Don’t worry if you don’t remember when Appalachian State University (App State) generated some Mountaineer mania for MTV in the early 2000s, we got you covered.
MTV made its television debut on August 1, 1981, with the airing of “Video Killed the Radio Star” by the Buggles. In the winter of 2002, I believe MTV debuted in Boone, North Carolina. If you know if MTV was in Boone before this, please let me know, but either way, that was the starting point of MTV’s App State campus invasion of the early 2000s.
For over 43 years, MTV has produced and developed a lot of programming for our entertainment. That’s a whole lot of music videos, episodes of TRL, The Real World, Catfish: The TV Show, Jersey Shore, Rob and Big, MTV Cribs, Beavis and Butt-Head, Pimp My Ride, Celebrity Deathmatch, Jackass, Next, and Yo Momma to name a few of those MTV’s shows.
If you’ve watched any of their shows, then you know that many are filmed/taped throughout the United States and feature individuals from these filming locations. In one of my earlier blog posts, I wrote that I get super excited when North Carolina pops up in films and television shows. I remember being a super excited Mountaineer when MTV visited my alma mater with their fancy cameras when I was a student.
Before I launch into the invasion, I don’t remember or know why App State was on MTV’s radar in the early 2000s, but this excellent mountain university did something to get their attention twice in 2002 and 2003. If anyone knows, please let me know.
Let’s now take a trip down memory lane and up to the North Carolina mountains to Boone twenty-something years ago.
In 2002, the Road Rules cast visited App State in their Campus Crawl season. Road Rules is similar to The Real World, where a group of five to six people in their late teens to mid-20s travels around the United States in an RV and completes missions.
The eleventh-season cast consisted of Sarah Grayson, Eric Jones, Shane Landrum, Rachel Robinson, Kendal Sheppard, and Darrel Taylor. Some of these members are currently on this season of The Challenge: Battle of the Eras. Yes, I watch the challenge. You should check it out. It’s great.
Their mission was to walk a tightrope between the now-demolished Coltrane and Gardner residence halls. Don’t tell my dad, but I skipped class that day. Everyone was raving about Road Rules showing up, and I wanted to check out the action for myself. It was dope to watch, even though they failed the mission.
The cast also participated in the Duck Pond Polar Plunge. That’s why I placed the MTV invasion start point in the Winter of 2002—that’s when the plunge always happened, well, at least between 2000 and 2005. I hope App State still holds this event. It was always a good time.
This episode aired on television the following June. Road Rules ran for fourteen seasons between 1995 to 2007.
Next, in 2003, MTV returned to Boone to film/videotape a show called Undercover: Hooking Up On Campus. The show followed two App State students, Ernest and Tonya, before and over Homecoming weekend.
Ernest is on the field and track team, and we learn that he’s kind of a “player.” His story begins with Ally, whom he met at a bar called Spooners before filming started. Spooner’s wasn’t one of my spots, but I definitely remember it. Ernest tells us that they have been hanging out for a few weeks and that he isn’t that into her. She’s out of the picture after an awkward interaction happens in his apartment.
Carmen enters Ernest’s storyline and we find out that he likes her. She’s the total package, according to Ernest. He calls her one night from Spooner’s and asks “the one he might give up his pimp card for” out for dinner at Casa Rustica. Carmen says yes. They seem to have enjoyed themselves, but we find out that Carmen has a boyfriend, and she went to dinner as just a friend.
Tonya just broke up with her boyfriend of three years after he cheated on her, and he wants to get back together. I don’t know how much time has passed since the breakup, but he’s still heavily involved in her thoughts and her life.
She runs into her ex-boyfriend and some dude she hooked up with after their break up at Spooner’s. I laugh because Spooner appears in this episode a whole bunch, but I promise you that there were other hangout spots beside Boone back then. Of course, there’s some tension between the two, which Tonya doesn’t care about. The next day or so, she heads home for a Greensboro night out with her girlfriends to get away from what’s going on in Boone. The ex-boyfriend, also from Greensboro, heads home, and he ends up buying an engagement ring.
The episode ends on Saturday at the Homecoming football game. Some stuff happens at the game. Ernest throws a party at his apartment and makes out with a few girls. By the end of the episode, it seems that he wants to shed his player ways and start focusing on dating a singular girl. Meanwhile, Tonya’s ex-boyfriend becomes her fiance after she says “yes” to his wedding proposal. She is excited and calls her mom about the news from a cordless house phone.
I believe that quickly sums up the MTV App State campus of the early 2000s. I had a lot of fun reviewing it.
Watching the homecoming episode was pure black-and-gold nostalgia for me. Seeing all the clothes and hairstyles and hearing the music definitely brought up some memories from some good years of my life. I laugh because some of the music still holds up for me today, but not the clothes. Grief! Those clothes. What were we wearing back then?
To my App State classmates of the early 2000s, what do you remember about MTV filming/videotaping on campus? Did you even remember these happening? Let me know on IG or by email.
Any images of the MTV programming used in this post are not my property but the property of MTV Entertainment Group.
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