82-400: Liquid Television was an animation showcase broadcast on MTV from 1991 to 1995. It launched several high-profile original cartoons , including Beavis and Butt-Head and Æon Flux . Other recurring segments include "The Art School Girls of Doom", The Specialists , and Brad Dharma: Psychedelic Detective . Independent animators and artists created most of the material specifically for
164-490: A 30-minute program of music videos called Video Jukebox , that first aired around the time of MTV's launch and lasted until late 1986. Also around this time, HBO, as well as other premium channels such as Cinemax , Showtime and The Movie Channel , occasionally played one or a few music videos between movies. SuperStation WTBS launched Night Tracks on June 3, 1983, with up to 14 hours of music video airplay each late night weekend by 1985. Its most noticeable difference
246-572: A VJ and the Video Music Awards . At the end of each year, MTV takes advantage of its home location in New York City to broadcast live coverage on New Year's Eve in Times Square . Several live music performances are featured alongside interviews with artists and bands that were influential throughout the year. For many years from the 1980s to the 2000s, the channel upheld a tradition of having
328-700: A band perform a cover song at midnight immediately following the beginning of the new year. Throughout its history, MTV has covered global benefit concert series live. For most of July 13, 1985, MTV showed the Live Aid concerts, held in London and Philadelphia and organized by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise funds for famine relief in Ethiopia. While the ABC network showed only selected highlights during primetime, MTV broadcast 16 hours of coverage. Along with VH1 , MTV broadcast
410-662: A child burning down his house after allegedly watching Beavis and Butt-head , MTV moved the show from its original 7 p.m. time slot to an 11 p.m. time slot. Also, Beavis's tendency to flick a lighter and yell "fire" was removed from new episodes, and controversial scenes were removed from existing episodes before their rebroadcast. Some extensive edits were noted by series creator Mike Judge after compiling his Collection DVDs , saying that "some of those episodes may not even exist actually in their original form." Viacom (1952%E2%80%932005) The original phase of Viacom Inc. (derived from "Video & Audio Communications")
492-467: A high priority on showing so many acts, at the expense of airing complete sets by key artists." He also blamed the Pink Floyd interruption on a mandatory cable affiliate break. MTV averaged 1.4 million viewers for its original July 2 broadcast of Live 8. Consequently, MTV and VH1 aired five hours of uninterrupted Live 8 coverage on July 9, with each channel airing other blocks of artists. MTV's logo
574-511: A money-losing venture, Turner sold it to MTV, who redeveloped the channel into VH1. The founders of Financial News Network , Glenn Taylor and Karen Tyler tried to capitalize on the concept by launching Discovery Music Network, which was set to be a cable network, and has plans to set up the Discovery Broadcasting System, which consists of the aforementioned network, along with computer and business networks, but it never got off
656-448: A revised logo in tandem with the 2010 version, doing away with the 3D effect inherited from its predecessors (much akin to the current MTV Video Music Awards variant). That logo is revealed to be an alternate variant of the current logo designed by the design agency Loyalkaspar, which pays homage to MTV of the past with the red-yellow-blue color combination and the 3D effect mainly inherited from its predecessor logo. The new logo's rollout
738-480: A sister company headed by Freston under the Viacom name. The split was approved by Viacom's board on June 14, 2005, and took effect on December 31. The second iterations of CBS Corporation and Viacom began trading on January 3, 2006. On August 13, 2019, CBS and Viacom officially announced their re-merger deal ; the combined company would be called ViacomCBS, with Bob Bakish as president and CEO and Shari Redstone as
820-577: A statement later contradicted by CBS head of Business Affairs David Benjamin in Vanity Fair . According to The Austin Chronicle , Jackson's video for the song "Billie Jean" was "the video that broke the color barrier, even though the channel itself was responsible for erecting that barrier in the first place." But change was not immediate. "Billie Jean" was not added to MTV's "medium rotation" playlist (two to three airings per day) until it reached No. 1 on
