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Mystery Science Theater Turns 20
RimmerExperience writes "Hard to believe that Mystery Science Theater 3000 is 20 years old. This NY Times article provides a brief synopsis from the humble but inspired beginnings in a Midwest TV studio, to the making of MST3K: The Movie, to what the creators are up to today. It's interesting that the original creators are still involved in MST3K-style riffing in some way. So if you are looking for your traditional Turkey Day fix, plug in your old VHS, tune into BitTorrent or check out their current projects — Riff Trax (Mike Nelson) or Cinematic Titanic (Joel & Trace). Keep circulating the tapes, er, MPEGs."
Missing from Riff Trax is the robots and I am not talking about that damn toaster.
GYMKATA! I'm huge!
What would Richard Feynman do, if he were here right now? He'd do some math and he'd follow through!
Dr. Hidaka: The war even comes to this Eskimo village. Soon there won't be any peace anywhere.
[Cut to a ship cutting through the ice.]
Joel: There's nothing more tragic than a war in an Eskimo village.
We figured out a long time ago that it's easier to elect seven judges than to elect 132 legislators.
Quickly now children, download them all before they make satire illegal. Wait... my phone's ringing. Hello? What? Oh. Hey guys, I have an announcement to make... Satire is now illegal. The lawyers are calling it a "collection of derivative works" and that it "damages the brand identity". Just kidding. For now. O_o
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
Then it started gettting creepy. Does anyone else notice that the riffs seem to coincide with things that are happening in your life?
Just too coincidental for me. Especially after smoking weed.
Big McLargehuge!
MST3K - ahh, highschool. There was an older show, (on HBO?) I suddenly remember, Where they had comedians sitting on barstools in front of a studio audience, doing much the same - but live. Mostly to old B&W detective stories and mysteries, rather than bad sci-fi/fantasy. Anyone remember the name?
--
Keep One Eye Open on Craiglist.com - Search hundreds of communities from one place with one click
meh
Many of us working in the new music tech company in the old MST3K sound stage are nerd-fans. Crow statuettes abound!
...but it has the emotional development of a 13-year old. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Oh, yeah, it's not easy to pad these out to 120 characters.
"I want to decide who lives and who dies!"
What would Richard Feynman do, if he were here right now? He'd do some math and he'd follow through!
Shout! Factory has come out with a Box Set to mark this occasion, with four new movies and a bunch of extras. I already ordered mine and am thoroughly enjoying Werewolf (1996) complete with Joe Estevez, Emilio's uncle and Martin Sheen's brother. Oh do they rail him for his B-Rated movies in that classic. That DVD alone is worth this box set!
My work here is dung.
"Attack of The Eye Creatures" and the TV premiere of the ninja show "The Master".
I know Joel got off the ship by stranding Mike, but did Mike ever make it off the satellite of love?
Looks like Cinematic Titanic is still bringing the can't help but laugh out loud funny... Favorite clip in the trailers is when they cut to a shot of one of those giant '50's control panel and a voice says "Now THERE's a switch!"
MST3K.. What a perfect blend of the stupidest and most esoteric humor... like Futurama back when IT was funny.
Semi-OT I know, but if you haven't seen "Whatever, Martha!", make a point of looking it up. Martha Stewart's daughter and a friend of hers sit and watch old tapes of the Martha Stewart show and make snarky comments - it reminds me exactly of MST3K - think MST3K meets Martha Stewart. It's a scream!
"Who frames labels in a linen closet?"
"Some flamer framed them."
"How does she keep a straight face?"
"She's thinking how much fun it will be to scream at the crew when the segment's over."
etc.
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
Yes, even better than Manos. Manos is more horrible to behold, but Prince of Space is funny from start to finish, and hits every key sci-fi demo - B&W, bad SFX, awkward costuming, dubbed from Japanese to some weird form of Brooklyn tough guy accent ("I like it VERY MUCH!"), great callbacks (Krankor's laugh, "your weapons are useless against me", bumbling scientists). It was a cinematic goldmine, ably plundered by Mike and the Bots.
RW
Push the button, Frank.
I still like sitting down and making fun of a movie with friends a lot more than watching another group of friends do it.
Whale
Something I loved from my childhood is 20 years old.... am I old?
My votes are for:
myke
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
my personal fave.
Seconded. Since I already see a mention of "Prince of Space" above, I suggest:
Which might actually have been a pretty good sci-fi film if it had made the slightest bit of sense.
Worst. Superhero. Ever.
The tao of democracy: the government you can vote for is not the real government.
It's so evil, so insidious, and it all culminates in.. DEEP HURTING! DEEEEEEPPP HURTING!
