Mystery Science Theater 3000 - General Discussion

[formerlyfreedom]

Editor's Note: This topic replaces the old Mystery Science Theater 3000 forum which has been vaulted at the location below: http://forums.previously.tv/forum/605-mystery-science-theater-3000-v/

 

A place to discuss particular episodes, arcs and moments from the MST3K's run. 

[Tosia]

DIdnt MST3000 do a episode for Sharkado 2 at the theatres?  Are we going to get to see that online or on TV?   Please, please, please.

[scowl]

Retro TV has been airing some classic episodes. I thought I would half-watch them while I do some work since I've already seen them several times. Every one has cracked me up at least once and I end up watching the whole thing. 

[RedZoneTuba]

Dang.  Wouldn't you know it, Retro TV has no outlets in Minnesota (Best Brains' home state, mind you!).

[BrokenRemote]

Tosia, on 24 Jul 2014 - 10:57 AM, said:Tosia, on 24 Jul 2014 - 10:57 AM, said:

DIdnt MST3000 do a episode for Sharkado 2 at the theatres?  Are we going to get to see that online or on TV?   Please, please, please.

Mike, Kevin and Bill have formed a company called RiffTrax.  On their site you can download audio tracks to play along with the DVDs of various movies (which means they can do main stream movies), and in some cases there's a movie with commentary packaged together.  There are lots of shorts, too.  A couple times a year they do live events that are simulcast live to theaters around the country--RiffTrax Live. (Sharknado was one of them, I believe this past summer). Those can be found through Fathom Events.  Their most recent was a Christmas movie.   There's usually one at Halloween, one at Christmas, and another one or two at some point throughout the year.

 

I'm nothing to do with it, just a huge MST3K fan from way back.  The live events are awesome, because you're in a theater with a whole bunch of other MSTies, and the laughter is immediate and contagious.  I highly recommend them!

 

P.S. I believe recordings of the live events are available to purchase on the RiffTrax site as well. I wouldn't swear to it, but I believe so.

Edited December 17, 2014 by BrokenRemote

[scowl]

Some of the episodes on RetroTV (like tonight's "First Spaceship on Venus" have odd sound mixes. They have the movie audio in one speaker and the riffing in the other speaker. It makes the riffing easier to hear but it's also disorienting, like you're sitting at the far left side of the theater. 

[mmecorday]

I have been watching the episodes on Retro TV too. On Saturday night "The Castle of Fu Manchu" was the experiment. That has to be one of the worst movies they ever riffed.

[scowl]

The little thing that drives me nuts about Castle of Fu Manchu is that they couldn't even develop the damn footage consistently. Some outdoor shots had painful magenta or green casts which were made worse whenever it cut between the two discolored shots. There is a stage in production called "color correction" to compensate for this but they didn't bother. Even Manos had better color than this.

[ratgirlagogo]

 

. There is a stage in production called "color correction" to compensate for this but they didn't bother. Even Manos had better color than this.

Come on dude, Jess Franco didn't write and direct two hundred and three movies in a little over fifty years by waiting around for your damned candy-assed "color correction."  He just plowed through and got it done, no matter.  Actually he did MORE than 203 movies since so many of the titles were filmed in multiple versions (the softcore porn one, the bloody horror one, and the XXXX one) for different markets, although Castle of Fu Manchu isn't one of those as far as I know.

 

And it's not just the green/magenta stuff - it's the multiple scenes that just fade into complete darkness, like the halogen lamps suddenly burned out.  The more frustrating thing about the  totally black scenes in this film was that the MST3Kers didn't really  come up with any particularly  funny commentary about it, when you'd think that would have been a Christmas present just dropped into their laps.  Maybe they were tired when this title came up, I don't know.  But I've always been a little disappointed by the riffing on Castle of Fu Manchu.

Edited May 19, 2015 by ratgirlagogo

[scowl]

Come on dude, Jess Franco didn't write and direct two hundred and three movies in a little over fifty years by waiting around for your damned candy-assed "color correction."  He just plowed through and got it done, no matter.  Actually he did MORE than 203 movies since so many of the titles were filmed in multiple versions (the softcore porn one, the bloody horror one, and the XXXX one) for different markets, although Castle of Fu Manchu isn't one of those as far as I know.

