Beavis

Beavis and Butt-Head; Good Vibes; Allen Gregory infobox 10/27/11 'Beavis and Butt-Head' Where: MTV When: 10 p.m. Thursday Rating: TV-14 (may be unsuitable for children under the age of 14) 'Good Vibes' Where: MTV When: 10:30 p.m. Thursday Rating: TV-14-DL (may be unsuitable for children under the age of 14 with advisories for suggestive dialogue and coarse language) 'Allen Gregory' Where: Fox When: 8:30 p.m. Sunday Rating: TV-14-DLS (may be unsuitable for children under the age of 14 with advisories for suggestive dialogue, coarse language and sex)

When Susanne Daniels was head of programming for the WB Network, she had a knack for championing both wholesome shows such as "Seventh Heaven" that families could watch together and edgier fare like "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Dawson's Creek" that would appeal to teens while making parents nervous. In her new gig as president of programming for MTV, she will again try to strike that kind of balance. "I have to take my job as a programmer for teens seriously," Daniels said in a Monday afternoon interview.

A roundup of entertainment headlines for Friday: "Beavis and Butt-Head" are back on TV after 14 years, which leads to some critical praise and lament. ( Los Angeles Times , The Hollywood Reporter ) "Phineas and Ferb" is coming to the big screen. ( Los Angeles Times ) The warlock is returning to television. FX his picked up Charlie Sheen's new show, "Anger Management. " ( Los Angeles Times ) And the winner of "Project Runway" is ... ( Los Angeles Times )

A roundup of entertainment headlines for Friday: "Beavis and Butt-Head" are back on TV after 14 years, which leads to some critical praise and lament. ( Los Angeles Times , The Hollywood Reporter ) "Phineas and Ferb" is coming to the big screen. ( Los Angeles Times ) The warlock is returning to television. FX his picked up Charlie Sheen's new show, "Anger Management. " ( Los Angeles Times ) And the winner of "Project Runway" is ... ( Los Angeles Times )

Beavis and Butt-head are about to give a whole new--if demented--meaning to Christmas shopping. Just in time for the holidays, the nasty MTV cartoon characters--who get their jollies from torturing small animals and making crude remarks--have their faces plastered across everything from $15 boxer shorts to talking dolls that utter the duo's patented phrase, "This sucks."

In the comedic de-evolution that runs from Abbott & Costello through Bill & Ted, the closest modern ancestors of Paleolithic man may have been found in the form of "Beavis and Butt-head," the animated stoners who rule the MTV kingdom with pithy yet awesomely ignorant grunts. These two metal-loving morons make the "Wayne's World" lads look like Rhodes scholars.

Forget Frank and Bono. The vocal teaming of the year may be Beavis and Butt-head with Cher. Their performance on the old Sonny & Cher hit "I Got You Babe" is the highlight of "The Beavis and Butt-head Experience" album that is due in the stores Nov. 23 from Geffen Records. The surprise isn't that Cher would join the MTV dunderheads on the song (after all, she also records for Geffen), but that she was game enough to engage in banter that makes fun of her own image.

A recent Newsweek cover story depicted the state of TV as "The Billion-Dollar Battle to Insult Your Intelligence." Citing such popular shows as "Beavis and Butt-head," the article left the impression that we're a dumber and coarser nation these days. Sorry, but I don't control TV programming. I can only write my little newspaper column the best way I know how on subjects of interest to you. My sense of things is that you don't want the mindless pap of "Beavis and Butt-head."

"Heh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh." --Beavis "Huh-huh-huh-huh-huh-huh." --Butt-head Two dudes (a "dude" is somebody good, right?) have entered my life. I'd heard of them, heard the praise and adulation, the tall tales of lewd, destructive and uproariously moronic antics, but was slow to tune in myself. When I did, though, it was awe at first sight, a whiff of a bracing aroma--as if someone had opened a window and let in a breath of fresh gas.

Let's all take a look back at last year. Don't we all recall a little Chihuahua and a cat (I think it was a cat; it coughed up hairballs) who beat the heck out of each other and cracked really stupid jokes? As far as I remember, nobody seemed to complain about "Ren and Stimpy." So what's the deal with the nationwide complaints about Beavis and Butt-head? Some critics say they promote ill-mannered youth and destructive behavior.

Beavis and Butt-Head; Good Vibes; Allen Gregory infobox 10/27/11 'Beavis and Butt-Head' Where: MTV When: 10 p.m. Thursday Rating: TV-14 (may be unsuitable for children under the age of 14) 'Good Vibes' Where: MTV When: 10:30 p.m. Thursday Rating: TV-14-DL (may be unsuitable for children under the age of 14 with advisories for suggestive dialogue and coarse language) 'Allen Gregory' Where: Fox When: 8:30 p.m. Sunday Rating: TV-14-DLS (may be unsuitable for children under the age of 14 with advisories for suggestive dialogue, coarse language and sex)

SUNDAY In "Masterpiece Mystery! Case Histories" Jason Isaacs (below) plays an ex-cop working as a private detective in Scotland, who struggles with personal demons, a complicated relationship with his former police partner, an ex-wife, their adorable daughter, and, in this episode, a crime novelist caught up in a road rage incident. (KOCE, 9 p.m.) First comes love, then comes marriage … then another marriage, then another, and so on and so forth. Call it polygamy, call it plural marriage, call it "Big Love," it's just the latest taboo topic explored on a new "Our America With Lisa Ling.

For MTV, the situation was more than awkward . In fall 2008, the network was bingeing on manufactured reality shows that celebrated wealth and excess just as the country was staggering into a recession. Banks were failing, people were losing their jobs and college students were facing uncertain futures. But on MTV, the glamorous clique from "The Hills" was indulging in West Hollywood shopping trips and getaways to Cabo San Lucas. And on "My Super Sweet 16," the parents of a South Carolina beauty queen spent tens of thousands of dollars to give her the perfect birthday party, complete with a baby-blue Hummer.

Mike Judge has done more than breathe life into his characters -- he has given many of them his voice as well. Perhaps that's why the 46-year-old writer-director-animator-actor sounds so familiar -- the logy cadence of Butt-Head mixed with the flattened intonations of Hank Hill -- speaking by phone from his home state of Texas about his latest film, "Extract," which arrives in theaters Friday. Starring Jason Bateman, Ben Affleck and Mila Kunis, the shaggy comedy tells the tale of Joel Reynold (Bateman)

THE PRODUCERS of "The Animation Show," Robert May and Rebecca Moline, are aware of a certain stereotype about cartoon fans. "Animation is typically deemed to be either for children or perverts," May says, only half-joking, from his office in North Hollywood. "We are firmly in the middle. Our show is for adults, based mostly on mature subject matter, but I wouldn't call this 'Fritz the Cat.' " No kittens canoodling, to put it demurely, but this year's program of two-dozen-plus independent short films definitely takes a ribald tone.

UHHH, Beavis? What, Butt-head? Like, we're on a DVD. That's cool. For the first time, an extensive collection of "Beavis and Butt-head" animated shorts has been released on DVD, showing TV's stupidest teenagers to be even stupider than we remember. They get tattooed by an escaped serial killer. They set cats on fire. They cut down trees they're supposed to prune.