Based on this list, what MST3K eps should I buy?

Cafe Society
1

I hope to buy some episodes of MST3K (individual episodes, not entire seasons)…but don’t want to end up with a bunch of horrible ones, and there are so many to choose from.
I’m familiar only with Mike Nelson and seasons 8, 9, and 10.
Seasons 1-7: Have never seen anything from these years at all.
Season 8: Have seen less than five episodes, have a couple on tape.
Season 9: Have seen whole season, have favorites on tape.
Season 10: Have seen it all and have whole season on tape.

Could you evaluate my favorites (below) and recommend ones I might like from Seasons 1-8? I guess I mean where the comments are as numerous, biting, sarcastic, funny, clever, etc. The hard part for you is that it won’t be a list of YOUR favorite episodes, but a list matching MY favorite episodes to similar ones. (Do put your favorites at the end, though!) I think the prices I’ll be paying are pretty low and reasonable - it won’t cost a lot of money, so please don’t worry that a bad suggestion will be disaster.
Link to episode guide:
http://www.mst3kinfo.com/episodes/

LIKED THESE:
Final Sacrifice (Rowsedower) (My all-time favorite episode)
Track of the Moonbeast (Johnny Longbow)
Soultaker (Joe Estevez)
It Lives By Night (Bat scientist on honeymoon)
Squirm (southern town, snakes)
The Touch of Satan (walnut farm, old grandmother)
Devil Fish (Beer drinking oceanographer on boat)
Prince of Space
Giant Spider Invasion (Wisconsin farmers, Alan Hale is Sheriff)
Time Chasers (Time-traveler in airplane)
Final Justice (Joe Don Baker in Malta)
DID NOT LIKE THESE:
Danger Diabolik
Hamlet
Blood Waters of Dr. Z
The Girl in Gold Boots
Future War
Quest of the Delta Knights
Puma Man
I Was a Teenage Werewolf

Thanks for helping!

2

A lot of your favorites are also mine (though I would definitely count Puma Man and Quest of the Delta Knights among my favorite Sci-Fi shows), so I might be able to figure out where you’re coming from. Since it looks like you’re buying from a trader, you obviously have the full range to choose from. I would only gently remind you not to buy from your source anything that Rhino has released officially; we need to encourage those folks to keep releasing new MST.

I would recommend (in no particular order):

Mitchell (#512). This is absolutely essential. Not only is it Joel’s farewell/Mike’s debut, but it’s possibly the funniest episode they ever did as well. You can’t appreciate Final Justice without having seen Mitchell.

Riding with Death (#814). Lots of 70s jokes, and the “movie” is so ineptly put together it must be seen to be believed.

Bride of the Monster (#423). Ed Wood directing Bela Lugosi; need I say more?

It Conquered the World (#311). Vintage Joel. The movie is a very watchable but silly Roger Corman sci-fi epic starring Lee Van Cleef and Peter Graves.

Teenagers from Outer Space (#404). More goofy sci-fi.

Manhunt in Space (#413). The adventures of Rocky Jones and Winky. As good as it sounds.

I Accuse My Parents (#507). Teenager-in-trouble movie with several lousy musical numbers, but hey, they were trying.

The Creeping Terror (#606). More godawful Roger Corman sci-fi, this one distinguished by having virtually no live dialogue.

Invasion of the Neptune Men (#819). If you liked Prince of Space, you must see this, but it can be tough going.

That will be enough to start you off. One thing to note: a lot of MSTies will probably urge you to see Manos: The Hands of Fate (#424). While every MSTie must eventually see this one, be warned: this movie is really hard to sit through, and I think it’s very possible you wouldn’t care for it.

3

I’ve seen every episode of MST3K ever made, except for a couple for which there are no known tapes in existence, and I agree that The Final Sacrifice is the funniest one ever.

IMHO, a close second is Space Mutiny, another Mike episode. It was recently released in one of the DVD sets - set 5, IIRC. So if you pick that one up, you’ll get three others to try out as well. I don’t recall offhand which the other episodes are in that set, though.

