On May 25, Betty L. Prentis
passed away in West Palm Beach, FL at the age of 89. Mrs. Prentis was preceded in death by her husband of 41 years, Edmund "Ned" Prentis, in 1997. Prior to her marriage, Betty Luster had enjoyed a long career as an actress and dancer on stage in London (where her career got started in 1938), Broadway, Miami, and Philadelphia.
In her last acting role before marrying Ned, Betty performed in a promotional film sponsored by
C.G. Conn, makers of brass band instruments. The 1956 (or
1957) film, "Mr. B Natural," is undoubtedly the most infamous of the shorts to ever air on
Mystery Science Theater 3000, so as a final tribute to Betty, it's time to snap on those tights and torment young Buzz
for one last time.
posted by stannate
on Oct 3, 2011 -
62 comments
King of the Rocket Men was the first appearance of the "atomic powered rocket flying suit" from
Republic Pictures.
The characters changed but the suit remained for
four action-packed serials. In 1949,
King of the Rocket Men starts out with a bang, or rather
a series of bangs (YT playlist), as scientists die in accidents, but science and fists save the day. Civilian researcher Commando Cody is the next hero to don the rocket pack in 1952, for 12 chapters of
Radar Men from the Moon. But when
Zombies of the Stratosphere attack that same year, Commando Cody is out sick (or something), so Larry Martin steps up to duke it out in the rocket suit (though
thin on the "zombies", the serial starred
Leonard Nemoy as a Martian). Commando Cody returned in 1953 to face the evil alien "Ruler" in
Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of the Universe (
vid 1,
vid 2).
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on Jul 14, 2011 -
17 comments
Scene-by-scene summaries of Red Dawn (
1,
2,
3), The Fountainhead (
1,
2,
3), Left Behind (
1,
2,
3), Battle In Seattle (
1,
2,
3),
Rambo III (
1,
2,
3,
4) and This Revolution (
1,
2,
3).
[more inside]
posted by Theta States
on Feb 15, 2011 -
41 comments
"
The TV Wheel was a television experiment created by and starring
Joel Hodgson, of
Mystery Science Theater 3000 fame. Cable network HBO ordered a pilot, but ultimately passed on picking up the show. The pilot episode eventually aired once on Comedy Central as a special presentation following the last new episode of MST3K to be broadcast on that network."
*
The pilot, bookended by introduction segments, is right through this door:
[more inside]
posted by item
on Aug 11, 2010 -
41 comments
Space: 1999 (1975-77) is a British sci-fi series, the last production of
Gerry and
Sylvia Anderson who were first recognized for their work in "
Supermarionation." This series saw the end of the couple, with Sylvia Anderson leaving the show at the end of the first season. She was replaced by
Fred Freiberger, who brought in some Star Trek sensibilities and attempted to cater the show more to the American action-adventure audience. A third season was planned but not produced, and left the series unfinished, ending on an episode that was "
like bad Shakespeare, or worse, bad Star Trek." Fans still support the show in many forms, even creating a semi-official fan-produced mini-episode entitled
Message from Moonbase Alpha to bring some completion to the series, which was shown on September 13, 1999 at the
Breakaway: 1999 convention. Another group of fans has recently taken to
updating the whole series, to
bring Space:1999 into the future.
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on Jan 13, 2010 -
91 comments
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.
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on Jun 27, 2009 -
17 comments
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.) [more inside]
posted by JHarris
on Jul 27, 2008 -
50 comments
"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.
[more inside]
posted by Servo5678
on May 23, 2008 -
66 comments
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. [more inside]
posted by Chrysostom
on Oct 29, 2007 -
18 comments
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.
[more inside]
posted by cog_nate
on Oct 24, 2007 -
148 comments
"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)
posted by robocop is bleeding
on Apr 13, 2007 -
92 comments
Every movie poster from every episode of every season of Mystery Science Theater 3000.
Note: collection may not contain EVERY poster.
posted by jonson
on Aug 4, 2005 -
36 comments
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.
posted by MrLint
on Dec 20, 2003 -
0 comments
