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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."
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.
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!
Ah yes I think you are thinking of Mad Movies.
"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?
SPOILER ALERT!
In Danger:Diabolik, the very last episode, they do make it back to earth in a crash landing. The funniest part is Tom Servo blowing up all the extra Tom Servos they've accumulated over the years. At the end, the three share a one-bedroom apartment and settle into eat popcorn and--you guessed it--riff on a cheesy movie on TV. Speculation: Someone told me that that was the first movie they had ever riffed before but I can't verify it and I don't think that's true with the KTMA episodes.
My work here is dung.
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
Actually the movie in question was The Crawling Eye. And it was the first movie watched by J&TB when MST3K made its way into Cable TV.
Attack of The The Eye Creatures (not a typo, look at the movie title card) was in the latter half of season 4, MST3K's heyday.
I still miss Turkey Day to this date, I didn't have cable TV (back in the late 80s/early 90s, it was difficult to get new service if you didn't own your home, and even if you DID have cable, there was only a 20% chance they carried The Comedy Channel/Comedy Central), so I was only able to watch an episode of it while visiting a friends house. Being able to download everything helped immensely.
Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
Yes, in the very last episode of season 10. Mike and the bots are brought to a fiery crash landing due to a malfunction of Pearl Forrester' joystick. They survive and end up watching the very first bad movie ever riffed by MST3K.
ever riffed by MST3K on cable... important distinction...
But, of course, not many people saw the KTMA run, so really The Crawling Eye is where most of us remember the show starting...
This being the 20th anniversary of the show, I really wish they'd finally dig out some copies of those first couple of KTMA episodes and release 'em. Those are the only episodes in the entire run that aren't available online.
Bow-ties are cool.
Is that you, Rowsdower?
Your mind is clear / The things that you fear / Will fade with how much you / Believe what you hear
...He tried to kill him with a forklift...
Bow-ties are cool.
like Futurama back when IT was funny.
So, today, in other words. Cause Futurama is still funny.
"16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
At a recent convention, a lot of the MST3k alumn met and showed the pilot episode(complete with Beeper, the precursor to Tom Servo). Its on DAPCENTRAL(dapcentral.org), you should give it a gander, but keep in mind that it pretty rough around the edges.
Monstar L
Actually, I hate to give him this credit, but the earliest example I am aware of doing something in a SOMEWHAT similar vein as MST was Woody Allen's What's Up, Tiger Lily.
(though I am sure someone else will pipe in with something earlier ans no one hit the perfect recipe for this like Joel did)
---"What did I say that sounded like 'Tell me about your day?'"---
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.
Futurama is still funny...
...and Dave Matthews TOTALLY Rocks... I'm with you dude!
oh, and Indy 4... Well that's just a story that HAD to be told!
Yeah... i'm not usually confrontational, but you're gonna need to open your doe eyes and let in some harsh reality... World hoarding stereotypical jews and bisexual tentacle monsters are just hollow reminders of Jurassic Bark and Godfellas. Most of us would agree you can tell the difference between passion for the writing and "wow you mean i can still get a check for that?"
Another fave riff from Attack of the Neptune Men.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jt02kBH7-W0
Funny thing is, MST3K's first day on KTMA is probably one of the most memorable days of my life, but not because of MST3K. I was sick with the worst case of strep throat I've ever had along with a high fever, and I couldn't go to the doctor because it was turkey day (plus my parents had company over). Between bouts of sleep (that never lasted long because of the pain) I was flipping through the channels on the TV in my room and I came across the show. I missed about the first 10 minutes and wasn't sure what was going on with the people in front. The jokes weren't funny or didn't make much sense to me for about the next 20-30 minutes before I realized they were trying to be funny (and I remember that joke was funny).
The jokes really were hit-and-miss early on. I think I missed episode 2 and maybe 3 (I thought it was a one-off and didn't realize it was a series), but I remember the second one I saw was better than the first and it generally improved from there.
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.
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!
"The blood of Uranus can NEVER be healed!"
"EWWWW!"
Bow-ties are cool.