MTV Ruled the World- The Early Years of Music Video

by Greg Prato

  LES GARLAND: Anybody could offer their input. A production assistant could come in to me and say, "Garland, I love this new band, Echo and the Bunnymen." And I'd be like, "Who?!" Anybody was welcomed to put their input in. The VJs could come in to put their input in. If the VJs wanted to come in and attend the music meetings, they were more than welcomed.

  NINA BLACKWOOD: I remember Mark Goodman, in fact, raving about Stevie Ray Vaughan. He went to see Stevie Ray Vaughan down at the Bottom Line, and he said, "The second coming of Hendrix!" I went down the next night, and he was wonderful. So our opinions were stressed, but they had a whole acquisition committee that just did what they wanted. And that was frustrating to us individually to certain degrees. I think more so to Mark and JJ, because they came from FM radio, in the days that you could have some say. And with me, I was probably in the middle of that, because being a musician and all that, I had a strong say. And Alan and Martha, as we went along, I think would be frustrated, because then they started seeing things that they wanted to play. But it wasn't our call. It's like radio is now. Jocks don't get to play what they want. I found that frustrating.

  LES GARLAND: Ultimately, it was my responsibility. I had what was called the "programming and acquisitions." Acquisitions acquired the videos; the programming department decided what to do with them. And we put everybody in the same room together, and that represented a good eight people, at least, in what was known as the official "music meeting." Don't forget — I was a longhaired hippie from the '60s. And I believed in this real "openness." The door was always open. People could come in and enjoy the music. We were all about the music. As a matter of fact, I am quite famous for the sound system I brought in. I had some Altec Lansing studio monitors that were just badass. Big furniture models, as big as your desk. And I had two of them in my office. That just rocked. When we had music day, it was like a party going on down there, because it was the way I was born and raised. If we're not having fun here, it's not going to translate through that TV set. And it was the same way with my radio stations. What goes on inside these walls is what's going to come out through those speakers. So if you're not having fun, you should go home. Tuesday was the official music day, but honestly, every day was music day. If something new came in on a Wednesday...if "Hungry Like the Wolf" by Duran Duran came in and it blew my mind, I'm calling everybody in. "Get in here, you've got to see this video!" And we'd crank it. We'd play it off and on all day long. By 7:00 at night, we'd be rocking. We'd have video parties in my friggin' office.

  The MTV Studios

  ALAN HUNTER: The two hearts that beat at MTV back then were certainly the corporate office and the studio.

  BOB PITTMAN: We were spread all over. My office was at 75 Rock. First, it was at what is now the Fox Building. Then we had a lot of MTV programming people down at...RCA was in that building. It was the Durst Building. I can't remember what number it was, like 44th Street and 6th Avenue. We went primarily between those two. And until we actually launched the service, we had the original group of people working out of hotel rooms in what is now the Omni Hotel. It was the Sheraton then.

  NINA BLACKWOOD: The first studio was Teletronics. It's by the Jacob Javits Center. But at the time, the area surrounding it was all burned-out warehouses, and it was "hooker city." Martha and I, when we'd have to go out and flag a cab, people would think we were flagging something else. Our publicist finally put her foot down, and we got Communicar.

  BOB PITTMAN: You'd have to kick the winos out of the way, and the heroin addicts, and the hookers out of the doorway to get in.

  ALAN HUNTER: I remember auditioning down in Hell's Kitchen. 33rd and 10th was the original studio. It was kind of a hole in the wall. In 1981, New York was just coming out of a horrible slump, and Hell's Kitchen was truly that. It was tough. When I came back from the audition, I said to my wife at the time, "Oh my God, this is in a terrible part of town. But when you walk in the door, it's got a nice little set. It looks to be the real thing." We had three or four lovely years at 33rd and 10th. The early years — really for the VJs — was all about having to be in one dressing room for the first year. It was a ridiculous feeling that you were the face of this groundbreaking new entity called MTV, and we all had to dress in the same damn dressing room! Nina and Martha certainly were friends of ours...who thought we were the luckiest guys in the world. And then I remember they built these junky little dressing rooms upstairs for the guys and the girls, so at least we had division there.

  MIKE PELECH: [At Teletronics] there was full brick and kind of an arched window and a built-in storage area with records. And there were gold records on the wall, musical instruments. I guess the artifacts of a cool Manhattan loft. There were two cameras that we used that would be intercut, and we would do all the wraparounds. I'm still in touch with the other cameraman, Jerry Romano. The technology was not as sophisticated as it is now, with all the computerized graphics. Any of the albums that were going to be referred to in the copy, the album had to be shot on camera. And that meant physically taking the album cover, putting it on the wall, taking two lights and framing is so that, when it was played back from tape, the technical director could dissolve to it in a position over the VJ's shoulder. Nowadays, everything is done electronically. It would be repositioned easily. But we had to shoot it exactly where it was going to appear. The graphics PA would come in around 9:00, have a bagel, set up the product shots. The guy who was the graphics PA was Joe Davola. Joe moved on through the ranks of MTV very successfully. Him and Lauren Corrao were very instrumental in the creation of a show called Remote Control. Joe moved on to Fox, and I believe he met Larry David, who was pitching a show called Seinfeld, and I think they turned him down. But Larry liked Joe so much, he created a character and asked Joe if he could use his name. So Crazy Joe Davola — the crazy writer on Seinfeld — is based on the original graphics production assistant, Joe Davola. You can see Joe's credit on Smallville.

