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An Open Letter to the Producers of MTV's My Super Sweet 16
8/29/05
by Clay

Dear MTV My Super Sweet 16 producers,

My name is Clay Travis and I am a huge fan of your show. Moreover, I am one of approximately two lawyers in the world who build their Monday nights around making sure that they don't miss an episode. (The other lawyer is MTV's libel and defamation expert who is getting paid to watch). So you can imagine my chagrin when I tuned in this week and discovered that what was being celebrated was not, in fact, a super sweet 16 party but was, in fact, a big one-eight (18) party. I am thoroughly disgusted. How could you do me so wrong?

This strikes me as a blatant attempt to spin off another show based on the success of My Super Sweet Sixteen (henceforth "MSSS"). Usually when shows spin off other shows they arise from within the show itself, for instance, the Jeffersons were neighbors of the Drummonds, Denise left the Huxtable household to go to college, Joey moved to California, and She-ra was He-Man's long lost sister. You see, one show grows out of the other. As is, what you have done, is create an entirely new show and run it at the same time. It's as if I had turned on the television expecting to see Dallas and instead Knot's Landing was on at the regular time with no explanation for how or why that could happen. How can I ever trust you again? Will my Mondays ever smell so sweet?

After abundant time spent thinking about how or why you could have made such a poor decision, the only theory I could think of was that the father of the triplets turning 18 was your boss. Sadly, this could not be confirmed despite extensive internet research. So I decided to review what MTV itself had to say about this travesty. This was the opening line of the writeup about the episode that rocked my world:

"What do you do when you never had a Sweet 16? You throw a Sweet 18!"

Seriously. Are you kidding me? This is the only mention of the fact that the entire show has been changed. And everyone seems ok with it. Despicable. I never had a Sweet 16 either. Or a Sweet 18. Or a Sweet anything. Based on this opening line, any year's birthday can be sweet. So in an effort to appease my growing anger and disappointment, I am requesting one of the following either

a. a letter of apology notifying me that future seasons of MSSS will in fact contain super sweet sixteen parties, or
b. travel to the Virgin Islands and follow me around as a I plan my Super Sweet Twenty-Seven.

I want a sweet twenty-seven. It's your choice. I look forward to hearing back from you,

Sincerely the saddest MSSS fan in the world,

Clay Travis

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