With 90s shows like Daria and Beavis and Butthead regaining popularity online, it comes as no shock that MTV’s Downtown is following suit. The cartoon sitcom had a short-lived 13 episode run from August to November of 1999. Downtown takes place in New York featuring recognizable landmarks such as the Astor Place Subway Station and the Colonnade Row. Although Downtown has become a hidden gem classic in more recent years, the show originally struggled to gain recognition due to it being drowned out by more mainstream programming.
Language Arts teacher Nicola Onnis was a young teen of the era, “I feel like that was the prime cartoon era,” Onnis explained.
On the internet, Downtown has gained a reputation as the ultimate New York grunge time capsule among viewers due to its grimy color palette, stylized art and stacked soundtrack.
“The music in it (Downtown) sounds like how the art looks,” freshman Olive Crumbaker described.
Downtown’s dialogue features blunt overlapping conversations paired with crude jokes and references mainly accredited to the show’s stance on scripting.
The creator Chris Prynoski, sourced real street interviews from strangers he met in late night NYC to create characters and dialogue.
In an interview with Animation Obsessive in 2024, Prynoski explained, “In the pilot, I honed in and found a few regular people to talk to. My idea was not to have scripts and not to cast people. Just to use the actual, on-the-street audio.” The result has fans reeling for more.
Sophomore and vintage cartoon fanatic Mekhia Johnson described Downtown’s dialogue as one of a kind,
“I really like how natural the conversations sound, I wish there was more,” Johnson explained.
The show’s resurgence is widely accredited to full episode reuploads on YouTube and character edits gaining traction on social media.
Sophomore Kaia Classen’s first encounter with the show was guided by an online edit,
“I had seen [MTV Downtown] from social media then I watched an episode and I was like wow this is really good,” Classen said.
Another way edits have popularized the show is by iconic lines and audios. An edit by @qwtyns on TikTok layers Memo Boy’s song “Insomniac” with Downtown character Serena in episode ten, “The Night Shift,” saying her famous line: “Those guys again, I wish they would just go back to whatever basement they crawled out of.” This audio, which has been used in over a million videos, is taken out of a scene where a quartet of comic nerds inappropriately whisper and swoon over Serena while she works. The audio is now home to a trend of teenage girls sharing their own uncomfortable encounters with men, creating a hub of shared experiences and support.
Due to the show being broadcast on MTV, it gave the show rights to any song aired on the channel in the past 5 years. Downtown’s intro music, which samples “Glass” by Incubus, and bursting soundtrack can be accredited to this policy. The Internet Movie Database, better known as IMDb, which receives millions of monthly visitors crowns episode six, “Graffiti,” as tied for highest rated in the series with an 8.4/10. The episode features the New York teen trio Chaka, Fruity and Matt on their night out on the subway tunnels as they trade conspiracy theories, tag broken down trains, and discover a secret underground graffiti hall of fame. Daria-addict Hazel Gusick believes this episode was the prime depiction of teen life.
“Yeah, I watched ‘Graffiti’ when I was like 11, and I was like yeah, I can’t wait to be a teenager and do this every day,” Gusick said.
The episode feels like a dedication to street artistry, risk taking and mindless teenage conversation.
Although Downtown received stellar reviews and an Emmy nomination in 2000 for Outstanding Animated Program, it could not reverse the cancellation of the show in 1999. The show’s cancellation can mainly be attributed to poor rerun times, overall lack of marketing and lack of alignment with the more refined feel of modern day MTV. Still, the show’s cult-like following continues to resuscitate the show every time it enters cardiac arrest. Downtown continues to impact the youth through its blunt authenticity and awesome soundtrack.
