B Movies Blog

Hello, Movie Mavens! Welcome back to the B Movies Blog. Today, we’re popping Liquid Television into the ol’ VCR.

For a long time, I’ve been synonymous with Bo Burnham and A24. However, I feel like MTV is making its way into the fold. 

Yes, friends, we’re, yet again, covering another nostalgic MTV property: Liquid Television. 

From 1991-1995, Liquid Television gave viewers an eccentric mix of animated segments and shorts, including some from a little creator you might know named Mike Judge. 

That’s right, kids. 

Liquid Television is essentially where Beavis and Butt-Head originated, not to mention the likes of Æon Flux. 

The best way I can describe Liquid Television is like a mix of KaBlam!, The Nighttime Clap, and true 90s weirdness and nihilism. 

I feel like you’ll either understand what I mean or you won’t. 

Moving on. 

If you read our Zoog piece, you’ll also remember that the Colossal Pictures peeps worked on Liquid Television. 

That’s because Colossal Pictures actually produced Liquid Television, which I didn’t know. Learning! 

Now, we’ve come to the unfortunate part of our program where I have to tell you that Liquid Television hasn’t aired since 1995. 

I know, I know. 

But, much like Daria, the episodes had so much licensed music that it would be impossible to show the episodes without either a) major cuts or b) major payouts to artists. 

Which, um, I don’t know why the last would be an issue for MTV, but, um, here we are. 

However, unlike Daria, I don’t think Liquid Television would hold up without all of the music. 

Hell, an entire part of the premise was animating music videos. 

You can find VHS and DVD copies with some of the episodes online from resellers, but all of the ones I saw were $60 and up, so I couldn’t justify taking the plunge. 

The good news is, you can find most of the episode intact online. 

The only catch is, some parts have had to be removed…which includes Æon Flux. 

BUT, you can find episodes of Æon Flux online as well, so I give kudos to the Liquid Television MTV channel for uploading so much of each episode and taking the time to remove things, like Æon Flux, that would get the videos taken down.

I guess this *technically* counts as lost and refound media, but it also did have a physical release, albeit a limited release, so I don’t want to give it the title. 

So, I guess we’ll just title this one good ol’ nostalgia.