Free I Want My MTV by Craig Marks Page A

glass all over the place, and popped back out again. Bob Pittman sent me a note that said, “Beautiful.” They loved that.
    The goal that first year was to break every television mold, by being funny and clowning on camera. Pittman wanted the VJs to be as irreverent as the videos.
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    JOHN LACK: I took the VJs to dinner at Odeon before the launch, the hot new restaurant in New York. Keith McNally had just opened it, cocaine was everywhere, it was the rock n’ roll cafeteria. I stood up and said, “Next week you’re going to be famous.”
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    TODD RUNDGREN: I was put off by the slickness of the VJs. They were no different from radio DJs.
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    THOMAS DOLBY, artist: They’d roll the camera, and J.J. Jackson would go, “So Thomas, you’re over here on your first American tour.” And I’d say, “No, I’m over here to make a record.” It was literally that stupid. It was like a joke; they had to keep stopping and starting.
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    ALAN HUNTER: They asked me to not wear my wedding ring on the air, so I took it off for a week. One producer told me that if Martha and I were to become more than just friends, it wouldn’t hurt ratings.
    I was alive and I was a male; who wouldn’t have lustful thoughts about Martha and Nina? Martha’s kinda flirty anyway. And we all shared the same low-rent dressing room, so I caught a glimpse of Nina naked. I didn’t mean to, but I also didn’t mind it.
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    NINA BLACKWOOD: In 1978, when I was living in Cleveland, I posed for Playboy . When Playboy got wind of my MTV job, they decided to reprint the photos. I got called into the MTV offices over this. I remember feeling like a scolded little girl, having to go to the principal’s office. They weren’t real thrilled, which I find pretty ludicrous considering what MTV turned into.
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    ALAN HUNTER: I was doing a personal appearance in a record store, signing autographs and shaking hands, and a guy came up and popped this Playboy open to the page where Nina was. I couldn’t take a mental snapshot quick enough. There were a thousand people in the store, and all I could think about was Nina naked.
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    JACK SCHNEIDER: Nina Blackwood was every teenager’s wet dream. That’s why she was hired. We knew what we were doing. This thing was designed to appeal to young men.
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    DAVE NAVARRO: I liked Nina Blackwood—she was a little more heavy metal. I always fall for the woman with the smoke and mirrors.
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    CONAN O’BRIEN: I remember thinking, Martha Quinn’s cute . She seemed attainable to me. She was the only one whose name I could remember early on. Of course, now they’re all in prison.
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    â€œWEIRD AL” YANKOVIC: I think everybody in North America had a small crush on Martha Quinn.
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    ALAN HUNTER: Nina was the vamp, and Martha was the girl next door. Guys always said to me, “What’s Nina like? I want to sleep with her.” And “What’s Martha like? I want to date her.”
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    KEN R. CLARK: Martha looked like the little girl next door, and Nina was thought to be the “video vamp.” In reality, Nina was timid. She loved animals. Nina blushed if she even said damn . And Martha—I love Martha, we’re still close—but she was scrappy. She could be in your face. Martha was the one dating the rock star, [Dead Boys singer] Stiv Bators. Nina was going home to her apartment full of cats.
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    MARK GOODMAN: Everybody was hot for Nina at some point. There were those who were hot for Martha, too. But by 1983, Martha was already dating rock stars.
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    JULIAN GOLDBERG, MTV executive: I shared a cab once with a major executive in the business world. I won’t tell his name. We were coming back from a party, and he was making friendly small talk about MTV. All of a sudden he said, “How can I fuck Martha Quinn?” A lot of guys I ran across had that same thought.
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    JOHN