VH1 bringing back 'Behind the Music'

VH1 is reviving its former signature series "Behind the Music."

The cable network is ordering about 10 new episodes of "Music," bringing back the iconic documentary program that ran for several years on VH1 starting in 1997.

Lil Wayne and Scott Weiland have signed on to participate, with the network near agreements with several other artists.

"It felt like the time is right," said Jeff Olde, VH1 executive vp original programming. "There's all sorts of new artists on the scene who have emerged and have these great stories. And there's other artists that we always wanted to do the first time around."

VH1 had a reminder of the show's popularity last fall when it aired a well-received 90-minute live New Kids on the Block "Behind the Music" special. The event showed the group's first public performance in more than a decade along with a "BTM" retrospective.

"We always hear about the show, even now," Olde said. "It's amazing how much affection viewers have for it."

VH1 stopped airing regular episodes of "BTM" in 2002, then aired only a few a year until 2006. In focus groups, VH1 found "BTM" is so deeply associated with the channel, some viewers assumed the series never left the air. The show's storytelling model of the meteoric rise, tragic fall and sober rebirth of an artist was so distinctive that "The Simpsons" devoted an entire 2000 episode to parodying the show. There was also a short-lived spinoff titled "Behind the Music 2" that looked at the careers of younger performers.

VH1 will update the show's format for 2009, but not too much. Jim Forbes is back as the show's narrator, though the new episodes will add more current footage to anchor the story in the present day – like the way the New Kids special intercut with a live event.

"I'm leery about changing certain elements," Olde said. "I think the audience will be mad if we mess with it too much."

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Random clip from the Bon Jovi episode ....
 

Comments

[John Dawson]

Wow, a music cahnnel actually getting involved with "music"? and not another stupid reality show? Imagine that! I'll believe it when I see it.

RT
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[ColoradoB]

Awesome Scott Weiland!!

[Trevor]

Now they just need to bring back pop-up videos.

[Lindsay S.]

No offense, John Dawson, but how exactly is this not reality tv?

Don't get me wrong though, I am all for it! Who could forget the infamous Leif Garrett BTM? So good!

[derek]

scott weiland! fuck yeah!!

[Selah]

They need to get a BTM on Christina Aguilera or Brian Welsh from KORN.

[TheTVObserver]

Behind the Music has always been a hit and I did not understand why they shelved the show. This was a program every celebrity PR agency and the artist record label, tried very hard to make sure that their artist was the subject of its episode/feature.

It's like how "I was on Oprah" is what every PR agency tries to achieve for thier client/s. But the as we lost BTM we started to the new line of reality based celebrity music shows which made me miss BTM even more. Its a landmark series for VH1 and they need to try an order more episodes.