Mystery Science Theater 3000 Megathread: WE'VE GOT MOVIE SIGN!!!! - General

[IMG]http://assets.huluim.com/shows/key_art_mystery_science_theater_3000.jpg[/IMG] Mystery Science Theater 3000 was an American comedy series that ran for 10 seasons (11 if you count it's original KTMA pilot season) from 1988-1999. The plot was that a man was shot into space and was forced by Mad Scientists to watch horribly bad movies, surviving them with the help of his robot friends, who were made from special parts (particularly those that operated the machine that would have let him control how the movies begin or end). But the plot didn't matter, because what the show really was is 3 guys (one human and two puppets) making fun of incredibly bad movies, most of which were low-budget and/or public domain (also, every half hour we would retreat into some Host Segments where our protagonist and his robot friends do a skit to give us a breather from these crappy movies). Despite the lack of plot and simple layout, the show had not only gained an incredible continuity, but it also became a cult hit. Unfortunately, the show was cancelled THREE TIMES, once by their original KTMA broadcast station, then by Comedy Central after it's 7th season, and then by the Sci-Fi channel after it's 10th season, something that fans all over the world (or at least the US) are still bitter about. The show can be divided into 3 separate eras, the original KTMA Season, the Comedy Central Era, and the Sci-Fi Era[B] The KTMA Season (1988-1989): [/B] The show was originally dreamed up by up-and-coming comedian Joel Hodgson, who enlisted the aid of fellow comedians Trace Beaulieu and Josh Weinstein to shoot a 30-minute pilot with the help of producer Jim Mallon and cameraman Kevin Murphy. They broadcasted this pilot as well as the 21 subsequent episodes of this first season on their local TV station KTMA in Hopkins, Minnesota. The premise they had come up with was that Joel Hodgson's character, Joel Hodgson (Holy Tony Danza, Batman!), was a janitor in a satellite loading bay at Gizmonic Institute when mad scientists Dr. Clayton Forrester (Beaulieu) and Dr. Laurence "Larry" Erdhardt (Weinstein) shoot him into space and, well, subject him to bad movies. In response, Joel builds the robots Gypsy ( The purple one in the image below, voiced by Jim Mallon), Servo (the red one below, voiced by Weinstein), and Crow (the gold one below, Voiced by Beaulieu), to help him survive by helping him make fun of the movies (or "riff" on them, as they call it, though Gypsy doesn't join in on the "riffing", but runs the higher functions of the Satellite Of Love). After 21 episodes, however, the show had to be cancelled despite it's strong fan support. Thankfully, though, it was then bought by the fledgling Comedy Channel. [B]The Comedy Channel/Central Era (1989-1996):[/B] [IMG]http://blogs.citypages.com/dressingroom/MS3K%20pic.jpg[/IMG] After showing a short "best of" reel to impress the executives at the Comedy Channel, they were bought by them, and their show was released to a nationwide audience. After this, the show was retooled a bit. They actually decided to write their jokes beforehand instead of ad-libbing them, with yet another up-and-coming comedian, Mike Nelson (not to be confused with the deep-sea diver of the same name), becoming head writer of the jokes after an impressive first day (according to Kevin Murphy, while most of the jokes from the other writers were fairly average and semi-funny, Mike would always get everyone rolling on the floor with split sides). However, the change from improv to pre-written cause some friction among the cast that caused Josh Weinstein to leave the show after the first season, causing his character of Dr. Erdhardt to be replaced by "TV's Frank", played by Frank Conniff, and Servo (now Tom Servo) to be voiced by Kevin Murphy (with an in-show explanation being Joel tinkering with Servo's voice and personality). After the second season, the Comedy Channel merged with HA! Network into Comedy Central, and MST3K became the new channel's Signature Series for most of it's run on the channel. Comedy Central even ran 30-hour "Turkey Day" Marathons each Thanksgiving (because that's when the show first aired on the Comedy Channel) and in-depth documentaries (One of which was hosted by Penn Jillette, another by Adam West) behind-the-scenes were also made. However, halfway through the fifth season, Joel Hodgson (whose character was renamed Joel Robinson when the show moved to Comedy Channel) decided to leave the show, due to conflicts with producer Jim Mallon over creative control. In his last episode, he managed to escape to Earth with the help of Gypsy and a temp worker for the Mads named Mike Nelson (played by, of course, Mike Nelson), and Mike ended up replacing Joel as the host. Later, at the end of the sixth season, Frank Conniff left the show, his character being taken to Second-Banana Heaven by Torgo The White (aka, Torgo from [I]Manos, the Hands of Fate[/I], one of the show's most popular episodes), and gets replaced by Pearl Forrester, Dr. Clayton Forrester's mother (played by Mary Jo Pehl, one of the writers for MST). And finally, at the Seventh Season episode [I]Laserblast[/I], Dr. Forrester loses funding for his experiments and detaches the Satellite of Love from Deep 13 (where the Mads