How about TV Series that deserve a commentary track.
Some may be aware that riffing TV shows instead of movies was an idea put forward by Comedy Central in the latter days. BBI rejected it, but I always thought it might work. More recently, RiffTrax has done tracks for “Lost” and “Gray’s Anatomy,” (and they worked well!) so I think my feeling’s been justified.
I’ve recently been watching “Downton Abbey” and “Game of Thrones” on DVD and I think both would be a great basis for hilarious commentary tracks.
What TV show would you suggest?
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It’d have to be some cheesy 70’s or 80’s action show, like 1975’s “Space: 1999” or 1984’s “The Master”, or an import like Japan’s “Maitei Jyakku”
To make it long enough for a good riffing session, of course, someone would have to string a couple of episodes together, preferably poorly.
Oh wait…
On a more serious note, I’d love to see some of the more egregious CSI clones (e.g, NCIS) taken down a peg or twelve.
Any Lifetime movie. All of them are full of wooden acting- and, the dialog has plenty of natural gaps for riffing.
Any “Reality” show would be a prime candidate, especially, say Donald Trump’s The Apprentice.
Oh wait, Trump is already a charicature. Anybody up for eating a pizza with a knife and fork?
I agree on CSI. Those shows are so predictable and ridiculous now, they’re rife for the riff.
For me, I’d love to riff some Doctor Who. Old series or new series (or both), it doesn’t matter. As a matter of fact, there is a group (their name escapes me at the moment), who do just that at the annual Gallifrey One DW convention in LA. Fun stuff.
Star Trek.
“Charmed”, “Beauty and the Beast”, and “Pretty Little Liars”.
I riff “SVU” and “Blue Bloods” all the time! Blue Bloods might be the worst crime drama in the history of ever.
Charlie’s Angels
Rockford Files
Black Sheep Squadron
and the original Battlestar Galactica
As with the movies they riff, I’m talking MST here, it would have to be a TV show that sincerely tries to be good but just falls short. Meaning it needs heart and is only funny because the execution doesn’t live up to the intent.
Comedies are out because when they fall short they are gumerous in their own right and have no need to be riffed.
Made for TV movies like the ones on SyFy are intentionaly bad and are not deserving of a good riffing.
So, for a TV show to be deserving of a good riffing it would have to be a drama.
In my mind this means only one show: Eight Is Enough!
Plus it has a Van Patten. Can’t miss!
“Dancing With The Stars”. If there is any show that deserves a good riff, this is it.
Because I loved the southern riffing in Squirm, I’m going to suggest Dukes of Hazzard. I also think “news” shows like 48 hours, 60 minutes, that new show that comes on after Grimm, the one with Brian Williams(?), deserve a heaping helping of sarcasm (sargasm–sorry, couldn’t help that) and wit.
And Revolution.
Some of the cheesy 70s-80s soap operas like Dallas or Dynasty. Plenty of silliness and long pauses in dialog. Also, second the nomination of Star Trek – Shatner alone provides numerous pauses for riff insertion. Finally, I’d suggest the famous BBC version of Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth. It was a great production, but absolutely riffable – it’s one of my wife’s favorite shows, and she can’t stand it when I starting riffing on it!
Thunder in Paradise with Hulk Hogan back in the mid 90’s and American Gladiators in the early 90’s with one of the hosts being Troy McGreggor’s pal Larry Csonka.
Baywatch Nights
Super cheesy spinoff starring David Hasselhoff and Angie Harmon as private detectives. In the second season, it tried to become an X-files rip-off, and the murderers started turning out to be things like sea monsters. No joke. It’s got a solid 3.4 / 10 rating on IMDB. Perfect riffing fodder.
Although long off the air I alway felt LOST IN SPACE was just plain goofy. It almost riffs itself. They used the cheapest sets and costumes. One alien was just a guy with a giant frog head you wear at Mardi Gras. Lame.
COP ROCK!!!!!
Also, RT should invest in at least one season of Star Trek. I’m sure enough people have it available that they could do it. At the very least, “Spock’s Brain” and “And the Children Shall Lead” are prime candidates.
Night Gallery. Vintage actors wearing trendy 70’s fashions while being oh-so-serious about the horror.
Space 1999
Star Trek
Thunderbirds (puppet on puppet action)
I’m a huge Game of Thrones fan, and episode 9 season 2 “Blackwater” is my favorite episode so far; but nevertheless I’ve been building a fairly solid riff commentary for that episode in particular that I’m waiting to try on some friends (who’ve already seen the episode, of course).
I am sure DRAGNET would be a great series for riffing. Joe Friday’s tongue lashings, Henry Morgan, 1960s LA, guest stars from many of the movies used in experiments would provide a great background for riffing.
