Dead at 21

I remember this being on around the same time as My So Called Life back in 1994. I remember the first episode being amazing, setting the plot for the short lived series. Pretty solid acting cast, didn't really notice anyone but I was young about 10 years old when it aired. Just a very well produced and probably very missed out by many pleasures that graced MTV when MTV actually had programs that were not "Reality-Based". This show could have been on any network, it was meant to be for the teenage audience and aired around 10-11PM each night. If you got to watch this series while it was on you are very fortunate because it was interesting until the final episode that was very thrilling and well worth watching. This was supposed to be MTV's aim at non-music based programming, they did a great job in my opinion... why did they give up after that if they had such skill behind the cameras and on those sets? I do not remember anyone from the series. MTV had the right idea with this program, too bad they didn't invest more and go with it, instead they went reality way knowing way before all the other networks that it sold, sold more than music which would kill the network's interest in my mindset.

I remember being an enthusiastic viewer when it first came out, which i guess was some time in the summer of 1994. I saw a preview one night for the premiere and I was totally hooked. I watched every episode, and although I can't remember specifics as to what happened on the show, I remember it being cool and futuristic and me being absolutely glued to the TV. It was one of the few shows on MTV that I enjoyed, some of the others being The State and, of course, Beavis & Butthead. When MTV gets a hit show, though, it inevitably doesn't last long. I hope more people speak up about Dead at 21 and MTV brings it back for a while. You know, like those random My So-Called Life marathons that they do once in a while.

I was hopelessly addicted to this show - and to Jack Noseworthy, who played Ed Bellamy. (I've followed his career ever since.) Ed Bellamy is a 20-year old who has a microchip implanted in his head, along with several hundred other kids, as part of a secret government experiment. It makes him a genius, but on their 21st birthday, the test subjects strangely die suddenly. Ed and his not-quite-but-any-day-now-girlfriend Maria - played by a young Lisa Dean Ryan - are on a quest to find the scientist who put the chip in, so it can be removed before Ed goes kaput. They drive around a huge old 70s car and stay one step ahead of the feds, who (of course) are trying to kill them as part of the cover-up. In 1994, "X-files" was already in its first or second season, but Sci-fi's "Invisible Man" didn't come out for several years after - and this show is very much in the style of both.

I used to tape this show (I was a busy college student at the time), but MTV changed their program schedule several times, and I missed some key episodes - like the LAST ONE!! If anyone at MTV is listening, PLEASE! Run it again! Jack Noseworthy (an American Heath Ledger) and Lisa Dean Ryan recognizable stars now. Come on, this sci-fi, cute-guy-and-sassy-gal type show always does well!

Although I thought this show was in fact quite good, there was a huge lie behind it that was never addressed.

MTV held a contest where the winner would ge their own show, Dead AT 21.

Jack Noseworthy who played the lead was already a working actor. This did in fact fool some ppl for a very short amount of time until they remembered him or heard by word of mouth, this guy was already an actor.

The contest wasn't even fixed, it was a complete lie! Now I think they may have given the winner a 5 minute part in the first episode or a later episode, but this was not in fact the prize promised.

Why MTV turned into such a sleaze ball network I'll never understand other than the ppl who owned it are greedy just like the owners of every other corporation.

The premise of the show was that Ed Bellamy, a long-haired college genius, discovered on his 20th birthday that he was the subject of a childhood medical experiment. Microchips had been implanted in his brain, which make him a genius but will also kill him by his 21st birthday. The show follows Ed during his quest to prevent his death. During that time, the element of age and distrust towards those older than 21 is reiterated in plot line-after-plot line, leading to common theme often uttered out loud in despair by Ed Bellamy or one of his sidekicks: "Never trust anyone over 21"

Set in the grunge-years of the early 90s, when long-haired men were in style, this show both nurtured and benefited from the rebellious, youthful nature of the grunge movement. It inspired a small cult-following when it was aired, but failed to retain a longer-term fan-base. It was only aired for a single season. It is a great show with a unique plot line... two thumbs up.