902-466: A target of criticism by different groups about programming choices, social issues, political correctness , sensitivity, censorship, and a perceived negative social influence on young people. Portions of the content of MTV's programs and productions have come under controversy in the general news media and among social groups that have taken offense. Some within the music industry criticized what they saw as MTV's homogenization of rock 'n' roll, including
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#1732854660540984-543: A trademark on the initials MTV , registered with the Hungarian copyright office, sued the American MTV (Music Television) network for trademark infringement when the Hungarian version of the music channel was launched in 2007. The suit is still ongoing. During the 1989 MTV Video Music Awards ceremony, comedian Andrew Dice Clay did his usual "adult nursery rhymes" routine (which he had done in his stand-up acts), after which
1066-449: A week in March, broadcasting live eight hours per day. "Spring break is a youth culture event", MTV's vice president Doug Herzog said at the time. "We wanted to be part of it for that reason. It makes good sense for us to come down and go live from the center of it, because obviously the people there are the kinds of people who watch MTV." The channel later expanded its beach-themed events to
1148-444: Is also a producer of films aimed at young adults through its production label, MTV Films, and has aired both its own theatrically released films and original made-for-television movies from MTV Studios in addition to acquired films. In 2010, a study by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation found that of 207.5 hours of prime time programming on MTV, 42% included content reflecting
1230-474: Is an American cable television channel. It was officially launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group , part of Paramount Media Networks , a division of Paramount Global . The channel originally aired music videos and related programming as guided by television personalities known as video jockeys , or VJs. MTV, as one of
1312-581: Is available to approximately 67,000,000 pay television households in the United States, down from its 2011 peak of 99,000,000 households. MTV was launched on Saturday, August 1, 1981, at 12:01 a.m, under the ownership of the Warner - American Express Satellite Entertainment Company. On June 25, 1984, Warner Communications spun-off Nickelodeon , MTV into a new public corporation called MTV Networks . Warner would later acquire American Express' 50% stake
1394-505: Is used worldwide, but not everywhere existentially. The new logo was first used on MTV Films logo with the 2010 film Jackass 3D . MTV's rebranding was overseen by Popkern. On June 25, 2015, MTV International rebranded its on-air look with a new vaporwave and seapunk -inspired graphics package. It included a series of new station IDs featuring 3D renderings of objects and people, much akin to vaporwave and seapunk "aesthetics". Many have derided MTV's choice of rebranding, insisting that
1476-516: The Billboard Hot 100 chart. In the final week of March, it was in "heavy rotation", one week before the MTV debut of Jackson's " Beat It " video. Prince's " Little Red Corvette " joined both videos in heavy rotation at the end of April. At the beginning of June, " Electric Avenue " by Eddy Grant joined "Billie Jean", which was still in heavy rotation until mid-June. At the end of August, " She Works Hard for
1558-541: The Blockbuster Video chain in 1994. The acquisition of Paramount Communications on July 7, 1994, made Viacom one of the world's largest entertainment companies. Also in 1993, WTXX entered into a part-time local marketing agreement with Viacom's NBC station WVIT . The Paramount and Blockbuster acquisitions gave Viacom access to large television holdings: An archive of programming controlled by Aaron Spelling 's company which included, along with his own productions ,
1640-640: The Dayton , San Francisco , Nashville and Seattle metropolitan areas. Several of these were originally independent systems that CBS acquired in the 1960s. The division was known as Viacom Cablevision until the early 1990s, when it was renamed to Viacom Cable . By 1995, Viacom Cable had about 1.1 million subscribers. Viacom sold the division to TCI in 1995. Viacom's cable assets are now part of Comcast . In March 2005, Viacom announced that it would split into two companies – one would contain Viacom's "slow-growth" assets;
1722-882: The Live 8 concerts, a series of concerts set in the G8 states and South Africa, on July 2, 2005. Live 8 preceded the 31st G8 summit and the 20th anniversary of Live Aid. MTV drew heavy criticism for its coverage of Live 8. The network cut to commercials, VJ commentary, or other performances during performances. Complaints surfaced on the Internet over MTV interrupting the reunion of Pink Floyd . In response, MTV president Van Toffler stated that he wanted to broadcast highlights from every venue of Live 8 on MTV and VH1, and clarified that network hosts talked over performances only in transition to commercials, informative segments or other musical performances. Toffler acknowledged that "MTV should not have placed such
