The OAO Mystery Science Theater 3000 Thread

[devo 0]

"So, Rowsdower...is that a stupid name, or...?"

[Guest Smues]

"Rowsdower mobile away!"

[Slayer 0]

Well, my name's Bob Stinkmeyer

[Guest Smues]

According to Rhino volume 10 comes out August 28th or 29th or something right around then. Hopefully they announce the episodes for it soon.

[AndrewTS 0]

"So, Rowsdower...is that a stupid name, or...?"

 

Poster for the video. Seriously:

http://www.riverblue.com/mst3k/finalsacrifice/poster2-sm.jpg

 

 

"Beethoven's Fifth just can't get started here..."

 

*shot of a really ugly Canadian neighborhood*

"Hitchcock's Parade of Homes."

 

"Aw, it's the Came-With-The-Frame Family."

 

"You know it's getting to be spring when the executioners start getting into the house."

 

*Troy laying down with his head in front of the campfire- "Rowsdower.." "Could you put my hair out?"

 

"I'm getting water for Rowsdower. Rowy, Rowy Wowsdower...."

 

"Do you know how fast you were going, Rowsdower?"

 

Horse: "If you could just move that huge gunny sack full of pork--oh, that's your BUTT."

 

"Did you know my father?"

Prospector: "Know him? He was *DELICIOUS!*

 

*shot of a big-nostriled statue*

"The Just About to Sneeze god."

[Guest Smues]

Buy me anything with Larry Csonka on it I'll pay for it!

[devo 0]

Y'know, even though The Final Sacrifice is a terrific episode, I've gotta agree with Crow when he says that it's not as bad as the usual fare. If the music were less cheesy and the actors not drawn directly from the local community theater and the antagonist's goal just a tad less ambtious, it might have been a halfway decent picture. In my opinion, the writing's actually pretty good and the cinematography is impressive for a low-budget film.

 

Really, the film's main flaw is that its main character is a lisping little weenie whose partner has an unnecessarily hilarious name.

 

That being said...

 

"C'mon baby, don't let me down."

 

"I won't, Rowsdower!"

-----------------------------

 

"Yeah, officer, there's this kid in the front seat of my car."

 

"And Play is in the back."

 

------------------------------

 

"Then that proves it! Map is real!"

 

"Map Israel? I believe Israel has already been fairly well mapped."

 

-------------------------------

 

"You don't think he - "

 

"Killed your father?"

 

"Sounds fun, but I'm busy."

[LaParkaYourCar 0]

I found Rocketship X-M on Youtube. Frank's first episode!

[Angle-plex 0]

Y'know, even though The Final Sacrifice is a terrific episode, I've gotta agree with Crow when he says that it's not as bad as the usual fare. If the music were less cheesy and the actors not drawn directly from the local community theater and the antagonist's goal just a tad less ambtious, it might have been a halfway decent picture. In my opinion, the writing's actually pretty good and the cinematography is impressive for a low-budget film.

 

I agree. It's kind of like an ugly dog that you know it's ugly but still love it anyways.

 

The Final Sacrafice has been REMOVED from Youtube. However, another good episode, Night of the Blood Beast, it there now.

[AndrewTS 0]

I found Rocketship X-M on Youtube. Frank's first episode!

 

 

Thanks--one of the few I haven't seen.

[Guest Smues]

The Final Sacrafice has been REMOVED from Youtube. However, another good episode, Night of the Blood Beast, it there now.

 

The guy who had posted that and a ton of other episodes had all of his uploaded stuff removed.

[AndrewTS 0]

http://subjectcinema.podbus.com/sc061706.mp3

 

Interesting podcast ChrisMWaters hooked me up with. It's nothing people hear likely don't already know, but was a fun listen.

 

I'd dispute their list of best newbie eps and most unwatchable eps. I'd replace one of the Mr. BIG eps with Godzilla vs. Megalon.

 

Also, the worst list is missing a few bad eps that actually came out on VHS/DVD. Manos? Red Zone Cuba? Maybe the first time, but no.

 

Bloodlust is perhaps the worst ever, IMO. Hellcats sucks to high heaven. Agreed on Sidehackers. I'm actually able to stomach Monster A Go Go because of the riffing (which is by itself far the most incompetent movie ever on the show, even more so than Manos).

