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Pop-up Video
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Pop-Up Video | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Genre | Music video |
| Creator(s) | Woody Thompson Tad Low |
| Starring | N/A |
| Country of origin | USA |
| No. of episodes | 209 |
| Production | |
| Running time | approx. 0:22 (per episode) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | VH1 |
| Original run | October 27, 1996 – 2002 |
| Links | |
| IMDb profile | |
Pop-Up Video was a popular VH1 television show that "popped up" bubbles (
bloop) — officially called "info nuggets" — containing trivia and spry witticisms throughout music videos. The show was created by Woody Thompson and Tad Low and premiered October 27, 1996. For a time, it was the highest-rated program on VH1, though Behind the Music had overtaken it by 1998.[1]
Although VH1.com still lists Pop-Up Video in its programming roster, it has not aired regularly on the network since 2002.[2] It used to run on Canada's MuchMusic and MuchMoreMusic. The show, until recently, aired nightly on VH1 Europe, but is currently run only on special occasions, such as Pop-Up Video weekends.
As of December 2006, Pop-Up Video airs on VH1 Classic.
Contents |
Most episodes of Pop-Up Video play five music videos each, selected to include new, older, "classic", and "campy" videos. The bubbles that pop up in each video generally appear about every 15-20 seconds; their content is divided between information about the recording artist featured, the production of the video, and random facts. One of the show's staff writers is assigned to each video.[3] Production costs for each episode total about $30000.[1]
The "random" information presented in bubbles frequently included statistics and demographics, medical, scientific, and historical trivia, definitions, and lists of a wide range of subjects.[4] Gary Burns, in the Journal of Popular Film and Television, also notes as a recurring theme "the producers' attempt to turn practically every popped-up video into a dirty joke."[1]
Often the film crew for the video in question would be interviewed in the research process; everyone from the director to make-up artists, choreographers, and models and extras might be used as sources.[5] In addition, the producers solicited information by means of a phone line (displayed during the closing credits) and web site page.[3] General facts are double- or triple-sourced, according to the producers.[1]
Thompson and Low previously worked together on Brandon Tartikoff's late night talk show Last Call, before it was cancelled in 1994. They spent the next two years making pitches of ideas for television shows to various networks;[6] in late 1995, the original iteration of the show concept, entitled "Pop-Up Videos", was sent to VH1 executives, alongside a number of other concepts making use of aspects of songs or music videos. The pilot episode cost $3000 to produce; the first video to be played on the show was Tina Turner's "Missing You".[7]
1997 saw Pop-Up Video's profile expand as popular news publications such as The New York Times, Newsweek, and Entertainment Weekly all produced articles about the show.[8]
In 2000, Entertainment Weekly reported that Low was no longer involved with the production of the show.[9]
In recent years, Low has been developing new shows for the music channel Fuse TV; his creations include the striptease dance contest Pants-Off Dance-Off and the interactive music video-based game show Video iQ.[10] He has also delivered talks at universities about the show, making a note of its lampooning of music celebrities.[11][12]
Special episodes of Pop-Up Video aired throughout the series' run. Many focused on specific artists, including VH1 staples Madonna, U2, Prince, and Elton John. Others ran on different themes, such as "Women First," "Road Trip," "Movies," and "Duets". There were also several holiday specials, including Halloween and several Christmas episodes. Some theme episodes broke with the show's format by including a montage of clips from many videos.[13]
During a week of 1980s-themed programming on VH1 in March 1998, Pop-Up Video became Pop-Up '80s.[1] These episodes featured additional clips of 1980s news events and pop culture tidbits between music videos.
The 1996 VH1 Fashion Awards, Divas Live, the Oprah Winfrey Show (aired in syndication), several episodes of the Brady Bunch (aired on Nick at Nite in 2001, effectively named "Pop-Up Brady"),[1] ABC's Original TGIF 1998 and 1999 line-up's season premieres and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (December 2000)[1] also got the Pop-Up treatment. Other proposals, such as a Pop-Up Video edition of the entirety of Grease during its 1998 theatrical re-release, were never realized.[14]
A United Kingdom-specific version entitled Pop-Up Video UK, aired on Channel 4, and still occasionally airs on VH1 UK and Europe. This version featured music videos by British artists such as Robbie Williams, the Spice Girls, and Elvis Costello.
In January 2000, the spinoff program Pop-Up Quiz debuted on VH1. Utilizing the same format as Pop-Up Video, the show presented trivia questions inspired by the content of each music video shown;[15] for example, the game "Phil in the blank" was played over the video for "Sussudio" by Phil Collins.[16] Launched at a time when the Pop-Up Video brand had become a "veritable franchise",[17] the show was called a "weak spin-off" among several "duds" launched by the network at the time.[15]
Artists such as Billy Joel, Jakob Dylan of The Wallflowers, and The Police, as well as others such as director Mark Pellington and Sony Music Entertainment president Tommy Mottola complained about what they perceived as harsh treatment on the show and the videos they featured in were pulled. The show's creators called these "the Pops They Stopped."[18] In contrast, some artists, including Joan Osborne and Paula Abdul, made appearances on the show to provide further information on their popped videos.
Pop-Up Video is most frequently compared to the contemporaneous television programs Beavis and Butt-head and Mystery Science Theater 3000, which were known for their on-screen commentary ridiculing, respectively, music videos and films.[1][19][20][21] As these shows were described as "TV-for-people-who-are-sick-of-TV",[21] Pop-Up Video has been called "a show for people who hate videos".[20]
Early on, the show's popularity led to several copycats, most notably on an episode of the ABC television series Sabrina, The Teenage Witch (September 19, 1997)[22] and a series of Bell Atlantic commercials.[23] Spin The Bottle, Inc., which produced Pop-Up Video, publicly derided these Pop-Up imitators on its website.[24]
A similar show is aired on the Argentine TV channel I-SAT. It's called Video Maní (peanut video), because the popups are a 3-D rotating peanut. It features a series of true/false questions on things regarding the theme of the video, and after a few seconds it shows "true" or "false". As I-SAT is a movie channel, the videos are used as fill between movies.
