Movie: (1976) A Victorian-era scientist and his assistant take a test run in their Iron Mole drilling machine and end up in a strange underground world.
Opening: J&tB are having a pre-nuptial heart-to-heart, but then Jonah introduces Growler
Invention exchange: With nobody coming to her wedding, Kinga turns to the Observer Hive Mind Manager. The bots have permanent temporary tattoos; The Mads have the Rip Taylor urn cannon
Segment 1: Jonah gives the bots a steampunk makeover
Segment 2: Crow’s a Mahar
Segment 3: Doug McClure visits and offers Max some romantic advice
Closing: As the wedding draws near, Pearl, Bobo and Brain Guy appear to give their blessing, but in the midst of the vows, Max has other plans.
Stinger: “He died as he lived…”
(62 votes, average: 3.74 out of 5)
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• Lots going on in this one. First of all, there’s the movie. This is the second movie this season that was adapted from an Edgar Rice Burroughs story and stars Doug McClure (“Land that Time Forgot” was the other), and this one is even more OUT THERE. And more riffable, I think. The riffing is very solid; I laughed a lot. But the big headlines are in the host segments, with a new bot that did NOT immediately get stomped to bits, another big-name guest star, the return of several legacy-era characters (and performers), a giant crowd and the big question: what happened to Jonah?
• The bots mention Joel and Mike and suggest a combination of the two would be T.J. Miller. Hmmm…
• One thing about the movie: Nobody mentioned a KingaChrome spill but there were two or three very jarring jumps in the action.
• Joel McHale pops up and, just as he did on “The Soup,” he totally commits to the bit. In a season full of guest stars, he held his own.
• I’d love to know who wrote the “smelting” song to go with the opening theme music. It’s very funny.
• So, the first time I was watching this, when the Hive Mind Manager started talking, I’m going: “That voice is SO familiar!” Then all at once it hit me: PAUL! He does a great job and it was great to see him.
• Incidentally, Russ Walko did the very Rowlfy voice of Growler. I could get used to him…
• So, when the monster lunges down at Jonah, the view cuts to a wide shot and it’s unclear if Jonah was eaten, or escaped or something in the middle. I assume season 12 will find him making a miraculous recovery…
• As a kid who grew up in the Philadelphia area, I enjoyed the reference to the giant heart you can climb through at the Franklin Institute. It’s still there!
• Classic riffs: “Gamera is friend to all the children,” “And the crowd goes wild! Yay!” “Climb up to mouth level!” “He died as he lived…” “Football practice!” and a mention of a character’s “area.”
• Callbacks: Pearl sings a few bars of “When Loving Lovers Love.”
• More in-theater beat box fun as J&tB go all “Ballroom Blitz.”
• Nice visual riff: a “Fantasia” riff with Tom in Mickey ears.
• The Observer wedding guests were: Patricia Adams, Mike Aronow, Kyle Bacon, Jordan Brown, Andrew R. Brunner, Nick Carlson, John Cookson, Jason D’itri, Larry Dunn, Zachary A. Forsyth, Tony Goggin, Dave Goldblatt, Spencer Goldrich, Jonathan Gorbach, Laura Gorbach, Ike Haldan, Jason Kirk Harder, Larry Hastings, Jeff Hill, Adam King, Darcy Madi, Guillermo Martinez, Juan Martinez, Colin McRavey, Andrew M. Minoff, Amber Oliver, Paul Denver Reynolds IV, Kathryn Rice, Joe Sherman and Ben Tobin. This beats the number of people in the pancake breakfast host segment in episode 913- QUEST OF THE DELTA KNIGHTS.
• Cast and crew roundup: Since so many of these are for “Land that Time Forgot,” I will call it LTTF. Doug McClure was also in LTTF and SST- Death Flight. Caroline Munro was also in “Starcrash.” Keith Baron, Godfrey James and Bobby Parr were in LTTF.
Behind the camera: Director Kevin Connor also directed LTTF. Producers John Dark and Milton Subotsky also produced LTTF. Max Rosenberg also produced LTTF and “The Incredible Melting Man.” Editors John Ireland and Barry Peters also edited LTTF. Art director Bert Davey also art directed LTTF. Cy Grant did voice work on “Revenge of the Mysterons.” Cinematographer Alan Hume was also cinematographer on LTTF. Production designer Maurice Carter was also production designer on LTTF.
