For a certain generation, MTV and spring break will always go hand in hand. But the network's beachside bashes could have potentially cost Colin Quinn his life, he told HuffPost Live on Thursday.

During his years as announcer on the game show "Remote Control," Quinn was at the center of the MTV machine at the height of its popularity, and he vividly remembers how obsessive fans were about the music channel.

"We'd be at these spring break things, and MTV was so respected, like in 1989," he remembered. "People would just be like, 'MTV's here!' It didn't matter if it was NBC or anybody -- nobody cared. But all the kids were like, 'MTV is here.'"

Then one year, things took a decidedly dangerous turn.

"One day they caught this guy. He had the Travis Bickle army coat and hair cut in the middle of spring break -- a mohawk. But he was trying to kill me," Quinn said.

The man was nabbed by security before he could eliminate the comedian, who he believed was married to Martha Quinn, one of the network's original VJs. The potential assailant had been stalking Martha, and he thought that murdering Colin would clear the way for him to profess his love.

Quinn told HuffPost Live that he met the man before he was taken away by police, which made for an unsettling experience: "He just looked at me -- he wasn't even mad -- and he melted me. He was the devil. He just looked at me like he wasn't even angry, just those eyes, like, 'Oh, I'd like to kill you to get to Martha Quinn.'"

Quinn's new book, The Coloring Book: A Comedian Solves Race Relations in America, is available now.

Watch the full HuffPost Live conversation with Colin Quinn here.