I have begun my new project - watching every* episode of Mystery Science Theater, in order, to complete my knowledge of the show and raise my geekery score by another few points.
This thread is intended to house discussion of the series as a whole, and anyone new to the fandom may feel free to ask questions … as well as discussion of each individual episode as it goes along. At least, I hope it’ll last long enough - I think we have enough MSTies here to pull this off.
In this case, “every” episode means “every nationally broadcast” episode. I have eliminated the KTMA proto-season for a variety of reasons, including 1.) You can’t get the first three episodes… anywhere. 2.) A lot of the KTMA movies were reused later. 3.) The KTMA season is vastly different from that which came after in a lot of ways.
Please don’t ask in the thread where you can get your very own copies of the ones not available on DVD - while I’d be happy to tell you, and it doesn’t involve explicit copyright violation as I understand it, it’s in enough of a grey area that I do not wish to involve the SDMB in any way.
The first nationally broadcast episode. Ah, times were simpler then. As a longtime watcher of the series, I was pleased to finally get the chance to see Dr. Erhardt, Dr. Forrester’s former partner in crime; however, Tom Servo’s original voice is way creepy.
All the elements of the show are there, though : Deep 13 (where the two doctors have just moved) beneath Gizmonics Institute; Gypsy, Tom, Crow, and the original Cambot; and the Invention Exchange.
The riffing is a bit sparse… sometimes, they just watch the movie. It picks up near the end, though, with the eye-puns flying fast and furious.
Regarding the movie, Tom had this to say in the “Good Thing, Bad Thing” segment at the end : “It was ambitious, but it lacked vision.”
I did miss the invention exchange when Mike stepped in.
One thing I’m interested to see your reactions on is the bredth of the jokes. When I first started watching MST3K during the last few CC years, I was amazed at all the jokes I got which no one else of my highly educated acquaintence would ever have gotten, and all the jokes I didn’t get. I think Frank Coniff was the guy whose knowledge was so catholic, because when he left, it seemed to me that the jokes, while still gut-bustingly funny, were frequently less obscure.
For example, my father fell in love with the show during an episode of Marooned, where he joked that the one non-famous actor astronaut was the finder of lost loves. Whereupon my mother said no, that was this other guy who looked like him. Then, 10 minutes later they got to the scene in the SoL where Mike (?) is playing with his Marooned action figures, and he had one of them be the finder of lost loves, until Crow told him no, that was the other guy who looked like him. My parents stood there open-mouthed – they (and I!) were pretty well used to being the smartest guys in the room, and here were people on national television making exactly the same oscure jokes that they thought no one else on the planet would think were funny.
OMG, where to begin?Any discussion of the wonderful show must begin with its sheer longevity. This was a basic cable program, aimed at a “niche market” (i.e. Fandom), that managed to stay on the air for 10 seasons! This is a tribute to: 1. The fan base, which grew solely from word-of-mouth and from “circulating the tapes”, cuasing it to grow beyond anyone’s expectations, and 2. The talent involved and their willingness to take risks. If some big-shot producer-types had been looking over their shoulders, 90% of their jokes and references NEVER would have made it to air. They would have said, “Nobody’s gonna get that. Just make Clinton jokes.”, or something to that effect. But the people involved did something unheard of in the TV biz–they gave their audience credit for having some intelligence and education, and it paid off! Now for some of my faves: 5 best episodes: Laserblast, The Amazing Colossal Man, The Deadly Bees, Catalina Caper, Giant Spider Invasion. Best song: “A Patrick Swayze Christmas” Grossest line: “Glen passed a truck on the highway”, from War of the Colossal Beast. Line that made soda come out of my nose: “Have you seen the dog’s meat? Oh, it doesn’t matter, he’ll only take it from me anyway.”, and its followup, “Kathy Lee Gifford arrives to see the dog’s meat”–from The Deadly Bees. I’ll think of more as the thread progresses. BTW, is that the same Kevin Murphy who is currently producing “Desperate Housewives”?
A little bit of my MSTie background - I was introduced to the show by a friend of mine, who I’d met at a State-Smart-Kids-Camp one summer, and who later went on to become my college roommate for four years. It was he who gave me the rag-tag, beaten-up, mediocre quality tape of Episode 703 : Deathstalker and the Warriors from Hell, which remains a favorite of mine to this day.
At home, we never had Comedy Central - and around the time I was hitting college, MST was no longer airing on Comedy Central. Fortunately, SciFi picked up the ball shortly thereafter, and I got to see fresh installments.
Still, I managed to see a few of the old CC episodes, thanks to my roommate, who had some other tapes. Santa Claus, Operation Double 007, The Sword and the Dragon… all very solid.
Now, I own every commercially available episode, and am well on my way to owning all the unavailable ones.