• Fave riff: “I dreamt I as a protocol droid.” Honorable mention: “Back to the Amazon.com warehouse!” and “This Petco adoption day is now what I thought it was gonna be.”
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So we end not with a whimper, but with… a decent show.
This is a perfect movie for The Return to handle. A light hearted silly film that most folks could watch even without riffing. Although it shares some similarities between “The Land Time Forgot”, that film overall was much darker and troubling, with a depressing end. “At The Earth’s Core” is just fun, even when folks are getting eaten by flying Kermits.
Whether by design or not, it’s a perfect way to end the season and they even do something they never did before — allow the movie time to breathe. In the first half hour or so they actually seem rather leisurely in their riffs, and as a result it’s a MUCH more pleasant experience.
The host segments are another matter entirely. Maybe it’s just me (as most of you might think :>) but these seem to be the worst of the entire season. They aren’t particularly funny, and the entire wedding plot doesn’t even seem to have anyone’s heart in it. They go through the motions and the needless cliffhanger at the end is just… needless.
Joel McHale, a normally terrifically funny and acerbic guy, is completely miscast as Doug McClure, sharing only a “Mc” in common – worse, he doesn’t even seem to believe it himself, trying to hold a meta-snarky attitude about the whole gig but coming off as someone just phoning it in. While that works for his character on “Community” here it just appears fan serving and pointless.
So while the riffing of the movie would have earned this one a solid 8 perhaps, the host segments bring it back down to perhaps the level of the season high, Avalanche. Not a bad way to end the season, but certainly a disappointment overall.
At the end of the day The Return was a good try, but only proved that nostalgia ain’t indeed what it used to be, and while you can’t go home again at least you can Google Earth it and see how much it has changed.
This episode: 7 out of 10.
The Season: 5 out of 10.
So who is going to add “The Sly One” to to certain poster’s online names? Not me.
“He’s not to be trusted.”
This episode was terrible, in my opinion, and not worthy of being the season finale. I was so bored throughout that I truly can’t remember any of the riffs. The whole wedding story was dumb, as in dumb-but-not-funny, and sexist. One of the things I loved about S11 was the variety of movies they chose to riff — ’70s made-for-TV, Western, kaiju, Christmas, Hercules, Ren Faire, Star Wars wannabe, etc., but having another Doug McClure movie similar to The Land That Time Forgot seemed repetitive and like they couldn’t find anything else.
Am I glad they made S11? Absolutely. I loved most of the eps, Jonah, TV’s Son of TV’s Frank, and the riffing from Tom and Crow. Was not a fan of Kinga although I like Felicia Day; she seemed too harmless overall for a Mad. Synthia the Clone was fun and I would’ve liked to have seen more of her, but the actress didn’t work for me as Gypsy’s voice. I missed the old Gypsy’s dingy falsetto. Faster pace of riffing was OK, maybe tone it down just a tad.
This episode: 2 of 10
Season overall: 8 of 10
Bring on Season 12!
Wow, has it really been 14 weeks?
And so, seemingly just as quickly as it began, the long awaited 11th season of MST3K comes to an end. And what an ending it is. The big news here is, of course, the cliffhanger that concludes what is hopefully only the first season of the revival, but there’s plenty to enjoy here aside from the host segments. The movie itself is yet another watchable, enjoyable, and rather extravagant adventure flick that I proudly own on Blu-ray unriffed. The Amicus films (The Land/People That Time Forgot) have a undeniable charm to them (unfortunately they didn’t last much longer as accompany after this film was made), which lends itself well to riffing. Add in an over the top Peter Cushing, and Season 11 alums Doug McClure and the hotter than hot Caroline Munro, and you have a pretty enjoyable final episode of the season!
Some thoughts:
-The opening has a nice air of finality to it that’s kinda satisfying. Crow’s line about a combination of Joel and Mike being something like T. J. Miller is hysterical, and a rare acknowledgement of what came before. And then there’s the awesomeness that is Growler, Jonah’s latest attempt to introduce a new bot to the SOL. The Rolf the Dog homage is obvious, and I’m glad the amiable bot survived the episode. Here’s hoping he comes back next season for more piano jamming!
