During MTV’s first few years on the air, very few black artists were included in rotation on the channel. While a few artists (Michael Jackson, Prince, Eddy Grant, Donna Summer, Musical Youth, and Herbie Hancock) made the rotation, most black musicians and vocalists were ignored. None other than rock legend David Bowie himself uncomfortably questioned MTV’s lack of black artists during an on-air interview with Mark Goodman in 1983. Michael Jackson’s 1983 single, “Billie Jean” opened the door for more black artists. Jackson’s 14-minute music video “Thriller” debuted Dec. 2, 1983 as the most expensive music video ever made. By the end of the eighties, MTV was a truly integrated music network featuring other notable MTV VJs of color including Downtown Julie Brown, Daisy Fuentes, Idalis, Bill Bellamy and Ananda Lewis.
In 1985, MTV pushed the boundaries by spearheading a safe-sex ad campaign as a response to the AIDS epidemic. Not only was it edgy and controversial, it came before President Ronald Reagan even mentioned the word AIDS in public. Regardless, out in this harsh spotlight, MTV pushed teens to practice safe-sex by telling them that they were more likely to hear this message from MTV than their parents. This campaign with a positive message aimed at youth seemed to stand in direct contrast to a TV channel whose bread and butter message was told in songs about sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll. MTV continues to trumpet their safe sex message in their programs today. It remains a very powerful and effective public service message.
MTV continued to evolve during the Reagan era. In 1983, the hard rock band Kiss appeared on MTV without their trademark makeup for the first time and the blockbuster film Flashdance became the first feature film to excerpt musical segments and send them to MTV for use as music videos. A new generation of music fans was transitioning from the record store to the TV for their new releases. The question of what mattered more, the music or the video, became the never-ending lunch room and study hall debate.
Some bands or songs would certainly have been long forgotten if it weren’t for a snazzy video. Aha’s “Take On Me” is a good example. After all, would you have ever guessed that Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer” is MTV’s most played video of all-time? The song’s music video won a record nine astronaut statues (MTV’s chosen trophy design) at the 1987 MTV Video Music Awards. The innovative video utilized claymation, pixilation, and stop motion animation to give life to static objects including two headless/featherless oven-ready chickens, furniture of all shapes and sizes and an assortment of fruits and vegetables. Gabriel was required to lay on his back under a sheet of glass for 16 hours while the video was shot one frame at a time. Google it and refresh your memory.
MTV music videos could also kill a career. Just ask Billy Squier. His 1984 video for his album’s title track “Rock Me Tonite” was a disaster that became forever known as the video that killed the rock ‘n roll star. Directed (or mis-directed) by choreographer Kenny Ortega, it is considered to be the worst video ever made by a major artist and record label. In the video Squires dances like Elaine Benes on Seinfeld, crawls on the floor towards the camera and tears off his tank top shirt to reveal a body that maybe should have spent a little more time in the gym. Overnight, Squier went from playing packed arenas to less than 10,000 people a night. Billy soon quit rock ‘n’ roll, citing that video as the motivator for his early retirement.
By the late 1980s, MTV started airing non-video programming, geared toward teenagers and young adults. In 1987 MTV debuted a trivia game show called Remote Control, the network’s first original series to focus on non-musical content. It was must-see TV in the Hunter household and the show we used our VCR for religiously. The show’s premise was that host Ken Ober desperately wanted to be a TV game show host. Ober set up his basement (at 72 Woopingkof Lane; according to a street sign prop in the background) as a television studio. The MTV studio was transformed into a suburban home’s basement, complete with a washer and dryer, cheesy knick-knacks, dartboards, TV trays, and a giant Pez dispenser that resembled Bob Eubanks.
The show ran for five seasons from 1987 until 1991 and the basement was a mainstay of the show throughout its run although the decor was periodically rearranged slightly every season. The contestants sat in leather La-Z-Boy recliners behind retro kidney-shaped TV tray tables, facing host Ober and his retro-styled Zenith television. On the wall behind Ober were autographed pictures of his idols, game show hosts such as Eubanks, Bob Barker, Bill Cullen, Bert Convy, Monty Hall, and Tom Kennedy. Shows were often interrupted by the disembodied voice of “Ken’s mother” wafting down from the top of the stairs.
