The 90s was a great time for TV, especially for cartoons. During this time MTV jumped on the band wagon and made adult friendly animated shows. That was one of my favorite things about MTV. Majority of those shows were short lived and fell into obscurity. One particular show I watched religiously was the Sifl and Olly show. Although not being animated it still fit the bill for obscure experimental shows that aired on MTV. Sifl and Olly was a show hosted by 2 sock puppets, it contained random sketches of musical numbers, interviews with fictitious characters, home shopping spoofs, fictitious news among other things. All was done with sock puppets.The show was created by Liam Lynch and Matt Crocco, two musicians famous for the song "United States of Whatever" Majority of the sketches were recorded even before the show was thought of. They incorporated these early recordings into the show. The show ran from 1997-1999. It didn't do to well and aired late night. The show also featured popular music videos of time during episodes much like Beavis and Butthead would. Reruns omitted the music video segments although. Three seasons were made but only two aired, the third appeared on dvd but aren't easy to find today.
The shows comedy was an acquired taste for most viewers, it was nonsensical at times and very random, With very psychedelic visuals. I was 12 when I watched this show so my mind set was just right for it. I'm sure the adult MTV demographic was not. The show is defiantly underrated and I hardly meet people who remember the show. MTV took very unique approaches with shows such as these and defiantly had a broader audience with the variety of programing compared to today. MTV did have a small revival of shows in this vein a couple years ago with Andy Milonakis, Wondershowzen, and crank yankers. Not to mention the Beavis and Butthead revival. But unfortunately are still short lived because of the over saturation of reality shows. But Without obscurity there wouldn't be blogs such as these.