-Seeing Paul Chaplin as the Manager of the Observer Hive Mind was like getting a big hug from the show. It was so wonderful seeing him on MST3K again. His appearance raised a few questions, though… first, is he the same Observer he played back in Seasons 8 and 9? I doubt it, but if he is, how’d he get his omnipotence back? Also, where’s his accent? AND his brain?! AND his other Science Facts?!?! That aside, I loved the Brain spaceship and the Observer goons slapping their brains like clubs in the background. Also, there are 40,000 Observers in total? Good to know!
-The Permanent Temporary Tattoos are an hysterical invention, reminiscent of the erasable tattoos from the Joel era. Also, the Rip Taylor Urn Cannon feels very Joel-esque.
-I love the Smelting Song! This season has some great in-movie original songs!
-Callbacks: “Doug McClure?! I forgot about him like the land that time did!”; “P.T. Mitchell!”; “Hikeeba!”; “Gamera is friend to all the children!”; “You’re no Hasslehoff.” (Starcrash); “They tampered in God’s domain.” (Bride of the Monster)
-Classic MST3K Lines: “We are gathered here today to get through this thing called “life”!”; “I wet ’em!”; “Attica! Attica! Attica!”; “Football practice?”; “Did you see my buffalo shot back there, David?”; “Oh woooow…”;
-Star Wars References (and with an actual Episode IV alumni, there are a few): “When this battle station becomes fully operational…”; “I dreamt I was a protocol droid!”; “Billie Dee Williams!”; “Do, or do not. There is no try.”; “What happens when a Dewback mates with a Rancor? This guy!”; I heard they’re hiring in cloud city! My cousin’s working with carbonite!”; “This is how I taught my Imperial Stormtroopers to shoot!”; “Return of the Jedi” Ewok finale music (pre-special edition)
-I’d love to know where that middle camera in the cockpit is situated outside the ship…
-The boys once again prove that the comic validity of Yakitty Sax is alive and well.
-The parrot dino that attacks Doug and Peter looks a LOT like Gappa, the titular kaiju from Nikkatsu’s sole 1967 entry into Japan’s vast pantheon of giant monster movies. The only thing missing is the wings.
-Again, Caroline Munro is an 11. Maybe a 12. Plus, we get to hear her real voice in this movie!
-I LOVE the Steampunk bots! I wonder if a lucky fan got to keep one or both of them as a Kickstarter reward? Again, I wish the segment had gone on longer.
-We get a nice reference to Earl Holliman, the man who would have been William Shatner, had there not already been one.
-The “The Bumper” bumper is hysterical. I love the infinite recession going on in the picture!
-Crow as a Mahar is vaguely reminiscent of the Bill’s various Sci-Fi era instances of building a costume and going over the deep end in believing he is that character. But this time it appears to simply be an innocent bit of role playing, without Bill’s trademark twisted sense of humor. Again, the segment is cute, but too short.
-I love the reference to the Universal Studio’s E.T. Ride. This season has a few references to Universal rides and attractions.
-When the big quadrupedal monster peeks his head out of the cave, Jonah says “Gypsy?” Huh? Aside from the big mouth, there’s not much of a resemblance.
-Instantly memorable line: Peter says “hidey hole”, and that’s all the riffers need.
-The Mads cut off J&TB’s segment to do more wedding panning, but they are interrupted by the arrival of yet another celebrity cameo: Joel McHale as Doug McClure. He’s hysterical as a pompous ladies man who’s indirectly responsible for the insanity that concludes the season. Also, Joel’s bicep-revealing shirt is a dead wringer for the one Doug is wearing in the movie.
-Wow, so, the ending… where to even start? There’s so much happening here. It’s almost too much to take in with one viewing. First off, the Observers are a group of lucky Kickstarter backers that somehow kept their mouths shut for like 7 or 8 months. That must have been hard! I hope they got to keep their brains after the shoot. And then there’s Pearl, Bobo (who looks better from the angles they shot him at this time), and Brain Guy actually on camera with the rest of the cast. It really did feel like old times, and the revelation that Kinga’s full name is “Kinga Clayton Forrester” is a funny one with interesting implications. Also, how absolutely PERFECT was Pearl breaking out into a rendition of “When Loving Lovers Love”?! I freaked out a little, and then laughed my butt off.
