A time slot on a major cable network is both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, you couldn’t ask for a larger audience. On the other, you’re the property of the company store, and you bend to their whim.
For example, MTV aired Beavis & Butthead, but to pad out the episodes to sitcom-length, they inserted music videos with Mike Judge doing commentary in character. At the time, I could appreciate the necessity of this, being that ink-and-paint animation takes time to create. Still, it was obvious that the idea was cribbed from MST3K, and much of the music was unlistenable, or not worth the mockery.
MTV pulled the same jazz when they aired the extraordinary sock-puppet comedy The Sifl and Olly Show, from 1997 to 1999.
Videotape artifacts are subconsciously comforting.
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Filed under Faint Signals, Nostalgic Obsessions, Thousand Listen Club
Tagged as 1990s, 1997, 1999, alternative music, Beavis & Butthead, comedy, laughter, Liam Lynch, marijuana, Matt Crocco, Media Play, Mike Judge, MST3K, MTV, music, pre 9/11, puppets, sock puppets, The Sifl and Olly Show, YouTube
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