TV Rewind: Spike TV’s Blue Mountain State Was a Football Spoof Ahead of Its Time
Photo Courtesy of Paramount
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In a world where college athletes can now legally be paid and cheating scandals involve coaches literally sneaking onto rival sidelines (looking at you, Connor Stallions), Spike TV’s short-lived sports comedy Blue Mountain State remains as timely and hilarious as ever.
The series, which followed the hard-partying players of the Blue Mountain State college football team, was basically American Pie meets Varsity Blues. The show premiered in 2010, which also happened to be the same time its home network Spike was looking to pivot into more (see: less-expensive) reality programming, so after three brief seasons that cranked out across 2010 and 2011, the show was canceled after its 39th and final episode.
In case you don’t have encyclopedic knowledge of early-to-mid aughts niche cable networks, Spike TV was one of many rebrands for a Paramount-owned cable network that was previously known as TNN and is now known as Paramount Network. And Blue Mountain State was one of Spike’s biggest, and most expensive, originals. You can be forgiven for not remembering Spike TV, which was billed as a bawdy men’s network (the beer and football counterpoint to Lifetime, basically) with shows like an adult-focused Ren & Stimpy animated revival, extreme sports and early UFC, and scattered programming ranging from a live action Blade original series to Married… With Children reruns. Which is to say, the network was a mish-mash—but often a unique and fun mish-mash.
But it’s that weird target segment and general dude-bro vibe that paved the way for Blue Mountain State, a show hard to imagine any network at the time giving airspace to in the first place. It had more sex jokes and drug jokes per capita than probably any show that has ever existed, and in that regard, it truly feels like a product of its time. But when taken as a window into the not-so-distant past, it is still funny if not overly-offensive.
The set-up was a simple one: freshman quarterback Alex Moran (Darin Brooks) arrives at BMS looking to party hard, and unlike most hyper-competitive athletes, is perfectly content to hold a clipboard on the sideline as a back-up while still reaping the social capital and benefits of being a college athlete. He’s joined by his pal Sammy (series co-creator Chris Romano), who quickly joins the cheer squad as the team’s mascot Billy the Mountain Goat. But the cast’s true breakout would be Thad Castle (played by eventual A-list star Alan Ritchson), the hilariously dim-witted, All-American linebacker and team captain.
The rest of the recurring cast was filled out perfectly with Ed Marinaro playing the team’s old school coach Marty Daniels, heartthrob Denise Richards playing his ex-(and sometimes current) wife Debra, Frankie Shaw as cheerleader and sometimes love interest Mary Jo, and a gaggle of silly players filling out the rest of the locker room. Also of note: a young Stephen Amell (Arrow) played the team’s starting quarterback in Season 1, before making way for a transfer QB to come in and take the reins in Season 2.
And it’s in that cast turnover where Blue Mountain State really gets at something that’s become so commonplace in the decade since the show aired: the make-up of college teams tend to turn over pretty substantially season to season nowadays, and simply due to cast shake-ups, Blue Mountain State reflected that perfectly. Running back Craig Shilo (Sam Jones III) was a main cast member in Season 1, but was written off after the actor portraying him faced serious legal troubles. Transfer quarterback Radon Randell (Page Kennedy) joined in Season 2, but departed after one season as the series faced a few more shake-ups heading into Season 3 (a move that also paved the way for Alex to become the team’s starter).
The wacky episodic storylines often veered so offensive that it was impossible not to laugh at their ridiculousness, with entire episodes devoted to things like a whodunnit trying to find the culprit who stuck their finger up Thad’s butt during a gang tackle; the team trying to survive a campus-wide riot following a big win; the team figuring out more and more elaborate ways to cheat on a urine drug test; Thad taking so many drugs he goes on a trippy, episode-long vision quest; the team getting into trouble over sending inappropriate photos; the team taking extravagant gifts and cash from boosters (which is actually legal now!); and the team working to cover-up a concussion for a player (that gag has admittedly aged poorly as we’ve learned more about the threat of CTE brain injuries for football players, though it is played in such a zany way it doesn’t even attempt to address the topic).
But even in all the silliness, the show showed plenty of growth over its three season run. By Season 3, Alex’s junior year, we have watched him grow from slacker into starter, leading the team to the cusp of a potential national championship (and plenty of epic parties along the way). Though the series was sadly cut down before we got to see Alex’s senior year play out in a fourth season, the third season ended with a beautiful (it’s weird saying that about a show like this, but it’s true) homage to Field of Dreams, with the Mountain Goats playing an off-the-books national championship game in a former pot field. In the spirit of Rocky III, it’s a game away from cameras and fans, that doesn’t technically count but matters more than anything.
Yes, Blue Mountain State is about partying and a wildly exaggerated take on the college experience, but it’s also about the unadulterated love of college football, and that shines through in the series’ finale. Which is to say, yes, the show was cut short. But don’t worry, you still get a fitting end.
Though the series proved a modest hit on Spike TV, it truly found an audience in streaming after debuting on Netflix a few years after it had ended. It’s that buzz that led to a crowdfunded film follow-up Blue Mountain State: The Rise of Thadland in 2016 (yes, seriously) that picked up before Alex’s senior year and found the team throwing Thad a massive rager in an effort to save their campus frat house from destruction. The movie wasn’t great, but did serve as a love letter to fans, bringing back plenty of old characters and at least offering up one more zany adventure with the team. Crazily enough, a revival series is currently in development with the original cast (including Ritchson) being shopped to streamers.
So who knows? Maybe Blue Mountain State can finally win that next national title after all these years.
Trent Moore is a recovering print journalist, and freelance editor and writer with bylines at lots of places. He likes to find the sweet spot where pop culture crosses over with everything else. Follow him at @trentlmoore on Twitter.
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