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#17328546605401804-488: The parent company of CBS, the former Westinghouse Electric Corporation , which had been renamed CBS Corporation in 1997. Viacom was split into the second incarnations of CBS Corporation and Viacom — both remained under National Amusements ownership — in 2005; the split was structured with the second CBS Corporation being the original Viacom's legal successor , and the second Viacom being an entirely new company. The two companies eventually re-merged in 2019, leading to
1886-869: The 1970s and 1980s, and also distributed syndicated television programs. The company went under Sumner Redstone 's control in 1987 through his cinema chain company National Amusements . At the time of its split, Viacom's assets included the CBS and UPN broadcast networks, the Paramount Pictures film and television studio, local radio station operator CBS Radio , cable channels such as MTV , Nickelodeon , Comedy Central , BET and Showtime , outdoor media operator Viacom Outdoor , television production and distribution firm King World Productions , and book publisher Simon & Schuster . It also owned its IP holding subsidiary Viacom International and brand licensor Westinghouse Licensing Corporation . In 2000, Viacom acquired
1968-400: The 40th anniversary of the network's launch in 2021, current MTV Entertainment Group president Chris McCarthy acknowledged that "(o)ne of the bigger mistakes in the early years was not playing enough diverse music ... but the nice thing that I've always learned at MTV is we have no problem owning our mistakes, quickly correcting them and trying to do the right thing and always follow where
2050-496: The American cable channels available in other countries, eventually gained a massive cult following , becoming one of the major factors in cable programming's rise to fame and American corporations dominating the television economy in the 1990s. In the years since its inception, the channel significantly toned down its focus on music in favor of original reality programming for teenagers and young adults. As of November 2023 , MTV
2132-549: The Disney Channel and NBC . The program aired at several times between 1984 and 1999. In 2009, Disney Channel revived the DTV concept with a new series of short-form segments called Re-Micks . Hanna-Barbera created HBTV , similar to DTV in 1985 and in 1986. MTV has edited a number of music videos to remove nudity, references to drugs, sex, violence, weapons, racism, homophobia , and/or advertising. Many music videos aired on
2214-457: The Money " by Donna Summer was in heavy rotation on the channel. Herbie Hancock's " Rockit " and Lionel Richie 's " All Night Long " were placed in heavy rotation at the end of October and the beginning of November respectively. In the final week of November, Donna Summer's " Unconditional Love " was in heavy rotation. When Jackson's elaborate video for " Thriller " was released late that year, raising
2296-455: The Police , Kiss , Culture Club , Billy Idol , Hall & Oates , Cyndi Lauper , Madonna , Lionel Richie , Ric Ocasek , John Mellencamp , Peter Wolf , Joe Elliott , Stevie Nicks , Rick Springfield , and Mick Jagger , interacting with the MTV logo on-air and encouraging viewers to call their pay television providers and request that MTV be added to their local channel lineups. Eventually,
2378-765: The Redstone family maintained 71-percent voting control of the company through National Amusements' holdings of Viacom's stock. In 2002, Viacom's MTV Networks International bought independently run Dutch music video channel TMF , which at the time was broadcasting in Belgium and the Netherlands . In June 2004, MTVNI bought VIVA Media AG , the German equivalent to MTV. The same month, plans were announced to dispose of Viacom's interest in Blockbuster later that year by means of an exchange offer;
2460-491: The all Prince theme on the channel back in the 90s. A few markets also launched music-only channels including Las Vegas' KRLR-TV (now KSNV ), which debuted in the summer of 1984 and branded as "Vusic 21". The first video played on that channel was "Video Killed the Radio Star", following in the footsteps of MTV. Shortly after TBS began Night Tracks , NBC launched a music video program called Friday Night Videos , which
2542-401: The artistic style was centered on denouncing corporate capitalism (many aesthetic pieces heavily incorporate corporate logos of the 1970s, 80s and 90s, which coincidentally include MTV's original logo) rather than being embraced by major corporations like MTV. Many have also suggested that MTV made an attempt to be relevant in the modern entertainment world with the rebrand. In addition to this,
