As we finally get back to speed here, let us take one more quick look at this year’s New York Comic-Con, from friends of ComicMix John Fugelsang, Phil LaMarr, and TV’s Frank Conniff from Mystery Science Theater 3000, via Current TV‘s new show, “So That Happened”, airing Fridays at 6E/3P and again at 9E/6P.
In the not-too-distant past, 1988 A.D… there was a guy named Joel, and then another guy named Mike, both of whom worked as janitors at Gizmonic Institute, and who ended up getting tormented by mad scientists. But you already knew that, I’m sure. In fact, you may (like me) recognize far, far too much of this comprehensive and hyper-condensed tribute to Mystery Science Theater 3000 and a whole lot of related stuff like Turkey Day, Rifftrax, Cinematic Titanic, and on and on and on.
Now keep in mind you can’t control where the clips begin or end…
How many of these have you seen? Worse, how many of these had you seen before the MST3K bots got their hands on them? And which were your favorites?
Unusual is in the mind of the beholder. My favorite teevee shows of all time include such fare as The Prisoner, Fawlty Towers, and Boston Legal – unusual to some, but probably not to most ComicMix readers. If pressed, though, I’d have to say my all-time favorite show was Mystery Science Theater 3000.
Well, in television, as in comics, the word "was" is rarely what it once was. After 11 seasons and nearly 200 two-hour episodes (including one theatrical movie that remains a cable perennial), the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000 are back.
According to Satellite News, this Monday, November 5th (Guy Fawkes Day, no less), November 5th, MST3K’s parent company Best Brains Inc. will begin webcasting brand-new animated adventures of Crow, Tom Servo and Gypsy – the bots from the Satellite of Love and the only characters to survive all 11 seasons of the original show. (more…)
Okay, I admit it. I’m still a fan of [[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]], the long-running teevee series that featured four robots and a loser riffing on a couple hundred B-flicks… if you’re feeling particularly generous about that “B” part. Michael J. Nelson, Bill Corbett and Kevin Murphy were among the show’s writers and producers. They were also performers – Corbett with the eighth season, Murphy with second season. Nelson, who was head writer from the start, played odd parts for the first four seasons and took over the lead when creator Joel Hodgson left the show at the beginning of season five. The show ran from 1988 through 1999 and begat a feature film.
And I miss it a lot. Particularly after a presidential press conference.
So it was with missed emotions that I popped the first D2DVD by The Film Crew, [[[Hollywood After Dark]]], into my machine. This can’t possibly be as cool as Mystery Science Theater 3000, I thought. And I was only barely right. Nelson, Corbett and Murphy did what they do best: use a contrived reason to sit in a darkened theater and make jokes about a really horrible movie… but without the trademarked silhouette.
If the phrase “sexy Rue McClanahan” sounds like an oxymoron, Hollywood After Dark certainly provides the proof. It is perfectly horrible; it was made for Nelson, Corbett and Murphy to eviscerate. They were fully up to the task, and since the three were also the voices of the featured riffers in MST3K’s last three seasons, if you close your eyes it seems a lot like the original. They only have about half the number of writers, so the material isn’t quite as sharp.
The presentation was bisected by one studio bit, and here’s where I’m having a hard time shaking off MST3K. The ‘Bots had wonderfully wacky and occasionally evil personalities; the Film Crew enjoys its work and is perfectly fine with their environs. No tension, at least not in this first offering.
Shout! will be releasing three more Film Crew D2DVDs this year, and I suspect they’re already looking at their orders and deciding if there will be more. I have great confidence in the Film Crew, and Hollywood After Dark was a good if not great first offering. They will settle comfortably in their new roles.
I recommend this to my fellow MSTies. Yeah, there’s no ‘Bots. Deal with it.
According to TV Guide Online, here’s their latest top 30 cult teevee shows of all time.
I would scoff at this, but it turns out I really like at least a dozen of ’em.
30) Strangers with Candy (1999-2000)*
29) Absolutely Fabulous (1994-2003)
28) Stargate SG-1 (1997-2007)*
27) H.R. Pufnstuf (1969-1971)
26) Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (1975-1978)
25) Firefly (2002-2003)*
24) Twin Peaks (1990-1991)
23) Dark Shadows (1966-1971)
22) Doctor Who (1963-present)
21) Freaks and Geeks (1999-2000)
Three of the good folks behind Mystery Science Theater 3000 – Kevin Murphy, Bill Corbett and Mike Nelson – have done some work in various media as The Film Crew. On July 10th, they’ll be reuniting for a series of D2DVDs distributed by the Shout! Factory label.
According to the official MST3K news site Satellite News, here’s the premise: Determined to provide a commentary track for every movie, the guys settle into the dank basement of an office building, where, each day, their boss, entertainment mogul Bob Honcho, calls them on speakerphone and tells them which bad movie they will riff. There’ll be breaks in the riffing action for sketches and, best of all, no worries about whether they can eat and breathe!
First up from The Film Crew: Hollywood After Dark, the 1968 blockbuster starring Rue McClannahan, later of Golden Girls fame. Warning for the prudes and the peculiar: Rue’s got a strip scene. Three more "episodes" are in the can and will be released in upcoming months: Giant of Marathon (1959, starring Steve Reeves), Killers from Space (1954, starring Peter Graves) and The Wild Women of Wongo (1958).
Retail price will be $19.99.
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