Carson reflects on his fondest memory from his time on 'TRL'

It was a “TRL” of a run.

This month marks the 25th anniversary of the premiere of MTV’s “Total Request Live,” a popular music video countdown show that also featured live performances and interviews. It was hosted and co-created by TODAY’s own Carson Daly, who presided over the daily program that became a staple among teenagers in the late ‘90s and early 2000s.

Airing live weekday afternoons from the heart of New York City’s Times Square, “Total Request Live” — or “TRL,” as fans called it — helped break in and popularize a slew of acts, including, but definitely not limited to, Britney Spears, 'N Sync, Backstreet Boys, Christina Aguilera, Mandy Moore, Jessica Simpson, Destiny's Child, Blink-182, Korn and Limp Bizkit. It was must-see TV for millennials and the place to catch the biggest and brightest in music.

When asked how “TRL” shaped these artists, Carson says it played a large role.

“My answer would be, launched their careers,” he tells TODAY.com. “It doesn’t mean that they wouldn’t have had the same careers they have now if ‘TRL’ never existed. But it was a launching platform at a time when there was no other place for these people to exclusively blow up as fast as they did. So, I think it was pivotal to their careers, and it helped. It just helped launch them. But I would stop short of saying it’s responsible for their careers. I don’t think that’s the case. But it was very helpful.”

“TRL” came of age in a time before the dawn of internet culture, when appointment TV was very much in vogue. Viral? Trending? Those terms were about as foreign at the time as, say, Carson himself being on TODAY. That meant “TRL” became the destination for the youth to see the latest and greatest in music. The show has been likened to “American Bandstand,” with its appeal to teenagers and Carson’s ability to connect with viewers mirroring Dick Clark.

“I think there’s some truth to the comparison, because in the ‘50s, if you think about ‘Bandstand,’ it was the first show from my mom’s generation, the baby boomers, who could come home from school, it was the first time that they could see their peers on television, to see teenagers and how they dressed and how they danced and how they talked and what they look like,” Carson said.

“And ‘TRL,’ I think, was similar, but obviously, before the internet and the proliferation of just user-generated content. It was kind of the first time this sort of generation could come home and and see themselves on TV and was just on every day and it was kind of there for them. So, I do get that comparison. And that made me feel like, ‘Wow, this show was really generational.’”

Anyone who turned on MTV in the afternoon in those days was accustomed to seeing what may have looked like chaos to the uninformed: throngs of screaming teenagers. Carson may have been driving the “TRL” bus, but its fans were the engine. It’s a fact that he highlights when discussing his greatest memory of the program.

“The ‘TRL’ crowd was a really big part of the show,” he said. “So, my first thought is how quickly that crowd grew. When we first started the show it was like two kids holding up signs. And then two months later, it was 100 kids, and then it became thousands and thousands of kids from all over the world, holding up signs and shutting down Times Square. So my fondest memory is really just the screaming audience out in Times Square.”

Carson says he had “zero” expectations for the show when it started and can’t name a favorite performance, but he can pinpoint the moment when he realized “TRL” was bigger than anything he could’ve ever imagined with an influence that went beyond boy bands and bubble gum pop music.

“There was one time where I was talking to a musician in the hallway who gave me a hug,” he said. “And I said to him, ‘What are you doing here? You don’t need to be here.’ Whereas every other artist that ever walked in, I was like, ‘Yeah, you should be here, you’re promoting a new album, we need to blow you up.’ And that person was Bono, from U2.

“And he looked at me and he said, ‘Carson, we know that we’ve been around a while, and that there’s a whole new generation that have never heard of us. And we know that this is the place to go to put our music in front of them,’” he continued.

Carson looks back now and sees how the show’s popularity grew, so much so that non-musicians joined in on the fun. He mentions how Brad Pitt once called in and Adam Sandler appeared the day one of his movies opened.