Liquid Television - Misplaced Pages Continue
2624-448: The audience is going." Before 1983, Michael Jackson also struggled for MTV airtime. To resolve the struggle and finally "break the color barrier", the president of CBS Records , Walter Yetnikoff , denounced MTV in a strong, profane statement, threatening to take away its right to play any of the label's music. However, Les Garland, then acquisitions head, said he decided to air Jackson's " Billie Jean " video without pressure from CBS,
2706-553: The bar for what a video could be, the network's support for it was total; subsequently, more pop and R&B videos were played on MTV. Following Jackson's and Prince's breakthroughs on MTV, Rick James did several interviews where he brushed off the accomplishment as tokenism , saying in a 1983 interview, in an episode of Mike Judge Presents: Tales from the Tour Bus on James, that "any black artist that [had] their video played on MTV should pull their [videos] off MTV." HBO also had
2788-417: The beach house location each summer. MTV also held week-long music events that took over the presentation of the channel. Examples from the 1990s and 2000s include All Access Week , a week in the summer dedicated to live concerts and festivals; Spankin' New Music Week , a week in the fall dedicated to brand new music videos; and week-long specials that culminated in a particular live event, such as Wanna be
2870-637: The channel were either censored, moved to late-night rotation, or banned entirely from the channel. In the 1980s, parent media watchdog groups such as the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) criticized MTV over certain music videos that were claimed to have explicit imagery of satanism . As a result, MTV developed a strict policy on refusal to air videos that may depict Satanism or anti-religious themes. This policy led MTV to ban music videos such as " Jesus Christ Pose " by Soundgarden in 1991 and " Megalomaniac " by Incubus in 2004; however,
2952-410: The channel. David Bowie also questioned MTV's lack of black artists during an on-air interview with VJ Mark Goodman in 1983. MTV's original head of talent and acquisition, Carolyn B. Baker, who was black, questioned why the definition of music had to be so narrow, as did a few others outside the network. Years later, Baker said, "The party line at MTV was that we weren't playing black music because of
3034-463: The company had set up its own division Viacom Pictures, to produce its feature films for television, most notably Showtime . Sumner Redstone , via his theater chain operator National Amusements , acquired a controlling interest in Viacom on June 10, 1987. Redstone made a string of large acquisitions in the early 1990s, announcing plans to merge with Paramount Communications (formerly Gulf+Western ), parent of Paramount Pictures , in 1993, and buying
3116-790: The company purchased WHNB-TV in New Britain, Connecticut , changing its call letters to WVIT . Two years later Viacom added the Sonderling Broadcasting chain, giving it radio stations in New York City , Washington, D.C. , Houston , and San Francisco , and one television station, WAST (now WNYT ) in Albany, New York . In 1983 Viacom purchased KSLA in Shreveport, Louisiana , and WHEC-TV in Rochester, New York , in separate transactions. This
3198-452: The content of the two VHS tapes, was released on DVD in 1997. On October 13, 2011, MTVX , MTV's cross media group, announced the return of Liquid Television . It became an online network. Its first content was "F**KING BEST SONG EVERRR" by Wallpaper , available on the website. Full-length episodes featuring the online content and all-new material were released in 2013. MTV MTV ( originally an initialism of Music Television )
3280-468: The controversial band Marilyn Manson was among the most popular rock bands on MTV during the late 1990s and early 2000s. On September 28, 2016, on an AfterBuzz TV live stream, Scout Durwood said that MTV had a " no appropriation policy " that forbid her from wearing her hair in cornrows in an episode of Mary + Jane . She said, "I wanted to cornrow my hair, and they were like, 'That's racist.'" Magyar Televízió , Hungary's public broadcaster who has
3362-447: The core cable business and the company would ride herd on diverse enterprises as Viacom's pay-per-view venture, Viewer's Choice, Satellite Direct, Inc. and SMA TV, and handle strategic planning and new business development for Viacom Networks Group, and would develop merchandising, licensing and home video business around the two Viacom subsidiaries it was currently operating, Showtime-The Movie Channel, Inc. and MTV Networks . In 1989,
