TV Reviews : ‘MTV Sports’ Falls on the Fluffy Side

Remember that Dire Straits hit song, “Money for Nothing,” about the repairman character who derides all the effeminate rockers he sees on MTV? Six years later, said repairman might be startled if he were to tune in today’s premiere of “MTV Sports” (at 11 a.m. and 2:30, 5:30 and 9 p.m.), a new show busting out at the seams with manly men--and macha gals.

Far from a newsy recap of the week in sports, this fluffy, sometimes fun half-hour strip instead falls somewhere in-between “Thrillseekers” and “Roggin’s Heroes”--but shot and edited with all the artsy, itchy technique that used to be the province of experimental film and now belongs to MTV.

Young host Dan Cortese (who, like the rockers in “Money for Nothing,” does wear an earring--some things don’t change) is joined in the premiere by athlete Bo Jackson for some quasi-interview footage that’s shot as jumpily as all the sports action. Between “Bo knows . . . “ aphorisms (Bo knows how to do MTV promos, that’s for sure), the show jumps to locales ranging from a celebrity auto racing school to daredevil waterskiing to a football mud bowl.

Most gruesomely fascinating are segments on French “sky surfer” Patrick de Gayardon, who leaps out of planes with his feet strapped to a board for aerial stunts, and “B.A.S.E. jumpers,” parachutists who jump off fixed (and, obviously, very tall) objects like bridges and the World Trade Center.

These are all filmed every which way but straightforwardly--with grainy or otherwise treated film stock, with almost subliminal title cards, with rock video-style rapid-fire cuts. This does succeed in compounding the show’s pulse rate, though someone ought to tell the in-house MTV folks that an endless series of quick cuts can ultimately be as monotonous as a succession of static shots.

For a “sports show” that focuses mainly on novelty sports, this one gets off to a strong (if gimmicky in every way) start, though you have to wonder if there are enough bizarre ways to risk one’s neck to go around for an extended weekly series, or if they’ll get around to what we’re most curious to see--a segment on the injuries people get doing this stuff. Bo knows traction?