MTV Animation
 |
 | |
| Company type | Division |
|---|---|
| Industry | Animation |
| Founded | 1993 |
| Founders | Abby Terkuhle |
| Products | Television Movies |
| Owner | Paramount Global |
| Parent | MTV Entertainment Studios (Paramount Media Networks) |
MTV Animation is the animation department of the television network MTV.
History
In 1991, MTV debuted its first full-length animated series, Liquid Television, which helped launch Beavis and Butt-Head and Æon Flux. MTV established its own in-house animation studio in 1993 to work on Beavis and Butt-Head and other projects. While MTV's animation department is often grouped with Nickelodeon's (as both channels were part of MTV Networks), the two entities are mostly separate. MTV's cartoons are known for their dark humor, adult jokes, graphic violence, pop culture references, and irreverence.
In an interview for the Beavis and Butt-Head Do America DVD, Mike Judge described MTV Animation as being very ad hoc: Beavis and Butt-Head didn't have an art director until the film was made, so until the film they'd never considered colour palettes from scene to scene. In the same interview, art director Yvette Kaplan said "everything was overlapping... we never had the luxury of one part [episode] finished" before another episode was finished.[1]
Many MTV animation productions do not survive a single season and in some cases are canceled before completion. Productions including Undergrads, Downtown, Station Zero, 3-South, and Clone High have been highly acclaimed, yet none of them got renewed beyond their first season, usually due to lack of an audience or advertising. By 2001, the animation department was shut down, with the network's animated series now being outsourced to different studios. During the 2000s, MTV would phase out of producing original animation in favor of importing shows, usually reruns of shows from sister networks Comedy Central and Nickelodeon. The MTV Animation brand was briefly revived from 2006 to 2007 as part of a push to produce animated series for MTV2.
In 2011, MTV would return to adult animation. Its first production was a relaunch of Beavis and Butt-Head, which premiered in October 2011; this was quickly followed by Good Vibes, starting later in the same month. In November 2011, MTV said they plan a third cartoon, Worst Friends Forever by Thomas Middleditch, that Mike Judge would produce, about three teenage girls who hover on the outskirts of popularity and have to cope with cattiness and crushes; a pilot had been picked up and concept art of the characters was released.[2] The cartoons did not do as expected though. Good Vibes was cancelled in February 2012 due to low ratings, on the same day the DVD came out,[3] Beavis and Butt-Head was cancelled in December 2011, and Worst Friends Forever never aired. In a September 2012 interview on "Making It With Riki Lindhome", Middleditch said Worst Friends was "for all intents and purposes done" and "not in my hands anymore".[4] Mike Judge said in January 2014 that he might pitch Beavis and Butt-Head to another network.[5]
Future and recent resurgence
In August 2020, ViacomCBS's Entertainment & Youth Group launched a new strategy to expand its adult animation units.[6] This upcoming unit will produce various animated shows under the revitalized MTV Entertainment Group. Plans for Beavis and Butt-Head (reboot) and Daria (spinoff film) have been announced for Comedy Central (and Paramount+), as well as an animated sequel revival series of Everybody Hates Chris order by Comedy Central and is slated to premiere in 2023. It also produced the Clone High revival seasons on at Max (formerly HBO Max) premiered on May 23, 2023 at the relaunch of the platform.[7] MTV Animation Inc. remains a subsidiary of Paramount Global.