Liquid Television - Misplaced Pages Continue
3444-499: The division was incorporated as Viacom , and spun off on January 1, 1971, amid new FCC rules forbidding television networks from owning syndication companies (the rules were later repealed). Viacom expanded its activities throughout the decade with a launch of a production unit, and later acquired the rights to various features from various studios. In addition to CBS TV series syndication rights, Viacom also held cable systems with 90,000 cable subscribers, at that time
3526-491: The early 2000s, MTV updated its on-air appearance at the beginning of every year and each summer, creating a consistent brand across all of its music-related shows. This style of channel-wide branding came to an end as MTV drastically reduced its number of music-related shows in the early to mid 2000s. Around this time, MTV introduced a static and single color digital on-screen graphic mainly grey during on-air and some color to be shown during all of its programming. Starting with
3608-405: The first act with people of color to perform on MTV; their song "Rat Race" was the 58th video on the station's first broadcast day. MTV refused other black artists' videos, such as Rick James ' " Super Freak ", because they did not fit the channel's carefully selected album-oriented rock format at the time. The exclusion enraged James, who publicly advocated the addition of more black artists to
3690-454: The first landing on the Moon (with still images acquired directly from NASA ), which was a concept of Seibert's executed by Buzz Potamkin and Perpetual Motion Pictures . The ID then cut to the American flag planted on the Moon's surface changed to show the MTV logo on it, which rapidly changed into different colors and patterns several times per second as the network's original guitar-driven jingle
3772-515: The following year. From August 27, 1985 to May 20, 1986, Warner would sell 31%, and later, 69% of MTV Networks to Viacom . As MTV expanded, music videos and VJ-guided programming were no longer the centerpiece of its programming. The channel's programming has covered a wide variety of genres and formats aimed at adolescents and young adults . In addition to its original programming, MTV has also aired original and syndicated programs from Paramount-owned siblings and third-party networks. MTV
3854-463: The formation of ViacomCBS, now known as Paramount Global . Viacom originated on March 16, 1952 — when CBS founded its broadcast syndication division, CBS Television Film Sales . It renamed as CBS Films in October 1958. On December 1, 1967, it again renamed as CBS Enterprises Inc. . On July 6, 1970, it announced that CBS Enterprises would be spun out from its parent company, and the same month
3936-709: The ground. Shortly after its launch, the Disney Channel aired a program called DTV , a play on the MTV acronym. The program used music cuts, both from past and upcoming artists. Instead of music videos, the program used clips of various vintage Disney cartoons and animated films (from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to The Fox and the Hound ) to go with the songs. The program aired in multiple formats, sometimes between shows, sometimes as its own program, and other times as one-off specials. The specials tended to air both on
4018-428: The joint venture. Around the same time, Viacom bought MTV Networks , which owned MTV , VH-1 , and Nickelodeon . This led to Viacom becoming a mass media company rather than simply a distribution company, and completed in 1986. In 1987, Viacom sought to expand its horizons by launching the new Viacom Network Enterprises division, which was led by Ronald C. Bernard, in order to develop and exploit properties outside of
4100-475: The largest in the US. In 1976, Viacom launched Showtime , a pay movie channel, with Warner-Amex taking a half-share ownership. The company went into original programming production starting in the late 1970s until the early 1980s with middling results. The company expanded in 1977 to launch a unit for program acquisitions and prime-time network programming. Viacom's first broadcast station acquisition came in 1978 when
4182-480: The lives of gay, bisexual and transgender people. This was the highest in the industry and the highest percentage ever. In 2018, MTV launched a new production unit under the MTV Studios name focused on producing new versions of MTV's library shows. It was later consolidated into MTV Entertainment Studios In 1984, the channel produced its first MTV Video Music Awards show, or VMAs. The first award show, in 1984,
