MTV programs, past and present: POV (Best and Worst)

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5 best ever, 5 worst ever, from 1981 until 2005

Expand it to 10 if you want, but I just figured 5 would be easier. (or condense it to 3, whatever). Shows that specialized in videos such as Yo! MTV Raps or 120 Minutes are acceptable.

Those programs shown on MTV that were taken from other channels count as well (such as My So Called Life, Speed Racer, Life As We Know It, The Monkees, and I can't think of any others, but there's plenty).

― billstevejim (billstevejim), Monday, 20 June 2005 22:56 (twenty years ago)

Yo! MTV Raps
120 Minutes
Beavis and Butthead
Liquid TV

everything else has pretty much sucked donkey balls, honestly.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 20 June 2005 23:06 (twenty years ago)

I used to love The Maxx.

― Melissa W (Melissa W), Monday, 20 June 2005 23:12 (twenty years ago)

"The Idiot Box"

Alex Winter's sketch show. ran for one summer, with a few vids played here & there. Excellent.

Liquid TV
120 Minutes (only a coupla years worth)
Beavis & Butthead
Pirate TV (on sunday night's)
You Wrote it, You Watch It(with Jon Stewart!) / The State

― kingfish (Kingfish), Monday, 20 June 2005 23:15 (twenty years ago)

I'm into comedy. "Beavis and Butt-head," "Sifl and Olly." And "Yo! MTV Raps" was really, really fun.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Monday, 20 June 2005 23:16 (twenty years ago)

best
Yo MTV Raps
Remote Control
Sifl and Olly
My So Called Life
Wonder Showzen or Spiderman

worst
Beavis and Butthead(didn't get it, didn't like what there was to get, sucky videos, etc.)
all the metal shows
Cribs, assorted other bullshit

― tremendoid (tremendoid), Monday, 20 June 2005 23:16 (twenty years ago)

my so called life was an mtv show??

― oops (Oops), Monday, 20 June 2005 23:19 (twenty years ago)

Wonder Showzen yeah definitely. that shit is unbelievable. Also, the recent Ego Trip shows...

― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 20 June 2005 23:23 (twenty years ago)

i enjoyed daria, my so-called life, 12 angry viewers, and the various real world/road rules challenges because i love trashy tv... oh and viva la bam because i think its hilarious.

― t0dd swiss (immobilisme), Monday, 20 June 2005 23:24 (twenty years ago)

Best:
Idiot Savants
Squirt TV
Buzzkill
Wild Boyz
Superrock
Odd World
Dimissed
Next
You Wrote It, You Watch It
Totally Pauly
The State
The Grind

Worst:
Lip Service
Date My Mom
Say What? Karaoke
Lyricist Lounge Show
Pimp My Ride
Punk'd
... and many more (for both columns)

― San Carlos, Monday, 20 June 2005 23:27 (twenty years ago)

"Bands on the Run" was probably the only good reality show idea they've had since the initial "Real World", surprised no one's nominated it yet...

― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 20 June 2005 23:28 (twenty years ago)

er, wait - that was VH-1 wasn't it...

― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 20 June 2005 23:28 (twenty years ago)

xpost I meant Oddities, not Odd World

― San Carlos, Monday, 20 June 2005 23:29 (twenty years ago)

Where's the love for Making the Band 2?

― Actor Sizemore fails drug test with fake penis (jingleberries), Monday, 20 June 2005 23:29 (twenty years ago)

Oh, and Apartment 2F sucked, too.

― San Carlos, Monday, 20 June 2005 23:31 (twenty years ago)

xpost I meant Oddities, not Odd World

Oh, I thought you meant Oddville, which is probably my 2nd favorite MTV show ever. Absolutely genius.

Some of these need descriptions. What the hell is Date My Mom??

― billstevejim (billstevejim), Monday, 20 June 2005 23:31 (twenty years ago)

I did mean Oddville! That's right...

Date My Mom is a new(er) show where dudes looking for potential dates have to go on a date with the girl's mom to gain approval, etc.

