Students want their MTV, and answers about sex, too
Kevin Bates, Students want their MTV, and answers about sex, too, Topeka Capital-Journal, 19 Sept 1998
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LAWRENCE -- The 2,000 people in the audience Friday night at the University of Kansas' Lied Center had one thing on their mind -- sex.
That topic and many more were discussed in front of a sell-out crowd hosted by Adam Carolla and Dr. Drew Pinsky, who together host "Loveline," a talk show that airs nightly on MTV.
The show's premise is simple. People ask questions, usually about sex or love concerns, while Pinsky and Carolla try their best to answer them, all the while adding a healthy dose of humor.
The two talk about serious, and not-so-serious, topics and don't pull punches with the language. That means the show sometimes gets risque. But that seems to be the appeal, because audience members Friday night wasted no time talking about their sex lives.
A female KU student asked what she should do about two men who liked her but for whom she had no interest. They wouldn't leave her alone, she said.
"You've got to fake your own death," Carolla quipped. "Seriously, find a drifter, kill him, and plant your I.D. on him so they think that you're dead."
Pinsky, commonly referred to as Dr. Drew, added a little reality.
"There must be something about how you're delivering the message that doesn't work," he said. "You need to close the door all the way. You're just afraid of hurting their feelings."
Pinsky, a medical doctor who specializes in addiction therapy in California, began "Loveline" as a Los Angeles radio show 15 years ago. The show now reaches all over the United States.
Carolla, a standup comedian, joined the radio show about five years ago, and now both perform a television version on MTV.
"We've tapped into something, but we really don't know what it is," Pinsky said after the Lied Center event, which won't be aired on MTV. "I guess we just create an environment that people can feel comfortable talking in."
After each question, Carolla usually chimed in with a joke or two. But he understood how much he could say without getting personal.
"I'll go as far as I can, as far as we need to," he said. "I don't think it's so much what I say as it is what I mean and what I feel. For the most part, when we're making fun of them, they understand."
Pinsky said he thought the show's success was due to the blending of humor and information about sex and relationships.
"We want to help people, but sometimes the only way to do that is to get people to listen," he said. "It's kind of a Trojan horse. You have to wrap what you want to say in something else."
Copyright 1998 The Topeka Capital-Journal
