Hold up — I said "almost!" I don’t know about you, but I found last night’s Total Finale Live broadcast sort of touching. Admittedly, I haven’t watched a full episode of TRL in many years. But there was a time when that show meant a lot to me, in the way that only a television program you watch every single afternoon throughout your adolescence can do. And now TRL is done forever. So the long-departed Carson Daly came home again to 1515 Broadway last night, and with help from a cavalcade of Y2K-era celebs and sorta-celebs (Jesse Camp!), he re-enacted that treasured ritual one last time, on a Sunday night no less. As a friend IMed me during the broadcast: "It’s like a funeral for our youth."
Anyway, I am not ashamed to admit that I came close to shedding a single rueful tear when I saw the Backstreet Boys (sans Kevin) back on that MTV stage performing "I Want It That Way" again. I did not, in fact, shed that tear; I am made ofstronger stuff than that. However, the same cannot be said of the many, many special guests who spilled the TRL-related contents of their hearts (in between quick plugs for their respective newest products) over three long hours. They gave us way too many poignant moments to list, so I’ll just call out a few choice soundbites, after the jump.
Most Necessary Moment of Raw Honesty: "I am a tool." — Carson Daly, finally. (The context isn’t really important, is it?)
Least Necessary Moment of "Raw" "Honesty": "I just love this show….Thecameraman, everybody behind the scenes who greets me…" — Diddy, getting all verklempt for no reason.
Most Oddly Apt Moment of…Something: "It’s emotional, it’s sad, it’shappy, it’s just a thousand different things." — some dude named "Damien," paraphrased slightly. Did this guy actually host TRL ever? Apparently so. (I told you I haven’t watched in a while!)
Most Burning Question: Was it just me, or was Snoop Dogg misting up a little bit at 11 p.m. afterthey played "…Baby One More Time," the final No. 1 TRL video ever? Or maybe thatwas just a side effect from the cigar(?) he and Kid Rock were passing between them at the time.
Ah, man. What a show. So were any of you watching? What momentsstood out? I’ll just be sitting here, thinking quietly aboutthe end of an era.
More on TRL:
On the scene at the ‘TRL’ (*sniff*) finale!
Tanner Stransky collected 10 Classic TRL Moments for EW.com
PopWatch attended, and screamed for, Kanye West’s 2007 TRL performance
Can FNMTV be the new TRL?
EW took a close look at the emerging TRL phenomenon in 2001
Comments (1-30) of 80 Add your comment
I agree that was a funeral for our youth. It was a celebration of what that show has created and what that show gave music. Without it we would not have the Justin or Christina’s of the world.
I was a regular watcher of TRL back in the beginning. It will be missed. It brought actual music to MTV instead of reality show crap. Bring back the music MTV!!
Carson Daly’s looks are disturbing. He used to be attractive, now he looks so old and sickly.
Good riddance. TRL brought some crappy music to the masses.
The BSB performance was awesome. I loved how crazy the crowd got when the said that they were releasing a new album soon. “The last band standing, You outlived TRL” refering to the Boys. Totally agree.
I never really watch TRL, I’m Canadian so it never showed up here. But I have heard of it and seen a few clips here and there and it looks like it was a great show. Sucks that it’s over. What’s the reason for that anyways?
Oh Simon – you made my day: I missed Kevin too with the BSB. How they were only #3 is beyond me, but it was nice to see “The Fellas” even if they were minus one.
It cracked me up throughout the show how there was an underlying theme of “MySpace & Facebook killed this show” subtly dropped here and there. No, don’t blame social networking, blame the inability of MTV to play videos – and not just 12 seconds of videos during a 30-minute countdown show that spends the majority of the time plugging different things.
(Stepping off my soapbox…)
e – you are everything wrong with hollywood! of course he looks older, HE IS OLDER!!! stop being so damn critical of these people, they age just like everyone else. i bet you were never attractive enough to host your own show, anyway.
regarding trl itself, i didnt get a chance to watch it last night, but im looking forward to youtubing BSB! wow, its been a while… good riddance, youth!
i admit that i watched last night – and i felt really, really, reeeeally old. i remember watching TRL in college when it first debuted. what was making me crack up was thinking about all the teenyboppers out there who probably didn’t know dave holmes(loved him!), carson or jesse camp(i completely forgot about that nutjob until he showed up oncamera). you can argue until you’re blue in the face about whether TRL was a good thing or a bad thing (depending on your opinion on the state of music today), you can’t deny it was an influential and powerful music show. even it if was cheesetastic most of the time.
Liz wrote: “Without it we would not have the Justin or Christina’s of the world.”
Well, I guess you can’t argue with that. TAKE THAT Roman Empire, Galileo, and Winston Churchill!
Expected Liz reply: “Who?”
I misted up at the exact same moment. TRL and the music of the past ten years really did define my youth. I loved seeing all the old VJ’s come back. They were my heroes back in the day. It was a good show!
I felt the exact same way watching the show last night.
s’bout damn time.
And with it, music on MTV dies too. The TRL finale made me so sad. Watching MTV now is infuriating; an endless stream of pure “reality” crap. VH1 is the exact same thing. My two favorite channels growing up have become the two worst on cable TV. MTV would be so easy to fix – put the Music back into Music Television, guys!
fs, you rock!!
