Watch a remastered version of the first (Jersey Shore-free) few hours of MTV ever aired
When it first started broadcasting in 1981, MTV was cutting-edge stuff. Nearly 40 years later, the channel’s associated less with non-stop music videos than it is with reality series like Teen Mom, The Real World, and Jersey Shore. Looking back at the first few hours of its broadcast, newly remastered and available to stream through Archive.org, offers a reminder, though, that, at one point, MTV didn’t just play a ton of music, but was at the forefront of technology, too.
It all starts off with a space shuttle launch and MTV’s now-iconic astronaut mascot claiming the moon in the name of music television before the network’s very first video—The Buggles’ “Video Killed The Radio Star”—plays. Though recordings of this footage have surfaced online before, the Archive.org upload uses a cleaned-up DVD source and adds supplementary notes about the broadcast. It also includes streams and downloads of two alternate versions that consist of only the music videos or hosted and commercial segments aired during the multi-hour segment.