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Liquid Television

Liquid Television is an animation showcase that appeared on MTV[3] from 1991 to 1995. It has served as the launching point for several high-profile original cartoons, including Beavis and Butt-Head and Æon Flux.[4] The bulk of Liquid Television's material was created by independent animators and artists specially for the show, and some previously produced segments were compiled from festivals such as Spike and Mike's Festival of Animation.

Liquid Television

Japhet Asher[1]

Mark Mothersbaugh

United States

English

4

27 (list of episodes)

Abby Terkuhle
Japhet Asher
Prudence Fenton

30 minutes

MTV Animation
Original series:
(Colossal) Pictures
BIG Pictures
Noyes & Laybourne Enterprises
BBC Enterprises
Revival series:
Titmouse, Inc.

MTV
BBC Two[2]

June 2, 1991 (1991-06-02) –
January 1, 1995 (1995-01-01)

May 15 (2014-05-15) –
June 12, 2014 (2014-06-12)

The first season of Liquid Television also aired on BBC Two in co-production with MTV. Ultimately, MTV commissioned three seasons of the show, which was produced by Colossal Pictures. The show was eventually succeeded by Cartoon Sushi. Mark Mothersbaugh composed the show's theme music.


The show was broadcast in Canada on MuchMusic, in Asia on Channel V, in Australia on SBS and in New Zealand on TV3.

History[edit]

There were also a large number of animation pieces adapted from the work of Art Spiegelman's comic compilation, RAW. RAW featured underground cartoonists such as Mark Beyer, Richard Sala, and Peter Bagge. In particular, Dog-Boy by Charles Burns was based on the artist's series from RAW.[5]


Due to the extensive use of licensed music throughout the series (episodes often began with a contemporary music video being "liquified"), full episodes of Liquid Television have not been seen in any form since its original run. Selected segments from the series, including the first appearances of Æon Flux, were released on two VHS tapes in the late 1990s as The Best of Liquid Television parts one and two. These tapes are long out-of-print. A collection volume, titled Wet Shorts (The Best of Liquid Television), comprising the two VHS tapes, was released on DVD in 1997, but this, too, is out-of-print.

Winter Steele – A puppet show about a biker chick searching for her long-lost love (see below).

Soap Opera – A parody of daytime soaps, with bars of soap as the actors.

Cut-Up Camera – A parody of involving outrageous situations.

Candid Camera

Miss Lidia's Makeover to the Stars – A short about an unseen makeup artist (with live-action hands) who gives celebrities mock make-overs via her computer.

Invisible Hands – About a turban-clad sleuth who solves murders.

Buzz Box – A short with changing patterns set to rock music.

Stick Figure Theatre – A series of shorts recreating scenes from popular movies using stick-figures drawn on 3 × 5 cards.

Dangerous Puppets – About two puppets who violently destroy each other.

The Art School Girls of Doom – A live-action short in the early 1990s about two art school girls. Codie Field and Gina Varla Vetro, actresses, played the girls in an animated environment.[12]

transgender

Footworks – Stories featuring footprints as the characters.

 – About a scantily-clad female secret agent (later spun off into its own series; also adapted into a 2005 live-action film starring Charlize Theron).[13] The series later became part of Liquid Television's online version in 2012.

Æon Flux

– About two adolescent morons who cause their own trouble; later spun off into its own series.

Beavis and Butt-Head

Psychogram – A series of stories told with postcards and voiceover narration.

 – A 10-episode series about three private detectives.

The Specialists

Dog Boy – A live-action, comic book-style story about the adventures of a young man who received a dog's heart in a medical transplant.

The Adventures of Thomas and Nardo – A computer-animated series about a man and his anthropomorphic house done in a 3D paper-style, created by . It had an original soundtrack composed by The Residents.

Mark Beyer

Speedbump the Roadkill Possum – About a possum who often gets run over.

 – A series of fast-paced chalk animations to the tune of songs by the titular band.

Was (Not Was)

Uncle Louie – A series of cut-out animations about an older yet jovial uncle and his young nephew in various adventures.

Bobby & Billy – A series of cut-out animations, drawn similar to paintings, about two younger boys who display malevolence and immoral behavior in various situations. The cartoon often satirizes indecency set in the 1960s.

Norman Rockwell

Brickface & Stucco – A live-action series about two grease monkeys and their custom hot rod gear head adventures.

– An animated series about a psychic private detective in the future megacity of Timbuktu. It mixed cyberpunk and fantasy tropes.[14]

Brad Dharma: Psychedelic Detective

- Animated series about the adventures of a young man who has an alien hatch out of his head.

The Head

- Animated adaptation of comic book series The Maxx, the story follows the dual-reality adventures and struggles of the Maxx and his social worker Julie. Aired on MTV's Oddities, which was a sub-category of Liquid Television in the 1990s.

The Maxx

- Focuses on Daria Morgendorffer, a smart, acerbic, and somewhat misanthropic teenage girl who observes the world around her. Spin-off of Beavis and Butt-Head.

Daria

- Live-action/animated sketch comedy series about a darkly perverse kids' show modeled after Sesame Street.

Wonder Showzen

- Clay animation series featuring overly violent wrestling matches between celebrities. Originally part of LT's follow-up, Cartoon Sushi.

Celebrity Deathmatch

Adult Swim

Cartoon Sushi

Exposure

Nicktoons Film Festival

Eye Drops

KaBlam!

Off the Air

Raw Toonage

What a Cartoon!

Random! Cartoons

Too Cool! Cartoons

Go! Cartoons

Oh Yeah! Cartoons

Spike and Mike's Festival of Animation

Short Circutz

Aero Flux [videorecording]: The Complete Animated Collection. Peter Chung; Howard E. Baker; Denise Poirier: John Rafter Lee; MTV Networks; Paramount Home Entertainment. c2005. 3 videodiscs.

Lipton. Lauren. High-Tech MTV; "Liquid Television" shows what visual wizards can do with animation and pop culture." Los Angeles Times, June 9, 1991 TV Times Orange County Edition, p 8.

Liquid Television. By: LIGHTBODY, KIM, Fast Company, 10859241, Nov2017, Issue 220

Wet Shorts [videorecording]: The Best of Liquid Television. MTV Networks: SMV Enterprises. New York, NY:MTV Networks c1997 videodisc (90 min)

Official homepage of Liquid Television

at IMDb

Liquid Television