I don't know. 0:13:30.120 --> 0:13:32.680 I could see them taking it off the air temporarily 0:13:32.880 --> 0:13:35.480 because I deftinitely remember seeing it too, I would guess 0:13:35.480 --> 0:13:38.640 after nineteen eighty six, but I thought so, yes, I 0:13:38.679 --> 0:13:41.480 could see the Challenge of Disaster happening, being like, yeah, 0:13:41.600 --> 0:13:44.600 let's just not do anything space related right now. 0:13:44.840 --> 0:13:46.720 Yeah? What about the taglines? He had a couple of 0:13:46.720 --> 0:13:47.880 those early on too, right. 0:13:48.240 --> 0:13:51.480 The idents you mean, oh the tagline sorry, yeah, apparently 0:13:51.559 --> 0:13:54.400 it was you'll never look at music the same way again? 0:13:55.040 --> 0:14:01.000 Pretty fun on cable in stereo. Yeah, yeah, they're okay. 0:14:01.080 --> 0:14:03.400 That and ladies and gentlemen rock and roll. They just 0:14:03.440 --> 0:14:08.600 sound like they're delivered by somebody wearing rainbow suspenders, just 0:14:08.679 --> 0:14:11.920 real like late seventies, early eighties kind of branding stuff. 0:14:12.240 --> 0:14:14.680 Yeah, yeah, I could see that, But what about. 0:14:14.480 --> 0:14:19.680 The idents, the identifying I guess snippets. I'm not sure 0:14:19.680 --> 0:14:22.200 what the actual TV trade name is for them. 0:14:22.840 --> 0:14:24.560 I think I call them bumpers earlier. I'm not sure 0:14:24.560 --> 0:14:26.520 what the trade name is either, But I don't know 0:14:26.520 --> 0:14:28.240 what we're headed here, so take it away. 0:14:28.640 --> 0:14:31.320 Oh well, it's like station branding, showing you what network 0:14:31.360 --> 0:14:36.440 you're watching. And MTV became really famous for all sorts 0:14:36.480 --> 0:14:39.240 of weird and bizarre ways of showing like are you're 0:14:39.240 --> 0:14:42.600 watching MTV? Like one of the really famous ones that 0:14:42.680 --> 0:14:46.960 I remember was it was a guillotine suddenly coming down 0:14:47.000 --> 0:14:48.680 and you had no idea what was going on. It 0:14:48.720 --> 0:14:50.840 was just the whole thing started on shot of a 0:14:50.840 --> 0:14:54.480 guillotine blade falling and then all of a sudden, in 0:14:54.520 --> 0:14:58.840 the basket or on the floor of the gallows or wherever, 0:14:59.320 --> 0:15:01.200 a head fall down, and the head is in the 0:15:01.240 --> 0:15:03.320 shape of the M and there's two eyes and like 0:15:03.360 --> 0:15:06.880 a tongue sticking out and it's this really weird, unsettling 0:15:06.920 --> 0:15:09.680 claymation head. But it's the MTV logo. 0:15:10.240 --> 0:15:13.840 Yeah, you know we did. If anyone saw our short 0:15:13.960 --> 0:15:17.000 run of the Stuff You Should Know TV show, we 0:15:17.080 --> 0:15:19.200 had some very I think it was almost like an 0:15:19.240 --> 0:15:22.360 homage some very similar bumpers that came in and out 0:15:22.400 --> 0:15:24.600 of commercial break for our TV show that were animations 0:15:24.640 --> 0:15:28.480 done by our friend Russ Yeah, who did a phenomenal job. 0:15:28.520 --> 0:15:30.360 They're just like, it's one of the coolest things about 0:15:30.360 --> 0:15:31.240 that show still, I think. 0:15:31.840 --> 0:15:34.800 Yeah. And also, if you want to see some MTV idents, 0:15:34.880 --> 0:15:39.160 there's something on YouTube titled Creepy MTV Ident and Logos 0:15:39.200 --> 0:15:43.960 Collection nineteen nineties and it's I think like twenty five 0:15:44.000 --> 0:15:46.960 minutes of these ten second clips. 0:15:47.480 --> 0:15:48.840 Amazing. I'll have to check that out. 0:15:49.000 --> 0:15:51.200 Yeah, you definitely should. Sorry, didn't send it to you. 0:15:51.760 --> 0:15:54.760 That's okay, No, it's not Chuck, I'm sorry. 0:15:56.680 --> 0:15:59.280 On August first, just after midnight nineteen eighty one, is 0:15:59.320 --> 0:16:05.600 when MTV formerly for Mulli premiered sort of. I mean, 0:16:05.640 --> 0:16:08.120 I guess it did formally appear, but unless you lived 0:16:08.160 --> 0:16:11.080 in just parts of New Jersey then you wouldn't see 0:16:11.080 --> 0:16:13.160 it because that was there was only one cable operator 0:16:13.200 --> 0:16:16.160 who even carried it at the time, and the cast 0:16:16.200 --> 0:16:19.000 even had to like pile in a rented school bus 0:16:19.000 --> 0:16:20.960 to drive to Fort Lee, New Jersey at a bar 0:16:21.080 --> 0:16:23.000 called the Loft because they knew that they would have 0:16:23.040 --> 0:16:26.000 it there. But the very first images that came on 0:16:26.080 --> 0:16:29.960 screen were the was the Columbia Space Shuttle launching, that 0:16:30.000 --> 0:16:33.160 moon landing that we spoke of, the MTV logo, and 0:16:33.200 --> 0:16:36.960 of course that musical riff all put together and what 0:16:37.080 --> 0:16:41.280 is now the most tired and obvious trivia question of 0:16:41.280 --> 0:16:46.120 all time, probably the very first video to play. And 0:16:46.160 --> 0:16:47.600 I'm not making fun of if you didn't know this, 0:16:47.880 --> 0:16:49.880 but it just feels like one of those It's like, 0:16:50.040 --> 0:16:53.200 oh my god, everybody knows that the Buggles video Killed 0:16:53.200 --> 0:16:55.560 the Radio Star was the first MTV video. 0:16:55.920 --> 0:16:59.400 Yeah, which is appropriate video Kill the Radio Star, although 0:16:59.400 --> 0:17:03.120 it did it quite the opposite though. It actually made 0:17:03.240 --> 0:17:06.000 the Radio Star into even bigger stars, as we'll. 0:17:05.880 --> 0:17:09.240 See, unless you weren't good at videos. 0:17:09.040 --> 0:17:10.960 No, or you didn't want to make a video, yeah, 0:17:11.000 --> 0:17:13.959 you're basically making a massive career choice right then, in 0:17:14.000 --> 0:17:16.960 the eighties and nineties to just basically be like, no, 0:17:17.240 --> 0:17:18.920 I don't want to be that huge, So I'm not 0:17:18.960 --> 0:17:20.240 going to play MTV's game. 0:17:20.680 --> 0:17:23.760 Yeah, I think the question now at Bart Truvia should 0:17:23.760 --> 0:17:27.040 be everybody knows that video Killed the Radio Star was 0:17:27.040 --> 0:17:31.560 the first music video played on MTV. What was the second? 0:17:32.119 --> 0:17:35.119 Oh do you know, because I don't, I don't have 0:17:35.160 --> 0:17:36.000 that list. 0:17:36.200 --> 0:17:40.479 It is it was Pat Benattar You Better Run. In 0:17:40.520 --> 0:17:42.840 that first twenty four hours, there were one hundred and 0:17:42.880 --> 0:17:47.359 sixteen unique videos for two hundred and nine total plays. 0:17:47.359 --> 0:17:50.760 So yes, there were plenty of repeats. The Pretender's Brass 0:17:50.760 --> 0:17:53.840 and Pocket the who You Better You Bet was the 0:17:53.880 --> 0:17:59.280 first one to be repeated. Rod Stewart had this is shocking. 0:18:00.320 --> 0:18:03.120 On the very first day of MTV. Rod Stewart had 0:18:03.200 --> 0:18:08.360 eleven not just videos playing, he had eleven different videos 0:18:08.400 --> 0:18:11.760 playing for sixteen total plays. 0:18:12.040 --> 0:18:13.920 Yeah, that's amazing. 0:18:14.840 --> 0:18:17.199 And your boys Iron Maiden were in that first they 0:18:17.200 --> 0:18:19.959 were in the top twenty. Buddy number sixteen was the 0:18:20.000 --> 0:18:20.960 song Iron Maiden. 0:18:21.400 --> 0:18:23.800 Yeah, and then later on they played Rathchild too, so 0:18:23.840 --> 0:18:26.160 they had two videos in the first twenty four hours. 0:18:26.359 --> 0:18:28.119 Yeah. So I mean if you kind of put all 0:18:28.119 --> 0:18:35.120 those together, what you're seeing is a very very varied lineup. 0:18:35.200 --> 0:18:37.320 Even though they were replaying stuff like Phil Collins in 0:18:37.359 --> 0:18:39.520 the Air Tonight and Just Between You and Me by 0:18:39.560 --> 0:18:41.600 April Wine. Those were each played five times on the 0:18:41.600 --> 0:18:46.480 first day. But you know they had a to call 0:18:46.520 --> 0:18:53.800 when you don't have a lot of stuff in stock problem. 0:18:52.040 --> 0:18:54.280 I don't know, a supply problem. 0:18:54.440 --> 0:18:57.919 Oh okay, yeah, so yeah, it was so varied. I 0:18:57.920 --> 0:19:00.520 saw that they played the video for Andrew gold thank 0:19:00.560 --> 0:19:02.720 You for Being a Friend, which went on to become 0:19:02.720 --> 0:19:05.679 the Golden Girls theme. That was the fifty fourth video 0:19:05.800 --> 0:19:09.040 played on MTV ever, and they only played it once. 0:19:10.119 --> 0:19:13.240 But who was playing this vjays? They had to start 0:19:13.240 --> 0:19:17.080 out with an initial lineup of vjys. Bob Pittman very 0:19:17.160 --> 0:19:19.480 much had I think it was kind of Breakfast clubby. 0:19:19.440 --> 0:19:24.760 He wanted very specific archetypes of youngish people. He said, 0:19:24.800 --> 0:19:28.640 we need a black person, which was JJ Jackson forty 0:19:28.680 --> 0:19:30.320 one years old by the way, so he was sort 0:19:30.359 --> 0:19:33.320 of the the old guy for the ten year old 0:19:33.320 --> 0:19:33.879 that was watching. 0:19:34.119 --> 0:19:34.560 Wow. 0:19:35.000 --> 0:19:37.040 We need a girl next door, which was Martha Quinn 0:19:37.119 --> 0:19:38.719 twenty two years old. I think she was the youngest. 0:19:39.080 --> 0:19:44.199 We need a sexy little siren, clearly Nina Blackwood. We 0:19:44.240 --> 0:19:46.200 need a boy next door that would have been Alan Hunter. 0:19:46.280 --> 0:19:48.560 And then we need some hunky Italian looking guy with 0:19:48.640 --> 0:19:50.439 curly hair, and that was, of course Mark Goodman. 0:19:50.720 --> 0:19:53.040 And I think Mark Goodman was the first VJ on. 0:19:54.800 --> 0:19:55.880 Oh, I thought it was Alan Hunter. 