At the height of the show's popularity, MAD Magazine ran a series of "Pop-Off Video" takeoffs which mocked the artists, their fashions, their songs, and their music videos.
Another MAD Magazine parody mocked Pop-Up Video and porn movies with Pop-Up Porno, showing a similar idea in a pornographic context.
In the Video Centerfold of 1998 Playmate of the Year Karen McDougal, one of the segments was a Pop-up video showing factoids of McDougal and Playboy as she appeared in various stages of undress.
The 2000 horror spoof Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the Thirteenth featured a spoof scene entitled "Chop-Up Video".
The Happy Tree Friends First Blood DVD has a "Pop Corn" special of the episode "Spin Fun Knowin' Ya" with spoof pop-ups in a similar style to Pop-Up Video.
The DVD of Sam Raimi's Spider-Man has a special feature in which one can watch the movie with little Pop-Up-Video-style factoids about the characters and the movie itself.
The Critter 411 segment in the DVD of Over the Hedge mimics Pop Up Video.
The Disney Channel aired a "Pop up" version of High School Musical.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Burns, Gary (2004), "Pop Up Video: the new historicism", Journal of Popular Film and Television 32(2): 74-83, ISSN 0195-6051
- ^ Pop-Up Video Main Page. VH1.com. MTV Networks. Retrieved on July 26, 2006.
- ^ a b Coming soon. Spin the Bottle at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved on January 4, 2007.
- ^ All I Ever Needed to Know I Learned From Watching Pop-Up Video. Mandi's Weird Web Page. Retrieved on January 3, 2007.
- ^ Lineberger, Kathy. Back Street Gossip. Spin the Bottle at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved on January 4, 2007.
- ^ Hubbard, John D. (November 1997). Pop. The Colgate Scene. Retrieved on January 4, 2007.
- ^ History. Spin the Bottle at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved on January 4, 2007.
- ^ O'Brien, Carrie (September 2, 1998). Prospectus. Saint Mary's College. Retrieved on January 4, 2007. A number of published articles are described here as mirrored on the official Pop-Up Video web site at the time; however, the Internet Archive apparently did not archive these URLs.
- ^ Brown, Scott & Laura Morgan (June 23, 2000), "Monitor", Entertainment Weekly (no. 546): 16
- ^ Kharif, Olga (March 1, 2005). The New Game Machine: Your TV. BusinessWeek. Retrieved on January 5, 2007.
- ^ Oh, Steven (October 1, 2002). Tad Low '88 entertains at Master's Tea. Yale Daily News. Retrieved on January 4, 2007.
- ^ Randell, Jackie (January 25, 2006). Producer explains 'pop' culture. The Daily Tar Heel. Retrieved on January 4, 2007.
- ^ The "Madonna III" episode included 15 different videos.
- ^ Jacobs, A. J. (December 19, 1997), "Pop-Up Culture", Entertainment Weekly (no. 410) However, The music video for the 1998 single "The Grease Megamix" was featured on the "Movies III" episode.
- ^ a b Wallenstein, Andrew (January 2000). VH1's long flow of smart ideas at last may be slowing to a dribble. Media Life. Retrieved on January 3, 2007.
- ^ Louise's Phil Collins & Genesis Video Lists. Retrieved on January 3, 2007.
- ^ Tiffany, Laura (August 1999). Laughing All The Way. Entrepreneur.com. Retrieved on January 3, 2007.
- ^ Pops They Stopped. Spin the Bottle at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved on January 3, 2007. Pellington was involved as the director of Jon Bon Jovi's "Midnight in Chelsea", while Mottola was referenced in the treatment of Mariah Carey's "Honey". The artists in question were still featured on later episodes, such as The Wallflowers with "Heroes" (Episode 108) and "6th Avenue Heartache" (Episode 135), and The Police with "Wrapped Around Your Finger" (Episode 122) and "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" (Episode 138).
- ^ Rutsky, R. L. (2002), "Pop-up theory: distraction and consumption in the age of meta-information", Journal of Visual Culture 1(3): 279-294, ISSN 1470-4129
- ^ a b Vowell, Sarah (October 3, 1997). Playing the "Air Guitar". Sound Salvation. Salon.com. Retrieved on January 5, 2007.
- ^ a b Beato, Greg (October 13, 1997). A Fan's Footnotes. Suck.com. Retrieved on January 5, 2007.
- ^ Sabrina Fiasco!. Spin the Bottle at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved on January 3, 2007.
- ^ Bell Atlantic Ad Voted "Worst of the Year". Spin the Bottle at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved on January 3, 2007.
- ^ Pop-Up Bell Atlantic. Spin the Bottle at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved on January 3, 2007.
In the Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore movie Music and Lyrics, released in February 2007, at the end of the movie during the credits, the hit song of the band POP! - the fictional pop (whaddyaknow!) '80s band in the movie - is played in VH1 Pop-Up video style.
- VH1: Pop-Up Video
- MuchMoreMusic: Pop-Up Video
- Spin the Bottle, Inc., Pop-Up Video's original production company
- Spin the Bottle past official site at the Wayback Machine
- Eyeboogie, Inc., Pop-Up Video's subsequent production company