The List: #30 Mystery Science Theater 3000

#30
Number of Seasons: 11
Years Active: 1988 - 1999
Networks: KTMA-TV (Minneapolis Local Station), Comedy Central, Sci-Fi

Mystery Science Theater 3000 is the first series on the list to revisit a show that I've already written about, but as we get closer to #1, there will be plenty more.

Usually for a show with such low productions values, I'd say that the series works in spite of that fact, but with MST3K, the show works BECAUSE OF the low budget. The three main characters watch the worst movies imaginable and tear them to shreds. One aspect of these movies that make them terrible is the low budgets, and the crappy sets of the frame story helps send up the films shown. Of course, while the movies take themselves too seriously, the show knows exactly what it is, and does not aspire to be anything beyond a group of friends having cheap fun.

Unfortunately, there are some movies that are so incredibly bad that no amount of ribbing will make them any better (and it's not for lack of trying; the jokes-per-minute frequency is extremely high). But those are rare cases. I thought that I'd seen bad movies before I saw the likes of Girl In Gold Boots, Time Chasers, Overdrawn At The Memory Bank and Space Mutiny. These were god-awful, shitty movies. But I watched a few of them twice because the jokes were that incredible.

The show ran two hours (one and a half on DVD), and the show is repetitive in style, so it is hard to watch more than two or three episodes at a time. But with MST3K, that isn't as bad as it is for most series. This is a series that has to be taken in slowly, since many jokes can be missed in the first viewing, especially if you are focusing more on getting through the episode in order to continue on to the next.

Up next: #29...

Mystery Science Theater 3000: Simply Hilarious

Sorry to interrupt your regularly scheduled post on Persepolis, but I saw something today that took me by surprise. If you've never heard of a little show (extreme emphasis on "little"; the show prided itself on its ultra-low budget) called Mystery Science Theater 3000, proceed to slap yourself. The premise was simple, so simple in fact that the SAME THING happened every episode, and yet it was always hilarious; a man and his two robot friends are forced to watch horrible Z-list movies, and in order to save their sanity, they mercilessly mock them. Anyway, the thing that happened today was that the theatrical film was rereleased on DVD after being sparsely available for years. In celebration of this cult show, I am doing a brief post to attempt to bring about a little awareness.

In contrast to pretty much every other TV show I've chronicled, I haven't seen nearly the majority of the total number of episodes. I think that I could use my two hands to count how many episodes I've seen. However, as I said above, the same thing happens in every episode. The plot of the show is this: a mad scientist hatches an evil plot to achieve world domination by driving the human race insane by making them watch the world's worst movie. In an effort to determine what movie that is, he puts his janitor on a spaceship and puts him in orbit, and forces him to watch some of the worst movies ever made. To keep his sanity, the dude builds himself two robot buddies from materials lying around the ship, and the three of them mock the films to no end. That is what the majority of run time of each episode consists of, three shadows watching terrible movies and making awesome jokes.

Over the course of the series, there are two hosts, Joel and Mike. I've never seen an episode with Joel, since the person who introduced me to the show was fervently opposed to Joel (even though he had never seen an episode with him either; he based this judgment on favorable descriptions of Joel's "sleepy" style), but I've thoroughly enjoyed the Mike episodes that I've seen.

The movies featured are exercises in stamina; without Joel/Mike and the Bots' commentary, they would be completely unwatchable. Absolutely nothing works in any of them. The story and dialogue sound like they were written by toddlers (wow, I just insulted toddlers), and the production values are lower than those of the frame show. And unlike MST3K, which highlights its low budgetness and thin plots (in the theme song, the lyrics remind viewers to not worry about how Joel/Mike eats, breathes, and "other science facts", since it it just a TV show), the movies tend to take themselves very seriously. And yet, some of the things they make fun of in the movies include the world's worst editing (a scene begins with two of the main characters, and halfway through, an alternate take that included the third main character was spliced in), terrible continuity (in a terrible space opera film from the 80s, about one minute after a character died, she showed up at her post), and they comment on how one movie tried to cover up its low quality by including clips and plot elements from a great movie (Casablanca).

It's hard to think that these movies could be so bad, but they are. The jokes never stop, and their variety (some are intellectual, some are juvenile, and others are completely random) keeps the episodes lively. Incredibly, the movie used for Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie, called This Island Earth is actually an OK movie. It's no masterpiece, but compared to the rest of series, it's not bad. This only makes the jokes even funnier, knowing that the writers could probably take on Oscar winners and still be hilarious.

The show lasted eleven years, which is incredible to think about since it is such a relatively unheard of show outside of college campuses. Hopefully, this post will inspire you to check it out if you haven't already.

Up next: Back to foreign films...