News

MTV Reboots 120 Minutes

2:13 p.m. · March 17, 2011 · by Dan Nishimoto

Reading Dan Charnas’ The Big Payback, particularly the section on Yo! MTV Raps, I was reminded of how even a corporate entity like MTV had roots in such experimental programming. The rock corollary to Yo! was certainly 120 Minutes. The show checked out in the early ‘00s, but MTV has decided to revive it.

The new 120 Minutes will be a monthly show on MTV2 with a weekly counterpart on the online counterpart MTV Hive. The show will premiere on MTV Hive this Friday and make its television return later this year. Details are forthcoming, but the show will mirror its former counterpart by combining “location shooting, videos, interviews and possibly some live performances.”

The show originally aired on MTV from 1986 to 2000 and then from 2001 to 2003 on MTV2. Created by Dave Kendall, the show provided an unprecedented mainstream platform for underground, independent and college radio acts like Sonic Youth, Nirvana and Radiohead. Hell, peep the Mojo Nixon clip above ~ what kind of madness were they feeding the childrens?

Matt Pinfield, who helmed the show from the mid- to late ‘90s, returns to helm the effort. While Pinfield later became a VP of A&R for Columbia Records and more recently a DJ for New York’s WRXP, he welcomed the return of the show. Speaking with MTV News, he said, “Even with all the destinations that people have and all the ways they can be entertained, educated and find information, I think it always gets back to the fact that they still want a trustworthy place to go.”

[MTV News]