worked out of for the duration of the CC run), with Mike and the Bots eventually drifting to the Edge Of The Universe and becoming beings of pure energy. Show cancelled, AGAIN. The (alleged) main reason for the cancellation was a change in management at Comedy Central's offices, and the new bosses resented having to take care of a show they didn't like, despite good ratings and fan support. [B]The Movie:[/B] Sometime during the Mike Nelson era (between Frank Conniff's departure and Pearl's entrance), Grammercy Pictures offered to help make a movie out of MST, with the chosen movie to make fun of being the far-from-horrible [I]This Island Earth[/I]. However, much executive meddling ensued and Grammercy, having only enough money to do a wide release/advertisement campaign for one movie, elected to do so for Pamela Anderson-vehicle [I]Barb Wire[/I], which failed miserably. As a result, The Movie had a limited release and most fans didn't even know it existed until the DVD appeared. The Movie was considered one of the biggest regrets and sources of frustration of everyone who worked on MST. [B]The Sci-Fi Era (1997-1999):[/B] [IMG]http://www.mst3kinfo.com/history/images/crew.jpg[/IMG] After an internet campaign headed by, of all people, Jack Perkins of A&E Biography fame (although to be fair, Mike Nelson had played a parody of him a few times during the series before becoming Mike Nelson the character), the Sci-Fi channel agreed to pick up the show. Trace Beaulieu could not reprise his characters, so Crow was replaced by MST Fan Bill Corbett (the change in voice being noticed and called out on by fellow cast members in-show), and Pearl Forrester took on the role of Head Mad, eventually being assisted by talking ape Bobo (played by Kevin Murphy) and omnipotent(ly pale) Brain Guy/Observer (played by Bill Corbett). Also, Jim Mallon ceased to voiced Gypsy, so crew member Patrick Brantseg took over voicing her (yep, her. Both Mallon and Brantseg used a high falsetto to get her voice). Also, the show was forced to limit it's movie list to purely sci-fi shows (during the Comedy Central era, they took to riffing on movies that didn't have any sci-fi elements), AND to add more plot to the show (which explained how Pearl got her two assistants), although later on those rules started to be ignored as the show became more successful. However, that success didn't last for long when another change in management lead to new head of Sci-Fi Bonnie Hammer (who fans of the Sci-Fi channel and/or the shows that run/ran on it like to call "Satan") cancelling MST purely because she didn't get the show's humor (yeah, never mind the decent ratings and strong fan support, let's cancel this show because someone personally daesn't like it!). Despite another massive internet campaign, the show was cancelled again, this time for good. But, in a way, the show lives on. In 2006 Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett, and Kevin Murphy started up [URL]http://www.rifftrax.com/[/URL], In which they make fun of big name movies (like, say [I]Jurassic Park, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, [/I]and [I]Twilight[/I]) by creating special mp3s that you buy, download, and manually sync up to the appropriate DVD. The website also features iRiffs, in which members of the site can create and upload their own rifftrax for sale. Later, Joel Hodgson, Trace Beaulieu, Frank Conniff, Josh Weinstien, and Mary Jo Pehl created [URL]http://www.cinematictitanic.com/[/URL] , in which they continue the old MST tradition of riffing on really bad public domain films, and in fact have been touring around doing it live, with Dave Allen of "The Higgins Boys and Gruber" fame as the pre-show MC. Currently, the only true reunion of the show was at a panel discussion at the 2008 San Diego Comic-Con to commemorate MST's 20th aniversary. Also, Episodes are periodically released on DVD by Shout Factory (originally it was done by Rhino Entertainment, but the rights were dropped and the disc sets are slowly going out of print, so you may have to by a used copy or, as the show's credits used to say, "Keep Circulating The Tapes"!), with volume 22 coming out soon. But enough with the exposition, let's get us some youtubes! Theme Tune seasons 1-5 [video=youtube;DcUkKltAidM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcUkKltAidM[/video] Short: Body Care and Grooming [video=youtube;LCcJJfhdf_o]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCcJJfhdf_o[/video] Short: Why Study Industrial Arts? [video=youtube;tUPXVtFcl5U]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUPXVtFcl5U&feature=related[/video] Short: Truck Farmers [video=youtube;nI3Avp2TSCo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nI3Avp2TSCo&feature=related[/video] And to end with a bang, MR. B NATURAL!!! [video=youtube;KF5bY53jokQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF5bY53jokQ[/video] [video=youtube;gD9raijoYnk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gD9raijoYnk[/video] Also, full episodes are available on Hulu! [URL]http://www.hulu.com/mystery-science-theater-3000[/URL] And... that's it. That's all I got. Maybe I'll add more later, like a Character list or a list of recommended episodes. Right now, though, I'm too damn tired. This is what I get for not just copy/pasting the wikipedia article.

