TV & VIDEO - April 3, 1990

Very Funny: MTV’s new comedy channel, HA!, made its debut Sunday night by pulling an April Fool’s Day prank. Rumors had flown about how many homes the new cable channel would launch in; the most common estimate was about 5 million. But HA! was available in 50 million homes Sunday--the comedy channel took over the air time of sister networks MTV, VH-1 and Nick at Nite. “In the spirit of April Fool’s Day, we thought it was the best way to launch a new comedy channel,” said MTV Network’s Chairman Tom Freston. The move took people in the cable industry by surprise, because HA! told no one of the switch.