Beavis and Butt-Head
Held Back
TV Flash files “Held Back” as the first listed hour of season 5 — Beavis and Butt-Head (1993–1997) on MTV, season 5, episode 1, aired 1994-10-31, 15 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S05E01: listed hour 89 of 210 in the Beavis and Butt-Head guide, first listed hour of season 5. It aired 1994-10-31 (15 min). The listed hour before it is “Liar! Liar!” (S04E32). Next is “Killing Time” (S05E02).
Viewer FAQ
Where does Held Back sit in the Beavis and Butt-Head guide?
S05E01 is listed hour 89 of 210 — first listed hour of season 5, season 5 episode 1.
When did Beavis and Butt-Head S05E01 air?
Held Back aired 1994-10-31 and is listed at 15 minutes.
Why was it controversial?
National arguments over youth influence and copycat fears — fire controversies, teacher bans, and a network that had built the audience it was roasting.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Two couch gremlins heckling music videos until America filed a complaint. Mike Judge’s id as cultural criticism disguised as huh-huh stupidity — the riffs on hair-metal, suburban boredom, and adult panic still land. MTV’s meanest joke about its own audience, and the starter kit for everything Judge later did with more plot and the same dead eyes.
The first useful thing *Beavis and Butt-Head* does is treat stupidity as a critical instrument. Two metalhead couch gremlins watch videos, fail at life, and comment on everything with devastating density — huh-huh as cultural criticism. Mike Judge's MTV series (original run primarily 1993–1997) turned music-video heckling into a generation's couch soundtrack and a moral-panic headline. Judge voiced Beavis, Butt-Head, Mr. Van Driessen, and Principal McVicker. The riffs on hair-metal, suburban boredom, and adult…
Filed against
- Mike Judge as Beavis / Butt-Head / David Van Driessen / Principal McVicker
Mike Judge’s Hank Hill sells propane and Texas restraint on King of the Hill, then heckles the decade as Beavis and Butt-Head’s couch-gremlin id. Adult animation that whispers; MTV stupidity as cultural criticism. TV Flash files him as…