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#17328546605404264-412: The network executives imposed a lifetime ban. Billy Idol 's music video for the song " Cradle of Love " originally had scenes from Clay's film The Adventures of Ford Fairlane when it was originally aired; scenes from the film were later excised. During the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards , Clay was in attendance where he confirmed that the channel lifted the ban. In the wake of controversy that involved
4346-422: The next two years selling off its non-UPN affiliated stations to various owners. In 1997, Viacom exited the broadcast radio business, albeit temporarily, when it sold the majority of its stations to Chancellor Media, a predecessor company of iHeartMedia . On September 7, 1999, Viacom announced their acquisition of CBS Corporation in a $ 35.9 billion deal. In addition to being the largest media merger in history at
4428-495: The offices of president and chief operating officer between Moonves and Freston. Redstone was set to retire in the near future, and a split would be a creative solution to the matter of replacing him. The existing Viacom would become the second CBS Corporation as it was headed by Moonves and kept CBS, Simon & Schuster , and Paramount Network Television (now known as CBS Studios ), among other assets; while MTV Networks, BET Networks, and Paramount Pictures would spin-off to
4510-511: The other would consist of the company's "high-growth" divisions – under National Amusements' control because of a stagnating stock price. The internal rivalry between CBS chairman Les Moonves and MTV Networks chief executive officer Tom Freston , and the controversy of the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show were also seen as factors. After the departure of Mel Karmazin in 2004, Redstone, who served as chairman and CEO, decided to split
4592-547: The owners of the Black Entertainment Television (BET) network. As with CBS Cable, it was immediately integrated into MTV Networks, causing some outcry among BET workers in the Washington, D.C., area (where BET was based before the merger). As a result, BET was separated from MTV Networks, into a division known as BET Networks . Although a majority economic interest in Viacom was held by independent shareholders,
4674-518: The pre-1973 ABC and NBC libraries under Worldvision Enterprises and Republic Pictures ; and an expanded group of television stations which merged Viacom's five existing outlets into Paramount's seven-station group . Viacom used some of these stations to launch the UPN network, which started operations in January 1995 as a joint venture with Chris-Craft Industries . Shortly afterward, Viacom/Paramount spent
4756-407: The premiere of the short-lived program FNMTV: Friday Night MTV in 2008, MTV started using a updated and cropped version of its original logo for the 30 years during most of its on-air programming. It became MTV's official logo on February 8, 2010, and officially debuted on its website. The channel's full text "MUSIC TELEVISION" was eliminated, with the revised and chopped down on the logo largely
4838-923: The punk band the Dead Kennedys , whose song "M.T.V. – Get Off the Air" was released on their 1985 album Frankenchrist , just as MTV's influence over the music industry was being solidified. MTV was also the major influence on the growth of music videos during the 1980s. During MTV's first few years, very few black artists were featured. The select few in MTV's rotation between 1981 and 1984 were Michael Jackson , Prince , Eddy Grant , Tina Turner , Donna Summer , Joan Armatrading , Musical Youth , The Specials , The Selecter , Grace Jones , John Butcher and Herbie Hancock . Mikey Craig of Culture Club , Joe Leeway of Thompson Twins and Tracy Wormworth of The Waitresses were also black. The Specials, which included black and white vocalists and musicians, were also
4920-480: The rebrand was made on exactly the same day that the social media site Tumblr introduced Tumblr TV, an animated GIF viewer which featured branding inspired by MTV's original 1980s on-air look. Tumblr has been cited as a prominent location of aesthetic art, and thus many have suggested MTV and Tumblr "switched identities". The rebrand also incorporated a modified version of MTV's classic "I Want My MTV!" slogan, changed to read "I Am My MTV". Vice has suggested that
5002-485: The research – but the research was based on ignorance… We were young, we were cutting-edge. We didn't have to be on the cutting edge of racism." Nevertheless, it was Baker who rejected Rick James' "Super Freak" video "because there were half-naked women in it, and it was a piece of crap. As a black woman, I did not want that representing my people as the first black video on MTV." The network's director of music programming, Buzz Brindle, told an interviewer in 2006: "MTV
