I Want My MTV

(Excerpt from the book "I Want My MTV" by Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum, an oral history of a revolution in TV and music)

DEE SNIDER, Twisted Sister: By the time we made "I Wanna Rock," [actor] Mark Metcalf was on his high horse. He cost more money, he had more demands, and he showed up coked out of his brain. He'd been up all night-- he was wired, on edge, and in a lousy mood. After he messed up a take, [director] Marty Callner said to him, "Listen, we gotta do this again. You gotta stop screwing up." And Metcalf said, "Or what? You don't look so tough." Now Marty is a pit bull, a tough little motherfucker. He said, "Really? Let's go outside." Everybody went quiet on the set. They're all looking at Metcalf, wondering if he was going to take on Marty. And Metcalf, smartly, backed down.
Marty yelled, "Action." And that moment, when you see Metcalf screaming at the fat kid in the classroom, and spit is flying out of his mouth? That was immediately after he had backed down in front of the entire cast. Of course, he took it out on the poor kid. He was on fucking fire. And Marty goes, "Cut! That's the one." We got a historic performance out of Metcalf. People have been talking about the spit flying out of his mouth for thirty years now.

MARK METCALF, actor: The line "What do you wanna do with your life?" was Dee's work. People still come up to me and say, "Do the line, do the line," and they're not happy unless I spit on them.