4

Get “Manos” The Hands of Fate. Looks like it was shot on super-8 with audio on a reel to reel.

The only one I know of in which the Mads actually apologized for sending it.

5

I totally agree with Manos: The Hands of Fate (a Joel episode), that’s one of the best ones in my opinion - also, Hobgoblins, another Mike episode - bad 80’s acting, HORRENDOUS special effects - the bots actually try to run away during the opening credits, and Pearl handles the movie wearing rubber gloves - the reel is labelled “Hobgobilns - Warning: May cause blindness and death”
you might also like “Werewolf”, another early 80’s gem

Puma Man is one of my favorites! I watched it last night in fact :slight_smile:

6

Space Mutiny is the most horrible movie I’ve ever seen and I’ve also seen that German Hamlet.

Space Mutiny comes in Volume 4 with Girl in the Gold Boots, Hamlet, and Overdrawn at the Memory Bank (Raul Julia is a bad computer/Casablanca movie). If you wanted a greatest hits of truly horrible movies, this is the one to get.

7

You’ll want to buy Manos, the Hands of Fate

you’ll care for it.

8

You’re not far off.

IIRC, the camera used could only shoot for 30 seconds at a time without sound. All the vocals were dubbed later by 5-6 people. The actress playing the wife broke her leg in the middle of filming and was written out without explanation.

Three people (including the actor portraying Torgo) committed suicide not long after the movie was released.

If you can survive this movie, you can survive any MST3K experiment.

9

What was the movie about sky divers and all the kooky dancing down on the tarmac? “I’d say heroin has taken this town in a big way.”

10

It was called Skydivers. That’s a great one.

I strongly recommend Manos: The Hands of Fate, if for no other reason than to see Torgo lurching around. There are many references to Torgo in later episodes, and my imitation of him makes Mrs. Giraffe laugh so hard she cries. He truly makes the movie.

Other favorite episodes of mine are Mitchell, The Human Duplicators, Girls Town, and High School Big Shot.

11

During the 1994 Conventio-Com-Expo-Festi-Rama they had to have a separate Torgo division of the costume contest.

You want a weird experience? Imagine three dozen Torgos hobbling around a crowded hotel ballroom.

Although you couldn’t see, Torgo’s costume included cloven hooves. The actor had serious drug problems and killed himself not long after the movie premiered.

12

This one was actually an Ed Wood flick, not a Roger Corman one.
It’s missing most of its dialog because, near the end of filming, the dialog tapes fell into a river and were ruined.

If you can sit through the interminable borefest that is Invasion of the Neptune Men, then you can survive Manos: The Hands of Fate.
Oh – and if you like really really bad editing, then you can’t afford to miss Red Zone Cuba. It’s the Bay of Pigs invasion, with 6 actors total!

13

All of the Coleman Francis movies are great. So, in addition to Red Zone Cuba, you should also see The Beast of Yucca Flats and The Skydivers.

I think my all-time favorite episode was Teenage Caveman from season 3. Give it a whirl. I also got a lot of good laughs out of Boggy Creek II.

For all who recommended Manos (which I also recommend): if you haven’t already seen it, here is a fascinating article about the making of Manos.

14

“Flag on the moon. How did it get there?”
Best single line from one of the worst movies ever.

15

Best episodes in no particular order:

Soulcatcher
Danger! Deathray
The Screaming Skull
The Pod People
The Horror of Party Beach
Werewolf
The Space Children
Devil Doll
Quest of the Delta Knights

But then I loved Puma Man, so YMMV.

<singing>Puma man, he flies like a moron…<singing>.

16

That’s Danger!! Death Ray, with two exclamation points after the “Danger”.

17

The Christmas episodes are also good

18

fire maidens of outer space is my nominee. Jumpsuited astronauts, heroes who do nothing, lots of walking around and waiting. Stock footage as special effects, and of course the fire maidens.

19

… for “Let’s Have a Patrick Swayze Christmas,” if nothing else.

20

(In a Christmas episode, that is. Not in Fire Maidens from Outer Space.)