_ FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS |
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_ FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS |
| 1. WHAT IS THE STATE?
2. HOW DID YOU GUYS GET STARTED? 3. TELL ME ABOUT THAT THEME SONG. 4. ARE YOU STILL ON MTV? 5. WHAT'S UP WITH THE DVD? 6. WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR MTV SHOW? 7. WHO IS IN CHARGE OF THE STATE? 8. WHERE ARE YOU ALL FROM? 9. WHAT ABOUT YOUR CBS SHOW? 10. ARE YOU GOING TO BE BACK ON TV AGAIN? 11. IS THERE A STATE NEWSGROUP? 12. OTHER WEB PAGES? 13. WHO RUNS THE WEBSITE? 14. WHAT'S YOUR ADDRESS? 15. WILL MTV PLAY THE STATE AGAIN? 16. WILL YOU SEND A PHOTO/T-SHIRT/VIDEO etc.? 17. WHO ARE THE MEMBERS OF THE STATE? 18. WHAT DOES THE NAME "THE STATE" MEAN? 19. WHERE CAN I FIND ARTICLES/PHOTOS OF THE STATE IN MAGAZINES & NEWSPAPERS? The State is a group of ten writer/filmmaker/performers who have created sketch comedy together in various media starting in 1988.
The group was formed in October of 1988. We were freshman and sophomore film and drama majors at New York University. We performed in theatres, clubs and colleges while also making films and videos for our shows. In 1992 we were hired by MTV to contribute segments to "You Wrote It You Watch It", a series hosted by Jon Stewart. As a result of our work on that show, The State was hired to create its own pilot then series for MTV. The MTV show premiered in January of 1994, at which time it received
some extremely bad reviews, which were proudly displayed in the highly
talked about "more miserable crap" promo on MTV. Since then, the series
was renewed twice, garnering increasingly good ratings, reviews and feedback
as the critics and audiences caught on. (including being one of the top
10 shows of the year in the Wall Street Journal and highest rated sketch
show in Entertainment Weekly and Rolling Stone.)
The words to the theme song on MTV were "Boys and Girls - Action." The
words to the CBS State theme song are "El Estados Es Amour" (french/spanish
for The State Is Love). Both themes were done by Craig Wedren of the band
Shudder To Think and Eli Janney
of the band Girls
Against Boys. Both bands have many great CDs, although neither State
theme is available for purchase at this time. Craig's Website
We did 26 episodes of The State on MTV in the mid 90s and they
stopped showing them long ago.
The DVD will be released July 14th 2009.
1) Back in the free-wheeling 1990s, we had access to a huge library of popular songs to use as a soundtrack for the show. Today, licensing this music for the DVD would have cost us millions of dollars, and most of it was unavailable to us at any price. However, we have worked very closely with original series composer (and consummate rock star) Craig Wedren to carefully replace certain tracks, while maintaining the spirit of the original sketches as much as possible. The only moment in the whole series that we could not include on the DVD is a 15-second "link" where characters are singing a Pearl Jam song which we could not get the rights to. 6. WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR MTV SHOW? Contrary to rumor, The State WAS NOT cancelled by MTV. We decided to
leave the network for many reasons, one of which was a desire to establish
ourselves as an entity that exists apart from any particular employer or
TV Network.
The State was not assembled by a producer, casting director or corporation.
The members of the State created the group and the show, and we wrote,
directed, edited and performed our material ourselves.
The State was based in New York City. Now the members all live in L.A. and/or NYC.
Our network debut, the CBS special ("The State's 43rd Annual All-Star
Halloween Special") aired on October 27, 1995. Musical guest was Sonic Youth. The reviews were great,
but there was no promotion nor ratings, and CBS decided not to renew us.
So ended The State on TV.
It's unlikely there will be another State series,
but State projects may happen again someday.
Yes - it's alt.tv.the-state
There are many unofficial fan sites, but they come and go. Best to google the state mtv
If you want MTV to play the old episodes, please get in touch with MTV programming because we have nothing to do with that! MTV Programming
Sorry, but we are not set up financially or logistically at this time
to send autographed photos. And there is no State merchandise right now.
Kevin Allison
Nothing in particular.
Wall St. Journal - June 20, 1994 p. A12 (Top 10 TV Shows of the Year)
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