MetaFilter posts tagged with MST3K

Be Kind, Recycle (Film Footage)

filthy light thief — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 22:12:00 -0800

Sex Galaxy (trailer 1, trailer 2, NSFW) is a new film that claims to be the first "green film," as it is made of 100% recycled material. In an Wired article, director/producer Mike Davis discloses his film sources. "Boarded-up libraries, abandoned schools, decaying drive-in movie theaters…. These are the realms in which I unearth my wares," he said. "And actually, many of these films are available on the internet. You can find amazing collections through the Library of Congress." The Wired article notes that the recycled material isn't itself wholly original, and Bad Lit expands the history of film plunder further. Sex Galaxy is sourced from Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women, which relied on footage from Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet, which in turn is sampled from the Russian film Planeta Bur. The history of film reuse is long and storied, and continues after the jump. Roger Corman, known for his frugal use of props and footage, was the mentor to Peter Bogdanovich, director of Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women (which Corman produced). Then there's Sandy Frank possibly best known for bringing live-action Japanese film to the United States, but reworked through editing and dubbing. 10 of his films received the MST3000 treatment. Additional fun: Internet Archive hosts Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women (1967), Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet (1965), and Google Video hosts Planeta Bur (1962) in it's original Russian form, without subtitles. Fugitive Alien and Star Force: Fugitive Alien II, Sandy Frank creations, were based on the 1978 Japanese series Sutâurufu (often called Star Wolf in the US). You can watch 4 of the original episodes online: Ep 1, Ep 2, Ep 3, Ep 4 The group These United States only used public domain footage for their video "Get Yourself Home."

Mysterious Sideproject Theatre 2007

JHarris — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 15:30:16 -0800

Before RiffTrax (and, of course, after Mystery Science Theater 3000), Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett worked on a failed DVD MST-like movie mocking project called The Film Crew. Publisher Shout! Factory has made all four episodes available for viewing in their entirety, over five hours of video, on YouTube.
Giant of Marathon (with Steve Reeves) - Killers From Space - Wild Women of Wongo - Hollywood After Dark

Crambone

Smedleyman — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 13:08:22 -0800

And now ladies and gentlemen introducing for the first time a new singing television star: Uncle Pecos. Chronic stutterer, character actor, singer, member of the legendary (on 78's) western vocal group the Sons of the Pioneers, and supporting player in film and TV westerns over a 40 year career - Shug Fisher sang as Uncle Pecos in the Tom and Jerry cartoon Pecos Pest. He was also "Old Man Harris" who enjoyed a snort of sodie pop in The Giant Gila Monster (as seen on Mystery Science Theater 3000)

Unskippable

CrunchyFrog — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 20:02:33 -0800

Unskippable is The Escapist Magazine's new weekly video feature. Those tedious cut scenes from video games like The Bouncer and Dead Rising are much more tolerable when they've been given the MST3K treatment.

Supersize Him

billysumday — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 14:17:39 -0800

"I’ll get right to the good stuff: for the entire month of February, 2009, I, Michael J. Nelson will eat nothing but bacon. Nothing, my friends, but bacon." [prev. mefi+bacon]

Turkey Day in January?

Wolfdog — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 06:48:11 -0800

Start your new year by visiting (perhaps revisiting) the amazing corpus of Stephen Ratliff's Star Trek fan fiction, and you'll have nowhere to go but up. Unless you have an iron will and love of unmitigated pain, however, ignore the preceding link and proceed in the company of a few robot friends. Favorite (in some sense) MSTings include the original Enterprized, A Royal Wedding, and Return to Glory.

A merry "Bah, Humbug!" to us all

JHarris — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 18:24:05 -0800

Robert E. Howard-themed fantasy blog The Cimmerian posts a different take on a holiday classic.
Mystery Science Theater presents A Child's Christmas in Space, A Patrick Swazye Christmas, Merry Christmas (If That's Okay), a critique of Christmas movies and shows, and a little yuletide hysteria.
Tom Lehrer: "A Christmas Carol"
Futurama: The Elves' Christmas Song
Finally, there's The Colbert Report's book-burning Yule Log, both on the web and downloadable for Windows and Macintosh.

A year or so I linked the Escape Pod's recording of "In The Late December" here. It still fits. So does "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Fish-Men." (But this link is to the World of Warcraft version.)

