Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K)

[Sage Kaley]

Movie Sign!

Alright folks, the last time OB had an MST3K thread was back in 02 so here's a fresh one. If you don't know what it is, then here's a little bit stole right from the wiki:

[I]Mystery Science Theater 3000 (1988?1999), usually abbreviated MST3K, is a cult television comedy series created by Joel Hodgson featuring a man and his robot sidekicks who are trapped on a satellite in space and forced to watch particularly bad movies. Series creator Hodgson originally played the stranded man, Joel Robinson. When he left in 1993, series head writer Michael J. Nelson replaced him as new B-movie victim Mike Nelson, and continued in the role for the rest of the show's run. [/I]

There was also a movie called "This Island Earth", as well as a few "trailer" features. They've also guest starred on a few shows.

Basically, you would see Joel or Mike at the bottom of the screen with Crow and Servo, the robots, in a movie theater seating. They would mock the movie and we'd laugh. There were 10 seasons before it was fully taken off the air.

To date, 8 boxsets have been released and there are numerous little dvds are floating around.

Personally, this show did what I've always done: Made fun of crappy movies. We all do it. We've all seen that one crappy movie that was torture to watch. These guys made a show out of it and it remains my favorite TV show. I think my favorites are "Prince of Space", "Boggy Creek 2", "Pumaman" and Mr. B's Shorts. I also prefer Mike over Joel but that's just different tastes.

So! What about you guys? Anyone else know this show? Give me your favorite one, or favorite quote or Joel vs. Mike. Just talk about MST3K, eh? ^_~

In closing: We like it very much!

[John]

Prince of Space was probably my favorite episode, heh. The quotability in it is amazing, as you displayed in your last sentence there. :P Although other fantastic ones are Quest of the Delta Knights ("That's muh pee!") and Space Mutiny ("Did you see my butt?").

As for Joel vs. Mike, I'm more partial to Mike, myself. For whatever reason, he just comes off as a lot wittier, and he interacts with the robots much better than Joel, I think. I never did like Joel's inventions of the week too much, either.

[Shinmaru]

MST3K may very well be my favorite TV show ever... either that, Futurama, or The Simpsons. What a choice.

Anyway, my first exposure to the show was during the Sci-Fi years; I'd say I watched MST3K for about three years or so before Sci-Fi "retired" it. (I was very sad that day. :() Because of that, I've seen far more Mike episodes than I have Joel episodes. I prefer Mike overall, but not by that much... they're both hilarious for different reasons (Mike is generally crazier, Joel has the funny, soft-spoken voice, etc.).

My favorite episodes during Joel's tenure are "Cave Dwellers," "Pod People," "Manos, the Hands of Fate," "Eegah," and "Mitchell." My absolute favorite out of those is probably "Pod People," if only for the hilarious reproduction of a song sequence from the movie that Joel and the 'bots do. "It stinks!" Cracks me up every time.

From the Mike years... I love "Prince of Space," "Space Mutiny," "The Final Sacrifice," "Quest of the Delta Knights," "Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders," "Final Justice," "Horrors of Spider Island," and "Squirm." "Space Mutiny" is my favorite of them all. Mike, Crow, and Servo just tore that movie to pieces lol. And all of the nicknames that they gave the main character... haha. It was glorious. :)

MST3K is awesome. I just wish I had enough money to afford the boxsets... I will have them one day, however.

Oh, and you are officially the greatest person ever for starting this thread, Kisha. :)

[Rhym]

[FONT=Times New Roman][COLOR=DarkSlateGray]"Your weapons have no effect on me!"

Ah, good times. I love this show. Probably my favorite episode is "The Beginning of the End." Giant locusts attacking Chicago ("They've broken our code and our sergeant was a grasshopper in disguise!")! The obvious solution? Polygraph one of the giant bugs to find the frequency of their mating call ("I hate to ask you this, but, where are your nipples?"), then play it out of a giant speaker in the middle of Lake Michigan ("It's a trap, it's gotta be! There can't be [i]this many[/i] females in Lake Michigan!")! That's a great episode, I have it on DVD. I have a few other box sets, too.

Man, it's such a shame that they cancelled the show.[/FONT][/COLOR]

[Shinmaru]

Kind of a random time to bump this thread, but whatever.

I've been watching a ton of MST3K recently, and a standout episode that I recently saw was "Laserblast." Just fantastic riffing from start to finish ("Hey. Read between the lines," and "Can I get a plunger?" being my favorites; I literally cried from laughing so hard at the second one), a couple of great host segments (the MONAD segment and Mike as Captain Janeway, although the latter is a bit creepy too), and a hilarious sendoff for Dr. Forrester (but only if you've seen 2001: A Space Odyssey :p).

If you haven't seen "Laserblast," then you really should. It's quickly become one of my favorite episodes. :)

[Papa Smurf]

I remember suffering through Red Zone Cuba. That was pretty terrible, but the only thing that ever made it bearable (like 90% of what they watch on MST3K) was the comments and wise-*** remarks.

But I think my all-time favorite episode was this movie about a scientist who turned into a bat. Or something. The premise was gold, because it gave MST3K a chance to throw out cracks like "Oh man, I just guano-d my pants!" when the scientist veers off the road, flipping over his stolen ambulance.

I forget the name of this other episode, but it was memorable only because I got to hear the guys say "Wood for sale!" when a redneck hick was carrying around a 2x4, and "Saw him? He was delicious!" in response to the main character asking about his father. lol

Great show. Bad movies. Sarcastic robots. Perfection.

[Shinmaru]

[quote name='Papa Smurf']I forget the name of this other episode, but it was memorable only because I got to hear the guys say "Wood for sale!" when a redneck hick was carrying around a 2x4, and "Saw him? He was delicious!" in response to the main character asking about his father. lol[/quote]

"Saw him? He was delicious!" is definitely from "The Final Sacrifice." That's an absolutely amazing episode... the sequence of riffs starting when Mike Pipper (the "grizzled prospector") arrives to when Rowsdower leaves on the horse might be the funniest I've ever seen on MST3K. The movie dumped a ton of comedic gold into the writers' laps with the Pipper character, haha. And, hell, Rowsdower ("I wonder if there's beer on the sun?"), Troy ("Oh, man, I haven't felt this tense since Mock U.N."), and Satoris ("Canadian villain, Garth Vader.") weren't slouches in the ridiculously lame character department, either. It's like the filmmakers were [i]trying[/i] to make the easiest film in history to riff on lol.