On MTV's recent animation slump

[Rover_Wow]

Think about it. Since the cancellation of Daria and Deathmatch, they've picked up three animated series:

- Spider-man
- Undergrads
- Clone High

Besides being on MTV, they all have these other things in common:

- Lasted a single season
- Ended its single season on a 'hanger

No wonder why they're bringing back Deathmatch, despite its one gimmick it's still entertaining. Still, what's with the slump?

[Leviathan]

Maybe i'm biased, but i think MTV doesn't care about animation, so they've allowed it to enter a slump (MTV treats it's music videos better than it's aniamtion which s truly saying something)

[Aquadementia]

What cartoons were they airing before Deatmatch came back?
It seems less of a slump and more like an abandonment of animation.

As far as I'm concerned, Deatmatch could have stayed dead for all I care.

[sdp]

Deathmatch lost its's appeal after i turned 13.

And clone high and undergrads might not have been successful (undergrads gets good ratings now on ComedyCentral and TeleToon). And i'd love to see a second season for both of those.

Spiderman i really liked the animation, too bad i didn't care about the stories or character.

I dont' think they've aired animation besides random clips of B&B on MTV

[Spongebrain2.0]

MTV did have a huge hit with Beavis & Butt head, but after that...there wasn't really any popular animation

[Dee]

Woah woah.... MTV plays music videos? I'm not trying to make a joke or anything--- but it's news to me. Every time I pass the channel, there's always a non-music-video show on there.

How can they give more care to videos than animation? I don't even see any videos on there.

[sdp]

they don't, that is why he made that comment :anime:

[Kazuya Prower]

They should bring back Cartoon Sushi or Oddities.

[Aquadementia]

Woah woah.... MTV plays music videos? I'm not trying to make a joke or anything--- but it's news to me. Every time I pass the channel, there's always a non-music-video show on there.

How can they give more care to videos than animation? I don't even see any videos on there.
Looking at their schedule for today

MTV Hits -from 2000
TRL x3 - from 1999
After Hours - from 1997!
Video Wake -up - form 2000



That's six hours of programming partially dedicated to music.
Of course if you're one of those stickler that believes the millennium didnt start untill 2001, none of it from this century.



Wasn't Heat Guy-J the last cartoon to air on MTV2?
And how long ago was that?

[Captain Harlock]

3 South, The Maxx, and Downtown are also failed MTV animation projects. Although, The Maxx wasn't all that bad. 3 South was pretty much terrible, and Downtown was in the same vein of Undergrads.

[Master Moron]

You forgot that spy show, I think it was called Spy Groove. That was pretty damn awful.

[Golgo13]

MTV had a lot of animation back in the early 90's. There was Liquid Television, Aeon Flux, The Maxx, The Head, Oddities and Beavis & Butthead.

There was even a come-back special of these cartoons later on with Jay and Silent Bob doing a commercial for the whole thing.

Then there were those few glorious months after the end of Seinfeld that brought Celebrity Deathmatch and Cartoon Sushi.
That's the problem with animation on networks that aren't into it. It's just a fad that has it's occasional bursts.

Jay: You remember when MTV use have all those great cartoons? Those were the days.
Silent Bob: *entertains Jay with a hand puppet*
Jay: It's just not the same, man.

[Nin-Nin69]

Bill Plympton got his big break working for MTV back in the 80's doing his own show and making logo promos. His work there helped made MTV was it was until 1996. Yet even he was turned down not to long ago for starting something back up with them again.

If anything MTV needs to worry about right now is finding a new trend in music. We've been stuck with the same Rap/Pop trend since 1993 and we need to move on. It's 2005 and we've yet to find a new trend. MTV needs to get out there and find something else.

[Spongebrain2.0]

B&B need to come back & trash those rap videos & "Yo Yo Dawg, I slit my *****'s throat" gangsta hip hop trash! I can see them there watching a video with Eminem or 50 Cent...:anime:


Beavis: What the.....

Butt-head: This sucks.....

[Golgo13]

Bill Plympton got his big break working for MTV back in the 80's doing his own show and making logo promos. His work there helped made MTV was it was until 1996. Yet even he was turned down not to long ago for starting something back up with them again.

If anything MTV needs to worry about right now is finding a new trend in music. We've been stuck with the same Rap/Pop trend since 1993 and we need to move on. It's 2005 and we've yet to find a new trend. MTV needs to get out there and find something else.
No kidding. Even MTV's ads are just sad.

There is one ad in which two preppy girls get all pissy at art and plays and state "Everything sucks. Let's go home and watch MTV."

Another one has some guy correcting people on lyrics and an announcer says "Don't let this guy win. Watch MTV."

