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I’m really excited about Today’s History Lesson, even though I know I won’t do the subject the justice I think it deserves. Still, I’ve been looking forward to this day for months…almost since this site was brought into existance.
I get to talk about Mystery Science Theater 3000. It is, without question, my favorite show of all time. Started by prop comic Joel Hodgson, its television debut was on Thanksgiving night, which happened to be November 24, 1988. Back then, the audience was made up of people that could receive KTMA (a UHF TV station in Minneapolis, MN), the film sets were primitive, the bots were even more primitive, and the jokes were completely off-the-cuff. But it was the start of something very special. The show took off fairly quickly and became something of a local favorite and, when Comedy Central was formed a couple years later, MST3k was one of its flagship programs. And for the next decade, audiences of both Comedy Central and the Sci-Fi Channel were privileged to watch some really hysterical stuff.
In case you’ve never seen the show…what the heck’s wrong with you?!? Sorry…I’ll give a brief breakdown. A guy (Joel Robinson) works at Gizmonic Institute with a couple of evil scientists who plan to take over the world by turning them into zombies through the medium of really cheesy movies. To prove their theory, they send into to space (on the Satellite of Love) and force him to watch movies. Joel attempts to maintain his sanity by making fun of the movies and creating robots to help him pass the time. That’s it.
Over the years, the structure of the show changed some, the door sequence (watch the show and you’ll know what that means) changed, and all the personnel changed. But the main premise, making fun of terrible movies, remained the same. In all, nearly 200 episodes made it onto TV screens, and there was a movie as well.
I’ll never forget the first MST I watched…Ring of Terror (#206). I had never seen any show like it, but after watching the opening sequence of movie with Joel and the Bots getting all nervous and scared as the camera walks up to the gate, I knew I’d found the perfect show. And watch I did. When I graduated from college, one of my first purchases was a Hi-Fi VCR…and the taping began.
So let’s see…I think I now have all of Season 1 on DVD, though the quality isn’t very good. In Seasons 2-10, I have all but 6 episodes recorded, and 5 others have errors or glitches. I recorded them one-movie-to-a-tape, that makes about, I don’t know, a bunch of tapes. And I still haven’t watched all of them, but eventually I will. I’m fortunate enough to have a wife that enjoys the show, so on occasion, we’ll watch them.
My favorites? Trying to pick one is impossible. Trying to pick several is still impossible. Here are a couple, in no particular order…Ring of Terror (it was the first), Monster A Go-Go, War of the Colossal Beast (for Mr. B Natural), Manos, the Hands of Fate (of course), Santa Claus, The Starfighters, The Dead Tal…oh well, nearly all of them are great.
Just go find some and watch them. Rhino has kindly published quite a few and, while it’s probably impossible to get all the episodes, you can still have quite a collection.
Push the button, Frank!
Today's History Lesson 