Liquid Television
| Liquid Television |
|
| Format |
Animated television series |
| Created by |
Japhet Asher[1] |
| Country of origin |
United States |
| No. of seasons |
3 |
| No. of episodes |
22 |
| Production |
| Running time |
30 minutes |
| Broadcast |
| Original channel |
MTV[2] |
| Original run |
June 2, 1991 – March 6, 1994 |
Liquid Television is an Emmy Award–winning 1990s animation showcase that appeared on MTV.[3] The first season of Liquid Television also aired on BBC Two in co-production with MTV. Ultimately, MTV commissioned three seasons of the show, which was produced by Colossal Pictures. It has served as the launching point for several high-profile original cartoons, including Beavis and Butt-head, Æon Flux, Cartoon Sushi, and The Head. The bulk of Liquid Television's material was created by independent animators and artists specially for the show, and some previously produced segments were compiled from festivals such as Spike and Mike's Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation. Mark Mothersbaugh composed the show's theme music. It was broadcast in New Zealand on TV3 and in Australia on SBS.
There were also a large number of animation pieces adapted from the work of Art Spiegelman's comic compilation, RAW. RAW featured underground cartoonists such as Mark Beyer, Richard Sala, and Peter Bagge. In particular, Dog-Boy by Charles Burns was based on the artist's series from RAW.[4]
Selected segments from the series, including the first appearances of Æon Flux, were released on two VHS tapes in the late 1990s as The Best of Liquid Television parts one and two. These tapes are long out-of-print. A collection volume, titled Wet Shorts (The Best of Liquid Television), comprising the two VHS tapes, was available on DVD but this too is out-of-print.
On October 13, 2011, MTVX, MTV's cross media group, announced the return of Liquid Television.[5] It's now a tv network that available on the internet and social media. The first content to come out of the revived network is "F****** BEST SONG EVERR" by Wallpaper. available on the website and before the premiere of episode 46 of the Jersey Shore
Series credits
- Japhet Asher – Executive Producer/Creative Director
- Prudence Fenton – Executive Producer/Story Editor
- Mark Mothersbaugh – Composer, Theme Music
- XAOS - Theme Song & Transition Bumpers
- A BIG Pictures & Noyes & Laybourne Collaboration
- Produced by (Colossal) Pictures for MTV & BBC-TV
Episodes
Recurring segments
- Winter Steele – A puppet show about a biker chick searching for her long-lost love.
- Soap Opera – A parody of daytime soaps, with bars of soap as the actors.
- Cut-Up Camera – A parody of Candid Camera involving outrageous situations.
- Miss Lidia's Makeover to the Stars – A short about an unseen makeup artist (with live-action hands) who gives celebrities mock make-overs via her computer.
- Invisible Hands – About a turban-clad sleuth who solves murders.
- Buzz Box – A short with changing patterns set to rock music.
- Stick Figure Theatre – A series of shorts recreating scenes from popular movies using stick-figures drawn on 3x5 cards.
- Dangerous Puppets – About two puppets who violently destroy each other.
- The Art School Girls of Doom – A live-action short starring 2 art school girls.
- Footworks – Stories featuring footprints as the characters.
- Aeon Flux – About a scantily-clad female secret agent (later spun off into its own series; also remade into a 2005 live-action film starring Charlize Theron).[6]
- Beavis and Butt-head - About two adolescent morons who cause their own trouble, twice it appeared on the show, later spun off into its own series.
- Psychogram – A series of stories using various postcards.
- The Specialists – A 10-episode series about three private detectives.
- Dog Boy – A live-action, comic book-style story about the adventures of a young man who received a dog's heart in a medical transplant.
- The Adventures of Thomas and Nardo – A computer animated series about a man and his anthropomorphic house done in a 3D paper-style, created by Mark Beyer. It had an original soundtrack composed by The Residents.
- Speedbump the Roadkill Possum – About a possum who often gets run over.
- Was (Not Was) – A series of fast-paced chalk animations to the tune of songs by the titular band.
- Uncle Louie – A series of comic book style cut out animations involving an older yet ecstatic uncle and his nephew in a miscellaneous adventures.
- Bobby & Billy – A series of cut-out animations, drawn similar to Norman Rockwell paintings, about two younger boys who display malevolence and immoral behavior in various situations. The cartoon often satirizes indecency set in the 1960s.
See also
References
- ^ "Creative Writing Seminar - Japhet Asher". London: Kingston University. 15 April 2008. http://fass.kingston.ac.uk/activities/item.php?updatenum=758. Retrieved 1 January 2012.
- ^ "Top 100 animated series". IGN. http://uk.tv.ign.com/top-100-animated-tv-series/32.html. Retrieved 2010-10-19.
- ^ Svetkey, Benjamin (June 14, 1991). "What is Liquid Television". Entertainment Weekly. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,314629,00.html. Retrieved 2010-11-12.
- ^ Lipton, Lauren (June 9, 1991). "High-Tech MTV `Liquid Television' shows what visual wizards can do with animation and pop culture". The Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/1991-06-09/news/tv-709_1_liquid-television. Retrieved 2010-11-12.
- ^ "mtv revives liquid-television". Cartoon Brew. http://www.cartoonbrew.com//biz/mtv-revives-liquid-television.html.
- ^ "Liquid Television". Entertainment Weekly. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20254986,00.html. Retrieved 2010-11-12.
External links