MTV used to play music videos; in fact, it was the reason it was originally formed in the early 1980s. Eventually they moved into other areas like reality television. But this program, "Rock the Cradle," offered the network formerly known as "Music Tele Vision" an opportunity to tie their own history to the programming choices of the day, by giving the sons and daughters of some of the superstars of the "video era" an opportunity to perform for a national audience in a competition that more than resembled "American Idol." The other interesting side note about the show is that it was telecast LIVE to the Eastern and Central time zones, and that the performances and reactions to comments were all about as raw as anything seen on MTV, ever.
The competitors were all trying to win a contract with a record label, and without naming any names, this was clearly a struggle for some of the people who appeared and got raked over the coals by some of the four judges (four, which breaks the "AI" format a little... oh but wait, even AI brought in guests to be extra judges one season)! Really, though, the story of what went on backstage was probably more interesting than anything that was actually seen by the viewing audience. Maybe they should have done a "Real World" style broadcast, where all of them were living in some Bel-Air Mansion and had to rehearse and deal with their rivals in a day-to-day way.
The show itself was a typical train wreck, with the eliminations, the badly rehearsed songs (with footage of the contestants' famed parentage coaching their progeny through that week's performance) and a somewhat lackluster host named Ryan Devlin. For the record, the judges were Jamie King (male, not the model/actress - this Jamie directs and choreographs music videos), Larry Rudolph (a music agent whose most successful client was Britney Spears), June Ambrose (best known for her celebrity philanthropy work), and Belinda Carlisle, who was and will always be lead singer for that quintessentially 80s girl group, The Go-Go's.
The weeks went by, and the voting went on, as people were removed from the scene. In the end, one of them was declared the winner. Have we heard the champion's CD yet? No. But, maybe that's just as well.
The competitors were all trying to win a contract with a record label, and without naming any names, this was clearly a struggle for some of the people who appeared and got raked over the coals by some of the four judges (four, which breaks the "AI" format a little... oh but wait, even AI brought in guests to be extra judges one season)! Really, though, the story of what went on backstage was probably more interesting than anything that was actually seen by the viewing audience. Maybe they should have done a "Real World" style broadcast, where all of them were living in some Bel-Air Mansion and had to rehearse and deal with their rivals in a day-to-day way.
The show itself was a typical train wreck, with the eliminations, the badly rehearsed songs (with footage of the contestants' famed parentage coaching their progeny through that week's performance) and a somewhat lackluster host named Ryan Devlin. For the record, the judges were Jamie King (male, not the model/actress - this Jamie directs and choreographs music videos), Larry Rudolph (a music agent whose most successful client was Britney Spears), June Ambrose (best known for her celebrity philanthropy work), and Belinda Carlisle, who was and will always be lead singer for that quintessentially 80s girl group, The Go-Go's.
The weeks went by, and the voting went on, as people were removed from the scene. In the end, one of them was declared the winner. Have we heard the champion's CD yet? No. But, maybe that's just as well.