What would Richard Feynman do, if he were here right now? He'd do some math and he'd follow through!
MST3k didn't turn 20, it died at 11.
The Simpsons recently turned 20, and Meet the Press just turned 61.
We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese.
The tao of democracy: the government you can vote for is not the real government.
Missing Option: "Danger, Death Ray"
Bapa-dapa-da-da
Commemorative Bot Sex.
Very apropos to MST3k.
Boot Windows, Linux, and ESX over the network for free.
There's no doubt that Prince of Space was more funny than Manos, simply because Manos was god awful.
The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies was far, far worse, though.
("let's use bare hands!")
. . . by enabling the spread of MST3K with no further VHS deterioration. It's frightening for me to think that there are episodes out there I would never be able to see except for that one guy who held onto his VHS copy. Some of the early episodes only played ONCE. Plus, there are all the episodes they can't ever market again thanks to angry rights-holders. What an abused series it was . . .
Tough one. Here are my nominations that haven't been mentioned:
- The Cave Dwellers
- The Mole People
- Manos The Hands of Fate
And let's not leave out some classic short films:
- Mr B Natural
- Hired!
- A Date With Your Family
I am officially gone from
Thank you for mentioning "Teenagers". The only way I'd watch that without it having riffs is... WITH TORTURE!!!!
Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
TFA seems to imply that this was something unique. However, I remember the old Thicke of the Night (Alan Thicke's late night talk show, from back when everybody had one in the early 80's), had a regular bit where about 4 or 5 comedians got together and did the same thing. The only real difference was that it was only a few minutes instead of the duration of an entire B movie. Well...that and nobody was pretending to be a robot.
Since I'm probably the only person still alive who witnessed this, I guess it's safe to claim that Joel and friends invented the concept.
Agent for HARM and Secret Agent Super Dragon were better than Death Ray, IMO.
Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
And let's not leave out some classic short films:
- Mr B Natural
- Hired!
- A Date With Your Family
Great riffs to be found in all of these!
Mr B: You can bet I was in the garden with Mr. & Mrs. Adam!
Crow: You were the snake...
Mr B: Knew your father, I did!
Joel: Hey, you leave my father out of this!
Tom Servo: Hired part II, laid off!
Tom Servo: A date with your family, the Woody Allen Story!
Mike: I like my family as a friend!
Where does the school board find them and why do they keep sending them to ME?
"The Sidehackers": "Side hacking is the thing to do, where it doesn't hurt to have a low IQ!"
"Wild Rebels": "Wild Rebels Cereal! Crunchy Oat Rods! Pouring milk on them is like shooting off a gun!"
"Attack of the giant leaches": "They filmed this in Corman's swimming pool, apparently."
"The Killer Shrews, with junior Rodeo daredevils": "So, are the shrews and the dogs friends?"
What would Richard Feynman do, if he were here right now? He'd do some math and he'd follow through!
"Uhuh.. that's nice.. MOOOOMMMMM!"
"Mom.. Dad, tell me you heard that!?
"You better listen to him Buzz!" Or I'll kill you!
What would Richard Feynman do, if he were here right now? He'd do some math and he'd follow through!
* Warrior of the Lost World
"MegaWeapon"
Mod me down for saying this, but I dislike MST3K. I won't go into whether it's funny - that's for everyone to find out for themselves -, but the show's made it MUCH more difficult to find copies of certain movies if you do NOT want someone else commenting on them.
MST3K can be fun, but sometimes, I want to make fun of bad movies on my own, too...
Pumaman would have to be on that poll. Something about being able to fly when you get the powers of a puma...from a magic belt...awesome.
MST should still be on the air.
The Sci-Fi channel bought the rights, had the show on for a few years and then apparently grew uncomfortable with the fact that technological improvements always make old sci-fi movies look hilarious. And so they killed it. I guess they couldn't stand to have a great show continue to ridicule their current programming.
Interestingly, they have been adamant about defending the trademark of the show they killed:
http://www.mst3kinfo.com/?p=55
"In its filing, Best Brains Inc., which owns the âoeMystery Science Theater 3000â trademark, claims âoeMr. Sinus,â which was previously known as âoeMr. Sinus Theater 3000â and in which Pollet, Egerton and Erler sit in the cinemaâ(TM)s front row, poking fun at bad movies, is infringing on its trademark.
The show has run since September 2002, and regularly sells out."
I'm going with Mitchell. That and Eegah are the only ones I liked enough to buy the DVD.
There is no theory of evolution. Just a list of animals Chuck Norris allows to live.
Actually it's "Attack of the The Eye Creatures". Yes, "the" actually appears twice on the title screen.
They just didn't care.
Bow-ties are cool.
