MTV | Geekscape

Geekscape 455: Matt Pinfield Curates The Insane And Improbable For Us!

by JonathanOctober 2, 2017

As a teenager I would watch Matt Pinfield on MTV’s ‘120 Minutes’ every week as he introduced me to new rock, metal and alternative bands. It was one of the highlights of the week and opened me up to so much of the music I listen to today! Now, fast forward to today and Matt shares a studio with me at Westwood One, where I record Geekscape every week! Now Matt and I share the studio at the SAME TIME as we talk rock history, rock’s influence on comic books (and vice versa), Matt’s amazing career in music and the music you should be listening to right now. Beyond have an encyclopedic knowledge of music, Matt is also one of the nicest people I’ve ever had on the show with some amazing stories to boot! Enjoy!

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MTV Debuts The Full Trailer For ‘Scream’s Second Season!

by Derek KraneveldtMay 3, 2016

Briefly: I still haven’t quite finished the first season of MTV’s Scream series, but I’m damned excited that we’re about to see a second season.

MTV has just debuted the official trailer for the upcoming episodes, which I’m definitely avoiding for spoiler purposes.

This season “picks up with Emma’s (Willa Fitzgerald) return to Lakewood after several months at a retreat, where she tried to recover from the horrors of last season. Everyone is walking on eggshells around her, questioning whether she has truly gotten over the Killer’s crimes. Meanwhile, Audrey (Bex Taylor-Klaus) is hiding her connection to the Killer, but is getting harassed by someone who knows the truth.

Brooke (Carlson Young) and Jake (Tom Maden) are also keeping secrets—they are hiding a budding romance from Mayor Maddox (Bryan Batt). And, Noah (John Karna) is getting closer and closer to the truth about the season 1 murders. Lakewood’s murderous past, both recent and distant, are once again brought to focus – with this Killer’s psychotic mind-game intent on bringing Lakewood’s heroes down in a storm of betrayal and bloodshed.”

In any case, you can take a look at the trailer below, and be sure to let us know what you hope to see in Scream‘s second season!

Geekscape 398: Camping Out With ‘Gravity Falls’ Composer Brad Breeck!

by JonathanFebruary 9, 2016

Brad Breeck is a musician and composer with some of our favorite TV credits, including Disney shows ‘Gravity Falls’, ‘Star vs The Forces of Evil’, Nickelodeon’s ‘Fanboy and Chumchum’ and MTV’s ‘Awkward’! He drops by to talk about how he got his start in TV composing and where he gets his inspiration… and maybe why it’s not always a plus to be first in school! I also profess my love for MTV’s ‘The Shannara Chronicles’ and we try and give Brad the perfect nickname! Enjoy!

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Geekscape Reviews: ‘The Shannara Chronicles’

by Gabriel von GrünbaumJanuary 5, 2016

Holy cow—I couldn’t wait, so I’ve started writing this as I’m reviewing this first batch of The Shannara Chronicles episodes to say—you need to be watching this show. January 5th at 10pm (9pm Central) on MTV, you need to be watching The Shannara Chronicles. If you consider yourself at all a fan of fantasy, this is absolutely the show you’ve been waiting for. It has incredible production value that stands up in this post Star Wars: The Force Awakens, The Hunger Games and Game of Thrones world, extremely cinematic and marvelously impressive for television. Writing, directing and acting are all as equally impressive as the art direction and costume design. In fact, my biggest complaint at this point is that there’s a character whose name sounds like “Al-Anon”—I keep wondering how his meetings are going.

The first time I got to see footage of what they were creating for the show, I literally had to take it—not with a grain of salt—with a boulder of salt. It couldn’t actually look that good, I thought. If it looks that good, the story’s probably terrible, I thought. If the story’s good too, the casting is probably awful, I thought. There had to be a shoe that was going to drop some where. . . So far I’ve yet to see any dropping shoes anywhere.

It’s thousands and thousands of years in the future, like way after Skynet. There are post-apocalyptic dystopian visions like The Hunger Games—this is after that, way after that. The reset button on the world, having long since been pressed, this then is the re-emergence of civilization (with magic!) on Earth. Over the millennia, humans have evolved along different paths becoming elves, gnomes, trolls and so on—oddly, animals like horses and dogs are still just horses and dogs, and relatives like aunts and uncles are occasionally murdered by demons.

