Mystery Science Theater 3000: C/D, S/D.

I'll never hate the show. God no! But I should probably stop reading Nelson's writings outside of the show. (Murphy's book is much better.)

Great, now I'm a fucking knee-jerk. (OK, I've always been one, it seems.)

it's sort of difficult to reconcile all those jokes that seemed to be taking, say, organized religion against his offhand comments about "saving people's souls."

I think you're mistaking a collective effort -- ten or more regular writers over the course of eleven years -- with one person, though. Mike was the head writer, yes, but he was not the only writer. Also, for all that there were jabs, there were also appreciations -- I'm thinking of a sketch from Joel days where he noted along the way that one shouldn't mess with a Higher Power, adding, 'Take it from one who knows.' A distinct joy of MST3K is its ecumenicism on a variety of fronts, not necessarily or solely religious.

Outside of the show, keep in mind he's still very close friends with Kevin, who, as you can tell from his own book, is Buddhist -- if Mike were a close-minded bigot, not only would the show reflect that but there would hardly be an easy and continuing friendship and professional relationship between the two (as well as with Bill and to a lesser extent with Paul and Mary Jo and others, as demonstrated by Edward the Less and all). I very much doubt Mike harangues the rest of them with sermons.

Mike's various comments on his childhood and early adulthood, while referencing various joys, also have indicated struggle, a broken home (I believe his parents are divorced), a variety of different spiritual pursuits and more. Add to that the darkness Mike D and I note above in this thread that surfaces elsewhere -- not to mention the miserable headaches he's apparently suffered from for years, which like any physical condition that is persistent and not easily solved is bound to have some impact on who and what you are -- and what I see in him through what I know of him as a public figure is somebody who has found a particular peace and grace in a way that suits him best, and who is apparently an extremely loving and caring father and husband (thinking of some of Bridget Jones's various comments and notes in interviews). I think that's admirable.

Finally, regarding his taste in movies, I don't think it was a requirement to be a total movie buff to make the show work as comedy, and again it was a collective effort. Kevin is obviously a movie freak, so too was Frank, and they knew their obscurities, as I believe does Bill. It's part of what they brought to the table.

But Fujiwara's also right in that it's a damn shame one of MST3K's unfortunate legacies is that (for some and not all, I stress) any movie that doesn't adhere to binding mainstream standards of excellence (in the same way that Casablanca does) is practically grounds for ridicule. Of course, this is not MST3K's fault, and in fact the only plausible reason I can think of for Fujiwara to be focusing his vitriol on MST3K is that the show makes such a damned good case for eviscerating offbeat films.

Having said that, did I mention that this is my favorite show ever? Ever ever? And that someday I'd love to sit down with TV's Frank and pick his brain on movies?

Anyway I'm never entirely sure how much the MST3K gang hated the films they watched. I was particularly surprised after seeing that Raul Julia movie that they kept going on was one of the worst Sci-Fi era movies they watched -- the visuals in that movie are completely eye-popping and wonderful, although yes the plot is weak and the acting is fairly awful (except for Julia). I found something to like in the film. And I think MST3K helped me to realize, as a young'un (I started watching the show during Season One, neener neener, Ned) that there were things to value in even the most riduclously awful films. Torgo touches our lives.

The process they used to develop riffs from movies -- watching movies and stopping them when they could think of something funny which somebody would then write down, then start the film again -- strikes me as really not conducive to wonderful aesthetic experiences. I doubt even my favorite films would still charm me after that kind of punishing microscopic analysis, and since we're talking about stuff, like Monster A-Go-Go or The Wild, Wild World of Batwomen, that sometimes really defies sense and reason, I think rage might a perfectly rational response.

But I bet they all eventually got somewhat desensitized to the process, and that most of the vitriol they poured onto most of their movies was merely exaggerated for comic effect.

IIRC, I think Mary Jo was eventually put in charge of screening films to see if they were MSTable, so she'd MSTed films even more times than the other BB people, and she said that they finished creating an episode out of a film, she would have already seen it a really mindbending number of times. (20? 50?!?)

Thus Tom's legendary cry at the end of Wild World of Batwomen -- "END!!! ENNNNNDDD!!!"

Not only did Mary Jo see things a few times over first, she also had to screen those many movies which were considered and rejected for screening. Frank did that duty before her. They are perhaps the true stalwarts of the whole thing.

Oh, and hear the engines roll now.

The REAL weird thing about the commentary, though, is Mike's voice -- it's him and all, but he's got this strange, prominent lisp that shows up. Either I've never noticed it before (which I find hard to doubt), he's gained one over time for reason (hadn't noticed it in the recent DVD interview snippets) or maybe they recorded him a day after some dental or mouth work.

Me: "So I picked up that Reefer Madness with Mike Nelson on it..."

Chaki: *takes out wallet to show that he's put the sticker from the DVD cover with Mike's face on it on top of his driver's license photo*)

Do you feel the spirit of music inside you now?

"Just wait until he finds out how hard it really is!"

"Yes, very clever, MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM..."

Recent Mike and Mary Jo interviews.

! FAINT PRAISE, sir.

"I'M BACK!"