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Last week in Essentials we reported the rumor that Mike Judge was at work on a new season of “Beavis and Butthead” for MTV. This came a few weeks after the long awaited DVD release of B&B spin-off “Daria” and in response to both you could almost hear the collective sigh of nostalgia coming from the blogosphere, particularly those Gen Y’ers like me that came of age with the series and tend to associate them with a “Golden Age” of MTV.

Now I know there are plenty of Gen X’ers who would say the same of even earlier programming like “Remote Control” and “House of Style” (almost like the SNL debates of Chevy Chase vs. Adam Sandler), but in many Millennial memories the channel was at its peak when it interspersed the shameless fare like “Dismissed” or Spring Break coverage with absurd sock puppets (Sifl and Olly), sardonic wit (Daria), real reality (Real World seasons 1-Las Vegas) and — you guessed it — music videos.

Although MTV has said point blank it doesn’t care about those of us aged out of their demo and that the current mix of gloss (“The City”) and trash (“Jersey Shore’) is a reflection of current viewer needs and values, it’s hard to not view comeback news or even shows like the anti-Hills docudrama “My Life as Liz” and foul-mouthed puppet showcase “Warren the Ape” as a gesture towards teens that may be seeking the same saltier flavor we grew up watching.

Still, I’m skeptical that those shows won’t fall flat in the context of MTV in 2010. And to some extent, they already have. Recently, as a guest blogger on Jezebel teen style guru and unofficial spokesperson for lost alternative culture (check out her awesome rally cry to bring back Sassy) Tavi responded to the launch of the MTV Style blog lamenting the site as a gimmick, in spite of a few brownie points for celebrating real teens. From the article:

“The originality shtick is just there so the station can still try and have a foot in the ‘nonconformist’ door the way they’re trying with My Life As Liz and, I don’t know, shutter shades, or something equally neon and grotesque… So like, it can call itself “MTV Style,” but it still focuses too much on petty observations such as favorite “fashion moments” from an episode of The Hills and Kesha.”

In the current fragmented media landscape MTV proper just seems too firmly situated in mainstream media to be identified with the “Daria’” brand of alterna-culture causing experiments like “My Life As Liz” to seem inauthentic. The competition of all the other scripted teen series out there (now available whenever) and the explosion of niche media online just further compound that inability to disassociate. So even if “Beavis & Butthead” do make it back to the small screen, it’s hard to say whether the target audience will make the effort to find it there vs. searching later online.

But then exploring the “later online” option and other alternatives might just be the key to putting those licensing rights to good use somewhere other than the monolithic environment of MTV or even MTV.com proper. Maybe in the same way that the original channel positioned itself as younger sibling to VH1 back in the days of Michael Bolton-type music and “Pop Up Video” (another comeback I would strongly endorse) I think the network could grow an audience in opposition to the “Twilight” hype machine non-conformist teens might equate with MTV. By  leveraging those aforementioned shows online and off with less corporate iterations of the brand a la MTVU or MTV2, even TEENick (which has played reruns of “Daria” in the past) and exploring new approaches to partnerships with websites and media brands like College Humor (another traditional experiment gone awry), MTV could create a home for original content as well as Daria, Beavis and Butthead and Pop-Up Video… not to mention their audience of old and yet to be discovered fans alike.

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Categorized under: TV, Youth Marketing

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