It was a great show, good to watch with friends. There were some really good episodes, but I can't remember any of them off the top of the head except for that one with the alien from space. I think it had an O in the title somewhere.

I love MST3K very much. Personally I like Mike more then Joel, but I still love the early episodes. I also enjoy Rifftrax just as much. Just one of the many reasons we had it so good in the 90's.

On that note, let's not start a Mike vs Joel argument here. There's a reason why most internet boards still ban that topic of discussion to this day. Although I still can't really decide which one I like better. I'm leaning towards Mike, but some of the most famous episodes ([I]Pod People, Manos: The Hands of Fate,[/I] all of the [I]Gamera[/I] movies) were made during the Joel-Era. EDIT: Just to clarify, DISCUSSIONS on who you like better are accepted, just don't start yelling at each other because you think one is superior and turn this into a giant flame war.

Yeah that's reasonable, but it's pretty obvious that Mike [I]is[/I] better. [editline]26th September 2011[/editline] Also Pod People was the episode I was thinking of in my above post.

Joel was a lot more laid-back and subdued about his riffing. He never outright stated how bad the movie of the week was and he rarely got angry. Mike was, for lack of a better term, edgier and more agressive about his riffing. It's kind of like Old Crow vs New Crow. The Trace Beaulieu Crow, while he was always angry about the movies, was a bit more playful than the Bill Corbett Crow, who seemed to have a much shorter fuse. However, you can't really argue about Old Servo vs New Servo because they were pretty much the same, they just sounded different.

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wErpaF1jvjU[/media] [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixQE496Pcn8[/media] I love this show.

I think Mike's riffing was better, but Joel's sketches were better. Overall I prefer Mike to Joel, simply because season 8 was the funniest thing in the history of TV.

This show is awesome. I could sit down and watch it all day.

[video=youtube;QRB3xDg5pnU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRB3xDg5pnU[/video]

I miss this show

I love MST3k...I remember taping the episodes at a neighbors house because I didn't have cable and I got to enjoy the last 3 years of the show on the Sci-fi channel. God was I depressed when the series was cancelled and the Scifi Channel went on to become the second biggest asshole on cable network(first biggest is Fox news)

I'm ashamed to admit it, but I never saw an episode of MST until a few years ago. Someone my mother works with had gotten an extra copy of the Manos: The Hands Of Fate/Santa Claus Conquers The Martians DVD pack and gave it to mom, who gave it to me. I watched them, and was immediately hooked. Approx. Two Years Later, I have almost every DVD set currently released (I'm upset that most of the Rhino-released DVDs have gone out of print, mostly because the third-party sellers on Amazon are reselling them for ludicrously exorbitant prices), a bunch of Rifftrax, and last Saturday I saw Cinematic Titanic live in NYC.

this show... [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZR1gSvnOI0[/media] personally I've always liked Joel more then Mike, but neither can hold a candle to Crow. Tom sure is terrible though!