-The big talking point is, of course, Reptilicus Metalicus eating Jonah and seeming to kill him. Just what it all means, and how it all will resolve, remains to be seen. Could it be setting up a potential new host should Jonah be unable to return? Possibly, but I doubt it. Jonah had gone on record in interviews saying that he fully expects to return for the as of yet unconfirmed Season 12, and that he did indeed survive being eaten, as the cryptic image of a figure walking outside the SOL in a red spacesuit implies. As Jonah is repeatedly seen building a spacesuit throughout the season, it’s pretty clear that’s him outside, and that he’s alive. But HOW he survived, and what happens next, is a MSTory that only Season 12 can solve…
-Also, as one final bit of a fun Easter egg, Reptilicus Metalicus roars with an old B-movie dinosaur/monster roar heard in countless 1950’s/1960’s TV shows and movies, but is universally recognized today as the screech of the Imperial TIE Fighter from Star Wars. MSTies will recognize it as the roar of the two headed dragon from The Magic Sword, the Solarites from The Phantom Planet, and a few other places in the vast and varied MST3K Alternaverse.
-End Credits Music: Growler’s Jam; Livin’ in Deep 13; To Earth; MST3K Love Theme (Fun fact: apparently a number of Kickstarter backers were accidentally omitted from 14 episodes worth of credits, so several weeks after the season debuted, a second, longer end credits sequence was created with the missing names, and added to this episode, necessitating the switching of the first version of the episode with the new one on Netflix and the addition of a few extra songs.)
-Favorite Riff: “What is this, the Sid & Marty Krofft Death March?!”
-Honorable Mentions: “Yeah, climb up to mouth level.”; “He died as he lived: falling down a ravine while on fire.”
So… whither Season 12?
Pretty boring finale. Completely unnecessary wedding arc, but even still could have been well done. Just going through the motions.
Affirms my criticism of Kinga’s personality. She’s just a spoiled brat, not a force of evil. Definitely not someone who needs to be taken seriously.
Mahars must have been made in Detroit. They explode spectacularly whenever they crash, just like movie cars.
Favorite riffs:
“Congratulations, Mr. Stokowsky.” I’m not generally a fan of the new flying Tom Servo, but that’s at least a good use of it.
“Feed me Seymour.” Amazingly, the carnivorous plant looks a lot more like the 1986 Audrey II than the 1960 version. Was the re-make inspired by “At the Earth’s Core?”
This episode: 4 of 10
Season assessment.
Kinga. See above. I never heard of Felicia Day before season 11, so I had no preconceived notions. She doesn’t project any particular menace, or really any personality at all except petulance.
Max. I think he works as a sidekick. The sidekick doesn’t have to be evil himself, just willing to go along. Patton’s portrayal as a cheerful toady is pretty effective. At least up to the wedding scene. Blech.
Jonah. Has some potential. I think he misses the proper response to movie sign. It’s supposed to strike terror into the denizens of the SoL; he seems excited.
Host segments: Hit or miss, but mostly miss. I really loved “Every Country Has a Monster,” but that was as good as it got all season.
Riffing: Too rapid fire, usually too obvious, but then they missed so many obvious opportunities. I was always awed by previous seasons for their ability to come up with references that were just on the edge of too obscure. Some forgotten line from some forgotten show. When you heard it you knew what it was, but said, “How did they think of that?” Example, Mr. Stokowsky this week. You’ve probably seen Fantasia, but it’s not at the front of your mind. When Servo pops up with the mouse ears you wonder what’s going on, then the line drills that one brain cell that remembers that scene, and your brain explodes with dissonance. The following playing on the mushrooms was a waste of space, and muddles the preceding good gag. If I had one thing to say to the creative staff that would be it.
Didn’t Rifftrax have the slogan, “Like watching a movie with your funniest friends?” This season has been like watching a movie with some guys who came over with another friend, and after a few minutes you wish they would just be quiet.
Season overall: 6 of 10. Has potential, but could be a lot better. Enjoyed most of the episodes, but I’m weird enough that I would have enjoyed them straight up. (Nothing could make Avalanche worth watching. TCTAW was like kicking a kitten.)
Let’s hope there is a Season 12.
I would ask the same question.
Season 12?
Any inside info Sampo?
Otherwise, this is a good way to end season 11. Although, I thought Jonah’s “death” was unnecessary, this one tickled my fancy. I thought Jonah&tb were much more relaxed here and the result is some very good riffing. Not the manic riffing that sometimes plagued season 11. All in all, the reboot has its warts, but it’s still Mst3k. It’s still very enjoyable. And I’m keeping my fingers crossed for season 12.
