Me too, Capt Lance. In my case, I started watching during the SciFi years–so it’s probably just what I’m familiar with. I couldn’t miss Trace or Joel, not having seen much of them. I’ve picked up a dozen or so Rhino’s and share-the-tapes, so I have some basis for comparison: and I like Mike better. (although the shorts are pricelesss)
I think season 8 was a golden age. parts: the clonus horror, Incredibly Strange Creatures…, Prince of Space, Space Mutiny, Giant Spider Invasion are all excellent. Best overall episode, though, may be season 9’s Wuhrwilf.
No, no, you’re all wrong. The show died after TV’s Frank left.
I tended to prefer Joel, although Mike kind of grew on me (after all, he had been head writer since the second season, IIRC–so the style of the humor didn’t change so much as the delivery). But I really stopped watching after TV’s Frank left. Since the show moved to Sci-Fi, I’ve seen a couple of the Sci-Fi shows, and while the movie commentary still had some funny moments, the other segments (with the 'bots or with Mrs. Forrester) just didn’t seem very good.
Personally, I loved the Gamera movies (especially the Gamera song), though my favorite episode was probably “Pod People” (“Trumpy, you can do magic things!”).
“Trumpy, you can do stupid things!”
“What gives? I’m on the milk carton”
I also like the episode with Overdrawn at the Memory Bank. It’s shown on the Sci-Fi channel and it stars Raul Julia as some idiot in the future obsessed by the movie Casablanca.
I’ve seen every single episode ever made. Including the really bad KTMA episodes (except for the couple of episodes for which there is no known public tape in existence). And I’m a Mike fan. I agree the Sci-Fi host segments were embarassingly bad, but for my money, those were the funniest movie commentaries. The two funniest episodes were “Final Sacrifice” and “Space Mutiny”.
I like Mike better too. That’s not to say I dislike Joel. I simply prefer Mike if I have to pick. There isn’t an era I particularly dislike, though I wish they could’ve done more shorts in later years. Happily, many of those are available on DVD now, so I can OD on them at will.
We just watched Space Mutiny and Girl in the Gold Boots last night. Good times.
I discovered the show right before Joel left, although in reruns I’ve seen plenty of Joel episodes. I like both hosts a lot. I thought the host segments in the first Sci-Fi season were fantastic. It was just such inspired lunacy to have Mike accidentally become death the destroyer of worlds, plus the “Mad Goth” sequence in ancient Rome. The best ever, though, had to be the Public Pearl telethon from “Overdrawn at the Memory Bank,” in particular the duet between Pearl and Observer.
In later seasons they tried to return to something like the original premise with Pearl and her henchmen actively pursuing mad science out of Castle Forrester, but I liked the ramble of Season 7 better – Pearl was a less interesting character to me when she was a Dr. Forrester replacement – in Season 7, she kept up the experiment mostly ‘cuz she had nuthin’ better to do and she enjoyed the sadism of it.
Space Mutiny was a fantastic episode – the high-speed floor waxer chase alone was worth the price of admission.
“He triiiiiiiiiiiiiied to kill me with a forklift!”
“Waffles! <whistle>”
(You can get a lovely selection of sound clips here.
My favorite, as I think I’ve mentioned before, was the short “Catching Trouble” where an obnoxious “naturalist” knocks a bear cub out of a tree, and in the host segment they violently abuse an action figure representing the naturalist from the film. My friend and I literally fell off the couch, rolled on the floor, peed ourselves, and burst into flames. Well, not literally. I also really liked the short about the kid getting lost at the circus; truly demeted.
You know Beaulieu writes for America’s Funniest Home Videos now, right? It’s mildly amusing to watch the show and hear a really off-kilter joke, and think, Hey, I bet Trace wrote that.
TV’s Frank wrote (and/or Produced?) for Sabrina the Teenage Witch. There was an episode where Sabrina’s boyfriend falls under some sort of spell and is turned into a nerd. The first thing he does is turn to the camera and say “Suddenly I wish I had every single episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.”
After seeing the show’s popularity on the board I ordered “The Brain That Wouldn’t Die” a couple of months ago and found that it was indeed excellent. Got the first collection a few months later and (luckily) was able to tape the Movie off the telly while waiting for its delivery.
Though I’ve only seen a few episodes I really do like this show and am only frustrated by the sparcity of available episodes on dvd (VHS no being an option without a, new, NTSC compatible television.)
Another “Space Mutiny” fan over here. You know some people compare this scene to the famous chariot race in Ben Hur. They say “Ben Hur was really good. This totally sucks.”
I have a bit of a bias for this show in that my backwards ass hometown didn’t get Comedy Central until 1999, so I never got to see any episodes until it hit the Sci-Fi channel. Therefore, I was raised on Mike and he’s my favorite.
Anybody else love the “Leech Woman” episode? The entire Safari scene is pure gold.
Favorite seasons: 3-6
Fav episodes:
White Jungle Goddess (“Looks like they all just got out of the shower.”)
Zombie Nightmare (“She’s hiding behind a WINDOW!”)
Angel’s Revenge (“Hey, it’s a wet teacher contest.”)
<sigh> I missed several seasons what with moving from house to house and state to state. Finally picked back up on them during the SciFi years and have about two season’s worth on tape. Missing some of the best eps, including Werewolf. Have never seen most of season 4-6. I would exchange serious sexual favors for tapes of those missing eps (or at least cover the cost of tapes).
