The Inquisitr » mtv

Remote Control’s Ken Ober dies at 52

Kim LaCapria — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:50:44 +0000

If you’re under the age of 30, you’re probably not too familiar with Ken Ober or the classic MTV game show Remote Control. (Clip below.)

You can actually thank Remote Control in part for all the later music-free programming- it was the first item on MTV’s lineup to not be related to music. The premise (admittedly, a lot of this went over my head at the age of seven or eight, though I recall finding it hilarious) was that Ober, the host, wanted badly to host his own TV game show. Set up in his “mother’s basement,” the set had a rec room feel, with barcaloungers, sunburst clocks and retro light fixtures dangling over contestants heads. Adam Sandler, Denis Leary and Colin Quinn all appeared on the show regularly. In the intervening years (Remote Control’s aired from 1987-1990), Ober has worked behind the scenes on a variety of projects, including Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn (which was also excellent and underrated), The New Adventures of Old Christine, and Mind of Mencia.

A manager at Brillstein Entertainment Partners, who represented Ober for over 20 years, confirmed his death to press yesterday. Ober is reported to have been complaining about flu-like symptoms as late as Saturday, but cause of death is unknown. Ober is survived by his parents and a brother.

Sgt. Pepper’s comes to The Beatles Rock Band next week

Chris Greenhough — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 02:30:28 +0000

What’s your favorite Beatles album? If you answered “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” we can almost certainly be friends.

Now we’re friends, want to come round my place and play Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band on some plastic instruments? Well you can’t. Not until next week, anyway. That’s when Sgt. Pepper’s will be hitting The Beatles: Rock Band, with the album pack including:

Fixing A Hole
She’s Leaving Home
Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite!
Within You Without You
When I’m Sixty-Four
Lovely Rita
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)
A Day In The Life

That lot will join the other five Sgt. Pepper’s tracks that are already in the game, “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” “With A Little Help From My Friends,” “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds,” “Getting Better,” and “Good Morning Good Morning.”

This latest batch of Beatles downloadable content hits Xbox 360 on November 17, and PS3 and Wii on November 19. Each individual track – not that you’d want to miss any of these – will set you back $1.99, 160 MS Points, or 200 Wii Points. The whole album will cost $13.49, or 1080 MS Points.

[Via press release]

Habbo Hotel and MTV International Partner to Bring the MTV Europe Music Awards to Habbo

Duncan Riley — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 02:49:50 +0000

Helsinki, October 14, 2009 (Inquisitr Wire)– MTV International and Habbo, a virtual world for teenagers, today announced a global partnership that will extend the MTV Europe Music Awards (EMAs) to the virtual world. With its 14 million monthly unique visitors, Habbo is the world’s largest virtual world and online community for teens.

From September 21, in conjunction with the opening of voting for the nominees in all categories of this year’s MTV Europe Music Awards, Habbo launched an MTV EMA-themed virtual space within Habbo communities worldwide. Habbo users have the opportunity to visit the virtual MTV EMA space, vote for their favorite artists and join their friends in activities and competitions around the world-famous MTV Europe Music Awards event.

The Habbo virtual environment provides a unique opportunity for teens to interact and hang out with other music fans. The campaign includes MTV EMA-branded spaces, such as a main stage, lounge, red carpet and backstage areas, and Habbos can take part in different, themed activities and competitions. From the Habbo user’s perspective, the highlight of the campaign may well be their chance to win a virtual MTV Europe Music Award, which they can show off to all their Habbo friends. A select amount of these virtual prizes will be awarded to participants in the campaign’s events.

“Music is the sole biggest asset that our teens users value in their lives, and thus we are extremely happy to partner with MTV Europe Music Awards,” said Christian Batist, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Sulake Corporation. “The highly involving activities in Habbo will allow us to activate a massive music-loving user base to take part in the Awards. We aim to generate a huge amount of votes for the MTV Europe Music Awards from our Habbo audiences around the world.”

There are currently Habbo communities in 31 countries on six continents. To date, over 148 million Habbo characters have been created and close to 14 million unique users worldwide visit Habbo each month. (source: Quantcast). More than 90% of Habbo users are 13-18 years old and the gender split is roughly equal (56% boys; 44% girls). Habbo users spend an average of 43 minutes on the site per visit.

Robin Hibbard Pregnant

Duncan Riley — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 10:50:29 +0000

Robin Hibbard, best known for her role on the MTV series The Real World is pregnant.

