The MST3K Thread

[Hobo]

The end of Google Video having MST episodes makes me sad. I've never been able to find it on DVD here and I don't have a credit card so I don't buy stuff online very often. Although YouTube has a greater quantity of MSTs, watching them in parts isn't as fun.

I haven't actually seen Mighty Jack or The Eye Creature. There are a lot of seasons 1-4 I don't think I've seen. Mainly because the few I have seen, I haven't enjoyed as much as season 5 on. Mainly because I think the show got funnier as it went a long and I haven't been as entertained by earlier ones.

[Josh]

Seasons 1 and 2 are pretty hit and miss - more miss than hit - when compared to the standard of later seasons. However some of them are genuinely worth checking out, even if you can't appreciate them as the early development of the form. One that come to mind is Moon Zero Two (Season 1.)

Note that Season 1 features Josh (J. Elvis) Weinstein as the voice of Tom Servo (he's the original) and as Dr. Forrester's comrade, Dr. Erhardt (instead of TV's Frank.) Some people are down on Josh's work, which is quite understandable when you're used to Kevin as Servo (however, I'd like to think Erhardt would have changed his voice had he stayed on), but I've come to have an immense appreciation of his sense of humor and delivery. Of everybody on the Cinematic Titanic crew (Joel, Trace, Frank, Mary Jo, and Josh), I think Josh has actually proven to have more laugh-out-loud riffs per movie.

Once Season 3 got rolling with Cave Dwellers, the writers/riffers got into a much better groove. And Season 4 feels like the one that finally cemented "this is what the show should feel like."

Because of all of that, there's a ton of Joel episodes that get overlooked by newer fans, but many of them are very much worth looking back to.

EDIT: That said, Mighty Jack ain't one of the better episodes I'm referring to. The Sandy Frank episodes in general are a weird area for me. I've never quite gotten into the Gamera episodes (which is like half of the Sandy Franks) and Mighty Jack's never done it for me. However, Fugitive Alien is rightly a fan favorite. Star Force (Fugitive Alien 2) is less so. Time of The Apes is an episode I can enjoy on the right day.

Maybe I'm subconsciously harboring some grudge against the Japanese.

No pun intended.

[Josh]

Excuse the double-post, but after the above convo and one I'm having with Liam via PM, it strikes me that this might be helpful:

Satellite News - The Official MST3K Fan Site

That's the site I was referring to some in the countdown. If you look at the left sidebar, there's a link for a comprehensive episode guide (which is still being updated.) That guide will be very helpful for a lot of reasons, but one reason will be a reference point for those looking to dig into a few older episodes they may have missed.

[Hobo]

Come to think of it I've watched most of season 2. I think. I remember TV's Franks first episode and Tom Servo's new voice. I haven't actually sat down and watched MST episodes by season in quite some time. Probably not since I watched a whole heap of seasons 2 and 3.

Since this is the general MST and MST related thread?

What say you good folk are the best Rifftrax? Sometimes I find Rifftrax a little underwhelming. I think The Room remains one of the greatest I've seen. I have seen Birdemic. I was hoping for a Manos reference. It never came. Because that movie borrowed a great big hunk of Manos' play book with its opening.

[Josh]

I have seen very little of Rifftrax, unfortunately. Has to to do with not having 99% of the DVDs you would need to watch them properly and the cost of downloading them. However, the more I read about others having an easy time syncing everything up, etc. the more prone I become to try a few.

I take it that you've not had much trouble with Rifftrax's unique set-up?

[Josh]

So, remember how I said Google Videos was taking down all user-uploaded videos? Well, two things:

1) They've been kinda slack on that. Some have disappeared, some haven't.

2) I have a suspicion that that move by Google has resulted in awesome YouTube uploads like these! FULL EPISODES in good quality!

[Skummy]

http://www.amazon.com/Mystery-Science-Theater-3000-Manos/dp/B0055CP9UY/ref=sr_1_5?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1308231182&sr=1-5

A deluxe edition of MST3K's take on Manos: The Hands Of Fate is available for pre-order on Amazon - I believe it's only a limited run. It includes the episode, the original movie, the "Hotel Torgo" documentary, a mini-poster, a couple of MST3K shorts, and some new footage from the MST3K crew.

[Hobo]

I've seen both the MANOS box advertised or on Tumblr or something.

Also I've noticed the full episodes emerging on YouTube recently. Some of them seem to be be missing the opening credits (why someone wouldn't want to keep that is beyond me!) but still, awesome.

[Josh]

They're mostly from one uploader, it seems. Hopefully it continues.

As for the new edition of Manos, I wish to hell I had the dispensable income (or just income) to buy it. Or any of the DVD releases. Shout Factory's apparently been doing a bang-up job.

[Josh]

I want so many of these.

[KONGO]

How did Outlaw not get voted? Holy fuck, man. That "Cabbot!" scene at the beginning is surreal. Also, I was disappointed that they never made fun of the mayor's stupid speaking cadence.

[Josh]

That episode also has the tremendous "selections from Jack Palance's journal" segment.

[Josh]

Man finds original work prints of Manos. Seeks to create Remastered Manos Blu Ray. I shit you not.