 

Space Mutiny is probably my number 1 choice for best newbie ep. The dialogue they have going on over the credits is a scream--perhaps even topping the ones from The Movie and Alien from LA.

 

The Final Sacrifice of course is all wrong. One of the best ones ever.

[devo 0]

Bloodlust is perhaps the worst ever

 

No way. It's a mediocre entry, sure, but nothing is worse than the KTMA episodes. I've never been able to sit through a full one of any of those.

 

And if those don't count, then Hamlet gets my vote.

[AndrewTS 0]

Nobody counts KTMA. It isn't MST3K in its fully developed form. It's basically a bunch of bad movies, a few host segments, and a handful of comments throughout the movies. Most of the movies on KTMA are cheesy enough on there own to be worth watching, so sorry, I still rank most of them over those eps.

 

Bloodlust and Hellcats had poor riffs in addition to unwatchably bad movies to riff on. During the making of the Hellcats I had heard that about half the writers were not available. The host segments were good...but they were mostly flashbacks to other eps, so there's no reason to recommend anything in the show on its own.

 

Bloodlust has a good short, but the rest of it is terrible. Bad host segments and unfunny riffs = crap.

[Guest Smues]

Count me in on the Hamlet hate, although the host segments were good. Alas poor who?

[devo 0]

The only memorably funny riff I can recall from Hamlet is "Night fever, night fever...we know how to do it!" during the dancing scene near the beginning.

 

Just watched The Skydivers, the last Mike episode I need to see. A few more viewings will be necessary to determine this, but I'm pretty sure it's my favorite Coleman Francis episode out of the three. That might just be because it's not nearly as bad a film as Red Zone Cuba or The Beast of Yucca Flats, even though the riffing is really darn good.

 

 

"Seems like they forgot to have things happen in this movie..."

 

--------------------------------------

 

"Lemme see, am I chicken...well, I don't have a comb, or a gizzard...but sometimes I do ingest gravel to help me digest my food..."

 

--------------------------------------

 

"Harry, let's go out and join the party."

 

"No! Let's stay here in the crawl space."

 

--------------------------------------

 

"Hey, her hair blossomed."

 

--------------------------------------

 

And, of course, the short preceeding it is terrific, but that's been covered in detail in this thread already.

 

Also, does anyone remember which episode contains the riff "Now go on, punch me hard!"

[AndrewTS 0]

Hamlet can be hard to watch in places, especially considering the dull scenery, non-existant production values, etc, but I can still think of riffs I like.

 

"Danish clowns: the silverfish-infested basement of the clown world."

 

"My nipple came off, you jerk!"

 

- Give us a taste of your quality. - "I said quality, not idiocy!"

 

"The tragedy of King Vitaman!"

 

"Hamlet will be back... in Thunderball!"

 

Plus good host segments.

 

I really like Beast of Yucca Flats. It's possibly the worst movie of the Coleman Francis oevre, but it makes for the best MST3K ep out of any of them, IMO.

 

They take absolutely relentless shots at Tor, put words in his mouth all the time,

 

"Okay...BREASTS, we get it!"

 

"Tor Johnson as the beast--that's just good casting"

 

"This movie stops at nothing... and stays there."

 

"(Tor) da da da..hills alive...soound of mooosic..."

 

*kids stepping over Tor in a cave, Tor makes an old man groan/roar- "(Tor) Hey, I was watching that!!"

 

"Now the bunny eats Tor and becomes the Night of the Lepus"

 

Some of Coleman's rambling narration:

 

"Joseph Javorsky. Noted scientist. Dedicated his life to the betterment of mankind. A once powerful, humble man, reduced to....nothing."

 

"Touch a button. Things happen. A scientist becomes a beast."

 

"Boys from the city, not yet caught in the whirlwind of progress, feed soda pop to thirsty pigs."

 

"Joseph Javorsky, respected scientist. Now a fiend prowling the wastelands, a prehistoric beast in a nuclear age. Kill, kill just to be killing."

 

"A man runs. Somebody shoots at him."

 

Try watching The Hulk after this, too.

[Slayer 0]

Much like ELM, I see Bloodlust as a "just there" middle-ground episode. Not one of the classics, but not one of the crap episodes either.