― San Carlos, Monday, 20 June 2005 23:33 (twenty years ago)

yeah Oddville was excellent

― tremendoid (tremendoid), Monday, 20 June 2005 23:33 (twenty years ago)

best:
austin stories
beavis
downtown
jackass

worst
trl
cribs
that guy with the calf implants
the one where they look for jizz on the person's sheets and look at their trophies and stuff

― ronny longjohns (ronny longjohns), Monday, 20 June 2005 23:34 (twenty years ago)

Seriously, I hate Room Raiders.

― San Carlos, Monday, 20 June 2005 23:34 (twenty years ago)

I don't remember liking Dead at 21, either.

― San Carlos, Monday, 20 June 2005 23:36 (twenty years ago)

anyone remember those weird short Soviet-style cartoons about some spy named "Stevie"? Those were awesome, must have been early 90's

― tremendoid (tremendoid), Monday, 20 June 2005 23:37 (twenty years ago)

There wasn't a show called Spy Groove, was there? Is this it?

― San Carlos, Monday, 20 June 2005 23:39 (twenty years ago)

Great MTV:

Classic MTV (no '80s flashback program has ruled as much)
Alternative Nation (baby steps into the alt universe)
120 Minutes (this is pretty much default around here)
The Real World seasons 1 - 4 (i.e. the classic era)
Sifl & Olly (insane but beautiful in its off-kilterness)

Shit MTV:

Total Request Live (I'm allergic to teenyboppers)
Beavis & Butthead (c'mon, I hate animation as a rule to begin with...)
Say What? Karaoke (San Carlos OTM with this mention)
Totally Pauly (Pauly Shore = ick -- sorry, San Carlos)
and any (other) MTV program from approx. 1998 - present

― The Kind and Benevolent Oracle of Dee (Dee the Lurker), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 01:06 (twenty years ago)

Oh, and remember when MTV used to do the Beach House thing from someplace like Cancun or Aruba or something, and Daisy Fuentes was the host?? Well, sometimes John Norris would fill in, but it was pretty much Daisy Fuentes's thing. Anyway, I REALLY, REALLY liked that, and I usually HATE beach-themed summer TV. I think the key to that was that Daisy Fuentes wasn't some random airhead bimbo but someone who was really smart, really on-the-ball, and a cool mixture of silliness and maturity.

― The Kind and Benevolent Oracle of Dee (Dee the Lurker), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 01:09 (twenty years ago)

san carlos -- I don't know the proper name of it, could have been that.
If My So Called Life counts, does Ren & Stimpy count?

― tremendoid (tremendoid), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 01:15 (twenty years ago)

Best: Undressed

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 01:19 (twenty years ago)

Our next superman is a product of Undressed, mtv should be proud.

― Leon C. (Ex Leon), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 01:25 (twenty years ago)

the Superman franchise should be prouder.

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 01:28 (twenty years ago)

found it: "Stevie and Zoya"
excellent clip(with rockism!) on the bottom of this page:
http://www.ait-planetlar.com/blogs/2005_04_10_index.shtml

― tremendoid (tremendoid), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 01:32 (twenty years ago)

If My So Called Life counts, does Ren & Stimpy count?

Yes. Good call. I'm trying to think of more of these types of shows, that MTV bought the rights to and started airing, even though it wasn't an MTV original.

― billstevejim (billstevejim), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 03:36 (twenty years ago)

I'm trying to think of more of these types of shows, that MTV bought the rights to and started airing, even though it wasn't an MTV original.

The Young Ones.

― The Yellow Kid, Tuesday, 21 June 2005 04:34 (twenty years ago)

Also, Veronica Mars.

― The Yellow Kid, Tuesday, 21 June 2005 04:35 (twenty years ago)

DA BEST (and I'm including MTV2):

Yo! MTV Raps
Clone High USA
Downtown
Wonder Showzen
Jackass
BONUS: The Ben Stiller Show

DA WORST: ehh, whatever.

― David R. (popshots75`), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 04:45 (twenty years ago)

Best: The Cutting Edge, Beavis and Butthead, Young Ones/Comic Strip, 120 Minutes, Real World (through London or so, but Boston was good).

Worst: TRL, Julie Brown or Eric Nies dance shows (whatever they were called).

― nickn (nickn), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 06:45 (twenty years ago)

Also some live band feature that had 1 hour shows of a single band. Tommy Keene, and Lloyd Cole & Commotions are two I remember, but I'm not sure that was a regular show or just the occasional one-off.