[Josh]

Liam asked me to recommend pretty much every decent to great MST3K episode for further viewing. Since the topic has come up lately, I thought I'd share some of that with everyone.

First off, if you don't know about it, there's this.

As for a full list of episodes I would personally watch, here's that first list narrowed down:

If you don't already know, the first list of episodes before Season 1 are from the series former life as a local TV show on Minneapolis TV station, KTMA. There was no writing being done at that time - it was purely improvised. The production values were much lower. In general, I don't recommend this "season" unless you're a little more obsessive, like me. If you do check it out, here are the ones I recommend.

K09 Phase IV

K13 SST: Death Flight

K15 Superdome

K16 City on Fire

K19 Hangar 18 (YouTube)

Season 1 and 2 are pretty different from the rest, especially 1. Here's a couple of episodes that are decent though.

110 Robot Holocaust (Google Video)

111 Moon Zero Two (YouTube)

I'm not so big on Season 2.

301 Cave Dwellers

303 Pod People

306 Time of the Apes

310 Fugitive Alien

313 Earth vs. the Spider

318 Star Force: Fugitive Alien II

321 Santa Claus Conquers the Martians

322 Master Ninja I

324 Master Ninja II

401 Space Travelers

404 Teenagers from Outer Space

407 The Killer Shrews

411 The Magic Sword

414 Tormented

415 The Beatniks

422 The Day the Earth Froze

423 Bride of the Monster

424 Manos: The Hands of Fate

501 Warrior of the Lost World

505 The Magic Voyage of Sinbad

506 Eegah

507 I Accuse My Parents

508 Operation Double 007

509 The Girl in Lovers Lane

512 Mitchell **LAST JOEL EPISODE**

513 The Brain that Wouldn't Die **FIRST MIKE EPISODE**

514 Teenage Strangler

515 The Wild World of Batwoman

517 Beginning of the End

519 Outlaw

520 Radar Secret Service

521 Santa Claus

522 Teenage Crimewave

523 Village of the Giants

524 12 to the Moon

601 Girls Town

602 Invasion USA

604 Zombie Nightmare

605 Colossus and the Headhunters

609 The Skydivers

610 The Violent Years

613 The Sinister Urge

614 San Francisco International

617 The Sword and the Dragon

619 Red Zone Cuba

620 Danger Death Ray

621 The Beast of Yucca Flats

622 Angels Revenge

624 Samson vs. the Vampire Women

All of Season 7. (It's a short season.)

804 The Deadly Mantis

806 The Undead

807 Terror from the Year 5000

810 The Giant Spider Invasion

811 Parts: The Clonus Horror

812 TISCWSLABMUZ

813 Jack Frost

814 Riding with Death

815 Agent for HARM

816 Prince of Space

817 The Horror of Party Beach

819 Invasion of the Neptune Men

820 Space Mutiny

821 Time Chasers

822 Overdrawn at the Memory Bank

All of Season 9.

All of Season 10.

There's some episodes you might like in Season 1 and 2, but don't start there. Only try those seasons after you tried quite a few that you like in later seasons.

I should also point out that some of the ones I left listed are "have to be in the right mood" episodes that only certain types of people will enjoy. Start with episodes that get mentioned by more people, more often.

[GhostMachine]

Still stuns me that anyone actually likes the Red Zone Cuba episode and that it made the list. My big problem with that one is there are waaaaaaay too many Coleman Francis jokes, and only about half are funny.

[thatshortguy]

After initially saying she didn't care for the show, my wife has been singing

for weeks now.

They all come around, eventually.

[Josh]

Still stuns me that anyone actually likes the Red Zone Cuba episode and that it made the list. My big problem with that one is there are waaaaaaay too many Coleman Francis jokes, and only about half are funny.

And I'm the opposite. I adore the Coleman Francis episodes, especially Beast of Yucca Flats. Flag on the moon.

[Hobo]

I rewatched the Beast of Yucca flats a while ago. I was on a Tor Johnsson kick. I love it now!

For the last few nights I have been watching It Lives by Night. I got to about the mustache sketch host segment last night. Which was a glorious thing!

[GhostMachine]

Still stuns me that anyone actually likes the Red Zone Cuba episode and that it made the list. My big problem with that one is there are waaaaaaay too many Coleman Francis jokes, and only about half are funny.

And I'm the opposite. I adore the Coleman Francis episodes, especially Beast of Yucca Flats. Flag on the moon.

I didn't say I didn't like the other Coleman Francis episodes, now did I? I just felt Red Zone Cuba felt flat. It almost seems like they did the episode on short notice or were just too lazy and rather than write a script they just said "Hey, fuck it. Lets just rip on Coleman Francis!".

You'll get no argument from me about Beast of Yucca Flats, by the way. Damn good episode.

[Josh]

I don't get that criticism, though. Red Zone Cuba is a gloriously inept piece of filmmaking. You've got a director undeservedly vain enough to star, a barely comprehensible plot, characters like Cherokee Jack (who is blatantly not Cherokee, Sioux, Chippewa, etc.), and locations that are obviously not what they're supposed to be. If anything, I'd say Skydivers is the weakest of the "trilogy", even though I enjoy it.