Jackass is an American reality comedy television series created by Jeff Tremaine, Spike Jonze, and Johnny Knoxville. It originally aired for three short seasons on MTV between October 2000 and August 2001, with reruns extending into 2002. The show featured a cast of nine friends carrying out stunts and pranks on each other and the public. The cast included Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera, Chris Pontius, Dave England, Ryan Dunn, Steve-O, Jason "Wee Man" Acuña, Ehren McGhehey and Preston Lacy. The show was controversial due to its perceived indecency and potential encouragement of dangerous behavior. After MTV ended Jackass broadcasts in 2002, it grew into a media franchise, which includes the spin-offs Wildboyz, Viva La Bam, Homewrecker, Blastazoid, Bam's Unholy Union, Dr. Steve-O, Bam's World Domination, and Bam's Bad Ass Game Show; nine feature films released by Paramount Pictures, four with expanded DVD versions; a video game; a mobile game, a DVD of unreleased bits not used in the original TV show, a short-lived website featuring blogs and videos, merchandise, and several other videos released by various other means. The show placed 68th on Entertainment Weekly "New TV Classics" list, and is a significant part in 2000s American popular culture. History Background Origins and casting In the late 1990s, aspiring actor and writer Johnny Knoxville had moved from Knoxville to Los Angeles and landed work in commercials in order to support his wife and infant daughter. Among his ideas was to produce an article that involved testing various self-defense equipment on himself as a homage to his hero, gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson. The magazines that contacted him refused to cover the story due to liability concerns. However, in 1996, Knoxville was contacted by Big Brother, a skateboarding magazine for which Jeff Tremaine was an editor, and convinced Knoxville to do the stunt and film it. The stunt featured Knoxville testing out pepper spray, a stun gun, a taser, and a .38 caliber gun with a bulletproof vest, with the gun stunt only being included in the Big Brother video entitled Number Two, which also featured an appearance by future Jackass cast member Jason "Wee Man" Acuña. Other contributors to Big Brother at this time were Chris Pontius and Dave England, who went on to become a part of the Jackass crew; Dimitry Elyashkevich, who became the show's main cinematographer; Rick Kosick, who became a cameraman; and Sean Cliver, who became