 

But Franco had only directed one or two color films before this one. I don't think he knew what color films were supposed to look like yet. In this one I think he was trying to go overboard with color (how many red and green gels did he put on those lights?) and ended up making an ugly mess. 

 

You're right that the guy had a long prolific career sometimes making a film every month. He made Corman look like a slowpoke. 

 

 

And it's not just the green/magenta stuff - it's the multiple scenes that just fade into complete darkness, like the halogen lamps suddenly burned out.  The more frustrating thing about the  totally black scenes in this film was that the MST3Kers didn't really  come up with any particularly  funny commentary about it, when you'd think that would have been a Christmas present just dropped into their laps.  Maybe they were tired when this title came up, I don't know.  But I've always been a little disappointed by the riffing on Castle of Fu Manchu.

 

Fading into darkness isn't that bad -- just pretend it's "low key lighting". The screwy and correctable colors just made my eyes water. No one wants to see that! 

 

Fu Manchu is also not my favorite MST3K episode. I think this was the first time I actually watched the whole thing.

[VCRTracking]

One thing is constant watching MST3K is that If I see a 50s movie on MST3K I think the 50s looked terrible, if I see a movie made in the 60s, the 60s looked awful, 70s and so on into the 90s. All the worst fashions, hairstyles, music and idiosyncrasies of each era just come to the fore in these bad movies shown on MST3K.

Edited February 21, 2016 by VCRTracking

[scowl]

It looks like Retro TV may have gotten a few more episodes. They aired "Attack of the Giant Leeches" last night and I don't remember seeing it on Retro before. 

[scowl]

More good episodes are trickling to Retro TV for the first time. "Teenagers from Outer Space" was aired last night.

[Lebanna]

The one with the lobster. I love that one.

[scowl]

Well, the silhouette of a lobster anyway.

[mmecorday]

Comcast dropped RetroTV so no more Saturday night MST3k for me. :(

 

I do have a number of the episodes on DVD and I watched "Time Chasers" this weekend. That has to be one of the best ones to come out of the Mike era. I think what helps is that "Time Chasers" is really not a terrible movie. It's bad, for sure, but the story line is decent. I love it when a kid "from the future!" is jogging down the street in neon green leggings and talking on what appears to be the idea of what a cellphone would look like in 2041 and Crow says, "So in the future all kids become gay agents?"

[scowl]

My Comcast doesn't carry RetroTV either. I get it through my antenna.

[Brattinella]

This has just come back on my local cable, and I'm giddy!  I love this stuff!

[ByTor]

More good episodes are trickling to Retro TV for the first time. "Teenagers from Outer Space" was aired last night.

This is one episode I can (and DO!!!) watch over & over & over and NEVER get tired of! My others are The Incredibly Strange Creatures who Stopped Living and Became Mixed up Zombies, Werewolf, The Final Sacrifice, Hobgoblins, Teenage Strangler, and Space Mutiny :) Edited April 22, 2016 by ByTor

[scowl]

A couple of weeks ago RetroTV added one of my absolute favorites: Bert I. Goron's (I mean Gordon's) brilliant classic "Tormented"! 

[Brattinella]

Yesterday's episode was "Hercules", the original with Steve Reeves.  I was howling, it was so funny! 

 

Did MST3K ever do "The Mushroom People"?  That one just slayed me in my childhood Saturday matinee. (Even without Robots!)

[Brattinella]

"Mad Monster" was the stupendously horrible movie skewered this week.  Unremittingly awful (and glorious!)

[Dewey Decimate]

On 4/22/2016 at 1:39 PM, ByTor said:

This is one episode I can (and DO!!!) watch over & over & over and NEVER get tired of! My others are The Incredibly Strange Creatures who Stopped Living and Became Mixed up Zombies, Werewolf, The Final Sacrifice, Hobgoblins, Teenage Strangler, and Space Mutiny :)

Space Mutiny is a never-fail ab workout. My favorites are the dance club scene ("she's presenting!") and the zamboni chase (I die at the carnival clown car siren).

