Squirt TV on MTV

Public Access cable channels in the late 1980s through the 1990s were similar to what streaming services like YouTube, Instagram and Twitch are now, except they were only shown in your local area. You needed to live in a certain place to be able to go to your nearby cable TV provider, show your ID to verify your place of residence, then use their studio or hand them your videotape and let them show what you created at a time you selected on their schedule.

That's where we get started with this.

In 1989, "Saturday Night Live" cast members Mike Meyers and Dana Carvey threw on some wigs, dressed in tee shirts and jeans and did a sketch for the first time, that became a phenomenon. "Wayne's World" spawned a successful movie and a not quite as successful sequel, introduced the word "Schwing!" into the vernacular, revitalized the image of the AMC Pacer and turned the number one epic, Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody," back into a hit, all over again. "Wayne's World," in case you didn't know, was the story of two teens in a basement doing one of those public access cable shows about stuff in and around their neighborhood of Aurora, Illinois.

Now, I don't know for a fact that this sketch was the influence for "Squirt TV," but it's hard to think otherwise. Some time after the second "Wayne's World" movie was in theaters, a kid named Jake Fogelnest got some camera equipment, set up a little TV studio in his bedroom and started making tapes shown on Manhattan Neighborhood Network. I'm not being cheeky when I say he was a kid. Jake was in 9th grade in 1994 when he started this project.

His basic cable show was mostly him riffing on the stuff he liked and didn't like either in his personal life or, as his popularity grew, entertainment stuff. He actually got stand up comic Gilbert Gottfried as a guest on this public access show, which suggested he had some legit show biz cred.

Jake had a style, a sense of humor and I don't know if his classmates were aware of what he was doing, but other kids his age were paying attention, because suddenly a bunch of high schoolers started doing shows on MNN, all about the same time as Jake's show, and all with that same "I'm bored with stuff" attitude that was so prevalent for that age group in the 1990s.

The difference here was, Jake actually had an agenda, actually had something to say and actually was pretty funny, which I guess is how MTV found him a couple of years later and took his little show from the no-budget low level thing he was doing to one of their standard shows... which was, essentially, the exact same no-budget, low level thing. Only, officially, they were calling it: "Squirt TV on MTV."

The biggest laugh of it was that the network intentionally changed as little as possible. The MTV version of the program was still being filmed in Jake's bedroom, although I think they got an interior designer to redo the space, upgraded some of the decorations and likely placed products in prominent locations to be seen during the telecast. And, they brought in some pretty cool guests from the era: I mean, Kevin Smith and Joey Lauren Adams, Liz Phair, Cibo Matto with Sean Lennon, The Fugees, members of The Kids In The Hall, members of Wu Tang Clan... it was a network talk show in a kid's bedroom... and frankly, Jake was getting better guests than David Letterman had when Dave first started on NBC!

And there was a sidekick - "Frankie" who would film segments at events around town, interview people on the street and sometimes try various fads that were happening for the camera all to provide more nonsensical content to amuse the viewer.

Jake was a kind of company shill also: he promoted MTV shows. But, he mercilessly roasted them as well - unashamedly skewering these other programs as the meaningless fluff they were, and would constantly point out the worst moments of those shows and play clips to prove his harsh criticism. How the MTV execs were okay with this, I'm not sure, but I guess it was the "there is no bad publicity" concept that allowed it.

Conversely, the guests on the show were treated like the visiting royalty they were, dropping into Jake's room like they were friends, hopping on his bed, checking out the digs and plugging their projects, as that was the point of their visit, for sure.

New York played a part because where else would a worldly teen even think to do a show out of their own bedroom (and did he even ask his parents for permission before he started)? And that attitude, the humor, the references and the top name guests he would eventually get were all NYC.

Depending on who you ask, the show ended either because his parents got sick of it, because Jake got a little too irresponsible when it came to taping episodes, or perhaps MTV had their fill of Jake's superstar attitude. Maybe it was all of the above? Still, the fact that some random teen did a local show from his room and then got a legitimate network program because of it is very notable, indeed!

In 2024, Mr. Fogelnest is a writer and (of course) a podcaster and he has a Patreon, if you want to see what he's doing and help support him. In some ways, it's just like his MTV days, only he's married and a dad, and doesn't have any suits from Viacom breathing down his neck, anymore.

In 1994 I visited Manhattan, NY to visit a relative. I was 16 years old at the time and while I was there I found myself obsessed with this cable access show called "Squirt TV." It was unlike anything I had seen before and I would check the channel all the time during the two weeks I was there in the hopes of seeing another episode. After I returned home I remember telling everyone I knew about this little gem of a show that I had discovered while on vacation. Much to my surprise, two years later, it ended up on MTV and I was so excited. I told all my friends to watch it and reminded them that this was the same show I was raving about two years earlier. I thought both Jake and Frankie were hilarious and I loved Frankie's man on the street interviews. I wish it would have lasted longer on MTV because I truly loved watching it and I got my best friend hooked also. They always had great guests and Jake had provided us with interviews that were great fun. I also enjoyed the fantastic musical guests they provided each week. "Squirt TV" will continue to be a fond memory of my teenage years.

I was actually rummaging through some old VHS and came across about 5 episodes that i had recorded back in high school. Watching them today made me chuckle over and over again. What a great little show this was. Interesting format, interview celebrities from a 17 year old's bedroom in NYC. But with guests like Kids in the Hall, Kevin Smith, Method Man & GZA, Cypress Hill, Beastie Boys, Beck, Luscious Jackson and Adam Sandler, how can you go wrong? One of the best part of the show was Jake's lil side-kick,Frankie i think his name was. He served as the Man on the Street, the episode where he learns how to break dance is hilarious! and Dancing Ted was also a nice feature. Even though the show was canceled, it's nice to see that Jake is still going strong in the industry.

I remember seeing a few episodes of this show when it was on MTV. It was really funny and always had the real cool guests, better than most talk shows. Kevin Smith was on there with Joey Lauren Adams plugging Mallrats. They showed clips from the movie at every commercial break. I also remember the host would give out weird gifts to guest, like one got a copy of some obscure Japanime film. It was just a great talk show for a generation of film buffs , like the show would have random clips from The Warriors in one episode. I wish it had lasted longer than it did.