The Obligatory Mystery Science Theatre 3000 Thread

[bigsleepj]

Let us all bask in its greatness.

So, who of you have watched on TV, or still watch on VHS or DVD Mystery Science Theatre 3000, the show where three guys in a movie theatre give a running commentary on what is arguably some of the worst movies ever made.

For those not in the know, the essentially irrelevant premise is that a normal human and two robots are trapped in a sattelite above the earth and are being forced to watch bad movies as part of a scientific experiment. It may sound bizarre, but it's funnier if you watch it. The movies they comment on are real movies (I don't believe you can deliberately make something like Manos the way it appears in the series) made ernestly to be horror or various genre movies, only to be miserably bad. It has shown in England and South Africa on the Sci-Fi channel, but I'm not sure about the rest of the world.





My favourite Episode (of what little I've seen) is definitely Manos: The Hands of Fate.
Favourite Host in the Theatre: Joel Hodgeson
Favourite Host with the In-Between Sketches: Mike Nelson
Worst movie: Definitely Monster A-Go-Go.

What's your thoughts on the series?

[mitsuki lover]

Never watched it but I know it was terribly popular in it's hey day.It was started on a local PBS station in Minnesota before Sci Fi discovered it and it went from there.
It introduced a whole new generation to some of the best of the worst of the B movies of the past.

[R. Zion]

Little Girl: Daddy, where's my puppy?

Crow: Your puppy's compost, kid!

I haven't completed my collection, but I have a good many of the DVD sets and have watched MST3K for a while on WinAmp. Even downloaded the movie off of Limewire.

Tom: Ahhh, it's the haunting Torgo theme...

[Puguni]

I think, if I could have any job in the world, I would want to be one of the guys in MST3K making fun of the movies. I watched it just before it was canceled on Sci-Fi, but I want to see more. Does anyone know if it shows on public television again?

[ShiroiHikari]

I love this show and I haven't seen nearly as much of it as I'd like. (It used to come on early on Saturday morning and I could never get up in time...) I'd collect the DVDs, but they cost a pretty penny...

[uc pseudonym]

I want to like MST3000 quite a bit, but to be honest I haven't enjoyed the episodes I have seen so far. The premise is great and the movies are delightfully horrible. Perhaps I've just never seen good episodes, but for the most part I've found their comments aren't terribly witty.

However, I would advise everyone here to see The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra. It is made recently like the worst of old science fiction movies, but it manages to be hilarious while playing it completely serious.

[The Doctor]

MST3K is one of the most inventive and hilarious shows ever made....that being said though, for me, some episodes were hit and miss on the humor level.

I still love the show though, and by far, from what I've seen, the most popular host was the original one (who just also happened to be the show's creator, writer, and producer): Joel Hodgson. Shame he left. Reason why he did was because of internal politics (one of the co stars wanted complete control; rather than fight him, Joel voted to just leave the show).

MST3K is great and I wish it was still on. It's better than alot of the filthy crap that's on TV now (and mind you, MST3K wasn't exactly the patron saint of CLEAN FAMILY entertainment all the time).

Anyone know what Joel's up to today? Last I checked, he was working on some educational products in the late 90's (creating them that is, not lending his voice to them. He seems to be more of an inventor/creator than an actor; his latest project involved linking VHS tapes and computers working together. As you can tell, it bombed).

I hope he's doing ok. Some guys in the entertainment business don't like being known as "one-hit wonders."

[bigsleepj]

I hope he's doing ok.

Me too. I dislike it when talented people go wasted. You'd think that with the cult-status and popularity of MST3K someone would have been offering him juicy small roles in films.

[Tarnish]

Last I heard of Joel was of his (and other MST3K cast members) role in Darkstar. Ah, well.

This is one of my favorite shows, but I wish they would release it in seasons, not...whatever kind of system they have now. It makes things pretty confusing.

[Nate]

This is one of my favorite shows, but I wish they would release it in seasons, not...whatever kind of system they have now. It makes things pretty confusing.

Yeah, I wish that too. Problem is they can't release it in seasons, unfortunately, because the rights they had to use specific movies were usually fairly short. This means even if they did release box sets in seasons, there would be significant numbers of episodes missing.

Obviously the way they're doing it is to either use the episodes they have the rights for still, or reobtain licenses...and if they're going the route of reobtaining licenses, it's better to release a few at a time, instead of releasing none for a long time.

For now, what I can contribute...

For the latest in MST3K info, the official site is "Satellite News," found at http://www.mst3kinfo.com/

From that site, I can offer this:

Our source at Rhino Home Video tells us the release date for The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection: Volume 11 has been pushed back slightly. It is now tentatively due out on May 15. There is still no word on which episodes will be included.

For anyone itching to get their hands on new MST3K stuff, I can offer this. It isn't MST3K, but it's in the spirit of it, and many of the cast members (Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett, and Kevin Murphy) take part. It's called RiffTrax, and for a few bucks, you can download MP3 files that you can play in sync with a DVD movie, providing riffs in the MST3K style. They have a lot of riffs for classic movies and new movies (even one for LOTR), so check it out.

http://www.rifftrax.com/