Background and career
Mark Goodman (born October 11, 1952) is an American radio host, TV personality and actor. He is best known as one of the original five video jockeys (VJs), along with Nina Blackwood, Alan Hunter, J. J. Jackson, and Martha Quinn, on the music network MTV, from 1981 to 1987.
On October 11, 1952 (1952-10-11), Goodman was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is Jewish.
Goodman started in radio at rock station 93.3 WMMR Philadelphia in 1978 and later became the music director of the station. In 1980, he moved to New York to work at WPLJ, at the time the top rock station in the U.S. He was heard Monday through Saturday from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. Goodman was on the air the night in December 1980 that John Lennon was murdered in front of his Manhattan apartment building. Goodman reported extensively on the events as the news began to spread about Lennon's killing.
In 1981, Goodman left WPLJ to join the new and as yet unknown music video channel named MTV. He became one of the five original hosts who introduced music videos and gave short music news reports and artist interviews. These hosts would be called Video Jockeys or VJs by MTV, as opposed to radio hosts who played records and were known as disc jockeys. Goodman interviewed many of the top Rock and Roll artists of the day. He also hosted several special shows for the channel, including The Week in Rock, 120 Minutes, and The Top 20 Video Countdown. In a 1983 interview with David Bowie, the singer pressed Goodman on MTV for playing few music videos by black artists during that time. MTV actually played few minority acts of any genre in its first few years. Goodman's defense was that the network was thinking in terms of "narrow casting" at suburban youth. The channel was set up like an album rock radio station which concentrated on artists playing rock music, who were largely white.
In the late 1980s, Goodman began an acting career that saw him working in film and TV. Goodman appeared in several films, including Man Trouble with Jack Nicholson and Police Academy 6: City Under Siege. On TV, Goodman was seen in such shows as Married... with Children, The Practice, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Vinny And Bobby, and others. Through the 1990s, Goodman hosted several different TV shows and music specials. In particular, "Fit TV" ran on cable for years after the final episodes were shot. Goodman received no royalties from replays of the show but was pleased to help people learn how to eat right, exercise more, and be open to alternative methods of healing and stress reduction. Goodman also hosted the game show Illinois Instant Riches and its revamp Illinois' Luckiest from 1994 to 2001.
From 1982 to 1987, Goodman was married to New York City rock DJ Carol Miller. They first met when they both worked on radio station 95.5 WPLJ. Goodman has one daughter from a subsequent relationship and is currently married to Jill Goodman.
