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Post by ladykelsey on Jun 26, 2014 1:52:16 GMT -5
In 1989 MTV launched Remote Control that was all about the fun and exciting world of TV. Hosted by the late Ken Ober contestants had to answer trivia questions all about classic TV shows and celebrities. What made Remote Control so exciting is that it was such a sensation for MTV that there was even a board game and a Nintendo video game was released of Remote Control as well. And who could forget the giant Bob Eubanks Pez candy dispenser featured on the Remote Control set and Bob Eubanks also appeared on Remote Control as a guest star on a episode too, Kelsey
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Post by wildjackmonroe on Jun 26, 2014 8:15:07 GMT -5
I wish this show could be rerun more often. We've got blocks like "The '90's Are All That" as an umbrella for older Nick shows to be shown again. I wish the same could be done for MTV shows.
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Post by Frank on Jun 30, 2014 16:44:46 GMT -5
I think this was the first show MTV had to skew away from 100% music. It deserved more than 5 seasons.
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Post by thekid965 on Jun 30, 2014 18:07:33 GMT -5
It was one of the first, but not the first. In terms of specials, MTV aired a live WWF pro wrestling event (The War to Settle the Score, Roddy Piper vs. Hulk Hogan) in early 1985, about a year before Remote Control came along. MTV was also showing reruns of The Monkees around that time.
Of course, back then it was still very much the exception to the rule. Notably, even these digressions from the all-video format still had ties to the music scene (the "Rock & Wresting Connection" of the WWF, the Monkees being an actual singing group that was going through a revival at the time, and even Remote Control itself had a lot of material based on rock/pop music).
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Post by carpetcrawler on Jul 2, 2014 14:49:16 GMT -5
I am pretty sure The Brawl to End it All from... I want to say August 1984, even predates The War to Settle the Score.
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Post by thekid965 on Jul 8, 2014 13:18:14 GMT -5
I am pretty sure The Brawl to End it All from... I want to say August 1984, even predates The War to Settle the Score. July 23, 1984, according to my wrestling library. I wasn't 100% certain the Brawl aired on MTV, which is why I didn't mention it; I was under the impression it was just the monthly Garden show that aired on MSG at the time. I am positive the War did, because I still have that recording in my archives somewhere complete with Adam Curry and Gene Okerlund's intro segments. (To connect this with the world of game shows, participating in the angles to set up the War was none other than Dick Clark...)
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Post by Kaos on Jul 11, 2014 2:20:23 GMT -5
Getting back on subject, this show also helped to launch the careers of SNL alums Adam Sandler and Colin Quinn, as well as comedian and TV/Movie star Dennis Leary.
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Post by carpetcrawler on Jul 15, 2014 21:37:20 GMT -5
I am pretty sure The Brawl to End it All from... I want to say August 1984, even predates The War to Settle the Score. July 23, 1984, according to my wrestling library. I wasn't 100% certain the Brawl aired on MTV, which is why I didn't mention it; I was under the impression it was just the monthly Garden show that aired on MSG at the time. I am positive the War did, because I still have that recording in my archives somewhere complete with Adam Curry and Gene Okerlund's intro segments. (To connect this with the world of game shows, participating in the angles to set up the War was none other than Dick Clark...) The Brawl definitely did air on MTV. The sole reason was because Cyndi Lauper was featured as Richter's manager; Richter would win the title that night. It also did air on MSG, but the full show. Same goes for The War as well, all MTV did was air an hour of each show (live) and include some of its own segments. I dunno if it's the case, but speaking of the Dick Clark segment, it wouldn't surprise me if at some point MTV aired footage from that little segment as well, though I can see them doing some censoring for the bits where Lauper is kicked away by Piper. "Andy Warhol, your thoughts on what just transpired..."
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Post by Chameleonwhammy on Jul 16, 2014 0:02:53 GMT -5
Ah…Remote Control. I loved this show.
Last time MTV showed it, it was after Ken Ober passed away. I should've known better to start the recordings on the DVR early and ending them late.
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Post by wildjackmonroe on Jul 17, 2014 19:21:10 GMT -5
Ah…Remote Control. I loved this show. Last time MTV showed it, it was after Ken Ober passed away. I should've known better to start the recordings on the DVR early and ending them late. I remember this. There were like a jillion commercials and the next episode ended up starting off the clock. For me it was the first time I saw the show; very nice to see it but of course the circumstances were sad. Ken was great on this show.
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Post by thekid965 on Jul 30, 2014 1:16:50 GMT -5
Remote Control was sort of like the '80s own answer to The Gong Show -- a half-hour of anarchy and random sketch comedy thinly disguised as an off-the-wall game show. It was the perfect show for the MTV generation, those teens and early college-age game show nuts who were too old for something like Double Dare on sister channel Nickelodeon yet were still looking for something that embraced their demographic in a way more mainstream shows never could. But for all its zaniness, it was also a pretty solid pop-culture quizzer in its own right, something MTV never seemed able to pull off again in subsequent efforts such as Turn It Up! or Trashed. Apparently even MTV audiences, often unfairly stereotyped as having the attention span of a fruit fly and the intelligence to match, could tell the difference between a good show and something just thrown together to appeal to baser instincts.
It also helped that Ken Ober was really good in his role. And I do mean "role"; not only was he a darn good host for a rookie, he also played his character (lifelong TV junkie living with his mom who one day decided to turn his basement into the wackiest game show the universe had ever seen) to a proverbial T. Sort of equal parts MTV VJ, Pee Wee Herman, and Peter Tomarken. (Yeah, I probably just short-circuited a lot of brains with that sentence.) A nearly-perfect marriage of host and show that could only have been concocted in the Da-Glo, larger-than-life Eighties.
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