0:19:56.320 --> 0:19:58.520 I'm pretty sure it was Mark Goodman. I watched, like, 0:19:59.160 --> 0:20:02.480 there are also videos of you know, the first hour, 0:20:02.600 --> 0:20:05.320 the first two hours, the first whatever hours of MTV, 0:20:06.200 --> 0:20:08.680 and I watched the first a little bit of it, 0:20:08.760 --> 0:20:12.600 and I'm pretty sure it was Mark Goodman who was first. Oh, okay, 0:20:13.600 --> 0:20:17.199 we'll we'll find out eventually. One day I did see that. 0:20:17.240 --> 0:20:21.439 I think VH one rebroadcast the first twenty four hours 0:20:21.440 --> 0:20:23.640 of MTV once not too many years ago. 0:20:23.960 --> 0:20:25.040 Oh well, that's fun. 0:20:25.400 --> 0:20:28.000 Yeah, just as like a hey guys, we like you 0:20:28.040 --> 0:20:28.520 over here. 0:20:28.920 --> 0:20:34.560 And also I'm a semi recent subscriber to Serious xm H. 0:20:35.000 --> 0:20:37.520 I don't know why I resisted for so many years. 0:20:37.560 --> 0:20:39.199 Maybe I just didn't know as much about it, but 0:20:39.480 --> 0:20:43.919 I love it. It's great. It's fun to have somebody 0:20:43.960 --> 0:20:46.240 curating music and not constantly for me at least be 0:20:46.280 --> 0:20:48.399 sitting around going like, oh god, I don't want to 0:20:48.400 --> 0:20:50.320 listen to I can't think of anything. What can I play? 0:20:51.200 --> 0:20:53.159 And it's great and they got great channels. This is 0:20:53.200 --> 0:20:56.120 not an ad for them, but I really really am 0:20:56.240 --> 0:20:59.480 enjoying it. And there are a few shows on a 0:20:59.520 --> 0:21:03.520 few stations from those VJs. I think Martha Quinn has 0:21:03.560 --> 0:21:03.880 a show. 0:21:03.960 --> 0:21:05.680 Oh yeah, yeah, Alan. 0:21:05.480 --> 0:21:07.800 Hunter has one. Mark Goodman, I think Nina Blackwood used to. 0:21:07.920 --> 0:21:10.879 I'm not sure if Martha good Quinn still does, but yeah, 0:21:10.920 --> 0:21:13.360 it's cool to and I didn't even know, Like, I'll 0:21:13.400 --> 0:21:15.000 just be listening to a cool station and it's like 0:21:15.040 --> 0:21:16.560 Mark Goodman pops up. It's nice. 0:21:16.920 --> 0:21:18.640 I feel like they owe you at least a free 0:21:18.680 --> 0:21:22.320 month for a hat, a baseball cap. 0:21:22.440 --> 0:21:24.000 At least it happened a free year. 0:21:24.720 --> 0:21:28.159 Okay, yeah, so did you finally cave when the offer 0:21:28.280 --> 0:21:30.400 for how much it would cost you a month kept 0:21:30.480 --> 0:21:33.080 going down and it got into like the dollar fifty area. 0:21:33.240 --> 0:21:35.320 Yeah, I mean that's the sort of the ticket. You 0:21:35.920 --> 0:21:38.679 just wait for a good deal first twelve months or 0:21:38.680 --> 0:21:40.000 like five bucks or something. 0:21:39.840 --> 0:21:41.760 And they said, well, there it goes, your free year, chuck. 0:21:43.920 --> 0:21:45.720 A couple of comedians early on that went on to 0:21:45.720 --> 0:21:50.240 be noteworthy were rejected. Richard Belzer, which is hysterical to 0:21:50.240 --> 0:21:51.560 think of him as an EMPTVVJ. 0:21:52.080 --> 0:21:54.359 He's so cool though, oh of bells. 0:21:54.560 --> 0:21:56.720 And then Carol Leifer was a comedian who later went 0:21:56.720 --> 0:21:57.960 on to write for Seinfeld. 0:21:58.320 --> 0:22:01.440 Yes, she did pretty well for herself. Yeah, the thing 0:22:01.520 --> 0:22:04.720 is in retrospect today you're like, yeah, MTV is huge, 0:22:04.920 --> 0:22:07.399 not at first, like you said, basically, Fort Lee, New 0:22:07.440 --> 0:22:10.080 Jersey was the first and only place to have access 0:22:10.080 --> 0:22:13.080 to MTV, and like you said, New Jersey was the 0:22:13.119 --> 0:22:16.399 only place, just a few small parts of New Jersey 0:22:16.520 --> 0:22:18.679 was the only place where you could see MTV. So 0:22:18.720 --> 0:22:20.320 it wasn't out of the gate like a sure bet 0:22:20.320 --> 0:22:23.400 that MTV was going to become a huge cable juggernaut. 0:22:24.600 --> 0:22:28.240 And to kind of help spread the word that there 0:22:28.359 --> 0:22:31.600 was such a thing as MTV, an ad agency called 0:22:31.640 --> 0:22:35.639 the LPG Pond Agency very wisely came up with the 0:22:35.720 --> 0:22:39.280 I Want my MTV campaign, and I remember seeing those 0:22:39.440 --> 0:22:43.600 on MTV, but they were originally designed to play on 0:22:43.720 --> 0:22:47.560 other networks, to get people watching at home to call 0:22:47.600 --> 0:22:51.200 their cable operator and say, hey, man, I want my MTV. 0:22:51.800 --> 0:22:52.479 And it worked. 0:22:53.320 --> 0:22:53.560 Yeah. 0:22:53.600 --> 0:22:57.760 I mean basically, any musician that came through the MTV 0:22:57.920 --> 0:23:00.600 office and studio, I think they just had like a 0:23:00.640 --> 0:23:03.480 standing set where they could say just go in there 0:23:03.560 --> 0:23:06.080 and however you want to do it, say I want 0:23:06.080 --> 0:23:08.080 my MTV. And that's why they were also kind of 0:23:08.080 --> 0:23:11.199 fun and varied and clearly off the cuff, but it 0:23:11.359 --> 0:23:15.639 became part of their branding such that the one of 0:23:15.640 --> 0:23:18.520 my favorite groups, Dire Straits in nineteen eighty five immortalized 0:23:18.560 --> 0:23:23.080 it via Sting as a guest singer singing I want 0:23:23.080 --> 0:23:25.960 my MTV at the beginning of the song money for Nothing, 0:23:26.000 --> 0:23:28.720 which would also become a huge, huge music video. 0:23:29.359 --> 0:23:31.160 Uncredited guests I think. 0:23:31.000 --> 0:23:35.840 Even meaning that they didn't pay him, no, that. 0:23:35.840 --> 0:23:39.399 They didn't say and Sting ladies and gentlemen, well like 0:23:39.520 --> 0:23:41.960 in the song, Yeah, that's what I would have expected. 0:23:42.040 --> 0:23:45.080 Who does that? Like before Dolly Parton's verse in Islands 0:23:45.080 --> 0:23:47.600 in the Stream, Kenny Rogers just goes and now Dolly. 0:23:47.320 --> 0:23:50.119 Parton, I could totally see that he would pull it 0:23:50.160 --> 0:23:50.600 off too. 0:23:50.760 --> 0:23:51.600 He totally could have. 0:23:52.480 --> 0:23:52.560 So. 0:23:53.040 --> 0:23:55.439 One of the things that also helped the channel spread, 0:23:55.520 --> 0:23:58.440 especially by word of mouth among their target market, which 0:23:58.600 --> 0:24:03.240 was teens, especially teens who got fat allowances from their parents, 0:24:04.760 --> 0:24:07.479 is that some conservative places were like, we're not carrying 0:24:07.480 --> 0:24:10.760 this MTV, and they made the terrible mistake of actually 0:24:10.800 --> 0:24:13.399 publicizing that they weren't going to carry MTV, and they 0:24:13.440 --> 0:24:18.920 were like Christian organizations, the Parents Music Resource Center would 0:24:19.000 --> 0:24:21.760 kind of get in the craw of MTV but simultaneously 0:24:21.800 --> 0:24:24.680 give it really good press, because if your parents didn't 0:24:24.680 --> 0:24:27.320 want you watching it, you definitely wanted to watch MTV. 0:24:27.840 --> 0:24:31.360 Yeah, absolutely, And you know I mentioned that supply problem. 0:24:31.520 --> 0:24:34.040 I do have a number here thanks to Olivia. There 0:24:34.040 --> 0:24:38.719 were only two hundred and fifty videos at first, so 0:24:39.080 --> 0:24:42.359 if you look at the math, they played two hundred 0:24:42.400 --> 0:24:45.360 and nine videos on the first day, so they sort 0:24:45.359 --> 0:24:49.520 of spent their allowance almost fully on that first day. 0:24:49.600 --> 0:24:53.080 So for a long time you were seeing videos and 0:24:54.119 --> 0:24:57.200 repeated heavily and heavy rotation, and even once they had 0:24:57.280 --> 0:24:58.800 you know, it was sort of like the radio, like 0:24:58.920 --> 0:25:00.679 the ones that were hit got played more, even when 0:25:00.720 --> 0:25:01.639 they did have the supply. 0:25:02.440 --> 0:25:04.600 My friend did a little bit of math. 0:25:04.640 --> 0:25:06.800 Ooh how God is always my favorite part. 0:25:07.040 --> 0:25:10.720 At an average of three minutes per video I think 0:25:10.840 --> 0:25:13.080 is a good average, they would have to start over 0:25:13.240 --> 0:25:15.040 every twelve hours. 0:25:16.560 --> 0:25:18.919 Oh if they just didn't repeat ones and they just 0:25:18.960 --> 0:25:21.280 played their whole supply. 0:25:21.400 --> 0:25:25.359 Yeah, the whole wid Yeah. One thing though, there was this, 0:25:25.640 --> 0:25:29.080 there's a documentary out on Divo that's really good on Netflix. 0:25:29.200 --> 0:25:30.439 Oh I saw, haven't seen it. 0:25:30.440 --> 0:25:35.119 It's really good, I think, And they really kind of 0:25:35.119 --> 0:25:37.480 talk a lot about how Divo so Divo in the 0:25:37.480 --> 0:25:39.520 early days, they were an art collective as much as 0:25:39.520 --> 0:25:42.960 a band. Yeah, and so they made quirky, weird films 0:25:43.000 --> 0:25:46.080 for their songs. So they were making music videos before 0:25:46.200 --> 0:25:48.760 MTV and they didn't have anywhere to show them. And 0:25:48.800 --> 0:25:52.639 then MTV came along, and Divo helped make MTV. They 0:25:52.680 --> 0:25:55.919 gave them more really good like videos that people wanted 0:25:55.960 --> 0:25:58.919 to see. Yeah, and then as MTV got bigger and 0:25:58.920 --> 0:26:02.359 bigger and more and more commercial, Divo got left to 0:26:02.400 --> 0:26:06.359 the wayside, forgotten. You could say, it's actually kind of 0:26:06.400 --> 0:26:08.360 sad as things just kind of started to go downhill 0:26:08.400 --> 0:26:11.200 for the band. But that that was a big point 0:26:11.240 --> 0:26:13.080 that they made, and I think something overlooked that there 0:26:13.080 --> 0:26:17.399 were a lot of interesting pioneering groups oh yeah, that 0:26:17.440 --> 0:26:21.439 were making videos even before MTV came along. The MTV 0:26:21.640 --> 0:26:25.320 digested and fed itself on and grew big on and 0:26:25.359 --> 0:26:28.159 then they just got left because all of a sudden, 0:26:28.240 --> 0:26:30.399 Kip Winger was like, oh, if I took my shirt 0:26:30.400 --> 0:26:32.480 off and tease my hair out with it. Put a 0:26:32.480 --> 0:26:35.440 little aquinet in there. I can make a video too, 0:26:35.920 --> 0:26:38.399 and they're like, no, no, no, it's not quite that easy. 0:26:38.560 --> 0:26:40.760 We need to film it in black and white video 0:26:41.400 --> 0:26:43.320 and then you'll have a video. He's like, oh, okay, 0:26:43.400 --> 0:26:44.680 let's do it, and. 0:26:44.680 --> 0:26:46.840 Kip Winger's like yeah, but like, don't you understand my 0:26:46.880 --> 0:26:48.320 song's about seventeen year old girls. 