And keep circulating the URL!
episode grade: A
Season grade: B+
Maybe this episode would have seemed fresher if they hadn’t already done The Land That Time Forgot, but this one was pretty ho-hum. A few good lines (“I offer myself as tribute!”), but not one I’ve felt that inclined to revisit.
As far as the season overall, I’ll stick with the verdict I gave after watching Reptilicus: good, but not great. The riffing and the delivery improved as things progressed (it helped that they stopped sounding like they were snorting Pixy Styx in the theater) and this whole revival was worth it just for Avalanche alone, but to be frank, I could survive if there isn’t anymore after this. Instead of the ramshackle smartassery of the original, this ultimately feels like a bunch of L.A. hipsters doing a mostly solid job of approximating it. Sure, there were plenty of funny lines and I laughed a bit, but most of the songs were draggy, the celebrity cameos ground things to a halt, and I never remotely felt like I was watching Tom, Gypsy, and Crow in action (Why didn’t they just create new Bots that they could make their own?) If it does survive another season, they have a solid base to build on and I hope it improves, but to be honest, I still consider Rifftrax to be the true keepers of the MST flame. At the end of the day, the new series is Beatlemania: not the original, but an incredible simulation.
To be continued? We’ll probably know soon…
If there’s a season 12 I hope they don’t waste any more money on these “celebrity ” cameos. The only exception would be an actor/actress from the movie being riffed. Otherwise, they should just use their current staff for such things, like in the Joel and Mike days.
Oh, and in some sad news, http://www.avclub.com/article/rip-home-alone-dad-john-heard-258442
“You must be heard.”
“John Heard.”
RIP
Huh. I liked it. Was I not supposed to? Some of the criticisms over the past 14 weeks I can understand (even if I don’t agree), but overall the cries of “boring”, “too fast”, “the Mads are unlikable” etc. have mystified me. The host segments have always been hit or miss for me, for 11 seasons (and counting?). This season was no different. The wedding thing was OK, but I didn’t hate it. The movie was a lot of fun, and I loved the bulk of the riffs. Ending on a cliffhanger was an interesting choice, but I get why they did it. I guess we’ll find out eventually if it pays off.
Of course, I made up my mind that I was going to like this season when the Kickstarter was announced, short of them completely bungling it. I knew it would be different, and I knew some things might not click for me right away, but in much the same way I watch the KTMA/Season 1 episodes, it’s still MTST3K, and if you know “some things are going to be different, and that’s OK” going in, it’s going to be fine.
I really warmed up to Jonah right away. The ‘bots took some getting used to, but it’s not like it was a massive hurdle to overcome. Joel’s involvement and (I would assume) stamp of approval over the season certainly made a difference. If this had been a completely new cast and crew with no original crew involvement, I might not be so forgiving.
All in all, I think they updated the look and feel for the 2010s in a way that could appeal to old and new fans (as evidenced by me watching the new season with with my 11-year old, who’s now a complete convert), and I hope they get a season 12.
It’s not a matter of “supposed” to like it or not. You like what you like. I didn’t care for this episode but am 100% happy for those who did, and I also enjoy the posts explaining why they liked it. Just like in the original run, there are a few eps in this season that I’m fine to never see again yet a few that I could happily watch a dozen times. It’d be boring if we all liked the same things.
Keep circulating the URL!
I don’t know why everyone thinks Jonah died …
Over the end credits, we see someone in a red spacesuit walking along the outside of the Satellite of Love. Throughout the season, we saw Jonah Jonah working on a red garment of some sort, including – at one point – a red spacesuit helmet.
I think that’s a lot of what’s sub-optimal about the results. It’s too much by committee. Rather than a coherent effort, it’s a hodgepodge. I know, writing a show is always a group effort, but this appears to be unedited. “OK, let’s run Bob’s joke here. OK, now one from Sue. Oh, and we have to use one of Jenny’s or her feelings will be hurt. Let’s stick that one in here. OK, show of hands, who likes Larry’s joke in this spot. OK 8 to 6, it’s in.” This might be a flaw of the Netflix style of pumping an entire season out at once, rather than letting the creative staff get some feedback as they go. It gives me hope for season 12, that the writers are reading my insightful comments on Satellite News and will do accordingly next season.
