
Mystery Science Theater 3000: Oral History (2014) - koralatov
https://www.wired.com/2014/04/mst3k-oral-history/
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doug1001
i wonder how many here know/like MST3K. It was big two decades ago, went dark,
and now seems it's coming back.

i would think that the HN crowd is as close to the perfect audience segment
for MST3K as one can find.

the idea is simple: an MST3K episode is a replay of some horrible D-grade
science-fuction movie, usually 25 or so years old. The perspective of the
viewer is someone sitting in the back of a movie theatre watching this movie.
Sitting a few rows in front of you, the viewer, are three guys (technically
one guy and two robots, "Crow" and "Tom Servo" in case you're curious) who
frequently interject hilarious riffs while the movie is in progress.

an example:

in one episode, the trio are watching "Radar Men From the Moon", in the film,
the hero says to the evil leader of the Moon people "why are you carrying out
this campaign of destruction of planet Earth?" Before the evil leader can
answer, one of the trio jumps in with "It's an election year"

the OP sums it up nicely: > Watching MST3K was like hanging out with a trio of
underachieving-­genius best friends

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coldpie
Honestly, having seen maybe three or four episodes, I've never liked it. The
jokes just aren't good enough to make a bad movie worth two hours of my life.
There are so many other things I'd rather be doing. I try an episode every few
years, because everyone talks so highly of it, but I always regret the
decision or just quit halfway through.

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TimJYoung
I certainly can appreciate that their brand of humor isn't for everyone, but
if you do get a chance (and care to give it a second chance), here's a small
list of the episodes that are, in my opinion, worth the time to watch:

1) Space Mutiny 2) Time Travelers 3) I Was a Teenage Werewolf 4) The Mole
People 5) Prince of Space 6) The Skydivers 7) Angels Revenge

I think most of these are on YouTube in some form.

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wyldfire
Apparently we have Elton John (and/or his art team) to thank for the show's
signature look.

> On Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road album, there are illustrations in
> the liner notes. And for the song “I’ve Seen That Movie Too,” it’s got
> little silhouettes watching a movie. I remember going, “Someone should do a
> show like that. Run a movie and have these people in silhouettes say stuff.”

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tylermac1
I think I've spent more money on Rifftrax and MST3K than anything else in the
last 9 years.

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naspinski
Just saw my first Rifftrax last week: Samurai Cop! I can't recommend it enough
- I was crying.

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wyldfire
I think it's great that MST3k can find new life in the next century. But it's
certainly a disappointing reminder that so much funding these days goes
towards nostalgia/reboots/sequels and not new, original content.

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valuearb
The new season is now on Netflix, yay!

~~~
dexterdog
Disappointing that it's a typical NF dump. This is one of those shows that
will do better with a weekly release.

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jonursenbach
You know you don't have to binge it, right?

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dexterdog
But you can't discuss these shows with people because they're all at different
points. The real nuts binge it the day it comes out and very few people have
seen through to the end. I hate most things about the traditional TV
experience, but controlled releases are not one of those things.

