MTV at 25: "What's In The F@%#ing Box?!"

MTV turns 25 today. That's right, twenty five years ago today MTV blossomed like a flower, providing nonstop music videos to a visually starved generation of teens who grew up while being forced to slowly accept the fact that the "M" in MTV just wasn't enough anymore.

MTV became a cultural institution, and when that happens you just can't be pinned down to a single genre. Like a caterpillar emerging from its chrysalis as a butterfly, MTV slowly shed the skin of "music television" and became what it is today: a nauseating blur of "reality" shows and Hollywood celebrities pimping themselves to America's most beloved demographic, with music videos relegated to the wee hours of the morning so the old fogies who used to dream of Martha Quinn and Mark Goodman can still get their fix of death metal and third-string hip hop before they rock their Starbucks on the way to the office.

Which is why my celebration of MTV's first quarter century eschews the music industry entirely.

John Eats proudly presents (via YouTube) one of MTV's finest pop cultural moments: William Shatner, performing all three lead roles from the movie "Se7en" in the guises of Captain Kirk, William Shatner hosting Rescue 911, and T.J. Hooker, originally presented at the MTV Movie Awards. Enjoy.