‘Pop Up Videos’ Coming Back to VH1!

Regular readers of Warming Glow know that I’m not one to feel nostalgic for the 1990s, and I’ll happily trash “Saved By the Bell,” “90210,” and almost every non-Radiohead album after Kurt Cobain’s death to prove it. However, I have a massive soft spot for “Pop Up Videos,” the first VH1 program that ever pulled my teenage eyes away from MTV. And now it’s coming back, with modifications made for the Internet and social media:

After a 10-year hiatus, VH1 is resurrecting Pop Up Videos with co-creator Woody Thompson (pictured) on board as executive producer. The network has ordered 60 half-hour episodes set to bow as a strip in the fall.

The reboot will remain faithful to the original concept of bubbles of true “info nuggets” strategically deployed over music videos for maximum irony. But this time Thompson and his team will also pop-up rap and hip-hop, a genre that was off limits for the original because it was the domain of sister network MTV. [THR]

Now that almost all music videos live on YouTube, I’m not sure if they can ever be successful on television again. But if they can be viable on TV, I think this is the way to do it. What with news crawls on cable channels and people using Twitter while they watch TV, the extra information and sensory stimulation is perfect for the 21st century. It’ll be the first thing I’ve watched on VH1 since “Rock of Love.”