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#17328546605405084-501: The rules of the rock business." MTV senior executive vice president Les Garland complained decades later, "The worst thing was that 'racism' bullshit ... there were hardly any videos being made by black artists. Record companies weren't funding them. They never got charged with racism." However, critics of that defence pointed out that record companies were not funding videos for black artists because they knew they would have difficulty persuading MTV to play them. In celebrating
5166-413: The same as the original logo, but without the initialism, the bottom of the "M" being cropped and the "V" in "TV" no longer branching off. This change was most likely made to reflect MTV's more prominent focus on reality and comedy programming and less on music-related programming. However, much like the original logo, the new logo was designed to be filled in with a seemingly unlimited variety of images. It
5248-399: The series (many episodes begin with a contemporary music video being "liquified"), full episodes of Liquid Television have not been broadcast since their original run. Selected segments from the series, including the debut of Æon Flux , were released on two VHS tapes in the late 1990s as The Best of Liquid Television . A collection volume, Wet Shorts (The Best of Liquid Television) , with
5330-424: The show, and some previously produced segments were compiled from festivals such as Spike and Mike's Festival of Animation . The first season of Liquid Television also aired on BBC Two in co-production with MTV. Ultimately, MTV commissioned three seasons of the show, produced by Colossal Pictures . The show was eventually succeeded by Cartoon Sushi . Mark Mothersbaugh composed the theme music. The show
5412-524: The slogan became so ubiquitous that it made an appearance as a lyric sung by Sting on the Dire Straits song " Money for Nothing ", whose music video aired in regular rotation on MTV when it was first released in 1985 and also served as the first video played on its European arm , and became the basis of the music used in the MTV Entertainment Studios production logo . The channel has been
5494-425: The slogan change represents "the current generation's movement towards self-examination, identity politics and apparent narcissism." MTV also introduced MTV Bump, a website that allows Instagram and Vine users to submit videos to be aired during commercial breaks, as well as MTV Canvas, an online program where users submit custom IDs to also be aired during commercial breaks. On February 5, 2021, MTV began to use
5576-534: The spinoff of Blockbuster was completed in October. Also in 2002, Viacom acquired the remaining shares of Infinity Broadcasting radio chain, which resulted in Viacom's return to operating radio stations after it originally exited the broadcast radio business in 1997. In April 2003, Viacom acquired the remaining ownership shares of Comedy Central from then- AOL Time Warner , integrating Comedy Central into MTV Networks. From its formation until 1995, Viacom operated several cable television systems generally located in
5658-523: The summer, dedicating most of each summer season to broadcasting live from a beach house at different locations away from New York City, eventually leading to channel-wide branding throughout the summer in the 1990s and early 2000s such as Motel California , Summer Share , Isle of MTV , SoCal Summer , Summer in the Keys , and Shore Thing . MTV VJs would host blocks of music videos, interview artists and bands, and introduce live performances and other programs from
5740-674: The tag line, not unlike his failed 'Maypo' revamp. His associate, and Seibert mentor Dale Pon, took over the campaign, both strategically and creatively. Pon was able to get the campaign greenlit when he laughed the tears out of the spots. From then on–with the exception of the closely logos on the first round of commercials–Pon was the primary creative force. All the commercials were produced by Buzz Potamkin and his new company Buzzco Productions, directed first by Thomas Schlamme and Alan Goodman and eventually by Candy Kugel. The campaign featured popular artists and celebrities, including Pete Townshend , Pat Benatar , Adam Ant , David Bowie ,
5822-488: The time, the logo was constantly branded with different colors, patterns and images on a variety of station IDs. Examples include 1988's ID "Adam And Eve", where the "M" is an apple and the snake is the "TV". And for 1984's ID "Art History", the logo is shown in different art styles. The only constant aspects of MTV's logo at the time were its general shape and proportions, with everything else being dynamic. MTV launched on August 1, 1981, with an extended network ID featuring
