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

Is there bad blood between the Nu-MST3k crew and the others? All I know is that Frank said once (on Twitter?) that he and Trace weren't asked to participate in nu-MST3k and left it at that (I know Mary Jo and Bill Corbett made cameos).

It's a long story discussed upthread from the time of the 2015 revival. Basically while everyone's pretty much anti-Mallon as noted (though now that he's sold the show some years back it's probably more of a residual grudge), for a long time there seemed to be two 'camps' for lack of a better word, the Rifftrax and the Cinematic Titanic crew. But while the latter probably came together precisely because they saw how well the former group was doing, they got along well enough doing their own things, appeared at the Comic-Con panel years back that's on one of the DVDs, various groups of people met up at other conventions etc. However, there's been enough said at this point that it was clear that Joel initially tried to envision nu-MST3K as a return for original folks like Trace, Frank etc. from Cinematic Titanic -- Rifftrax was happy being themselves I gather -- but then it turned into Joel doing his Next Generation thing, shortly after the collapse of Cinematic Titanic, and I'm sure it's all related. And THAT is what really caused a split. J. Elvis was a bit grumpy about it for a while, but as you noted Mary Jo and Bill (and Kevin!) did their cameos. And J. Elvis and Bill and Joel reunited for the benefit shorts last year, and there's a bit of a guess that they could be the crew for the new Joel episodes coming up. But Trace and Frank have been VERY clear that they had major problems with Joel as a result, and various comments on the old Movie Sign With the Mads podcast as well as Twitter, not to mention last month's Mads are Back livestream, just reinforce that. They did do the MInneapolis MST3K reunion hosted by Rifftrax but you could sense the off vibes a bit.

It's notable, in turn, that if you remove Joel from the equation, everyone else gets along. So for instance Rifftrax had done various events with Trace/Frank, Bridget/Mary Jo, etc. at times, including Sketchfest a couple of years ago. Meantime, at Sketchfest last year, they literally had just about everybody from the old crews together for a massive riff-off, plus Jonah! Meanwhile, Joel was doing the live tour with the new Emily crew in turn. And this time around it's notable that Bill was happily part of the Kickstarter via a livestream turn, as was Mary Jo, while Kevin and Mike did their Frank and Trace appearances. In conclusion -- tangled as fuck. And this is all just the surface level stuff that's public, who knows what else is going on.

If you have a bunch of people who feel like they have sweat equity but one guy who has the actual equity then these things happen

Andy Kindler said that J. Elvis is going to be in one episodrr Ed of the next season

One-Episode Ed, the new superhero

Speaking of Jonah, in 2019 I saw him on the Washington stop of a live tour that included a movie riff of an early 90s vanity production called “Get Even” (or as the title card called it “Geteven”). It was fantastic, he’s a born riffer.

Meantime, the actress who played two roles (as twin sisters) in Deathstalker and the Warriors from Hell, has taken an odd path in life. (She’s been a GOP sort for at least a couple of decades now.)

.⁦@JonathanTamari⁩ on the Toomey seat >

The next person who seems likely to enter the race is Carla Sands, Trump’s former amb to Denmark, who, according to Republicans who have met with her, has privately touted her ability to win his endorsement. https://t.co/YPvrvrxG1P

— Jonathan Martin (@jmartNYT) May 15, 2021

warriors from hell indeed

Imagining an Alt-Timeline wherein Torgo lived and became governor of Texas.

Torgo theme blaring from lifted pickup trucks

“We have nothing to fear... because the master likes you. Nothing will happen to you. He likes you.”

So here’s an artifact. Lately a YouTube user has been putting up MST3K ‘broadcast’ episodes, with the now-thoroughly ancient commercials of their time included. Amusing enough but what I hadn’t realized is that this person has included episodes from the original local TV run on KTMA 23 from Minneapolis in 1988-89. Meaning it’s all *local* ads. Some of them are standard enough promos for other programming or legal firm commercials, but some of them are very very of their time and place specifically. The sound in this episode is choppy and as with most of the earliest ones the riffs are much less plentiful and polished but if you scroll for the ads alone you’ll be amazed. (Amusingly, this was a repeat episode -- they talk about Christmas and New Year's but this tape was done on a March rebroadcast.)