― nickn (nickn), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 06:48 (twenty years ago)

Best:

Aeon Flux
The Maxx
Downtown
MTV's Most Wanted (the one with Ray Cokes)
Yo! MTV Raps
Chill Out Zone (the freakiest videos ever seen on MTV)

Worst:

Cribs
The one show about a guy and a girl who had a brain implant that made them die within four months or something.
Grind

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 06:54 (twenty years ago)

Tuomas may be thinking of Dead at 21, but I could be wrong.

On a more major, drunken note, where is the love for Idiot Savants and Squirt TV??? Doesn't anyone miss some dude flipping out over Back to the Future to "The Brain", or having Cibo Matto play in his attic, respectively???

― San Carlos, Tuesday, 21 June 2005 07:59 (twenty years ago)

wild palms? is that what it was called? fucking awful

ones i liked:
remote control
1st season of the real world
and what was their series of shows on sex called? like with the hiv+ girl demoing a condom on a big white dildo. etc.

and i hated club mtv at the time but i'd like to know what their playlists were now. wubba wubba wubba.

― g e o f f (gcannon), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 08:37 (twenty years ago)

This is too difficult because I want to rep all the UK-only shows (Party Zone, Most Wanted, UK version of 120 Minutes, MTV Dance, Brand New with Zane Lowe) but have to go with the US animated shows really.

― Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 08:52 (twenty years ago)

Surprised at lack of love for Tom Green here (I didn't like his show much tho).

― Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 08:53 (twenty years ago)

beavis and butthead = minimalist comic genius. i don't think there was a single SECOND of that show that wasn't funny.

and yeah, undressed was awful yet completely addictive.

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 08:56 (twenty years ago)

(c'mon, I hate animation as a rule to begin with...)

hmmm, why's that, dee?

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 08:57 (twenty years ago)

i don't think there was a single SECOND of that show that wasn't funny.

the very first episodes were absolutely awful and rarely shown - sort of like the very first Simpsons shorts on the Tracey Ullman show. Embarassingly bad.

― Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 09:03 (twenty years ago)

Every episode I saw was rubbish.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 09:09 (twenty years ago)

i like the tracey ullman simpsons shorts!

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 09:13 (twenty years ago)

wonder showzen
beavis and butthead
the state (based solely on vague memories...)
the young ones/the comic strip
yo mtv raps

(and i wind up watching crap like pimp my ride, made and i want a famous face on a frighteningly regular basis.

― el sabor de gene (yournullfame), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 09:20 (twenty years ago)

i think pimp my ride is pretty good!
liquid tv was fantastic.
THE STATE my god THE STATE.

it's funny, i'd totally forgotten beavis and butthead was an mtv item. they're in their own universe.

― g e o f f (gcannon), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 09:25 (twenty years ago)

1. real world new orleans....only for David "Come On Be My Baby Tonight"

― Lupton Pitman (Chris V), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 09:29 (twenty years ago)

The Maxx,
The Head (Another MTV Oddities thing),
Sifl and Ollie,
Alternative Nation
The Real World (earlier series)

― Craig Gilchrist (Craig Gilchrist), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 10:51 (twenty years ago)

I saw a couple of the episodes of pre-Beavis-saying-"Fire! Fire!"-ban B&B and literally a little pee came out. I remember really distinctly being 13 and hating it and it becoming my favorite thing in the entire world a year later. Plus, favorite bands I can blame my knowing about on Beavis & Butthead: Ween, Morphine.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 11:59 (twenty years ago)

What exactly was the lineup on Liquid TV? The Maxx, Aeon Flux, and...
Anyway:
The State
Beavis & Butthead
120 Minutes
Wonder Showzen
Liquid TV

The Worst: SINGLED OUT, Real World after the first 3 years, Making the dance band with Puffy or whatever is on now,

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 12:30 (twenty years ago)

What exactly was the lineup on Liquid TV? The Maxx, Aeon Flux, and...

The Specialists (unpopular but I liked it)
Stick People Theatre
Bill Plympton shorts
other stuff i can't remember either

― Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 12:38 (twenty years ago)

The Maxx was part of the MTV Oddities season (along with The Head), not Liquid TV, i thought.

― Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 12:38 (twenty years ago)

Making The Band gets a reprieve from all Worst lists for chopping onions, doing taxes, and I SPIT HOT FYI-UH!

― David R. (popshots75`), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 12:38 (twenty years ago)

Like a Velvet Glove was in Liquid TV as well, as was that live-action funny heads thing, as was The Angriest Dog In The World (er, I think).

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 12:40 (twenty years ago)

Liquid TV also had this one-off thing once with these guys racing these cars superfast and some dude's face melting off or something bad-ass like that. And it was where Beavis & Butthead began (frog baseball).

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 12:47 (twenty years ago)

All I know is the current DATE MY MOM show has got to be the worst mtv show ever. There is nothing worse than a scripted mother/daughter conversation about a "hot" guy.

― gunther heartymeal (keckles), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 14:32 (twenty years ago)

Date My Mom is possibly even worse than Room Raiders, and that's saying something

― Zack Richardson (teenagequiet), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 14:46 (twenty years ago)

Austin Stories all the way. That show was the greatest. I'm surprised anyone even remembers it. A friend of mind had all the episodes on tape but he's since moved and I haven't seen them in years. That's the kind of show that will probably never see the light of day on DVD although it totally deserves to be.

what's the website that you can vote for what shows you want to be put out on DVD and they actually send the results to different companies to show the demand? tvshowsondvd.com or something?

― Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe (Plastic Gas Booby Trap), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 14:47 (twenty years ago)

Beavis and Butthead
Downtown
The Maxx
The Head

Hmmm I appear to be a fan of the animation side of things. Speaking of cartoon characters on tv shows: Pimp My Ride. Great hangover cure.

Bad:

Cribs
TRL
Newlyweds
That Dave Navarro and Carmen Electra Thing
Famous Face
The Real World
Those ads for Mobile phone rings. Come on, they're on so often they seems like part of the programming!
The Welsh Jackass

― Kv_nol (Kv_nol), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 14:58 (twenty years ago)

Best:
Sifl and Ollie
Aeon Flux
The Osbournes (first season anyway)
If you count VH1 than the amazing Ego Trip stuff
Jackass

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 15:12 (twenty years ago)

Angriest Dog In The World was a David Lynch comic (one panel, always the same image, only the text differed). You may be thinking of Dog Boy on Liquid TV. The car racing guys was called Jack Mack and Rad Boy, only 2 episodes made, I think. Another one was done with various soaps, and the only funny line from it was "I got tired of the bar scene" from one of them. Also that repetitive Crow Dickerson one (If I ever find you, Crow Dickerson..." It always pisses me off when comics/animations that the creators must know won't last long repeat themselves in every episode. Only in Aeon Fluxx did this seem to work.

― nickn (nickn), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 19:43 (twenty years ago)

I would probably be willing to hunt down and kill everyone on ILE for an UNDRESSED DVD collection.

― Paul Stanley, Tuesday, 21 June 2005 20:03 (twenty years ago)

Where's the love for AMP?

― Hurting (Hurting), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 20:07 (twenty years ago)

back in 1998 ;)

― Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 21:31 (twenty years ago)

Some of the best videos ever were only shown on AMP. It was quite a timely show.

― billstevejim (billstevejim), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 21:40 (twenty years ago)

Worst show on MTV hands down: "True Life", specifically the episode about the guidos on the Jersey shore.

― mjfan, Tuesday, 21 June 2005 22:02 (twenty years ago)

oh hell no. that was awesome. i love how they must think "i am such the shit. muhfucking MTV!!. is making a show about me and my crew and how we get down" and meanwhile me and my crew are laughing are asses of and ridiculing them.

― oops (Oops), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 22:07 (twenty years ago)

and what was their series of shows on sex called? like with the hiv+ girl demoing a condom on a big white dildo. etc.

Sex In The 90's

― billstevejim (billstevejim), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 22:21 (twenty years ago)

If that's the case, I sure wish MTV would try to be more blatant in their self-awareness.

― billstevejim (billstevejim), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 22:23 (twenty years ago)

i think the people who are involved with producing such shows on MTV are in on the joke, so to speak, but realize that by leaving any blatant judgment of the "reality actors" out, they won't alienate all of the potential audience who don't even see the joke.

