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.