5904-629: The time, the purchase effectively reunited Viacom with its former parent, CBS. The merger was completed in May 2000, bringing CBS's cable channels TNN (now Paramount Network ) and Country Music Television (CMT) under Viacom's MTV Networks wing, as well as CBS's production and distribution units Eyemark Entertainment (formerly Group W Productions ) and King World under the main wing. The merger also folded Viacom's broadcast group, now consisting entirely of UPN stations, into CBS's owned-stations division. In 2001, Viacom completed its purchase of BET Holdings,
5986-454: Was an American mass media and entertainment conglomerate based in New York City . It began as CBS Television Film Sales , the broadcast syndication division of the CBS television network in 1952; it was renamed CBS Films in 1958, renamed CBS Enterprises in 1968, renamed Viacom in 1970, and spun off into its own company in 1971. Viacom was a distributor of CBS television series throughout
6068-646: Was broadcast in Canada on MuchMusic , in Asia on Channel V , in Australia on SBS and in New Zealand on TV3 . Many animation pieces were adapted from Art Spiegelman 's comic compilation, RAW . RAW features underground cartoonists such as Mark Beyer , Richard Sala , and Peter Bagge . In particular, Dog-Boy by Charles Burns was based on the artist's series from RAW . Due to the extensive use of licensed music throughout
6150-499: Was completed in time for the 2021 MTV Video Music Awards. The channel's iconic "I Want My MTV!" advertising campaign was launched in 1982. It was first developed by George Lois and was based on a cereal commercial from the 1950s with the slogan " I Want My Maypo !" that Lois adapted unsuccessfully from the original created by animator John Hubley . Lois's first pitch to the network was roundly rejected when Lois insisted that rock stars like Mick Jagger should be crying when they said
6232-478: Was considered network television's answer to MTV. Later renamed simply Friday Night , the program ran from 1983 to 2002. ABC's contribution to the music video program genre in 1984, ABC Rocks , was far less successful, lasting only a year. TBS founder Ted Turner started the Cable Music Channel in 1984, designed to play a broader mix of music videos than MTV's rock format allowed. But after one month as
6314-419: Was designed in 1981 by Manhattan Design (a collective formed by Frank Olinsky, Pat Gorman and Patty Rogoff) under the guidance of original creative director Fred Seibert . The block letter "M" was sketched by Rogoff, with the scribbled word "TV" spraypainted by Olinksky. The primary variant of MTV's logo at the time had the "M" in yellow and the "TV" in red. However, unlike most television networks' logos at
6396-614: Was followed in 1986 with CBS-owned KMOX-TV in St. Louis ; with the purchase, that station's call letters were changed to KMOV . Also in 1983, Viacom reacquired its premium channel Showtime, and later merged it with Warner-Amex's The Movie Channel forming Showtime/The Movie Channel, Inc . Between the late 1980s and the early 1990s, Viacom syndicated several shows produced by Carsey-Werner Productions , namely The Cosby Show , A Different World and Roseanne . In 1985, Viacom acquired Showtime/The Movie Channel, Inc. from Warner-Amex, ending
6478-401: Was originally designed to be a rock music channel. It was difficult for MTV to find African American artists whose music fit the channel's format that leaned toward rock at the outset." Writers Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum noted that the channel "aired videos by plenty of white artists who didn't play rock." Andrew Goodwin later wrote: "[MTV] denied racism, on the grounds that it merely followed
6560-517: Was played for the first time. After MTV's launch, the "Moon landing" ID was edited to show only its ending, and was shown at the top of every hour until early 1986, when the ID was scrapped in light of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster . The ID ran "more than 75,000 times each year (48 times each day), at the top and bottom of every hour every day" according to Seibert. From the late 1990s to
6642-531: Was punctuated by a live performance by Madonna of " Like a Virgin ". The statuettes that are handed out at the Video Music Awards are of the MTV moonman, the channel's original image from its first broadcast in 1981. As of 2012 , the Video Music Awards were MTV's most watched annual event. MTV began its annual Spring Break coverage in 1986, setting up temporary operations in Daytona Beach, Florida , for
6724-419: Was that black artists that MTV initially ignored received airplay. The program ran until the end of May 1992. Playboy TV launched their own music video program called "Playboy's Hot Rocks" that premiered on July 15, 1983 featuring uncensored versions of music videos that were shown in nightclubs by artists from Duran Duran and Mötley Crüe to Nine Inch Nails and 2Pac. At times, they would do a certain theme like
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