Martha Quinn

Martha Conrad Quinn (born May 11, 1959) is an American actress and radio and television personality, best known as one of the original video jockeys on MTV (along with Nina Blackwood, Mark Goodman, Alan Hunter, and J. J. Jackson).

Quinn was born in Albany, New York, the daughter of Nina Pattison, a retirement counselor, and David Quinn, an attorney.

She is the stepdaughter of personal finance columnist Jane Bryant Quinn, and has two older brothers and a younger half-brother.

Prior to joining MTV, Quinn graduated from Ossining High School in 1977, and NYU in 1981.

Being hosts of the nation's first music television network provided them with an in-depth and up-close perspective on the most popular rock/pop music and artists of the 1980s.

On July 13, 1981, Quinn was working at NYU's Weinstein Dormitory where she answered phones and gave students their toilet paper, mail, and lightbulbs.

At the end of her day she decided to stop at WNBC (AM), where she had just finished up interning for her senior year.

Coincidentally, California record company executive Burt Stein also was visiting WNBC.

He asked out loud if anyone knew what Bob Pittman was doing.

Pittman had been the program director of WNBC a year or so earlier, but had left to start a new venture: a cable channel called MTV (Music Television).

WNBC assistant program director Buzz Brindle overheard Stein’s question and remembered the new venture.

He turned to Quinn and suggested that she should try out for a role at the new network as a VJ.

Brindle called Pittman and told him about his former intern, Quinn.

Pittman told him to get her to the MTV studios immediately, as it was the last day of auditions.

Quinn immediately took a cab to Hell's Kitchen for her audition.

Brindle's idea had some merit.

Quinn had spent much of her time at New York University doing two things: performing in TV commercials (McDonald's, Country Time Lemonade, Clearasil, Campbell's Soup) and working at WNYU-FM, the college radio station.

Quinn entered the studio knowing nothing about MTV or what its producers expected of her.

She did a four-minute audition where she talked about Earth, Wind, and Fire; MTV executives immediately surrounded her, asking, "Who are you? Where did you come from? How old are you?"

Quinn was stunned, realizing she had just found the perfect job for her talents.

Two days later Quinn got the news she was an MTV VJ.

Quinn joined Mark Goodman, Nina Blackwood, Alan Hunter and J. J. Jackson as original faces and voices of MTV.

In 1984, Quinn appeared as herself in an episode of the short-lived sitcom E/R.

In 1986, Quinn took part in the then World Wrestling Federation's (later WWE) Slammy Awards, conducting interviews backstage.

Quinn initially left MTV at the end of her contract in late 1986.

Quinn played Tympani Charles in Dangerous Curves in 1988.

Her film appearances include 1988's Tapeheads; the 1989 film sequel Eddie and the Cruisers II: Eddie Lives!; 1991's Problem Child 2 as Emily, a hot date that received a shocking introduction from John Ritter's problematic son, Junior; and the 1992 low-budget horror film Bad Channels.

She also had a recurring role on Full House.

However, she was rehired by the network in early 1989 and stayed with the channel until 1992.

She was also the MTV host at Knebworth 1990.

In 1990, she appeared on the short-lived Brady Bunch sequel The Bradys.

Quinn played Tracy, who married Bobby Brady (played by Mike Lookinland).

Quinn was featured in a series of commercials for Neutrogena in the mid-1990s.

Quinn's presence on MTV through 1991 was noted by Rolling Stone magazine readers, who voted her "MTV's Best-Ever VJ," and by Allure Magazine, which referred to the '80s decade as "the Martha Quinn years."

She joined Ed McMahon as a co-host for Star Search in 1994.

She was a bi-weekly correspondent on The Early Show in 1999.

In 2001, Quinn hosted Martha Quinn's Rewind, a daily radio program that was aired on at least five Clear Channel radio stations in the United States.

In a 2011 review of I Want My MTV by Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum, Dwight Garner recalled: "Every sentient straight male in the country developed a schoolboy crush on Martha Quinn, one of the first V.J.'s, fresh out of New York University and so cute she could make your cranium detonate."

In the early ‘90s, she also hosted the MTV programs Martha's Greatest Hits, MTV Prime with Martha Quinn, and Rockline.

Critics have dubbed Quinn's departure from MTV as "the day the video music died."