I saw one episode of this show, back in the early 90s. Pretty sure it was on Ha!, one of the networks that would later be merged into Comedy Central, although maybe it was post-merger. The basic premise was people taking old movies and serials, and making fun of them. But it wasn’t Mystery Science Theater. It was shorter, for one thing - maybe short enough to fit into a half-hour time slot, which meant the movie was super-edited, and often intercut with clips from other media. The one episode I saw, they were making fun of a 1940/1950 sci-fi serial, and there was a running gag about the way one of the characters said “ray gun.” Every time he said it, they’d insert a brief news clip of Ronald Reagan waving to the press. I don’t recall who the host was, but I’m pretty sure no puppets were involved.
I remember seeing it and loving the idea, but being disappointed that they had to edit the film so much to fit the timeslot. I wanted to watch more, but never saw another episode, and not long after Comedy Central started carrying MST, which fulfilled my “do the whole movie” itch.
But I’ve always wondered what that other show was. Google searches are tough, because everything leads back to MST, but I’m pretty confident it wasn’t one of the early public access episodes. Possibly, I hallucinated the whole thing.
Mad Movies with the L.A. Connection was a 1985 show like that but I don’t remember what channel it was on. I also don’t remember it having clips from other media but it’s possible that it did.
There’s a list of episodes here:
I can personally recommend this episode:
Episode #102 *“The Little Princess (1939)” - Shirley Temple is possessed by a doll, and only a song-and-dance exorcism can save her.
That looks close, but I don’t think that’s it. I’m pretty sure the show used the movie’s original audio - the one bit of the show I mentioned relied on the original actor’s slightly odd diction when saying “ray gun.” Also, none of the episode descriptions on the wiki page mention any movies that sound ray gun-centric. (Although one is, apparently, Reagan-centric.)
Of course, this is all based on one hazy memory formed late at night from when I was in high school, so…
This sounds a little like a short-lived series called ‘Cut to the Chase,’ hosted by Art Mann on the E! network. He would show only the main plot points in the movies, with Mann sometimes edited between shots ‘participating’ in some of the action.