“Waahh! He resents my dune buggy!”
I’m curious here. Regarding “Keep circulating the tapes” and all that other fun stuff…what is the legality of MST3K eps, newsgroups, torrents, etc?
It seems like permission, but is it?
-Joe
BBI (Best Brains, MST’s production company) cannot legally permit people to privately distribute the episodes. However, they turn a good-faith blind eye to it as long as people don’t copy the episodes legally released by Rhino, a restriction most traders are very good about observing.
Sorry folks, no new report yet - I fell ill suddenly yesterday evening, and in fact am missing work today. On the bright side, I should be able to catch at least one episode today to report on.
Right. They technically only own the rights to the part of the show they wrote - the film companies still own the rights to the original movies and have to give their permission for any distribution.
While not as energetically riffed as 1.02, this mad scientist/werewolf film does get a pretty good drubbing. Here we see the prototype of the Chief/McCloud gag used often in later episodes:
(shot of a swamp/jungle set with lots of fog)
<Crow?>Skipper!
<Tom?>Little Buddy!
(repeat, ad nauseam)
Meanwhile, outside the theater, the Mads give us a little insight into their Mad Origins, and Joel, inspired by the film, hybridizes Crow and Tom, creating (wait for it) Servo-Crowations.
I must admit to a bias – I’ve never seen anything from Season 1, because I’m not sure I could deal with someone else doing Servo. I have a hard enough time with Joel (I was introduced to the show during the Mike Era).
Although I believe the show really didn’t hit its stride until Season 2, there’s a lot to be said for a good part of Season 1, especially “Black Scorpion”, “Robot Holocaust”, “The Crawling Hand” and “Untamed Youth”. As far as someone else as Tom, I felt the same apprehension when Bill Corbett took over as Crow in Season 8. I found, however, that if you can get past your admitted bias and concentrate on what’s going on in the episode, after a while, you may hardly notice the difference. BTW, “Crawling Eye” and “Mad Monster” are two of my favorite 50’s cheapies, and the only two MST’s I have never seen! (Hint, hint)(sad puppy dog look). 
It is disconcerting, especially because the voice for Servo in the first season is so much more powerful than Joel’s often mealy-mouthed mumblings, so the dynamic is less “Joel and the Bots” and more “Tom Servo and pals”. At least, in the theater.
I really don’t like Dr. Erhardt.
Kevin Murphy said that when he took over as the voice for Servo, someone sent him a four-foot long banner printed out (on one of the old connecting dot-matrix printers, no doubt!) saying in huge letters: I HATE TOM SERVO’S NEW VOICE.
He hung it over his desk and said, “Good for you-sending hate mail to a puppet.”
Which proves my previous point: while everyone is apprehensive of change, they can either give it a chance or reject it out-of-hand.However, the pre-KM Servo would probably never: 1.Have an underwear collection 2.Played Dog and Bear with Crow 3.Watched Crow do a strip-tease with “A roll of singles the size of a pork roast!” I realize I’m debating the personality traits of a puppet, but WTF, I’m just trying to keep the thread going! 
I watched Gunslinger last night. Someone made reference to an exchange in there earlier:
JOEL: At least I have a soul
SERVO: Suuure you do.
That host segment - they were all in coffins, discussing death - may’ve been the funniest part of the episode. Best comment goes to Joel: “This movie is sitting on my head and crushing it.” In second place is Dr. Forrester, who says before the movie - while he’s trying to blow of Frank’s head by scanning it - “This is a Roger Corman movie, so your heads may explode before Frank’s does.”
Okay, first - the title is entirely misleading. Sigh.
This is a fantastic episode. It honestly felt as good as some of the best Joel episodes I’ve seen. It’s my new pick for favorite first season episode, so far. Joel’s very dynamic in this one - he actual overdoes the schtick of “getting up and pretending to interact with objects on screen” a bit.
This is the first nationally-broadcast MST3K movie in color; and this episode also sees another important first - it begins their series long “collaboration” with John Agar. This episode is also the origin of the often-referenced Karate-yell, ‘Hi-keeba!’
Meanwhile, outside the theater, Joel and the Bots deal with the Isaac Asimov Literary Doomsday Device, pleasantly voiced by Michael J. Nelson.
Signature Riff : “Don’t just do something, stand there!”
MST3K 1.05 - The Corpse Vanishes
We open with the Mads this time, not Joel - very strange. In this one, and the next one, the Bots are already in the theater when Joel enters after the first host segment. Guess theyt were still playing with the format.
Bela Lugosi, as the Mads put it, stews in his own mediocrity in this one. When Tom is asked to name a good thing about the movie after its over, his head blows up!
MST3K 1.06 - The Crawling Hand
The earliest of the DVD releases. The text on the back of the case is really unkind to Larry Erhardt, but I suppose that’s justified. Joel and the Bots have some fun with prosthetic hands and Shatner impressions.
Alan Hale, Jr. stars, so the Gilligan’s Island references compete with the hand puns for airtime.
Signature Riff:
<Crow> He looks like a cross between Jerry Mathers and James Dean.
<Tom> “Beaver Without a Cause.”
I watched Horror of Party Beach last night. Wonderful episode.
In the exciting climax, we flip-flop between day and night (minor continuity problem), causing my favorite riff: “Meanwhile, later yesterday afternoon…”
“Why don’t you just throw cans of Campbell’s soup at them? That’s got lots of sodium!”
Gee, it’s too bad a person can’t send you email through the board. People can send me emails through the board.
<hijack>
That file is now in the public domain and you can grab a copy over at archive.org
</hijack>
I’d just like to note that I discovered, via Satellite News, that this Wednesday a library in my town is showing an MST3K episode, Prince of Space, in the community room. Free admission, free candy and popcorn. I am so there.
Josh actually does a good Servo. The character he plays in the host segments, Dr. Erhardt, is pretty annoying, and doesn’t hold a candle to Frank. But his Servo is surprisingly good, and has a very good facility for puns.
The Prince of Space - I LIKE IT VERY MUCH!