So excited for the RiffTrax live presentation tomorrow night - I don't even know if they're doing Time Chasers with new commentary or what? - but I'm in.

[ByTor]

1 hour ago, Dewey Decimate said:

Space Mutiny is a never-fail ab workout. My favorites are the dance club scene ("she's presenting!") and the zamboni chase (I die at the carnival clown car siren).

The line I quote over & over..."I wish I had Jesse's girrrrrrlllll....."  That will never NOT be funny!

[VCRTracking]

To this day I love when the evil mutineering chief engineer asks his men "Are there any of you that would confuse freedom with treason?!" and Mike in a wimpy voice says "I'd like to confuse bok choy with cabbage sir!"

When Prince died two weeks ago I went to watch the edited montage of Prince riffs from "Agent from H.A.R.M." someone posted on YouTube where Mike and the bots one of the henchmen who looks like Prince.

Mike (when Prince-looking guy glances a water heater in a garage): "I wonder if that water heater makes the water warm enough Lisa?"

Tom: "I think I want to dance! Ow!

Crow: "How about some CREAM?"

Edited May 4, 2016 by VCRTracking

[scowl]

RetroTV this week added "Swamp Diamonds" with the classic short "What to Do on a Date".

"But I need to know what not to do on a date!"

This inspires Tom to ask "Gyspy" on a date to the "scavenger scale". 

"Swamp Diamonds" is the blurriest color print I've ever seen, even worse than "Manos". 

[Brattinella]

"Puppies!"  Killer Shrews with Roscoe and Festus!

[spaceytraci1208]

On 5/4/2016 at 1:21 PM, VCRTracking said:

When Prince died two weeks ago I went to watch the edited montage of Prince riffs from "Agent from H.A.R.M." someone posted on YouTube where Mike and the bots one of the henchmen who looks like Prince.

Mike (when Prince-looking guy glances a water heater in a garage): "I wonder if that water heater makes the water warm enough Lisa?"

Tom: "I think I want to dance! Ow!

Crow: "How about some CREAM?"

Agent From H.A.R.M. is one of my favorites. As for the "Prince" guy, I always crack up when Crow suggests that they stop by "the leather panty place"

[Brattinella]

Oh God tonight's episode is "The incredibly Strange Creatures who stopped living and became mixed-up zombies"  And I am absolutely dying here!  All the musical acts in this movie (circa 1964) are just TERRIBLE, off-key and monotone.  One of the worst!  And lots of almost-nudity.

[ByTor]

On 7/1/2016 at 11:58 PM, Brattinella said:

Oh God tonight's episode is "The incredibly Strange Creatures who stopped living and became mixed-up zombies"  And I am absolutely dying here!  All the musical acts in this movie (circa 1964) are just TERRIBLE, off-key and monotone.  One of the worst!  And lots of almost-nudity.

Madison :)

Edited July 5, 2016 by ByTor

[Dewey Decimate]

2 hours ago, ByTor said:

Madison :)

Madison should go into the same sibling hall-of-fame as the insanely nerdy brother in Teenage Strangler.

Oh mercy, I just remembered The Incredibly Strange Creatures is the one with the gender-bending Nazi "dancers"!

[ByTor]

You know what I'm looking at right now???  That exit sign!

[Brattinella]

1 hour ago, ByTor said:

You know what I'm looking at right now???  That exit sign!

THAT line just about killed me!

[ByTor]

The part that nearly killed me was when they started singing Little Drummer Boy during that showgirl routine.

[Lebanna]

The Feliz Navidad Dancers! And all the washerwomen in headscarves watching the strip show in which nobody actually strips.

[Brattinella]

Well, there was ONE actual stripper, I think, she had long gloves and ended up in transparent panties with the stage curtain wrapped around her.  Looked professional to my eye. YMMV.

[Lebanna]

True. She took off her bra while wearing the stage curtain, in manner of every thirteen year old getting changed for swim class in the showers at school. So, the absolute opposite of sexy.