Like any fantasy, we pick up right when a great evil is about to be unleashed on the land. Of course, any hope for the future rides on the destinies of certain “chosen ones” that begin their Hero’s Journey by turning it down. Pretty boilerplate—these are the staple elements common to fantasy (and most other stories), so there really are no new concepts in play. Although, the idea that it’s taking place far into the future feels new and is fun to chew on. What really works very well through these first episodes is the fresh telling through interesting and well-constructed characters. Characters that began as interesting creations on the page and continued into some solid performances in cool costumes. And, lest we forget it’s MTV (even as the network is in the midst of redefining itself, again-again), everyone is adorable and/or gorgeous and/or rugged and worthy of being stared at a lot. It’s those characters that are making the show engaging and fun and absolutely worth carving out couch-time for—and the special effects, really good special effects for television. Then there’s the sexy romance angles, the action-packed adventure elements, gorgeously stunning settings and locations. . .

That is to say that I could give you details about the druid warrior with glowing scars, the bleeding tree that locks demons in its leaves or the fun that comes with recognizing some of the ruins of our world in the distant backgrounds and establishing shots—but experiencing all of that and so much more, first-hand, is the real magic and pleasure of watching the show. The plot points are nothing to write home about; it’s the journey getting to those points. I don’t think this is the show that’s going to hook you because you’ll be wondering who gets killed next week and what other shocking secrets will be revealed—I think this is the show that will hook you because in the back of your mind, you’ll kinda sorta believe in magic again for an hour each week. That and the cast is very stare-at-able, as I mentioned before—meaning you can look at them for a long time and your eyes won’t hate you for it.

Judging by these first several episodes, this may literally be the television fantasy adventure I’ve been waiting for since. . . ever. If Hercules and Xena were never really up to snuff for you—if Legend of the Seeker was almost everything you were looking for—The Shannara Chronicles may just be what you’ve been hoping for too.

Here’s some more video to tide you over until it starts:

MTV’s ‘Scream’ Renewed For A Second Season

by Derek KraneveldtJuly 29, 2015

Briefly: Well, it’s not Teen Mom, but MTV’s found another hit in its Scream television series.

In response to the show’s impressive ratings, the network has renewed the series for a second season.

The official tagline for the series is “Everyone has secrets. Everyone tells lies. Everyone is fair game,” and I have to say that, even though I don’t really remember Scream (I was a young boy when the first film released), I’m intrigued by the self-aware musings of the series.

MTV EVP Mina Lefevre notes that “W] are thrilled by how our viewers have responded to the reinvention of Scream. We look forward to another season filled with suspense, horror and more twists and turns.”

Have you been watching the series so far? How does it hold up to the films? Sound out below!

SDCC 2015: ‘The Shannara Chronicles’ Is Set To Rock MTV

by Gabriel von GrünbaumJuly 19, 2015

“It seemed impossible. But then, most wonderful things did until someone accomplished them.”

— Bek Ohmsford (The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara: Morgawr)

And so it goes with MTV bringing The Shannara Chronicles to cable television in January 2016! It’s a rich and ambitious production that knows it’s entering a post-Game of Thrones TV landscape where expectations are higher than ever for television to rival the production values of films with big budgets. Additionally, keeping with the Game of Thrones comparison, there is a rich tapestry of 25 books and counting from author Terry Brooks’ various series set in the world of Shannara—a post-post-apocalyptic fantasy realm set in the far distant future where magic has resurfaced.

Let’s kick things off with a gander at the Official First Look trailer screened at Comic-Con this year:

Clearly, you’re stoked. I can tell because I’m stoked too. Before we get too far however, it seems that most of us have been pronouncing Shannara wrong all this time—Terry Brooks explains:

This is a case of, “You made your bed, now lie in it.” For years I have insisted readers should pronounce the title in a way that feels natural to them. I have avoided glossaries, insisted majority rules, and watched the larger number of readers pronounce the word SHA-NAR-UH. So when I brought this up in a meeting with the writers, they simply said, “Well, everyone says it SHA-NAR-UH. So we will, too.” End of discussion.