“We started getting major actors from studios that would come to New York to do 'Letterman' and the TODAY show and whoever else, ‘Regis and Kelly,’ at the time, and they would stop by ‘TRL,’” he said. “And at that point, we were like, ‘Wow, this is really pretty cool.’ So I remember when Brad Pitt called in for one of his movies, I was like, ‘I can’t believe I’m on ‘TRL’ talking to Brad Pitt about promoting his movie. The show’s really gotten big.’”

No mention of “TRL,” of course, would be complete without discussing arguably the biggest artist to be associated with the show: Britney Spears. She rocketed to fame around the same time as “TRL’s” premiere with the release of her single “...Baby One More Time.” She and the show would enjoy a partnership for years.

“I would say if ‘TRL’ were high school, Britney was our prom queen,” Carson said. “She was the first lady of ‘TRL.’”

Britney was a frequent guest and her videos were as much a part of the program as the Times Square backdrop. Her romance with Justin Timberlake was one of the most-watched pop culture storylines of the era, too. Indeed, Timberlake became a star with ‘N Sync and then reached a different orbit as he launched his solo career. Carson recalls wondering how much bigger he could've possibly gotten, only to discover that, yes, Timberlake had the ability to take his fame to even newer heights.

“He did ‘Cry Me a River’ live on ‘TRL.’ We shut down one of the streets. We did it outside,” he said. “And that song was about his breakup with Britney and I always remember that performance because it was symbolic of a new era, even at the drama that was ‘TRL.’”

“TRL” also had its share of water-cooler moments. Mariah Carey seemed out of sorts during an unannounced appearance when she walked onto the set with an ice cream cart. She would later be hospitalized and revealed she had a bipolar disorder.

“It was all happening live,” Carson said. “And so I thought that something was very off because it was quite the opposite of her normal appearances.”

Eminem and Mark Wahlberg tensely shared the stage and did not seem to like each other.

“It was really, really awkward. They were not very friendly,” Carson said.

And then there was the Backstreet Boys fan who lashed out at and threatened Carson after losing a trivia contest. He admits the incident caught him off-guard, but knows it speaks to the popularity of the show.

“I witnessed every single day, for many, many years, the youth of America weep, show emotion like never before, scream, pass out, like mania, like Beatlemania,” he said. “That was my life every day. So it wasn’t rare for me to deal with somebody showing impromptu emotion.”

“TRL” captured the zeitgeist in music and entertainment and had more than just a hand in creating it, but it also became something of a safe haven for those trying to make sense of life-changing events, much as late-night television had to do. It was on after the Columbine shooting in 1999 and in the days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Carson says he was aware the show was seen by millions of teenagers and what it meant.

“We took that responsibility pretty seriously when world events happened,” he said.

How did “TRL” persevere after Sept. 11? The only way it knew how.

“We got some camera guys that can make it into the city and we just went live and sat around and took phone calls and just talked about how we’re all feeling,” Carson said.

“And we just felt like the show had hit a place where we all of a sudden had a responsibility that was much larger than music,” he added. “And we wanted to be there for that generation, through good times and bad.”

Carson would eventually cede hosting duties to others, as he began his own late-night show on NBC, "Last Call with Carson Daly," while he continued on as executive producer. Damien Fahey, Hilarie Burton, Quddus and Vanessa Lachey were some of the hosts that followed him before the show signed off in 2008, only to be rebooted in 2017.

In many ways, Carson has come full circle. His “TRL” days are long behind him, yet still with him each morning on TODAY.

“I’m at the TODAY show now, which, if you think about it, is ‘TRL’ for adults,” he said.

“I just left the TODAY show, where I spent two hours outside with screaming adult fans in New York. There’s so much ‘TRL’ in my day job at the TODAY show. If you were 18 and came home from school and watched me on ‘TRL,’ there’s a good chance you’re 34 now and have two kids and watch the TODAY show. They ask me about ‘TRL’ every day.”

He never gets tired of it, either.

“I’m like Fonzie. Anytime you want me to put on the leather jacket and go, ‘Ayyyy’ — no problem.”

This article was originally published on TODAY.com