Hibbard, who worked in a Coyote Ugly Salon before becoming one of MTV’s more popular reality TV stars, is due this month (that was well hidden) and the child is believed to be a boy.

There are no details about who the father is, only that its not a person who appears on The Real World…well, who hasn’t appeared yet that is.

Time Warner Cable Customers: Say Good Bye to Nick, MTV and Comedy Central

Duncan Riley — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 04:53:08 +0000

A break down in negotiations between Viacom and Time Warner Cable will mean customers on Time Warner’s cable network, the second largest in the United States, will no longer be able to view Viacom channels from January 1.

Channels to go from Time Warner include (not everyone has all these to start with) Comedy Central, Logo, BET, Spike, TV Land, Nick at Nite, Nickelodeon, Noggin, The N, Nick Jr., TEENick, MTV, VH1, MTV2, CMT and Palladia.

Viacom claims it has been trying to negotiate a fair renewal of its cable channels for months, but claims Time Warner Cable has been unresponsive and unreasonable. Time Warner claims Viacom is asking for exorbitant increases in carriage fees which would have to be passed along to the customer, reports the Huffington Post.

Who ever is to blame, the net result is the same: if you’re on Time Warner Cable, no Viacom content for you from midnight, January 1, reportedly EST so 9pm December 31 on the West Coast. Around 12.3 million customers will be affected by the dispute.

Viacom though isn’t going out without a scene, running the following ad across its entire network to Time Warner customers.

Sneak Peak: Britney Spears Documentary Videos

Samantha DeWitt — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 09:30:00 +0000

Editors note: update from this post, includes extra details and video

A sneak peak of the documentary that everyone has been wanting to see, where Britney talks for 90 minutes, candidly about just how her life has unravelled so publicly is available.

Britney talks about how dance is therapy, and not everyone needs to go to therapy and talk about things. I think we might have discovered right there just what went wrong. Clearly, not enough dancing.

The other video touches on her marriage (presumably the one to K-Fed) and she says she got married for the idea of it, not because she was following her heart. Ok, the bys are going to love that when they are older.

Britney does however look like her old self, which is a positive. Time will tell whether the doco works wonders for her public reputation, and we all stop talking about her vagina. It would have to be a good documentary for that, though.

The documentary airs in the United States on MTV on November 30 and in the United Kingdom on 1 December on Sky 1.

The Hills to return for a fifth season

Duncan Riley — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:09:33 +0000

MTV reality series The Hills has been renewed for a 5th season.

The show documenting the life of Lauren Conrad and her friends in Los Angeles after Conrad’s move from Laguna Beach, California debuted back in 2006, and gave the world Lauren Conrad, Audrina Patridge, Heidi Montag and Whitney Port.

People got the scoop from Audrina Patridge: “There is going to be a fifth season. We just found out.”

“We have fun with each other and we’ve stuck it out this long, so we might as well do another one.”

“At one point, all of us were like, ‘No, we don’t want to do another season,’” she says. “I wanted to do more movies, and Whitney moved to New York and she’s doing her own spin-off. And Lauren’s dating [My Boys actor] Kyle [Howard] but he can’t be on the show because he’s on another show, so that makes it hard.”

European MTV Music Awards rickrolled

Steven Hodson — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 21:45:46 +0000

Other than being the cause de celeb of the Rickrolling phenomena does anyone really remember who the hell Rick Astley is? Well apparently about 100 million people do in Europe as they all voted for him as the Best Act Ever at the MTV Europe Music Awards.

The number of votes he got was more than all the votes for U2, Britney Spears and The Beatles combined. All this based on his 1987 hit Never Gonna Give You Up that became the basis of an internet trend called Rickrolling in which people are tricked into watching his videos. His hit song has now been watched more than 20 million times on YouTube.

As Richard Godfrey; a senior VP at MTV and executive director of the awards said in an interview

“We’ve been well and truly Rickrolled,” Richard Godfrey, a senior vice-president at MTV and executive producer of the awards said. “We wanted to see who our audience would nominate and, given that we’re in Liverpool, we thought it would be someone like the Beatles. But before the nominations were even announced he shot into the lead.”

Rickrolled – the Literal version (via Nothing to do qith Arbroath)

MTV censors file sharing sites in Weird Al Yankovic song

Duncan Riley — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 06:33:18 +0000

MTV have taken censorship to new extremes, bleeping out the names of file sharing sites in a Weird Al Yankovic video on their new music video site which launched October 28.