[Nin-Nin69]

Animation will never work on MTV after 1996. They began to phase out everything that made MTV good and anything to do with Grunge, Rock and Roll, Punk, Ska, and Alternative besides those owned by Viacom or known by everyone world wide. VJ's with expertise in the music industry dating back to the 1940's now replaced by anyone they could find out of the local community college. My favorite show, "Singled Out", replaced Jenny McCarthy for Carmen Electra and the show flopped. Thus "The Blame Game" was invented. Now we have shows with Cameron Diaz traveling around Africa with random celebrities instead of fulfilling the wishes of a dying child in Australia (Josh Morten died at age 15 back in 2004).

Beavis and Butthead did very well in the box office that year, but MTV heads didn't even care. So Mike Judge found a new home at Fox and ended Beavis and Butthead the following year. Animation from that point on was looking very shallow. MTV's fashion of changing time slots every week without telling the public never really helped gain the ratings for most cartoons.

Downtown was their best original show and MTV left it to hang after it's first showing since it replaced something bigger at the time. I dunno, maybe it was Tom Green. Now the creator is off doing Megas XLR which could've worked better on MTV with a little more mature demographic.

Daria is being held back by Viacom thanks to the countless music licences that needs to be approved. It never made sense to me that after you get the aproval the first time around to use an artist's music, they need another when being released on video. And most end up saying no the second time around when they fail to understand they're getting the promotion they need when after being long and forgotten about.

Celebrity Deathmatch was an exception, but after rewatching the show last year, I don't really care for it the same way I did when it first came out. Heck I was even excited about the game when it was first anounced, but you know how big of a disaster that turned out to be. Bringing back Celebrity Deathmatch could insite MTV giving animation another chance, but with the history of Cartoon Sushi, Downtown, Undergrads, Spiderman, andHeat Guy J it seems doubtful.


No kidding. Even MTV's ads are just sad.

There is one ad in which two preppy girls get all pissy at art and plays and state "Everything sucks. Let's go home and watch MTV." When I first saw that commercial I believed it was some bad movie on Fox Family. It's very understandable why most people don't appreciate the art world in today's age compare to about 30 years ago. Yet I remember there being positive aspects of the art world shown in that commercial instead of the dull and dreary niche people make it out to be. Even still those girls were walking all over everything.

[Bunai]

MTV and FOX seem be alike.
they make so many shows that will actually get good ratings or good reviews but end up cancelling them.

[Nin-Nin69]

MTV and FOX seem be alike.
they make so many shows that will actually get good ratings or good reviews but end up cancelling them.However FOX has yet to let go of Mike Judge and KotH. Something MTV should've been upset about from the getgo.

[Shark]

Question. Did MTV even air the entire (and only) season of Clone High. I started watching it from the very beginning, and then one day it just disappeared around episode six or something. I really liked that show.:(

[Superperson]

I really thought Undergrads was really good too, and as far as MTV with animation, it seemed like something they cared about up until about the late 90's and realized they could just make cheaper shows that would probably oull in more ratings, or its kinda viewed as cool till its a season old and cancellable.

[Leviathan]

Daria is being held back by Viacom thanks to the countless music licences that needs to be approved. It never made sense to me that after you get the aproval the first time around to use an artist's music, they need another when being released on video. And most end up saying no the second time around when they fail to understand they're getting the promotion they need when after being long and forgotten about.TV Shows and Video/DVD Releases are covered under Different contracts. So, When TV Shows with copyrighted music are released to Video/DVD the music rights musted either be cleared or the music gets replaced. And When a Show has an astronomical amount of Music cues(such as WKRP in Cincinnatii), that show gets blacklisted by the studios. Typically, Top 40 Music (Elvis Presly, The Beatles, Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, et al.) and Mainstream Music (most of the music showcased on MTV) are the first ones to get replaced

If Daria is being held back becuase of Music Problems, then the show would be suffering the exact same problem as the show from which it derived; Beavis and Butthead. Pity, Maybe Viacom could take the route of Scrubs, Network 90 and Mission Hill, and compromise some of the music and keep the rest (But then again, Rumor has it that Mike Judge actually bought a bootleg set of B&B DVD's so the chances of that ever happening are slim. Probably the same for Daria)

[Nin-Nin69]

TV Shows and Video/DVD Releases are covered under Different contracts. So, When TV Shows with copyrighted music are released to Video/DVD the music rights musted either be cleared or the music gets replaced. And When a Show has an astronomical amount of Music cues(such as WKRP in Cincinnatii), that show gets blacklisted by the studios. Typically, Top 40 Music (Elvis Presly, The Beatles, Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, et al.) and Mainstream Music (most of the music showcased on MTV) are the first ones to get replaced So what is so hard about the people who worked on the show spending a month or two calling people and asking if it's ok to use them again? Any artist that says no forgets that they got promoted and will be remembered by those who've forgotten their existance on the planet. If not then hire an existing musical artist on the show or someone with tallent to fill in the dead air where the soundtrack would go. The entire show won't be released under a day. Plus once you get the first season approved, you can delay the second one for as long as possible. Holding off on sales for the second one gives them plenty of time to get sorted out.