SHANE-AIR-AH? SHAN-ERA? SHH-ANAR-A? Guess we won’t ever know what he actually has in mind unless we’re able to track him down at an official reading or convention.

Sticking with a focus on the show here, if they pull it off well, it’s set to help fill an epic void on television right now that only the afore mentioned Thrones is currently servicing. Before that was Legend of the Seeker, remember that one? For all it’s shortcomings and rough edges, Seeker was the only thing available on television to scratch a very specific itch. Upon its cancellation that fantasy-void felt deeper and darker than ever—until Thrones came along. Holy moly, did it ever come along—with a bang. . . or a chop, or a stab, or a naked. . . Anyway, nothing against Thrones being just what it is—I’m a big fan—but I could use a little more fantasy entertainment with a little more magic to really scratch that itch good. I’m happy to say it’s looking like The Shannara Chronicles is poised to do just that.

Couple quick thoughts on MTV itself: Does no one there remember what the M stands for in MTV? Guess it’s kicking a dead horse to say it’s not “music television” anymore—only bemoaned by those who were alive before 2000 but it still feels like it bears mentioning.

“Between this and Teen Wolf, I guess MTV now stands for ‘Magical Television’!”

—Jonathan London, The Original Geekscapist

Along those lines, one request of the network: Squeezing the latest pop songs into Teen Wolf works fine but please don’t do that for this fantasy set show devoid of Auto-Tune, nightclubs and Coachella. Maybe feature some funky classical-type groups, chamber ensembles or really out there orchestras if you wanna do some music tie-ins. I don’t know—what do you guys think?

Wait!—someone get MTV on the line. Maybe these insane freaks are available:

Here’s A New Trailer For The ‘Scream’ TV Series

by Derek KraneveldtJune 9, 2015

Briefly: Yep, a Scream TV series is incoming, and it launches on June 30th. The show looks cheesy-as-hell in classic Scream fashion, which could be exactly what television needs right now, amidst all of the gritty, dark, depressing series that are so prominent today.

Take a look at the new trailer below, and let us know if you’ll be watching when Scream releases on June 30th!

What starts as a YouTube video going viral, soon leads to problems for the teenagers of Lakewood and serves as the catalyst for a murder that opens up a window to the town’s troubled past.

The ‘Scream’ TV Series Launches On June 30th, Watch The First Trailer!

by Derek KraneveldtApril 13, 2015

Briefly: I had no idea that this existed, and if it weren’t for the iPhones in this first trailer, I’d likely have mistaken it for something from the 1990’s.

Yep, a Scream TV series is incoming, and it launches on June 30th. The show looks cheesy-as-hell in classic Scream fashion, which could be exactly what television needs right now, amidst all of the gritty, dark, depressing series that are so prominent today.

Take a look at the trailer below, and let us know if you’ll be watching when Scream releases on June 30th!

Retroactive Thinking: Nirvana Recorded MTV Unplugged 20 Years Ago Today

by DJAJSantiniNovember 18, 2013

“Good evening. This is off our first record. Most people don’t own it.”

This is how Kurt Cobain introduced “About a Girl,” the perfect opening song on a night when Nirvana’s music was actually going to be taken seriously.

MTV Unplugged was realized years earlier when Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora performed “Wanted Dead or Alive” on the MTV Video Music Awards acoustically. The first ever episode featured Squeeze, Syd Straw and Elliot Easton. Before Nirvana, some acts like Mariah Carey (memorable for her cover of The Jackson 5’s “I’ll Be There), Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton (the debut of “Tears In Heaven”) and Pearl Jam (Eddie Vedder writing Pro-Choice on his arm during the acoustic rendition of “Porch”) all had notable appearances.

Nirvana was a different monster. This was a band that was known for being loud. After all, they had just released their third studio album, “In Utero,” with hardcore producer Steve Albini; a man known for his blatant dislike of mainstream music and a musician in his own right with Chicago noise-makers Big Black. Even Krist Novocelic, bassist, was concerned that it wasn’t truly “unplugged” since the acoustic instruments were plugged in.