0:26:48.640 --> 0:26:52.439 Yeah, it really is, there's no getting around it. The 0:26:52.480 --> 0:26:55.040 only one that's worse, they're more blatant than that, is 0:26:56.359 --> 0:26:58.120 Benny Madrones. 0:26:58.320 --> 0:26:58.359 No. 0:26:59.720 --> 0:27:03.240 His is Into the Night where he's like trying to 0:27:03.280 --> 0:27:05.640 spring like a middle schooler or something like that from 0:27:05.640 --> 0:27:06.480 her parents' house. 0:27:07.600 --> 0:27:08.879 Oh, I don't remember that. 0:27:09.640 --> 0:27:14.680 If I could fly, I pick you up, into you, into. 0:27:14.520 --> 0:27:15.840 The Oh I know that song? 0:27:15.920 --> 0:27:16.600 Yeah, show you. 0:27:17.280 --> 0:27:19.280 It's a good song, super creepy. 0:27:19.440 --> 0:27:21.440 You just can't stop and think about what he's saying. 0:27:22.040 --> 0:27:27.679 Yeah. Or watch the Linel Ritchie video for hello is 0:27:27.720 --> 0:27:29.760 it me You're looking for? Oh, he's kind of a 0:27:29.880 --> 0:27:32.720 sweet song, but in the video he's like a He's 0:27:32.760 --> 0:27:36.160 like a teacher that seemed seemingly stalking a blind student. 0:27:36.560 --> 0:27:39.679 Right and a sculpture sculptor, right, an art teacher. 0:27:40.320 --> 0:27:42.200 Yeah, I think so it was. It's one of those 0:27:42.240 --> 0:27:44.000 at the time you're like, oh that's sweet. Now you're like, 0:27:44.040 --> 0:27:46.560 oh my god, like fire fire that teacher. 0:27:46.840 --> 0:27:49.520 Right. There's a lot of eighties and nineties media that's 0:27:49.600 --> 0:27:49.879 like that. 0:27:50.359 --> 0:27:52.359 Yeah. One thing I did want to say when you 0:27:52.359 --> 0:27:55.359 were talking about Devo, like I can say for sure 0:27:56.119 --> 0:27:58.399 that ten year old Chuck would not have known about 0:27:58.440 --> 0:28:01.800 Devo or the Talking Head, right, or like do you 0:28:01.800 --> 0:28:03.200 remember the Art of Noise video? 0:28:04.240 --> 0:28:06.760 Oh, like the super cool like animation. 0:28:06.560 --> 0:28:11.240 Is like herky jerky stop motion. Yeah, like chit chainsawing mannequins. 0:28:10.640 --> 0:28:12.440 And what was the name of the song. 0:28:13.000 --> 0:28:15.960 I don't remember the name of the song, but the band. 0:28:17.800 --> 0:28:20.639 But like, there's no way I would have known, Like 0:28:20.680 --> 0:28:22.840 I was listening to the top forty radio and then 0:28:23.680 --> 0:28:25.400 in a couple of years my brother in law would 0:28:25.400 --> 0:28:28.960 start feeding me Southern rock and Leonard skinnerd and Almond 0:28:29.000 --> 0:28:31.399 Brothers and stuff like that, and like, there's no way 0:28:31.440 --> 0:28:33.520 I would have been listening to any artsy stuff like 0:28:33.560 --> 0:28:35.840 that because that didn't come along for me until I 0:28:35.840 --> 0:28:38.280 started listening to alternative music in like the ninth and 0:28:38.320 --> 0:28:39.120 tenth grade. 0:28:39.400 --> 0:28:42.200 You know, And I think a lot of people out 0:28:42.200 --> 0:28:43.600 there would be like, well, no, Chuck, you would have 0:28:43.600 --> 0:28:45.720 heard Divo on the radio, or you would. 0:28:45.520 --> 0:28:47.520 Have heard I doubt it, are maybe talking to the. 0:28:47.440 --> 0:28:50.640 Radio, maybe talking heads. Right. The point is is the 0:28:50.760 --> 0:28:53.920 reason you heard those on the radio is because of MTV. 0:28:54.640 --> 0:28:58.120 Because when it became clear that if you gave MTV 0:28:58.400 --> 0:29:01.600 promotional videos for free and played them, yeah, you were 0:29:01.640 --> 0:29:05.360 going to start selling records in that cable operators region. 0:29:05.840 --> 0:29:10.200 That's just what happened. It became very clear, very quantifiable, 0:29:10.240 --> 0:29:12.840 early on that where MTV played a song and it 0:29:12.840 --> 0:29:14.680 didn't matter if it was a well known band or 0:29:14.680 --> 0:29:17.120 someone you'd never heard of. Those records we're going to 0:29:17.200 --> 0:29:19.760 sell in local record stores. And from that point on, 0:29:19.960 --> 0:29:23.120 MTV is basically it had its its path set out 0:29:23.200 --> 0:29:23.760 for him. 0:29:23.960 --> 0:29:27.720 Yeah, man, Devo is so good. If your only experience 0:29:27.720 --> 0:29:31.040 with Devo is the satisfaction the Rolling Stones cover or 0:29:31.240 --> 0:29:34.240 the whip It, both of which are great songs. Yeah, 0:29:34.400 --> 0:29:38.880 like do yourself a favor and just dive in. It's 0:29:38.960 --> 0:29:41.880 amazing music. I love Devot and shout out of course 0:29:41.920 --> 0:29:44.720 to Akron Akron Akron in Forrestone High School. 0:29:45.640 --> 0:29:48.760 Chuck We're thirty minutes in and we haven't taken an 0:29:48.800 --> 0:29:49.680 ad break yet. 0:29:49.840 --> 0:29:50.640 I thought we took one. 0:29:50.720 --> 0:29:53.400 No, I don't think so, did we. Let's ask Jerry 0:29:53.400 --> 0:29:58.080 to rule on this. Jerry, you have not okay? 0:29:58.480 --> 0:30:01.160 All right, Jerry verified, and hopefully we can leave that 0:30:01.200 --> 0:30:02.720 in there Jerry's voice. I don't know if she's going 0:30:02.800 --> 0:30:04.360 to be okay with it or not, but this one's 0:30:04.440 --> 0:30:06.800 clearly going to be super size. So maybe thirty minutes 0:30:06.880 --> 0:30:07.360 is about right. 0:30:07.920 --> 0:30:12.440 Okay, So we're going to cut to commercial break right now? 0:30:12.880 --> 0:30:16.880 Will you play us out with the music stinger? No? 0:30:17.520 --> 0:30:19.080 Oh oh me, I thought you met Jerry. 0:30:19.880 --> 0:30:25.680 You Dan Danna, Danna, Danna Dan Dan It bannan Internet 0:30:26.400 --> 0:30:49.640 bannet very nice. 0:30:59.440 --> 0:31:01.760 Okay. Check. So. One of the things I definitely associate 0:31:01.800 --> 0:31:06.680 with MTV is Michael Jackson's Thriller. I was into Thriller. 0:31:06.760 --> 0:31:10.040 I had the red Thriller jacket. My mom made me 0:31:10.320 --> 0:31:13.280 a white sequin glove for my first communion as a gift. 0:31:14.640 --> 0:31:19.280 I was super into Michael Jackson and I love Thriller 0:31:19.360 --> 0:31:23.000 so much that my family bought the making of the 0:31:23.040 --> 0:31:27.080 Thriller video on VHS and my sister watched it essentially 0:31:27.160 --> 0:31:31.120 until it broke. So I always associate MTV with Thriller. 0:31:31.200 --> 0:31:32.880 Anytime I knew it was coming on, I would go 0:31:33.000 --> 0:31:35.440 watch it. It was awesome. But it turns out like 0:31:36.120 --> 0:31:39.920 Michael Jackson and his record label had to basically fight 0:31:40.080 --> 0:31:43.520 to get on to MTV, which is mind boggling to 0:31:43.560 --> 0:31:44.520 me these days. 0:31:44.840 --> 0:31:47.080 Yeah, for sure. This was nineteen eighty two when the 0:31:47.160 --> 0:31:51.800 Landmark album came out. There's a very funny Vincent Price 0:31:51.840 --> 0:31:56.040 story because Vincent Price, obviously the legendary spooky actor, was 0:31:56.040 --> 0:32:01.040 in the thirteen minute mini movie that accompanied as the video, 0:32:02.320 --> 0:32:06.760 and Vincent Price had an option apparently to either take 0:32:06.800 --> 0:32:09.000 a flat fee of like I don't even know how 0:32:09.080 --> 0:32:11.280 much it was, twenty grand or something. That's all I 0:32:11.320 --> 0:32:13.760 was gonna say, or get yeah, that sounds about right, 0:32:14.840 --> 0:32:19.760 or get points on the Thriller album. And he clearly 0:32:20.000 --> 0:32:24.160 opted for the flat fee oh wow, and would go 0:32:24.200 --> 0:32:26.840 on to regret that for many years, and apparently over 0:32:26.880 --> 0:32:30.360 the years called Michael Jackson a lot trying to sort 0:32:30.360 --> 0:32:34.800 of get back that deal, which his calls were never returned. 0:32:34.920 --> 0:32:38.360 And I will just let the listener look up the 0:32:38.440 --> 0:32:41.960 quote apparently that came out about Vincent Price when Michael 0:32:42.000 --> 0:32:46.120 Jackson settled with his alleged victims many years later. I'm 0:32:46.120 --> 0:32:47.280 not going to say it here, but you can go 0:32:47.360 --> 0:32:48.120 look it up if you want. 0:32:48.280 --> 0:32:52.040 Okay. One other thing about that album too, that was interesting. 