Mystery Science Theater 3000 - Back from the Dead! - Film, Television and Music

[img]http://splitsider.awlnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/mst3k.jpg[/img] [B]THE ORIGINAL 1988 - 1999 RUN[/B] In the not too distant future, Joel Robinson (Joel Hogdson), a worker at Gizmonic Institute, is shot into space on the Satellite of Love by mad scientist Dr. Clayton Forrester (Trace Beaulieu) and his assistant Dr. Laurence Erhardt (Josh Weinstein), who run experiments to break his sanity by subjecting him to terrible B movies. To stave off insanity, Joel builds himself two robot companions, the egotistical Tom Servo (Josh Weinstein, then Kevin Murphy) and the injudicious Crow T. Robot (Trace Beaulieu, later Bill Corbett). Together, they talk and quip over these terrible movies, or as to use the phrase they coined, "Riff" on terrible movies. [t]http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/mst3k/images/c/cb/Joelmike.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20070115015455[/t][t]http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/111123023039-mst3k-story-top.jpg[/t][t]http://cdn1us.denofgeek.com/sites/denofgeekus/files/styles/main_wide/public/2017/03/watch-mst3k-netflix-laserblast_0.png?itok=iP76sN5V[/t] The series, which had its roots on public access, changed frequently over the years. After season one, Dr. Laurence Erhardt was replaced with goofball henchman, TV's Frank (Frank Conniff). The creator and lead protagonist Joel Hogdson left half way through season 5 after creative differences and the role was passed to series writer Mike Nelson, who continued as the lead protagonist for the original run as the dopey, lovable temp worker, Mike Nelson. In show, Joel Robinson finally escapes the Satellite of Love after an escape pod is discovered in a box of unopened hamdingers. The mads are quick to replace them with the Gizmonic temp worker himeself. Lead mad scientist Trace Beaulieu also left the series later on, and so the experiment was taken over by his mad-scientist mother, Dr. Pearl Forrester (Mary Jo Pehl), and a crew of other characters as she pursues the now liberated Satellite of Love across the galaxy, still sending terrible movies to the crew as the chase persists. At the end of the shows 10th series, Dr. Pearl Forrester, after trapping the crew in orbit around her ancestral castle, accidentally sends the satellite hurtling towards earth. Giving up on the experiment to become the ruler of Qatar (and vowing to put a U in the nations name), she ultimately unplugs the link between her and the crew, leaving them to their fate. The crew however, escape the impact, and go to live together in an apartment, ending the show as they sit at a couch to riff over more bad movies. [B]THE 2017 REVIVAL:[/B] After a successful Kickstarter campaign spanning a couple of years, the series was re-booted more then a decade later by original creator Joel Hogdson. [t]https://parade.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Primary-MST3K-Season-11-Cast-Photo.jpg[/t][t]https://i1.wp.com/www.rowsdowr.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Felicia-Day-and-Patton-Oswalt-in-MST3K-Reboot.jpg?ssl=1[/t][t]https://cdn.pastemagazine.com/www/articles/show%20open%20%28Custom%29.jpg[/t] Years after the original MST3K experiment ended, Dr. Pearl Forresters grand daughter Kinga Forrester (Felicia Day) and her assistant TV's son of TV's Frank (Patton Oswalt), reboot the experiment on a moon base on the dark side of the moon, trapping Gizmodo employee Jonah Heston (Jonah Ray) on board a recreated Satelite of Love with the original bots (With Tom voiced by Baron Vaughn and Crow voiced by Hampton Yount). Kinga runs the experiment in the hopes of gaining ratings on Netflix (though as TV's son of TV's Frank points out, there are no ratings on Netflix) and sell the series to Disney for a fortune. Along with a sort-of accurate clone of her Grandmother named Synthia (Rebecca Hanson) and her henchmen, the Skeleton Crew, she continues to send horrible movies to this next hapless sap, while the new crew continue to riff over the terrible movies in the hopes of fighting off insanity. The original series is avaliable probably on DVD, but most of the episodes are on youtube, with a handful of the later ones up on Netflix. The new series is available entirely on Netflix. So anyway, who's the best host? What do we think of the reboot? Now that this series has risen from the grave, its time to discuss.

I've been watching the reboot and I actually think it's still pretty good! Stays true to the old ones imo. The jokes are obviously more modern and they come faster and more often but I kind of like that as well as the modern references. I didn't always get the older jokes. Jonah is likable and the voices are different for the robots I think, but they still are very characteristic. It's a good reboot, overall. And the movies they pick are pretty funny.

[QUOTE=Pascall;52121091]I've been watching the reboot and I actually think it's still pretty good! Stays true to the old ones imo. The jokes are obviously more modern and they come faster and more often but I kind of like that as well as the modern references. I didn't always get the older jokes. Jonah is likable and the voices are different for the robots I think, but they still are very characteristic. It's a good reboot, overall. And the movies they pick are pretty funny.[/QUOTE] It's a weird feeling when they reference something recent, I'm really used to watching old MST3K with a lot of 80's-90's pop culture references, it's kinda strange when I remember what I'm watching was made recently. But yeah the riffing is still really good and MST3K-like, and I like Jonah more than I thought I would.

I've been enjoying the first episode of the reboot. It's better than I expected. [editline]18th April 2017[/editline] I also love the new doors.

I need to give this another chance, but I was a bit weirded out on how long the intro was, setting up the plot, and then it wordlessly skips ahead two months also gypsy having a regular voice stood out to me as a weord change too

I'm cautiously warming up the the new season. So far they haven't gone for any low-hanging fruit political jokes, which was one of my fears. Crow's voice is obviously trying to channel Bill Corbett's Crow, and doing a decent job. It took me a bit to realize it, but Tom Servo's voice is more like J. Elvis Weinstein's Servo than Kevin Murphy's. I'm still only on the first episode, but it seems promising so far.

I like the new Gypsy. She likes to pop in at least twice every episode to riff on the movie too and it's usually pretty funny. I think they just hype up the intro for the first episode because it's the first episode. It doesn't matter much once you get further into the series and the theme is just as catchy as the old one.

Saw the first episode of the reboot, and I think they did a great job of making it feel fresh without losing the charm. If I had to nitpick though, I feel like the riffs sometimes come too fast; in the original series they'd make a joke and give you some time to laugh at it, but here it feels like they have a quip for every line of dialogue. I'm sure it's just because they want their comeback to be special, and they'll ease off a bit with time.

Tom Servo's voice was really bland and turned me off in the preview, I hope he's gotten better at it.