But Kurt had a sound in mind that was far different from what people were used to. He even spent much of rehearsals yelling at drummer Dave Grohl (known as one of the heaviest hitters behind a kit) to play quieter. Dave almost gave up until a producer gave him a pair of Pro-Mark Hot Rod drum sticks, which are made from bundles of wood. “We ran through a song and Kurt’s face lit up. Those sticks saved the entire show,” he recalled.

This show also introduced many people to the final piece of Nirvana’s line-up: guitarist Pat Smear. Pat was previously in the L.A. punk outfit Germs (whose singer, Darby Crash, was also a heroin addict who committed suicide from an intentional overdose – for more on them, see the film “What We Do Is Secret”). Kurt had said he always pictured Nirvana as a four-piece and on this night it was serenely obvious why.

Other musicians also joined in on the iconic set, such as cellist Lori Goldston and the “Brothers Meat” as they were called, Thing 1 and Thing 2, Cris and Curt Kirkwood of the Meat Puppets. This brings up a great point that I always point out about punk, especially Nirvana, when people don’t understand why it matters. In the world of music, anyone can become famous at any time. Sometimes it’s talent, sometimes it’s knowing the right people, sometimes it’s being in a particular city or getting on the right soundtrack… but what you do when you get that attention matters. Bands like Green Day, who took The Queers on tour, Offspring, who wore a Germs shirt in their “Self Esteem” video, or Nirvana, who played three Meat Puppets songs mid-set, were constantly promoting the bands they grew up with, were contemporaries of, or who weren’t getting the deserved attention. I didn’t buy a Buzzcocks album because some radio station played them, I checked them out because Dave Grohl wore their t-shirt on MTV. I bought a Vaselines record because Nirvana covered “Jesus Doesn’t Want Me For a Sunbeam” on Unplugged and “Molly’s Lips” and “Son of a Gun” on Incesticide. This is the proper use of the spotlight.

Maybe this is why the Unplugged album, when it was finally released in 1994, was certified 5x platinum. Maybe it was Cobain’s death, but while he was alive, he made a genuine decision to dig deep into not only his own band’s catalogue, but also his inspirations. Covering David Bowie, little known Scottish duo The Vaselines and blues legend Leadbelly proved to be just what alternative music needed at the height of its popularity: a little context. Just because Nirvana knocked Michael Jackson out of the top spot on the Bilboard charts and, arguably, put the nail in the coffin of hair metal (a genre so ridiculously meta, not metal), this didn’t necessarily grant them longevity and historical deity-like stature. They did that themselves with this show. They opened with their most Beatle-esque tune off an album of rainy, heroin soaked sludge and ended with an Appalachian song doused in pain, emotional release and guttural regret (previously done by people like The Louvin Brothers, another tragic musical act) that no one asked for, but no one who heard it forgot. Especially Kurt’s weight-of-the-world-on-his-shoulders exhale right at the end.

The band didn’t go out and play their most well-known tracks like they were recording a live greatest hits at Madison Square Garden. They took the time to put together a setlist that quietly screamed at people: “Give up on Smells Like Teen Spirit. That’s a Pixies rip-off. This is what we’re capable of and where we may be going.” They’d already gotten as loud and noisy as possible on record and still held an adoring fan base that grew only by the day. Kurt had always admired the Beatles anyway. This is why they never fit the “grunge mold,” and why that was a stupid label to begin with. Kurt wrote pop songs. You could hear it on Unplugged. I’ve always held to the belief that if a song can’t be played on an acoustic guitar or a piano, it isn’t a song. It’s just noise. Which is fine. But a song has a melody, at the very least – at its base. And Nirvana had melodies. Sure, they had quaking ducks and walls of feedback thrown into songs like “Drain You,” but those songs have memorable choruses, a pulsing beat and dynamic changes.

So, why talk about Nirvana “MTV Unplugged in New York”? Why does the 20th Anniversary of some TV special marketed into an album because of an untimely death still matter some two decades later?

“Consider the lillies…” I want to say that Kurt was able to sing his own eulogy here, with the stage decorations, the lighting, the mood… the initial hesitance he exhibited by claiming most people didn’t own the first record by the biggest band in the world at the moment… and the raw, naked way his voice cried out by the end.

