DATE: Wednesday, November 26, 1997          TAG: 9711260104

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E2   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Column 

SOURCE: Larry Bonko 

                                            LENGTH:   91 lines

YOU'RE A DILL-WEED IF YOU THINK BEAVIS AND BUTT-HEAD ARE DEAD

MTV FRIDAY NIGHT at 10 throws a scare into every hormonally challenged, nacho-loving, heavy-metal worshipping, chick-infatuated, wuss-hating adolescent U.S. male whose heroes are Beavis and Butt-Head.

Beavis and Butt-Head are dead, says MTV.

If that is so, from whom will the teen boys of America draw inspiration? Who now will teach them to scream and give people the finger? Inspire them to enliven field trips by mooning motorists from the back of the school bus?

Beavis and Butt-Head dead? Don't you believe it.

MTV wouldn't kill off these cretins any more than it would book Steve and Eydie for ``This Week in Rock.'' The Beavis and Butt-Head characters, which Mike Judge created five years ago with a do-it-yourself cartooning kit, have evolved into a multi-million dollar TV, movie, publishing, recording and merchandising franchise.

They are here to stay, said Abby Terkuhle, head of MTV animation who shares the title of ``Beavis and Butt-Head'' executive producer with Judge.

On Friday night at 10, MTV airs the final new episode in the B&B series with a tease - ``Beavis and Butt-Head are Dead'' - but it is not the last you'll see of these two on cable.

Music Television also scheduled ``Beavis and Butt-Head Do America with Kurt Loder'' from Times Square at 11 a.m., 6 and 11 p.m. on Thanksgiving, plus 30-minute ``B&B'' episodes at 8 and 8:30 p.m.

The dead rumor starts up at Highland High when Beavis and Butt-Head are absent for three weeks. That touches off a round of reminiscing by classmate Daria Morgendorffer, teachers Mr. Buzzcutt and Mr. Van Driessen, and Principal McVicker, who begins, ``When I think back . . . ''

If the principal had checked, he would have found B&B on a sofa, loading up on junk food and watching re-runs of ``I Dream of Jeannie.'' Beavis and Butt-Head dead? Yeah, sure.

`` `Beavis and Butt-Head' will remain on MTV in re-runs indefinitely,'' said Terkuhle. There will be specials. The dill-weeds will appear in the fifth annual ``Butt-Bowl'' on Super Bowl Sunday, and don't be surprised if B&B pop up on MTV with a talk show.

It worked for Wayne and Garth, didn't it?

In the spring of 1993, after ``Beavis and Butt-Head'' premiered as a gross critique of music videos, and Judge dared to be both funny and vulgar on national television, the series had parents and clergy condemning MTV. B&B talked incessantly about masturbation, ``going out and breaking something,'' getting expelled and the joy of looking under skirts with mirrors.

When they worked at Burger World, they fried up a dead mouse along with the meat patties. They took a chain saw to grasshoppers.

``We went to the very edge of the envelope with Mike,'' said Terkuhle. ``At times, he went off the edge. We had creative differences. But we worked it out.''

Going to the edge is what MTV does.

After MTV moved ``Beavis and Butt-Head'' to a later hour, introduced brainy Daria (the boys call her ``diarrhea cha-cha-cha'') to give the series some balance, and B&B were invited to the Academy Awards and appeared with David Letterman, their critics faded away. They were accepted by the establishment.

Last December, ``Beavis and Butt-Head Do America'' clicked with moviegoers, grossing $63 million. There's a sequel on the way.

Why all this success?

``We did a show about real life,'' Judge tells reporters. ``Should all TV be about straight-A students and people with good jobs? Should TV make us feel inadequate?''

Judge last year moved to primetime with a series about real Texans - ``King of the Hill'' on Fox. If you're a ``Beavis and Butt-Head'' devotee, you probably noticed that Judge is using the same voice for Hank Hill that he's used for B&B's neighbor, Tom Anderson.

Judge also created the voices of Beavis and Butt-Head, and that laugh.

``Huh-huh. Huh-huh. Huh-huh.''

Remember when B&B were cutting up so much in class they were forbidden to laugh for a week or be expelled? Remember when on a field trip the bus stopped suddenly and their hippie teacher, Van Driessen, was tossed out the windshield? Remember when B&B met President Clinton at a school assembly and suggested, ``Invade some country and set it on fire''?

MTV will bring those episodes back again and again.

Beavis and Butt-Head are not dead. They never took Daria's suggestion to get a life. But they are not dead. Nor is the series that began in 1992 when Judge brought Beavis and Butt-Head to MTV in a short called ``Frog Baseball,'' which appeared on ``Liquid Television.''

A year later, B&B were on the cover of ``Newsweek.'' If Beavis were asked to describe the five-year run of his show on MTV, he'd say, ``This is so cool.'' ILLUSTRATION: MTV

Beavis and Butthead...

MTV

Beavis and Butt-Head engage in a tug-of-war with Principal McVicker

on the show's last original episode, airing Friday at 10 p.m. on

MTV.

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