0:32:52.440 --> 0:32:55.080 Billy Jean was on there. I know Beat It was 0:32:55.120 --> 0:32:57.920 on there. They both were, but Eddie van Halen played 0:32:58.000 --> 0:33:02.320 guitar and Beat It very famous like solo. Oh yeah, 0:33:02.360 --> 0:33:05.400 And apparently at the time van Halen had like no 0:33:05.600 --> 0:33:09.800 outside work deal with one another. All they could do 0:33:09.840 --> 0:33:13.600 is focus on van Halen, and so Eddie van Halen 0:33:13.640 --> 0:33:16.240 had the opportunity. He's like, yeah, I don't think anybody'll 0:33:16.760 --> 0:33:18.920 hear this record. I'm just going to play on this 0:33:19.000 --> 0:33:22.640 dude's record and no one will know about it because 0:33:22.640 --> 0:33:25.160 it will be uncredited. And sure enough, it turns out 0:33:25.160 --> 0:33:27.920 that Beat It and Thriller became one of the biggest 0:33:27.920 --> 0:33:29.200 selling albums of all time. 0:33:29.720 --> 0:33:32.200 Yeah, I mean well, people sort of like, how could 0:33:32.240 --> 0:33:34.840 Vincent Price have done that? But Michael Jackson wasn't that 0:33:34.960 --> 0:33:38.600 level until after Thriller, So, I mean, Off the Wall 0:33:38.680 --> 0:33:40.720 was out of course, and he was with the Jackson five, 0:33:40.760 --> 0:33:42.360 but no one knew it was going to be you know, 0:33:42.400 --> 0:33:43.960 one of the best selling, if not the best selling 0:33:43.960 --> 0:33:44.760 albums of all time. 0:33:44.880 --> 0:33:47.440 Man, poor Vincent Price. I didn't know that. Yeah. 0:33:47.480 --> 0:33:49.840 And also in regards to Thriller, it was a nine 0:33:49.920 --> 0:33:54.200 hundred thousand dollars budget for that video, directed by John Landis, 0:33:54.960 --> 0:33:59.360 and part of the funding came from Josh's parents because 0:33:59.400 --> 0:34:01.680 they ended up selling, you know, the making of on 0:34:01.760 --> 0:34:04.880 vhs like you mentioned, one hundred thousand copies of that 0:34:05.720 --> 0:34:09.759 in advance for twenty nine to ninety five. Showtime paid 0:34:09.760 --> 0:34:13.400 three hundred thousand dollars to see the documentary or I'm sorry, 0:34:13.400 --> 0:34:15.960 just to air the documentary, and MTV paid another quarter 0:34:15.960 --> 0:34:18.160 of a million dollars for the ultimate right, So. 0:34:18.360 --> 0:34:19.839 That's just the documentary. 0:34:20.160 --> 0:34:23.400 Yeah, yeah, because the videos were free, yeah. 0:34:23.080 --> 0:34:25.680 For the making of Thriller the documentary, and it was good. 0:34:25.719 --> 0:34:27.080 It was like an hour and ten minutes long. I 0:34:27.120 --> 0:34:27.680 looked it up. 0:34:28.080 --> 0:34:29.040 Oh yeah, I watched it. 0:34:30.160 --> 0:34:32.399 So one of the reasons why Thriller was a big 0:34:32.440 --> 0:34:38.239 deal is because there weren't a lot of black performers 0:34:38.320 --> 0:34:40.719 or artists on MTV at the time, so much so 0:34:40.800 --> 0:34:43.520 that David Bowie very famously called MTV out. 0:34:43.719 --> 0:34:44.160 Oh yeah. 0:34:44.200 --> 0:34:48.640 In an interview on MTV with Mark Goodman, and he 0:34:48.760 --> 0:34:50.960 basically just said, like, what's what's the deal here? I 0:34:50.960 --> 0:34:54.000 think his actually quote is what the holy heck is 0:34:54.040 --> 0:34:58.240 going on with use guys? And it was it was true. 0:34:58.320 --> 0:35:00.279 I mean like you just couldn't put it any other away. 0:35:00.280 --> 0:35:03.960 And MTV basically said, well, we play rock, and it's 0:35:04.000 --> 0:35:07.000 actually rock's fault because they're the ones who exclude black 0:35:07.040 --> 0:35:09.080 acts by calling them R and B and not rock. 0:35:09.680 --> 0:35:14.080 So blame blame the music industry, not us. And that 0:35:14.160 --> 0:35:16.399 didn't fly. That wasn't good enough. And there's a guy 0:35:16.440 --> 0:35:19.759 who's there's a hero in this story. It's him. His 0:35:19.840 --> 0:35:22.399 name is Walter Yetnikoff. I think he was the head 0:35:22.440 --> 0:35:24.359 of CBS Records at the time, and he said, if 0:35:24.400 --> 0:35:27.600 you don't start playing these singles, these videos off of 0:35:27.640 --> 0:35:32.280 Michael Jackson's Thriller album, we're pulling all of CBS Records artists. 0:35:32.480 --> 0:35:34.319 You're not going to get a single video form many 0:35:34.360 --> 0:35:36.680 of them. And that was significant because they made up 0:35:36.680 --> 0:35:40.239 about a quarter of the videos that were playing on 0:35:40.360 --> 0:35:41.360 MTV at the time. 0:35:41.719 --> 0:35:43.839 Yeah, and part two of that and this is for real, 0:35:43.920 --> 0:35:47.640 he said, we will publicly accuse you of racism if 0:35:47.680 --> 0:35:50.360 you don't start playing these yeah, so I think that 0:35:50.400 --> 0:35:55.640 really hit home. Obviously, they got Billy Jean and beat 0:35:55.680 --> 0:35:59.600 it in the rotation fairly heavily at first, but Libya 0:35:59.600 --> 0:36:01.759 said she on that didn't last too long. I feel 0:36:01.800 --> 0:36:03.760 like I remember seeing those ad nauseum forever. 0:36:04.080 --> 0:36:06.759 Oh really, I remember not seeing them as often as 0:36:06.760 --> 0:36:07.200 I wanted. 0:36:07.680 --> 0:36:10.880 Oh well, you also had a Sequin White love on, 0:36:11.280 --> 0:36:13.840 so you might have wanted to hear more than me. 0:36:13.880 --> 0:36:14.279 I don't know. 0:36:14.680 --> 0:36:15.480 Yeah, that's true. 0:36:15.640 --> 0:36:18.600 I love those songs though. And I remember working a 0:36:19.880 --> 0:36:23.960 commercial job one time with my longtime production manager Andrea, 0:36:24.120 --> 0:36:27.279 and she it was very casually dropped that she was 0:36:27.320 --> 0:36:29.479 a production coordinator on the beat at video one time, 0:36:29.640 --> 0:36:34.080 and I was like, excuse me. One of the fun 0:36:34.080 --> 0:36:35.960 things about doing that stuff in LA is you would 0:36:35.960 --> 0:36:38.640 always meet people that like just worked on these legendary jobs. 0:36:38.719 --> 0:36:40.400 Every now and then it's like, yeah, yeah, I was 0:36:40.440 --> 0:36:42.200 the lighting guy for whatever for thriller. 0:36:42.440 --> 0:36:43.000 That's cool. 0:36:43.360 --> 0:36:45.120 Yeah. 0:36:45.160 --> 0:36:48.480 So by this time, we're talking mid eighties and MTV 0:36:48.640 --> 0:36:51.279 is now the place that is making the names of 0:36:51.640 --> 0:36:56.960 the artists who are making videos for their music, right, Yeah, 0:36:57.000 --> 0:37:01.240 And the more daring you were, the more Kip Winger 0:37:01.360 --> 0:37:04.759 ask you were you could make a really big name 0:37:04.760 --> 0:37:07.560 for yourself. It didn't matter all that much whether your 0:37:07.640 --> 0:37:11.839 music was particularly good. Sometimes it didn't matter whether your 0:37:11.960 --> 0:37:15.800 video was even particularly good. If you could get onto 0:37:15.880 --> 0:37:18.080 MTV and nail it in just the right way, they 0:37:18.080 --> 0:37:20.239 would play it a lot, and you would sell a 0:37:20.239 --> 0:37:23.200 lot of records and your your career would be made. 0:37:23.560 --> 0:37:28.600 And it's no overstatement to say that Madonna's career was made. 0:37:29.800 --> 0:37:30.840 Who else, Chuck. 0:37:31.520 --> 0:37:35.480 Well, I mean people that already had good careers were 0:37:35.560 --> 0:37:38.239 launched into the stratosphere, like people like Billy Joel who 0:37:38.280 --> 0:37:41.719 was already a prominent artist. All of a sudden, he's 0:37:41.760 --> 0:37:44.160 putting out some like some of the buzz band, like 0:37:44.200 --> 0:37:48.520 groundbreaking videos like Pressure and then when he married or 0:37:48.600 --> 0:37:51.440 was dating at least Christy Brinkley, oh M video and 0:37:51.560 --> 0:37:53.560 like the video for Uptown Girl, and all of a 0:37:53.600 --> 0:37:57.320 sudden that the biggest supermodel on planet Earth was on MTV. 0:37:58.280 --> 0:38:01.120 That was a big deal. They started the Top twenty 0:38:01.200 --> 0:38:04.600 video countdown in nineteen eighty four, So all of a sudden, 0:38:04.600 --> 0:38:07.560 that is rivaling America in Top forty on radio. As 0:38:07.560 --> 0:38:10.080 far as like where the kids are going to see 0:38:10.360 --> 0:38:14.120 the top content, the VMA's a video. Music words started 0:38:14.120 --> 0:38:17.960 also in nineteen eighty four and had plenty of iconic moments, 0:38:18.560 --> 0:38:24.279 and very quickly. Like music video directors, it became sort 0:38:24.280 --> 0:38:27.440 of a farm league for people that would go on 0:38:27.520 --> 0:38:31.840 to be huge. Huge movie directors started out in music videos. 0:38:31.480 --> 0:38:33.120 Or it went the other way too. I saw that 0:38:33.160 --> 0:38:36.799 William Friedkin, who directed The Exorcist in nineteen eighty three, 0:38:37.040 --> 0:38:40.600 also directed Laura brand Again's video for self Control in 0:38:40.680 --> 0:38:44.040 nineteen eighty three. Yeah, you know, the one where she 0:38:45.160 --> 0:38:48.319 lives among the creatures of the night. Uh huh, she 0:38:48.360 --> 0:38:49.719 doesn't have the will to try and fight. 0:38:50.600 --> 0:38:52.439 I remember that. I love Laura brand Again. 0:38:52.480 --> 0:38:55.000 That's a great song. It beats the heck out of Gloria. 0:38:55.000 --> 0:38:58.120 If you ask me, I like Lauria. I mean, I 0:38:58.120 --> 0:38:59.920 guess you don't have to choose. But I still like 0:39:00.719 --> 0:39:03.760 self control more. But yeah, William Friedkin of The Exorcist 0:39:03.800 --> 0:39:04.640 directed that video. 