MTV was once a leader in animated shows made just for adults. Here are the six best animated series the network had to offer in the early 1990s.
Liquid Television
Liquid Television began airing on November 30, 1991 and ran until January 1, 1995. The first season of which was co-produced and aired in conjunction with BBC 2. The show would last 3 seasons with 24 episodes.
The series would go on to spin off a number of well-known animated shows that would air on MTV, such as Aeon Flux and Beavis and Butthead. The show featured all original adult animated segments, though some were compiled from festivals such as Spike and Mike’s Festival of Animation. The show would also feature music videos, yes this was when everything about MTV was still about music that was “liquefied.” This has made releasing these episodes since airing problematic.
I don’t think it can be said enough how influential this show was at the time, and it’s still rippling through the animated community today with animated anthology shows like Love, Death, and Robots popping up still using a similar formula. Liquid Television led the ’90s in showing that animation was no longer just for kids but a serious artistic medium with real merit.
Æon Flux
Created by Peter Chung, Aeon Flux is a science fiction dystopian avant-garde animated series that began airing on MTV’s Liquid Television as shorts. These would expand into a series of full-length episodes following the same style as the original Liquid Television shorts. The series ran from November 30, 1991, until October 10, 1995. There are 3 seasons, including the shorts, with only 16 full episodes.
The story of Aeon Flux revolves around the main protagonist, Aeon, a secret agent for the nation of Monica in the year 7698. Her job is to infiltrate the neighboring country of Bregna, where her nemesis and lover, Trevor Goodchild, resides. The couple goes back and forth in a game of cat-and-mouse as they try to eliminate and impress the other. This tango leads to some beautiful and disturbing scenes between the two. The series is bizarre at times while maintaining a beauty that few animated shows, especially in the early ’90s, have had.
Beavis and Butthead
Beavis and Butthead was created by Mike Judge in a short for Liquid Television, like many animated shows on MTV at the time. The series originally aired on March 8, 1993, and ended on November 28, 1997. It ran for 8 seasons with 222 episodes.
The show is about two nihilist teenage boys with no adult supervision. Beavis and Butthead, like many teenage boys of the time, enjoyed music videos, getting loaded, and trying to get laid. Also, like most teenage boys, they are completely inept at life but brimming with confidence, usually much to the detriment of teachers, neighbors, and classmates.
Beavis and Butthead would go on to become a pop culture reference point for the time. Adults felt kids were turning into Beavis and Butthead, and kids did relate to the duo. The show would go on to flood stores with all sorts of merchandise, video games, VHS tapes, and a resurgence during the ’90s nostalgia of the 2010s, though the reboot was short-lived.
The Brothers Grunt
The Brother Grunt aired from August 15, 1994, to April 9, 1995. The show had started as a bumper ad for MTV, who liked it enough to greenlight the show. The Brother Grunt was created by future Ed, Edd n Eddy creator Danny Antonucci. The show ran for 4 seasons with 35 episodes.
The show is about a group of brothers, Frank, Tony, Bing, Dean, Perry, and Sammy, born from the warts of their mother, Primus Gruntus Maximus. One of the brothers has been chosen as the leader, but he renounces his role and instead flees to the human world. Now his brothers have to find him.
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If you enjoyed the veiny shots of Ren & Stimpy, you’ll enjoy this show. It’s like Antonucci took that singular aspect of Ren & Stimpy and made a show around it. Lots of gross-out humor with music videos woven in between segments, like in Beavis and Butthead, except instead of commenting on the videos, the brothers will show up on the screen dancing or running around. It’s a fun show with its foot squarely in a particular era of animation.
The Head
The Head began airing on September 1, 1994, until March 1, 1996, on MTV’s Oddities. The show was created by Eric Fogel, who would go on to create another MTV animated show, Celebrity Deathmatch. The Head ran for 2 seasons with only 14 episodes.
Jim is a trade school student who one day woke up with an enormous head. Jim’s doctor has no idea what is going on with his head, x-rays can’t penetrate it. Turns out an alien who goes by Roy has taken up residence in Jim’s cranium while adapting to Earth’s atmosphere. Roy has come to Earth to save it from the parasitic symbiote, Gork. Jim has a girlfriend who introduces him to a support group of other people with disfiguring anomalies. The animation style is a bit crude, like early Beavis and Butthead.
The Maxx
The Maxx ran for 1 season with only 3 episodes available. His show is based on the comic of the same name, published by Image Comics and created by Sam Keith. The show debuted on MTV’s Oddities.
The cartoon takes after only the early episodes of the comic, so the full depth of the comic isn’t captured in this series. The show has a mix of different media used, including live-action. The Maxx revolves around the characters Julie, her “imaginary” friend, The Maxx, and Mr. Gone. It’s a complex superhero story with lots of layers you only get a glimpse of from this series. If you enjoy stories mixed with superheroes and cartoon antics, then The Maxx is for you.