Births/deaths (I’m excluding ones that have previously been listed. Unless I accidentally list it again)
Actor Peter Cushing, born May 26, 1913, died Aug. 11, 1994
Composer Mike Vickers, born April 18, 1940
Actor Cy Grant, born Nov. 8, 1919, died Feb. 13, 2010
Actor Robert Gillespie, born Nov. 9, 1933
Actor Michael Crane, born sometime in 1937, died April 18, 2009
Cinematographer Alan Hume, born Oct. 16, 1924, died July 13, 2010
Production Designer Maurice Carter, born April 24, 1913, died sometime in April, 2000
Connections
Burroughs’ novel The Land That Time Forgot was also the subject of a riffed film this season
Director Kevin Connor also directed The Land That Time Forgot
Doug McClure was also in The Land That Time Forgot and SST- Death Flight
Caroline Munro was also in Starcrash
Keith Baron was also in The Land That Time Forgot
Godfrey James was also in The Land That Time Forgot
Bobby Parr was also in The Land That Time Forgot
Producer John Dark also produced The Land That Time Forgot
Max Rosenberg also produced The Land That Time Forgot and The Incredible Melting Man
Milton Subotsky also produced The Land That Time Forgot
Editor John Ireland also edited The Land That Time Forgot
Art director Bert Davey also art directed The Land That Time Forgot
Actor Cy Grant voiced Lt. Green in Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, which was edited into Revenge of the Mysterons from Mars
Cinematographer Alan Hume was also cinematographer on The Land That Time Forgot
Barry Peters also edited The Land That Time Forgot
Production Designer Maurice Carter was also production designer on The Land That Time Forgot
Other dates:
Release dates
Aug. 7, 1976, Japan
Aug. 22, 1976, UK
Dec. 17, 1976, Ireland
Jan. 14, 1977, Finland
Feb. 4, 1977, West Germany
April 1, 1977, Denmark
June 7, 1977, Sweden
Jan. 19, 1979, Mexico
The MST3K wiki lists the following people portraying Observer wedding guests:
Patricia Adams, Mike Aronow, Kyle Bacon, Jordan Brown, Andrew R. Brunner, Nick Carlson, John Cookson, Jason D’itri, Larry Dunn, Zachary A. Forsyth, TonyGoggin, Dave Goldblatt, Spencer Goldrich, Jonathan Gorbach, Laura Gorbach, Ike Haldan, Jason Kirk Harder, Larry Hastings, Jeff Hill, Adam King, Darcy Madi, Guillermo Martinez, Juan Martinez, Colin McRavey, Andrew M. Minoff, Amber Oliver, Paul Denver Reynolds IV, Kathryn Rice, Joe Sherman, Ben Tobin
Keep in mind, unlike the cable days, they had to do the ENTIRE SEASON before airing–
Which not only might cause a little lazy “riffing fatigue” near the end of a season that we often complain about S7, but since they had no Jonah-series “fan gags” to exploit yet, they had to make up New Running Gags out of their imagination, and assume the instant fan-cult love was going to be there the minute they hit.
We already complained about their beating “I’m a widdle baby” into the ground last episode, and now they’ve apparently decided in committee that Doug McClure is the Newly Appointed Joe Don Baker, simply because they got two of his series films in succession from the New World distributor. Oh, and because he looks like Mitchell in one opening shot, and hey kids, how about those classic refs?
The majority of opinion seemed to be that nobody really remembered Land That Time Forgot as a standout episode, but now the new RT-like need to create Instant Cults seem to be under the impression that every movie they ever bring McClure back in in S12 will be meant to righteously fan-punish him for it.
Another classic callback, from “Lost Continent”.
And while we’re at it, just how many Muppets references DO we get in this episode?
1) Rowlf the dog (in his Muppet Movie lounge-pianist persona), check
2) Sam the Eagle riffs every time we see the parrot-dino beaks in profile
3) The “Hi ho!” riffs every time we see their furry Kermit collars,
and as if that weren’t enough,
4) Can’t recall, is this the episode where the characters are running through the caves, and the guys decide to do a Bill-style drive-by “This movie sucks” riff…Only, because it’s “generic heckling”, they do it AS Statler & Waldorf (buhhh-huh-huh-huh-huh!)?