0:39:04.960 --> 0:39:08.680 That's true. But far more often, to be fair, it 0:39:08.760 --> 0:39:11.480 went the other way and people started out music videos 0:39:11.640 --> 0:39:14.839 and went on to be very popular film directors. David 0:39:14.920 --> 0:39:19.279 Fincher directed Vogue from Madonna, The End of Anocence from 0:39:19.320 --> 0:39:23.080 Don Henley Janey's Got a gun from Aerosmith, not the 0:39:23.120 --> 0:39:27.480 Aerosmith videos that featured Lib Tyler and Alicia Silverstone that 0:39:27.480 --> 0:39:31.240 were also iconic. He also directed the George Michael Freedom 0:39:31.320 --> 0:39:35.040 ninety video, which talk about supermodels, like every supermodel under 0:39:35.040 --> 0:39:36.120 the sun was in that one. 0:39:36.880 --> 0:39:39.400 I was reading about George Michaels I Want Your Sex 0:39:39.480 --> 0:39:42.960 video and I was like, I guarantee that was as 0:39:43.040 --> 0:39:46.520 controversial as anything was when it came out, And so 0:39:46.600 --> 0:39:49.200 I went on to our beloved newspapers dot com and 0:39:49.239 --> 0:39:54.799 looked for some contemporaraneous articles on that, and dude, the 0:39:54.920 --> 0:39:58.920 stuff that they were saying, like like should videos should 0:39:58.920 --> 0:40:03.080 sexy videos be? Yeah, there are limits to artists' rights 0:40:03.080 --> 0:40:06.920 and all this just junk censorship, junk that today is like, 0:40:07.160 --> 0:40:10.000 this is what like you guys were amusing yourselves with 0:40:10.040 --> 0:40:12.680 in the mid to late eighties, and it absolutely was, 0:40:13.160 --> 0:40:15.360 and if you go back and look at the video, 0:40:15.760 --> 0:40:22.200 it is objectively sexy. But to ban anything because of 0:40:22.239 --> 0:40:26.000 this video, it's just mind bogglingly stupid. Today. In twenty 0:40:26.160 --> 0:40:27.080 twenty five. 0:40:27.280 --> 0:40:32.239 Yeah, for sure, another group of directors, Michel Gondry and 0:40:32.280 --> 0:40:35.239 Spike Jones, got their starts. If you want to talk 0:40:35.239 --> 0:40:39.640 about just sort of groundbreaking videos. Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammer in 0:40:39.719 --> 0:40:43.120 nineteen eighty six. Yes, it was directed by Steven R. Johnson. 0:40:43.200 --> 0:40:45.880 That the amazing stop motion animation with the help of 0:40:45.920 --> 0:40:49.719 the Brothers Quay and Ardman Animations. That was a big one. 0:40:49.760 --> 0:40:51.920 And then of course the Aha Take on Me video 0:40:52.040 --> 0:40:53.439 was a huge, huge breakthrough video. 0:40:53.600 --> 0:40:53.759 Man. 0:40:53.880 --> 0:40:56.600 Such a great song still, yeah, like the kind of 0:40:56.600 --> 0:40:59.279 song you can listen to on repeat. Still. I mean, 0:40:59.280 --> 0:41:01.400 think about how many times you've heard take on Me. 0:41:02.480 --> 0:41:03.239 I love the song. 0:41:03.480 --> 0:41:05.560 It's a really great song. Still. But yes, that video 0:41:05.640 --> 0:41:09.400 is amazing and plus, I mean it didn't hurt that 0:41:09.440 --> 0:41:11.800 the lead singer was about as dreamy as a person 0:41:12.000 --> 0:41:13.120 on MTV. 0:41:12.960 --> 0:41:15.080 D Yeah, they're all they're all hot, dude. 0:41:15.360 --> 0:41:17.839 Yeah, I remember my sister with her hands clasped under 0:41:17.880 --> 0:41:20.759 her chin, just like staring at the TV whenever that 0:41:20.760 --> 0:41:21.360 guy came on. 0:41:23.200 --> 0:41:25.640 We should mention just for Lyvia too, because Liba wrote 0:41:25.640 --> 0:41:27.200 this and she clearly has a soft spot in her 0:41:27.200 --> 0:41:30.000 heart for Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse of the Heart video. 0:41:30.520 --> 0:41:33.920 Yeah, she pointed out that there is a literal version 0:41:34.400 --> 0:41:37.440 that they sing like. They changed the lyrics based on 0:41:37.520 --> 0:41:40.839 what's going on in the video. It's pretty hilarious. There's 0:41:40.880 --> 0:41:44.239 some other ones too that definitely made MTV because, as 0:41:44.280 --> 0:41:48.160 we talked about in Saturday Morning Cartoons, MTV provided a 0:41:48.200 --> 0:41:52.920 bardic function for American teenagers and eventually teenagers around the world. 0:41:53.239 --> 0:41:55.240 Like when you went and watched The Top twenty Countdown, 0:41:55.440 --> 0:41:58.080 you were seeing as all of your friends were seeing 0:41:58.120 --> 0:42:00.520 at the same time. What was cool that week? Right, 0:42:01.080 --> 0:42:03.279 or you talked about like have you seen the zz 0:42:03.440 --> 0:42:06.560 top video? Like zz Top had a trio of videos 0:42:06.560 --> 0:42:11.000 called the Eliminator Series for legs, sharp Dressed Man and 0:42:11.040 --> 0:42:14.000 give Me all Your Loving and it featured like that 0:42:14.160 --> 0:42:18.840 super cool like nineteen thirties car or whatever with the 0:42:18.920 --> 0:42:22.840 zz top keychain and like their guitar and their bass 0:42:22.840 --> 0:42:26.680 would spin on the axis. They could just twirl them, 0:42:26.719 --> 0:42:30.320 you remember that. And they were fuzzy. They were just 0:42:30.480 --> 0:42:34.120 really cool videos. And I remember just being like, Wow, 0:42:34.280 --> 0:42:36.680 I like these videos a lot because they were super sexy. 0:42:37.560 --> 0:42:42.280 But I recently read how like essentially a feminist defense 0:42:42.719 --> 0:42:45.640 of those videos, and they pointed out that the people 0:42:45.719 --> 0:42:49.160 who were the villains were people who are like sexually 0:42:49.200 --> 0:42:53.040 harassing the three women in the Eliminator series and they 0:42:53.040 --> 0:42:55.439 would always get their come up and and zz top 0:42:55.520 --> 0:42:58.400 was always cheering for these three I guess muses or 0:42:58.440 --> 0:43:00.800 Angels or whoever who would come out of the blue 0:43:00.840 --> 0:43:02.000 and save the day. 0:43:02.560 --> 0:43:06.680 Yeah, angels and Fishnet hosts exactly. I don't know if 0:43:06.719 --> 0:43:12.600 there was ever a group that was less likely to 0:43:12.680 --> 0:43:15.120 be MTV stars than zz top was. 0:43:15.320 --> 0:43:17.000 They were saying that there was a quote where they 0:43:17.000 --> 0:43:19.600 were like, you know, we had basically had our run 0:43:20.640 --> 0:43:21.560 in rock. 0:43:21.640 --> 0:43:24.200 Not even rock and roll, Texas Blues band exactly. 0:43:24.239 --> 0:43:27.240 I think it was this in like Texas Monthly maybe magazine, 0:43:27.239 --> 0:43:29.680 because yeah, they're from Texas, and then all of a sudden, 0:43:29.719 --> 0:43:33.080 because of these videos, because of MTV, they had a 0:43:33.120 --> 0:43:36.200 brand new career essentially. And I think Billy Gibbons was 0:43:36.239 --> 0:43:37.919 the one who was quoter who said, like, we got 0:43:38.040 --> 0:43:42.520 sixteen year old girls back as fans, you know, like so, yeah, 0:43:42.560 --> 0:43:44.920 that's a really great point. They were extremely unlikely, and 0:43:44.960 --> 0:43:47.880 that demonstrates the power of what MTV could do. If 0:43:47.920 --> 0:43:50.640 you made a cool video people talked about, you could 0:43:50.640 --> 0:43:52.480 have a brand new career on your hands. 0:43:52.920 --> 0:43:55.720 I know, you want to shout out weird al somebody 0:43:55.760 --> 0:43:57.719 that I've never been that into, but I was an 0:43:57.800 --> 0:44:02.200 MTV kid, so I definitely saw and generally had a 0:44:02.280 --> 0:44:04.120 laugh with a lot of those videos. 0:44:04.320 --> 0:44:08.800 They were great. He apparently had ten specials on MTV 0:44:08.840 --> 0:44:12.360 over the years called ALTV. But yeah, that was another 0:44:12.400 --> 0:44:14.160 one too, like you'd be like, have you seen weird 0:44:14.160 --> 0:44:17.719 El's like a surgeon video? Or I lost on Jeopardy. 0:44:19.200 --> 0:44:19.439 Yeah. 0:44:19.520 --> 0:44:22.400 Stuff. And then one other one too that was a 0:44:22.440 --> 0:44:27.000 really big video early on was the video for Fishheads 0:44:27.040 --> 0:44:28.640 from Barnes and barn Do you remember that? 0:44:29.600 --> 0:44:32.319 Yeah, I mean I don't remember that being a very 0:44:32.320 --> 0:44:35.080 big song or video at all. I thought it was 0:44:35.120 --> 0:44:37.600 just noteworthy because it was Bill Paxton or was that 0:44:37.640 --> 0:44:38.200 a big song? 0:44:38.560 --> 0:44:40.439 I think it was one of those ones that made 0:44:40.480 --> 0:44:45.080 people go watch MTV because it would come on sometimes. Okay, 0:44:45.200 --> 0:44:46.560 I don't think it was like a huge hit or 0:44:46.560 --> 0:44:48.359 anything like that, but it was one of those one 0:44:48.400 --> 0:44:51.920 of those early videos that drew you to MTV by 0:44:51.920 --> 0:44:52.600 word of mouth. 0:44:53.280 --> 0:44:55.040 Yeah, kind of like mc scatcat. 0:44:55.760 --> 0:44:58.880 That's right, Paula abdul Yep, I remember that. 0:45:00.160 --> 0:45:02.760 Uh wait, wait, we're getting nostalgic. We failed. 0:45:03.520 --> 0:45:05.839 I know, I know that failed a long time ago, 0:45:06.200 --> 0:45:07.840 but we do have to mention the Hungry Like the 0:45:07.840 --> 0:45:11.920 Wolf video from Duran Duran, because that was it certainly 0:45:11.960 --> 0:45:14.640 wasn't the first, but that was maybe the best example 0:45:15.160 --> 0:45:19.880 of music video as like a very cinematic you know 0:45:19.920 --> 0:45:21.360 where where all of a sudden it was like the 0:45:21.400 --> 0:45:26.480 band was in a movie and it was like, it's 0:45:26.520 --> 0:45:29.200 not like they weren't a big band before, but Hungry 0:45:29.239 --> 0:45:31.359 Like the Wolf really put them over the top. 0:45:32.239 --> 0:45:36.040 Yeah, for sure, and just change the way that people 0:45:36.080 --> 0:45:38.200 made videos too. They made a much more like it 0:45:38.239 --> 0:45:38.760 was a movie. 0:45:40.000 --> 0:45:41.839 Yeah, a pretty good one, I thought. 