Ed Wood? Noooooooo!

Servo5678 — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 17:45:43 -0800

Mystery Science Theater 3000 fans have been enjoying Rifftrax for a while now [previously], but the movie riffing experience just isn't the same without Mike and the 'bots at the bottom of the screen to watch the movie with us. Now a MST3K and Rifftrax fan has brought the 'bots back in this ten minute "proof of concept"-type video of a MSTed Plan 9 From Outer Space.

Antpocalypse!!!

kittens for breakfast — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 15:18:46 -0800

Today's date? Why, it's...July 11, 2052, and man has been cowering in terror, self-sealed in his own living-tombs since that day of horror in...1952. Remember? 100 years ago, the sky above America turned black...with the dread flight of millions of ferocious, gigantic ants! Despite the reality that the events depicted in "World War III with the Ants" are completely impossible (or so scientists would have you believe), this kind of thing would, just two years later, happen again. And twenty years after that, further proof that ants have it in for us. Mock them if you will!!!

Every. Single. MST3K. Episode.

ObscureReferenceMan — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 14:38:21 -0800

All MST3K episodes available in .avi format. That is all. I need to lie down.

JollyMetaFilter

JHarris — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 19:17:37 -0800

In the years after leaving MST, Joel Hodgson of Mystery Science Theater, and his "smarter brother" Jim Hodgson, worked on a new movie-repurposing concept for USA Networks. The introduction for the test clip read:
"The Jolly Filter segment is a proof of concept test for a new film process. You will first view 2 minutes of the original film 'Rollercoaster' and then the same 2 minutes utilizing the JollyFilter technique.
"Note: If you find yourself getting bored during the original 'Rollercoaster' footage, don't worry, this is normal."
(SLYT, but an awesome one.) Via deep ape, via the Cinematic Titanic YouTube channel.

"I dreamed a gold man was reading to me from a dirty book."

Servo5678 — Fri, 23 May 2008 05:03:31 -0800

"You people bring matches for Mikey?" When people fondly remember TV's Mystery Science Theater 3000 they commonly focus on the film riffing part of the show, but some of the best comedy to come out of the Satellite of Love involves the host segments that provided a break from the movie. MSTies over at Satellite News have spent the past ten weeks discussing the best host segments from each season of the show, analyzing what makes some segments work while others fall flat. Seasonal breakdown: [KTMA/1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10] A few of my favorite sketches include Mike's kiddie show, Joel becomes a 007 villain, Joel remembers the 1960s, autopsy of Mr. Hoover, the Orville Popcorn sketch, Mike and the bots provide some local color, Idiot Control Now (first the setup, then the segment), and the epic Timmy arc. And if you need to brush up on your host segment transcripts, there's always Ward E.

I'm Barak Obama, and yes, I've got four quarters.

Snyder — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 11:48:37 -0800

Youtube Political Post Mike Nelson of Rifftrax and Mystery Science Theater 3000 fame riffs on six political ads.

Cinematic Titanic

cerebus19 — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 12:35:01 -0800

Cinematic Titanic is the new project from Joel Hodgson. Yes, that Joel Hodgson, along with Trace Beaulieu, J. Elvis Weinstein, Frank Conniff, and Mary Jo Pehl. Previously, Previously, Previously.

MST3K is back on the air! Kinda, sorta.

Chrysostom — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 18:13:45 -0800

Satellite News passes on the news that Best Brains, Inc. is back in active business, with new 'Bot content appearing online. Beginning November 5th, BBI will be launching its very own website at MST3K.com. The site will feature brand-new animated adventures of Crow, Tom Servo and Gypsy. We're told the goal is to have one new adventure each week (though "some settling may occur with shipping," they added). The Web site will also feature work from the original series (which BBI is now calling "the legacy series"), behind-the-scenes footage and other material culled from the BBI vault. Interestingly, show co-creator Jim Mallon is spearheading this. While Mallon was present at the creation, he and Joel Hodgson had a falling out, and Mallon had largely dropped out of sight in the show's later years and since. Given that the show has been semi-recreated already by Mike Nelson and company (with RiffTrax and the Film Crew) I wonder if there's any bad blood?

