I’m a child of the ‘80s, so that means I grew up watching endless hours of MTV. It also means my first exposure to The Monkees TV show was also on MTV. Peter Tork, Davey Jones, Mickey Dolenz, and Michael Nesmith became household names (again) to a new generation of fans because the quirky ‘60s show found a second life 20 years after its debut when MTV started showing full episodes as part of its schedule. It was such a big hit on the show, it was one of the many shows rebooted for Gen X.
It wasn’t until many years later that I learned just how important one of those fictional band members, Michael Nesmith, was to the creation of the all-video cable channel. He is pretty much directly responsible for it. Oh, and that was also long before I found out his mother invented one of the most important office supplies of the 20th Century. Let’s start with MTV.
The Birth Of Music Videos At The Dawn Of Cable TV
Modern music videos can be traced back to the 1960s when bands like The Beatles created short-form videos around some of their songs. The videos were mainly used for promotion purposes or to attach to larger projects. There had been a few “music videos” as far back as the 1930s that were used for short interludes in theaters, but as far as what we would recognize today as a “proper” music video, it can really be traced back to one man, Mike Nesmith.
In 1976, Nesmith released a video for his new single, called “Rio.” Inspired by the process of making the video, the former Monkee hit on the idea to create a TV show that only showed music videos. There were a few examples of similar shows overseas, and shows like Top Of The Pops in England had been including videos between live acts for some time. He took this idea and created PopClips.
PopClips, Nickelodeon, And MTV
Nesmith shopped the show around, and it was picked up by the then-new children’s cable network Nickelodeon. The 30-minute weekly show was a hit, and Warner Cable, which owned Nickelodeon, saw an opportunity for some good, old-fashioned corporate synergy. They conceived the idea for MTV as a way to promote the music from their record division, and soon, the idea was in full motion.
Nesmith didn’t stay with the show when it made the jump to full-time network in 1981, but remained proud of the work he did to inspire MTV. The video channel launched in August of ‘81, famously playing “Video Killed The Radio Star” by The Buggles as its first video, and the rest is history. MTV has launched tons of careers, and for years, was the coolest cable station around.
But Wait, His Mom Really Invented Liquid Paper?
The Nesmith family is not only responsible for helping to reshape American pop culture with MTV, but office culture as well. In 1956, Mike Nesmith’s mother, Bette, invented one of the most important office supplies of the mid-century, Liquid Paper.
Bette was a secretary and was looking for a way to correct typos in documents produced by a typewriter. Using her home blender and her imagination, she came up with the formula for a liquid that could cover up the mistake, then harden and allow for new ink to be printed on top. Liquid Paper was born.
It’s quite a one-two punch from the family, don’t you think?