As you may know, on Oct. 27 “Beavis and Butthead” will return to the airwaves almost 15 years after it left. What you may not know is that MTV, which originally aired the show, is now looking for the next “Beavis and Butthead.”
Mike Judge’s seminal show got its start on “Liquid Television,” a show that promoted boundary-pushing animation in the early 1990s. In addition to “Beavis,” “Liquid Television” was also home to shows such as “Aeon Flux” and “Cartoon Sushi.”
MTV announced the return of “Liquid Television” on Thursday, only this time across all platforms and with the archives from the old shows available for viewing.
It will begin digitally with its recently launched website, Tumblr and Facebook page. However, its content will also appear on-air, as it did Thursday night when a music video from “Wallpaper” aired after “Jersey Shore.”
TheWrap talked with David Gale, the head of MTV’s cross media group MTVX and former head of MTV Films, as well as David Harris, a VP at MTV who is spearheading the new “Liquid Television.” Gale and Harris dished on relaunching “Liquid Television,” looking for the new “Beavis and Butthead” and almost let something slip about Trey Parker and Matt Stone.
Why are you in Seattle?
Gale: We’re here to meet with Microsoft guys on another project. We can’t tell you about it yet though.
But you can tell me about “Liquid Television.”
Gale: I’ve been at MTV a long time — over 16 years — and when I started at the company, “Liquid Television” was already kind of a classic. It had launched “Beavis and Butthead” and “Aeon Flux,” and in my role running the movie division of MTV films those were two movies we put into development. We had scripts on other shows, too.
There are so many great characters, so much material, content and creators. I fell in love with it and continued the love. When it went away from MTV, a lot of people were disappointed. Meanwhile, I started this new division, the cross media group, and one of my missions was to figure out a way to launch the new “Liquid Television.”
Which you ultimately did.
Gale: We had a bit of a false start a few years ago because the economy tanked. That made things expensive, so we’ve been figuring out a way to do it. We got it out, and David Harris is lead on it.
So what exactly is your role, David?
Harris: Heading up “Liquid Television.” I’ve run a couple projects for the division, and David let me take the ball on this one. From both a technical and creative standpoint, I’m an arts school kid. I went to [the Rhode Island School of Design] 50/50 because “Liquid Television” existed and stuff like “Aeon Flux” that was the heyday of MTV interstitials — creative weird stuff that felt so outrageous that anyone was broadcasting it at all.
Given the popularity of some of those shows, why did it die, and why bring back now?
Gale: There is no answer for why it went away. Times in TV have changed. One of the brilliant things about “Liquid Television” was it consisted of shorts. Shorts on TV…it’s not an easy thing to have. MTV is one of few places that has occasionally had shorts in the form of interstitials.
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How does it compare to the original?
Gale: I hope it’s what old fans expect and is surprising to some of new people who didn’t really know about it. Hopefully it is keeping the legacy alive, but also making it a place where what the original Liquid Television could do — discover great new voices and new animation — will happen here as well.
Enter the digital age, and shorts are what its all about. The time is actually better than ever to really discover all these kinds of great ideas, talent, etc in short form.
Will it exist solely on the digital platforms or also on MTV networks?
Gale: This is the beauty of the age we live in. It will find its path to whatever platform makes sense. I knew starting it digitally would be path of least resistance because TV time is at a premium. As great stuff starts to bubble up, if there are opportunities for TV we’ll find them. Whether on MTV, MTV 2, MTV U, we’ll find them. Everyone at the company loves the brand of “Liquid Television” and will embrace it.
The very first thing you’ll see is on TV because an animated music video is premiering on TV on "Jersey Shore." It’s the first big commissioned piece.
Here's the video:
So what kind of programming content are you looking for?
Gale: Whatever the aesthetic and sensibilities are for an audience today will be different from the old one just by fact that its 20 years later. But at the same time, the ethos of it, the objective, is to really discover all kinds of new voices and do it with a fairly wide swath.
Harris: One of the nice things about “Liquid Television” is people remember it through a broader scope than it was. They include “Daria” and a lot of things that weren’t technically part of it. They all fall under the rubric of smart, cool interesting animation with an artistic perspective.
GIven that most of this is online, how do you generate revenue?
Gale: It might be shocking to hear this, but the higher-up levels of MTV have been so supportive of this for all the right reasons — it’s a great creative play. This kind of thing has made MTV successful and profitable. By allowing us to be creatively free, the hope is that advertisers will see what were giving and what the audience consists of and say, ‘that’s cool we want to be there.’
Will you bring back the old shows?
Harris: We would absolutely love to bring back some of them. We are definitely having those conversations, looking into that with a variety of creators. We don’t want it to be the only thing, but we definitely want to find the projects, shows and characters that should come back.
What else should people know about it?
Gale: What people see now is just the beginning. We’re looking for great creators. We hope it’s as much driven by the creative community as possible. It’s important to be responsive to all possibilities out there as they arrive.
So, submissions come one come all.
Come one, come all, but then you’re putting it in front of us and are in conversation with all the big people in animation. You’ve gotta bring you’re A-game if you wanna be on “Liquid Television.”
There is a lot to live up to because the people from 20 years ago were that awesome.
I’Il tell amateur animators to stay away, then.
Gale: No, don’t do that. Mike Judge was an amateur animator 20 years ago. Trey Parker and Matt Stone were amateur animators.
Who wouldn’t love to see Trey and Matt with new content on MTV?
Gale: [Laughs]. Nice speaking with you.