MST3K: The Shorts

cog_nate — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 12:38:10 -0800

During its run, Mystery Science Theater 3000 riffed on over 50 short films. Almost all of them are now on YouTube or Google Video. See the list (shamelessly cribbed from here) inside for links. Alphabetical list with episode information shamelessly cribbed from here, then chopped and channeled. (It was actually missing a couple.)

A
Alphabet Antics: 308, Gamera vs. Gaos
Appreciating Our Parents: 320, The Unearthly
Aquatic Wizards: 315, Teenage Caveman
Are You Ready for Marriage? (in sequence here and here): 616, Racket Girls
Assignment Venezuela: Never aired

B
Body Care & Grooming: 510, The Painted Hills

C
Case of Spring Fever, A: 1012, Squirm
Catching Trouble: 315, Teenage Caveman
Century 21 Calling: 906, The Space Children
Cheating: 515, The Wild Wild World of Batwoman
Chicken of Tomorrow, The: 702, The Brute Man
Circus on Ice: 421, Monster a Go-Go
Commando Cody (Part 1): 102, The Robot vs the Aztec Mummy (link goes to episode)
Commando Cody (Part 2): 103, The Mad Monster (link goes to episode)
Commando Cody (Part 3): 105, The Corpse Vanishes (not online, unMST'd version here)
Commando Cody (Parts 4 and 5 in sequence here, here and here): 107, Robot Monster
Commando Cody (Part 6): 108, Slime People (not online, unMST'd version here)
Commando Cody (Parts 7 and 8): 109, Project Moonbase (not online, unMST'd versions here and here)
Commando Cody (Part 9): 110, Robot Holocaust (link goes to episode)

D
Date with Your Family, A: 602, Invasion U.S.A. (1952)
Day at the Fair, A: 608, Codename: Diamondhead
Days of Our Years, The: 623, The Amazing Transparent Man
Design for Dreaming: 524, 12 to the Moon

G
General Hospital (Parts 1, 2 and 3 in sequence here and here): 413, Manhunt in Space; 415, The Beatniks; and 417, Crash of the Moons

H
Here Comes the Circus: 422, The Day the Earth Froze
Hired! (Parts 1 and 2): 423, Bride of the Monster and 424 Manos the Hands of Fate
Home Economics Story, The: 317, Viking Women and the Sea Serpent (not online, unMST'd version here)

J
Johnny at the Fair: 419, The Rebel Set
Junior Rodeo Daredevils: 407, The Killer Shrews
Juvenile Delinquency?, What About: 518, The Atomic Brain

K
Keeping Clean and Neat: 613, The Sinister Urge

L
Last Clear Chance: 520, Radar Secret Service

M
Mr. B Natural: 319, War of the Colossal Beast
Money Talks: 621, The Beast of Yucca Flats

O
Once Upon a Honeymoon: 701, Night of the Blood Beast
Out of This World: 618, High School Big Shot

P
Phantom Creeps, The (Part 1 in sequence here, here and here): 203, Jungle Goddess
Phantom Creeps, The (Part 2 in sequence here, here and here): 205, Rocket Attack U.S.A.
Phantom Creeps, The (Part 3): 206, Ring of Terror (not online)
Posture Pals: 320, The Unearthly
Progress Island U.S.A. (Part 1, Part 2): 621, The Beast of Yucca Flats

R
Robot Rumpus: 912, The Screaming Skull

S
Selling Wizard (in sequenc here and here): 603, The Dead Talk Back
Snow Thrills: 311, It Conquered the World
Speech: Platform Balance & Posture: 619, Red Zone Cuba
Speech: Using Your Voice: 313, Earth vs the Spider

U
Uncle Jim's Farm: 607, Bloodlust!
Undersea Kingdom, Chapter 1: 406, Attack of the Giant Leeches (link goes to episode)
Undersea Kingdom, Chapter 2: 409, The Indestructible Man (not online, unMST'd version here)