“Am I gonna do this by myself?” Maybe it was the inner turmoil that poked its ugly head into some of the onstage banter (or maybe I’m reading into it based on hindsight and post-death interviews) that make me believe that maybe this was the end anyway. Maybe this would have been their last televised appearance regardless. Maybe this was goodbye.

“What else should I be?” Maybe this is just all we have of a musician we put all our hopes into when he was here. Maybe we’ve blown Nirvana’s importance out of proportion. Considering Nirvana’s music is now over twenty years old, shouldn’t they be on radio stations next to Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones instead of trying to still get away with programming them along side Lorde and Florence + the Machine and Mumford and Sons, and what passes for “alternative” today? There are about two generations of musical consumers who were born after Kurt left us and many of them say: “Ugh. Enough with Nirvana. They’re so overrated.” And you know what. Kurt would be fucking proud of them. He hated it when kids listened to the same music as their parents. So, while this album is nostalgically great for 30-40 year olds who liked Nirvana – if you’re under 30, go listen to some new bands. Support your own generation. Support your friends playing down the street in a firehall. Start your own fucking band. Start your own blog or label or YouTube page or Soundcloud account. That’s what we should be taking away from this. ANYONE can change the world. You just have to find your voice. So start screaming.

Nirvana said it best in this interview:

Watch the whole Unplugged performance here

I Want MyTV – The Top 10 Things MTV Gave Us That Have NOTHING To Do With Music

by DJAJSantiniAugust 5, 2013

“Why doesn’t MTV play music videos anymore?” is the battle cry for a few generations whose adolescence occurred as a precursor to Y2K, September 11th, and the boy band resurgences of ’99 and ‘012, respectively. But rather than jump on the whiny bitch-wagon and yearn for the simpler times of day-glo, skinny ties and songs with drum machines (wait a minute…), let’s look at what exactly MTV has accomplished and influenced in our culture while completely ignoring the meaning of the “M” in their station’s moniker (for better or worse…):

10. House of Style

I didn’t care about fashion. I don’t know that anyone I was acquainted with did. But everyone I know watched “House of Style.” Why? Cindy Crawford. Cindy embodied the corn-fed, All-American female from her almost-Brick House measurements, to her playful attitude, up to her trademark beauty mark. While Daisy Fuentes, Rebecca Romijn and Molly Sims were all suitable replacements, House of Style was all about Cindy (and sometimes Pat Smear, guitarist of the Germs, Nirvana and Foo Fighters). My cousin even bought her workout video and brought it over one late night to watch it with me. Being an idiot, I thought we were supposed to actually do the exercises she was instructing, until I looked back mid-leg lift and saw his hand in his… Well, that’s for my therapist. Denis Leary sums up the programming shift from 24/7 music videos to original programming better than I can:

9. MTV Sports

I’m convinced there’d be no X Games without this show. While the extreme sports market was already in place in certain areas of the country (probably mainly So-Cal), MTV Sports really brought it into the living rooms of people who normally would be stuck with football, baseball and basketball as their only three options for physical activity. MTV Sports, hosted by Dan Cortese, really embodied the alternative spirit (eventually even using the Descendents’ “Coffee Mug” as their theme) for active adolescents who couldn’t give two fly balls about traditional organized sport. Two words: Freestyle. Frisbee.

8. The State

Sketch comedy wasn’t new in 1993, but “The State”’s style of comedy was. From satire to absurdism, Nazi war criminals to Nancy Spungen, the show remains funny to this day, unlike many sketch comedy shows like “In Living Color” and “Saturday Night Live,” where most of the material becomes dated after just a few months. Without this show, there would have been no “Reno 911!,” no “Wet Hot American Summer,” no “Night at the Museums”, and no one to yell “GIVE IT ALL YOU GOT!” in a crackly voice in “I Love You, Man.” Now, I have to go dip my balls in something…

7. Remote Control

This was MTV’s first original program. A game show hosted by Ken Ober that put people like Colin Quinn, Adam Sandler and Denis Leary in our faces every week. It was basically Jeopardy! for couch potatoes and slackers, but with categories like Six Feet Under, Boy Were They Stupid and Celebrity Flesh it was perfect for the demographic.

