Mystery Science Theater 3000: Village of the Giants

Mystery Science Theater 3000: Village of the Giants
Comedy Central
January 22, 1994
Riffing
VHS
B-

While this has some funny moments, I feel like the action of the '65 Bert I. Gordon movie and the riffing slow down after the bad teens become giants.  Still, it is fun to listen to the Jim-Begg-spotting.  Note that there's a David Duke reference that's unfortunately not dated.  For once, I enjoyed the non-movie sequences, as Mike and the Bots sympathize with TV's Frank, who's been fired.  They sing a musical tribute to him, which doubles as a tribute to Frank Zappa, yes, the second tribute this month, on my shows alone.

Bob Random, who plays Rick, would that Fall (of '65) be one of Gidget's TV boyfriends.  Murphy directed this episode.

I don't know if I have a representative sampling, or if it's completely fair to rate episodes that in most cases I edited down.  But as it stands, my twelve MST3K episodes range from C to B+, and average to a B.  I'm still not a MiSTie but it has been fun revisiting the series.  And, yes, it would go through further morphing and spin-offs.

Mystery Science Theater 3000: Santa Claus [fragment]

Mystery Science Theater 3000: Santa Claus [fragment]*
Comedy Central
December 24, 1993
Riffing
VHS
B

While this isn't the classic that Santa Claus Conquers the Martians is, Mike and the Bots find plenty to mock in this bizarre Mexican-but-mostly-dubbed-into-English '50s kids' movie.  There's a NAFTA reference and even some class commentary, but mostly it's their reactions to the battle of a devil named Pitch vs. a gleeful Santa who lives in outer space with spy satellites and Merlin and laughing robot reindeer and international child slave labor, oh, and an interfering narrator.

*I left out most of the non-movie sequences.

Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Brain That Wouldn't Die

Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Brain That Wouldn't Die
Comedy Central
October 30, 1993
Riffing
VHS
C

Mike Nelson's inauspicious debut as sort of himself (after appearing as various characters over the years) does have some good lines, ranging from a reference to The Ropers to a Kurt Cobain joke that predates his death by about six months.  (And there's a Bill Clinton joke but pretty generic.)  The thing is, everyone is trying so hard to get us to accept the new guy that it seems like that in itself should be lampshaded, like a bot saying, "Sorry, we're overcompensating."  It doesn't help that the movie is so sleazy, and not in a fun way, with its "hero" seeking a sexy woman to decapitate and attach to the head of his dismembered fiancee.  Luckily, things would improve from here, although I'll always prefer Joel to Mike.  Oh, and note that Mary Jo Pehl, who had been one of the staff writers for awhile and who would later play Pearl Forrester, Dr. Clayton Forrester's mother, here sort of is the title character, appearing as "Jan" in the last sequence.  And Beaulieu is the new director.

Mystery Science Theater 3000: Pork-orina

Mystery Science Theater 3000: Pork-orina
Comedy Central
August 28, 1993
Riffing
VHS
B-

The only thing I kept from the presentation of Eegah! was the invention exchange, usually my least favorite sequence, but I can't resist a Vic Mizzy tribute, even if Mizzy isn't mentioned by name.  Joel invents a pig-shaped musical instrument to play the incidental music from Green Acres and its sister shows.  This is the last you'll see of Joel on my shows, since he'd be replaced on MST3K a couple months later.

Mystery Science Theater 3000: It Conquered the World [fragment]

Mystery Science Theater 3000: It Conquered the World [fragment]
Comedy Central
August 24, 1991
Riffing
VHS
C+

Sorry I overlooked this episode before but it is pretty forgettable.  The 1956 movie takes awhile to get going, and Joel and the Bots comment a few times on how dull it is.  (There were no such complaints about, for instance, Catalina Caper, quite the opposite.)  The riffing includes musical references, an insult of Ronald Reagan, lots of mockery of Peter Graves, and, to my delight watching this in '94*, a nod to Whose Line Is It Anyway.  Note that Corman regular Dick Miller, here in a very early role as Sgt. Neil, appeared on Who's the Boss? in 1990.

*Technically, this is two editions of The Mystery Science Hour, with some filler and some omissions, but mostly the original episode seems to be intact.

Mystery Science Theater 3000: Hired! The Musical

Mystery Science Theater 3000: Hired! The Musical
Comedy Central
January 23, 1993
Riffing
VHS
B

I didn't keep the movie (Bride of the Monster) or even the short that inspires this sequence, which has some memorable songs, like "I Just Got Hired" and "Zeroes."

Mystery Science Theater 3000: Teenagers from Outer Space

Mystery Science Theater 3000: Teenagers from Outer Space [fragment]
Comedy Central
June 27, 1992
Riffing
VHS
B

This episode, apparently the only one I have from '92, is a little gem, from the Erma Bombeck joke onward.  (I omitted most of the episode between the opening credits and the beginning of the 1959 movie.)  The movie itself is sort of sweet, but definitely inept and implausible even for its sub-genre, as Joel and the Bots point out in the Reel Life vs. Real Life sequence.  Lots of musical references, as well as refs and riffs to Rush Limbaugh and (unrelated) the JFK assassination.  And don't miss the scene where Crow is nude!

