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The MST3K Thread


Josh

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For me, Space Mutiny, Pod People, Escape 2000 or the movie will be the best ones to introduce new fans. The movies are silly, but not unwatchable, and the comedy is thick and fast. Manos is brilliant once you're into the style of the show, but until you're familiar with it, it must be hard work to get through. Any episode where a whole lot of nothing happens in the movie for long stretches of time isn't a good opening gambit.

Alternatively, it might be worth easing people in with a Rifftrax on a more famous "bad" movie like Batman & Robin.

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Just reading back, I've never been able to sit through Castle of Fu Manchu.

For long stretches, it is literally unwatchable. I'm not sure if they even had a budget for lighting instruments, or even the electric bill.

For me, Space Mutiny, Pod People, Escape 2000 or the movie will be the best ones to introduce new fans.

I feel like Space Mutiny has come to be the single most popular gateway episode option for today's following. I have an odd relationship with it now, as I generally am not in the mood to watch it. However, the entire reason I'm generally not inclined to watch it is that I've seen it a zillion times now. I'm sure it'll go back into the rotation eventually.

My current "familiar friend" episode is totally Laserblast. The shit with the aliens never fails to get me.

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I'm getting really into Rifftrax; I used to think it was quite hit and miss, but the Star Wars Trilogy and Batman & Robin were absolute gold. My main problem with it was that well-known movies tend to be an easy target, and half the fun of MST3K was how absurd the movies themselves are even before the riffing, so it's great to watch through some of the Rifftrax downloads that are movies more than worthy of MST3K.

Thus far, Buffalo Rider and Laser Mission have been the absolute best, and I'm looking forward to Bigfoot.

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The fun thing was they did Galaxy invader a while ago, which was the film shown in the opening credits of Pod People.

Something I would not have known if The Cinema Snob had not done it first.

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The reunion sketch was fun to see too. I had not seen it before. It was an odd sight Joel. Dr. Forrester and TV's Frank grey and old. But wonderful none the less.

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The story behind that was one of the old Rhino DVD sets included one of the Godzilla episodes. After its release, some legal trouble came up and they had to pull that set from the shelves. However, some people had already bought it. Rhino then released Giant Gila Monster as a replacement disc and that sketch was filmed to instruct people what to do. It was included on that DVD.

And yes, the difference is staggering - especially since Frank is voicing Servo, which he never did in the series. He does a decent approximation of J. Elvis Weinstein's version though.

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And yes, the difference is staggering - especially since Frank is voicing Servo, which he never did in the series. He does a decent approximation of J. Elvis Weinstein's version though.

Which was quite surprising, not to mention this furthered (at the time) the notion that Jim Mallon/Nelson/Murphy/Corbett had some sort of animosity towards Joel, Frank, J. Elvis & Trace.

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Yeah, and there obviously is some sort of divide. However, that made for the nice surprise of the 25th Anniversary Reunion panel at Comicon a few years ago, as well as the two panels that featured both Crows then both Servos. Bill Corbett and Trace Beaulieu's interaction was particularly interesting. Someone asked them if Trace would ever do RiffTrax and if Bill would ever do Cinematic Titanic, and they actually seemed relatively open to it. They did state it seemed like Trace on a RiffTrax would be a better fit than the other way around. Going back to the Anniversary panel, the biggest surprise was that Joel and Jim sat right next to each other and seemed to get along quite well. Theirs was the biggest rift of all, or so I thought.

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Yeah, and there obviously is some sort of divide. However, that made for the nice surprise of the 25th Anniversary Reunion panel at Comicon a few years ago, as well as the two panels that featured both Crows then both Servos. Bill Corbett and Trace Beaulieu's interaction was particularly interesting. Someone asked them if Trace would ever do RiffTrax and if Bill would ever do Cinematic Titanic, and they actually seemed relatively open to it. They did state it seemed like Trace on a RiffTrax would be a better fit than the other way around. Going back to the Anniversary panel, the biggest surprise was that Joel and Jim sat right next to each other and seemed to get along quite well. Theirs was the biggest rift of all, or so I thought.

Indeed. I think time - as well as there being a market for both Cinematic & Rifftrax - has melted any iciness between all parties involved. I remember reading a few years back (around the debut of Cinematic Titanic) that Joel regretted leaving the show when he did, but had no ill will towards anyone involved.

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I remember that too. Joel didn't want to leave but he felt he needed to for the show to keep going, I think.

I am more of a Mike era guy (particularly Mike/Kevin/Bill years), but I go through Joel era phases.

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