6. Jackass

Skateboarding. That’s the major theme to how two groups of people from opposite ends of the country got together to make a show that not only sped up Darwinian natural selection across the country, it also made huge stars out of Johnny Knoxville, Chris Pontius, Wee-Man and Bam Margera (plus his entire family and most of my hometown of West Chester, PA). While the CKY videos Bam and friends were doing were all the rage with the skaters in my little neck of the woods, it wasn’t until I saw these guys flying in shopping carts across the parking lots on national television that I sat back and went, “This is gonna be huge.” And it was. Two years on TV, three movies and quite a few Bam spin-offs later, these skaters-turned-superstars were cultural icons and movie stars. R.I.P. Ryan Dunn.

5. Choose or Lose

The youth were mostly ignored in politics. Maybe we couldn’t vote this time around, but MTV understood that it’s never too early to get involved. The Choose or Lose campaign was aimed at getting young people interested and age-appropriate people registered. But what endeared President William Jefferson Clinton to an entire generation (and what kept people on his side through most of his mishaps with mistresses) was his appearances on MTV. Whether he was playing the saxophone, meeting with Pearl Jam or answering questions about his underwear preferences, he ushered in a whole new era of young people being politically active that hadn’t necessarily been the case for a few decades. The Vietnam War, Watergate, Reagan’s “Morning in America” nostalgia and the first Iraq war made generations of citizens feel isolated, apathetic and disgusted with our system. Putting candidates on MTV changed the face of politics in a way that hadn’t occurred since JFK debated Nixon on live television.

4. True Life: I Have a Summer Share

Literally the precursor to “Jersey Shore,” this installment of MTV’s “True Life” series showed a group of North Jersey cheeseballs (you are what you eat…) clubbing, drinking, fighting and actually looking for love in Seaside Heights. This was more genuine than the later manufactured “Jersey Shore,” (which, we can have a whole debate about another time), and it showed a lifestyle that was very appealing. This one episode is responsible for ushering in the EDM revival in music, the stock prices of creatine and hair gel rising over the past few years and one of the greatest YouTube videos of all-time, “My New Haircut”.

3. MTV Films

While they started off terribly with a feature length film based on the quirky promo shorts “Joe’s Apartment,” MTV films really hit a few out of the park. “Beavis and Butt-head Do America” is obvious, but “Varsity Blues,” “Election,” “Save the Last Dance,” “Napoleon Dynamite,” “Blades of Glory” and the Jackass films were definitely highlights. While none of these are Oscar-worthy revelations into the majestic art of cinema, they are perfect extensions of the MTV brand: entertainment for a certain-aged demographic. Dawson yelling “I don’t want your life” at his father is just the next generation’s “What do you wanna do with your life?” “I WANNA ROCK!” And they’re both perfect. (Also, have to mention MTV Books here, without which, who knows if we’d have the coming-of-age classic “The Perks of Being a Wallflower”?)

2. Beavis and Butt-head

While they did spend an inordinate amount of time making fun of the very videos that MTV used to get famous (isn’t it ironic, don’t you think?), Beavis and Butt-head broke new ground in animation, programming and influence. Remember that kid who dropped the bowling ball off the overpass? What about the people who actually went couch fishing? The entire controversy over “Fire!”? I’m sure a few people actually played frog baseball. There would very possibly be no South Park, Family Guy, Jackass, Daria, King of the Hill, Office Space, Idiocracy or Clone High had it not been for the success of Beavis and Butt-head. It was originally a sketch for Liquid Television, an MTV animated show that also launched Aeon Flux, and blew up from there. Thank you, drive thru.

1. The Real World

Chuck Klosterman already wrote an entire diatribe on why “The Real World” was so engrossing in “Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs” (which will be turning 10 this year), so all I’m going to say is – reality TV would very possibly not exist had this show not worked. The spin-offs (Road Rules, Real World vs. Road Rules challenge) and every single reality program on MTV and every network and cable channel imaginable became must-see-TV. We wouldn’t have rich housewives, moonshiners and honey boo boos turning into overnight celebrities without the success of this franchise. The confessional was coined here where the participants would talk into the camera and narrate their own lives. You didn’t need writers, you didn’t need a plot, you didn’t need actors, you didn’t need to pay anyone but camera people, editors and a landlord who owned the building and you had a hit TV show that voyeuristic gen-Xers could not stop watching ad nauseum (especially on marathon weekends). It was simply a revenue machine. “That could be me” was all it took to make the screenwriter’s guild almost a non-entity in telelvision. It’s responsible for YouTube and Instagram and Vine. It is the precursor to the entire way we now live. For better or worse…

