Project MTV: The Rebirth of Liquid Television

 Writer's Note: I am not, nor will I ever expect to be associated with and employed by MTV and its parent company, Paramount Skydance. This is part of #projectmtv, a fan-made MTV rebranding project. This is not happening in any form, but it's fun to dream. - jh  

Prologue:

Animation has played a vital role in MTV’s brand since day one. It was part of its visual identity from the very beginning, and indents created by young independent animators from around the world helped create the visual pop imagery the brand was known for.

In the 1990s, MTV embraced original animated series starting with Liquid Television, a popular weekly anthology of shorts that introduced the world to Beavis and Butthead and Aeon Flux, two shows that would eventually expand into their own series. Other anthologies followed like Cartoon Sushi (which introduced Celebrity Deathmatch and The Brothers Grunt) and Oddities (which was more action in-tone with The Head and The Maxx). 

Daria, a spinoff of Beavis and Butthead, was one of the few breakouts of MTV Animation in the mid-1990s. Other shows like Downtown, Undergrads, Clone High, and Wonder Snowden also came from MTV Animation. 

The animated legacy is strong with MTV, but the brand has ceded it to Comedy Central and Paramount+. While South Park is a breakout hit for Comedy Central, Beavis and Butthead found new life not on MTV but on Comedy Central. Similarly, Ren and Stimpy, a Nicktoon, will also likely be on CC. 

Perhaps it’s time to put MTV’s animated legacy back into the brand. Adult Swim has obliterated MTV’s standing in television animation, and it’s no surprise that some of the third-party shows that made up that brand ended up at Comedy Central once their licenses expired. 

MTV should bring that formula back to the MTV brand. It should not just on MTV proper, but also on Club MTV and on the digital and FAST platforms of MTV.  And I think it’s time to reevaluate what such an animation brand could look like today.

And I feel it should be called Liquid TV.

In the early 2010s, MTV resurrected the Liquid Television brand as an online-exclusive series on MTV’s webpage. They later used the brand as an umbrella for all of its animated titles. But it didn't last, and MTV seemingly threw animation over to Paramount+ and Comedy Central, which weren't ideal homes for female-targeted fare or action shows. 

I feel that Liquid TV should become a stronger brand for MTV. When thinking of animation on MTV, I want Liquid TV to be as synonymous with the network as Adult Swim is with Cartoon Network. I want Liquid TV to be the home of animation on MTV, and not just MTV originals.

I want Liquid TV to be the linear home of shows like Everybody Still Hates Chris and Star Trek: Lower Decks.  I want Liquid TV to be the home of Duckman.

I want Liquid TV to be the home of some Nicktoons that would definitely fit into the MTV brand I’m trying to build, like The Ren and Stimpy Show, Rocko’s Modern Life, Invader Zim, and even something like As Told by Ginger.  

I want Liquid TV to be the premiere home of Among Us and Golden Axe. 

Yes, action shows like Aeon Flux, Oddities, Avatar, Star Trek Prodigy, Transformers Earthspark, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and ARK: The Animated Series should thrive on Liquid TV.

I don’t want Liquid TV to air SpongeBob SquarePants or South Park. They should remain Nickelodeon and Comedy Central exclusives, respectively. I also don’t want any younger-skewing Nicktoons nor dudebro-centric Comedy Central cartoons either.

And I absolutely don’t want any Disney-owned Twentieth Television Animation shows to be a part of Liquid TV. The last thing they need is another outlet where they’ll air against each other. 

I am open to Liquid TV acquiring third-party action-adventure cartoons and anime titles as well as developing such shows in-house.

As I mentioned earlier, FAST media in more households than ever largely thanks to places like Tubi, Prime Video Channels, and Paramount’s own Pluto TV platform, MTV should expand its brand with new channels. An immediate rebranding of the Comedy Central Animation FAST to Liquid TV would go a long way to reestablish the brand as MTV’s go-to destination for animation. A weekend-long marathon of Aeon Flux, including the original Liquid Television shorts and the live-action movie would be a great way to reintroduce the channel as the Liquid TV FAST channel.

As for the blocks themselves, Liquid TV would easily be an early evening block airing weeknights on Club MTV from 5 to 7 PM E/P and for the full Friday late-night slot from 11 PM to 6 AM E/P while a totally different lineup would air on MTV weeknights from 11 PM to 1 AM E/P except on Fridays. 

Yes, I’m aiming towards the jugular of Adult Swim with those hours on weekdays. You have to remind audiences that you can’t swim without a little liquid in the pool.

While I wouldn’t take away show premieres from Comedy Central (in fact, comedic titles should make their linear debuts on CC first), I feel Liquid TV shouldn’t dominate the programming hours of either channel. Just a few hours a day, especially given that it’ll have its own stand-alone FAST channel, which will have more than enough support within MTV.

When it comes to programming, I want the main blocks to highlight the best of MTV Animation, some young-adult targeted Nicktoons, and library animation from CBS Studios that would fit. If Liquid TV continues to grow, I feel that maybe creating original programming under the banner, especially non-comedic titles, could debut on Paramount+ as well as MTV proper. 

Liquid TV has the potential to present itself as an alternative to Adult Swim and even create animated programming that its competition wouldn’t make, including original sci-fi, horror, action-adventure, mystery, or slice-of-life dramas, especially animation aimed towards young adult women, BIPOC, and LGBT+ audiences. 

This definitely fits the culture of MTV and would be a grand return to the animation medium at the network.

Time to take a dive into a better pool.

 Now we've gotten the basics of #projectmtv out of the way, it's time to assess what we have and how the MTV brand could grow from there.