0:45:41.960 --> 0:45:43.520 Yeah, and a good song too. 0:45:44.080 --> 0:45:47.960 Should we take our second break here at minute forty seven? Yeah, 0:45:48.040 --> 0:45:49.759 all right, we'll be right back because there's plenty more 0:45:49.760 --> 0:46:18.320 to talk about with MTV. So MTV was a pretty 0:46:18.320 --> 0:46:21.120 big success in the mid eighties, obviously, so much so 0:46:21.200 --> 0:46:25.759 that Turner Broadcasting TBS tried to compete with their cable 0:46:25.840 --> 0:46:29.600 music channel I think the Country Music I'm sorry, the 0:46:29.600 --> 0:46:33.080 cable Music channel CMC started around the same time. There 0:46:33.080 --> 0:46:35.600 were a lot of imitators, most of them fizzled out. 0:46:35.960 --> 0:46:38.720 I think the Turner one was bought out by MTV 0:46:38.760 --> 0:46:41.719 for about a million bucks. But in nineteen eighty five, 0:46:41.800 --> 0:46:46.719 Viacom Inc. Bought MTV from Warner, and leadership said, hey, 0:46:47.400 --> 0:46:51.320 why don't we stop just playing random videos and start 0:46:51.800 --> 0:46:54.560 sort of bucketing this stuff, And all of a sudden 0:46:54.600 --> 0:46:57.960 they had thematic shows like one hundred and twenty Minutes 0:46:58.360 --> 0:47:02.719 and Headbanger's Ball and Yo MTV Raps and stuff like that. 0:47:03.000 --> 0:47:06.840 Yeah. Yes, one hundred and twenty minutes always has a 0:47:06.880 --> 0:47:09.160 soft spot in my heart because you had to stay 0:47:09.239 --> 0:47:12.560 up on Sunday night. It started Sunday night at midnight, 0:47:12.600 --> 0:47:15.120 so technically it started Monday morning at midnight and ran 0:47:15.640 --> 0:47:18.440 for one hundred and twenty minutes till two am. It's 0:47:18.480 --> 0:47:21.440 like the worst time slot in the history of time slots, 0:47:21.440 --> 0:47:24.040 and yet that was the only place you could see 0:47:24.080 --> 0:47:28.040 like Asusie in the Banchees video, or like Jesus and 0:47:28.080 --> 0:47:32.480 Mary Chain or whoever. Like, that's the only place you 0:47:32.480 --> 0:47:35.200 could see those videos, and it was worth staying up for. 0:47:35.800 --> 0:47:38.520 Yeah, the great Matt Pinfield shout out to him as 0:47:38.560 --> 0:47:42.840 host Club MTV in nineteen eighty seven with Downtown Julie Brown. 0:47:42.880 --> 0:47:45.919 That was their dance show, their their sort of soul 0:47:45.960 --> 0:47:50.040 trained American bandstand style show. I'd say just go listen 0:47:50.080 --> 0:47:51.960 to the heavy metal episodes if you want to hear 0:47:52.000 --> 0:47:55.279 more about head Banger's Ball, sure, but yo, MTV rap 0:47:55.320 --> 0:47:58.960 started in nineteen eighty eight, and that was like run 0:47:59.040 --> 0:48:01.520 DMC had been on thinking eighty four with rock Box. 0:48:01.560 --> 0:48:05.560 But you o, MTV raps cannot be under or overestimated. 0:48:05.600 --> 0:48:08.799 I guess as as what a role it played in 0:48:08.840 --> 0:48:11.520 bringing hip hop and rap to the mainstream. 0:48:11.960 --> 0:48:14.440 Yeah, and if you want a new trivia question to 0:48:14.480 --> 0:48:18.879 replace the Buggles video Killed the Radio Star, the first 0:48:19.000 --> 0:48:21.799 rap video played on your own TV raps was Shinehead's 0:48:22.120 --> 0:48:22.720 Chain Gang. 0:48:23.239 --> 0:48:25.480 Oh okay, do you remember that one? 0:48:26.000 --> 0:48:27.080 I don't not at all. 0:48:27.120 --> 0:48:29.440 Actually, do you you know the sound of the men 0:48:29.480 --> 0:48:30.560 working on the chain Gang? 0:48:31.440 --> 0:48:31.960 Yeah? I know. 0:48:32.040 --> 0:48:34.400 It's like a hip hop version of that. Oh okay, 0:48:34.520 --> 0:48:35.839 it's good, go listen to it. 0:48:36.440 --> 0:48:39.399 Yeah. They were also famous for banning some of these, 0:48:39.800 --> 0:48:42.399 and again, you're going to get more attention by doing 0:48:42.480 --> 0:48:46.479 something like that. So Inwa had some of their stuff banned. 0:48:46.760 --> 0:48:49.600 Public Enemy the Great Song By the Time I Get 0:48:49.640 --> 0:48:53.000 to Arizona was banned in nineteen ninety one, and then 0:48:53.040 --> 0:48:56.640 also one of my favorite shows was Unplugged, Oh, started 0:48:56.680 --> 0:48:59.000 in nineteen eighty nine, where they did you know they 0:48:59.040 --> 0:49:03.000 had bands in studio, live in concert doing you know, 0:49:03.040 --> 0:49:06.560 acoustic numbers of their of their hits, and some of 0:49:06.600 --> 0:49:11.960 the unplugged albums became just sort of iconic, legendary vinyl 0:49:12.080 --> 0:49:16.040 LPs for those bands just because people had never heard 0:49:16.080 --> 0:49:19.000 them that way before, like Nirvana and Oasis and stuff 0:49:19.040 --> 0:49:19.359 like that. 0:49:19.480 --> 0:49:22.560 Oh yeah, okay, yeah, I was like, I didn't really 0:49:22.680 --> 0:49:25.000 ever watch them TV unplugged. I wasn't very aware of it, 0:49:25.120 --> 0:49:29.640 now that you said that Rivana song, Yes, I remember now. 0:49:29.680 --> 0:49:32.440 Yeah, ari EM's was awesome, and you know, they had 0:49:32.440 --> 0:49:35.080 some sort of obvious unplugged stuff like Bob Dylan and 0:49:35.120 --> 0:49:37.200 Neil Young, but I think it was when the rock 0:49:37.239 --> 0:49:38.960 bands did it, is when it got the most attention 0:49:39.080 --> 0:49:40.600 and was maybe at its best. 0:49:40.640 --> 0:49:46.960 For sure, or Depeche Mode. So. One other thing that 0:49:47.160 --> 0:49:50.359 was huge, just huge, that started out as just some 0:49:50.400 --> 0:49:52.799 small thing that they tried, was in nineteen eighty six, 0:49:52.800 --> 0:49:56.560 Allen Hunter took everybody to Daytona Beach and they basically 0:49:56.600 --> 0:49:59.960 just covered spring Break. Yeah, and spring Break became an 0:50:00.040 --> 0:50:04.640 annual event on MTV for decades to come. It was 0:50:04.800 --> 0:50:07.719 just a huge deal. Every spring Break was covered and 0:50:07.960 --> 0:50:11.080 it was just people like doing shots or dancing or whatever, 0:50:12.320 --> 0:50:14.440 like on the beach, playing volleyball. It was just all 0:50:14.520 --> 0:50:16.640 lame and dumb, but it was exactly the kind of 0:50:16.640 --> 0:50:20.759 thing you wanted to see if it was like April 0:50:21.000 --> 0:50:24.840 in Northern Ohio, because it didn't look like that outside 0:50:24.920 --> 0:50:28.040 in April and Northern Ohio. So like it just brought 0:50:28.120 --> 0:50:30.160 you down to the beach with all these beautiful people 0:50:30.239 --> 0:50:32.759 and it was It was a great experience for sure. 0:50:32.960 --> 0:50:34.799 And then that also kind of gave birth to Beach 0:50:34.920 --> 0:50:38.399 MTV or MTV Beach House later on, which they would 0:50:38.440 --> 0:50:41.719 basically just rent a beach house and broadcast from there 0:50:41.760 --> 0:50:42.360 for the summer. 0:50:43.040 --> 0:50:43.279 Yeah. 0:50:44.000 --> 0:50:47.319 Yeah, it just made summer summer, you know what I'm saying, like. 0:50:47.880 --> 0:50:48.760 The official kickoff. 0:50:48.840 --> 0:50:51.640 Yeah yeah, or like even like in the middle of summer, 0:50:51.760 --> 0:50:54.600 just seeing that in the morning, you know, getting ready 0:50:54.600 --> 0:50:57.160 to go hang out with friends because school was out. 0:50:57.200 --> 0:50:59.959 It just it made it was like a punctuation mark 0:51:00.080 --> 0:51:02.480 for summer. It just made it more of a summer 0:51:02.520 --> 0:51:02.759 to me. 0:51:03.520 --> 0:51:06.880 Yeah, for sure, I totally agree. MTV News was another 0:51:07.000 --> 0:51:09.120 non music show that's kind of where we're headed in 0:51:09.160 --> 0:51:12.319 this segment, and it was a very big deal. I 0:51:12.320 --> 0:51:14.560 remember that they had a very iconic intro to with 0:51:14.600 --> 0:51:18.600 the typewriter spelling out MTV News and that sound that 0:51:18.680 --> 0:51:23.880 it made. Yeah, do that louder, You just did it great, Well, 0:51:23.960 --> 0:51:29.040 your first try was better. Kurt Loader, though, was a 0:51:29.120 --> 0:51:32.080 veteran rock journalist and he was sort of the main 0:51:32.160 --> 0:51:35.840 face in nineteen eighty seven. But you know they also 0:51:35.920 --> 0:51:38.520 had like Chris Connolly ended up being the movie guy. 0:51:38.600 --> 0:51:41.840 He was the MTV news guy for a while. I 0:51:41.880 --> 0:51:46.440 had many many crushes via MTV News, like Tabitha Soren 0:51:46.480 --> 0:51:50.200 and Serena alt Schole, and even a little bit of Kennedy. 0:51:51.000 --> 0:51:52.560 Yeah, Kennedy. Remember Duffy? 0:51:53.000 --> 0:51:54.960 Oh, I remember Duffy. She lived in a friend of 0:51:55.000 --> 0:51:57.759 mine's building in New York and the Greenwich Village in 0:51:57.840 --> 0:51:59.960 the mid nineties, and I saw in the elevator once 0:52:00.040 --> 0:52:01.040 and almost passed out. 0:52:01.080 --> 0:52:05.040 I'll bet I think the one who could top them 0:52:05.040 --> 0:52:06.440 all though, was Daisy Flinn Taste. 0:52:07.400 --> 0:52:10.160 Oh yeah, I forgot about her, jay Zy Flints. 0:52:09.760 --> 0:52:15.520 Daisy Taste. So anyway, moving on, there was a game 0:52:15.600 --> 0:52:18.560 show on MTV for I think just like a year 0:52:18.840 --> 0:52:22.600 maybe called Remote Control came on in nineteen eighty seven, 0:52:22.880 --> 0:52:27.120 and if anyone asks you what MTV's first regular non 0:52:27.320 --> 0:52:31.320 music programming was it was Remote Control and I loved 0:52:31.400 --> 0:52:33.480 Remote Control me too. 0:52:34.280 --> 0:52:36.040 It had to be more than a year because ken 0:52:36.120 --> 0:52:38.720 Ober was the host, unless they just replaced the host midyear, 0:52:38.760 --> 0:52:43.359 which I don't remember because another crush Kry Wererer, took 0:52:43.400 --> 0:52:46.960 over for ken Ober at a certain point. But Remote 0:52:47.000 --> 0:52:50.040 Control was very funny and a great game show for 0:52:50.080 --> 0:52:53.320 people our age, and to me, it was most noteworthy 0:52:53.360 --> 0:52:56.560 as launching the careers of Colin Quinn, yes, who was 0:52:56.600 --> 0:53:00.480 the sidekick, and a young Adam Sandler and Dennis got 0:53:00.520 --> 0:53:01.040 their start there. 