If Daria is being held back becuase of Music Problems, then the show would be suffering the exact same problem as the show from which it derived; Beavis and Butthead. Pity, Maybe Viacom could take the route of Scurbs, Network 90 and Mission Hill, and compromise some of the music and keep the rest. Anything released thus far of Beavis and Butthead simply left out the music videos. Nothing wrong with that. Although a DVD dedicated to those in the future would be nice.

[sdp]

I really thought Undergrads was really good too, and as far as MTV with animation, it seemed like something they cared about up until about the late 90's and realized they could just make cheaper shows that would probably oull in more ratings, or its kinda viewed as cool till its a season old and cancellable. yeah, but that show also has a lot of music, but luckily it did get released on DVD. It got a pretty good release as well.

[Dee]

they don't, that is why he made that comment :anime:
LOL okay I was like "Wait a minute--- since when has MTV had anything worth watching on? It's been a couple of years..."

[Somejerk]

Am I the only one who hated Undergrads and loved 3South?

Everyone has forgottten "Heat Guy Jay" which was on MTV2 for a week or 2.

I think MTV could start a whole network of Animation or Better yet a VOD service of just animated programing from thier library.

Someoen write MTV for me, I'm too lazy

[Spongebrain2.0]

3 South was classic, people forget about it.

[Chrono1995]

Even though I was 12 (I think) at the time, Cartoon Sushi kicked ass. I think it was just too weird and dare I say it...too hip?...for MTV.

Didn't Clone High get cancelled because some groups got mad about the portrayal of Ghandi? Funny, for a network that claims it's so edgy and un-safe they caved in pretty quickly.

[Nin-Nin69]

Even though I was 12 (I think) at the time, Cartoon Sushi kicked ass. I think it was just too weird and dare I say it...too hip?...for MTV. There was Plymptoons by Bill Plympton in the 80's and Liquid Television. The content was no different than Cartoon Sushi.

Ratings must've been the issue here, but these are the same people that love Spike and Mike's Festival of Animation. Yet they'd rather pay for a ticket to see Spike and Mike than watch Cartoon Sushi? :confused:

[Golgo13]

I really want to see Cartoon Sushi again. Or at least find out where I can see all of Ultra City 6060. That was my favorite reoccuring series on that show.

[PositronShooter]

Even though I was sad at Daria ending, I was glad that it got proper closure. But Celebrity Deathmatch just disappeared for no reason. I hate when that happens.

As for the other shows, they never should've cancelled Clone High. It was looking to be a highly entertaining show, and then one day, they just snatch it away from us! It's insulting that TV studios can get away with doing that. :mad:

[Leviathan]

I think MTV could start a whole network of Animation or Better yet a VOD service of just animated programing from thier library.I don't think the chances of that happening are too great becuase MTV doesn't really have enough animation to sustain a 24/7 animation channel (Unless MTV fills the reamining Timeslots with Syndication, or Cartoons from other Viacom networks)

a VOD Service could work, though.

But It really would'nt concern me if MTV did that or not becuase i've given up on it. Unlike Nick and CN which occasionally shocwase new, good programs (Which prevent me from turning into a pillar of salt for looking back), all of MTV's programs have been crappy since 2000

[KCJ506]

Even though I was sad at Daria ending, I was glad that it got proper closure. But Celebrity Deathmatch just disappeared for no reason. I hate when that happens.

Exactly. MTV.com never said anything about the show being cancelled. They just stopped updating the site. No explantion to why the show was cancelled. That made me mad. I'm glad it's coming back with new episodes. That was my favorite MTV show. I don't care that the orginal creator won't be doing the episodes. Just as long as Johhny and Nick are still there.

[sdp]

A show like celebrity deathmatch can't have proper closure, i mean...

[loyalheart]

If i remember... Didn't MTV shut down their animation studio in NY? Which was around the time 'Undergrads' was being produced...

I think...

[Zach Williams]

3 South was classic. Same for Spider-Man (Well, not classic but at least good). The other crap after their 90s hits were all crap. Celebrity Deathmatch repeats a lot on MTV2, even before it was announced it was coming back. Beavis & Butthead repeated almost every night a long time ago, but only plays a select number of times every month. So, yeah, not a slump, but more of a dump.