Here’s the thing: Even before he came out on stage during Eminem’s performance, Dr. Dre was already the star of the show. That’s what I was thinking, at least.

Nothing engages a crowd like the familiar, inimitable bounce of Dre’s grooves, and though Eminem apparently lacks the attention span to perform more than a single verse and chorus of any of his songs, his renditions of classic Dre-produced singles like “The Real Slim Shady” and “Kill You” were clear highlights, at least to those of us appreciative of the funk.

Then 50 Cent showed up and played “In da Club,” and it became unmistakably clear to me that this concert was really about exposing just how awesome Dr. Dre is at making hip-hop beats for stadiums full of drunken dancing revelers.

But for whatever reason, I didn’t consider the possibility that Dr. Dre would actually show up until he did show up. Eminem started “My Name Is…” — another funky Dr. Dre bounce — and got up to Dre’s lyrical cameo in that song, and the music stopped.

Then, after appropriate fanfare, Dr. Dre showed up. It was awesome.

They played “Still D.R.E.” and then “Nuthin’ but a G Thang” with Eminem doing the Snoop Dogg part. During the latter, 50 Cent came back out on stage and it looked for a moment like he might be there to do something, about which I felt ambivalent.

But it turned out 50 Cent was just there to watch Dr. Dre do stuff, and that’s cool. I don’t imagine me and 50 Cent have all that much in common, but one thing we seem to share is that we both appreciate Dr. Dre. That’s good to know in case I’m ever in a situation in which I have to make idle chit-chat with 50 Cent.

Then Dr. Dre more or less promised that his long-awaited third album is coming out soon and is going to be awesome. I don’t remember exactly how he said it but I think he included something like, “Y’all know I won’t let you down.” And I believe him.

Later, Jay-Z hosted a musical revue featuring a bunch of artists I wasn’t particularly interested in seeing, like Kanye West and Drake and Chris Martin of Coldplay. He had a tight band with a horn section and an amazing light show and computer-graphics display, but the performance entirely lacked Dr. Dre.

‘Beavis and Butt-head” — the show that celebrated the slacker way of life and helped make MTV into a network that did more than just play music videos — is coming back.

The move to resurrect the hugely popular 1990s animated anti-heroes has been rumored for several days. But yesterday, sources at MTV confirmed that a new batch of “Beavis and Butt-head” episodes are in the works.

– Michael Starr, N.Y. Post.

Chris M reminded me of this in the comments section earlier; I missed the news entirely when it came out but I heard something about it a few weeks back.

With this, as with all new iterations of once-great TV series, I worry about the quality of the new shows. Will they live up to the standards of the originals, or will they work so hard to recapture the magic of the first run of episodes that they create, essentially, a parody version of Beavis and Butt-head, an over-the-top and ridiculous new installment of a series that was patently over-the-top and ridiculous to begin with?

Mike Judge is on board, so there’s reason to hope not.

I would also be concerned, as well, that the new show would not resonate with me the way the original did because the first run coincided with the time in my life spent mostly watching MTV, blowing stuff up and desperately and unsuccessfully pursuing female attention.

But when my friends and I took up watching the original episodes after college, we found them every bit as funny as we did when we saw them in middle school — if not moreso — though perhaps for different reasons.

At the very least, like the Post article says, the new episodes will give MTV a forum through which to start showing music videos again. And I always felt there should be entire hours of that network dedicated to showing videos through Judge’s hilarious animated filter, like Mystery Science Theater 3000, only, you know, with Beavis and Butt-head.

Plus it’ll give me a reason to figure out what channel MTV is on DirecTV.