# The Ultimate MST3K Thread **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 2, 2005, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ultimate-mst3k-thread/306555 "2005-06-02T15:40:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 17
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2005, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ultimate-mst3k-thread/306555/321 "2005-08-08T00:14:47Z")
_Pod People_ (“It’s got nothing to do with pods, nothing to do with people, and _everything_ to do with _hurting_.”) and _Cave Dwellers_ (“Cah-vay Dwellers? Who’s he?”) are both terrific. I’ve gotta get me another box set soon… ---
**Author:** ![Nonsuch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonsuch/32/2922_2.png) [@Nonsuch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nonsuch)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2005, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ultimate-mst3k-thread/306555/322 "2005-08-08T14:28:38Z")
The [poll results](http://www.mst3kinfo.com/poll.html) are in! The big winners? **The Puma Man** (“Does that sound right to you?”) and **The Final Sacrifice** (“Rowzdower!”). Both excellent choices—let’s hope Rhino can make them happen. ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2005, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ultimate-mst3k-thread/306555/323 "2005-08-08T14:48:17Z")
The pool seems slanted towards the Scifi years a bit - ah well. Wow! Checking Satellite News tells me Mike Nelson is appearing in Columbus at the end of August at the Shadowbox Theater… I’ve been there! Wish I could go see… stupid work. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2005, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ultimate-mst3k-thread/306555/324 "2005-08-08T14:57:54Z")
> [@Nonsuch](#): > > The [poll results](http://www.mst3kinfo.com/poll.html) are in! The big winners? **The Puma Man** (“Does that sound right to you?”) and **The Final Sacrifice** (“Rowzdower!”). Both excellent choices—let’s hope Rhino can make them happen. I’m surprised that Monster-a-go-go did so well. I mean, that movie _sucked_ and all the riffing was barely able to cover the crappiness. But I am VERY happy at the prospect of replacing my worn tapes of Puma Man (“Vadinho, are you an onion?”) and Final Sacrifice (“This music is better suited for plate spinning.”) ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2005, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ultimate-mst3k-thread/306555/325 "2005-08-08T17:28:28Z")
> [@CandidGamera](#): > > The pool seems slanted towards the Scifi years a bit - ah well. Must have been a bigger audience than when on CC. I still maintain the last Joel Season and the first Mike Season were the best, with the edge going to Joel. Yeah, I know Mike was a writer for the Joel stuff, but Joel really had a way about his presentation, ya know? ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2005, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ultimate-mst3k-thread/306555/326 "2005-08-08T17:29:56Z")
> [@NoClueBoy](#): > > Must have been a bigger audience than when on CC. I still maintain the last Joel Season and the first Mike Season were the best, with the edge going to Joel. Yeah, I know Mike was a writer for the Joel stuff, but Joel really had a way about his presentation, ya know? I must not be drawn into a Mike vs. Joel debate, especially with someone who is so clearly irrational. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2005, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ultimate-mst3k-thread/306555/327 "2005-08-08T17:41:43Z")
The riffing bacame sharper and a little hipper after Joel left. That improved things in my opinion. Also, despite the interference of the sci-fi channel, the later seasons were more polished. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2005, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ultimate-mst3k-thread/306555/328 "2005-08-08T17:49:17Z")
Polish!? English wasn’t good enough for them!? ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2005, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ultimate-mst3k-thread/306555/329 "2005-08-08T17:53:18Z")
Also, I think the JvM debate positions have more to do with who was the host when you first were exposed to the magic of MST3K. I saw it from the start of the first CC season up thru when it left for SFC. So, to me it’s a lot like the Kirk vs Picard debate. Yeah, Picard may be smarter and played by a better actor, but I still like the irrational ripped shirt Kirk best. Generation gap. ---
**Author:** ![Nonsuch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonsuch/32/2922_2.png) [@Nonsuch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nonsuch)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2005, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ultimate-mst3k-thread/306555/330 "2005-08-08T17:53:50Z")
> [@Hypno-Toad](#): > > The riffing bacame sharper and a little hipper after Joel left. That improved things in my opinion. I wonder how much of that was due to the influence of Bill Corbett, who came in at the end of the sixth season. ---
**Author:** ![cbawlmer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@cbawlmer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cbawlmer)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2005, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ultimate-mst3k-thread/306555/331 "2005-08-08T17:54:09Z")
Aren’t the earlier seasons more well-represented among the DVDs that have already been released? I didn’t go back and count them all, but I think the majority of the existing DVDs (either in single discs or box sets) are Joel episodes, and he made fewer episodes than Mike, IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2005, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ultimate-mst3k-thread/306555/332 "2005-08-08T18:04:43Z")
