MST3K-- good times - Page 2

Kevin Murphy (the voice of Tom Servo, that stupid monkey) also wrote a great book called "A Year at the Movies" where he travelled the world and saw a movie a day at a theater. Pretty interesting read. Mike Nelson's Death Rat is also decent, though not as funny as his film stuff. If you can find it on youtube or something, try to find the speech Mike made at some college where he preaches about how Road House is the greatest movie ever made.

Pain don't hurt.

Dan, I think the appeal of MST3K is because this is exactly what most people do when they watch shitty movies. I used to watch crappy horror flicks all the time as a kid and we'd rip them apart and crack ourselves up. MST3K's got the added bonus of being done by great writers who've seen the movie multiple times (was it 8 times they watched it? I forget) and can slam every nuance of what makes it suck. Always been a hysterical show- and I throw Shorts Vol. 1 on all the time when people are over, cause it's always entertaining. It also makes a good double feature with Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, as I found out yesterday.

Count me among the devoted. I love this show, and honestly can't get enough of it.

As far as the Mike vs. Joel debate goes, I like both equally. They each have their own appeal as far as I'm concerned.

And lastly, from Overdrawn at the Memory Bank:

"Somebody turn off the fat rotating guy!"

To be truthful, it really depends on the source material. Some of the films they take on are cheesy comedy delights, while others are so painfully awful or boring that nothing they do can make them entertaining.

Give it back! I cried for two weeks when I found it missing.

Desslar, a perfect example of one of the hardest to sit through, no matter how funny the quips, is Hobgoblins, from 98 or 99, a movie that I don't even like to call a movie, it's that fucking bad. One of the few, other than Cave Dwellers, where I actually felt sorry for the crew that had to sit through that one multiple times. I would imagine that task to be suicide inducing.

Mike also has a book of essays called Mind Over Matters which has some pretty funny stuff.

Mike was always such a different type than Joel -- more acerbic and sarcastic than Joel's more gentle soul -- but they both have their strong points.

But it was Joel I saw first that Saturday morning when I saw a guy and two robots making fun of Catalina Caper and I sat there amazed they were doing the entire film, so he's always first in my mind.

And good god I miss Turkey Day. That was more of a tradition than Macy's for some of us for a while.

Agreed, but thanks to the miracle of DVD (and countless episodes I taped off of Comedy Central and Sci-Fi), I still manage to have one every year.

Feel free to JOIN US...if you like.

My tapes aire getting so worn out. Are there still outlets on the web where you can purchase most episodes?

Catalina Caper was my second episode. My first was The Magic Sword. I was immediately in love with the thing.

"And in a touching ceremony, they were married by Grady from Sanford and Son."

My first was Gunslinger, on video. Then Mitchell, then Prince of Outer Space.

I didn't get a chance to see too many before it got taken off the air.

Eventually, they will all be leaked somewhere I can get a hold of them.

Man, Little Richard was stoned out of his mind during his song. Oh Creepy Girl, oh Creepy Girl...


My first was Fugitive Alien, in which everybody in the movie seemed to be named Ken.

God I used to watch the hell out of this show with my friends. I think my favorite is still Giant Spider Invasion, with such great moments as Alan "Doughy" Hale's great love (Pudding!) and the legions of devoted Green Bay fans ( Packers!!!! Packers?). I also remember a great throw-away joke from an episode (though I can't remember the title), when referring to a spaceship, "Hey, what are the specs on this thing?" "Oh, those are just bugs, they wash right off".

Just remembered Attack of the Giant Gila Monster. Fucking great.

Smart feller put his knee up on such a thing.

Teenagers From Outer Space remains one of my all-time favorites. Fortunately, that one is out on DVD. TORTCHA!

Those looking for them online- check this site out- http://mst3k.dapcentral.org/

Thanks to torrents they're all available, for the most part.

And those DVD sets by Rhino keep coming- gotta love it.

I can't even remember what my first episode was. It was either Catalina Caper or the brilliant Wild Rebels, depending on which aired first.

Hike Your Pants Up!!!!

My first episode was a Gamera episode, though I don't really remember which one. We had JUST gotten Comedy Central and I was flipping through channels, saw a giant turtle doing a gymnastics routine, thought to myself, "AH! Gamera!" and settled in to watch it.

