Mtv

On last month's premiere episode of MTV's "My Life as Liz" (10:30 p.m. Mondays), Liz Lee, the show's misfit protagonist, is assigned by her Burleson High School broadcast journalism teacher to complete a profile of golden girl Taylor Terry, an anchor of the school's news program. Eyes are rolled. At one point while filming Taylor, Liz threatens to vomit. Détente is eventually reached, with Taylor opening up to Liz about her inner life, and Liz taking Taylor shopping for vintage clothes.

After five seasons, the hit reality show"Jersey Shore"has spawned no shortage of spinoffs - towels, tanning oil, even greeting cards featuringNicole "Snooki" Polizzislurring catchphrases. Somehow a transition to the stage seems fitting, if not inevitable. "Jersey Shoresical: A Frickin' Rock Opera," playing at the Hayworth Theatre in L.A. through June 27, has all the clubbing, tanning and "smushing" ("Jersey Shore"-speak for sex) set to music, with the cast of bronzed "guidos" and "guidettes" from the TV series played by sketch comedy veterans, a Tony Award-winner and a Buttafuoco.

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.

Google Inc., with its free meals, high monthly pay and relaxed work environment, was rated by interns as the best place to work in a report released just ahead of the peak summer internship season. A software engineering intern at the search engine giant can expect an average monthly pay of $6,463, according to career website Glassdoor. Google interns, who voted the company as the most satisfying place to work, also reported additional perks such as face time with managers and opportunities to sit in on meetings.

As a Michael Fox-loving member of the demographic it targeted, I most certainly saw the 1985 film "Teen Wolf," but I don't remember much save it was a comedy and not very good. "Teen Wolf," which premieres Sunday night on MTV, is also one of those two things and it is not a comedy. Though there is some satisfaction in being reminded that supernatural curses were being used as metaphors for adolescence long before "Twilight" author Stephenie Meyer was born (the original "Teen Wolf" was a homage/rip-off of the classic 1957 "I Was a Teenage Werewolf")

Twenty-five years ago, MTV was best known for music videos starring Michael Jackson and Madonna. These days, its reigning queen is not a recording star at all but rather Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi, the rowdy party girl from the reality series "Jersey Shore." So maybe it's not surprising that this week the 29-year-old network bowed to the inevitable and finally scraped the legend "Music Television" off its corporate logo. The change was a belated acknowledgment of what has been obvious for years: MTV has evolved into a reality channel that occasionally runs programs that have to do with music.

The "Jersey Shore" gang took its act to Italy on Thursday night and delivered ratings that MTV was describing Friday as stupendo and fantastico. The fourth season premiere of the reality show about housemates Ronnie, Sammi, Snooki & Co. attracted 8.8 million viewers, the network said, describing it as the largest audience ever for an MTV season premiere and the third-highest MTV series telecast ever (bested only by two other "Jersey Shore" episodes last season). The audience was 4% higher than for the show's first episode last season, MTV said.

To oversimplify — though not by all that much — MTV's new high school comedy "Awkward. " (the period is part of the title) is a female twist on the network's phallocentric "The Hard Times of RJ Berger," though in the same way that teenage girls are more mature than their male classmates, it is less sophomoric and sex-obsessed than its predecessor. Created by Lauren Iungerich, it has the spirit of "Juno" behind it rather than the ghost of "Porky's. " If "Awkward. " doesn't always listen to what that spirit is saying, it gets that head start nonetheless.

"Pedro," which premieres tonight on MTV (and simultaneously on sister station Logo), dramatizes the short, productive life of Pedro Zamora, a third-season cast member of "The Real World" -- the 1994 San Francisco season, known also for the abrasive, abusive and generally uncooperative bike messenger Puck, who was kicked out of the house, in part because of his treatment of Zamora.

Warner Music Group hears sweet music in MTV's online advertising network. The music conglomerate on Wednesday announced a multiyear, nonexclusive deal to let MTV sell ads for thousands of Warner's online music videos. The music video business, which MTV pioneered three decades ago but has largely abandoned, has migrated online in recent years to sites such as YouTube and artists' individual home pages. The dispersion, however, has meant that artists and labels have collected very little advertising revenue from the videos they create because the clips have been spread far and wide across the Internet.

Robert Johnson, the nation's first African American billionaire, has invested in professional basketball teams, real estate, mortgage-backed securities and mid-size hotels. Now he is returning to his old stamping grounds: media. The founder of BET, the first cable television network specifically targeted to African Americans, is rolling up a pair of small video firms to form a new publicly traded venture, RLJ Entertainment. The 66-year-old entrepreneur plans to create an online distribution company that syndicates programming, including titles made by producers and directors who have been unable to penetrate the barriers of Hollywood.

'I Just Want My Pants Back' Where: MTV When: 11 p.m. Thursday Rating: Not rated

Oh, the pressure we put on young people today. Not only are they expected to survive helicopter parenting, compete for slots at over-priced universities and then find jobs in an increasingly scanty workforce, we also need them to have more diverse and carefree sex than any previous generation — all while exchanging crackling "Juno"-esque banter with their misfit but socially insightful friends. To wit, MTV's new half-hour dramedy "I Just Want My Pants Back," which premiered as a sneak-peek in August, a completely ridiculous yet randomly entertaining exhibition of all these desires.

First it was artificially tanned, party-crazed Italian Americans. Now it's mud-racing, squirrel-hunting Appalachians. MTV is again at odds with state film officials who refuse to subsidize the network's latest reality TV show with tax credits. West Virginia film officials have cited MTV's unflattering depiction of state culture in "Buck Wild. " The show, scheduled to start filming next spring in Charleston and Sissonville, follows a group of recent high school graduates living in rural West Virginia as they participate in homegrown activities such as mud-racing.

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 )

Thursday marks the return of Mike Judge's "Beavis and Butt-Head" to MTV, after 14 years — enough time for a baby to have grown up to be Beavis or Butt-Head. The cartoon, which began in part as an ironic, idiotic but not inaccurate commentary on the network's original bread and butter — the music video — will now include among its targets movies, viral videos and the kind of shows that have come to represent MTV in the duo's absence, series like "Jersey Shore" and "16 and Pregnant.

As a 21-year-old college student, I found your cover stories on the 10th anniversary of MTV to be too one-sided in its favor ("The Channel That Ate the World," July 28). Because of MTV, a band is considered a success not because of its talent but instead because of its image. MTV is a business, let us not forget that. Artists that get airplay need to look presentable (for example, Poison, Whitesnake, M.C. Hammer and New Kids on the Block) rather than possess the raw energy that rock 'n' roll used to have.

I agree with everything Peter Whittle writes in "Stars can't act their age now," (Dec. 29), and I've noticed this trend in our culture for some time. In addition to the developments along these lines and possible causes, I believe MTV has had an inordinate influence on many young people and their inability to concentrate long enough to understand a coherent (script) idea that's drawn out for any length of time. When one is offered only sensation, inference and subtlety get lost in the shuffle.

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.