Is MTV's New Show Packing Heat?
SodaHead TV
2010/06/07 15:00:00
|
|
|||||
|
2 votes
|
|
8% | ||
|
18 votes
|
|
69% | ||
|
6 votes
|
|
23% | ||
MTV has premiered a new half-hour sitcom about a gawky teenage nerd with an exceptionally large penis.
“The Hard Times of RJ Berger” premiered Sunday night at 11, right after the MTV Movie Awards. The scripted show is part of a new wave of programming to help balance out MTV’s heavy dose of reality TV, like “Jersey Shore” and “The Hills.” The show concerns the trials and tribulations of an Ohio teen, whose large penis provides him with the extra confidence he needs to withstand the tormenting of high school bullies and the embarrassment provided by his oversexed parents.
The show started off as short film, directed by Jeffery Katzenberg’s son David, and starring Christopher Mintz-Plasse of “Superbad.” MTV loved the concept and quickly developed it into a series, recasting the lead role with actor Paul Iacono. RJ Berger is “this great underdog character, lovable, very relatable, trying to navigate that minefield of being 15,” says MTV senior VP Liz Gateley.
“The big penis is still the hook,” says co-creater Seth Grahmane-Smith. It allows the character to “kick off his confidence and come out of his shell.”
The Los Angeles Times calls this anatomically endowed concept “an intentionally provocative move for the youth network, which in 2009 saw its 10 p.m. average – MTV’s peak viewing hour – slide an additional 18% in ratings among the channel’s core 12 – 34-year-old demographic versus its 2008 tally.
MTV’s head of programming, Tony DiSanto, agrees, “It’s important to have a ratings hit, but I think at MTV, we really need people to be talking about us in pop culture.”
Check out this clip, wherein the entire student body is schooled on RJ's gift...
“The Hard Times of RJ Berger” premiered Sunday night at 11, right after the MTV Movie Awards. The scripted show is part of a new wave of programming to help balance out MTV’s heavy dose of reality TV, like “Jersey Shore” and “The Hills.” The show concerns the trials and tribulations of an Ohio teen, whose large penis provides him with the extra confidence he needs to withstand the tormenting of high school bullies and the embarrassment provided by his oversexed parents.
The show started off as short film, directed by Jeffery Katzenberg’s son David, and starring Christopher Mintz-Plasse of “Superbad.” MTV loved the concept and quickly developed it into a series, recasting the lead role with actor Paul Iacono. RJ Berger is “this great underdog character, lovable, very relatable, trying to navigate that minefield of being 15,” says MTV senior VP Liz Gateley.
“The big penis is still the hook,” says co-creater Seth Grahmane-Smith. It allows the character to “kick off his confidence and come out of his shell.”
The Los Angeles Times calls this anatomically endowed concept “an intentionally provocative move for the youth network, which in 2009 saw its 10 p.m. average – MTV’s peak viewing hour – slide an additional 18% in ratings among the channel’s core 12 – 34-year-old demographic versus its 2008 tally.
MTV’s head of programming, Tony DiSanto, agrees, “It’s important to have a ratings hit, but I think at MTV, we really need people to be talking about us in pop culture.”
Check out this clip, wherein the entire student body is schooled on RJ's gift...
C'mon MTV; it's like you're not even trying anymore.
and if jersey shore is a reality show, then it's time i move to another country that doesn't get MTV. they have always had poor shows, bad humor, immature jokes, and reality shows that reinforces the bad ideas that teens do as those things must be 'cool' massive air quotes.
It may be lowblow...but well...it is part of the package that sells.