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It's more than telling that this celebration is happening on VH1 Classic and not MTV itself.

From RollingStone.com:

Original VJ Mark Goodman recalls network's first days: 'I think we only had 300 videos'

By ANDY GREENE


MTV VJs Mark Goodman, Nina Blackwood, Alan Hunter, Martha Quinn and JJ Jackson
Mark Weiss/WireImage

For original MTV VJ Mark Goodman, the news that music network is celebrating its 30th anniversary this weekend is hard to fathom. "It's freaking weird," he tells Rolling Stone. "I've lived like three lifetimes since then. It's just so long ago, and yet it also seems like yesterday. It's a weird number – and it's hard to believe that we're still talking about this 30 years down the road."

MTV launched on August 1st, 1981 at 12:01 a.m. The first images broadcast were the launch of the Apollo 11, followed by a video for the Buggles song "Video Killed The Radio Star." The network has gone through countless permutations since then, but this weekend VH1 Classic will commemorate MTV's founding with a three-day marathon of footage from the 1980s, including a re-broadcast of the network's first hour, starting Saturday at 6 a.m.

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I remember it like it was yesterday. Okay I don't really. It was my latter college years.

Ah, the good old days when MTV was all music, all the time.

surfpirate wrote:I remember it like it was yesterday. Okay I don't really. It was my latter college years.

HA! I remember the debut.....I was an MTV fanatic for a long time. I never watch it any more. I loved "Remote Control" and I did get sucked into the first couple of seasons of "Real World"....but that was when 'reality' TV was a new concept and it was kind of fascinating.

I miss just music videos, though.....I loved that.

Those were the days!

I'm in denial. No way it has been 30 years. Just no way!

txaggirl91 wrote:I'm in denial. No way it has been 30 years. Just no way!

It's weird, huh?
I was living in this crappy little duplex in the worst part of town....paid $125 a month for rent!
I watched it on stolen cable on my 19" TV......I thought I had the world by the tail.

For the most part the videos were either......REALLY COOL........or so damn cheesey they were cool!
The second MTV STOPPED featuring videos as the network mainstay & went to reality TV programming.........I was outta there!!!!!!!!!!

Haven't watched MTV in 20 years or so. about the time they went to all rap-all the time... I started watching other stuff.

Loved the early days of MTV!!! The good ole days when they played actual music videos. I feel so old right now

One of my favorite "Back in the Day" videos.....what were yours?

I didn't get MTV until 1989 but even by then I leaned more towards favorite shows rather than videos. Some of those were The Week In Rock, 120 Minutes, Postmodern MTV, Rockumentary and Unplugged. Even though we didn't have cable, I would read the program descriptions in TV Guide. One of the shows I really wanted to see was I.R.S. Records Presents the Cutting Edge. The very first week we got cable, MTV aired the last episode of The Cutting Edge which included one of my very favorite performances from R.E.M.:

For some reason, this song is in my top 5.

And then there is this..

Another great band that was featured and out of Athens like REM

I'm headin' down the Atlanta highway,
lookin' for the love getaway

I had to sneak peeks at MTV when it first started.....my parents thought it was a certain sign that civilization as we knew it was about to end!!!!

MTV was great when it started. Now I only view it for a second or two
between channels while surfing with the remote.