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Interesting fact is Mike basically invented MTV.
Triple like for this one!
From the reports I’ve read Nesmith more than 'basically' invented MTV.
Nesmith, who continued to perform as a solo artist, was asked by Island Records to create a promotional video for his 1977 single, “Rio.” It sparked a great idea.
Instead of taping a conventional video of himself performing, he created a comedic short film for the song including “women in fruit hats danc[ing] by” and Nesmith flying through space.
While there was no outlet for it — especially as the single bombed — Nesmith figured he was onto something.
“Audio records are played on radio, so a video record should be played on video — on television,” he thought. “There should be a broadcast component for the music video just like there is for records.”
He dug up a few clips for a pilot, included the idea of video jocks, or VJs, and called the show “Popclips.” Many rejected the idea, but Warner Bros. executive John Lack was intrigued. Explaining his concept to Lack as “a new kind of TV that played videos 24 hours a day, like a radio station,” Nesmith had found his market.
Warner and partner American Express proceeded with the concept, calling it MTV and launching the network on Aug. 1, 1981. While Nesmith was offered the chance to be MTV’s production head, he turned it down to pursue his other creative projects.
He developed and sold Warner Bros on the idea for what became MTV.Yeah. He didn't do the grunt work but apparently came up with the concept. Which had been going on in Saturday morning tv for years. Which like MTV, ran practically nonstop! At least one day a week. That sounds sort of like Ray Davies from The Kinks! No way ....