MTV Spring

Break & some

past secrets

“You’re my butterfly, sugar baby.”

Crazy Town’s hit song blares from hidden speakers, and the thousands of gorgeous spring breakers filling MTV’s Cancun Spring Break 2001 set bounce to the rhythm. The wind tosses their sun-streaked hair while drunken laughter and cheers fill the air. Watching the melee on television in one’s dorm room or apartment with the plague of chilly Washington, D.C. air and Georgetown classes, MTV Spring Break looks like any college student’s version of Eden.

But that’s not reality.

From my perspective in the audience last week, 400 sweaty, sunburned college students bake in the pounding Cancun sun waiting patiently for their 15 minutes of fame. Peeling shoulders blister and flip-flops are shuffled in the sand as the MTV Spring Break taping pushes on through the day.

The television version of MTV Spring Break looks like an inebriated, hedonistic bash. Viewers enjoy the shots of bronzed, toned co-eds sporting tiny bikinis and colorful trunks dancing the day away under a sultry Mexican sun and tropical breezes. Yet upon closer inspection, MTV Spring Break in Cancun is more about production than about college fun, the reality delineating from its target audience’s true interests.

The first difference between television and reality hits the casual observer as soon as they step into MTV’s Cancun home base at Fat Tuesday’s, where the main set was located. The crowd on television is nothing like the crowd in reality. On television, the crowd is filmed with a wide lens to make it look larger than it actually is. The pits and area in front of the small stage were filled with about 400 spring breakers, while on television it appears that thousands of students fill the set.

The students on television also appear to be free to roam about at will, as they would at a large beach party. In reality, the students chosen for the crowd arrived at the MTV set at 7 a.m. to line up for admittance. The MTV staff selects audience members from this line, choosing only the most scantily clad and attractive spring breakers. The chosen hundreds are then given armbands according to their position in the audience, with the most attractive given prime positions at the front of the stage.

Herded close together like cattle in pens, these spring breakers endured the Cancun heat, limited bathroom access and lack of food or drink through tapings, very brief performances by artists like Shaggy, Snoop Dogg and Crazy Town and a lot of waiting around. The waiting comprised most of the day at the MTV set, with retakes and production problems causing long delays between actual tapings. Even the most mundane elements of taping had to be perfected, causing one girl’s screamed “Spring Break is in full effect! What do we want? T! R! L!” to be taped at least five times. By the fourth take, her voice was hoarse and the crowd’s cheers had diminished exponentially.

On television, the studio audience seems to cheer, dance and laugh nonstop. Fueled by their uncontainable joy for the heat and a break from schoolwork, these students appear euphoric. When MTV tapes, this is true. Unfortunately, MTV only tapes for about 30 seconds at a time.

The rest of the time, MTV faces all the problems of any other television show while relying on their audience to be entertained. Tapings are periodically interrupted for technical difficulties, production problems and the like. Through numerous delays, the student audience waited, blocking the sun from their faces with hands and arms, chatting with the students crammed in next to them.

This was quite evident during Thursday afternoon’s taping of TRL I saw, featuring host Carson Daly and pop singer Jessica Simpson. When viewing the televised TRL, it appears that a steady stream of host-guest conversation is merely sprinkled with music videos, which the studio audience watches along with the hosts like old pals sitting around on a beat-up couch. This is far from the truth. In reality, Daly and Simpson only appear on the set at the instant taping begins, then quickly depart to a secluded loft. The stars’ brief appearances allowed them to videotape short soundbites in between videos, reading off cue cards and elucidating pre-planned reactions from the studio audience.

While the studio audience’s reactions seem natural and unplanned, they are not. MTV directors instructed the audience to hold all reaction until the end and to cheer wildly at that point. Scenes were retaped to capture better audience footage, with MTV staff repeatedly instructing the audience to make noise and spread out away from the stage.

“Spread out, or we’re clearing all of you out,” one crew member said.

Apart from the inconveniences and delays, however, the spring breakers got what they came for. A day in the sun began with a performance by reggae artist Shaggy and ended with rapper Snoop Dogg. MTV’s presence in Cancun drew stars to the Quintana Roo area of Yucatan like a black hole. Even if they didn’t perform on the MTV set, musicians stopped by to enjoy the renowned night life and impeccable weather.

The students who braved MTV’s rigorous conditions were entitled to watch performances as well as the tapings of shows like “Cancun Court” hosted by David Spade, TRL and House of Style, hosted by model Molly Sims and R&B artist Tyrese.

Other stars appearing on the white Cancun beaches were Destiny’s Child, Mandy Moore, the cast of Josie and the Pussycats, Carmen Electra, Dream, Brittany Daniel and Jake Busey. While many of the stars made at least brief appearances on the MTV’s stage, their presence in Cancun spread out for fans’ enjoyment as the celebrities appeared on the street, beach and in clubs at night. DJ Skribble and Crazy Town performed at nightclubs.

And while the MTV Spring Break studio audience experience may not have been a luxurious day at the beach, it suited some spring breakers, like Brian Grondin from Sacred Heart University, just fine.