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THE SATELLITE OF LOVE: AN APPRECIATION
FUN FACT: It was 20 years ago today that the first episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 aired.
MST3K is, of course, one of the greatest ideas for a TV show ever, provided you found bad B-movies highly entertaining to begin with. Like most good TV shows that actually survive the first season, it ran probably five years longer than it needed to – no dis to Mike Nelson, who was the head writer, but Joel Hodgson was a hard act to follow.
Still, the MST3K crew has much to be proud of, from lines like “How much Keeffe is in this movie?” “MILES O’Keeffe!” to the “I’m HUGE!” sketch.
And, of course, giving us the “Sandy Frank” song.
For all that, my favorite thing about MST3K was its pirate fan base. Some friends of mine in Nashville and I (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
captainpixel may or may not remember this) would get together and watch something like 12 hours worth of MST3K shows that a friend of a friend of a friend who could actually afford cable TV had dubbed on a VHS tape that had been recorded over like 200 times. It was more fun that way.
More importantly, the MST3K producers encouraged it. “Keep circulating the tapes” is the best end credit ever written. They got the Internet before anyone knew what the Web was. You couldn’t possibly include an end credit like that in a TV show today. The legal department wouldn’t let you, not even if yr Joss Whedon.
If MST3K had a weakness, it was the FCC, which is possibly the only thing keeping them from doing things like, say, women’s prison movies, teen sex comedies and other B-movies that happened to have lots of naked ladies in them. There’s plenty of MST3K material in something like, say, Orgy Of The Dead, Blazing Stewardesses, Dagmar’s Hot Pants Inc, Ilsa: She-Wolf of the SS, Beach Babes From Beyond (Burt Ward is in it, for God’s sake) or at least anything with Andy Sidaris’ name on it. Someone should do that one day.
Anyway, a happy 20th to MST3K.
And while we're at it, a happy birthday tophoenixejc as well.
At the drive-in,
This is dF
MST3K is, of course, one of the greatest ideas for a TV show ever, provided you found bad B-movies highly entertaining to begin with. Like most good TV shows that actually survive the first season, it ran probably five years longer than it needed to – no dis to Mike Nelson, who was the head writer, but Joel Hodgson was a hard act to follow.
Still, the MST3K crew has much to be proud of, from lines like “How much Keeffe is in this movie?” “MILES O’Keeffe!” to the “I’m HUGE!” sketch.
And, of course, giving us the “Sandy Frank” song.
For all that, my favorite thing about MST3K was its pirate fan base. Some friends of mine in Nashville and I (
captainpixel may or may not remember this) would get together and watch something like 12 hours worth of MST3K shows that a friend of a friend of a friend who could actually afford cable TV had dubbed on a VHS tape that had been recorded over like 200 times. It was more fun that way. More importantly, the MST3K producers encouraged it. “Keep circulating the tapes” is the best end credit ever written. They got the Internet before anyone knew what the Web was. You couldn’t possibly include an end credit like that in a TV show today. The legal department wouldn’t let you, not even if yr Joss Whedon.
If MST3K had a weakness, it was the FCC, which is possibly the only thing keeping them from doing things like, say, women’s prison movies, teen sex comedies and other B-movies that happened to have lots of naked ladies in them. There’s plenty of MST3K material in something like, say, Orgy Of The Dead, Blazing Stewardesses, Dagmar’s Hot Pants Inc, Ilsa: She-Wolf of the SS, Beach Babes From Beyond (Burt Ward is in it, for God’s sake) or at least anything with Andy Sidaris’ name on it. Someone should do that one day.
Anyway, a happy 20th to MST3K.
And while we're at it, a happy birthday to
phoenixejc as well.At the drive-in,
This is dF
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MST3K never aired in Australia, so I haven't seen an episode, but there used to be a pair of comedians here called Double Take (Des Mangan and Sally Patience) who would do the MST3K thing live. I think the Valhalla cinema used to host them (back when it was the Valhalla). You could go sit in this beautiful old cinema and watch the film on the big screen, and if you could tear your eyes away, you could watch Double Take at the front of the theatre, gesticulating like lunatics as they spoke into the mike.
They did a big production called HERCULES RETURNS, in which they recruited a large group of local comedians to help them re-dub an Italian sword and sandal film called HERCULES, MACISTE, SAMSON AND URSUS ARE INVINCIBLE. Wasn't particularly good, certainly not as good as the live shows. I doubt the humor travels very well, either.
Damn, I wish they were still gigging. I guess it's been 15 years...
-- JF
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I saw the MST3K movie in the theater, and I stopped laughing about 3/4 through the movie because I just couldn't laugh anymore from exhaustion.
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