MTV Animation

MTV Animation

Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Animation
Founded	1986
Products	Television Movies
Parent	MTV Entertainment Studios (Paramount Domestic Media Networks)

MTV Animation is the animation department of the television network MTV.

History

MTV's animation department was established in the late 1980s, when it made several of the animated shorts that aired as bumpers for the network. While MTV department is often grouped with that of Nickelodeon's, the two entities are completely separate. Most of MTV's cartoons are known for their dark humor, sexual jokes, graphic violence, pop culture references, and irreverence.

In an interview for the Beavis and Butt-Head Do America DVD, Mike Judge described MTV Animation as being very ad hoc: Beavis and Butt-Head didn't have an art director until the film was made, so until the film they'd never considered colour palettes from scene to scene. In the same interview, art director Yvette Kaplan said "everything was overlapping... we never had the luxury of one part [episode] finished" before another episode was finished.

Many MTV animation productions do not survive a single season and in some cases are canceled before completion. Productions including Undergrads, Downtown, Station Zero, and Clone High have been highly acclaimed, yet none of them got renewed beyond their first season, usually due to lack of an audience or advertising. By 2001, the animation department was shut down, with the network's animated series now being outsourced to different studios. During the 2000s, MTV would phase out of producing original animation in favor of importing shows, usually reruns of shows from sister networks Comedy Central and Nickelodeon.

In 2011, MTV would return to adult animation. Its first production was a relaunch of Beavis and Butt-Head, which premiered in October 2011; this was quickly followed by Good Vibes, starting later in the same month. In November 2011, MTV said they plan a third cartoon, Worst Friends Forever by Thomas Middleditch, that Mike Judge would produce, about three teenage girls who hover on the outskirts of popularity and have to cope with cattiness and crushes; a pilot had been picked up and concept art of the characters was released. The cartoons did not do as expected though. Good Vibes was cancelled in February 2012 due to low ratings, on the same day the DVD came out, Beavis and Butt-Head was cancelled in December 2011, and Worst Friends Forever never aired. In a September 2012 interview on "Making It With Riki Lindhome", Middleditch said Worst Friends was "for all intents and purposes done" and "not in my hands anymore". Mike Judge said in January 2014 that he might pitch Beavis and Butt-Head to another network.

Future and Possible resurgence

In August 2020, ViacomCBS's Entertainment & Youth Group launched a new strategy to expand its adult animation units. This upcoming unit will produce various animated shows under the revitalized MTV Entertainment Group. Plans for Beavis and Butt-head (reboot) and Daria (spinoff) have been announced for Comedy Central (and Paramount+).

However, it's currently unknown what will become of MTV Animation.

Productions

Television series

Title	Creator/Developer(s)	Premiere date	Finale date	Co-production with	Network	Note(s)
1980s
Stevie and Zoya	Joe Horne	1987	1989		MTV
1990s
Liquid Television	Japhet Asher	June 2, 1991 May 15, 2014	March 6, 1994 June 12, 2014	Original series: (Colossal) Pictures BIG Pictures Noyes & Laybourne Enterprises BBC Enterprises Revival series: Titmouse, Inc.	MTV	Revived for the internet in 2014.
Æon Flux	Peter Chung	September 1991	October 10, 1995	(Colossal) Pictures		Spun-off from Liquid Television.
Beavis and Butt-Head	Mike Judge	March 8, 1993; October 27, 2011	November 28, 1997; December 29, 2011	J. J. Sedelmaier Productions, Inc. (Season 1) Ternion Pictures (Season 8) Inbred Jed's Homemade Cartoons (Pilot only) Film Roman (Season 8) Judgemental Films		Spun-off from Liquid Television. Created by Mike Judge, creator of King of the Hill.
The Brothers Grunt	Danny Antonucci	August 15, 1994	April 9, 1995	a.k.a. Cartoon		Created by Danny Antonucci, creator of Ed, Edd n Eddy. First MTV cartoon to features theme song vocalist.
The Head	Eric Fogel	September 1, 1994	March 1, 1996
The Maxx	Original character: Sam Kieth Series: Sam Kieth Bill Messner-Loebs	April 8, 1995	June 19, 1995			Based on the comic book series of the same name.
Daria	Glenn Eichler Susie Lewis	March 3, 1997	June 25, 2001	Heyday Media		Spun-off from Beavis and Butt-Head.
Cartoon Sushi	Danny Antonucci Keith Alcorn	1997	1998	DNA Productions a.k.a. Cartoon
Celebrity Deathmatch	Eric Fogel	May 14, 1998; June 10, 2006	October 20, 2002; March 30, 2007	TakToon Enterprise (1998-2002) Cuppa Coffee Studios (2006–07)	MTV (1998–02) MTV2 (2006–07)
Station Zero	Tramp Daly	March 8, 1999	April 6, 1999	Possible Worlds C-Traze Studios Upfront Entertainment	MTV	First MTV weekday cartoon
Phred on Your Head Show	Amy Friedman	July 26, 1999	March 31, 2002	Noggin Tricky Pictures	Noggin	Animated for MTV's sister channel, Noggin.
Downtown	Chris Prynoski George Krstic Anne D. Berstein	August 3, 1999	November 8, 1999		MTV
2000s
Spy Groove	Michael Gans Richard Register	June 26, 2000	July 13, 2002		MTV
Undergrads	Pete Williams	April 1, 2001	August 12, 2001	Decode Entertainment Helix Animation Teletoon Original Production	Teletoon MTV	First MTV cartoon co-produced with Teletoon.
Clone High	Phil Lord and Christopher Miller Bill Lawerance	November 2, 2002	April 13, 2003	Doozer Lord Miller Productions Nelvana Touchstone Television Teletoon Original Production		Second MTV cartoon co-produced with Teletoon.
3-South	Mark Hentemann Steve Callaghan	November 7, 2002	January 3, 2003	Warner Bros. Animation Rough Draft Korea	MTV
Video Mods	Tony Shiff	September 16, 2004	July 22, 2005	Big Bear Entertainment IBC Entertainment	MTV2	First animated show for MTV2
Wonder Showzen	Vernon Chatman and John Lee	March 11, 2005	May 19, 2006	PFFR Augenblick Studios
Where My Dogs At?	Aaron Matthew Lee and Jeff Ross	June 10, 2006	July 29, 2006	Enough With The Bread Already Productions Six Point Harness
The Adventures of Chico and Guapo	Orlando Jones, P. J. Pesce, and Paul D'Acri	June 10, 2006	July 29, 2006	One Red Room
Friday: The Animated Series	Ice Cube	June 24, 2007	July 8, 2007	New Line Television Cubevision		Adapted from the Friday film series.
DJ & the Fro	Dave Jeser Matt Silverstein	June 15, 2009	July 2, 2009	Double Hemm	MTV	Second MTV weekday cartoon
Popzilla	R.J. Fried Tim Hedrick Jared Miller Kevin Pedersen Dave Thomas	September 27, 2009	October 16, 2009	Animax Entertainment
2010s
Good Vibes	David Gordon Green Brad Ableson Mike Clements	October 27, 2011	December 29, 2011	Werner Entertainment Rough House Not the QB Pro. Six Point Harness Good Humor Television	MTV
Greatest Party Story Ever		January 14, 2016	December 22, 2016	Four Peaks Media Group Den of Thieves ShadowMachine

Theatrical films

Title	Director	Release date	Distributor	Co-production with	Note(s)
Beavis and Butt-Head Do America	Mike Judge	December 20, 1996	Paramount Pictures	Geffen Pictures Judgemental Films	MTV's only theatrically released animated feature to date.