Celebrity Deathmatch was damn lit

At the end of the '90s and the beginning of the' 00s, on Tuesday evenings I had a regular appointment.
I was between 16 and 18 years and my weekly evening engagement that was with MTV for an evening dedicated to animated series. It worked like this, it started at 9.00 pm with Daria (spin-off of the cult series Beavis & Butt-head), then came the series dedicated to the two debouched characters with huge heads, Beavis & Butt-head and to close, my favorite, Celebrity Deathmatch.

So, at the news reported by Variety that MTV together with the production company Cube Vision, founded by Ice Cube and Matt Alvarez, will produce a reboot of the series, I'm totally crazy. The creator of the series Eric Fogel will return to the executive production together with Ice Cube and the new Celebrity Deathmatch will be available with weekly episodes exclusively in streaming, as stated by Chris McCarthy, president of MTV, VH1 and CMT in Variety:

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.

But what exactly was that Celebrity Deathmatch? Originally broadcast on MTV from 1998 to 2001, it was an animated stop-motion series where the stars, stars of the international star system and icons of pop culture made of pongo, faced brutal and violent wrestling matches where, no holds barred, if they gave it as if there was no tomorrow. The cruelty of the matches was flanked by the direct and irreverent mockery of the various protagonists who took part in the ring in the 98 episodes of the show. The "satire" of Deathmatch can be compared to that of the court jester, or the possibility of teasing the king (in this case the various stars in the ring and outside) without attracting on himself the wrath of the ruler but actually succeeding in snatch several smiles and applause. This because in its context absurd and apparently out of reality, it could afford everything and the opposite of everything.

The first ever meeting in the history of Celebrity Deathmatch was between the then First Lady Hilary Clinton and her "rival" Monica Lewinsky, we are talking about putting two of the protagonists against each other one of scandals more incredible than the history of the United States of America and have them beat up to death in a ring. If we also consider the fact that the then president Bill Clinton (at the ring with beer and hot dog) in 1998 was subjected to impeachment for false testimony and obstruction of justice after the scandal with Lewinsky, admitting his report "inappropriate "with his intern, to be acquitted acquitted by the Senate, you immediately understand that starting the show in this way and with these protagonists was quite risky but in the end the success was enormous and the jester came out alive and applauded. The paradoxical nature of the show was the key to its success and popularity even among the stars that were targeted day after day.

In this footage, the mind behind Deatmatch Eric Fogel, Douglas Lovelace character designer and the special effects supervisor Steve Jaworski explain the creative and structural process of the show and its final realization.
To obtain the similarity Lovelace works starting from a basic model, a not too marked caricature of the character and then exasperate the distinctive features giving life to the protagonists in the show's pongo. One of the techniques that were often used by the Deathmatch troupe was the so-called "Morph" which consists of a computer-generated fade that allows for example Jim Carry's head to swell slowly until it explodes.

Pete List, who was responsible for animating the puppets of Pong, explains how it is possible to make the movements alive and real by taking a single frame-by-frame picture, a long but extremely precise work that made all the characters "alive" and in the footage says:

To fully animate a 30 minute bet, you need 4/5 weeks of work.

One of the executive producers at the time, John Worth Lynn Jr., says about Deathmatch in the backstory video of the show:

I think each of us dreams of seeing two rival celebrities facing each other in the ring and filling themselves up with a fight to really see who the No.1 is.

The words of the creator of the show, Eric Fogel, in the backstory footage says with great clarity, simplicity and clarity explains the true essence of the masterpiece he thought and realized that we could finally review again:

It is truly a unique and special show. And it's also fun, for which you just have to sit down and enjoy it fully. Just get on the couch and watch a couple of good matches. You already know to waste half an hour but at least you had fun!

The impact of the show was incredible at all levels. It was so strong that Nike, a brand that made the commercials become a real cult, created advertisements set in the most cruel, irreverent and irreverent TV ring. It choose the Celebrity Deathmatch ring for the launch of the new Shox technology and as testimonial Edgar Davids and Vince Carter. The first is faced with a gigantic work truck that destroys by passing through, the second with its Nike Shox BB4 must annihilate three artists of mime who have as a weapon a bomb ready to explode.

In the ring of Celebrity Deathmatch, all the protagonists of the show-biz of the beginning of 2000 really went up and we hope it will be the same for the reboot in the program. We'll give you some names of those who fought and hit hard on the square to make you understand the level of the fight:

• Michael Jordan vs Denis Rodman
• Marlilyn Manson vs Charles Manson
• Keith Richards vs Dave Matthews
• Tiger Woods vs Andre Agassi
• Beavis vs Butt-head
• Jim Carrey vs Mariah Carey
• Michael Jackson vs Madonna
• Celin Dion vs Keith Flint (The Prodigy)
• Britney Spears vs Christina Aguilera

While waiting for more news on the development of the reboot project of Celebrity Deathmatch, I greet you with the classic "goodnight and good fight"!