I Watch 'Em So You Don't Have To

Old Movies Revisited Just For The Fun Of It

Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie (1996)

Ah the 90's. The decade of grunge. I was younger. And one fine day my hubby and I were trying to find something to watch and this old movie was on... but it was weird - it was like seeing it from the back of a theater and three shapes kept making jokes in the front row. So we watched... and laughed our butts off. That was our introduction to the world of MST3K (missteek), a wonderful show of the 90's that did kind of what I do now, except they had a hell of a lot more fun at it and the movies were a whole lot worse - well most of them were (and old).

MST3K's basic premise was a man named Joel Hodgson, together with 'robots' he built because he was lonely named Gypsy, Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot who had been sent into space on this ridiculous looking ship called The Satellite Of Love by the nefarious mad scientist Dr. Clayton Forrester. The evil Doctor wants to see if he can drive Joel insane by constantly showing him really bad 'B' movies, figuring if he can find the right one, he can use it to rule the world - or something like that. 

Interspersed with comic skits, the 'door' sketch they always use when they get 'movie sign' (reminiscent of the beginning of Get Smart) and of course the constant barrage of wisecracking and 'riffing' they do during the movie made these all gems and a hell of a lot of fun to watch. So when I found that Netflix actually carries several of them - cool!

MST3K: The Movie is with Mike Nelson, who replaced Joel when he left. Mike had been the head writer so I guess they just moved people around a bit. After all, the series was on from 1988 until 1999. If you've never seen one, I highly suggest it - they get to say everything we want to but aren't quite quick enough to come up with. The movie features the stinker This Island Earth, a 1955 steaming pile of a science fiction movie. About the only thing I can really remember other than the basic plot is that Russell Johnson is also in it (so expect a lot of Gilligan's Island references). The jokes start immediately - the movie was made by Universal International and Mike wonders 'If it's Universal, isn't it already International?'

MST3K also always tried to incorporate bits of the movie into their skits, usually in some plan to try to escape or get the ship back to earth (in this case the 'interocitor', a fictional combo TV and laser beam and mind controller and ship control and...) and of course fail badly. And very comically.

So do check out any of the MST3K episodes you can find, never mind what movie they're ripping on, it'll be funny, guaranteed. And was a welcome break from the drek I've been having to take notes on.