  ROBIN ZORN: The floor of the studio was a big open space that we decorated with that brick wall and the monitors. And there was the ride there for us to sit on and stand in the middle. There were some neon signs. And there was a small control room. There wasn't a whole lot else. There wasn't a green room. In the beginning, it was nothing. It was just a space that we decorated. We came right off the street, walked right into the control room, and right out into the studio. Honestly, it was just our home.

  KEN CEIZLER: Somebody had written a previous book about MTV, and I was amazed to read how they were talking about what they considered conscious decisions by the channel, as if they were thought out. And one of those things was, when we first built the TV set, it had its shortcomings in terms of accommodating interviews or the different variety of things that were coming into the studio and the stage. We were just starting to get some money, and at that point, I forget what my title was — I think I was creative director/executive producer — but I was working with others on it. And we hired a guy, David Morong, to build the set. I had read in this other person's book how the set was conceived, how it was executed, and how all this thought was put into making it look like "a young person's loft." Wherever this person got this information, I don't know, but the truth of the matter is that first set — which was gigantic — David Morong did, which was a beautiful job. It was like most everything else. It was crisis management. We had a deadline. We had to get it done. Most of it was, "We have little time and little money." What's interesting is sometimes you get lucky with that stuff, and I think MTV did get lucky with that. Because on a daily basis, we were doing crisis management, and there was a "fire" here and a "fire" there. And, fortunately, we were probably able to make more of the right decisions than the wrong decisions — and survive it. There was no architecture of the channel. It was trying to keep the building from falling down.

  JOHN OATES: It was just nothing there. It was a small, tiny studio. Everything was small and kind of homey. A bunch of young people working together. It was very low-key.

/>   STAN RIDGWAY: They didn't look like anything out of the ordinary that a studio wouldn't look like — two cameras, lights. The overall impression I remember is that it was welcoming. People were loose. There was just a looser quality about things. I'm talking like '82/'83. I guess the huge, corporate marketing monster had not shown up in full-force yet. So people felt confident in their jobs and felt like they were doing something good. There was a good vibe.

  GLENN TILBROOK: We'd drop into the studios from time to time. It just seemed like quite an anarchic place to hang out.

  SERGEANT BLOTTO: It was pretty loose. Again, it was this real sort of "anything goes/do what you want to do" kind of thing. There are some MTV clips on the Blotto DVD, Play Something Good. There was one time when we went in — I think it was with Martha — and she was asking us, "Where are you touring next? Where are you going to be?" And our bass player, Cheese, had shaved his head, so Broadway leaned over and grabbed Cheese and stuck his head down, so the top of his head was facing the camera. And then took a magic marker and started drawing all over it. "Well, we're here...and then we're going up there...and then we're going down here."

  STAN RIDGWAY: Stewart Copeland and I [visited MTV to promote their collaborative song/video, "Don't Box Me In"]. That was another thing, when you were in New York City, you would get a call from MTV or whoever was promoting you at that point, and would try and get you on. You'd have to get the call at the last minute, go up to the building, and show up. Well, Stewart and I did that one day, and we ran right into Rodney Dangerfield! He was on the same segment that we were on, so we all went on together. That was a great, fun time. I remember Rodney being just a great guy. He was perspiring a lot and was saying things that we were laughing at, but the crew and the rest of the MTV people were kind of preoccupied. I remember him turning to me and saying, "Stan, am I funny? Is this stuff funny? Is this funny at all?" I'm going, "Rodney, it's really funny. I think they're not even listening." And he goes, "Those motherfuckers!"

  STEWART COPELAND: I remember Rodney Dangerfield! I can't remember anything about the interview. I just remember him being...he's exactly the same way in the green room what he is on the screen. That's him, completely him. There are so many like that. Ricky Gervais — another one, he is that character. Stan Ridgway is that character, too, by the way.

  DEBORA IYALL: I met James Brown at the MTV studios. It was cool. I came in, and I was going to do my interview with JJ, and they put me in a little kitchen or something. It wasn't even a green room. And there was James Brown and his wife! They were getting ready to do some interview before me. So I got to meet him and hang out for a few minutes — I got his autograph — and then he went to do his interview, and that was it. But I remember I was pretty much walking on air. I had seen James Brown at that time probably four or five times. [The MTV studio] was pretty low-rent, because like I said, we weren't in any fancy green room or anything. I think we were in a kitchen, waiting to be interviewed. There was a table. It wasn't like all these plush couches and a plate of fruit or whatever. They were like, "Wait in here, and then you're going to do the interview down a hall." You open up the door, and it was a pretty small, little stage. I would have to say, if the room was 20 x 20…it wasn't maybe even that big. They sat us on stools I think, and I'm pretty sure that one camera was set up, some lights, and a sound person, probably just one. It was very modest.