Yes, even better than Manos. Manos is more horrible to behold, but Prince of Space is funny from start to finish
What's that? What did you say?
(Ah, literal translation of Japanese idioms...)
My favorite was at the end, when Phantom is sending the scientists to their overly-elaborate deaths...
"Each of you will board a space capsule."
"What?"
Servo: "Oh, for crying out loud... EACH OF YOU WILL BOARD A SPACE CAPSULE!"
Of course, "I'll throw my doll at you!" was great, too...
Bow-ties are cool.
In deciding the best MST3K ep ever, there is only one name to know. Greatness, thy name is Mitchell, the long flabby arm of the law! Butter, alcoholism, and incompetence never produced a more entertaining member of the law enforcement profession.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Cave Dwellers is my personal favorite...
"How much Keeffe is in this movie?"
"Miles O'Keeffe!"
or
"Quick--run with me, friend, towards the danger!"
Another fave riff from Attack of the Neptune Men.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jt02kBH7-W0
I second Mitchell. Dump Skydivers. Cave Dwellers was far better (worse?).
"Dad, what's the matter" - "I'm all out of blue stuff".
"Come" (crow):"To WHERE THE CAMERA MOVED TO".
BBI is the production company started by Jim and Joel and has nothing to do with the Sci-Fi channel. I would agree that the Sci-Fi channel had a hand in killing MST3K, but they did not sue Mr. Sinus.
Hell is other people's code.
Oh, man... my choice has to be "Giant Spider Invasion" from season 8: Alan "The Skipper from Gilligan's Island" Hale, his sister Barbara "Della Street from Perry Mason" Hale and paunchy character actor Steve Brodie as named protagonists, stumbling their way through some vintage early-70s ineptitude, hobbled further by serious "made-for-TV" production "values", and featuring the cheapest, fakiest monster EVER (yes, *worse* even than the Eye Creatures). This is a gold mine of ridicule-fodder for Mike and the Bots. The side-story focusing on the repulsive white-trash hick family inspires some of the finest heckling ever to issue forth from The First Row.
And because director Bill Rebane set the movie in Gleason, Wisconsin, the Minnesota-based cast of MST3K gets all the ammo they need to take broad cold-blooded potshots at their neighboring state (rioting mob sequences in the movie + repeated allusions to the Green Bay Packers from Mike & Bots = utter hilarity)
You'll find "GSI" in the tenth boxed set, the one which originally included the classic "Godzilla v. Megalon" --a.k.a. Jet Jaguar--- which was pulled and re-issued, with Giant Gila Monster replacing the Godzilla movie, when licensing issues regarding the latter could not be overcome.
I recall seeing a website for a vidyagame that the MST3000 cast were making, and the artwork for a lot of it was being done by none other than one of the great legends of comic book and fantasy art, Richard Corben. It was supposed to be similar to the 7th Guest, but in outer space... I think.
Other than that, the last time I ever saw an MST3000 alumni was Frank appearing on a short-lived Comedy Central show called Make Me Laugh. And if the space bar on my keyboard squeaks one more time I'm going tAAAAAAARRRRRRRFGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH GOD DAMNIT
MST5000! That's Hot!
Learn About Outsourcing. http://www.pioutsource.com
It was created by students at the U of Denver and called High Street -- a double entendre on the street address of the school and the default condition of the participants.
It ran at 10 PM Fridays, simultaneously with the evening movie on Channel 2, a non-network TV station. You were instructed to turn on the movie with the sound off, and High Street would supply the dialogue.
The guys were insanely creative. They might stumble for a bit until they'd established a plot premise, but then they were off and running, with improvisations that would keep even perfectly straight people in stitches...eventually they graduated and there was nobody to carry it on.
rj
Santa Claus Conquers the Martians - "Open up your hearts and let the Patrick Swayze Christmas in" - A Christmas classic, so popular the movie itself got aired on TBS a few years later
Cave Dwellers - it typifies all the early 80's Conan knockoffs
Pod People - "Good, He's the best"..."It Stinks"
Mitchell - "Mitchell"
Sidehackers - "Side hacking is the thing to do..."
BTW Season 3 was amazing
D6 63 0D 70 89 81 BB 8E 7B 7C 5F 5D 54 EA AB 73
Not all movies lent themselves well to being made fun of. There's a special kind of awful that lets you make fun of it thoroughly from beginning to end.
Some of my favorites through and through:
1. Attack of the the Eye Creatures
2. Pod People
3. Manos, Hands of Fate (some say it was too bad to be funny, I say it was just bad enough)
4. Warrior of the Lost World (Megaweapon!)
5. Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (probably my all-time favorite)
6. Creepy Mexican Santa Movie
7. Beginning of the End (the one with the giant grasshoppers)
8. Alien from LA (Kathy Ireland's ditziest role ever)
What are your personal favs?