― oops (Oops), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 22:28 (twenty years ago)

Good:
120 Minutes
Sifl & Olly
The State
Oddville
2Gether

Bad:
Room Raiders
Team Sanchez
The Brothers Grunt
Celebrity Deathmatch
Punk'd

Honorable mention for the "bad": Anything on Sucker Free Sundays

What is Downtown? It's recieving much love here, and I can't recall anything about it.

― billstevejim (billstevejim), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 22:32 (twenty years ago)

also, the docu they did on pro-wrestlers in 1999, and the MTV Top 20 All-Time Bad...

― kingfish (Kingfish), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 22:48 (twenty years ago)

>> and what was their series of shows on sex called? like with the
>> hiv+ girl demoing a condom on a big white dildo. etc.

Sex In The 90's

A show which gave us the memorable sight of Lou Barlow as a talking head whimpering about break ups.

"I literally felt my heart breaking"

― Mitch Miller, Tuesday, 21 June 2005 23:18 (twenty years ago)

For my "worst" list, I'm not sure how I forgot "I Bet You Will" or "Rich Girls," which are without a doubt the 2 worst MTV shows ever. Consider this my POII I guess, and the POV from before should now be considered honorable mentions.

― billstevejim (billstevejim), Wednesday, 22 June 2005 02:39 (twenty years ago)

'Downtown' was put together by the guy who owns this company and centred around a nerdy guy called Alex, his effortlessly cool sister, his cool but equally het up female friend, her promiscuous housemate. Enjoyable but i'm not really sure why to be honest.

― Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Wednesday, 22 June 2005 07:55 (twenty years ago)

downtown! that guy (chris prynoski) went to high school with my gf and inserted a couple of injokes about their hometown in the show.

― el sabor de gene (yournullfame), Wednesday, 22 June 2005 08:16 (twenty years ago)

my favorites are as follows
Bevis and Butthead
Snoopdizzle Televizzle
Newlyweds
Pimp my Ride
Cribs

― lukey (Lukey G), Wednesday, 22 June 2005 08:22 (twenty years ago)

four years pass...

nostalgia:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9V_glBfuik&feature=related

why did he disappear?

― Zeno, Tuesday, 9 February 2010 21:06 (fifteen years ago)

i miss 120 minutes and remote control. and -- for early jenny mccarthy only -- i sort of miss singled out.

― Daniel, Esq., Tuesday, 9 February 2010 21:07 (fifteen years ago)

oh! and the jenny mccarthy show, too. gross, but funny iirc.

― Daniel, Esq., Tuesday, 9 February 2010 21:07 (fifteen years ago)

yeah, i remember amazing live sets of Mazzy Star and Man Or Astro Man? in 120 minutes.
the mazzy star one's are on youtube..

― Zeno, Tuesday, 9 February 2010 21:11 (fifteen years ago)

hm. if full episodes of 120 minutes are on youtube, i'd watch some for sure. the music was great, of course, but the "left-of-the-dial" vibe was even better.

― Daniel, Esq., Tuesday, 9 February 2010 21:17 (fifteen years ago)

I don't know why VH1 Classic repackages a bunch of old videos and calls it 120 Minutes, when they could just re-air entire shows and probably garner better ratings.

― FIST FIGHT! FIST FIGHT! FIST FIGHT IN THE PARKING LOT! (milo z), Tuesday, 9 February 2010 21:24 (fifteen years ago)

POVI:

120 Minutes (pre-92/93)
Remote Control
Beavis & Butthead
Jersey Shore
Headbanger's Ball
Yo! MTV Raps

― Screeching Weerasethakul (Pillbox), Tuesday, 9 February 2010 21:38 (fifteen years ago)

one year passes...

Archive of Liquid TV cartoons put up: http://liquidtelevision.com/

Can't be viewed outside the US, darn.

― Duane Barry, Wednesday, 12 October 2011 10:49 (fourteen years ago)

Ray Cokes interviewing Robbie Williams right after he left/was fired from Take That was god-like.

― triple black belt in ILX-fu (snoball), Wednesday, 12 October 2011 13:09 (fourteen years ago)

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