  ALAN HUNTER: And then I remember when our studio producer said, "We're thinking about moving to a new studio uptown." The set was going to be like four times bigger, three-dimensional, and just really exciting. We were really stoked about that.

  MIKE PELECH: In '84, they moved to a competitor, a company called Unitel. They wanted to change the studio look, to be larger and give more presence to the set. They wanted something much more elaborate. We were looking to get another piece of property to develop them, but unfortunately, they went to Unitel, which had a larger studio. We knew they were in negotiations. It was very disappointing. The wrap party was almost like a funeral. It was really like breaking up a family. It was real rough. It was at a place called Shutters, on 34th Street, right down the block. No party atmosphere at all. People that had been working together for three years, five days a week, and really evolved into a great team, dispersed. It was very rough. For us, business-wise, it was a big blow, because the problem with having a long-running show, you're really out of the business, and people forget that you're in the business. A lot of our clients left for the west coast. The business had changed. And you're kind of out of the public eye. We were really dead in the water as a studio for almost six months. But we got another little show, called National Geographic Explorer, which became a phenomenon in its own right, so that got us back in the mix. There was a lot of work after that, but MTV leaving was a blow. It really was. You're losing friends. But a lot of people stayed in touch.

  NINA BLACKWOOD: Unitel was right around the corner from where I used to live. It was great. I could just walk down the street. It was on 57th between 9th and 10th, right across from CBS.

  KEN R. CLARK: The Unitel Studio was luxurious and very new. And keep in mind, back then, the location of the MTV Studios was a hugely guarded secret. Now, it's in a big glass box over Times Square. But back then, they were in the bowels of a television production facility. Nobody knew where they were, and that was a good thing, because all those celebrities could come and go, and nobody even knew. It was very anonymous. By the time I got there, everybody had their own nice dressing room, and they had make-up rooms, a VJ lounge, green room, and all that. The first studio didn't have any of that. Things worked like a well-oiled machine. MTV did not want to own their own studio facility, because MTV was completely non-union. If they had owned broadcast facilities, they would have been forced to unionize all of that, and they didn't want to go there. So from the very beginning, MTV leased studio space. The tech people — the camera operators and people like that — actually were provided by the studio, although MTV had a say in their selection and approval. But they were technically employed by the studio, so MTV didn't have to deal with the unions.

  KEN CEIZLER: The first set was very plain-looking, and as we were "living" there, it started to get filled up with this clutter from crew and staff. The second one — and this really shows a big mistake on our part — we made it two stories. We thought that, by making it two stories, we would have the ability to do all this stuff up top and shoot through things. While some of it was true, it was overkill. We really didn't need the second story. For what we got out of it, we didn't really get the bang for the buck. But it had some nice features in it. It had a diner set up, which was probably too Happy Days-ish, but we were trying to make it "youth culture." It had kind of a desk, where the VJs gave some news. It had a set up interview area, so it was always there and ready to go when somebody would walk in. The second set had defined areas for certain things. The first set was just kind of an open space and a background, [for] which we would have to drag out chairs.

  KEN R. CLARK: It was definitely in an unmarked location. The building said "Unitel Video." Nobody would have had any idea what was going on in that building. It was a very blank facade building. You'd walk in, and there was the main Unitel front desk. You went down a hall, and there was a glass door you had to be buzzed through. You walked into our reception area, where you were typically greeted by Carmen Walker. I don't know if any of the other people you've talked to have mentioned Carmen, which was our receptionist. She had nothing to do with the programming or what happened on that channel, but that woman ran that studio. She was a feisty elderly black woman, who would chase you down the hall and smack you upside the head if you looked at her wrong or pissed her off in any way. She was fabulous with all the celebrities that would come in, because everybody would walk through that door. She was usually very well behaved when celebrities were in the building. It was everybody else that she would give hell to. [Laughs] The only Carmen story that I recall off the top of my head that was funny wa
s often, we'd have to give tours to big ad sale executive clients. So if we did a big deal with Pepsi, for example, the Pepsi president's kids would want to come in the studio. Some very important ad executives had come into the studio, and a guy and a woman were standing right in front of Carmen's desk. They were literally three feet in front of her face, and they were talking about stepping out to get a coffee. The guy had said, "It's alright. They can just leave a message with 'the switchboard,'" and he literally put his arm out and gestured. His hand was about six inches from Carmen's face. And I was in the VJ office right next to the reception area, and I could see Carmen there. She just shot out, grabbed the man by the tie, yanked his head down to the front desk, and said, "Do I look like a switchboard to you, motherfucker?!" [Laughs] She pointed at the phone and the desk and said, "That is a phone and a desk. That is a switchboard...I am a receptionist!" I think I just leaned over and closed the door.