I have many memories of our family riffing Star Trek long before there was an MST3K, so I would love to see that.
Also any of those TERRIBLE movies from the Scifi channel(I don’t care how they misspell it now).
Let’s go across the pond. Let’s face it, Doctor Who (and I mean Old School Doctor Who) would be a great show to riff.
How about Knight Rider. That show is pure cheese. Riff away!
Any 70s Super Hero Shows such as the Incredible Hulk, Wonder Woman, the Flash, etc. would be perfect. They are hokey with a message at the end! By the way, Lyell Waggoner (or however the h*** you spell his name) is perfect for riffing on his own.
I happily riff Star Trek every Sunday morning on a certain web site that promotes “Star Trek Sunday Brunch,” but it’d be fun to have it riffed professionally. Also agree with Lost in Space and Charlie’s Angels. Would add Lassie, just because if anyone falls down a well or a mine shaft one more time I will scream. Some of the old Westerns such as Bonanza, The Big Valley, and High Chaparral would also make good fodder.
Whew, Star Trek already got a few nods, excellent! I think ST: Voyager and Enterprise would be the most ripe picks for mocking. Even preschoolers know how to do a Shatner impression ;)
MacGuyver is widely regarded as an excellent TV series, but I watched the re-runs on Spike a few years back, and it’s definitely stuck in the 80s. Plenty of material, from Soviet hockey players to Cuba Gooding Jr. The host should call a “No bombs from bubblegum wrappers,” riff rule.
Dark Shadows. Dant dant DAAAAAAA!
For as much as its maligned, and for as much as the fans have a sense of humor about it, I’d say The Walking Dead. It has long passages without dialogue and it gets pretty ridiculous. I think it would be loading up great railing kill for the riffers!
The Master. Any remaining episodes that were not already riffed in the Master Ninja eps.
Full House
Diff’rent Strokes
Dallas
Quantum Leap
Star Trek and Star Trek: TNG
Twin Peaks
We already had this back on January 19, 2013…………………….
https://www.mst3kinfo.com/?p=14586
@21, I was going to say Dragnet as well but I think Adam 12 would be equally prime for riffing.
The Sopranos. Bill would rule.
@29 thedumpster
Umm I see you point. But does it matter?
I had a long rebuttal to your comment but it read as a I was coming down on you. You didn’t deserve that so I deleted it, because that is not the point I wanted to make in my reply.
My point is if we redo a topic it’s ok. Maybe someone has something they what to add that didn’t get done the first time around.
@29: yeah, I thought so… seemed familiar..
I’m going to just going to copy what I wrote last time:
Quantum Leap, would be a good choice,
AND
semi-obscure show Werewolf, from 1987/88, would make a good candidate.
and I would’ve LOVED to see some Simon & Simon get riffed on!!
@32: yeah, it’s not a big deal to repeat discussions…but we had this one earlier this year, a little over two months ago, so the repetition is readily apparent. No big deal, just one of those things, I can forgive Sampo.
the old batman series would be an almost endless supply of riffs
I’ve become a huge fan of The Walking Dead, but the more fans it draws, the more flubs people point out about it. Comedy is a balance the show could seriously use – even if it comes from riffers.
RiffTrax’s take on video games appeared here as a montage of clips – but storylines and dialogue for video games are typically over-the-top awful – from bad scripting to stereotyped and misplaced accents (why do so many Jamaicans live on the South Pacific island of Banoi in Dead Island??), MOST games are asking for it. I nominate Dead Island, Farcry 3 and any other game that curses liberally, just because it can and thus feels it HAS to.
But how about old A-Teams, Love Boats and Fantasy Islands? The only drawback I can see with those is that their same-y-ness would probably get Commando Cody-like.
Absolutely the 1960’s version of Dragnet. It’s aged so badly that nowadays it’s just cheesy as all hell (ironically, the 1950’s version has actually aged better). Adam-12, too, but 60’s Dragnet especially. Beautiful color, over-the-top hippie/druggie/etc. stereotypes, wooden and/or straight-up awful acting, the show is, IMO, a riffer’s dream.
I know we had this topic already, but for whatever reason, I wasn’t open to the possibilities then so I’m glad for another opportunity.
seaQuest DSV, a favorite show from the 90’s that, although I will love it and defend it’s merits to the end of my days, was definitely ripe for riffing.
The Greatest American Hero for it’s cheesy superhero antics and great character interplay. I imagine Joel/Mike and the Bots would have great “interplay” with Robert Culp, too.
Farscape. It does not deserve riffing in any way but the combination of my two favorite shows would be hard to pass up.