0:53:01.239 --> 0:53:03.799 Yeah, they were both writers and then Adam Sandler also 0:53:03.880 --> 0:53:07.080 played some early characters, one of which was stud Boy. 0:53:09.080 --> 0:53:10.600 But it was great. I had one of the all 0:53:10.719 --> 0:53:13.560 time best sets of not just any game show, but 0:53:13.640 --> 0:53:16.760 any TV show. It was set in Kenover's parents' basement 0:53:16.840 --> 0:53:19.040 and it was all about all the questions were about 0:53:19.080 --> 0:53:22.120 TV and TV history and stuff. It was really wonderful. 0:53:22.200 --> 0:53:25.440 Like the people the players played from recliners and if 0:53:25.440 --> 0:53:28.600 I remember correctly, if you were if you lost you 0:53:29.040 --> 0:53:31.920 like the recliner went sailing backwards through the woods. So 0:53:32.600 --> 0:53:33.600 that was a show. 0:53:34.120 --> 0:53:36.880 Yeah, and it's funny. I haven't I didn't watch any clips, 0:53:36.960 --> 0:53:39.200 but in my brain it just popped into my head. 0:53:39.320 --> 0:53:42.840 The intro was something like, uh, I wasn't like the 0:53:42.960 --> 0:53:44.320 other kids or something like that. 0:53:44.520 --> 0:53:48.440 Okay, it was Kenny wasn't like the other kids. T mattered, nothing, 0:53:48.560 --> 0:53:51.600 nothing else that. The girls said yes, but he said no. 0:53:52.560 --> 0:53:54.200 Now he's got his own game show. 0:53:54.800 --> 0:53:56.279 Do you remember that or did you look that up? 0:53:56.440 --> 0:53:58.319 I remembered it. I did not look up a word 0:53:58.360 --> 0:53:58.520 of that. 0:53:59.000 --> 0:53:59.680 That's so funny. 0:53:59.719 --> 0:53:59.839 Man. 0:54:00.520 --> 0:54:02.480 I knew there was something there about not being like 0:54:02.520 --> 0:54:03.120 the other kids. 0:54:03.760 --> 0:54:05.719 Because yeah, he just wanted to watch TV. So now 0:54:05.800 --> 0:54:07.399 he has a game show about TV. 0:54:08.600 --> 0:54:11.200 House of Style nineteen eighty nine fashion show hosted by 0:54:11.200 --> 0:54:14.800 Cindy Crawford was huge as far as comedy goes. It 0:54:14.880 --> 0:54:20.680 turns out beyond remote control being very funny, they launched 0:54:20.920 --> 0:54:24.400 like they were sneakily. One of the great comedy incubators 0:54:24.440 --> 0:54:27.279 of the eighties. I feel like yeah and nineties, Yeah, yeah, 0:54:27.320 --> 0:54:30.040 into the nineties because The State the great To me, 0:54:30.280 --> 0:54:32.120 the best sketch show of all time was The State. 0:54:32.239 --> 0:54:35.000 Oh Yeah, from ninety four to ninety five on MTV. 0:54:36.360 --> 0:54:40.480 The Ben Stiller Show in nineteen ninety was amazing and 0:54:41.120 --> 0:54:42.480 very Underseen and Underrated? 0:54:42.600 --> 0:54:43.800 Did you watch that when it was on? 0:54:44.520 --> 0:54:44.680 Oh? 0:54:44.880 --> 0:54:45.800 Yeah, I did not. 0:54:46.600 --> 0:54:47.680 Yeah, I was into all of that. 0:54:48.120 --> 0:54:52.360 I went So that launched Jane Garoffalo, Bob Odenkirk, David Cross, 0:54:52.440 --> 0:54:56.080 Judd Apatow, Andy Dick for Better or Worse, Ben Stiller 0:54:56.120 --> 0:55:01.319 obviously because before that he was just Jerry Stiller's kid. Yeah, 0:55:01.440 --> 0:55:03.799 and this was where he introduced himself to the world. 0:55:03.960 --> 0:55:06.120 And we have Severance thanks to the show, So thanks 0:55:06.160 --> 0:55:10.279 a lot, MTV. But it also brought together Bob Odenkirk 0:55:10.280 --> 0:55:14.560 and David Cross, yeah, with Dinos Demettopoulos, who was also 0:55:14.640 --> 0:55:17.759 a writer on the show, with them, and they went 0:55:17.840 --> 0:55:19.080 on to make a mister Show. 0:55:19.760 --> 0:55:21.640 Now that actually might be my favorite sketch show. 0:55:21.920 --> 0:55:24.000 I think so too. But there I went back, so 0:55:24.040 --> 0:55:25.879 I was like, I haven't seen a second of this show, 0:55:26.280 --> 0:55:29.359 and I found a great sketch with Bob Odenkirk as 0:55:29.520 --> 0:55:33.719 Charles Manson. Yeah, yeah, but Charles Manson is Lassie. It's 0:55:33.760 --> 0:55:35.799 like a black and white parody of Lassie, but rather 0:55:35.880 --> 0:55:38.480 than Lassie the dog, it's Charles Manson who's like the 0:55:38.560 --> 0:55:41.959 family dog, but he's just saying crazy stuff. And Bob 0:55:42.040 --> 0:55:44.400 Ogenkirk does a perfect Charles Manson. 0:55:44.960 --> 0:55:48.040 It's so good and that's where Ben Siler started doing 0:55:48.080 --> 0:55:52.839 the Tom Cruise impressions. And yeah, such a good show, 0:55:54.200 --> 0:55:56.040 even though I wasn't into it, we have to talk 0:55:56.080 --> 0:55:57.000 about totally Polly. 0:55:57.160 --> 0:55:57.399 Sure. 0:55:58.040 --> 0:56:00.400 Polly's show ran for five year or so. It was 0:56:00.400 --> 0:56:03.640 actually a pretty big hit, The Oiz. Yeah, The Wiz 0:56:04.160 --> 0:56:06.520 and then one of my favorites, which got you know, 0:56:06.640 --> 0:56:09.040 NTB had such good programming for a while there with 0:56:09.160 --> 0:56:13.040 these other shows Liquid Television in nineteen ninety one, ten 0:56:13.160 --> 0:56:16.279 years at least before Adult Swim came on, you could 0:56:16.320 --> 0:56:19.480 be a kid that was watching this crazy, weird, experimental 0:56:19.520 --> 0:56:21.400 animation on television. 0:56:21.760 --> 0:56:24.840 Yeah, liquid television. Right, did you watch a Flux? 0:56:25.640 --> 0:56:27.520 I loved aon Flex. It was mind blowing. 0:56:27.640 --> 0:56:29.279 Yeah, if you've never seen am Flex, this is like 0:56:29.360 --> 0:56:31.719 a decade before Adult Swim came out. And this was 0:56:31.840 --> 0:56:33.839 not a time like there weren't such a thing as 0:56:33.920 --> 0:56:37.520 cartoons for adults. You had to basically watch heavy metal 0:56:37.920 --> 0:56:41.120 over and over again. Yeah, maybe Akira or something like that. 0:56:42.120 --> 0:56:47.080 This was like a cavalcade, a showcase of adult, weird, bizarre, 0:56:47.600 --> 0:56:50.799 hilarious cartoons. And it's actually where Beavis and butt Head 0:56:50.840 --> 0:56:53.840 got its start. Therefore, where Mike Judge got his start, 0:56:55.160 --> 0:56:57.680 A on Flex was super cool and in addition to 0:56:57.760 --> 0:56:59.920 just kind of launching some careers, it just laid the 0:57:00.080 --> 0:57:04.760 groundwork and showed that there's a huge appetite for people 0:57:04.880 --> 0:57:09.879 who are no longer in high school, who really love pot, 0:57:10.160 --> 0:57:13.919 maybe ascid a little bit and watch TV, are willing 0:57:14.000 --> 0:57:17.320 to stay up late to watch cartoons. This, this showed 0:57:17.360 --> 0:57:18.440 that they were out there. 0:57:19.160 --> 0:57:19.360 Yeah. 0:57:19.400 --> 0:57:23.240 I didn't know until today that the animated show Daria 0:57:23.520 --> 0:57:25.160 was a spin off of Beavis and butt Head, that 0:57:25.280 --> 0:57:27.920 Daria was a character briefly on that show until you 0:57:28.120 --> 0:57:28.720 pointed that out. 0:57:28.880 --> 0:57:31.280 Yeah, she was one of their classmates at high school. 0:57:31.800 --> 0:57:34.600 Yeah, so Daria was big. We can't, you know, we're 0:57:34.680 --> 0:57:36.520 running so long, we can't like dive into all these 0:57:36.600 --> 0:57:39.680 but we have to at least mention shows like Jackass 0:57:39.800 --> 0:57:44.120 and Cribs. Yeah, and then the birth of reality TV 0:57:44.800 --> 0:57:47.960 eventually with stuff like The Osbourne's and Jersey Shore and Punked. 0:57:48.680 --> 0:57:50.640 But it all got started in nineteen ninety two with 0:57:50.760 --> 0:57:55.240 the Real World, which I mean clearly. I mean, you know, 0:57:55.320 --> 0:57:58.080 there was the seventies PBS show and American Family, but 0:57:58.240 --> 0:58:02.920 as far as the teenagers watching stuff Reality TV. I 0:58:03.080 --> 0:58:05.000 feel like was birth with the real world. 0:58:05.240 --> 0:58:09.680 Yeah, and you can make a case. My hypothesis is 0:58:09.880 --> 0:58:13.840 that you could trace pretty much every problem that we 0:58:14.000 --> 0:58:17.240 have with the world today back to Reality TV, and 0:58:17.600 --> 0:58:20.160 ergo back to the real world. 0:58:21.160 --> 0:58:23.000 That show is really good for a while. I will 0:58:24.080 --> 0:58:28.160 I stand behind the real world. I don't remember what season. 0:58:28.200 --> 0:58:30.280 I feel like it really jumped the shark, but I 0:58:30.400 --> 0:58:31.880 know that there are a lot of people that say 0:58:32.000 --> 0:58:34.680 it was the year that they somebody got in the 0:58:34.680 --> 0:58:37.400 shower with somebody else and it became really just sort 0:58:37.400 --> 0:58:39.280 of like people were getting on there just because they 0:58:39.360 --> 0:58:42.120 knew they could be famous. But I feel like it 0:58:42.200 --> 0:58:45.040 had a more pure intent before that, as a kind 0:58:45.040 --> 0:58:46.520 of a weird social experiment. 0:58:46.760 --> 0:58:49.440 Yeah. No, it wasn't the show itself that was problematic. 0:58:49.560 --> 0:58:53.440 It was the foundation that it created, the legacy it created. 0:58:53.600 --> 0:58:54.200 Oh yeah, yeah. 0:58:54.200 --> 0:58:57.760 Because I mean, if you like reality TV, great, good 0:58:57.840 --> 0:58:59.600 on you. I'm glad that it's out there for you. 0:58:59.720 --> 0:59:05.560 But it wrecked TV until the streamers came along. Like, 0:59:05.680 --> 0:59:09.080 if you liked a written, scripted show, ts for you. 0:59:09.680 --> 0:59:13.080 Because everyone went all in on reality for years and 0:59:13.160 --> 0:59:16.040 years and years. You had to basically get a subscription 0:59:16.120 --> 0:59:19.200 to HBO to watch like a decent TV show for 0:59:19.320 --> 0:59:23.200 a long time because reality TV got so popular and 0:59:23.320 --> 0:59:24.960 it was so cheap to make. 0:59:25.880 --> 0:59:28.640 Yeah, for sure, I don't want people to get mad 0:59:28.760 --> 0:59:32.840 if we don't mention Carson Daily and TRL. This was 0:59:32.920 --> 0:59:35.600 in the sort of days where I was fading out 0:59:35.640 --> 0:59:39.400 of MTV, so I wasn't as into it. But Carson 0:59:39.480 --> 0:59:42.360 Daily did a fine job on Total Request Live. And 0:59:43.040 --> 0:59:45.040 I'm also a big fan of the great Dave Holmes, 0:59:45.080 --> 0:59:47.840 who's a really good dude in real life and does 0:59:47.920 --> 0:59:48.640 some great things. 