W
Why Study Industrial Arts?: 609, The Skydivers

X
X Marks the Spot: 210, King Dinosaur

Y
Young Man's Fancy: 610, The Violent Years

That's MSTafilter to you

JHarris — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 10:14:21 -0800

So besides RiffTrax (prior) and The Film Crew (some time back), what else are former Mystery Science Theater 3000 alumni doing with their undoubtedly-copious free time? Frank Conniff is working with cartoon historian Jerry Beck on the charming stage show and internet flash video series Cartoon Dump, which presents extremely crappy 60s TV cartoons like Mighty Mr. Titan, Big World of Little Adam, and Bucky and Pepito sandwiched between segments of a dysfunctional children's show. Sometimes Joel Hodgson plays along with puppet Dumpster Diving Dan. Mary Jo Pehl has returned to riffing, assisting Mister Pancake Theater in their treatment of Halloween in a live stage performance. And the Film Crew guys (Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett), when they're not mocking Episode III or Spider-Man in audio files, have been working with flash cartoonist Mike Salva on the animated short Max the Hero, which can be viewed online. Josh "J. Elvis" Weinstein, first season cast member, still sporadically maintains his website Stinkburger. Meanwhile, Dr. Forrester himself, Trace Beaulieu continues to draw obscene paychecks for his writing work on America's Funniest Home Videos.

Fans of Mystery Science Theater 3000 rejoice!

Dave Faris — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 16:47:29 -0800

Fans of Mystery Science Theater 3000 rejoice! Three of MST3K's writer/characters — Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett, and Kevin Murphy — have started a new venture: The Film Crew.

Santa vs Satan / Robots vs Mummies / Wrestlers vs Vampires

smallerdemon — Sat, 12 May 2007 11:43:55 -0800

Even if you're not a baby boomer, you might remember a little something called the kiddie matinée that apparently went all the way up to the mid 80s. I remember them because in the 70s they were still popular enough that the 1959 Mexican Christmas flick Santa Claus continued making the rounds and I saw it in the theater. Imagine my surprise 20 years later when my favorite man in space and his robot pals are subjected to one of own childhood traumas of Santa Claus vs Satan for the soul of a small Mexican child. One man was responsible for my trauma: K. Gordon Murray. Importer of not only fine children's classics like Little Red Riding Hood Vs The Monsters but also other great MST3K experiments like The Robot vs The Aztec Mummy and Samson vs The Vampire Women. It wasn't all X vs Y. Sometimes it was about peaceful things.

The Eye of Argon is Watching You Masturbate

robocop is bleeding — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 10:25:36 -0800

"Prepare to embrace your creators in the stygian haunts of hell, barbarian", gasped the first soldier.
"Only after you have kissed the fleeting stead of death, wretch!" returned Grignr.
I cannot believe that I once considered my life complete having never been exposed to SciFi convention mainstay and possibly Worst Science Fiction Story Ever Written, The Eye of Argon. Previously mentioned on Metafilter in comments, it is time for Jim Theis' magnum opus have its day in the Blue. If you can make it through the story without laughing (most can't), there's always the MST3K'd version to attempt as well! (via)

The Annotated Mystery Science Theatre

Rumple — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 13:32:43 -0800

Magnificent? Obsessions: Mystery Science Theatre Edition. A labour of love: annotated epidoses of MST3000. Inspired? A Distributed MST annotation project.

Let's Have a Patrick Swayze Christmas This Year

Otis — Thu, 20 Jul 2006 07:04:26 -0800

Mike Nelson's RiffTrax. New Legend Films trainee and former Mystery Science Theater head writer, Michael J. Nelson continues to keep the MST3K spirit alive. Rifftrax allows download of full-length commentaries to play along with your DVDs. First up: Roadhouse. [via Satellite News]

9 3/4 stars! "R" is Got Done Real Good!

JHarris — Mon, 10 Apr 2006 00:52:25 -0800

The Weekly Blurb - "Your dependable Hollywood quote whore." Probably by the same people who long ago brought us late, lamented Timmy Big Hands. And A Year At The Movies and Movie Megacheese. And, you know, something else.

MST3K Posters

jonson — Thu, 04 Aug 2005 22:03:44 -0800

Every movie poster from every episode of every season of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Note: collection may not contain EVERY poster.

Come over to the dark side.. of the shire

MrLint — Sat, 20 Dec 2003 19:27:01 -0800

Welcome to Pushington Downs This amusing fairy tale is brought to us from some of the fine folks from MST3k. Edward the less is an amusing bit of comedy based in a universe almost completely unlike that of JRR Tolkien. It never made it past series 1. Perhaps a bunch of renewed interest would push it along.