> [@cbawlmer](#): > > Aren’t the earlier seasons more well-represented among the DVDs that have already been released? I didn’t go back and count them all, but I think the majority of the existing DVDs (either in single discs or box sets) are Joel episodes, and he made fewer episodes than Mike, IIRC. They’re actually almost even… Joel got 13+13+24+24+12 = 86; Mike got 12+24+6+22+13+13 = 90. (not counting KTMA era episodes, which would push Joel up by 22 more.) 18 of Joel’s are collected; 18 of Mike’s are collected with 2 more announced as ‘in the pipeline’. (Not counting Amazing Colossal Man, which got pulled due to a rights snafu) ---
**Author:** ![cbawlmer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@cbawlmer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cbawlmer)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2005, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ultimate-mst3k-thread/306555/333 "2005-08-08T18:10:15Z")
Wow, I never realized the numbers were so close. I do think I voted for mostly Mike episodes in this poll. I like both Joel and Mike, but if I had to pick a favorite I’d go with Mike so I guess it makes sense. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2005, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ultimate-mst3k-thread/306555/334 "2005-08-08T18:22:49Z")
But I agree that the changeover from Joel to Mike was during the “Golden Era.” And both are just as good. It’s really the movie and the riffing rather than who’s saying it. I mean, it seems to me that the host sequences didn’t make or break the episode. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2005, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ultimate-mst3k-thread/306555/335 "2005-08-08T18:57:03Z")
> [@CandidGamera](#): > > The pool seems slanted towards the Scifi years a bit - ah well. > > Wow! Checking Satellite News tells me Mike Nelson is appearing in Columbus at the end of August at the Shadowbox Theater… I’ve been there! Wish I could go see… stupid work. They said that they had people choose from “eligable” episodes. I don’t know how they defined that, but if they only included episodes for which Rhino has rights, that would cause a strong lean toward the Sci-Fi years. ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2005, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ultimate-mst3k-thread/306555/336 "2005-08-08T19:04:06Z")
> [@Smeghead](#): > > They said that they had people choose from “eligable” episodes. I don’t know how they defined that, but if they only included episodes for which Rhino has rights, that would cause a strong lean toward the Sci-Fi years. The poll included Sandy Frank films - I think Gamera came in in the top ten, in fact. ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2005, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ultimate-mst3k-thread/306555/337 "2005-08-10T13:31:59Z")
[AKA : 1984 - A Space Odyssey](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070742/) While the title of this little failed TV pilot might seem ironic for Joel, the movie itself doesn’t play out that way. We start off with a dueling invention exchange, as Joel and Dr. F go back and forth showing sound-effect-flag toy weapons. Once again, the credits sequence is superimposed on clips taken from a _completely_ different movie. Our protagonist, Neal, is an astronaut who, thanks to an accident, ends up the lone survivor of his space mission, crashed on a twin of Earth that orbits on the opposite side of the sun, aka Terra, aka ‘Planet of the Plymouth Furies’. It’s run by ‘the Perfect Order’, and is something of an Orwellian socialist dystopia. They get a lot of mileage out of the ‘twin of Earth’ thing, and as Crow comments, ‘Space looks like Sacramento!’ The thing’s loaded with second-rate TV stars, inspiring a second-rate TV stars trading cards host segment. It includes some random, sudden fade-to-blacks, and the crew starts to leave at each one, only to be ‘surprised’ as the movie continues. Once, as an old man injects himself with medicine they use (for the first, or _possibly_ second time - may have heard it once before and forgot to note it) ‘Nyaho, that’s some good smack!’ If you haven’t heard it, imagine it in an exaggerated Jerry Lewis-esque voice. I have to say, despite the disadvantage of being a failed TV pilot, full of second-rate actors, from the 70’s… it wasn’t THAT bad a movie. Better than a lot of what we see on MST anyway. Other host segments include a bit where the crew chews scenery while playing at being second-rate TV villains - which includes a cameo by Tibby the Turtle… and the final segment, which is Tommy Servo - Exec Producer. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2005, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ultimate-mst3k-thread/306555/338 "2005-08-10T15:12:37Z")
I thought “Stranded in Space” was the retitled version of “Marooned” – the high-budget Gregory Peck space movie. Guess I was wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2005, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ultimate-mst3k-thread/306555/339 "2005-08-10T15:14:07Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > I thought “Stranded in Space” was the retitled version of “Marooned” – the high-budget Gregory Peck space movie. Guess I was wrong. That was “Space Travellers”. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2005, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ultimate-mst3k-thread/306555/340 "2005-08-10T15:15:49Z")
> [@CandidGamera](#): > > Once, as an old man injects himself with medicine they use (for the first, or _possibly_ second time - may have heard it once before and forgot to note it) ‘Nyaho, that’s some good smack!’ If you haven’t heard it, imagine it in an exaggerated Jerry Lewis-esque voice. Actually, they’re imitating Floyd Turbo, a character that Johnny Carson used to play on the “Tonight Show.” Floyd was a salesman from the days when mid-morning movies would be hosted by aluminum siding companies and the like as a precursor to our modern infomercials. Often, he would sample the product and give the famous, “Wha-ho! That’s good [whatever].” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ultimate-mst3k-thread/306555.md?page=16) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ultimate-mst3k-thread/306555.md?page=18)