I wish I could belt out a heartfelt Happy Birthday, MTV!

MTV’s 30th is bittersweet and overwhelming to think about, comparable to watching an adorable and gifted nephew grow up to be a schizophrenic and obese crack addict, a loudmouth who got rich peddling brain cell-erasing garbage to our nation’s youth.

Letdowns aside, I say let’s salute the early years, the “Wonder Years” of MTV, when the network launched on Aug. 1, 1981, at 12:01 a.m. with that famous Apollo 11 intro, the speckled MTV flag and famous guitar riff — the first video was the Buggles’ “Video Killed The Radio Star.”

I myself first saw MTV in the summer of 1982 at my cousin Rico’s house in the Skycrest, Clearwater. It was one of the happiest times of my life. I was between seventh and eighth grade, when my older siblings, two of my cousins, their girlfriends and I used to pile in my sister’s giant olive-green Fury to spend Saturday mornings at North Clearwater Beach (always the stretch by the Palm Pavilion, when it was a snack shack, not a restaurant). On the way, there and back 98Rock would play some of my favorite songs of all time: “One of Our Submarines” by Thomas Dolby and “Every Little Thing She Does (Is Magic)” by The Police. When we returned, Rico turned on MTV and I saw Peter Gabriel’s mind-altering video for “Shock the Monkey” and I was hooked. When my mother finally got cable, I would record 120 Minutes, IRS: The Cutting Edge and The Young Ones.

I was starting to come into my own tastes and look beyond the arena rock of the popular kids (Journey, REO, Foreigner) for music and pop culture with more panache and imagination. I started to hear music with African-style percussion, reggae influences, synthesizers, performers who opted for puffy hairstyles and baggy clothes over ugly T-shirts and constipated guitar solos. MTV was a passport out of Kansas (both the band and the state of blah — though my BFF Kelly and I used to laugh at and mimic the feet-staring video for “Dust in the Wind” — but I digress …)

MTV VJs Mark Goodman, Nina Blackwood, Alan Hunter, Martha Quinn and JJ Jackson were our ambassadors to something new and different from the generic mainstream.

While reading about the MTV anniversary over the weekend, I asked my friends on Facebook which videos got them excited back in the day; the videos (as Claudia Lubner so aptly captured) that kept your finger posed for hours with your finger on the record button.

Here were some of the picks:

Craig Pittman, environmental reporter for the St. Petersburg Times, reminded us about Night Flight on USA and cited Madness’ “One Step Beyond” as one of his favorites.

Andrea Daly of TBO.com/The Tampa Tribune, Dadia JanEvska, owner of Orbit 19, and others mentioned Adam and the Ants’ “Stand and Deliver” :

Amanda Brown of Tampa said, “I hope I’m not the only one here that wasn’t allowed to watch MTV when I was young, say until about 1989, then I went wild! I remember how big all the new GnR Use Your Illusion video premieres were! ‘November Rain’ for sure! Everyone else was smart enough to video tape 120 minutes, but no I had to stay up every Sunday!”

Malissa Gould of St. Petersburg mentioned the breakthrough vid that sweetly combined comic illustration and live action — A-Ha’s “Take on Me.”

Matt E. Lee of Brokenmold, Tina Turner’s “What’s Love Got to Do With It?”

Neil Bender, professor at USF, says just about every Peter Gabriel video. Here’s one that one that wasn’t played as often as, say, “Shock the Monkey” or Sledgehammer”: “Games Without Frontiers”

WMNF DJ Michael Bagley, Duran Duran “Girls on Film” — “the long version, because you could only catch it late- night.”

Jeff Fox of Palantine and Mother Winslow: Clutch’s “A Shotgun Named Marcus”

I had several favorites, too many to list: a few include The English Beat’s Save It For Later” (for its impeccable beatnik style), Siouxsie and the Banshees’ haunting and majestic “Spellbound,” Heaven 17’s ultra-cool “Let Me Go” and The Members’ hilariously ill-behaved “Working Girl.”