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

New interview with Joel re the new tour (which he's riffing/performing in along with Jonah -- somehow I'd missed that!), Season 12 etc

https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2018/10/joel-hodgson-on-his-mst3k-riffing-revival.html

During the live tour, the MST3K riffers will be tackling several films that were released in 1988, the same year that the show first debuted on Minneapolis public access TV. First up is Canadian monster movie The Brain, “an adorable movie about a giant brain that eats people” in the words of Joel, followed by Deathstalker II.

That is indeed in the same series as the Season 7 Deathstalker and the Warriors From Hell -- that was the third film overall, and needless to say the only point of continuity is the character name (only the first and fourth films had the same actor). Saw it something like 25 years ago -- as well as Warriors From Hell before it was MSTied! Will be out of town when it swings through, oh well.

Long overdue on my part, meantime, but I did finally get around to watching all of Season 11. Truly some amazing garbage films, I think my faves overall as episodes were Cry Wilderness, Avalanche, the two Wizards botches and of course the glory that is Starcrash, but the whole run was solid enough. (If I had a slog it was Carnival Magic, yikes.) But my overall take way back when when I saw the Reptilicus preview pretty much held course over the whole season -- worth it for the terrible movies and the riffing, even if the riffing mostly wasn't as random or deep with the original writer's room. Felicia/Patton always seemed like they were doing a bit and relying on a couple of stock reactions; maybe this next season will help. Yount got into Crow well as the season progressed, I think; Vaughn wasn't quite there but gaining. Gypsy was kinda wasted in her theater appearances, just about all the quips were 'eh.' Jonah's all right I guess.

Carnival magic was one of those xanax episodes to put on before bed so you pass right out

A perfect description.

jimmy otm

i got tix to see "the brain" and looked up which "the brain" it was (common name) and it's apparently an allegory on scientology, which sounds good to me. stars cynthia preston, which i am very happy to hear, and tom bresnahan, who apparently isn't the dodgers guy but apparently is a maga chud. anyway looking forward to it!

BTW, the trailer for Deathstalker II. Says it all

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYyulM9Xzgc

Ned you've never seen Deathstalker 2!? It's a fuckin classic!!!

No, I have! Reread the bit after the quote in my post.

isn't that movie super rapey? or am i thinking of another conan ripoff

Didn’t RLM cover that one?

this seems bad.

oh, and the BBFC website has 5 of the 6 titles that will be riffed
SPOILERS BELOW:

Mac and Me, Atlantic Rim, Lords of the Deep, The Day Time Ended, and Ator.

Kinda disappointed that they are doing an Asylum movie, but I am hopeful that they've learned from last season and have slowed the riffing down a bit.

xpost That IS weird but there was a follow-up comment:

Hampton said this on Facebook:

"it’s just a money decision that I even kind of understand and I’ll continue to be there as Crow if Netflix picks us up for more. The new season coming is bananas and so,so good. I’ll be fine."

Anyway, as for those titles: finally getting the original Ator, eh? Mac and Me, there's a fine choice.

Also the Asylum choice does explain that photo with the bots all with jacked up bodies.

as the new season is coming out on thanksgiving they are doing a traditional turkey day on the 18th
also I have been really enjoying Star Fugitive 1 & 2 this week

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8c0SI4qflQ

er Fugitive Alien 1 & 2

those are like the MST3K equivalent of comfort movies to me. "fugitive alien" must have been one of the first couple episodes i ever saw, thanks to the after-school-timed Mystery Science Theater Hour. as many times as i've seen them, i can recall very few individual refs or bits besides the obvious (forklift song, etc.) but they are just so easy to put on and watch/listen to, joel and the bots and what feels like it might have been a kinda fun japanese TV series rendered incoherent camp by sandy frank's dubbing. now that's a good time.

yeh for me it's the Gameras for comfort episodes, I really should have got round to buying that DVD box :/

Ever since I missed the two-second release of Godzilla vs Megalon I preordered and/or grabbed each set to be sure. And I'm very glad I did. And yes, both the Fugitive Alien and Gamera episodes are perfect fallbacks.

Meantime, this re new season is interesting. I'm guessing it implies it's one long episode, in essence.

On Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Gauntlet, Kinga subjects Jonah and the bots to a devious new experiment: a back-to-back marathon of six hilariously cheesy – and riff-worthy – films.

saw the live show this weekend - only the first show, i'm old - but it was tremendous fun. hadn't seen season 11 yet, so was enjoying how relaxed and loose the vibe was on this - the rifftrax stuff is also fun but doesn't necessarily seem very spontaneous. balance was wonderful here, reminded me a bit of season 3. i'd forgotten just how _funny_ joel can be!

Okay, full new season trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdBCpnqFNew

The otherwise unknown sixth movie is Killer Fish, which, of course.

Also, fun piece here

https://tv.avclub.com/mst3k-turkey-day-and-30-years-of-taking-over-the-worl-1830417970

Mads and Rifftrax both at Sketchfest, on sale Sunday

https://sched.co/Ikov

https://sched.co/IkpJ

Mac and Me, huh? Finally, MST3k is doing a film I actually saw theatrically.

And the pre-Turkey Day marathon is live

https://youtu.be/Zj8z6fyMLKE

Moon Zero Two to kick it off.

The upcoming season and the new Coen Bros. flick finally convinced me to sign up for Netflix today.

i think the only film i saw theatrically they did was Marooned! aka Space Travelers (an Oscar winner)

never seen Warrior of the Lost World before, great episode!

Yeah one of my all time faves. TONS of great lines.

Haha Bloodlust is next — stupid, stupid film.

And now Samson and the Vampire Women, always liked Frank’s farewell. “OUR CHINESE FOOD IS HERE!”

yeah the song gives me feels

It was a lovely song then and now.

Laserblast! The not-series finale, Trace’s farewell...sent him out with a bang.

i heart Laserblast

main thing i remember from "vampire women" is the impressions of that nebbishy scientist. "now i want you to come back here tomorrow, and then leave immediately!"

🎶there’s a place in france where the...🎶

"Uh, your move sir, you called us?"

poor Keenan Wynn

there's no way anyone under 35 gets most of these references

the lead in Laserblast died at 37 and was in the original production of Hair

he was Rocky in the Roxy cast of Rocky Horror :D

i never knew he died so young tho :(

i'm now looking up kim milford's imdb biography, which goes from

"In 1970 he was awarded the Faith and Freedom Award by the Religious Heritage of America for his portrayal of the Prodigal Son in ABC Directories series "Round Trip"."

to "in addition, he's on some bootlegs of the Aug-Sept '72 Jeff Beck concerts."

this is in fact the second mention of his stint in the jeff beck group in the one-paragraph biography, suggesting milford's imdb biographer has serious issues with short-term memory loss

and because i know you wanted to hear it here's one of the bootlegs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3xWs10GiLM

it's pretty horrible!

Milford and Mark Hamill were buds IIRC, and of course they appeared together in Corvette Summer.

Cry Wilderness was a nice way to end it, it definitely was one of last season's best.

definitely. i forgot about all the bizarre scenery changes

just a headsup: the laserblast sdtk is available on itunes. "Billy's Radio" #s 1 AND 2, "Tony Discovers Black Spot," "Chuck's Car Gets Blasted," "Billy and Kathy Make Love." all right there.

Laserblast gets TWO AND A HALF stars in the Leonard Maltin movie guide... ie higher than Taxi Driver and Blue Velvet. He was really impressed with the stop motion work...