Has anyone heard of Rifftrax? It's mike, plus crow and tom servo's voice actors riffing new movies instead of old, like spiderman and willy wonka. They are hilarious, even better then the show itself.

The Rifftrax live events are so great. I think I've been to every one so far, they do them nearly every 6 months it seems. [editline]28th September 2011[/editline] But yes, MST3K was my favorite thing in high school. My favorite episodes? 'Red Zone Cuba' because the movie makes no fricken sense or has any continuity and the jokes are perfect. I also really like one of the wolf man ones but I forget the name. The funniest though has to be MST3K: The Movie. You can just tell they spent more time on the writing as opposed to the weekly episodes where they are probably more rushed. It just seems like everything said in the movie is good, where sometimes in the episodes you can go a few comments without laughing at all.

[QUOTE=hoodoo456;32531924]Has anyone heard of Rifftrax? It's mike, plus crow and tom servo's voice actors riffing new movies instead of old, like spiderman and willy wonka. They are hilarious, even better then the show itself.[/QUOTE] Oh, I have a shit-ton of those. Just remember to donate at [url]http://www.rifftrax.com/donate[/url] if you "come across" them online. That's what the donation link is there for. You should also check out Cinematic Titanic at. [url]http://www.cinematictitanic.com/[/url] . That has Joel, and the original voice actors of Tom Servo and Crow, plus the actress for Pearl Forrester and of course, TV's Frank.

Does anybody remember that episode which had a movie where one of the guys pronounced 'robot' as 'robit'? I've taken on that habit.

I prefer the Comedy central era with Joel mostly. I like Rifftrax a lot more though.

These guys made yelling at your TV or the movie screen a popular activity.

I had the awesome fortune of attending a W00tstock featuring them. I really hope that I get to see them live again. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQ1Uq2OUv5w[/media]

