The Head

This was a really interesting show, probably one of the best MTV ever had. Too bad they canceled it, because it's a hell of a lot better than watching Real World 24 hours a day. I don't remember a whole lot about the show but I remember it had a cool story with great animation.

Lasted 2 seasons, the 1st collected on video and not sure about the 2nd. The first season was a complete story about the aliens' takeover attempt of Earth, Jim's befriending of the "Human Anomalies" club, and the race to assemble the Anti-Invasion device to save the world. 2nd season went downhill a little going episodic, exploring the origins of the other anomalies besides Jim, but still provided some swell prime-time adult animation and laughs. Too bad it was cancelled, as with all of MTV's best animated stuff.

This was a video series from the late 1980s and was shown serial form on MTV. Despite the 1997 release date, the film is about a decade older--this date was just when it was released in Europe. It has not, as of yet, been released in the US and it took me years to finally get a copy of all 13 episodes--the total series only lasting about two hours (despite the 22 minute time listed on IMDb).

The artwork, to put it quite bluntly, is awful and predates later MTV cartoon series--such as BEVIS AND BUTTHEAD and DARIA (both by some of the same people who brought us THE HEAD). Interestingly enough, Butthead actually makes a brief appearance towards the beginning of the show--just like Daria first appeared on BEVIS AND BUTTHEAD. While I am not a fan of BEVIS AND BUTTHEAD, I loved DARIA as well as THE HEAD and I respect their edgy and rather subversive humor. Considering my advanced age (42), it is probably pretty odd that I still like these seemingly juvenile cartoons but they are just so funny and written so well I can't resist.

So what is THE HEAD all about then? Well, John goes to see Dr. Axel (who looks almost exactly like Bevis) about his head--which has now grown about five or six feet high!! It seems there is a nice but scary looking purple alien ("Roy") living inside and he comes out on occasion. Roy is using John's head as a place to live while he tries to help the Earth avoid destruction from another race of aliens. To do so, they just travel the world assembling pieces of a broken device to stop the alien invasion. To assist John and Roy, they assemble a team of weirdos from a local weirdo support group. You just have to see these likable freaks to believe them! Countering this force for good are one evil alien and a group of idiotic government workers--a crazed scientist and his two "special" assistants who are very, very funny.

So of course all this sounds weird--and it is. But is also is very engaging, funny and strangely watchable. This is a must-see for lovers of edgy underground cartoons, though I must admit it might be hard to get "normal" people to watch it with you. Also, the humor is a bit adult, with some cursing and references to heterosexuality and homosexuality that might preclude you from letting younger viewers watch it. TRY TO FIND A COPY!! It's worth the search.

FYI--If you look closely at the airplane, it's call numbers are NCC-1701--the same as the Enterprise on STAR TREK.

To say that "the Head" was my favorite show during its actual television run would be an overstatement. I watched it as frequently as I could, but missing it wouldn't mean heartbreak.

The series is about a man named Jim trying to find love and friendship in New York City. The only thing is, an alien encounter left him with a massive head playing home to an alien named Roy. Season one (Which, unfortunately, is the entire show) follows Roy and Jim as they work together to stop an alien invasion from a parasitic species bent on the domination of Earth.

The artistic style seems simplistic and gritty, but definitely has a certain compelling quality to it. The characters move awkwardly and unrealistically, but it's forgivable when you consider it's a show about freaks that was first aired as a segment on a show called "Oddities." Eric Fogel and Ray Kosarin do some downright incredible things with perspective to give every scene a very fresh and interesting feel. And the characters themselves are all well-designed and fascinating to look at.

The story is a little weak and predictable. The usual alien invasion bit with meddling federal agents and a mad scientist. But it has its own quirks to liven it up. And the characters were all fascinating. Unfortunately, since it was such an action-oriented plot, most of Jim's friends seemed underdeveloped and two-dimensional, and Jim himself seemed like a generic Everyman sort, but his alien, Roy, had a distinct and enjoyable personality. And Dr. Elliot is one of the few mad scientists to have a clear background that shows why he is who he is. He's honestly among the most enjoyable villains I've ever seen.

Ultimately it's the jokes that make the show. There are some decent puns, but it's mostly the dead-pan sort of stuff that seems incredibly popular in this, the Family Guy era.

"The Head" was a great show if you were into it, but it definitely wasn't for everybody.

I actually liked this show when it was on MTV (it atctually made MTV watchable again) because it is weird yet funny and cool. Only the first season though (the first 13 episodes that were later made into a video) is watchable. In which a regular guy named Jim starts to get very odd- his head is very very large and is holding an alien named Roy (which is short for some jubberish) who has come to Earth to stop another alien named Gork from destroying the world. Very odd, but usually funny in a crude way, especially when looking at the other freaks on the show (a guy with 5 ft. arms, one with a mouth in his stomach, another with a blade stuck in his head, another that looks like a rat, one woman with a dark secret with a tale and a guy who has a fishbowl in his mouth). A+