the “mike judge collection” looks good. 40 of his favorite episodes, with the narrative bits separated from the music-video bits (which makes sense to me). and apparently, we’re not being set up for a scam wherein we buy this collection and then get hit with the complete seasons one by one. judge has said that only non-overlapping collections of his favorite episodes will be released. if i hadn’t caught a lot of the comedy central marathon from last week i don’t know if i would have wanted to buy it, but having done so, i must (damn you, evil marketing geniuses!). plus “the great cornholio” is in this set. unfortunately, i don’t think the great i.n.s episode in which cornholio is deported is on here–i remember watching this at a super bowl party at ned’s (it was mtv’s half-time counter-programming); probably will be in a later collection. i hadn’t really paid a lot of attention to the show till i saw that episode (i think sean portnoy forced us to watch)–it was when i realized that i’d been missing something really, really smart.
i know michael’s a fan–anybody else?
I loved this show when it first made its appearance on MTV’s Liquid Television around 15 years ago (anyone remember the “frog baseball” short). It was crude and stupid but addictive and fresh (has anyone read Howard Korder’s one-act Fun–a sort of aimless teen Waiting for Godot–which predates B&B by about three years). When MTV picked the show up as a series the crudeness was smoothed out but the strident irony remained. I was teaching high school in northern Colorado so I was kinda living the B&B phenomenon as if from the inside (and my students dug it so it provided a few necessary laughs in class). I will say I am curious about Judge’s new collection, but I will also say that to separate the boy’s riffing on the videos from the sketches is very disappointing (I figure this has everything to do with purchasing the rights to the songs and nothing to do with artistic integrity). The success of the show, in my mind, was the way these meta-commentaries disrupted the more conventional “aimless teen” narratives. It was the commentaries that allowed the viewer to see the boys as something greater than the some of their actions. Does that make sense?
I remember Sean sneering at my snotty dismissal of B&B. The first episode I watched with any serious interest was the one with a video by Donald Fagen–“The Madame Blavatsky” episode I think. I quickly turned into a fan.
What Jeff said. The video stuff was necessary for the fullest appreciation of the characters; and the paradox of us ourselves watching videos on MTV, which for some reason we were.
And it was partially the lack of the videos which led to the somewhat bland nature of the B&B movie. (though that was before Bruce Willis’ slide from greatness, and his only role with Demi Moore.)
It’s remarkable to note that Mike Judge has had nothing but consistently good ideas well executed.
I’d like to see more revivals of Liquid Television segments: The spy talk narration over postcards “Dear Mum…”), the puppets that made grape jelly sandwiches, perhaps even a big budget Aeon Flux movie.
And what the hell happened to Sifl & Olly: that show was excellent.
i don’t know–i don’t think the separation of the video watching and commentary onto a separate disc in the collection is bad. at this point i know the characters, i don’t need to be convinced of anything all over again. and i didn’t feel that the video sections and the narrative sections worked organically in the original show anyway–they both interrupted each other, and not in a particularly interesting way. rights issues aside i’d rather get the narratives more seamlessly and still have the video sections on another disk to watch separately.
does anyone know if the little middle-bits and short-short films that used to be on mtv in the 80s have ever been released in their own right? we used to get these in india on satellite tv when mtv was first available (though i’m not sure if these were from mtv europe or u.s or were even contemporary) and there was some brilliant stuff. i’m talking about the stuff at the end of commercial breaks that would culminate with the mtv logo. i think this included some bill plympton stuff.
When I walk into a room where someone is watching TV, I still always say “What the hell is this crap?”