What began as a lark on a summer’s day in Vineyard Haven 10 years ago has grown to become a national phenomenon.

How’s Your News is a groundbreaking piece of programming in terms of the way popular media portrays disability, and its origins can be traced directly to Camp Jabberwocky, the Island’s well-known summer camp for people with physical and mental disabilities.

And now it has found its way to cable television and the entertainment channel MTV.

Camp Jabberwocky was founded over 50 years ago, and has changed dramatically in some ways, very little in most other ways, but that’s another story for another day. One thing that sets Jabberwocky apart is the willingness of campers and staff to try new things and take risks. Horseback riding, windsurfing and parasailing are not typically on the list of activities at institutions that care for people with disabilities, but they are among the more mundane items on the summer schedule at Jabberwocky.

Arthur Bradford volunteered to work at Jabberwocky over a decade ago, after graduating from Yale University. At school, he had a television program based on man-on-the-street interviews. That summer, he lugged his video equipment onto the ferry and brought it to camp, and soon set out to recreate what he had done in New Haven but this time, with the campers conducting the interviews. Vineyard Haven turned out to be rife with opportunities, and the early tapes, although rough, show the same unexpected humor and honesty that remains the hallmark of the show today. “Martha’s Vineyard should take a lot of pride. If it weren’t for the community there, the show would never have come this far,” Mr. Bradford said.

Bobby Bird, Larry Perry, Susan Harrington and Sean Costello were all part of those original tapes, and have stayed on the team since. Jeremy Vest, 21, joined up for the second of the two How’s Your News movies, a presidential campaign documentary filmed in 2004. All were campers at the July session of Camp Jabberwocky for many years, and are instantly recognizable to Islanders who have witnessed a Fourth of July parade in Edgartown, or gone to one of the yearly camp plays.

People familiar with these performances or the original How’s Your News films will immediately notice the absence of Ronnie Simonsen. A large man in both stature and voice, Mr. Simonsen was always a highlight of camp plays, where he would often go way off script with ad-libs exhibiting his encyclopedic knowledge of 1970s soap operas. One particular focus in Mr. Simonsen’s monologues was the actor Chad Everett, who played Dr. Joe Gannon in the show Medical Center. His admiration for Mr. Everett culminated in a meeting between the two men, which was recorded in the first of the two How’s Your News films.

Mr. Simonsen was diagnosed with leukemia three years ago. Due to his illness, he was unable to participate in the road trip during which the MTV series was filmed, but his friends say they are hoping to get him on for season two, depending on the success of the show. Of Mr. Simonsen’s progress, Mr. Bradford says, “The average person would have died from what Ronnie’s been faced with, but he has such a drive. Chad Everett has been calling him weekly, and he recently had a big party out in Los Angeles, with a lot of soap opera stars.”

Two additional members of the news team, Lucas Wahl and Brendan LeMieux, are not Jabberwocky campers, but have a tangential relationship to the camp through Mr. Vest, who was their classmate at Berkshire Hills Music Academy.

The idea for a major network show has been around for awhile. How’s Your News made a pilot episode in 2006 for MTV2. Nothing happened for a while, and later, when MTV2 moved away from original programming and became more focused on music videos, things did not look promising. But then MTV came calling. Studio bigwigs had decided that they would take on the show, in the face of dropping ratings and programming that had moved away from the smart, edgy shows that made the network the powerhouse it once was. The How’s Your News team was overjoyed, but with this new level of exposure came pressures and concerns about creative control.

“The idea was scary, but we had two things going for us,” said Mr. Bradford. “One was, because of the nature of the show, the fact that we were dealing with disabilities, a big company didn’t know what to do. They were smart enough to know it wouldn’t come off right if they took control.”

The other thing the team had going for them were the show’s executive producers, Matt Stone and Trey Parker. Creators of the once-controversial cartoon South Park, Mr. Stone and Mr. Parker had seen the original How’s Your News tapes in 1994 through a mutual friend, and had been strong supporters ever since. The two men now hold considerable sway in the comedy show business world, and their advocacy did a lot to keep creative control with the original team. “They were sort of the gorillas in the room,” said Mr. Bradford.

The show itself differs from the original movies with its fast cuts, heavy celebrity presence and constant rock music playing the background, all trademarks of MTV programming. But the content is still very much the same, and this speaks to the essence of the show: the How’s Your News interviewers do not fawn over the rich and famous as many of their prime time counterpart personalities do. This is part of the show’s honesty, a key difference that sets it apart. This was clear in the premiere episode which aired last Sunday night at 10:30 p.m., when the team worked the red carpet at the Grammys. Jeremy Vest seemed far more interested in television chef Wolfgang Puck and the man who voices Kermit the Frog than anyone else. And he was not the only member of his team who demonstrated a profound lack of reverence for the established hierarchies of pop culture that night.

“The thing that sets How’s Your News apart is that it is totally honest,” Mr. Bradford said. “The honesty is the ultimate satisfaction, and the humor is all inclusive. Everyone is in on it.”

In a brief reversal of roles, the Gazette was able to catch up with How’s Your News Reporter Jeremy Vest the day after the show’s premiere.

Gazette: So how does it feel to be on cable?

Mr. Vest: This is the best feeling ever. I just can’t believe it! I now have 300 facebook friends. 300!

Gazette: Being a musician, I’m sure you’ve watched MTV in the past?

Mr. Vest: I used to watch MTV all the time; all the awards shows and all that. Now I’m on it. It’s really surreal, unbelievable.

Gazette: Tell me about your disability.

Mr. Vest: Well, I have William’s syndrome, and people with William’s syndrome are musically inclined people. Also, we go off topic easily, and are very friendly. Did I mention that we are musically inclined?

Gazette: What was it like filming the show?

Mr. Vest: I couldn’t be happier. We were on the road a lot, on a bus that everyone loves, and we just had such a great time. We were always making music, banging on plastic water bottles, jamming out all the time. I want to give a shout out to my mentor, Rick Bausman.

Gazette: Is there anything else we should know about you?

Mr. Vest: Yes. I also want to give a shout out to by brother at Bay State College, and my friends Paul, Anthony, and Sam. And also to all my friends on Martha’s Vineyard, and of course, all the drummers.

How’s Your News airs on MTV beginning Sunday at 10:30 p.m.; the show runs for six weeks through March 15.