The Return of MST3K

I was twenty years-old the first time I saw MST3K. I was sitting on the couch with a friend of mine, looking for something to watch on a Sunday morning, when she stopped on some crappy old horror movie.

"What's this?" I said.

"You've never seen this before?"

"No," I said, "That's why I asked 'what's this.'"

"It's a show about this guy who is trapped in space with robots, and is forced to watch horrible movies. So he and the robots talk back to the screen."

It reminded me of this show I first watched on KDOC here in Los Angeles when I was a freshman in high school, called Mad Movies. I became a fan for life in a matter of minutes, and developed a list of favorites just as fast: Manos, the Hands of Fate, Rocketship XM and Lost Continent are a few that come instantly to mind.

MST3K's Joel Hodgson once said, "We don't ask ourselves, 'will anyone get this?' We tell each other, 'the right people will get this.'" I was inspired by that philosophy, and when I wrote sketch comedy or did improv (both pursuits inspired by MST3K and the British Whose Line?) I used it, and I still use it today, even when I'm not writing comedy.

So now that there's some context for how much I love MST3K, you'll understand how excited I was when I saw that most of the original crew has reunited for Cinematic Titanic, which I believe can be safely called The Return of MST3K:

Cinematic Titanic is a feature length movie riffing show and is an artist owned and operated venture created by Joel Hodgson, the creator of the Peabody award-winning Mystery Science Theatre 3000. Cinematic Titanic features the original cast and writers of MST3K, which is Hodgson (Joel Robinson), Trace Beaulieu (Crow), and J. Elvis Weinstein (Tom Servo). Filling out the ensemble is Mary Jo Pehl (Pearl Forrester) and Frank Conniff (TV’s Frank).

While this is exciting to me as a fan, it's also inspiring and validating to me as a creative person who lives on the Long Tail. Instead of waiting for a network to give them the opportunity to bring their show to viewers, they're distributing the show on DVD themselves. Between this and Riff Trax, we Misties have a lot to celebrate these days.
 

Now if you'll excuse me, I have some rock climbing to do.

Comments

[Riley Joy]

As much as I love MST3K, I have to ask you how you liked the Sarah Connor Chronicles. I know how much you were looking forward to it. Hope it wasn't a complete bust?

[Riley Joy]

Climb away!

[ShempLugosi]

Cool to know that you love MST3K, as do I. My first was Fire Maidens From Outer Space. Couple of favorites are Girls Town and The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living And Became Mixed Up Zombies. Can't wait to see their new stuff.

[Mike Maloney]

Lost Continent is outstanding. I love that and Hercules vs. The Moon Men. Sandstorm!

[Mari Adkins]

Next week on Mitchell: The Cloverleaf.

[JennyW]

Thanks for the great tip, Wil! I watched MST3K pretty much from the start. They even did a nationwide tour which I got to go see. I still have my Free Cheese: The Tour t-shirt. I always loved watching Joel - he is much funnier than Mike, in my opinion. He was also better at throwing out Minnesota and other upper midwest jokes that I got but fell flat on my then-boyfriend!

[eyduck]

Hand to god, I thought I was the only person on the planet who had ever even heard of "Mad Movies". I wasn't making it up, people! See? See!

[Celtic Mama]

An old boyfriend introduced me to MST3K back in 1990 and I never laughed so much at movies in all my life! They all just worked so well together, and their commentary was always hysterical.

[Joe]

I enjoyed Mike & Crow most. Tom Servo bothered me..

Being a candy dispenser couldn't be an easy life. Look in the mirror, you have clear acrylic for a head and a fucking beak. That must've been tough.

What if it cracked? There are few things in life more grotesque than a cracked acrylic head.

I admire the fact he had a good sense of humor and a kind soul, despite being born a damned candy dispenser with no lips.

Poor Tom.

[Scott Ficek]

Hey Wil-
Long term reader, first time commenter.

Mike and Bridget Nelson (writers of MST3K) were friends of ours in Minneapolis. Mike moved to LA to do Rifftrax about a year or so ago.

I dropped them an email to your post.

[The Bad Astronomer]

W 0 0 t !

Funny, when I think of MST I think of that exact same quote from Joel.

[Alan]

By this time, my lungs were aching for air.

[akbar56]

I am still a little bitter that Joel years ago claimed that he was done with MST and didn't want to touch it again. And now lo and behold, Mike makes RiffTrax and the FilmCrew profitable and now Joel has to come back and steal his glory.

LONG LIVE MIKE.

[artslave]

They started a wiki about it too, at cinematictitanic.wikia.com

The more the merrier!

[William Stegemann]

No TV show has ever brought me as much joy as MST3K.

[bonniegrrl]

The Cinematic Titanic gang debuted their show at ILM before the holidays and it was a laugh riot.

Photos of Joel and gang at the after party:
http://flickr.com/photos/bonniegrrl/sets/72157603405589507/

[CHV]

Oh, these stairs...

[angie k]

Gosh, I love that show. I'd watch it when I was a kid at my grandmother's house because she had cable. She'd watch, too, and she never objected but she never really "got it". But she never thought I was crazy when I laughed uncontrollably at it, bless her heart. :)

I've never tried RiffTrax, though... Hmm....

[Terry O]

I love the MST3K people, but it annoys me there's no digital downloads of this movie (for now), and the rights issues won't even allow anyone outside of the US to buy it. Looks like it's back to Rifftrax with Mike Nelson for the time being..

[Craig Steffen]

Uh-oh, Wil has some rock climbing to do, and he's got his thong on up-side down. I could have gone my whole life without seeing that.

Hey, it's Wil, and he brought the keg!

**********

Good times, good times. The guys I lived with my Junior and Senior years of college treated HAtMM as a religion. We watched every few weeks for two years, along with lots of other episodes. I just got the DVD from a web site called "best video" or something.

Looking forward to CT.

[Creon]

Cinematic Titanic is indeed the second coming of MST3K, and it's long overdue. Thank you Joel, for getting the gang back together-- you have been missed! And to akbar above, let's not forget where all these post-MST projects came from. If it weren't for Joel, *none* of this would have possible. He certainly doesn't need to steal anyone's "glory"-- if anyone's entitled to it, it's him. Hooray for Joel, Trace, Josh, Frank and Mary Jo! Job well-done!

[Vadergirl]

Yep, like Bonnie said, the guys were here at Lucasfilm/ILM last month. Here is an interview they did for Star Wars.com...

http://www.starwars.com/community/news/rocks/f20071109/index.html

It was great!

[Jessika]

I'm most excited that it's the original cast back together. After TV's Frank left, it just never had that golden magic. Don't get me wrong, there were still great episodes, but it just wasn't the same.

Might have to have an MLK "Turkey Day" marathon this weekend.

[Sperlock]

I loved Mad Movies and would love to watch them again. They were on Nickelodeon long ago, back when Nickelodeon was cool.

[Heather]

I discovered MST3K one afternoon when it was in re-runs on Sci-Fi, in the Mike Nelson years. It was Mole Men. I was sick, and my whole family was out, and I was flipping around, and came upon this weird show where there were robots commenting at the screen. And I laughed and laughed. Later on when I went to college I found people who loved it as well, and they introduced me to the Joel years. This and Star Trek: TNG are still the only shows that I miss so much it's a permanent ache. So glad for Cinematic Titanic, RiffTrax, Film Crew, etc.