“The Crawling Hand” takes a while before they start to become consistantly funny. Before, it’s not uncommon for a few minutes to go by with just a one-word joke or nothing at all.
“You’re working the night shift and you find one more body than you were expecting. It’s Miller Time.” 
Quick fact: The lyrics of the show changed because Joel Hodgson actually has a coopyright on the name “Gizmonics”, as he invented it way back when he did stand-up-comedy. So the “Mike era” couldn’t use it.
Back in the CC days, BBI did not want CC to show the first season eps after about the 4th season. They felt that their “rookie” year left too much to be desired. It did give us “Hi-Keeba!”, though, in its defense.
Not to mention Robot Holocaust and their relentless assault on the actress’ severe accent (The Dog One?).
I think the first season was actually pretty good.
Others already mentioned the point about Crawling Hand - but they re-did several of the movies they’d done in Minnesota once they hit the big time. Several of the Godzilla features as I recall.
The Mads may have lived in Deep 13 from the beginning, but it only got credit mention after Joel left - replacing Gizmonics Institute in the credits, because Joel asked them not to continue to use it.
There might’ve been long pauses in between, but there were some gems in there:
“You’re filthy dirty!”
“Yeah, well you’re stocky tubby!”
“Cats just can’t resist the rich taste of human hand.”
“Hey, I know him! He used to be in Def Leppard!”
For what it’s worth, I, too, remember it being called 2000 way back when it first started on Comedy Central. I remember talking to my friends about it changing to 3000.
But it looks like it never was 2000 and I’m crazy along with the OP.
Nope. The Forrester lab was originally part of Gizmonic Institute, which employed Joel as janitor. The Big G was dropped for Deep 13 in…I want to say Season Five, but it might be some time in S4. I’d check my episode guide (“I HATE TOM SERVO’S NEW VOICE!!!”), but I’m in the middle of moving and it’s already packed.
They changed the opening song, but are you sure they never refered to his lair as “Deep 13” in the course of the show itself during Joel’s run? I could have sworn they did…
At some point, “the not too distant future” was “next Sunday, A.D.” When that was changed to Deep 13 I also don’t know.
Dr. Clayton Forrester’s first assistant was named Dr. Larry Ehrlich. Both names were taken from “War of the Worlds”.
I think I heard the show called Mystery Science 2000 by some of the more clueless announcers of Comedy Central’s schedule. Penn Gillette comes to mind. Maybe that’s the source of the confusion?
The lyrics below come from memory for the Comedy Central/Joel years, so a couple of words may be off. I never took the time to relearn them when Mike took over. I have exactly three episodes on DVD and would like to eventually own them all, but I’m such a completist, I don’t want to do it half-ass with lots of holes (aka, I’d like to get the first season first, then work my way forward). Does anyone have any advice on how I can do this?
In the not too distant future,
Next Sunday A.D.,
There lived a guy named Joel,
Not too different from you or me.
He worked at Gizmonics Institute,
Just another face in red jumpsuit,
He did a good job cleaning up the place,
But his bosses didn’t like him so they shot him into space.
We’ll send him cheesy movies,
The worst we can find (lalala),
He’ll have to sit and watch them all,
And we’ll monitor his mind (lalala).
Now keep in mind Joel can’t control,
Where the movies begin or end (lalala),
Because he used those special parts,
To make his robot friends.
Cambot,
Gypsy,
Tom Servo,
Crowwwwwwwww.
Now you’re wondering how he eats and breathes,
And other science facts, (lalala)
Just repeat to yourself it’s just a show,
You should really just relax.
On Mystery Science Theater 3000
More precisely, from the George Pal movie war of the Worlds . IIRC, H.G. Wells never named the narrator in his book, but the name was certainly used in the film. I don’t actually recally “Larry Ehrlich” in either place.
For What It’s Worth, I coulda sworn that I heard “Deep 13” referred to prior to Joel’s departure, albeit not in the song, of course.
No “Larry Ehrlich” listed on the IMDB page for “War of the Worlds”:
You forgot one line:
It was Deep 13, but Deep 13 was the site of Gizmonics Institute.
The latter term held dominance until Joel left. Joel wanted to retain control of the name, which he had created, so after Joel they shifted the emphasis to Deep 13.
Now that isn’t correct, I’m pretty sure. Deep 13 was deep below Gizmonics Institute. The MADs worked there because they were kicked out of Gizmonics, for, y’know, evil. Deep 13 - subterranean. Gizmonics - er… terranean.
The character’s name was Dr. Laurence Erhardt, not that that helps. An IMDB character search turned up only the MST3K character.
I remember reading he was named after a character from a 50s science fiction film just like Forrester, but maybe it wasn’t also War of the Worlds? I dunno.
And Miller, Mr. Blue Sky, I’m sure Josh Elvis Weinstein would cheerfully agree he wasn’t much of a performer, but he was as clever a writer as anyone else on the show, and was one of its co-creators, so I think we should give him his props regardless.
I ordered some of the earlier shows on tape—Robot Monster, The Ring of Terror, Gamera—and I was disappointed with the long silences and sometimes 8th-grade humor, too. Spoiled by the later shows, when they really got to work and get up and running.
::hijack:: Does anyone know if netfliks carries the MST3K DVDs?
Some of them, at least. I thinkl non-members can browse the Netflix site, though - just use their search window for ‘Mystery Science Theater’.
Well I am a member. At least my wife joined up. I just want to know if I sould push my wife out of the queue when I get back home.