Today in History: MTV’s Beavis and Butthead premieres
The show, controversial to some, experienced great success during its running time.
On this day in 1993, the Music Television Network (MTV) aired the first episode of the animated series Beavis and Butthead, which would go on to become the network’s highest-rated series at the time.
Beavis and Butthead offered audiences rude and crude buddy humour in the tradition of The Three Stooges, Cheech and Chong, and Wayne and Garth of Saturday Night Live and the Wayne’s World movies. The main characters were two teenage boys living in the fictional town of Highland; they attended Highland High but spent most of their time eating junk food, talking about girls and – most importantly – watching music videos.
Beavis and Butthead alternated between animated story-lines and clips of actual music videos, which the boys commented on in their signature bone-headed style, punctuated by sarcastic comments and grunt-like laughter. Creator Mike Judge first drew his two main characters for an animation festival, where an MTV producer spotted them and picked up an episode for its animated showcase Liquid Television.
After signing Judge on for 65 episodes, the network began airing the show on weeknights at 7pm and 11pm. Critics were divided in their response as some praised Judge and MTV for effectively skewering a big part of the network’s own core demographic – young men who watch music videos – while others cited Beavis and Butthead’s lowest common denominator humor as evidence of an overall decline in the quality of television.
Despite the mixed critical response, the show earned MTV’s highest ratings. It also sparked a heated controversy over the influence of TV programmes on impressionable young children, especially after an incident in 1993, when a mother blamed Beavis and Butthead’s well-documented pyromaniac tendencies for inspiring her five-year-old son to set a fire that killed his two-year-old sister.
In response to the uproar over this tragedy, MTV pulled four episodes off the air, cut all references to fire and moved Beavis and Butthead to the 10.30pm–11.30pm time slot, claiming they were simply targeting an older audience.
Information courtesy of: https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/mtvs-highest-rated-series-premieres.