Mystery Science Theater 3000: Santa Claus Conquers the Martians

He conquers them with laughter and love!

Mystery Science Theater 3000: Santa Claus Conquers the Martians
Comedy Central
December 21, 1991
Riffing
VHS
B+

This remains a holiday classic, one I've watched so often that random phrases will come back to me, like "Kimar is the savings place."  There are many, many memorable quotes, some from the riffing and some from the wretched film itself.  Joel and the Bots mock the acting, direction, writing, special effects, sets, and "custumes," and yet somehow fail to notice the horrible makeup jobs, where the Martians' greenness varies from scene to scene.  Still, the references to entertainment and politics (including "Joseph Biden" and Clarence Thomas) more than make up for this, as does their characterization of Santa as a tough, drunken Vietnam vet.  For once, the segments in between the movie scenes don't drag things down, from the invention/gift exchanges to the timeless rendition of "A Patrick Swayze Christmas."  There are some sweet, sentimental moments here, as befits the season, but the snark is as strong as ever.

Note that the most recognizable performer in SCCM is not Pia Zadora (whose Golden Globe is frequently referenced, as the little girl on the screen gives as clueless a performance as in Hairspray), but Ned Wertimer as Andy Henderson, later Ralph the Doorman on The Jeffersons, although the shows I've tagged him for are That Girl, Welcome Back, Kotter, and Mork & Mindy.  Frank De Vol is tagged since he did the music for SCCM and made onscreen appearances on Gidget and That Girl, but I was never able to fit in his tag for an onscreen appearance on The [overcrowded] Brady Bunch, which he also composed for.

Mystery Science Theater 3000: Gamera vs. Guiron

Mystery Science Theater 3000: Gamera vs. Guiron
Comedy Central*
September 7, 1991
Riffing
VHS
B-

This goes on too long and it does repeat some jokes and references from Catalina Caper, but when Joel and the Bots are funny, they're very funny.  "Cornjob" and the "hello/thank you" routine, for instance, never get old.  The episode is also notable for all the singing, including by none other than Michael J. Nelson as Michael Feinstein.  I'm tagging Jim Mallon, since Gypsy does appear briefly and sing with the guys.  There are references not only to music, movies, and TV, but to Iran-Contra and Dan Quayle.  This was the fourth Gamera movie they'd riffed just since June but I was never enough of a MST completist to want the rest.


*Ha and the Comedy Channel had merged that April, briefly becoming the Comedy Network, before taking on the married name we know them by today.

Mystery Science Theater 3000: Catalina Caper [fragment]

Mystery Science Theater 3000: Catalina Caper [fragment]
Comedy Channel
October 13, 1990
Riffing
VHS
B+

Let's get the housekeeping out of the way first.  Although I taped this off of Comedy Central, it did originally air two or three years earlier on the Comedy Channel, as a couple jokes indicate.  (C. Channel would merge with Ha! to form C. Central, so to me they are distinct if related entities.)  This is fairly early in the cable run of the show although the main elements are in place and it doesn't feel as alien as the KTMA prehistoric episodes do.

The regulars, at this point, are

• Trace Beaulieu as Crow T. Robot and Dr. Clayton Forrester
• Frank Conniff as TV's Frank
• Joel Hodgson as Joel Robinson
• and Kevin Murphy as Tom Servo

I'm omitting Gypsy until she actually appears.  But I am tagging Michael J. Nelson because he's head writer.  Co-writer Jim Mallon also directed.

I put "fragment" because I would sometimes leave out the skits that are separate from the riffing, such as the invention exchange here and maybe another scene or two.  So I'm judging this just by what's on the videotape.  And it's very good.

It does admittedly start out relatively slow but as the jokes become running and the references get more accessible, things really build and I found myself laughing out loud and wanting to quote specific riffs.  In fact, there are lines from this that I think of sometimes that I can't exactly place, like the one about not wanting to live in a world with adults.  There's even a Trump reference, but during the fan letter sequence, where a couple has fallen in love by watching MST3K and they've invited Joel and the Bots to the wedding, and one of the Bots jokes, "It's in New York and it's the Trumps," although Donald wouldn't marry Marla till '93.

Anyway, there's a lot to savor here, from Tom's crush on "the Creepy Girl," including a ballad (Kevin Murphy is a wonderful singer, as he'd show in, for instance, the Rifftrax of the Twilight series), to almost any line about Jim Begg.  The chart of the "plot" is also classic and I just wish there had been a close-up.  I also wish that they had made at least one Exidor reference, considering how much Robert Donner is onscreen, but that's OK.

I was never a MSTie, a hardcore fan.  I enjoyed the show but didn't feel the need to collect every single episode I could.  So there's going to be a gap of about a year until our next episode, by which time the C. Central merger will have happened.