Edited July 5, 2016 by Lebanna

[Lebanna]

8 minutes ago, Lebanna said:

True.  She took off her bra while wearing the stage curtain, in manner of every thirteen year old getting changed for swim class in the showers at school. So, the absolute opposite of sexy.

Edited July 5, 2016 by Lebanna

[Brattinella]

Yep, not sexy at all.

[Taryn74]

On 5/4/2016 at 10:03 AM, Dewey Decimate said:

Space Mutiny is a never-fail ab workout. My favorites are the dance club scene ("she's presenting!") and the zamboni chase (I die at the carnival clown car siren).

Yesssss.  I could watch Space Mutiny on an endless loop, except that I would probably hurt myself laughing.  My favorite parts are the endless string of Santa Claus/Sting/daughter-grandmother jokes, the one character that DIED and then was back at work five minutes later ("I think it was very nice of you to give that dead woman another chance"), the weird "sexy" dancing at the club (hula hoops, really?), and really just about every other moment of this hilarious classic.

I feel the same way about Boggy Creek 2.  It's just so golden.  I would watch it even without Mike & The Bots, and that's saying something.  I still tell hubby we need to get him a broccoli rubber band when he has to "dress up" for something, such as an interview at work, or meeting our daughter's boyfriend.  He actually put on a pair of overalls with no shirt and found a green headband to wear with it one time, just to mess with her.  I laughed for approximately nine hours.

[SVNBob]

This seems to fit here best:

The semi-official list of the Top 100 MST3K episodes (so far), as ranked by the revival's Kickstarter backers:

1. Manos: The Hands of Fate - (424)
2. Space Mutiny - (820)
3. Mitchell - (512)
4. The Final Sacrifice - (910)
5. Pod People - (303)
6. Puma Man - (903)
7. Santa Claus Conquers The Martians - (321)
8. Werewolf - (904)
9. Cave Dwellers - (301)
10. Time Chasers - (821)

11. Overdrawn At The Memory Bank - (822)
12. I Accuse My Parents - (507)
13. Eegah! - (506)
14. Gamera - (302)
15. Prince of Space - (816)
16. Hobgoblins - (907)
17. Laserblast - (706)
18. Soultaker - (1001)
19. Godzilla vs. Megalon - (212)
20. Jack Frost - (813)

21. Santa Claus - (521)
22. Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders - (1003)
23. The Brain That Wouldn't Die - (513)
24. The Touch of Satan - (908)
25. Teenagers From Outer Space - (404)
26. The Day the Earth Froze - (422)
27. Warrior of the Lost World - (501)
28. The Giant Spider Invasion - (810)
29. Catalina Caper - (204)
30. Fugitive Alien - (310)

31. Master Ninja I - (322)
32. Time of the Apes - (306)
33. Gamera vs. Guiron - (312)
34. Final Justice - (1008)
35. Boggy Creek II - (1006)
36. Riding with Death - (814)
37. The Sidehackers - (202)
38. Outlaw (Of Gor) - (519)
39. Future War - (1004)
40. Monster A-Go-Go - (421)

41. "Parts": The Clonus Horror - (811)
42. The Killer Shrews - (407)
43. The Giant Gila Monster - (402)
44. Deathstalker and the Warriors From Hell - (703)
45. Red Zone Cuba - (619)
46. The Girl in Gold Boots - (1002)
47. Alien From L.A. - (516)
48. Hercules Against The Moon Men - (410)
49. Diabolik - (1013)
50. Horror Of Party Beach - (817)

51. The Amazing Colossal Man - (309)
52. Danger! Death Ray - (620)
53. The Creeping Terror - (606)
54. Daddy-O + Alphabet Antics - (307)
55. The Incredibly Strange Creatures… - (812)
56. Lost Continent - (208)
57. Attack Of The Eye Creatures - (418)
58. Squirm - (1012)
59. Star Force: Fugitive Alien II - (318)
60. Zombie Nightmare - (604)

61. Hercules Unchained - (408)
62. Quest of the Delta Knights - (913)
63. The Beast of Yucca Flats - (621)
64. The Screaming Skull - (912)
65. The Magic Sword - (411)
66. The Mole People - (803)
67. Operation Double 007 - (508)
68. Wild, Wild World of Batwoman - (515)
69. The Beginning of the End - (517)
70. Magic Voyage of Sinbad - (505)

