MTV and Ice Cube Bringing Back Celebrity Deathmatch

[Captain Stud Muffin (BLM)]

The MTV cult classic claymation comedy Celebrity Deathmatch is being revived by MTV and Ice Cube.

Announced by MTV Studios, this reimagining of the show is being executive produced by Ice Cube and his production company Cube Vision, along with series creator Eric Fogel. Ice Cube will also lend voice talent in a lead role, and more voice talent will be announced soon.

The show originally ran from 1998-2002, and again from 2006-2007, skewering celebrities, politicians, pop-icons and more. A weekly series, this revival will air exclusively for a currently undecided subscription video-on-demand service, or a premium broadcast partner sometime in 2019. This reportedly marks the first step in “reinventing” the franchise across games, consumer products and more

Ice Cube, who is currently producing Hip Hop Squares for MTV’s sister-brand VH1, said that he is “Happy to once again be working with Viacom and MTV on a fan favorite like Celebrity Deathmatch and to continue our success together."

“We’re excited to grow our partnership with Ice Cube and Cube Vision to reimagine this fan favorite,” said Chris McCarthy, president of MTV, VH1 and CMT. “Deathmatch was the meme before memes, remains a hot topic on social media and will be a smart, funny way to tackle the over-the-top rhetoric of today’s pop culture where it belongs – in the wrestling ring.”

www.ign.com/articles/2018/12/05/celebrity-deathmatch-getting-revival-series-from-mtv-studios

[The Ichi]

I liked it growing up, but rewatching some and it just wasn't that funny. Still, why not.

[Deleted]

Eh, I was in the demographic when they did the reboot on MTV 2 (remember that?), and the problems with reintroducing Celebrity Deathmatch in today's day and age are rather numerous.

1. The novelty worked in large part because it during the late 1990s, which was not only full of "attitude", but also full of personalities that people wanted to see get manhandled for abusing their 15 minutes of fame, which the writers, for the most part, understood the audience they were going for and went accordingly. The 2006 reboot... didn't, and it wasn't due to the people chosen, but rather how the writers looked at them and spoofed them. For example, the Tony Hawk vs. Bam Margera battle pitted a dullard Hawk against "Everything you assume was Jackass" Margera... and bear in mind that a few months later, Tony Hawk's Underground 2 came out, which featured both guys on a worldwide tour of mayhem, before the match became Margera taking on Don Vito (and this was before Bam's show got cancelled due to Vito's lifetime imprisonment for child solicitation), who was a fat slob that ate everything, including Tony Hawk. Another featured Simon Cowell against Ryan Seacrest, which was basically written by the writers as "God, Seacrest is a bitch". Obviously, I have no interest in going back to either incarnation or am looking for this one, but I thought I'd discuss this.
2. The formula of Celebrity Deathmatch where "take who'd you expect to win in a shoot fight... and do the exact opposite" can only go so far.
3. MTV flat-out sucks.

[DiBiase is Good]

Ice cub. Why does that amuse me so much?
Oh yeah, because I’m immature.

[The Summer of Muskrat XVII]

I might check it out, but I feel Celebrity Deathmatch is very much a product of it's time. I just don't seed it working the same in 2019, it's a completely different world now.

Plus, we're in the smartphone/social media era now. Everyone and their mother has made a f***ing YouTube video roasting celebrities, what can these guys say that isn't already being said in funnier ways elsewhere?

[Spider2024]

Loved the original series.

Unsure about the 2006-07 reboot. Something was missing, not sure what. Didn't have the same charm somehow.

Anyway, now that it's coming back, release the original series on some sort of home video already!

[Paul]

Rehashing a tired, old concept that wasn't very interesting to begin with. Yup, that sounds like modern media to me.

[KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!!]

This won’t get past the pilot episode since times are so different now. There’s no way something like this won’t have something that gets called sexist, racist, misogynistic, etc.

[TWERKIN' MAGGLE]

There's no way to make this show to exist without being 2edgy4u.

So the pilot will suck, MTV will pick it up anyway and cancel it when no one watches.

[The 1Watcher Experience]

Pass. I don’t see it lasting more than a season either.

[Bang Bang Bart]

I bet you one of the episodes will feature a certain American president.

[DZ: WF Legacy]

I wouldn't know any of the people they would likely feature anymore to be honest.

[fw91]

this is like the 5th time that I hear rumors of a reboot.

[Deleted]

I like this news in theory - I was fond of Celebrity Deathmatch back in its heyday (though I found out a year after its revival that it was even revived) - but I don't know (a) if the concept will even work in these more sensitive times, and (b) if I'll even care since I don't know who 75% of "celebrities" these days even are..

Dec 6, 2018 17:54:03 GMT -5 Bang Bang Bart said:

I bet you one of the episodes will feature a certain American president.

Finally.......Millard Fillmore answers for the Compromise of 1850...

[Fade is a CodyCryBaby]

So ...by deathmatch do they mean civil-discourse cause anything else is gonna get complaints these days.

[Deleted]

As much as I enjoyed this show as a kid (even had the video game), I can’t see this as a good idea in 2018.

I can only imagine this going very badly.

[chazraps]

It worked in the late-90s because the concept was absurd and unprecendented, the claymation style was rough but endearing, and the voice talent was largely unknowns making it feel like this real underground counter-culture thing.

Once the show petered out in 2000-2001 when they (the show and the network) started getting too-chummy with actual celebrities, tried to make it a storyline-arching narrative and created original mutants who nobody cared about.

The mid-aughts revival was unwatchable because they made it look waaay too clean and played it way too safe. Part of the charm of the original were the subtle verbal barbs about the talent and the satire of the increasingly-corporate sports world. the 2000s version was just "that celebrity is fat, and that celebrity ugly" etc. It tried way too hard to capture the original and yet somehow missed what made the novelty of the original stick for a (by then-MTV standards) considerable shelf-life.

Even speaking as someone who loves Cube, his involvement from the jump makes me pessimistic and skeptical. Having this type of roll-out press release for it screams of missing the mark. Let's remember that the original got its buzz as a surprise airing on New Year's Day '98, which built off of it by airing a 'Deathbowl '98' special as counter-programming to the Super Bowl half-time show. This new reboot really just seems to be a nostalgia cash-grab.

[Ganon83]

Dec 6, 2018 17:54:03 GMT -5 Bang Bang Bart said:

I bet you one of the episodes will feature a certain American president.

But Theodore Roosevelt already decapitated Richard Nixon in canon

[A Platypus Rave]

Eh... can't be worse than when they tried to reboot it a few years ago.

[Wolf Hawkfield no1 NZ poster]

The concept of the original was fun at first but it got stale very quickly and then the mid 00s Reboot was just awful on every level possible.

So if this does wind up getting rebooted yet again I'm going to give it a pass.