I thought this show was canceled a long time ago. Why is Mtv still on the air.
H-I was going to respond to your comments (in which you misconstrued what I said), but once you stated you were looking forward to “youtubing BSB” I knew you were useless. And you lose your bet!
I had the pleasure of performing live in July. Granted I’m no superstar but the experience was probably the greatest in my short career, thus far. The whole mystique of trl. The photo booth, looking out the window into times square, the stage, the countdown. I’ll always remember it. It’s the end of an era. And i feel a sense of accomplishment having been able to see it for myself
I was never a fan of TRL, but its demise is sad because it speaks to the state of the music industry today. Namely, that it’s dead. You have a station named MTV(Music Television) that never plays music anymore. That says it all.
Ah yes TRL. Remember that time some girl introduced a video by blabbering something comprehensibe and then screamed like a banshee. Memories.
Ah yes TRL. Remember that time some girl introduced a video by blabbering something incomprehensibe and then screamed like a banshee. Memories.
TRL was the the final nail in the coffin of what once was a network that was edgy, unconventional, unique and independent. It is now a big commercial for the music industry. Their reality shows are vomitinous and MTV has decided to reward terrible human beings with their own tv shows. (ie Paris Hilton, P.Diddy, Sweet 16, 50cent. These people have no real humanity. MTV RIP!
If you think the music industry is dead cause MTV doesn’t play music then you don’t know a thing about music. MTV has never been about music. They’ve been about ratings.
Go find some people who know what real music is and ask for a list of artists. Get to your locally-owned record store and hear music, perhaps for the first time. It’s not Bon Jovi, Christina Aguilera, or Fallout Boy. It’s not Metallica (anymore), KISS (ever), or Timberland. Music is not entertainment. It’s art. If it fails as art then its not music.
You people are morons. You do realize MTV is the king of recycling shows. In five years (probably sooner) you’ll have TRL 2.0 and all these kids will talk about how it’s back and it’ll be more produced hype and crap. There’s a reason people like this articles author stopped watching this stupid show.
Good riddance to bad garbage. MTV,VH1 etc. are nothing but trash TV.
TRL sucks. Good riddance…
Hasn’t MTV had some form of TRL throughout its history? It might not have had the same level of involvement from the artists, but they’ve always had a ‘most requested’ countdown. I assume whatever FNMTV is will be the same thing? Or have they given up on playing videos anymore all together? Who needs MTV to see videos on the TV when you can find them on the ‘net.
I’ve never been a regular TRL viewer, but I’ve seen my fair share of episodes and I’m sad to see it go. It’s been on for so long and has become such a staple of MTV that it’s strange to think it’ll never grace my TV’s presence again. I watched last night’s farewell episode and I actually really enjoyed it. It was great seeing all the VJs together and seeing Carson back hosting the show. Great performances, great guests…it was like a fabulous trip down memory lane of all the artists I’ve grown up listening to. I especially loved the BSB performance (kind of sad though w/o Kevin…).
Alas, what will MTV do now? I guess they have that FNMTV show..but that’s only on once a week, right? They NEED to start showing more videos. SERIOUSLY. Instead of showing hours of mind numbing fake-reality shows, just show videos! It’s that simple! They’re smart enough to think of new music oriented shows, so get on it MTV! Either that or change your name to RTV (reality television).
I remember when EmpTV was ‘All Music, All of the Time’. Now it is ‘Crap Passed Off As Music, Not Much of the Time’. Blah.
I almost shed a tear too when I saw my Boys perform! TRL changed the last couple of years it was on the air. They only played 30 seconds of music videos and fans no longer requested videos, but only gave shoutouts to their peep and homies back home while simultaneously shouting like banshees. It lost its original premise which was to be all about the music instead of some platform to promote their product.
FNMTV is crap and does not count at all, plus it’s never on. I’m not going to be happy until I can turn on MTV at any given moment and see some actual videos and some actual singing. Literally, the ONLY upcoming music-related programming on MTV is the Britney documentary. THE ONLY ONE! No more Diary, no more Becoming, no more Making the Video, no more TRL, no more music videos during commercials. It’s all gone. Same with VH1 – no more Driven, no more Behind the Music (for the most part), no more Pop-Up Video (miss that one!). We have Paris Hilton’s My New BFF and Parental Control and NEXT and Sex with Mom and Dad and My Super Sweet 16 and Rock of Love and Flavor of Love and Daisy of Love and Real Chance At Love and I Love New York and Rock of Love: Charm School and Flavor of Love: Charm School and…see the problem?! NO MUSIC. Of course they’re about ratings, but they should at least have the decency to change their name if they’re not going to have any kind of music on. GOD.
No TRL. It would be sad, if it hadn’t turned into something pointless to watch. It used to be good- when they actually showed videos, which I kinda took to be the premise of the show.
And I just have to disagree with the person who said that music isn’t Bon Jovi, Xtina or FallOut Boy. They create music. Maybe you don’t enjoy it, but it is still music. Music IS art, but art is not defined by the obscure or anything that isn’t popular to the masses. Art is what speaks to you. Britney doesn’t inspire any emotions in me, but if she does for someone else, then it is music and it is art. While it pains me to admit that, it’s also painful to see some of the stuff at museums that is called art. It may not move everyone, but as long as it moves one person…that’s why MTV should get back to showing the music.