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Trivia / Behind the Music

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  • Dueling Shows: Quite a few:
    • There was a strong rivalry between this show and the E! True Hollywood Story. While the latter is still on the air (more or less), this show was seen as being more respectful and less exploitative of its subjects.
    • It also followed more or less in the absence of MTV's Rockumentary series, while merging the approach of the aforementioned True Hollywood Story.
    • Also, there was this regarding two similar MTV series, BIOrhythm and Driven. Both shows are considered obscure and didn't have either the lasting power or the popularity of Behind the Music.
  • In Memoriam: Several episodes end with dedications, such as the Updated Re-release Milli Vanilli episode being dedicated to Rob Pilatus and the Pantera episode being dedicated to Dimebag Darrell and everyone else who died during the 2004 Damageplan shooting.
  • Keep Circulating the Tapes: Due to the series no longer airing on either VH1 or its sister station VH-1 Classic due to the latter's acquisition by MTV Classic, the series is increasingly difficult to come by and since, understandably, music is used in the episodes, home releases are nonexistent.
    • Specifically, certain episodes only aired once or very rarely. These include ones showcasing the year in music and life in general (1970, 1984, 1999, etc.), a film (Flashdance, Grease), a particular event (Lilith Fair, Woodstock '69, "The Day the Music Died") and a subject (the infamous stalkers episode, "Somebody's Watching").
    • The series' less-popular spin-off, BTM2, is almost unheard-of and also nonexistent.
    • Many of the "Remastered" episodes took the place of the original broadcast version, leaving the latter episode hard to come by. Most noticeably, the original August 1997 series premiere of Milli Vanilli is nigh-impossible to find in full due to the updated version seven months later after Rob Pilatus' suicide. There was also a news special that aired in April 1998 that included an interview with Rob's sister that is also scarce.
  • Meaningful Release Date: Madonna's episode premiered on August 16, 1998, her 40th birthday.
  • What Could Have Been:
    • An episode featuring The Temptations was slated to air in March 1999, but it was pulled either because of the miniseries that NBC made or due to lawsuits filed by family members of some of the band members against said miniseries because of various, harmful inaccuracies.
    • There were plans to air an episode featuring Scott Weiland (and it was heavily requested by fans), but for unknown reasons, it never got off the ground.
    • There were also talks about an episode featuring Jackie Wilson, but nothing ever came about it.

Misc. Trivia

  • Whereas the most frequently aired episode of the series (depending on which source you believe) was either the Shania Twain or the Leif Garrett episode, the highest-rated episode of the series was the Vanilla Ice episode.

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