71. Agent for H.A.R.M. - (815)
72. Girls Town - (601)
73. Devil Doll - (818)
74. Hamlet - (1009) 
75. Night of the Blood Beast - (701)
76. The Beatniks - (415)
77. Secret Agent Super Dragon - (504)
78. The Starfighters - (612)
79. Bride of the Monster - (423)
80. It Conquered The World - (311) 

81. Rocketship X-M - (201)
82. The Crawling Eye - (101)
83. Moon Zero Two - (111)
84. Godzilla Vs. The Sea Monster - (213)
85. Gamera Vs. Zigra - (316)
86. Robot Holocaust - (110)
87. The Incredible Melting Man - (704)
88. Escape 2000 - (705)
89. Gamera Vs. Gaos - (308)
90. Gamera Vs. Barugon - (304)

91. Tormented - (414)
92. Samson vs. The Vampire Women - (624)
93. Angels' Revenge - (622)
94. Horrors of Spider Island - (1011)
95. Invasion of the Neptune Men - (819)
96. Devil Fish - (911)
97. Master Ninja II - (324)
98. The Deadly Mantis - (804)
99. San Francisco International - (614)
100. Wild Rebels - (207)

[Tosia]

Boggy Creek II is my favorite just for the ending. 

I watched Red Zone Cuba yesterday-- the worst movie yet the funniest comments....I watch MST 3000 instead of the news cuz I need the laughs more than ever.  Thank you DVR.

[VCRTracking]

Debbie Reynolds dying a day after her daughter Carrie Fisher is too sad but I also was reminded of this great riff from Space Mutiny:

[Mumbles]

Not sure where this would go on this board, but Bill Corbett is the guest on this week's Chapo Trap House podcast:

https://soundcloud.com/chapo-trap-house

[Mumbles]

RIP, Barbara Hale, the hero of one of my favorite MST3K eps, The Giant Spider Invasion. (And of course Perry Mason.)

[scowl]

RetroTV has dropped MST3K leaving Comet as the only network carrying it now. Comet also has commercial breaks that are six or seven minutes long and they edit the episodes pretty hard. One episode ended right when the movie ended -- went straight to credits!

[ByTor]

On 11/26/2016 at 1:26 AM, SVNBob said:

1. Manos: The Hands of Fate

As much as I used to love Manos, for me it doesn't hold up all that great after several rewatches.  I personally find #58 Squirm much funnier :)

Edited March 27, 2017 by ByTor

[azshadowwalker]

Yeah, Manos is a classic because it is said to be a classic. It's not at the top of my list, especially for the riffing. The movie itself is bizarre, though. 

[The Crazed Spruce]

I'm surprised they didn't include "Mitchell", if for no other reason than the transition.

[SVNBob]

The advanced screening of 1101 for the Kickstarter backers was released earlier today.  Which means I have now seen the first new episode.

I consider myself under a form of NDA, so I won't be spoiling anything.  (Besides, the official release date is less than a week away.)  So here is my spoiler-free review.

In updates sent out to the backers, Joel had repeatedly said that he felt the tone was right, and that everyone that attended one of the special preview events in February that Joel spoken to afterward had said the same thing.  They're right.  MST3K is back.  Other than a new cast and updated sets, the show hasn't changed a bit.  Still the same cheesy movies, still the same snark thrown at them.

There is a bit of an exposition-dump in the intro (beyond the theme song), which seems to me to be for new viewers and not the old guard MiSTies.  But I doubt that will appear in the remaining episodes.  I'm expecting a different intro for the rest of the season.

Plus the host segments seemed to throw a lot of stuff in.  It felt like they were trying to show off all the different kinds of things a host segment could be in one episode.  I can't really say more without spoiling, so you'll have to see what I mean.  Again, I chalk that up to this one being a new pilot and trying to show things off for a new audience.

Overall, a good first outing for the new crew.  And I'm definitely looking forward to the rest of the season with a sense of anticipation, rather than dread.