Beavis and Butt-head: Season 1

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Generally favorable reviews based on 5 Critic Reviews

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Universal acclaim based on 25 Ratings

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8.1	User Score Universal acclaim based on 25 Ratings

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Season Details & Credits

MTV | MTV - Music Television | Season Premiere Date: September 22, 1992

Starring: Chris Phillips, Chris Marcil, Mike Judge

Summary: Beavis and Butt-head was first aired on the U.S. cable network MTV in March 1993. This show, which combined animation and music videos, was an example of the unique programming that MTV has consistently provided for its youthful demographics. The half-hour program alternated between a simple narrative, which focused on the exploits of twoBeavis and Butt-head was first aired on the U.S. cable network MTV in March 1993. This show, which combined animation and music videos, was an example of the unique programming that MTV has consistently provided for its youthful demographics. The half-hour program alternated between a simple narrative, which focused on the exploits of two low-life adolescents, and clips from music videos, which the two teens commented on. Creator Mike Judge had penned the aimless duo for a festival of animation when Abby Turkuhle, MTV's senior vice president picked up an episode for the network's animated compendium Liquid Television. MTV immediately contracted for 65 episodes from Judge, with Turkuhle as producer, and placed Beavis and Butt-head in the 7:00 and 11:00 P.M. week-day time slots.

The characters, Beavis and Butt-head, are rude, crude, and stupid, and can be placed in the "dumb comedy" tradition, which includes Abbott and Costello, The Three Stooges, Cheech and Chong, Saturday Night Live's Wayne and Garth, and FOX's The Simpsons. When the show debuted, television critics differed in their opinions, with some praising the show for daring to present the stupidity of male "metalheads" who watch too much television (effectively satirizing the core MTV audience), and others categorizing Beavis and Butt-head as another example of television's declining quality. Beavis and Butt-head did find an audience and began pulling in MTV's highest ratings. But the show was also quite controversial, instigating heated public debate on the interconnected issues of representations of violence in the media and generational politics surrounding youth subcultures.

Beavis and Butt-head they found, was especially popular with those in their twenties. It turned out to be bothersome to many that young people enjoyed the show and laughed at its two imbecilic boys, even if these fans were much more intelligent and much less grating than Beavis and Butt-head. In this sense, Beavis and Butt-head raised the issue of generational taste cultures. Definitions of "taste," Pierre Bourdieu notes, "unite and separate, uniting those who are the product of similar conditions but only by distinguishing them from all others. And taste distinguishes in an essential way, since it is the basis of all that one has--people and things--and of all that one is for others, whereby one classifies oneself and is classified by others." To the degree that taste cultures agree, they are brought together into a subcultural formation; but to this degree they are also separated from those with whom they differ. It was the "bad taste" of Beavis and Butt-head's audience which bothered many, and this brings to the surface another one of the reasons why Beavis and Butt-head was so controversial.

Cultural critics, educators, and concerned parents gathered skeptically, sternly, and anxiously in front of the television set and passed judgment upon the "tasteless" Beavis and Butt-head show. And in an ironic reversal, Beavis and Butt-head countered by ascending the cultural hierarchy. The two youths channel-surfed, looking for videos that didn't suck (i.e. those with heavy metal or hardcore rap, those that contained violence, or encouraged genital response.) In becoming the self-proclaimed Siskel and Ebert of music video, they served to evaluate pop culture with an unencumbered bottom line--does a music video "suck" or is it "cool?" Beavis and Butt-head as a television show, was certainly towards the lower end of traditional scales of cultural "quality." But these two animated "slackers" evaluated other media, and so pronounced their own critical opinions and erected their own taste hierarchies. Beavis and Butt-head had their own particular brand of "taste:" they determined acceptability and unacceptability, invoking, while simultaneously upending, notions of "high" and "low" culture. In this, they entered that hallowed sphere of criticism, where they competed with others in overseeing the public good and preserving the place and status of artistic evaluation. They disregarded other accepted forms of authority, refusing to acknowledge their own limited perspectives. But like other critics, this was an important part of their appeal. After all, critics are sought out for straightforward opinion, not muddled oscillation.

