I used to like it when it was trully cheesey with Joel Hodgeson, but the he moved on and then they had more money, Mike Nelson and the kind of cheesieness that money buys and it began to suck(and this was not in the nice way).
You know what’s awful? I would watch Squirm UN-MSTed. I didn’t think it was a terrible movie, and it rocked when the worms were approximately 30 feet deep, lol.
As for the Mike vs Joel debate…eh. If Joel had stayed, you would have heard exactly the same jokes because Mike was still the writer. It’s pointless to get all bent out of shape. I personally like them both for different reasons–maily the relationship with the robots. Joel was like the big brother they looked up to…sure they could be brats, but they still loved him. Mike was the baby-sitter they liked to torment. That equals comedy gold to me.
“Oh… you clever fox. So the editor’s working with you?”
You people seem to know your mst3k so I want to ask, which should I get season 3 or 4?
Although I have probably seen fewer than 10 episodes ever, I have never laughed so hard at a show.
lol scratch that last post and just tell me which season you think would be the best to purchase, preferably one that has a lot of episodes. 
It’s not my sanity I question when I watch “Wild World of Bat Woman”, let me tell you.
The first episode I ever saw was “Lust in the Dust”, not long after I’d seen it for the first time. Much better MSTied. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be one of the ones for sale.
I don’t think you can purchase specific seasons. Since each one has different copyrights (depending on the movies), they only release by episodes.
Unless, of course, they’ve changed that, in which case-WOOHOO!!!
Number of eps per season:
1st & 2nd: 13 eps each
3rd - 6th: 24 eps each
7th: 6 (or 7 if you count the Turkey Day version of #701)
8th: 22 eps
9th & 10th: 13 eps each
The 4th season is probably the best season to start with. Be warned, however, as ep #424 is Manos.
As for the Joel vs Mike thing: I’ve noticed that females tend to choose Joel while guys tend to choose Mike.
Keep in mind that Mike is also responsible for most of the original music for the show.
When they were at KTMA, the theater bits had hardly any scripting and there’s lots of silence. It can be hard to watch at times.
In the first season, the writers were just getting their feet wet so several experiments aren’t as good. Robot Holocaust is the exception. The relentless assault of the lead actress’ accent is hilarious (the Dog One?).
As with any show that runs 10 years, you’re gonna have some eps that aren’t as good as others. Still, on a percentage basis, MST3K stands head and shoulders above shows with similar runs.
The shorts tend to be funnier (Mr. B. Natural is funnier than the entire last 3 seasons of MASH, for example) since they try to jam as many jokes as possible into such a short amount of time.
The sixth box set contains a disc of shorts (Including Mr. B)!
Join us!
While entire seasons will be unlikely to come out (especially due to the animosity between Sandy Frank and Best Brains), you can trade eps (except commercially released ones).
Go the official site and you will find a list of traders.
I think you mean pu-MA-man…
I love MST3K. Favorites of mine:
Shrieking Skull
The Final Sacrifice
Devil Fish: “Man, what an electrician lover”
Wolfgang Puck’s sad demise.
Father: Don’t get smart with me!
Michelle: I’m not getting smart with you.
Mike: I can’t!
What? Because I secrete oil?
And here I thought Mr. Blue Sky was referring to the “Icky Elf” guy and his amazing teleportation ability: “Did anyone notice I’m here now?”
But then it’s easy to get your oily guys mixed up in that movie. You also had dance club owner/narcotics kingpin Leo “Tower of Oil” McCabe; his doppleganger henchman; master safecracker and town drunk of L.A. Harry Blatz (aka “Bob Ovalhead”); Yasser Arafat in a cameo role as a hep-talking pusher…in fact, now that I think about it, was there anyone in that movie who wasn’t oily?
Yeah, that was a good one, all right. By itself, it would probably be a nigh-unwatchable movie; but through the alchemy of Mike and the 'bots, transformed into comedy gold. Thank you, Dr. Forrester. Thank you.
As long as we’re on the subject, I discovered last week that three of the old Best Brains group are working on a radio show entitled “The Film Crew.” So far, all they’ve done is a couple of short segments on NPR, but they’re loads of fun if you’re an MST3K fan. Here’s the official website, and here’s a sample of their recent hilarity.
Actually, I was. You don’t see many teleporting sleazebags in movies anymore.
Well, I’m a guy, and I prefer Joel. That may be because I started watching during Season Two, when Joel was still the host. IMHO, seasons Three and Four were the apex of the entire series. While Mike was brilliant in writing the jokes, I just preferred Joel’s delivery.