The clip for Weird Al Yankovic’s 2006 viral hit “Don’t Download This Song” starts with the following lyrics

Once in a while maybe you will feel the urge
To break international copyright law
By downloading MP3s from file-sharing sites
Like Morpheus or Grokster or Limewire or KaZaA

But in MTV’s version, every named file sharing site is bleeped. It’s not uncommon for radio to bleep strong swearing, but this is something completely new. Talk about being so beholden to the record companies that you go overboard in the ass-kissing stakes.

Video as follows:

(via TechDirt)

Kanye’s Back to Work, Doesn’t Break Computer

Meieli Sawyer — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 18:48:27 +0000

After Kanye’s intense altercation with a photographer at LAX, he seems surprisingly calm and focused: he’s not even in a MacBook-breaking mood. It looks like even though he got arrested and was pretty much instrumental in destroying someone’s property, he’s saving the rants for another time, only blogging that “We back in the lab!!! I’m cool with the paparazzi. This guy wasn’t cool. I gotta work now…I’ll rant later!”

And rant he probably will. It sounds like the situation was a complete mess, and despite Kayne insisting that the paparazzi are “cool,” TMZ’s footage is a little on the scary side.

I love it when it’s all captured on film!

Britney plays it safe at the VMAs

Duncan Riley — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 03:40:38 +0000

Britney Spears comeback 2.0 was in full swing at this years MTV video music awards, and finally she managed to get it right.

Wining three awards, Britney kept her speeches short and professional, and unlike last year that’s pretty much the end of it. As AP noted, new Britney still owns the VMA’s, and “Spears made news and earned a standing ovation just by showing up, smiling and not making a fool of herself.” Highlight package above.

Will Britney Have a Second Disastrous Year at the VMAs?

Meieli Sawyer — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 20:30:52 +0000

Are you as terrified as I am for Britney Spears tonight at the VMAs? The clock is ticking down, and I’m not sure if I want to see something fabulously sensational or watch Brit prove that she’s cleaned up her act for real. There’s also the possibility that she’ll whip out a performance after all, since MTV has kept us guessing.

9 pm ET SHARP, September 7th. If there are going to be any f-ups, it’s live! That always makes for a good time.

Oldie-but-Goody: Lauren Conrad Rakes It In

Meieli Sawyer — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 21:05:52 +0000

The Hills salaries explained! I’ve always been curious how much Heidi and Spencer make, since they’re so flash and obviously Heidi’s (ahem) invested in herself quite a bit since the first episode.

According to an In Touch source, Lauren gets paid the most at $75,000 per episode, and “If you bring drama, you’ll get more money.” If that’s the case, Spencer should really be the one leading the pack, salary-wise!

However, the secret source revealed that “The only reason LC gets paid more than anyone else is because she demanded in her original contract that no one could ever get paid more than her.”

Well, I guess I’ll have to drum up some extra resentment since I’ll still be watching it tonight.

Things I’ve Learned from The Hills: Season 4, Episode 1

Meieli Sawyer — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 21:23:30 +0000

Heading on 21+ hours later, I’ve still got The Hills on the brain. I’ll spare you the details of how many times I’ve streamed and dissected the episode and the live after-show (so you don’t make fun of me), but here’s what I’ve got stuck in my craw post-Hills:

1. Lauren “Lo” Bosworth’s asymmetrical bang-fringe is out of control. Her part is so far over it looks like half her head is shaved.

2. Heidi and Spencer need to break up. I know it’s not going to happen, but since when can your boyfriend/fiance insult your sister (Hair Extension Holly) and get away with it? Guts he’s got, good manners not so much.

3. Speaking of rudeness, how could Lo insult Audrina Patridge to her face and then look like the victim just because Audrina says something assertive (for once)? “We’ll never be friends”? OMG. Not everyone’s passive-aggressive all the time. And look! Lo’s still defending herself.

Click Through for More of What I’ve Learned. . .

4. Lauren Conrad is an awkward dater. Why else would she invite love interest Doug out to Audrina Patridge’s guaranteed-to-be-awkward party? Lauren’s life is drama-rife already; couldn’t she have spared him?

5. Heidi Montag’s fabulous quotes continue. Last season it was “Old Water Under the Bridge.” Now it’s “You are, like, Early Bird. We are Late Birds.” Less improv, please– I never thought that I’d call for scripted Heidi, but that’s what she needs.

6. Despite #5, I like Heidi Montag a lot more now. She’s still skipping out on work, but she did it for her sister’s arrival yesterday. I thought that she was too self-absorbed to care. But there she is, bonding with her sister and even inviting her to move in with her and flesh-beard (Spencer).