A.J. Santini has been an audiophile since pre-natal care. Having 15+ years DJ experience, a brief stint in terrestrial radio and an extensively diverse collection of books, vinyl, cassettes, VHSs CDs, DVDs and MP3s (plus one Led Zeppelin 8-track) qualifies him to rant nonsensically and wax poetically about popular culture. He also hosts QUIZZO trivia nights to feel superior to the masses of the population. Check out some of his DJ mixes.

Retroactive Thinking: ‘Beavis & Butthead’ Turns 20 Today

by SaintmortMarch 7, 2013

I remember kids in my elementary school who weren’t allowed to watch The Simpsons; people just couldn’t help but find Bart Simpson’s rebellious attitude too much for young children to handle. I’m pretty sure those same parents lost their shit on March 8, 1993 when Mike Judge’s Beavis and Butthead hit the airwaves.

MTV’s gruesome twosome spawned from an animated short Judge crafted in 1992. MTV immediately signed him to create a TV series which would depict our beloved braindead menaces to society as MTV’s key demographic.

The show was composed of short animated films involving our favorite dangers to everyone (including themselves) intercut with clips of them watching MTV and mocking music videos. When I was a kid, I recall only caring about the music videos, as I found the animated shorts rather stupid and repetitive. Now at 27, I think that they are an achievement of comedic gold that to this day are painfully underrated.

MTV’s decision to air the show was clearly a smart one, as it’s likely one of the most defining aspects of the station in the 1990’s. While the 80’s were very music video heavy, Beavis and Butthead kicked off the new direction of the station. In the early 1990’s there were shows like Idiot Box and Liquid Television, but Beavis and Butthead (along with The State and The Real World) really exploded the station into the realm of programmed, story driven shows and full 30 minute blocks of time not dedicated to music videos.

Beavis and Butthead spawned a widely profitable feature film as well as a spin-off series (Daria), and multiple video games. However, while finically successful, with it came much controversy; the franchise was blamed for fires, animal cruelty, and various cases of property damage. Most of these accusations were cleverly mocked by the writers in future episodes. The most popular incident was in an episode called Lightning Strikes; after watching a documentary on Ben Franklin, the two decide to fly a kite during a thunderstorm. Their reckless behaviour then draws media attention that immediately blames Beavis and Butthead’s actions on the influence of Howard Stern and Rock Music.

The music video segments are still some of the biggest highlights in the show’s history. For whatever reason, these otherwise idiotic characters have strangely brilliant observations when it comes to critiquing music videos. At one point commenting “It’s like in all these videos now – they just get a couple of weird dudes, shake the camera and just do a bunch of crap” (this was while watching Archers of Loaf’s Web in Front). One of my favorite lines in the entire series came from a segment critiquing Metallica’s For Whom the Bell Tolls, simply stating “Sit your ass down Lars and play the drums like your supposed to”. I’m fairly confident the plenty of other Metallica fans were saying similar things in 2000.

After 5 years of lambasting music videos, a wrap sheet of controversy, and a feature length film, they ended their run with their 200th episode, ‘Beavis and Butthead are Dead’ on November 28th 1997. Since the series, Mike Judge has enjoyed a successful career writing King of the Hill and directing three box offices bombs that all became cult classics on home video. Last year the series came back to its home and the duo got right to work, this time destroying UFC fights, Jersey Shore and amateur YouTube videos. I know I’m more than happy to welcome these two lovable idiots back to the airwaves!

Geekscape 267: Sifl and Olly Creator Liam Lynch!

by JonathanSeptember 11, 2012

Sifl and Olly creator Liam Lynch sits down with me to talk about the return of Sifl and Olly, this time reviewing made up videogames on Machinima! Liam discusses making up fake games to parody, what real games he’s playing and how it feels to bring Sifl and Olly back after 8 years! We also talk about Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny, what other projects he has swimming around Hollywood and just how awesome of a game Red Dead Redemption is! Plus a ton more!

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 39:03 — 23.5MB)