0:59:48.680 --> 0:59:50.800 He says, was he on Total Request Live? 0:59:51.240 --> 0:59:53.200 Yeah, I don't know if he took over for Carson 0:59:53.280 --> 0:59:57.840 Daily or sort of pinch hitter or sometimes sometimes, but 0:59:58.080 --> 0:59:59.480 I know he was definitely one of the hosts. 1:00:00.720 --> 1:00:03.400 So a lot of people are like, what's this MTV 1:00:03.520 --> 1:00:05.640 you're talking about? And there's a good reason for that. 1:00:05.840 --> 1:00:09.560 And the reason why is because MTV just started to 1:00:10.120 --> 1:00:15.680 die a thousand deaths by new channels and networks coming on. 1:00:17.600 --> 1:00:17.880 Like that. 1:00:17.960 --> 1:00:19.880 It would made a big decision when it went to 1:00:20.240 --> 1:00:24.280 half hour shows or non music shows, even in part because, 1:00:25.000 --> 1:00:28.480 as was explained later, if you are watching MTV in 1:00:28.560 --> 1:00:32.440 its original form. You're like, you have no control whatsoever 1:00:32.600 --> 1:00:35.000 on what's going to come up next. And I remember 1:00:35.080 --> 1:00:38.160 doing this quite clearly. You'd be watching a perfectly good 1:00:38.280 --> 1:00:41.840 winger video and then all of a sudden comes, I 1:00:41.880 --> 1:00:44.000 don't know, some terrible video. I'm not going to call 1:00:44.040 --> 1:00:48.040 out anybody's favorite artists, and you would just immediately turn 1:00:48.120 --> 1:00:50.160 the channel because you knew you could turn back in 1:00:50.360 --> 1:00:53.800 three minutes and see what else was next. And they 1:00:53.960 --> 1:00:56.560 just got bled by that, and they found that half 1:00:56.640 --> 1:01:00.320 hour shows kept you in longer, and if those shows 1:01:00.360 --> 1:01:03.040 weren't made up of music videos but an actual narrative 1:01:03.120 --> 1:01:05.280 over the course of a half an hour, they lost 1:01:05.640 --> 1:01:08.040 less and less viewers. And so it just became sensible 1:01:08.120 --> 1:01:11.240 for them to get away from music. But fear not, 1:01:11.960 --> 1:01:14.680 because they said, if you still want music videos, don't worry, 1:01:14.920 --> 1:01:16.680 we will have you covered for the rest of your 1:01:16.720 --> 1:01:18.120 life with MTV two. 1:01:18.920 --> 1:01:22.240 That's right. MTV two launched in nineteen ninety six. It 1:01:22.360 --> 1:01:24.600 was like, Hey, it's just gonna be music videos. We 1:01:25.360 --> 1:01:30.200 Pinky swears. Less than ten years later, it was mostly 1:01:30.320 --> 1:01:35.280 reality shows and not music videos. YouTube really sealed the 1:01:35.320 --> 1:01:37.720 fate because you could just watch any music video ever 1:01:38.200 --> 1:01:41.320 by just typing it in your search bar on YouTube 1:01:41.960 --> 1:01:46.320 like don Style. Yeah, and yeah, I mean I watch 1:01:46.640 --> 1:01:48.320 music videos. There's still a show I can't remember what 1:01:48.320 --> 1:01:51.680 it's called that I see on Hulu that just runs 1:01:51.800 --> 1:01:53.880 music videos. So I'll put that on sometimes if I'm 1:01:53.920 --> 1:01:57.520 like folding laundry, hmm, okay, for nostalgia. It's kind of nice. 1:01:58.120 --> 1:02:01.600 If you go on MTV still around I believe MTV 1:02:01.720 --> 1:02:04.720 two is still around two, there is a ninety eight 1:02:04.920 --> 1:02:08.920 point seven five percent chance that you will find an 1:02:09.120 --> 1:02:14.240 episode of Ridiculousness playing. Yeah, it's been It carries MTV 1:02:14.360 --> 1:02:18.240 almost single handedly. It's a it's a show where they 1:02:18.360 --> 1:02:22.920 just basically put together hilarious clips. It's like it's like 1:02:24.040 --> 1:02:29.080 America's funniest home videos for nihilists and skateboarders basically, right, Yeah, 1:02:29.120 --> 1:02:30.720 and it's a good little show. You remember our friend 1:02:30.760 --> 1:02:35.240 Hampton Yaut who was in one of our variety shows. 1:02:35.000 --> 1:02:38.040 In LA That's the only reason I know about Ridiculousness. 1:02:38.120 --> 1:02:39.960 Yep, he was one of the writers on ridiculous This 1:02:40.080 --> 1:02:43.240 is a cute little show, but it has propped up 1:02:43.360 --> 1:02:47.240 MTV so much that it's been on for fourteen years. 1:02:47.320 --> 1:02:53.439 Since twenty eleven, yet somehow it is in season forty five. Wow, 1:02:54.080 --> 1:02:58.439 that's how many episodes they crank out to keep MTV going. 1:02:58.600 --> 1:03:00.640 So hats off to Rob dry Deck. 1:03:00.800 --> 1:03:02.320 It's the House Hunters of a TV. 1:03:02.600 --> 1:03:04.120 Yeah, essentially for sure. 1:03:04.840 --> 1:03:06.960 Well, before we leave, I do want to quickly kind 1:03:07.000 --> 1:03:10.680 of mention the MTV contests. If you were a kid 1:03:10.720 --> 1:03:14.160 in the eighties, they had these crazy, crazy contests that 1:03:14.240 --> 1:03:16.280 you could enter and they always seem to kind of 1:03:16.280 --> 1:03:18.120 want to one up the last as far as what 1:03:18.200 --> 1:03:20.360 they would do. Yeah, and they were I mean it 1:03:20.440 --> 1:03:23.880 was like, you know, you can win bon Jovi's childhood home, 1:03:25.080 --> 1:03:28.440 you can win a pink house from John Mellencamp or 1:03:28.520 --> 1:03:31.520 John Cougar at the time in his small town or whatever. 1:03:32.800 --> 1:03:35.919 But they were crazy. There was one very famous story 1:03:36.000 --> 1:03:39.480 of the party with Van Halen for two days, and 1:03:39.840 --> 1:03:41.880 this was in nineteen eighty four, and this I was 1:03:41.880 --> 1:03:43.440 about to say, poor guy, it's probably the best thing 1:03:43.480 --> 1:03:46.680 that ever happened to him. This guy named Kurt Jeffries 1:03:46.720 --> 1:03:50.480 has a legendary story of basically like they took it seriously. 1:03:50.520 --> 1:03:52.040 They weren't like, hey, let's just kind of get this 1:03:52.120 --> 1:03:54.880 kid in here and whatever. Signed something like they partied 1:03:54.920 --> 1:03:58.280 with them. They got him drunk and gave him cocaine 1:03:58.960 --> 1:04:02.080 and got a groupie to have sex with him in 1:04:02.120 --> 1:04:06.120 a bathroom, and like he did the whole rock star thing. 1:04:06.240 --> 1:04:09.640 Van Halen was very intent, Like apparently he woke up 1:04:09.680 --> 1:04:12.680 on day two and was like, I can't I've got 1:04:12.760 --> 1:04:15.200 to go home. And Alex van Halen was like shoving 1:04:15.240 --> 1:04:16.800 a beer in a space and was like, you've got 1:04:16.880 --> 1:04:17.640 to do this, dude. 1:04:17.720 --> 1:04:19.720 He said, you can't leave the spot until you drink 1:04:19.760 --> 1:04:23.960 that beer. And it was this it was a tall boy. Yeah. Yeah, 1:04:24.000 --> 1:04:25.880 I was gonna say, after you rattle all that off, 1:04:25.960 --> 1:04:27.120 that that was just day one. 1:04:28.080 --> 1:04:29.800 Yeah, that was day one. There was a day two 1:04:30.600 --> 1:04:31.040 and this was. 1:04:31.160 --> 1:04:34.080 This was a sponsored contest by MTV. 1:04:34.840 --> 1:04:36.560 Yeah, there's no way you could do that so these 1:04:36.640 --> 1:04:39.120 days obviously, but they had a bunch of those, like, 1:04:39.240 --> 1:04:40.720 you know, party with the band. I know that the 1:04:40.880 --> 1:04:44.560 police had a sort of a disaster of a contest 1:04:44.560 --> 1:04:46.240 where they were supposed to fly on their private jet 1:04:46.320 --> 1:04:49.120 with the band, and I think that went all pear shaped. 1:04:50.000 --> 1:04:53.960 I remember very clearly Madonna had a contest that you 1:04:54.080 --> 1:04:56.720 at home could make the video for True Blue, and 1:04:56.800 --> 1:05:00.640 I just remember seeing like bad homemade video after a 1:05:00.640 --> 1:05:02.760 bad homemade video of True Blue, over and over and 1:05:02.880 --> 1:05:07.560 over again, just so I could vote via phone. Yeah, 1:05:07.720 --> 1:05:09.320 the contests, those are a lot of fun. There are 1:05:09.360 --> 1:05:11.440 a lot more kind of fun ones. There's a kind 1:05:11.440 --> 1:05:14.360 of a cool page six article that covers some of 1:05:14.400 --> 1:05:15.680 the wackier contests they had. 1:05:15.800 --> 1:05:17.680 Yeah, this is definitely worth three And thanks for sending 1:05:17.800 --> 1:05:21.520 that to me. Oh, chuck, you got anything else? 1:05:22.560 --> 1:05:24.960 No, I mean we missed a ton, So it's just 1:05:25.040 --> 1:05:26.680 kind of one of those episodes you tried to stuff 1:05:26.680 --> 1:05:27.640 as much as we could in here. 1:05:27.840 --> 1:05:30.439 Yep, and keep an ero for VH one, which should 1:05:30.480 --> 1:05:32.840 be following this one right after right. 1:05:33.960 --> 1:05:36.320 Yeah, I said we skip listener mail even it's been 1:05:36.360 --> 1:05:38.960 so long, and just say go with God, go watch 1:05:39.040 --> 1:05:39.760 some music videos. 1:05:39.840 --> 1:05:43.640 Yeah, everybody's tired. Tick the day off, everybody exactly. If 1:05:43.680 --> 1:05:45.880 you want to send us an email, you can send 1:05:45.920 --> 1:05:52.600 it off to Stuff podcast at iHeartRadio dot com. Stuff 1:05:52.640 --> 1:05:54.600 you Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. 1:05:55.120 --> 1:05:58.280 For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, 1:05:58.480 --> 1:06:01.360 Apple Podcasts, or wherevery you listen to your favorite shows. 1:06:07.600 --> 1:06:07.640 M