7. It’s not the end of Justin-Bobby, from the looks of Season 4 Episode 2+ trailer. I feel your pain.

8. I hope that Whitney Port doesn’t disappear in this season. Yes, she has a new boyfriend, but I hope this season isn’t Lauren and Whitney acting “busy” while standing up in what looks like a slightly uncomfortable work environment. More lunching, please!

No idea what I’m talking about? I recommend you watch the hot mess that was Season 4: Episode 1.

Watch Out, Lauren Conrad: Heidi Montag Will Take Your Place

Meieli Sawyer — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 22:04:38 +0000

Perfectly timed with her new single “Overdosin’” (which is “about when you fall in love with someone, and you’re just overdosing off of their love”), Heidi Montag has taken the opportunity to tell PEOPLE exactly how much she’d like to rip that throne right out from under her Hills comrade L.C.. How comforting. I think this is why she’s not invited to the after parties anymore. Behold:

Montag: “I think that maybe Lauren is tired of [being on the show], but we’re just beginning.”
Pratt: “Sometimes the narrator has to throw their hate up on the wall and pass the mic. It’s my favorite show. I love it. The Hills season 10 is what I’m going for.”

DUH, Spencer-with-the-flesh-beard. It’s like the best meal ticket ever and your key to things like 12 million dollar houses.

If I were Lauren Conrad, I’d be a little scared. These two seem like the type to stop at nothing to get what they want (which is money, obviously).

Don’t forget that The Hills will be on tonight, folks! Not like MTV is letting me forget.

“I Want More Privacy”: What a Joke!

Meieli Sawyer — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 21:04:51 +0000

It’s pretty ironic that Heidi Montag whipped out her “I Want More Privacy” t-shirt (for the second time in a row, I might add) after she made it perfectly clear that she makes her dough right off of her public, anyway. WTF, Heidi?

If she’s wearing this tee just for more attention, then she’s a lot smarter than I thought she was. And if attention isn’t what she wants anymore, perhaps she should rethink the “live television” marriage thing that they’re planning. The wedding sounds cool, but they’re still gross:

“[The] small wedding [will be] on Sir Richard Branson’s Necker Island in the Virgin Islands, with catering by Wolfgang Puck’s Cut restaurant, watches by Jason of Beverly Hills for all their guests and a performance by U2.”

Don’t forget the whole being-filmed-on-MTV thing, too! It sounds nice, but there’s a pretty good chance that Heidi and Spencer will be making it completely gag-worthy in short time.

No related posts.

The Speidis Make 3 Mill in Two Years

Meieli Sawyer — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 18:54:47 +0000

Would you do something ridiculous for 3 million dollars? I would: ruin my fashion sense, make me say stupid things, even make me sing if I’ll be getting a payout like that. I suppose that puts me in the same boat as Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt of The Hills, who have more or less sold out and cashed in.

According to In Touch Weekly, the couples’ major appearances, photo shoots, and “business deals” have led to their sizable 1.5 mill a year salary.

“We are trying to entertain in every aspect of our lives,” Heidi confirmed in the In Touch blog.

Perhaps In Touch should review how much of their income was generated by tabloids alone. . . including their own. Nothing can beat the Spencer-Heidi-US Weekly threesome, though. Is everything they do a “cover story”?!

Um, don’t answer that.

No related posts.

Heidi Montag Talks Alllll About Herself– Again.

Meieli Sawyer — Mon, 12 May 2008 23:47:49 +0000

I will be so jealous of you if you have no idea who Heidi Montag is, because I truly wish that she had never come into my life. Just like Katie Holmes, we’re looking at yet another oddly brainwashed girl from whom we can’t escape. It’s too bad that The Hills has been picked up for season four. There’s no end in sight!

This Hills co-star managed to squirm her way onto Ellen to talk about co-star Lauren’s sex tape for about the hundredth time. Can we get a chorus of “Drop it, already?”

Other scintillating topics tackled were “Why do you keep doing the show?” Hmmm. . . 1. Money; 2. Recognition; 3. Fame; 4. Glory? I’d like to know anyone’s who’s more into the perks– Heidi’s launched her own crap clothing line, is planning a spin-off, and gets on every mag cover she can. She also basically told us that she has no friends, saying that she has “lots” of best friends (read: none) and that her sister is one of them. Cute, but I’m not buying it.

The season finale is tonight on MTV. If there’s a catfight, it’ll all be worth it. Or at least that’s what I like to tell myself.