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.
Hooray! Thank you so much for this information. I miss MST3K so much and can't wait to get my DVD.
Posted by: laanba | January 15, 2008 at 06:53 PM
No lie popeye I just sent back 'The Crawling Hand' MST3000 on my Netflix! I dearly loved Joel on the show. Mike was ok but Joel has such a dry witty humor! I've been googling his name for years to find out what he's been up to. Yeah for Cinematic Titanic! I knew you were a smart man! You've got good taste...
Posted by: CYB | January 15, 2008 at 08:08 PM
What a topic for starting my first post!
I've been a huge MST3K fan ever since I was like 15 when I started watching "Mystery Science Hour" in syndication back on the now-defunct KHTV in Houston. It would air at midnight on Sundays and I'd make a point of staying up late just to see it.
I didn't get to watch a lot, but it was enough to get me hooked and I got to rekindle my love when my parents finally broke down and got cable. I even went as far as to order every VHS tape I could find and put them on the shelves at the video store I worked in during high school just so I could rent them for free and watch them over and over again.
So, tonight, I just finished watching CT's "The Oozing Skull" for the second time since I got it in the mail on Monday.
I shed a tear after the initial viewing. This really IS MST3K v2.0.
The riffs were good, the movie was bad and, on the whole, I'd say I laughed at about 90% of the jokes. A few were a little flat. Some were a little TOO obscure (but, yeah, I know that's sometimes the point), but most were spot-on hysterical.
I've only seen one episode of MST3K, years ago mind you, with J. Elvis Weinstein as Dr. Erhardt/Tom Servo, so I'm hugely biased towards Kevin Murphy. However, it only took a few minutes into the riffing and I immediately made a mental note to seek out more Josh-era episodes. He was awesome.
By far, the biggest treat was hearing Joel and Trace together again, especially when Trace began to slide a little "Crow" into his riffing. Trace didn't have an unfunny line in the movie and he had one of the better visual jokes done.
Oh, and those visual gags are an awesome touch and are so full of win some country has to be suffering from a huge win shortage at the moment. The one thing I sorta missed about the post-Joel era was a lack of interacting "physically" with the screen/movie. CT brings that back and in a big way.
To prove my point, the best moment: the cameo by Stephen Hawking. I won't ruin it beyond that. Go buy it and watch it.
CT: TOS gets an 11/10.
(Oh, and for the poster above that said something about Joel abandoning MST3K, it wasn't quite like that. I've read a few articles and comments in the past that have stated that Joel was never comfortable in front of the camera and always liked being behind the scenes more, building props and writing and the like. He loved MST, but didn't like being thrown into the spotlight and it eventually wore him out. I'll have to see if I can dig up a link to that.)
Posted by: Ensign Expendable | January 15, 2008 at 09:12 PM
I too am an MST3K fan... my first one was Sidehackers, not the best episode, but enough to get me hooked :)
I haven't seen any of the Cinematic Titanic yet, but I did get one of the Film Crew for Christmas, and it was pretty cool. Weird to hear those "robot voices" coming out of actual people ;)
-bill
Posted by: Heuristics Inc. | January 15, 2008 at 09:51 PM
"It was about that time the Duke boys decided to show Boss Hogg what sidehacking was all about."
Hahahhhhaaaa....
Sidehackers was also one of the first episodes I ever saw.
I loved how at the end of the episodes, the words - KEEP CIRCULATING THE TAPES - would appear.
Some friends of mine couldn't wait til the next episode, and would tape little cutouts of Joel and the bots to their t.v. and sat and yelled stuff over everything they watched... even the news.
Glad to see that so many people still enjoy what these guys do.
-Jamie
Posted by: ]@/\/\!3 | January 15, 2008 at 10:34 PM
I watched the first (of many, hopefully) Cinematic Titanic film last night...very satisfying! I thought it was a great use of the talented cast! I also think that "The Film Crew" submissions were really good (I hope they haven't quit after four entries!) But for my money, NOTHING beats RiffTrax. It is great to hear Mike, Kevin and Bill riffing on some movies that are horrible in an entirely different way than an MST3K film!
Posted by: NattyLite | January 16, 2008 at 05:11 AM
No Cinematic for overseas - boo! Having said that I've got the Film Crew's "Killers from Space" on dvd to enjoy.
"Who's narrating this - Christopher Walken?"
"I am....become death....the destroyer....of worlds" :)
Posted by: MikeN | January 16, 2008 at 06:36 AM
ORDERED!
Thanks for the head's up, Wil. Your blog is also a news feed for all thingz k00l on the interwebs.
I was actually searching through a bunch of VHS tapes looking for one and saw all my MST3Ks, thinking...man, I don't even have my player hooked up any longer! Manos! Long time no see!
Posted by: tammy | January 16, 2008 at 06:39 AM
Hey will, from all of us at RiffTrax, thanks for the quick mention. You have a bunch of fans over here too, ya know. Ever consider riffing on a movie with Mike? :)
Posted by: torgosPizza | January 16, 2008 at 09:26 AM
Wil, see that guy up there named torgosPizza? He works for Rifftrax. Take him up on the offer. Seriously. Please. The nerd universe would implode in an orgy of win and bodily fluids. Which is a good thing. In this case, at least.
Posted by: Matthew J. Sanderson | January 16, 2008 at 10:57 AM
And to my astonishment I called him "will" ... As a fan of Wil Wheaton in ST:TNG and Stand By Me, I am outraged at this mistake.
What can I say, Firefox was having issues with TypePad, and I had to rewrite the comment several times before I got it to post.
*Sigh* ..
/Hands in Geek Card
Posted by: torgosPizza | January 16, 2008 at 11:28 AM
"SANDY FRANK! SANDY FRANK!
HE'S THE SOURCE OF ALL OUR PAIN."
I love the Gamera series.
Posted by: Sara Niggleron | January 16, 2008 at 01:53 PM
Cool! Thanks for letting us know its available for ordering.
You should seriously take up torgosPizza's offer to do a RiffTrax. That would be awesome!
I remember discovering MST3K when I was about 10 or 11 years old on a family vacation to the beach. Our local cable company at the time didn't carry Comedy Central...so instead of swimming in the Gulf of Mexico I spent that week indoors watching this TV show I had heard so much about ("Swamp Diamonds" was my first and "The Beatniks" made me stay up past midnight for the first time in my young life in order to catch that episode).
Posted by: amityisland | January 16, 2008 at 04:40 PM
I was a huge fan of MST3K, my family thought I was a little loopy for watching it, but I didn't care.
I found out about Cinematic Titanic just before Christmas, showed my wife the site, and she ordered the DVD for me; even though she will never watch it. I just got it and I'm anxiously awaiting the time when I can sit an enjoy it.
I'm glad you are talking about it Wil, more people need to know so it keeps going!
Posted by: Mike | January 16, 2008 at 05:09 PM