PopClips

PopClips is a music video television program, the direct predecessor of MTV.

PopClips
Genre	Music television
Created by	Michael Nesmith
Developed by	Michael Nesmith William Dear
Directed by	William Dear
Presented by	Howie Mandel Jack Armstrong Jeff Michalski Charles Fleischer Bill Martin
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
Production
Executive producer(s)	Michael Nesmith
Producer(s)	Jac Holzman
Running time	30 minutes
Production company(s)	Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment
Distributor	Warner Bros. Television Distribution
Release
Original network	Nickelodeon
Chronology
Preceded by	Elephant Parts (video)
Followed by	Television Parts
Related shows	MTV channel

Former Monkee Mike Nesmith conceived the first music-video program as a promotional device for Warner Communications' record division. Production began in the spring of 1979 at SamFilm, a sound-stage built and operated in Sand City, California by Sam Harrison, a Monterey Peninsula College instructor with a motion picture background. The series was produced by Jac Holzman.

With an infinity cyclorama as the background, set flats were made from the Styrofoam packing used to ship laserdisc players and 3/4" video decks. The first "VeeJay" was Jeff Michalski. The director was William Dear. Besides Harrison, the production team was made up of Bruce "Buz" Clarke, Keith Cornell, Marybeth Harris, and Leslie Chacon.

The program was broadcast weekly on the youth-oriented cable television channel Nickelodeon in late 1980 and early 1981. The channel's owners at the time, Warner Cable, wanted to buy the name and idea, but instead, according to Dear, "they just watered down the idea and came up with MTV."

PopClips was preceded by the video Elephant Parts (which won the first ever Grammy Award for Music Video),[1] and followed by a second series titled Television Parts, both of which Nesmith hosted and produced.

Early videos broadcast on PopClips

• Boney M — "Rivers of Babylon"
• Kim Carnes — "More Love"
• George Harrison — "True Love"
• Jo Jo Zep & The Falcons — "Security"
• Huey Lewis and the News — "Some of My Lies Are True (Sooner or Later)"
• Huey Lewis and the News — "Don't Ever Tell Me That You Love Me"
• Lucifer's Friend — "Goodbye Girls"
• M — "That's the Way the Money Goes"
• Madness — "One Step Beyond"
• Mi-Sex — "Computer Games"
• Mike Nesmith — "Rio"
• Graham Parker — "Protection"
• Pearl Harbor and the Explosions — "Drivin'"
• Poco — "Crazy Love"
• The Police — "Walking on the Moon"
• Pretenders — "Brass in Pocket"
• Rolling Stones — "Waiting on a Friend"
• Rush — "Circumstances"
• Carly Simon — "Vengeance"
• The Specials - "Gangsters"
• Split Enz — "I Got You"
• Split Enz — "I Hope I Never"
• Squeeze — "Cool for Cats"
• Thin Lizzy — "Waiting For An Alibi"
• Toto — "99"
• The Tourists — "I Only Want to Be with You"
• Tycoon — "Such a Woman"

References

1. The New Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock and Roll (1995) ISBN 0-684-81044-1

External links

• Mike Nesmith of the Monkees, Ian Watson, first published in Melody Maker