Productions
Television series
| Title | Creator/Developer(s) | Premiere date | Finale date | Co-production with | Network | Note(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MTV Animation | ||||||
| 1990s | ||||||
| Beavis and Butt-Head | Mike Judge | March 8, 1993; October 27, 2011 |
November 28, 1997; December 29, 2011 |
J. J. Sedelmaier Productions, Inc. (Season 1) Ternion Pictures (Season 8) Inbred Jed's Homemade Cartoons (Pilot only) Film Roman (Season 8) Judgemental Films |
MTV | Spun-off from Liquid Television. Created by Mike Judge, creator of King of the Hill. |
| The Head | Eric Fogel | September 1, 1994 | March 1, 1996 | |||
| The Maxx | Original character: Sam Kieth Series: Sam Kieth Bill Messner-Loebs |
April 8, 1995 | June 19, 1995 | Based on the comic book series of the same name. | ||
| Æon Flux | Peter Chung | August 8, 1995 | October 10, 1995 | (Colossal) Pictures | Spun-off from Liquid Television. | |
| Daria | Glenn Eichler Susie Lewis |
March 3, 1997 | June 25, 2001 | Heyday Media | Spun-off from Beavis and Butt-Head. | |
| Cartoon Sushi | Danny Antonucci Keith Alcorn |
October 17, 1997 | June 23, 1998 | DNA Productions a.k.a. Cartoon |
||
| Celebrity Deathmatch | Eric Fogel | May 14, 1998; June 10, 2006 |
October 20, 2002; March 30, 2007 |
TakToon Enterprise (1998–2002) Cuppa Coffee Studios (2006–07) |
MTV (1998–02) MTV2 (2006–07) |
|
| Station Zero[8] | Tramp Daly | March 8, 1999 | April 6, 1999 | Possible Worlds C-Traze Studios Upfront Entertainment |
MTV | First MTV weekday cartoon |
| Phred on Your Head Show[9] | Amy Friedman | July 26, 1999 | March 31, 2002 | Noggin LLC Tricky Pictures Possible Worlds |
Noggin | Animated for MTV's sister channel, Noggin. |
| Downtown | Chris Prynoski | August 3, 1999 | November 8, 1999 | MTV | ||
| 2000s | ||||||
| Shrimpton O'Small | 2000 | N/A | Unaired pilot for Nickelodeon | |||
| The URL with Phred Show | Amy Friedman | September 10, 2001 | March 31, 2002 | Noggin LLC Tricky Pictures Possible Worlds |
Noggin | Animated for MTV's sister channel, Noggin. |
| Spy Groove | Michael Gans Richard Register |
June 26, 2000 | July 13, 2002 | MTV | ||
| Fish 'N' Clips | September 29, 2000 | VH1 | Pilot | |||
| Undergrads | Pete Williams | April 1, 2001 | August 12, 2001 | Decode Entertainment | Teletoon MTV |
First MTV cartoon co-produced with Teletoon. |
| Clone High | Phil Lord and Christopher Miller Bill Lawrence |
November 2, 2002 | April 13, 2003 | Doozer Lord Miller Productions Nelvana Touchstone Television |
Second MTV cartoon co-produced with Teletoon. | |
| 3-South | Mark Hentemann Steve Callaghan |
November 7, 2002 | January 3, 2003 | Warner Bros. Animation | MTV | |
| Where My Dogs At? | Aaron Matthew Lee Jeff Ross |
June 10, 2006 | July 29, 2006 | Enough With The Bread Already Productions Six Point Harness |
MTV2 | |
| The Adventures of Chico and Guapo | Orlando Jones P. J. Pesce Paul D'Acri |
June 10, 2006 | July 29, 2006 | One Red Room | ||
| Friday: The Animated Series | Ice Cube | June 24, 2007 | July 8, 2007 | New Line Television Cube Vision |
Adapted from the Friday film series. | |
| MTV Entertainment Studios | ||||||
| 2020s | ||||||
| South Park | Trey Parker Matt Stone |
March 10, 2021 | present | South Park Studios | Comedy Central | Originally started in 1997. |
| Fairview | Stephen Colbert R.J. Fried |
March 9, 2022 | present | CBS Studios Spartina Productions Licht Media Solutions RJ Fried Worldwide |
||
| Beavis and Butt-Head | Mike Judge | August 4, 2022 | Judgemental Films Titmouse, Inc. 3 Arts Entertainment |
Paramount+ | ||
| Clone High | Phil Lord and Christopher Miller Bill Lawrence |
May 23, 2023 | Doozer Lord Miller Productions ShadowMachine |
Max | ||
| Jodie | Grace Edwards | TBA | Awesome Inc. | Comedy Central | ||
| Ren & Stimpy | Original characters: John Kricfalusi |
TBA | Awesome Inc. | |||
Other MTV animated series
| Title | Creator/Developer(s) | Premiere date | Finale date | Co-production with | Network | Note(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980s | ||||||
