Excerpt from an article by John Seabrook

Excerpt from an article by John Seabrook about what it's like to work at MTV.

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"This period, when you're in your middle twenties, is a heady time to be at MTV. Ted Demme is a thirty-year-old director who had the classic MTV experience. He started as an intern, got a job as a P.A. [production assistant] after college, and was a producer by the time he was twenty-four. . . .

"Demme left MTV at age twenty-eight to make movies, and his credits include 'The Ref,' starring Denis Leary, and 'Who's the Man,' with Dr. Dre and Ed Lover. He recently worked on an episode of 'Homicide.' But he misses MTV, and, like a star high-school quarterback who keeps coming back after he's graduated to sit in the stands and watch the games, he often returns to the twenty-fourth floor. 'The thing I really miss is coming up with an idea on Monday, pitching it on Tuesday, writing the script on Wednesday, shooting on Thursday, cutting it Friday, and seeing it on the air on Saturday -- that was the greatest high."

-- From "Rocking in Shangri-La," an article by John Seabrook in the October 10, 1994, issue of The New Yorker