Long before he became the Jewish voice of a generation on The Daily Show, and even before someone stuck a pen in his eye in The Faculty and he fathered the Sprouse twins in Big Daddy, Jon Stewart had his own show on MTV, the cleverly titled The Jon Stewart Show. Also, he had black hair, which doesn't seem right.
The variety show, which aired from 1993–1995, was wonderfully weird — and so well thought of that none other than David Letterman appeared in the final episode — but today its most notable for all the great bands Stewart booked, groups that otherwise would never have been seen on TV. We're talking the Notorious B.I.G., Guided by Voices, Quicksand, Sunny Day Real Estate, and so many more, a collection of which we've included after the jump, in honor of Stewart's 50th birthday today. Jon Stewart: birthday boy, Slayer fan.
Not a great band, but I haven't listened to this song in at least five years, and Brad Roberts sounds his most Scott Stapp-y in this performance.
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I forgot Slayer appeared on his show. Marvelous.
He looks so stoked to introduce them.
Ladies and gentleman, Jon Stewart before he had to wear a tie to work. Cues ODB
Why do all the chairs look like Professor X’s wheelchair?
Other thing I noticed was that the bass player in Quicksand had Nu Metal braids
Because “Fuck It! It’s the 90s!”
We, as a culture, make fun of the 80s quite a bit, but in many respects the 90s were just as ridiculous.
Oh man, Notorious B.I.G.!! Blast from the past! Whatever happened to that guy?
Isn’t he the guy whistling in “Moves Like Jagger”?
Really? I feel like that’s a step down, but it’s good to hear he’s still working
oh god Slayer and Danzig… this just made my day
Awkward white guy dancing during ODB? check
Letters to Cleo over the Bosstones, Manson, Ned’s Atomic Dustbin and a bunch of other bands? Ew
(I do actually sort of like them too, but still)
Blame Ben Wyatt.
Marilyn Manson’s performance should be on here. They trash the stage and try to set it on fire. Thats quality programming.
Know that sunny day real estate song by heart
always nice to see sunn day real estate get some exposure on the interwebs
I miss them so much.
I preferred when the show moved to Fox (I think it was, because how can that not be something that happened?) and the night he deliberately kept repeating that his musical guest was the Ass Ponys.
Is that Lysette Anthony at the beginning of the Quicksand clip? Definitely a top 90s crush.
My dog is confused by my head banging. Pups today.
I remember The John Stewart show for one interview. An underage Christina Ricci for some reason in answer to a question stands up and flashes some of her underwear (she was wearing jeans). Stewart looked utterly panicked!
my 13 year old loins remember that episode very vividly.
Oh ya know, just hanging out with John Stewart, Parker Posey, and Warren Zevon in 1995. Kinda cool I guess. I mean, if you’re in to stuff that’s out of my wildest dreams.
Seeing the years that the show ran freaks me out a little. I vividly recall having a serious crush on Jon Stewart, but I had no idea that I was 10-12 at the time. Yeesh.
Damn I missed this. I mean damn I missed this post yesterday AND I missed The Jon Stewart Show because I was stationed overseas for it’s entire run. Nice vids but some commentary on each would have been nice.
Thank you. Now I have to listen to Slayer all day long because that performance is fucking great.
If, during my life, I could write one song as ridiculously awesome as GBV’s “Motor Away”, I would consider my life completely valid, even if I spent the rest of it watching Real Housewives marathons. Can you blame them for airplaning like that? I would to…
Any list that includes Crash Test Dummies and excludes King’s X is a bogus list
I remember a couple things vividly about this show…I don’t know if this is different from the show he hosted that ran in syndication…but Megadeth’s performance (Youthanasia had just come out) got my 7th grade self back into metal.
and for weeks he had a ventrilliquist act booked as his 3rd guest, and every night he got bumped. it was a running joke…then finally after 3-4 weeks of this act being announced at the beginning and then bumped for time, he decided they were going to be his first guest of the night, and when they were announced no one came out. so he took the camera to the dressing room and the puppet and the ventriliquist had both hung themselves.