The quiz show tested contestants’ pop-culture knowledge with nine channels (categories) for each player to choose from. Standing behind a makeshift lectern and next to a giant television screen that choreographed the show, Ober would ask questions about celebrities, movies, TV shows and music videos. A sample of the categories include: “Celebrity Cellblock” with questions about celebrities who got in trouble with the law; “Dr. Blister,” questions about celebrity gossip, “Channel Number Five,” featuring models (almost always female) who later became famous and “Dead or Canadian?” which is self explanatory.
Participants sat on colorful La-Z-Boy chairs, each equipped with a seat belt, and tried to answer the questions by buzzing in first using old fashioned clicker remotes to avoid elimination. Ober ran the program like a late-night talk show and gleefully teased players for their wrong answers. One of the most memorable features of Remote Control was the way in which contestants were eliminated. After round two, a siren shrilled and lights began to flash wildly as the TV went “Off the Air,” and the contestant in last place was eliminated from the game. Eliminated contestants were removed immediately, chair and all (hence the seat belts).
As the contestant was ejected, the audience would sing a “goodbye song,” typically “Na Na Na Na Hey Hey Hey Goodbye,” “Hit the Road Jack,” or “Hey, You, Get Off My Show” (to the tune of “Get Off My Cloud”). While the loser was being ejected, he/she was mercilessly tormented by stagehands poking, prodding and chasing behind them to the sounds of blood curdling screams. The ejections were accomplished in a variety of ways. Sometimes the chair and contestant would disappear behind a wall only to reappear with a skeleton in the player’s place. At other times, the chair was ripped backwards through the wallpaper, swallowed up by a trap door or violently flipped backwards into oblivion. The remaining two contestants would engage in a “lightning round” to determine the champion.
In the event of a tie after the last round, a final tie-breaker question was retrieved from the giant Bob Eubanks Pez dispenser and asked of the players, with a correct answer winning the game. The last player standing advanced to the Grand Prize Round. The contestant was strapped to a Craftmatic Adjustable Bed, facing a wall of nine TV sets (some turned sideways or upside down) on which music videos were playing. The contestant had to identify the artist in each video, with a prize being awarded for every correct answer. Correctly identifying all nine artists within 30 seconds won the grand prize, usually a car or a trip to a beach resort. Before the clock started ticking, the contestant was given a split-second glimpse of every video at once.
Ober, who also hosted MTV’s “Club MTV” and “The Week In Rock,” went on to host network TV game shows “Smush” and “Make Me Laugh” and work behind the camera on “The New Adventures of Old Christine”. He died of natural causes in 2009 at the age of 52. But perhaps the most memorable aspect of the show were the stars it created. MTV’s Remote Control helped launch the careers of Adam Sandler, Denis Leary and Colin Quinn. The trio made various appearances on the show, acting out sketches that turned into quiz questions.
Colin Quinn got the most face time on the show as the announcer but also for playing characters like “Bossy Boy” an uptight fast food manager and “Stickpin Quinn” a juvenile delinquent and petty criminal. Denis Leary’s characters included pop artist Andy Warhol reading his diary, Colin’s brother (with no name) whose every segment seemed to end with a fistfight between siblings and “Rolling Stoned,” a strung out Keith Richards style character. Adam Sandler’s characters included “Stud Boy,” a blowhard Lothario and the “Trivia Delinquent.”
MTV launched its popular reality series The Real World in 1992 and continued with highly rated shows including The Osbournes, Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica, Laguna Beach, My Super Sweet 16 and The Hills. MTV continued to stretch the format with animated series like Beavis and Butthead, Daria and Celebrity Deathmatch, as well as documentaries, news, more game shows and public service campaigns ranging from safe sex to “Rock the Vote.”
To be honest, I haven’t watched MTV regularly for decades. Time flies and habits change. Kids, work, mortgages: they all tax our time and pull us away from things that were once integral to our daily life. The news that the VCR is no more and that the last one came off the line last week on my birthday, July 30th, was not so much a shock to me as it was a reality. Time marches on whether we like it or not.
Al Hunter is the author of the “Haunted Indianapolis” and co-author of the “Haunted Irvington” and “Indiana National Road” book series. His newest book is “Bumps in the Night. Stories from the Weekly View.” Contact Al directly at Huntvault@aol.com or become a friend on Facebook.