My favorite Joel episodes:
Season Two:
[ul]
[li]Sidehackers (the first MST show I ever saw; came across while channel-surfing and stayed there)[/li][li]Rocket Attack USA (“Help me.”)[/li][li]King Dinosaur (mainly for Joel and the 'bots’s “Joey the Lemur” song)[/li][li]Any of the Godzilla movies[/ul][/li]
Season Three[ul]
[li]Any of the Gamera movies[/li][li]Cave Dwellers[/li][li]Pod People (probably my all-time favorite)[/li][li]Time of the Apes[/li][li]Amazing Colossal Man (maybe 2nd favorite)[/li][li]Teenage Caveman (perhaps more for “Catching Trouble,” the short played before the main feature)[/li][li]Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (the best holiday special ever! A Christmas tradition in my house–like Crow says, “There’s no tradition like a new tradition!”)[/li][/ul]
Season Four: [ul]
[li]Attack of the Giant Leeches (kind of like Deliverance but not very good. And with a less-convincing monster)[/li][li]The Killer Shrews[/li][li]Any of the Hercules movies[/li][li]Fire Maidens of Outer Space (movie isn’t very good, but the host segments, with Timmy, Crow’s evil double, are sheer genius. “Let him go, you bitch!”)[/li][li]Manos, the Hands of Fate (need I say more?)[/li][/ul]
Season Five:[ul]
[li]Eegah![/li][li]I Accuse My Parents[/li][li]Mitchell[/ul][/li]
Most of the Season One episodes aren’t very good. I’ve never seen any of the KTMA-TV shows (few people have), but I understand they weren’t very good at all.
I didn’t like the Mike shows as much, except for “The Beast of Yucca Flats” and “Last of the Wild Horses” (the latter good only for the host segments, which brilliantly parody Star Trek’s “Mirror, Mirror”)
I stopped watching regularly after Season Six, when Pearl Forrester replaced the recently-departed (and beloved) TV’s Frank. I’ve only seen one or two episodes on the SciFi channel (you’ll have to turn to others in this thread, like Guinastasia, for advice on those shows).
In my comparison of “Attack of the Giant Leeches” to “Deliverance,” I stated that the former differed from the latter in featuring “a less-convincing monster.” That should have read “a less-than-convincing monster.”
Sorry for the omission.
I was not a fan of Mrs. Forrester at first. When she went completely evil in season 8, she got more tolerable.
The biggest problem with the Sci-Fi years was the seeming necessity to have story arcs. I must admit, I did enjoy watching Mike destroy three planets (including the 2525 Earth).
I figured you were talking about the Icky Elf, but there was also a scene where the Father suddenly appears from the back.
Wait, don’t get oil on the pool table!
I’m Critter.
I don’t know if I’d recommend going that route, as I think the movie is weaker than the show’s better episodes. And it doesn’t have the theme song!
Oh, Skopo, you comparing Attack of the Giant Leeches to Deliverance reminds me…at a party in college we were watching the infamous Manos episode, and realized that has basically the same plot and characters as The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Only without the songs and with much, much more pain.
That was also the party where we realized that the boyfriend of one of my friends looks uncannily like Torgo. Really. They even have the same hat. He was actually the first one to point this out, which was a relief to the rest of us (who had been biting our tongues out of politeness).
I found MST3K: the Movie to be rather disappointing. There didn’t seem much need for it. Other than hearing Servo say “shit” at one point, it didn’t seem much different from a weak episode of the TV series. Besides the fact that “This Island Earth” wasn’t that bad of a film (by MST standards).
Don’t you mean, “deeeeep hurting”?
I think the connection I made between “Attack of the Giant Leeches” and “Deliverance” is a bit weak–resting only on the fact that both films featured hillbillies. But it let me get in a typical MST line–“It’s like [insert classic movie]… only not very good.”
It’s a bit scary, though, when real life begins to resemble an MST film. I hope your friend’s boyfriend can do a good Torgo impersonation. He should do Torgo delivering a pizza (as MST did for one of their host segments): “I’ll get … your…chaaange…”
Mr. Blue Sky, I’ve noticed that shift in the SciFi shows toward story arcs. In fact, it seems that shift began around the time Joel left. During the Joel years, the host segments were usually inspired, however tangentially, by the films they were watching in that episode–“Joey the Lemur,” for instance, was inspired by the presence of a lemur in King Dinosaur. During the Mike years, the host segments were pretty much replaced with a running storyline, which could be very funny (again, I refer one to the “Mirror, Mirror” storyline, during the “Last of the Wild Horses” episode), but usually had no relation to the actual movie/experiment.
I also missed the Invention Exchanges, but since that was such a thoroughly Joel idea (similar to the props he uses in his stand-up routines), I can understand the reason for discontinuing that segment.