Curious heads glimpsed behind at a discreet camera crew as it entered Crowbar, 420 E. College Ave., at about 9 p.m Friday. Attentive ears inched closer to the entrance door, listening for someone to mention three letters — MTV. Those afraid to get any closer could be heard whispering:

Is that MTV?

That has to be MTV.

In efforts to shoot footage for the new MTV University channel, MTV dropped in on State College last weekend to film the campus and downtown. Penn State was the last of four colleges filmed for MTV University, preceded by the University of Connecticut, Rutgers University and Montclair State University.

An improvised banner of black, red and blue hung to the left of the front door of Crowbar Friday night: "The Crowbar welcomes MTV" markered in large, bubbly underlined letters. To the right of it, a sign summarized in small black print that upon entering, customers permit themselves to be filmed in lieu of Friday's unexpected guests.

Upstairs, the crowd huddled on the front balcony, right in front of the sound equalizer. There, the MTV troop of five prepped cue cards, doused makeup, adjusted light settings and rehearsed one-liners. The evening's itinerary was undetermined for the most part, but MTV producer Eric Conte had an idea of what to do with the crowd.

"We're going to pull people drinking and Gardner (Loulan, MTV University veejay) is going to ask them about the music scene here," Conte said.

One such individual was Mike Franko (senior–criminal law and justice).

"I was amazed," Franco said, explaining that he was walking by when he saw the sign and decided to stop by for a bit.

Instead, he stayed all night.

Inside, patrons holding lagers and iced teas looked over Conte's shoulders, peeking at the cue cards Loulan was about to read. The braver ones approached the camera crew, wanting to muse about music, Penn State or more immediate needs.

"You've got to get me on MTV, man," Franko said.

He finally got his chance to answer a few questions posed by Loulan — as did F8, the opening band for Stept On. Between sips, fans could be seen singing along to the lyrics of Limp Bizkit and Rage Against the Machine during F8's set of covers. After its set, the band spoke with MTV.

"This is totally unexpected, awesome!" said Jim Lamey, guitarist and vocalist for F8. "They give us energy, and we give it right back to them."

During F8's interview, Stept On provided a backdrop of headbangers moshing below, arms flailed in the air, fists clenched and thrown upwards to every cymbal smack. Hearing dialogue between Loulan and F8 was nearly impossible, as Loulan admitted later.

"Sometimes when I can't hear what they're saying, I try to pick out their last few words so I can use them to say the next thing," he said.

As MTV left during his band's set, Stept On lead singer Chuck Budzina thanked the crew between songs for stopping by and getting the crowd psyched up.

But not everyone in attendance cared for MTV's presence. With the camera and microphone put away for the evening, loyal moshers sweating below the stage chanted, "MTV sucks!"

Before filming at Crowbar, MTV hopped onto the rear seats of the Town Loop for a quick spin around campus and town. A massive influx of passengers stumbled on the bus in front of East Halls.

Still, things remained casual until the bus driver announced "MTV is in the house." Those sitting in the front were now standing in the back, pleading with Loulan to calm their insatiable appetites to be interviewed.

Loulan did talk with a few as others crowded around, shouting at the camera.

And that was just Friday night. Saturday, the crew spent the day tailgating with football fans and catching footage of the Penn State-Ohio State game.