MTV's first 24 hours

Me, too.

Top 20 for sure.

 

About 15 years ago, when I was in college, MTV reran the first hour of their programming and I happened to catch it. Remember seeing the "Little Susie" video and being surprised as hell that the song from Tesla's first album that I had listened to was actually a cover. And I believe one of the Cliff Richard videos was about the fifth or sixth they ever showed and it consisted of solely him singing on a soundstage with a bunch of manufactured fog. No band or anything, just him, which was pretty funny when there was an instrumental break to the song and he had nothing to do but just stand there and do his white man's uncool dance.

BTW, one former VJ I don't think has been mentioned is Smash. He was the white dude with a perm and porn mustache, and from the voice I could tell he was obviously a DJ for some Top-40 station. He was an occasional host of Headbanger's Ball when it first started, and he was the guy interviewing Guns 'n Roses that time when they just went nuts and trashed the set.

 

What?! Three pages and no mention of Jesse Camp, the winner of the first Wanna Be a VJ contest and quite possibly the worst MTV personality ever.

 

Dave Kendall hosted Postmodern MTV.

 

I remember in the mid-to-late '80s they had a VJ named Carolyne Heldman. She was a nondescript, but OK looking brunette. The reason I remember her is that Stern once talked on the air about how non-hot she was, and then she was let go for some reason and appeared on his show, bashing MTV. And, of course, Howard went into his 'oh, you're so hot, what I wouldn't do to you' routine for the first 5 mins.

 

Andrew Gold on 2006-MTV... it boggles the mind...

 

Anyone remember China Kantner, daughter of the drugged out chick from Jefferson Airplane?
I think some of the Zappa kids also VJed too.

 

How can anyone forget KENNEDY?

I liked her in that Lisa-Loeb-but-nastier kind of way.

Y'all also are missing Eric Nieves (sp?), from the first season of Real World, who began hosting The Grind in what may have been the first example of a reality TV star begging for post-reality TV work. Man, if only I could've seen Julie do the grind ...

 

Kevin Seal hosted Postmodern MTV and its progenitor, 120 Minutes. Kendall was the original host of 120 Minutes.

 

Martha Quinn was immortalized by Mojo Nixon in the song, "Stuffin Martha's Muffin," which was a nice and richly desevered f-you to MTV.

http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/music/nixon-89.php

 

There was also Kevin Seal, Sporting Fool.

And did anyone name Adam Curry yet?

Oh, I see that they did, with a description similar to what I would have posted. That guy was a poser with a capital P.

Nevertheless, I thought he was a good VJ.

 

The first video I ever saw was "You Got Lucky" by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Still my favorite video, if ever someone would show that video.