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

There's a number of others up as well.

woah, the "broadcast version" treasures keep on coming! i just watched City on Fire in non-MSTed form (which, yeccccchhh), maybe i'll throw that one soon!

Mr. Corbett on what it's like working with Mike given certain...differences.

https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/nqnu5n/i_am_bill_corbett_best_known_as_a_writer_and/h0bluj8/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

Separately, he was great being the host of a chat with Kristin Hersh last night for her virtual book tour!

Hey fun news, the latest live tour is happening and it's the Emily crew! They were great on that last one and now she'll be the host properly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkDGPF--4qs

Got this as a recommended story today: https://www.yesmagazine.org/opinion/2021/08/05/native-spirituality-mystery-science-theater-3000-prison

And it's a wonderful read, that's for sure.

And now I got this as a recommended story...

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/entertainment/2021/10/29/mystery-science-theater-cincinnati-show-homecoming-emily-marsh/8558124002/

...and also this:

https://www.tor.com/2021/11/24/a-love-letter-to-mystery-science-theater-3000-thirty-third-anniversary/

Is there a turkey day stream this year?

its up on twitch, youtube stream seems to be borked for the moment
https://www.twitch.tv/mst3k

Ty

youtube stream is working

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

Won’t be able to catch it this year, someone post the list of new episodes when announced

i’ll keep track & put up the list later, stay tuned!

to think of all things, this used to be the oldest tradition in my family growing up.

dad forced us to watch it at first, but the Neanderthal boys grew to love it fast. my mother never understood it.

hoping I can watch some.

S13 films announced so far (I may have missed one)

Santo and Dracula's Treasure (1969) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0208504/
Robot Wars (1993) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107979/
Beyond Atlantis (1973) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069783/
Munchie (1992) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104938
Doctor Mordrid (1992) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104115/
Demon Squad (2019) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4219706/
Gamera vs Jiger (1970) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065755
The Batwoman (1968) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0235608
The Million Eyes of Sumuru (1967) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061976

Nice mix!

also
The Shape of Things to Come (1979) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079894
The Mask (1961) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055151

you can see all the teaser clips here https://kickstarter.mst3k.com/season13

full list:

mst3k

Santo in the Treasure of Dracula (1969)
Robot Wars (1993)
Beyond Atlantis (1973)
Munchie (1992)
Dr Mordrid (1992)
Demon Squad (2019)
Gamera Vs Jiger (1970)
The Batwoman (1968)
The Million Eyes of Su Muru (1967)
HG Wells The Shape of Things To Come (1979)
The Mask 3D (1961)
The Bubble (1966)
The Christmas Dragon (2014)

Munchie is the first time a movie has ever broken me. I have visceral disgust and anger towards this movie now. I would gladly watch 500 Days of Salò over this again. The Mads @feliciaday and @pattonoswalt are unrepentant monsters https://t.co/VLcfGPx1DV

— Hampton Yount (@Hamptonyount) November 25, 2021

similar sentiments from Matt oswalt re munchie

I wrote for MST3K this season but the film that truly broke me was Munchie. I exorcized the demons with a Munchie birthday party, though I'm still triggered by Dom Deluise's voice.@feliciaday @Hamptonyount @jonahray @phunkybeck @rossbryant all suffered with me#MST3KTurkeyDay pic.twitter.com/wIsGyC4YGv

— Matt Oswalt (@MattOswaltVA) November 25, 2021

S13 starts March 4th, not that far away now

it feels like eons :(

taken to watching old episodes on youtube occasionally with my boyfriend when we need a laugh. i only ever watched a few so i'm sure this is old news to everyone else, but 'catalina caper' is a good one.

also, little richard!

I'm ashamed at how attractive I find Michael Blodgett in that one...

i'm partial to peter duryea but yes lots of crush of shame potential therein

Fantastic episode, easily top five of the early years.

New episodes this year so far — pretty good. Joel’s return with Demon Squad the other week was a delight.

I kind of like the other song in Catalina Caper, too - wasn't it written by Ray Davies or did I make that up?

Yup! Unreleased (maybe even unrecorded) by the Kinks, it might have just been a song he farmed out.

I just put on Catalina Caper the other day too -- I think because I saw the non-MST3K version listed on the TCM schedule.