Personal strangest MST3K moment: seeing the A-ha "Take On Me" video and realizing that the racers attacking the singers were side-hacking. I had no idea that was a real sport, I thought people just made it up.
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
Going off to the store!
Dannah nah nah nah nah!
Gonna pick up some bread!
Dannah nah nah nah nah!
Take Delores to lunch!
Dannah nah nah nah nah!
Hope they're serving that ham
Oh yeah....
Just to chime in:
Each year I go to one of the most popular riffing festivals: B-Fest! It's held at Northwestern University near Chicago, and it's a BLAST! 24 hours of a whole theater FULL of people riffing on stuff. There's the annual Plan 9 showing, and all sorts of shenanigans.
Riffing is alive and well, and not just being done by the MST3K crew. Rifftrax is even offering people their own chance to riff through iRiffs.
-
I only discovered MST3k from the internet and people talking about it, so I did some searching, downloaded a couple of shows and was instantly hooked...then downloaded [i]everything[/i] I could and thoroughly enjoyed most of it.
Probably what's more funny is that I own some of the VHS's of the sci-fi films they ripped into so it was a delight to watch them with the SOL crew.
Two of my favourite episodes are "Overdrawn at the Memory Bank" and "Space Mutiny" (I have the original VHS, they cut the MST3k version, no boobies!)
What are people's reccomendations of episodes to introduce friends to?
To do something right, you often have to roll up your sleeves and get busy.
[as best as memory serves]
Scientist 1 [played by Lloyd Bridges, as he's looking out the rocket porthole at the mooon]: You know, the moon can have a powerful effect on people.
Scientist 2 [frigid European hottie]: It can? So are you immune?
Scientist 1 [as inserted by MST3k]: No, I'm Lloyd. That's the myoon.
Mr Sinus lives on as Master Pancake Theater, several times a week at the Alamo Drafthouse Ritz
Ceci n'est pas un post.
All good choices, but no love for "Girl in Gold Boots"? I love when the Regis looking "heavy" just magically appears in the middle of the shot in the diner.
-William Shatner can be neither created nor destroyed.
And his stalwart companion, Duke of Puddles!
More seriously, Prince of Space and Invasion of the Neptune Men are my favorite episodes, I think. What were the Japanese thinking, showing those to kids?
BTW, I've tried researching it (lazily, on the Internet), but does anybody have *any* information on the Hitler Building? What the heck was the deal? Why was it still Hitler-themed years after the war ended? You'd think the American GIs would pull that that facade.
Comment of the year
The best concept (and worst execution) has to go to "Parts: the Clonus Horror."
The modern action flick "The Island" is based on the same premise, in fact the writer of Parts even sued IIRC. It's kind of a shame that the movie *could* be great, bringing up philosophical and ethical issues, yet one production of it was all-around terrible, and the other just focused on explosions and action scenes.
Comment of the year
I figured I needed to post because of my name.
But I'd say the best episodes to catch are:
(1) Deathstalker
(2) Mitchell
(3) Prince of Space
(4) The Movie
(5) Soultaker
--- The crows seemed to be calling his name, thought Caw.
TFA:
I never heard this. What was the ambitious stuff he wanted to try?
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
Truly one of Man's greatest achievements since the moon landing. If only Comedy Central would have a heart and grace us with this grand tradition once again...
(I can't begin to tell you how much sleep I missed over these multi-day extravaganzas during the 90's!)
8==8 Bones 8==8
http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/3748710/Mystery_Science_Theater_3000_Complete
Steady as she goes, we're flying over trout,
Ghetto down the highway, at the speed of light,
All I want to feel now is the wind in my eye!
Sack of monkeys in my pocket,
My sister's ready to go,
Hear the engines roll now (Hear the engines roll now)
Idiot control now (Idiot control now)
Hideous control now (Hideous control now)
Nini on the road now (nini on the road now)
Nini in control, wheels on fire, burning rubber tires!
Where's my "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians"?!?? It's a classic! I watch that MST3K'ed version every year around December without fail -- That and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.
(And I'll probably get modded way down for saying it.)
Well, the song's good but it could really use a hook.
What do you think?
It stinks!
Space Mutiny
The Final Sacrifice
Pumaman
The Day the Earth Froze: "Have the log back by ten. AND STAY OUT OF MY SISTER!"
Xenon, where's my money? -Borno
The Digital Archive Project is still going strong.
If anyone needs me, I'll be in the Angry Dome.
"The blood of Uranus can NEVER be healed!"
"EWWWW!"
Bow-ties are cool.