Eeehhh…Overdrawn at the Memory Bank! Poor Raul Julia…I really hope he fired his agent after that one. It was so overwhelmingly boring that I can’t even remember whether I saw the un-MSTed or the MSTed version.
Mike v. Joel: I can’t choose, their styles are too different. I’m just glad Mike didn’t try to copy Joel and just created his own character. Still, there’s something about Joel that I’ll always love. He had a way of saying “soon, you die…” (The Home Economics Story) that actually made you look forward to it. I don’t remember the episode, but there was one time he (his character, anyway) finally lost it with Crow: he was screaming/sobbing “Dammit, Crow! Why do you have to take everything that’s good and pure and beautiful and turn it into an Alan Arkin reference!”
Favorite episode: (short) A Day at the Circus. “Oh, no, no! They’re doing it clown-style!”
Pehl? Dunno, never saw the Sci-Fi channel episodes.
The skits? I liked most of them, although their musical numbers often dragged.
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I’m gonna go with Mike. Don’t get me wrong – I really, really like Joel, but I’ve had more exposure to Mike.
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“A Patrick Swayze Christmas” 'Nuff said.
3 (Implied)) – I’m gonna go with Crow T. Robot, although the sketch where Servo became HUGE is a classic, imho. The sketch even went on after movie sign: they all went into the theatre, and Servo was still huge. The only comment he could make was “Arrg! Movie bad!”
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There’s a fairly recent interview with Michael Nelson at the ign.com website. Nothing earth-shattering, but still not a bad read. And I don’t get all the comments in the interview that season one was so bad; they obviously did enough right to get me hooked on the show.
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And how many additional poll topics am I allowed to introduce before everyone tells me to shut up? Because I’m curious:
What was the first episode you saw? And do you remember the joke that got you “hooked”?
For me, it was Robot Holocaust. I came in halfway through and wondered what was going on with all the silhouettes and the wisecracks, when a woman wandered on-screen. This was clearly an 80’s post-apocalyptic movie – she was wearing some kind of torn sweatshirt, hair teased out to armageddon, and IIRC even a matching headband. Crow asked, “Are you Wendy or Lisa?”
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I like Joel. As others have said, I don’t think Mike was bad, I just prefer Joel.
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I think the skits were hit and miss. Some I liked, others I would just suffer through till they got movie sign again.
My favorite ep is Track of the Moon Beast, (ironically a Mike ep, even though I said I prefer Joel) mainly because my cousin and I used to rent bad movies and MSTie them ourselves, and we had rented that dog one weekend and had a blast making fun of it. Nearly a year later I learned there was a MST3K ep of it, and thanks to Tars, I am now the proud owner of MST3K’s version of Track of the Moon Beast.
Why Crow gets the nod over Tom Servo:
Seven words: “Dum dee deet deet deet . . . hua hua.”
I’m going to just say DITTO to the above… because I’m too lazy to type right now.
Gamera is really neat,
He is filled with turtle meat.
Hey, I’m all for adding more and more and more questions. It’s fun when it’s fun!
I was definitely a late-comer. I don’t know the title, but my first episode was from the 8th or 9th season, and featured a black-and-white Japanese sci-fi movie, involving a bunch of kids that happened upon a downed flying saucer. The line that really pulled me in, was (I think) Crow observing that a huge flying saucer in the middle of a field was an easy thing to miss… If anyone can ID this episode for me, I’d really appreciate it; I’d like to track it down.
I saw this episode at a friend’s house, and I never had cable, so that was it for me, until sometime last year, when I remembed what a freaking hilarious show it was and started accumulating tapes. Yay!
Another question, if you feel up to it: Who’s your favorite villain? Mine’s Dr. F.
My first show had a numnut instead of TV’s Frank and was about a Mexican wrestler crime fighter type guy. (Season 1 or 2?) I think it was the premise that got me hooked, not one particular joke. 'Cause as we were watching it, one of my friends says, “Hey, look! It’s like going to the movies with NCB!”
My absolutely fave line?
Crow T Robot, during one of the Gamera (turtle meat’s a tasty treat!) films, an A-bomb had just been set off, stock footage showing the Bikini tests and a mushroom cloud.
Crow’s mouth drops open, and he says…
“Pretty.”
I already listed some of my favorite songs, but a couple more:
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“Tibby.” A tender love song from a 'bot to a turtle.
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The entire Fugitive Alien medley, but especially the line, “He tried to kill me with a forklift!”
Favorite shorts: The Home Ec Story and Mr. B Natural. I once went to a glittering costume ball dressed as Mr. B.
First episode: Gamera vs. Guiron. (Kn*ckers, this is the one you’re talking about.)
This show also has one of my favorite skits, with Gamera incorporated into Richard Burton’s career.
Who’s Afraid of Gamera Turtle?
Tom (as Liz Taylor): Arrgh! Who said that?
Crow (as a stolid Burton): I do not know, Martha.
T: Yes, you do! It was Gamera! You laughed your ass off, George!
Remember Marooned?
When Gregory Peck had one of those scenes where something went wrong (half the movie), Crow, in a very good Peck voice says,
“Scout?! Scout?!”