Catalina Caper is part of an odd subgenre of MST3K films where the musical guests punched higher than the film's weight class. It has Little Richard, who looks as if he's at peace with the world. I remember one of the Mamie Van Doren films had Eddie Cochran, but he only got to sing one song. I can't think of any other examples. That's two examples.

Here in the UK MST3K was never shown on TV, and a lot of the cultural references would have been baffling. And I imagine they're baffling nowadays even if you're from the US, because the jokes are about things that happened twenty years ago to a pair of actors who were nostalgic for their childhoods, which were ten and twenty years further back in the past. Joel seemed to have a deeper memory. I remember putting a few episodes on as background noise. I felt that actually sitting down to watch them would have been torture - like watching Saturday Night Live. Not because SNL's writing is poor, but because it's a bunch of people I've never heard of, making jokes about people I've never heard of, for an audience that has nothing in common with me except for a shared language. I remember sitting there in front of SNL feeling nothing, stone-faced, wondering when the magic was going to happen.

But eventually episodes such as Manos and The Girl with Gold Boots and Space Mutiny clicked, because there's something universal about them. Slab Bulkhead defies cultural boundaries. And the show has a warm-hearted tone because it was aimed at kids and Joel Robinson is easygoing. Imagine if the show had been devised by John Sessions or Tony Slattery. It would have either been too clever, or it would have been mean-spirited. But instead it's easy-going. It'll be dark soon. It'll be dark soon.

One of the few bright spots in my life was editing the MST3K wiki's article on "Kim Cattrall" (the song) to add Köchel listing. I like to imagine that Kim Cattrall herself will one day dig through the edit history and thank me. There's still time.

"As if a switch had been pulled. There was no monster."

Also Kitten W a Whip (ann margaret)

i'm really fond of the aspects of the MST3K films that punched above their class. not just in terms of music played in the movies, "moon zero two" has a really nice julie driscoll theme song (i think don ellis was also involved with the soundtrack); "diabolik" is also one of my fave morricone soundtracks, though unfortunately the original master tapes were lost or wiped.

Most aspects of Village of the Giants punch pretty far above the show’s weight and it’s one of my favorites. But then again so is Racket Girls, and they don’t come much lower.

And Zombie Nightmare had "Ace of Spades" as its theme song. I can't remember a thing about the rest of the film. The IMDB used to claim that Alien from LA had the most amount of production designers (or something) on a film ever, which strikes me as hard to very and of dubious merit. As with Albert Pyun's other films it looks and feels like a more expensive movie than it was, but it plays as if the script had been generated by a really good AI, e.g. the words make sense but it's a disjointed mess.

I remember feeling the same way about Cyborg. That film gave me a renewed respect for Bloodsport and Kickboxer. It reaffirmed my faith in them. Ever since then I have silenced all of my doubts by reminding myself that I once doubted Bloodsport, and I was wrong then. I once doubted Bloodsport. Really, if Netflix or Amazon wants to make a bit more cash, they should do a Cobra Kai, but with Jean-Claude Van Damme playing Frank Dux again. He could go back to Hong Kong and hook up with his old friends and reminisce about the passage of time. I would pay to watch that.

My recollection is that Soultaker, the first episode of the last series, was legitimately tense. I remember that one of the films was an expensive-looking Russian film that had been dubbed poorly into English - "sampo!" - and it might have been good in the original Russian. And there was Marooned, which at one time was a credible sci-fi film.

My first ever experience of the show was reading Roger Ebert's review of The Movie and thinking "why are they shitting on This Island Earth?". I avoided the show for years afterwards, although as Mike Nelson himself points out Earth is pretty ropey. The cast go to an alien planet - then come back, having achieved nothing. But when I finally tried it out, it wasn't what I expected. It was nicer, less arsey.

Both The Sword and the Dragon and The Day the Earth Froze have gotten proper 4K rereleases in original form as Ilya Muromets and Sampo via Vinegar Syndrome. Both astonishingly beautiful films, among the best of the era worldwide in terms of fantasy and spectacle; the combination of the print quality and rotten American editing and dubbing made them perfect MST fodder in turn for some of their best episodes.

ooh yeah, I'd love to see a good looking print of Samples/TDtEF