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TVTitles

MTV opening titles

MTV accounts for 22 shows here, running from 1989 to the present, and 22 opening title sequences between them.

Documentary leads with nine, then animation with seven.

None of them rebuilt their opening titles mid-run.

22 shows · 22 sequences · oldest first

3 of these moved between networks during their run and appear under each one.

Still from the opening titles of MTV Unplugged1 sequence

MTV Unplugged

1989–MTVDocumentary

Sixteen seconds and an acoustic guitar — a format whose whole argument is in the title card.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Æon Flux1 sequence

Æon Flux

1991–1995MTVAnimation

Peter Chung's assassin, drawn in a style nothing else on television had, and killed off at the end of most early episodes.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of The Real World1 sequence

The Real World

1992–2019MTVDocumentary

"This is the true story of seven strangers" — the narration that invented the reality format, and the one every parody since has copied.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Beavis and Butt-Head1 sequence

Beavis and Butt-Head

1993–MTVAnimation

Two teenagers on a sofa, and a guitar riff played about as well as they would play it.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of The Maxx1 sequence

The Maxx

1995MTVAnimation

Sam Kieth's comic animated almost panel for panel, about a homeless man who is a superhero in another world.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Daria1 sequence

Daria

1997–2002MTVAnimation

The cast doing ordinary things badly while the lead refuses to participate, over Splendora's 'You're Standing on My Neck'.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Celebrity Deathmatch1 sequence

Celebrity Deathmatch

1998–2007MTVAnimation

Claymation celebrities fighting to the death in a wrestling ring, with commentary played completely straight.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Total Request Live1 sequence

Total Request Live

1998–2008MTVDocumentary

MTV's daily video countdown, broadcast from a studio above Times Square with the crowd outside kept in shot.

  • Season 5
Still from the opening titles of Clone High1 sequence

Clone High

2002–2023MTV / MaxAnimation

A theme that introduces the entire premise as a shouted list of historical figures, which remains the fastest exposition in animation.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of The Osbournes1 sequence

The Osbournes

2002–2005MTVDocumentary

Ozzy Osbourne singing Crazy Train as a lounge number over a title card done in gold leaf, which is the joke the whole series runs on.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Punk'd1 sequence

Punk'd

2003–2015MTVComedy

Ashton Kutcher's hidden-camera show, and Candid Camera restaged for people with publicists.

  • Season 4
Still from the opening titles of Spider-Man: The New Animated Series1 sequence

Spider-Man: The New Animated Series

2003MTV / YTVAnimation

MTV's computer-animated Spider-Man, set between the first two films and cancelled after thirteen episodes.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Viva La Bam1 sequence

Viva La Bam

2003–2005MTVComedy

Bam Margera staging elaborate stunts against his own parents, in the Jackass spin-off MTV built around a single house in Pennsylvania.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Laguna Beach1 sequence

Laguna Beach

2004–2006MTVDocumentary

Real teenagers filmed like a drama, and the format most of MTV's next decade was built on.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Wild 'n Out1 sequence

Wild 'n Out

2005–MTVComedy

Improvised comedy played as a team sport, and the longest-running programme MTV has.

  • Season 16
Still from the opening titles of The Hills1 sequence

The Hills

2006–2010MTVDocumentary

The Laguna Beach spin-off that moved to Los Angeles, and the show that made the word scripted an argument.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Jersey Shore1 sequence

Jersey Shore

2009–2012MTVDocumentary

Eight housemates in Seaside Heights, and the most watched series MTV has ever had.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of RuPaul's Drag Race1 sequence

RuPaul's Drag Race

2009–Logo / VH1 / MTVDocumentary

Eighteen seconds that get remade every season — new logo treatment, new track, new set of queens.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Awkward1 sequence

Awkward

2011–2016MTVComedy

A high-school accident mistaken for a suicide attempt, and the reputation that follows.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Geordie Shore1 sequence

Geordie Shore

2011–2025MTVDocumentary

Jersey Shore relocated to Newcastle, and the format that gave British reality its next decade.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Teen Wolf1 sequence

Teen Wolf

2011–2017MTVHorror

Transformation rendered as anatomy — claws, teeth and eyes, in a sequence rebuilt several times across six seasons.

  • Season 6
Still from the opening titles of Faking It1 sequence

Faking It

2014–2016MTVComedy

Two friends mistaken for a couple who decide not to correct anyone.

  • Season 1