2. Creation and Debut
• MTV started in 1981 but dates back all the way to the
1970's, The creator of MTV Robert W. Pittman had
tested a music show on the WNBC network where he
hosted the show and produced it. with a little
persuasion from the head of departments at WNBC.
John Lack had help promote a TV series called
PopClips, this then over the years lead to the creation
of MTV. “Ladies and Gentlemen, Rock and Roll” were
the official words that started the everlasting era of
MTV. These words were spoken by John Lack . The first
music video was Video Killed the Radio Star by The
Buggles. Then for the first day of MTV they had
managed to play 87 music videos
3. The First MTV Opening
• The first idea was to use the famous words “one
small step” originally said by Neil Armstrong,
however when Armstrong refused MTV to use it
the idea was forgotten However they managed to
alter it and they used the Apollo 11 landing clip
because of it being public footage. The MTV
opening was a montage of the Apollo 11 moon
landing combined with the MTV logo on the
American flag with it changing colours, fonts and
textures.
4. Video Jockey's
• The term "video jockey" is a taken from the term
"disc jockey", "DJ" as used in radio. MTV believed
this was correct because instead of playing
records they were playing music videos. MTV had
taken the idea of VJ s from the radioʼ show top
40. This lead to them hiring five men and women
to host MTV and to introduce the video that were
being played. The original five were Nina
Blackwood, Mark Goodman, Alan Hunter, J.J.
Jackson and Martha Quinn.
5. The Change of MTV
• In the late 1990s and early 2000s, MTV placed a stronger focus on
displaying reality TV shows The Real World in the 1990s. Then came the
game shows such as Singled Out. Towards the late 90s MTV started to
move further into shows, they began to focus on prank/comedy shows.
These included Jackass. In 2000, MTV's Fear became one of the first scare-
based reality shows and the first reality show in which contestants filmed
themselves. They also kept to MTV musical roots by doing reality shows on
the lives of musicians. The most famous one of these is the show The
Osbournes, a reality show based on the everyday life of Black Sabbath
front man Ozzy Osbourne, as well as his family Sharon, Jack and Kelly
Osbourne. The show became one of the networks biggest success stories.
In 2003, MTV added a prank show called Punk'd, hosted by Ashton
Kutcher who plays pranks and sometimes use current event to make it
realistic on to the various celebrities. They also added another show Pimp
My Ride, a show about adding functional modifications to cars and other
vehicles. In 2005 and 2006, MTV continued its focus on reality shows, with
the debuts of popular shows such as Laguna Beach: The Real Orange
County, NEXT, Two-A-Days and My Super Sweet 16.