 

My personal five worst episodes, excluding KTMA and Season 1... though truth be told there are a couple episodes in that group (most notably, Phase IV) that I would actually rate well above any of these:

 

1. Hamlet

2. The Girl In Lovers Lane

3. Catalina Caper

4. Castle of Fu Manchu

5. Manos

 

I know the last one would be considered blasphemy in MST circles, but not only is it overrated as the "greatest MST episode ever", it's one of the worst offerings the show has ever put forth.

[Slayer 0]

Actually, now that I think about it, Bloodlust did introduce us to the abomination that was Pearl Forrestor...

[chirs3 0]

What's this "KTMA" you guys are referring to?

[LessonInMachismo 0]

I believe it was Mike who was quoted as saying that Manos wasn't as great as it's made out to be. I think a lot of the problems that people have with some eps is that they don't "get" some of the riffing. Like a look-alike will appear on camera and Joel will cry out "Annete Funicello!" or something and none of the kids know who Ms. Funicello or whoever is.

 

One ep that I have never been able to sit through is The Unearthly. I haven't tried to lately, though.

 

Some of my favorite eps are:

 

Mitchell

Eegah

Cave Dwellers (pecs like melons and knees of fringe!)

Pod People

Teenagers from Outer Space (Torture!)

The Final Sacrifice

Final Justice (Go 'head on!)

Devil Fish

Time Chasers

 

Bah...there are so many.

[LessonInMachismo 0]

Double post.

[LessonInMachismo 0]

Triple post.

 

[Slayer 0]

What's this "KTMA" you guys are referring to?

KTMA was a UHF station based out of Minneapolis which aired the true original season of MST (but only to the Twin Cities, essentially) in '88-'89 before they found their way to the national TV Comedy Channel (now Comedy Central). Episodes are notable for the cheap sets and sporadic riffing, as they actually riffed on the movies live rather than watching it 4-5 times to hone the riffs like with the national episodes. The station went under only a year or two after MST left.

 

Personally I think there's a real downhome charm to a lot of the KTMA episodes. Several of the host segments are quite good and funny actually, including Joel examining Crow's memory, JATB dancing to "YMCA" and several segments of them checking the station answering machine for viewer messages (as they'd put up the station # for viewer response)

[AndrewTS 0]

"One ep that I have never been able to sit through is The Unearthly. I haven't tried to lately, though."

 

It takes a few viewings, but I really like it now. Overacting John Carradine as a mad scientist running a nuthouse and Tor Johnson. What's not to like? However, I think the very-similar The Atomic Brain is even more fun, because the movie itself is more ridiculous and offers much better riffing opportunities, from the creepy narration, to the dumb blonde's "British accent," the old woman, Brainless Zombie Girl, etc.

 

My personal worst list (I haven't seen a lot of season 1, though. Also there's a handful of eps I don't have):

 

1. Bloodlust

2. Hellcats

3. Sidehackers

4. Quest of the Delta Knights

5. Castle of Fu Manchu

 

Pretty much anything Lippert sucks too, but I think those were helped a lot more by the riffing than the ones listed above.

 

My list of favorites changes a lot, among them are It Conquered the World, Godzilla vs. Megalon, Space Mutiny, Prince of Space, and of course The Pumaman.

[Ravenbomb 0]

my top favorites:

Pod People ("Trumpy, you can do stupid stuff!" remains my favorite MST3K line ever)

Skydivers

Overdrawn at the Memory Bank

Hobgoblins

Manos

 

I can't really remember any episodes I particularly disliked, but it took me a few tries to get through The Brain That Wouldn't Die without falling asleep

[devo 0]

Current favorite episodes...

 

Puma Man

TISCWSLABMUZ

Mitchell

The Final Sacrifice

Night of the Blood Beast

[Dobbs 3K 0]

So...why did Comedy Central have such a vendetta against MST3K? I remember them moving it around the channel lineup so much that I thought the show had been cancelled at one point, only to find it on at like midnight or something. WTF?

[devo 0]

http://mst3k.com/history/index.html

 

The answer's kinda complicated, so I'd recommend starting at 1994 (Part One) and reading on from there.

[Ed Wood Caulfield 0]

I'm watching Skydivers right now. I forgot how much I loved this episode.