Then I noticed the little silouhettes at the bottom of the screen and started hearing the comments they were making. I was totally unfamiliar with the concept of MST3K, and had no idea what I was seeing. Within minutes I was laughing my fool head off at what the guys were saying. From that moment...I was a fan.

For me, the first episode I saw was the first airing of Time of the Apes. Another one of those "flipping though channels" stories. And, one of my all-time favorite riffs is "Hurts, don't it? Bye!" from TotA.

That's Time of the Apes, right near the end.

I actually just watched the Time of the Apes episode over the weekend. I love that episode. When I attened the MST3K Conventio-con-expo-fest-a-rama in 1996, I got to see it projected on a big screen with a crowd of MSTies. Good times, indeed.

"Come on girls! We're gonna give 'em a make-over they won't believe!"

I thought it was, "Hurt's don't it! Tell your friends!!!"

Don't think so. At least, not the specific quote I'm thinking of.

I arrived late to the whole MST3K appreciation since our shitty cable provider didn't offfer Comedy Central or Sci Fi when the show still on. I caught a few episodes when I was in college from a guy that had some taped and loved them. I have no idea what movie(s) these (non-exact) quotes are from but two of my favorites were:

"I'm fighting with cardboard here!" and "C'mon guys. Seems like I'm the only one terrorizing these folks."

The site has an announcement for the next box set. Apparently, I was completely wrong, as the next set includes Godzilla vs Megalon. I would have bet a kidney that Toho would never have released the US video rights to a Godzilla movie to MST3K. This gives me hope for the Gamera episodes.

edit:
Ooh, and they have Max Headroom and Freakazoid. I am all over this.

edit again:
Or not. I've set up a membership, gotten my password, signed in and all that, but every time I click on a file, I get the dreaded "page not found" screen. Not sure what I'm missing here.

Gristle McThornbody!

"He's got a tree! Godzilla has a tree!"
"That's not the Godzilla we know!"
"Now it's a street fight, it's a question of who wants it more!"

And one of my all-time favorite bits: "Rex Dart, Eskimo Spy".

Alien from L.A. First MST3K episode I ever saw. Caught at my Nanna's apartment on MTV. Holds up to this day!

Much love for Space Mutiny.

First one I saw was "The Final Sacrifice." When Servo says, "Have a drink on me, tattoo," I spewed Canada Dry onto my friend's rug.

As for what Joel is up to now, not a lot is really known. He was apparantly writing for Jimmy Kimmel but left after a year. It's also been said that he works as a script doctor in Hollywood. I think the last thing he was involved with was some Tornado show. He's also been in 'Freaks and Geeks'.

There's a really great MST3K website that details the history of the show and it's fascinating, particulary the sections about Joel. I had no idea that while doing stand-up he was offered a TV pilot but he rejected the script. The studio, thinking Joel was holding out, pretty much doubled his money. Joel though, disgusted with Hollywood, went back home and worked as a T-shirt printer for a few years.

The first few episodes (Which I don't think have seen the light of day) were also actually adlibbed, which meant there were long silences, and on more than one occasion, Joel was left watching the movie alone when the other cast members couldn't make it to the shoot.

As for why Joel left - people don't really know. The standard excuse is that Joel had enough of doing the show and wanted to try something new. That's fair enough I suppose, but it's also rumoured that he was very much against the proposed movie of the show (In his letter to fans announcing his departure, Joel said at the end "I don't really want to be a movie star" - At the time the comment went unnoticed, but it was only some time later that the movie was announced and people put 2+2 together).

As for who was better - I think they're both very good. Mike seemed far more natural in front of the camera than Joel did, but I can't help but feel that some of the best material came from the Joel years. Plus I'm a sucker for Joel's deadpan humour. One of the best moments of the show though is when Joel and Mike meet for the first time - It's an oddly touching moment but it's such a shame that Joel didn't sit in with Mike and the bots to watch a movie (According to Joel he didn't want to do something he hadn't had a hand in writing.)

I've still never seen the final episode though.

Kinda like CHUD.

Saw this yesterday.

I think it could be pretty cool. I don't know how successful it'll be though. $2 a movie is pretty damn cheap, but I still don't see a lot of people downloading these. I know I'll at least give a few of them a try.

Interesting. I remember fans of the show always wishing that they could do some of the more high-profile films. This could be the way to do it legally.

Best episode ever- Mitchell!