It’s time to get a blast from the past on MTV. Starting Monday, June 25 the network is launching a three-hour morning block of programming called Retro Mania that dusts off old shows from the network’s vault.
Retro Mania will begin with Laguna Beach for the first week, The Hills for the month of July, and a week of the animated series Daria starting Monday, July 30. One Tree Hill fans might be curious to see Laguna Beach, if only to see where Stephen Colletti started out.
The Retro Mania concept is a good one, especially following Teen Nick’s successful “The ’90s Are All That” programming. But why limit it to a pair of recent reality shows and a great cartoon?
Here are 10 other MTV shows I would love to see in Retro Mania.
Road Rules: South Pacific: Sure, I’d enjoy watching any old seasons of this Real World on Wheels, but the 12th season would be particularly interesting to watch because it’s the one that featured David Giuntoli, who is now the star of NBC’s Grimm. It’s always fun to see where people started.
Undressed: One of my favorite MTV shows ever, this teen soap anthology series followed various storylines about sexuality. But the really amazing thing is the amount of future stars the show had. In the first season alone (there were six total), Undressed featured Mad Men‘s Christina Hendricks, Necessary Roughness‘ Marc Blucas, Castle‘s Jon Huertas and Leverage‘s Beth Riesgraf, among others. Future seasons starred Chad Michael Murray, Katee Sackhoff, Adam Brody and Brandon Routh.
2ge+her: This brilliant parody followed a semi-fictional. The most amazing part is that it actually worked as a real band, and their song “U + Me = Us (Calculus)” is pure brilliance.
The State: I wanna dip my balls in it! If you remember this insanely funny sketch show featuring Michael Ian Black, Thomas Lennon and Ken Marino, you undoubtedly remember that hilarious catchphrase.
Spyder Games: An insanely cheesey prime-time soap opera, it would be interesting to see the awful production values and subpar acting again.
Idiot Savants: I loved this game show about a group of pop culture nerds each with their own specialty who did battle with contestants on the topics of their expertise.
Singled Out: The dating show that launched Jenny McCarthy and Chris Hardwick, this was the precursor to MTV’s long line of dating shows like Next, Taildaters and Room Raiders.
Celebrity Death Match: Claymation celebrities fighting and killing one another? Heck, they shouldn’t just re-air this, they should make new episodes.
Clone High USA: A brilliant animated series about historical figures who’ve been cloned and attend high school as teenagers (starring Abe Lincoln as the nerdy protagonist, Gandhi as his hyperactive best friend and JFK and Cleopatra as the popular kids), the show was an underappreciated gem.
A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila: Let’s relive this petri dish of a show, and while MTV is at it, Domenico’s spin-off, That’s Amore, should get to air too. The challenge where he forces the girls and their families to suck the filling out of cannolis and spit it into a goblet is one of the most disgusting moments in all of reality TV.
What MTV shows would you like to see again in Retro Mania?
(Image courtesy of MTV)
Senior Writer, BuddyTV
John watches nearly every show on TV, but he specializes in sci-fi/fantasy like The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural and True Blood. However, he can also be found writing about everything from Survivor and Glee to One Tree Hill and Smallville.