I only started watching MST3k last November and i really, really wish i had started watching it earlier. I think part of me was expecting a cynical tone given the kind of heavy-handed and angry mockery the internet considers to be in the style of MST3k, but i was nicely surprised to see that the show had a upbeat and lighthearted tone to it. Not to mention the sharp performances and great riffing it had. I'm amazed the show lasted 10 seasons given its low budget and unusual premise. Personally, i consider Rifftrax (mentioned by others above) to be the best attempt to channel the spirit and style of MST3k yet. Although i personally enjoy the B and Z-grade movie riffing (like [i]The Room[/i] and [i]Birdemic[/i] much more than their riffing of popular or well-received movies. If you haven't checked it out already, i suggest you do so. As for MST3k episodes, some of my favorites are: [b]Agent for H.A.R.M.[/b] - Smugly incompetent/Incompetently smug agent Adam Chance tries to protect a defecting soviet scientist who is trying to make a cure for a bioweapon. One of the most actionless spy "thrillers" you could ever watch. [b]Castle of Fu Manchu[/b] - Utterly wretched and incompetent film starring Christopher Lee(!!) as Fu Manchu. Terrible in every regard you can care to name with some of the most baffling lighting, coloring and sound errors you'll ever find committed to film. [b]Danger!! Death Ray[/b] - European spy thriller that has superspy Bart Fargo (seriously) trying to track down a stolen Death Ray (originally built for peaceful purposes. seriously). Has what's probably the most bouncy, upbeat jazz score you'll hear in a movie, "special effects" of vehicles that are obviously toys, and a bizarre ending shot that directly contradicts the shot before it. [b]Final Justice[/b] - The plot and characters of a Revenge Western are dragged kicking and screaming into the 1980's with little attempt to make them relevant or fitting. Stars Joe Don Baker as a overweight, angry Texas lawman who shoots first, shoots last, and shoots some more, and bumbles around ineffectively for most of the movie. [b]Final Sacrifice[/b] - Improbably-named "hero" Zap Rowsdower and some thin, nasally-voiced teen take on a Evil cult in a Canadian cheese-fest. This is one of those movie where it would be funny even without the riffing, but the spot-on quips elevate it from merely funny to hilarious. [b]Hobgoblins[/b] - Unrepentantly 80's "Horror"/"Comedy" that inspires no laughs or scares but more than compensates in sheer sleaziness and stuffed-animal monsters. You know you're in for a ride when the bots try to flee the theater [i]during the opening credits[/i]. [b]Manos: The Hands of Fate[/b] - On a bet, a Texas fertilizer salesman tried his hand at making a sucessful horror film. He failed. Miserably. One of those "lucky" few films that have been propelled to infamy out of its sheer badness. Endless driving sequences, dialog that was all blatantly dubbed in post, and long periods of silence and inaction are just some of the things you can expect from this one. [b]Mitchell[/b] - Joe Don Baker stars in a 70's "Cop on the Edge" flick with TV production values. What makes [b]Mitchell[/b] different from the rest is the titular character; a slovenly, alcoholic, violent and charmless cop who is easily one of the most repulsive characters in all of fiction. This is one of the first MST3k episodes i watched and it's where the show truly "clicked" for me. [b]Operation Double 007[/b] - Neil Connery (yes, Sean Connery's brother) plays himself, the brother of England’s unnamed top agent who must save the day in a shameless rip-off of James Bond. [b]Pumaman[/b] - Ridiculous and silly Superhero flick with incompetent usage of rear projection and music that could just as well came from ad jingles from the 1970's. It lends itself perfectly to mockery. [b]Red Zone Cuba[/b] - Coleman Francis produces, directs, and stars in this...thing. The plot supposedly involves 3 criminals becoming a part of the Bay of Pigs invasion, but its utter inability to maintain any resemblance to a plot or narrative is a sight to behold. Also, an ancient-looking John Carradine sings(!!) over the opening credits. [b]Skydivers[/b] - Bleak? Incomprehensible? Colorless even for a Black and White? Yep, it's a Coleman Francis film. This time set at a airfield where stock footage of skydivers is piled onto a joyless and dreary marital deception drama with an ending that goes well out of its way to be as depressing as possible. [b]Space Mutiny[/b] - Sci-fi flick where floor waxers double as transportation and all space footage is taken from the original Battlestar Galactica. Just about any Sci-fi cliché you care to think of is displayed with low-budget absurdity and enthusiasm. Again, this is one of those movie where it would be funny even without the riffing. [b]Werewolf[/b] - Laughably bizarre monster flick that begs you to take it seriously, but is too absurd and low-budget to be anything other than hilarious. Supposedly set in Arizona, but the accents of the cast make that very questionable. It's hard not to think this is how Americans must look to the rest of the world when they play characters from other regions. I could go on, but that's already a massive list already and i would be here all-day if i was going to describe all the episodes i found even remotely enjoyable. What a great show.

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KyKdM-4uZw[/media]

Finally someone made this thread! Was thinking of doing it myself, but I was too lazy and didn't know if there were people that actually liked this show. Been a MST3K fan for 'bout 4 years now, and I've seen a lot of episodes. I especially like the Mike era(I think Joel seems a bit slow and tired). I'm also a fan of Rifftrax. There are many MST3K-episodes on youtube.

I remember watching this with my mom when I was a kid. That is one of my favorite memories I will never forget.

There's a group here called Master Pancake Theater, that does the same thing, but usually with more modern movies. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZYeaZ7YFjM[/media]

The creeping terror and Red Zone Cuba, both films are a fucking riot and the riffs make them so much better.

[QUOTE=Wrathborne;32576464]The creeping terror and Red Zone Cuba, both films are a fucking riot and the riffs make them so much better.[/QUOTE] Creeping Terror was fucking weird. I mean, of all the movie monsters you could make up they had to make what was essentially a living carpet whose only function was to swallow scantly-clad women whole? "Think you could help me out by climbing in?" "I think this was a weird turn-on for the director!"

Fun fact. Back in the day before MST3K, my dad worked in the same office building as Joel Hodgson. Forrester and TV's Frank were based off of two of the bosses of that particular office. These days, we're both fans of the series, especially the older ones with Joel.

[QUOTE=Void Skull;32584422]Fun fact. Back in the day before MST3K, my dad worked in the same office building as Joel Hodgson. Forrester and TV's Frank were based off of two of the bosses of that particular office. These days, we're both fans of the series, especially the older ones with Joel.[/QUOTE] Cool, were they friends?