In this recuperation of the critical discourse, Beavis and Butt-head joined with their audience, approximating the contradictory impulses of contemporary cynical youth, who mixed their self-delusion with self-awareness. In the case of fans of Beavis and Butt-head, these lines of demarcation indicated both a generational unity and the generation-based barriers between the baby boomers and the "baby busters." The reputed cynicism of the "twentynothings" was on view as Beavis and Butt-head evoked both a stunted adolescence which was long past and an unsure and seemingly inaccessible future. … Expand

Genre(s): Comedy, Animation, Action & Adventure

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Season 1 Episodes

tbd
S1:E6. Balloon
Air Date: March 25, 1993
tbd
S1:E5. Sign Here
Air Date: March 19, 1993
tbd
S1:E4. Blood Drive
Air Date: March 8, 1993

See all Seasons and Episodes

Metascore

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Critic Reviews

Howard Rosenberg

Feb 4, 2014

Although the characters' coarseness is matched only by the somehow appropriate crudeness of Judge's rudimentary animation, Beavis and Butt-head are simply too exquisitely absurd and vacuous to be resisted. Read full review

Richard Roeper

Feb 4, 2014

I happen to believe Beavis and Butt-head is a work of twisted brilliance... It's cringingly blunt and cheerfully offensive. It's also a richly textured, dead-on satire of teenage life and pop culture, which explains its growing appeal with Generation X and even some baby boomers who haven't lost their senses of humor. [24 June 1993, p.11]

Howard Cohen

Feb 4, 2014

Beavis and Butt-Head are lewd and crude, and they are a phenomenon. Funny, too -- that is, if the scrawlings on the boy's bathroom stalls in your local junior high tickle your funny bone. [20 Aug 1993, p.3]

Karla Peterson

Feb 4, 2014

Beavis and Butt-head are dumb, crude, thoughtless, ugly, sexist, self-destructive fools...But for some reason, the little wienerheads make us laugh." Huh, huh, huh. [27 May 1993, p.ND6]

Rick Marin

Feb 4, 2014

There's a fine line between clever and stupid, as somebody says in "This Is Spinal Tap," Rob Reiner's cleverly stupid "rockumentary." Beavis and Butt-head don't just walk that line: they live there. [11 July 1993, p.8]

User Score

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User Reviews

MW3

Jan 24, 2012

beavis and butt head the best show in the 90s one of the best lines that i like about butt head is "huh huh beavis were gonna score huh huh " hilarious

2 of 2 users found this helpful20

angel91a

Jun 3, 2014

HA HA HA HA!! This show always cracks me up! This show was always the best that was on MTV, the quotes in this show is pretty funny. Like this one "I need tp for my bunhole!!!"

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

Zilcell

Nov 9, 2011

Beavis and Butt-head may be the single funniest animated shows ever created, and it is because of the characters. Beavis and Butt-head don't dissappoint when it comes to laughs, and when they piss off all the other characters, you'll watch it.

2 of 2 users found this helpful20

shprea

Jun 27, 2013

Huh huh, hey Bevavis, huh
Heh, heh, what Butt-head
huh huh, this show is cool
heh heh, yeah, heh heh, it is cool, heh heh
huh huh
heh heh heh heh

9/10

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

Speed4Runs

Dec 13, 2012

Very nice and funny TV "show". Probably the only good (with South Park) that MTV transmits. Almost perfect and very recommended to who likes laughing.

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

Seasons & Episodes

69

Series Overview
Season 9

tbd
- Season 9 Overview
  Air Date: October 27, 2011
Season 8

67
- Season 8 Overview
  Air Date: July 18, 1997
Season 7

tbd
- Season 7 Overview
  Air Date: January 26, 1997
Season 6

tbd
- Season 6 Overview
  Air Date: October 31, 1995
Season 5

tbd
- Season 5 Overview
  Air Date: October 31, 1994
Season 4

tbd
- Season 4 Overview
  Air Date: March 14, 1994
Season 3

tbd
- Season 3 Overview
  Air Date: September 6, 1993
Season 2

tbd
- Season 2 Overview
  Air Date: May 17, 1993
Season 1

76
- Season 1 Overview
  Air Date: September 22, 1992
- tbd
  S1:E6. Balloon
  Air Date: March 25, 1993
- tbd
  S1:E5. Sign Here
  Air Date: March 19, 1993
- tbd
  S1:E4. Blood Drive
  Air Date: March 8, 1993
- tbd
  S1:E3. Door to Door
  Air Date: March 8, 1993
- tbd
  S1:E2. Peace, Love & Understanding
  Air Date: November 17, 1992
- tbd
  S1:E1. Frog Baseball
  Air Date: September 22, 1992