MTV Animation Inc.

Company type	Division
Industry	Animation
Founded	1993; 32 years ago (1993)
Founders	Abby Terkuhle
Products	Television Movies
Parent	MTV Entertainment Group (1993–2025) Paramount Television Studios (2025–present)

MTV Animation is an American animation studio and the animation department of the television networkMTV. The department's parent company isParamount Television Studios, which is owned byParamount Skydance Corporation. MTV Animation gained substantial popularity in the 1990s, with many of their largest successes including the original broadcasts ofLiquid Television (1991–1995),Beavis and Butt-Head (1993–1997),Daria (1997–2002), andCelebrity Deathmatch (1998–2007). Of the animated shows that aired,Beavis and Butt-Head andDaria became the studio's most successful programs, with both shows developing acult following.

Re-runs of MTV's completed animated shows aired onMTV2 andThe N throughout much of the 2000s. There were some attempts byMTV Entertainment Group to revive original animation production in the 2010s, but they never materialized. MTV Animation currently remains a subsidiary ofParamount Skydance Corporation.

In 1991, MTV debuted its first full-length animated series,Liquid Television, which helped launchBeavis and Butt-Head andÆon Flux. MTV established its own in-house animation studio in 1993 to work onBeavis and Butt-Head and other projects. While MTV's animation department is often grouped withNickelodeon's (as both channels were part ofMTV Networks), the two entities are mostly separate. MTV's cartoons are known for their dark humor, adult jokes,graphic violence, pop culture references, and irreverence.

In an interview for theBeavis and Butt-Head Do America DVD,Mike Judge described MTV Animation as being very ad hoc:Beavis and Butt-Head didn't have an art director until the film was made, so until the film they'd never considered color palettes from scene to scene. In the same interview, art directorYvette Kaplan said "everything was overlapping... we never had the luxury of one part [episode] finished" before another episode was finished.^[1]

AsBeavis and Butt-Head was wrapping up production, MTV was looking to create an animated show that catered more to girls and a more intelligent audience. Comedy writerGlenn Eichler and producerSusie Lewis Lynn had both previously worked onBeavis and Butt-Head and were tasked with co-creating aspin-off. The result was the animated seriesDaria (1997–2002), which centered around the characterDaria Morgendorffer.Daria ended up being one of MTV Animation's biggest successes, with MTV airing 65 episodes of the series across five seasons from March 1997 to June 2001. Daria also included the full-length television moviesIs It Fall Yet? andIs It College Yet?, which aired on MTV in August 2000 and January 2002, respectively. The DVD setDaria: The Complete Animated Series was released in May 2010, containing all 65 episodes, both movies, and a multitude of extras—including a script to an unairedMystik Spiral pilot episode written by Eichler. However, much of the licensed music on the DVD release was taken out due to licensing costs. Eichler planned on writing and producing a spin-off series that centered aroundDaria character Trent Lane and his band, Mystik Spiral. However, the halting of animation production at MTV in 2002 prevented the spin-off from materializing.

Many MTV animation productions do not survive a single season and in some cases are canceled before completion. Productions includingUndergrads,Downtown,Station Zero,3-South, andClone High have been highly acclaimed, yet none of them got renewed beyond their first season, usually due to lack of an audience or advertising. By 2001, the animation department was shut down, with the network's animated series now being outsourced to different studios. During the 2000s, MTV would phase out of producing original animation in favor of importing shows, usually reruns of shows from sister networksComedy Central andNickelodeon. The MTV Animation brand was briefly revived from 2006 to 2007 as part of a push to produce animated series forMTV2.

In 2011, MTV would return to adult animation. Its first production was a relaunch ofBeavis and Butt-Head, which premiered in October 2011; this was quickly followed byGood Vibes, starting later in the same month. In November 2011, MTV said they plan a third cartoon,Worst Friends Forever byThomas Middleditch, that Mike Judge would produce, about three teenage girls who hover on the outskirts of popularity and have to cope with cattiness and crushes; a pilot had been picked up and concept art of the characters was released.^[2] The cartoons did not do as expected though.Good Vibes was cancelled in February 2012 due to low ratings, on the same day the DVD came out,^[3]Beavis and Butt-Head was cancelled in December 2011, andWorst Friends Forever never aired. In a September 2012 interview on "Making It With Riki Lindhome", Middleditch saidWorst Friends was "for all intents and purposes done" and "not in my hands anymore".^[4] Mike Judge said in January 2014 that he might pitchBeavis and Butt-Head to another network.^[5]

In August 2020, ViacomCBS's Entertainment & Youth Group launched a new strategy to expand its adult animation units.^[6] This upcoming unit will produce various animated shows under the revitalized MTV Entertainment Group. Plans forBeavis and Butt-Head (reboot) andDaria (spinoff film) have been announced for Comedy Central (andParamount+), as well as an animated sequel revival series ofEverybody Hates Chris titledEverybody Still Hates Chris which premiered on September 25, 2024. It also produced theClone High revival seasons on atMax (nowHBO Max) premiered on May 23, 2023, at the relaunch of the platform.^[7] MTV Animation Inc. remains a subsidiary ofParamount Skydance Corporation.

Other MTV animated series

• MTV
• Television production companies of the United States
• American animation studios
• Adult animation studios
• 1993 establishments in New York (state)
• Film production companies of the United States
• Animation studios owned by Paramount Skydance

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