Kolchak: The Night Stalker. This supernatural, X-Files inspiring Darren McGavin-starring series which has just the right mix of cheesy, scary, good would be excellent for riffing, especially the more outlandish episodes. It would also mark the return of Richard Kiel to MST3K fodderdom for 2 episodes.
V: The Miniseries, V: The Final Battle, V: The Series, V: The Series(remake). Now this would be a dream come true(and probably not outside the realm of possibility for the two original miniseries). As Crow once remarked “You know what this movie needs? Marc Singer.” Well, here ya go, Crow, more Singer than you can shake a 10ft pole at.
M.A.N.T.I.S, the first television show produced by Sam Raimi’s Renaissance Pictures was a klunky yet fun cyber-enhanced superhero show with so many good riffing possibilities.
She-Wolf of London(and later Los Angeles), actually a pretty good show, can’t say a romantic horror-comedy would not be welcome. By which I mean, one better than Twilight.
The later seasons of Sliders outraged me enough that I’d love to see them torn to comedic shreds. Thanks for ruining it, Sci-Fi.
Tremors: The Series, because I hate it so.
And finally, Dark Shadows. Yes, a soap opera. With vampires. It would keep the boys busy for white a while and, guess what, I don’t have a problem with that.
Bonanza, FBI, or any Quinn Martin Production.
WWE Monday Night Raw. The “Attitude Era” would be rife with riffing material.
@37 – Nah, Kolchak was cool for his day. :)
I do, however, remember that much as I always wanted to grow up to be as cool as Mr. Roarke, the sweaty 70’s tabloid Aaron Spelling-ness of Fantasy Island’s plotlines were flat-out hysterical in their cheesy straightfaced attempts to be sweeps-week titillating. We’re talking stuff that would make Angel’s Revenge look sophisticated and tasteful, with low-budget horror or period-costume plots thrown in.
Love Boat you could let slide, since it had one area of Painfully Cute 70’s Humor and the characters were likable, but you tuned in Fantasy Island thinking, “What fresh hell are we getting THIS week? 0_0 ”
And certainly, we’d had our share of ABC Movie of the Week references during the Joel era, although we never saw that riffed version of “Killdozer”.
The Riffers have already made fun of the recent “Transformers” movies, why not make fun of some of the original cartoons? Transformers and G.I. Joe are completely whacked – the shows are garbage, except for how blindly, “WTF” insane they are, which offers great riffing potential. They’re also just as much of a low-brow, mass-produced corporate-fest as the later movie re-makes, further enhancing the potential. Nostalgia alone cannot and should not protect these shows . . .
I second Star Trek, especially Next Generation (because it flirts with respectability, making the contrast more absurd) and Voyager (because it flirts with complete silliness, making it an easy target).
I also want to see the late 70’s-early 80’s “Buck Rogers” series riffed, especially the second season. Sooo much laughable nonsense presented as reasonable sci-fi.
The recent CGI “Clone Wars” show is also incredibly, thoroughly terrible, being both utterly goofy and taking itself way, *way* too seriously. Over-the-top, predictable, and hackneyed.
I also want to see “Finding Bigfoot” riffed within an inch of its life, although I happen to like the show simply because it *is* so riffable.
Gunsmoke, Bonanza, Maverick, Big Valley, & Charlie’s Angels.
Why not go for tv shows that weren’t all that popular back in the day? How about My Mother the Car with Jerry Van Dyke?
I think pilots would be more entertaining,since they never went to series and most of them are kind of cheesy and seem more out there than regular shows…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAT4tjjzOCk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxcjvXHWdgk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfZerhRy8lc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=at4TWrBy8og http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0422974/
I’d like to see them riff ‘The Brady Bunch’. NickMom Night Out did a show called ‘What Was Carol Thinking’ which riffed episodes with pop-up gags, but I think Rifftrax could do a better job.
“Twin Peaks”. Maddy’s murder might get edited though. For current TV I’d put my favorite TV show, “Once Upon a Time”, in the theater.
Ideally it should be a show I don’t mind sitting through in the first place. The Six million Dollar Man would be fun and easy to riff. The Wild Wild West had some misfires that might be worthy of ridicule. The original Outer Limits had some episodes that were just bizarre enough to make for good riffing. Lost in Space. In Search Of. The Mickey Mouse Club. Though I don’t think that would ever get the green light.
Oh, the original DARK SHADOWS is BEGGING for it. I love it too, but my God, the solemn silliness of it all…
Manimal
My Mother The Car
Syfy Saturday Movies
Those crappy mid to late 90s science fiction shows that tried to be the next Star Trek: Babylon 5, Farscape, Earth: Final Conflict, and Stargate. Toss in Hercules and Xena and the possibilities are endless.
I wonder what they could do with The Wire…