Liquid Television

Liquid Television was a series shown on MTV in which animators, directors and producers could feature their own creations and characters in wildly different forms and genres. Some could be live-action, some were computer CGI (a pioneering technique at the time) or hand-drawn, some were done with puppets and some were stop-motion. Pretty much, this was a wonderful show for people who love all kinds of random, bizarre and crazy animated shorts.

If it were not for shows like Liquid Television there'd be no Aeon Flux, Beavis and Butthead, King of the Hill, Daria or Office Space. But there were also many other lesser known characters and segments such as Dog Boy, The Art School Girls of Doom, Psycho Gram (which were brilliant!), Bobby and Billy (also brilliant), Winter Steele and Joe Normal. Basically all of the weirdest experimental stuff MTV could find.

I used to watch this on TV when I was 10 years old and I must say, for my fertile imagination at the time, this show was light-years ahead of the tame, PC crap that kids watch these days. I do wish a complete anthology of Liquid Television was put on DVD instead of this lame 'Best Of...' DVD that's OOP. Come on Paramount, why are we waiting?

I was 20 when Liquid TV began to be aired in Spain (Tuesday nights 01:00 or 02:00 AM, prime time, eh?), and I remember only a few college freaks and me liked it, specially the variety of animations styles and contents. (I mean freaks because here this series was not broad-casted by MTV, but in TVE2 (like the BBC2), after a cultural program named Metropolis (that is still on air, by the way), so I doubt many Spaniards remember it).

I completely agree with Shawn Watson from Scotland: it was (still is) light years above the average animation series, so is a shame that now that we can buy almost every season of almost every famous TV series in shiny packages with full episodes and extras, this revolutionary show remains unavoidable.

At least most of you can buy the Wet Shorts DVD, unpublished in Spain.

Wow. Where to begin? Liquid televison was a major factor in my life. Well, entertainment wise at least. I was just barely old enough to start enjoying MTV when this baby aired. I can distinctly remember the varying styles of animation this series brought. From the sci fi realism of Aeon Flux (with her death in every episode), to the live action plastique look of dog boy, L. TV was a gallery of creativity. This show did indeed spawn some of MTV's most popular animation shows as well, like the aeon flux series (a less condensed version that folowed a story, unlike L.TV's one shots), and Beavis and butthead. Kudos has to go to MTV for even showing these twisted toons. It's a shame that L TV is no longer around. Even it's spinoffs (head, aeon flux, beavis and butthead) are no longer around. Still it's nice to see after all these years (8 to be exact) people still remember liquid tv. I highly recommend you try an catch an episode on one of MTV's animation festival weekends. There is a new incarnation of L TV, entitled Cartoon sushi, but to me it lacks what L TV had. It would difinatly suggest you pick up a L TV tape also, it's much more then worth it.

A brilliant and often demented collection of artists and the then experimental MTV gave us a new look at what animation could accomplish in the '90s. Combining animation, CGI, live-action and puppets, we got anything from 15-second bites to season-length serials exploring the adventures of such characters as bad-a** biker puppet "Winter Steele," pi**ed-off flower "Crazy Daisy Ed," the plastic-haired live action story of "Dog Boy," and those precocious youth "Bobby & Billy," and more than I can even remember. Don't forget this is the show that introduced us to "Aeon Flux," "The Head," and "Beavis and Butt-Head." This show changed my life. Well, sort of.

There's no early Beavis and Butthead, no "The Maxx", no dogboy. It's missing some key elements! The stuff that got even bigger later. But even so, if you were a fan of the show, BUY IT! It's still got stuff I forgot about, Stick figure theatre and all. Worth the purchase on DVD for sure...