Video Soul is a 1981 American music video and talk show television series. It was created by radio and T.V. personality, Donnie Simpson, who also was the second host of it, hosting it for the majority of its run. Production was by BET and aired on the channel of the same name. It ran for nearly 15 seasons and supposedly, only 37 episodes were produced, but it's likely there are more than that. The host before Simpson was Virgil Hemphill (a.k.a. Reverend Eldorado) and others alongside Simpson were Sherry Carter from 1992-'96, Sheila Banks, Kenya Moore, Brett Walker from 1994-'96, and Leslie "Big Lez" Segar from 1994-'95. There is also a reboot of this, which premiered in 2021 or 2023 on the streaming service, BET+.
Format[]
This series was designed to cater to the American black audience since MTV initially refused to air music videos by black R&B and hip-hop recording artists, and groups. For the first couple seasons, the episodes were a half-hour long, but after Donnie Simpson arrived as the new host, they were expanded to two hours. There were both music videos and interviews with the performers who were the guests on Monday through Thursday nights. On Friday nights, the episodes focused on the Top 20 Countdowns, which were the top 20 music videos of the week. During the 1980s, the program aired in the evenings from 9 p.m.-11 p.m. E.T. For the remainder of its run, from the early to mid 1990s, the time slot was pushed back by an hour.
Status[]
On Youtube, the music videos and music artist interviews are available separately in some cases. But in others, at least, some of the full episodes containing both are on there as well. Both the original and reboot series were available on Tubi TV, but later, were removed at some point. It's uncertain if the reboot series even still is available on BET+. The missing episodes, especially the interview portions, have yet to be found.