I lost an arm, I was laughing so hard.
Miss Mapp, Kn*ckers’ first ep sounds more like Prince of Space to me.
Okay, to answer some of the polls, I guess…
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Joel. Not that I don’t like Mike, but I kind of preferred the paternal attitude Joel had toward those little shiny hellions.
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Host segments, host segments. I briefly had a fling with Mystery Usenet Theater and found that host segments were the hardest goddamn thing to write. Especially if you wanted them to be relevant to the central subject matter in some way. So I appreciate the difficulty in writing host segments, but still have to say that they were very uneven over the run of the show.
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I love, Love, LOVE Cave Dwellers! “Who is this stranger with pecs like melons and knees of fringe?” “How much Keefe is in this picture? Miles o’ Keefe!” “I’m HUGE!” I’m still disappointed, though, that they never did make the obvious Freddie Mercury reference…
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Crow’s my boy, all the way.
Favorite ep: “Outlaw of Gor” – I liked the Gor novels and hated what happened to them in the movies, so every last line as the Mike and the 'bots took the movie apart was gold to me. Plus the riffing on Jack Palance was great, as was “Tubular Boobular Joy.”
I prefer Mike to Joel because I thought the attempt Joel made to make the show kiddie-like held them back in certain respects. Plus the Invention Exchange, while occasionally brilliant, mostly wasn’t.
Favorite short: Mr. B. Natural – a certain surreal creepiness to that one.
I generally liked the skits, though they haven’t always been funny. Some of the, though, were much funnier than anything in the movie. The Kathy Ireland “dull surprise” montage from Alien from L.A., for example.
I was worried when Joel left. I figured the show would die an ugly death. Since then though, I’ve come to prefer the Mike episodes.
As far as the skits, some of them are very funny. Such as the time when the Nanites go to war with Mike’s eyelash mites. The bots through in a ton of war movie cliches, and it was beautiful.
Another time was when they were selling the million piece army man set.
They’re great.
I’m 100% sure it was either Prince of Space or Invasion of the Neptune Men. I can’t be more specific, because those two movies were eerily similar. If it featured the chicken-men of Krankor (or Crank Whore, which ever), it was Prince of Space. If it featured a bunch of silent robot types, with a leader who was constantly looking for his record, it was Invasion of the Neptune Men. Both good episodes.
Mike or Joel: as others have noted, it’s familiarity. I started watching seriously during the SciFi era, so I Like Mike.
Host segments: can be great. I’m particularly fond of Crow and Servo playing “Dog and Bear”; Gypsy taken over by an alien pod and singing a lullaby; Servo as an artist, whose work all depicts his benefactor (Crow) in a bad light. Can be really stupid, too.
Personally, I think the Golden Age of MST3K was from half-way through season 8 to the first few eps of season 9: clonus horror, Incredibly…Zombies, Giant Spider Invasion, Prince of Space, Space Mutiny, Overdrawn, Puma Man, Projected Man, and Werewolf. All incredibly good stuff.
Favorite stinger: Space Mutiny. Brick Hardcheese screams like a girl, then carefully bails out of his floor waxer.
Most obscure reference (that I got): in Thing That Couldn’t Die, whenever someone shouts “Jessica” (a character’s name), Crow starts “singing” the Allman Bros instrumental of the same name.
Favorite ep: Teenagers from Outer Space, Starfighters, Space Mutiny, Prince of Space (“Captain Manakata…I understand you’re stuffed with cheese”), Werewolf (the medley of songs [‘TUSK’] during the closing credits is just brilliant).
Least watchable: any of the Coleman Francis.
Most cant-breath-it’s-so-funny moment: James Arness on Biography (parts: the clonus horror). Which I reproduce here, as a public service:
James Arness. As a young boy, James Arness nurtured a howling bitterness in the face of the awesomely superior talent of his brother, Peter Graves. Peter Graves’ life and career were marked by a generosity of spirit and loving attitude towards his fellow man, which were altogether missing in the pitted soul of James Arness. Often, James Arness’ mother would remark to friends that she loved her son Peter Graves so very, very much; while she hated James Arness and cursed the day her womb had been blighted with such a creature. “James Arness: Ugly and Stupid”…tonight on “Biography.”
I liked a particular line in Being From Another Planet…
Tom Servo: “Well, being from another planet, I find this stereotyping of aliens appalling.”
Remember when Crow wished for a companion and Timmy appeared? Weird and funny, much like Kn*ckers.
I’m a Joel person all the way, which isn’t completely fair I’m sure. It’s not them personally, it’s the writing style and the pace of the jokes when they were on that got me.
As for skits, well, nixing EVERYTHING from the SCIFI era and we can talk. Bobo, Pearl, Brain Guy, it’s fine to be campy and bad, but it was just too bad to be campy. Older sketches had their moments though, like right after the short on “It Conquered the World” where Joel and the Bots are going over winter sports. Pee yer pants funny.
Crow T Robot: “In Norway, skiing is pronounced shee-ing. I think they’re full of skit.”