Weird to think that MST3K stayed on the air longer than “Seinfeld” or “Roseanne.” Even weirder to think that an episode of MST was four times longer than a typical comedy show episode. Its total run was something like 400 broadcast hours, whereas even a stalwart sitcom like MAS*H clocked in at 125.
Many people say it’s overrated, but Manos, The Hands of Fate is hysterically funny, but there are other gems that very few people have seen.
Tormented, for example, is one that was aired, and then disappeared. If you haven’t seen it, it’s this bizarre movie about a guy involved with a trampy girl, but engaged to a nice girl. The trampy girl somehow falls off of a lighthouse, and her ghost haunts the man and his new bride. Or something. I only saw it once. There’s a scene where the guy turns on the record player to a sultry chanteuse singing a song called “Tormented.” He gets mad, rips the record off the turntable, and throws it on the table. Joel says, “Tormented, huh? Well, now it’s a coaster.”
The Giant Gila Monster is pretty great. The highlight being the crappy singer showcased in the movie. He’s a singer I never heard of, and I don’t think he went much of anywhere, but he sings some pretty crappy songs that don’t seem to have much place in the movie. “. . . and the lord said laugh, children, laugh. . .”
Mitchell is a terribly underrated MST3K episode. It’s a classic at our house, quoted more than any other episode. On the surface, it’s rather dull and pointless, with really craptastic performances by Joe Don Baker, John Saxon, and Linda Evans. Sooooooo 70s.
I rode in an elevator with TV’s Frank. I was visiting my friend and we were heading down in the elevator, and when the doors opened, there was Frank. He was dressed in a t-shirt, a headband, and black nylon stretch pants that showed his “religion”, :eek: Apparently he lived upstairs in the same apartment building in Minneapolis.
I also managed to catch MST Live (at the State Theatre, downtown Minneapolis IIRC). They did “This Island Earth” before it was done for the big screen.
I’ve got all of the eps (except for the three missing KTMAs, of course).
Favorite short: “Snow Thrills” (just barely beating out “The Home Economics Story” and “Mr. B Natural”). There’s just something about the rapid fire of “Snow Thrills” that almost makes it exhausting to catch up with all of the humor. My favorite scene is the world’s longest tobaggan going through the streets with Joel calling it a class action lawsuit coming.
Favorite movie: “Time of the Apes”. Hands down best ep ever.
“Godo, Godo help!” Carol Anne
Crow’s response: “Go to hell? He takes you in? Feeds you? Clothes you? And this is the thanks he gets?!”
Worst idea: The MST3K Hour hosted by Jack Perkins. Sorry, that was more annoying than anything.
First Season on Comedy Channel. I think I’m one of the few that really prefered Josh Weinstein’s voice as Servo. He just had that deep, rich voice.
I’m wondering if it’s ok to “Circulate the tapes” here as long as we’re not making copies. If it’s okie-dokie, I’m cool with helping.
I have special affection for Cave Dwellers. A scene in that movie had me (thirteen or so) actually on the floor laughing so hard I couldn’t breathe, and my dad laughed so hard he had a bit of an asthma attack. Not that asthma is funny, but that movie sure is.
I finally saw Mr. B Natural for my birthday. I’d been wanting for years. It was pretty much worth the wait.
I don’t know about that. It was certainly disturbing. But it really was just an advertising film to push a product. Same with “Design For Dreaming” and “The Selling Wizard.” “Once Upon A Honeymoon” has my vote for weird since it has no point other than championing a rather vague materialism and Gay Angels.
The all-out weirdest flicks were “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians” and The other Santa movie in which St. Nick takes on the devil.
The bit in Space Mutiny where Biff McHugelarge and the world’s oldest teenager chase/are chased by Calgon Takemeaway on the floor waxers while Crow sings the doop doop doobie-doobie doop doop do doo carny puts me in respiratory distress every time. (Also, “Sorry you’re dead, Sally.”)
My favorite short is probably the one with the woman seeing all the wonderful GE appliances of the future at the World’s Fair. At the end, Servo has this perfectly delivered line about “Future not available in Africa, South America and some parts of Asia.”
Their finest hour, IMHO. (Or their finest two hours, I guess I should say.)
I find that the Sci-Fi era episodes are often unfairly maligned. I think Kevin Murphy as Professor Bobo was fantastically funny, and Mary Jo’s Pearl was often terrific as well. The writing seemed to get a little more acerbic by then, as though the writers had simply gotten tired of being polite to all these crapfests they were forced to endure, and that suited me just fine.
I’m a big fan of the short about chicken farming that turns into a big ad for Texaco, “A Date with Your Family”, and whichever one it is that talks about how hard parents work to make sure children have food and shoes and stuff simply because of the line, “Timmy is the lathe of heaven”. I laughed at that one until I nearly threw up.
