| Monday, July 12, 2010 |
08:25 - Trailing edge of the nostalgia wave
http://www.digitaltrends.com/entertainment/mike-judge-to-bring-back-beavis-and-butt-
|
(top) |
So Family Guy came back from the dead, and that was successful enough that it made Comedy Central bring back Futurama, and thus far it looks like that was a good move—it's taken them a little while to settle back down into their groove, but the consensus as of last week's episode ("Proposition Infinity") seems to be that it's back and IN COLOR.
So clearly the latest trend is to resurrect cancelled properties that have proven cult favorites among fans who have now grown to DVD-buying age. So what's next? Beavis & Butt-head?
It has been over 12-years since Beavis and Butt-Head were airing new episodes on MTV, but most people can still instantly recognize the unique “huh huh, huh huh” laugh of Butt-Head, or the “fire, fire!” cries from Beavis. The show produced 200 episodes over seven seasons, a feature movie, and now it seems that the trash talking duo are about to make their TV comeback on the network that made them- and creator Mike Judge- famous.
Since the end of the series, Judge has been a busy guy. He wrote and directed several movies including the cult classics Office Space and Idiocracy, he created King of the Hill and has leant his voice to several animated shows. The guy has been busy. Now, according to Reviewniverse, Judge is hard at work to bring back Beavis and Butt-Head for a slot on MTV’s new primetime lineup.
Recently MTV has begun to limit their once rampant slew of reality shows like the recently cancelled The Hills, in favor of scripted programming like The Hard Times of RJ Berger.
According to the report, Judge will keep the original show’s low budget look, and the format will remain true to the original episodes, where Beavis and Butt-Head comment on music videos. The show will feature current music videos, but the format will be the same.
That certainly hits the right notes: for one thing, it has to look desperately low-budget, and sound barely-scripted. The show was at its most successful as a stream-of-consciousness series of ad-libs by Judge, with one-liners and oddball turns of phrase coming out of left field, the way that South Park in its early years kept hitting us with "butt-pipe" and "ass spelunker" and random jokes about Murphy Brown. Trying to formalize the lexicon polished off all the sharp little knobs from South Park, but unfortunately those were what made it so funny; and it's the same with Beavis & Butt-head, no matter how hysterical the thoroughly polished movie was (and it was).
But it's also key that it'll be focused on music videos. Those were always the best part; and every DVD release that has trimmed them out and strung together little ten-minute "episodes" based on nothing but the thin plots that took place between the video riffings has the feel of a reanimated zombie. It's visually recognizable, but there's just no life in it.
Judge of all people seems not to have fallen so far from his roots, Lucas-style, as to have forgotten what made his signature show so funny. Naturally I'll withhold judgment until I see it... but I definitely want to see it.
|
|
Brian Tiemann