| Stevie and Zoya | Joe Horne | 1987 | 1989 | MTV | ||
| 1990s | ||||||
| Liquid Television | Japhet Asher | June 2, 1991 May 15, 2014 |
March 6, 1994 June 12, 2014 |
Original series: (Colossal) Pictures BIG Pictures Noyes & Laybourne Enterprises BBC Enterprises Revival series: Titmouse, Inc. |
MTV | Revived for the internet in 2014. |
| The Brothers Grunt | Danny Antonucci | August 15, 1994 | April 9, 1995 | a.k.a. Cartoon | Created by Danny Antonucci, creator of Ed, Edd n Eddy. First MTV cartoon to features theme song vocalist. | |
| 2000s | ||||||
| Video Mods | Tony Shiff | September 16, 2004 | July 22, 2005 | Big Bear Entertainment IBC Entertainment |
MTV2 | First animated show for MTV2 |
| Wonder Showzen | Vernon Chatman and John Lee | March 11, 2005 | May 19, 2006 | PFFR Augenblick Studios |
||
| DJ & the Fro | Dave Jeser Matt Silverstein |
June 15, 2009 | July 2, 2009 | Double Hemm | MTV | Second MTV weekday cartoon |
| Popzilla | R.J. Fried Tim Hedrick Jared Miller Kevin Pedersen Dave Thomas |
September 27, 2009 | October 16, 2009 | Animax Entertainment | ||
| 2010s | ||||||
| Good Vibes | David Gordon Green Brad Ableson Mike Clements |
October 27, 2011 | December 29, 2011 | Werner Entertainment Rough House Pictures Not the QB Pro. Six Point Harness Good Humor Television |
MTV | |
| Greatest Party Story Ever | January 14, 2016 | December 22, 2016 | Four Peaks Media Group Den of Thieves ShadowMachine Cartuna |
|||
Theatrical films
| Title | Director | Release date | Distributor | Co-production with | Note(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beavis and Butt-Head Do America | Mike Judge | December 20, 1996 | Paramount Pictures | Geffen Pictures Judgemental Films |
MTV's first and only theatrically released animated feature to date. |
Streaming service original films
| Title | Director | Release date | Distributor | Co-production with | Note(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| South Park: Post Covid | Trey Parker | November 25, 2021 | Paramount+ | South Park Studios | |
| South Park: Post Covid: The Return of Covid | December 16, 2021 | ||||
| South Park: The Streaming Wars | June 1, 2022 | ||||
| Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe | John Rice Albert Calleros |
June 23, 2022 | Judgemental Films Titmouse, Inc. 3 Arts Entertainment |
Sequel to Beavis and Butt-Head Do America. | |
| South Park: The Streaming Wars Part 2 | Trey Parker | July 13, 2022 | South Park Studios | ||
| South Park: Joining the Panderverse | October 27, 2023 |
Television films
| Title | Director | Release date | Distributor | Co-production with | Note(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daria: Is It Fall Yet? | Glenn Eichler Peggy Nicoll |
August 27, 2000 | CBS Media Ventures | Heyday Media | Based on Daria. |
| Daria: Is It College Yet? | Karen Disher |
January 21, 2002 |
References
- ^ Beavis and Butt-head Do America DVD (2006 version): Making Of feature
- ^ TV Guide: "Exclusive: MTV Developing Another Animated Series with Beavis and Butt-head Producers"
- ^ Deadline: Animated Comedy ‘Good Vibes’ Cancelled By MTV After One Season
- ^ Making It #61: Thomas Middleditch, 58:25 to 59:09
- ^ "Mike Judge: 'Beavis and Butt-Head' Trapped in Limbo". CraveOnline. Archived from the original on January 11, 2014. Retrieved January 11, 2013.
- ^ Goldberg, Lesley (August 5, 2020). "Grant Gish to Oversee Adult Animation Unit at ViacomCBS". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved June 9, 2021.
- ^ "Are we ready for the big Generation X animation comeback?". the Guardian. August 10, 2020. Retrieved June 9, 2021.
- ^ "POP NOTES". The Washington Post. March 7, 1999. Retrieved February 25, 2022.
- ^ Kilmer, David. "DMA, Possible Worlds and MTV Animation put Phred on your head". Animation World Network. Archived from the original on March 28, 2002.
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