Seriously, we get the first three, but where the heck did THAT one come from, out of the blue?? It’s like they felt they “had” to cram in every last Muppet ref they hadn’t made yet before the end of the season.
As a Benny Hill fan, who can quote Fred Scuttle routines from memory since its first US 70’s airing, I MUST lodge my usual protest about gagsters who remember absolutely nothing about the show except everybody running around to Yakkity Sax, and dismissing it accordingly.
(“Well, you know how those fans are, sir, they’ll have their funny nitpicking arguments…”
“They have little peccadillos?”
“(beat pause) …THAT could be one reason.”)
I asked at the time whether this was a “Dynasty Ending”, where terrorists come in and shoot up Alexis’ wedding, and we wait the entire summer break to see whether anyone renewed their contract to survive, or needed to.
It was a big deal back in the 80’s, when network TV was more tacky and shameless about it (see SNL’s famous parody of Lorne Michael setting one about-to-be-replaced cast on season-cliffhanger fire), but I think it has to do more with the whole series how returning-producer Joel sees the job of having to do a show for Netflix instead of cable–
Which also goes a long way to explain why we have to get season-long running-arc teases of the wedding and Reptilicus Metallicus:
Seeing Joel in interviews, he’s gone on to his own things, and MST3K isn’t so much a standup-comic labor-of-love nowadays, it’s more of his job being the head Walt Disney of a cult franchise he only finally now got back in ownership, and he seems equally as interested in promoting the brand as stretching the riffing.
Which is why, having to go to Netflix like every other independent production, he’s treating Netflix pretty much the same way as every other old producer does who’s only now having to deal with Netflix as “What the young kids are into”, to try and keep the show “fresh” for the young new viewers it was supposed to grab.
And what the young streaming kids are into, as we’ve heard in-joked through the entire season, is season-binging–Pretty much every network series ever made now is groomed to be “binge-friendly”, which means you watch it season-by-season, and the only “important” episode is the big Shocking Season Finale that we’re all supposed to which we’re meant to spend all our viewing time building up a fever pitch. And which, of course, will BE no finale, but only a Commando-Cody cliffhanger, where one of the characters is killed off (just listen to any Game of Thrones fandom turn into a gushy fangirl death-pool about who “should” bite it next), there’s a big 9/11 disaster that destroys everything, or one of the “good” characters turns bad, which, as the ads say, “changes everything!”
TL;DR version: I don’t exactly think Joel was doing the wedding and cliffhanger as a “parody”. It IS a parody, but sadly not in the way he intended. :(
*sputter* **spit take** *gasp*
… gosh, did anyone see this coming?
;-)
I really liked this episode. The movie was fun, and the host segments, while not perfect, are a nice throwback to the old eras. And no way Jonah’s character is dead, I just saw him on tour with the bots two nights ago!
Not that it much matters in a movie filled with rubber monsters and Doug McClures, but can anybody explain why Prof. Perry was set to the task of transcribing cuneiform clay tablets? Had these core creatures waited for millennia for someone with that level of knowledge to just pop in?
All I took from this episode is that Peter Cushing, like Gene Hackman, is good in anything. Which I already more or less knew, but still.
At the Earth’s Core fails the Bechdel Test. Dia and Maisie are the only female characters with speaking parts, and they’re nowhere near sharing scenes.
It’s been a while since I read the original novel, so my recollections may be faulty. A key change made in the film had to do with the fact that IIRC the inhabitants of Pellucidar are nude. Obviously this would be problematic in a general release film, so they go with Hollywood Cave People clothes. A scene from the novel I clearly recall is when Innes and Perry have just arrived and get assaulted by a bunch of monkey-like critters. This results in their clothes getting reduced to shreds, leaving them just as unclad as anyone else in Pellucidar. Be very thankful that wasn’t included in the adaptation.
Gypsy’s remarks about her steampunk makeover are reminiscent of when Tom was dressed as a nurse in the prologue for Bride of the Monster.
I would have suggested “Island of Terror” as riffable, but he’s even likable in that.
Thing is, like all the comments in the recent “Parts” thread, of “How many times do we need to know that Dick Sargent was in Bewitched and Peter Graves hosted an A&E show?”, it is worth asking how many jokes you really can get out of remembering Peter Cushing was in Star Wars?
A) He wasn’t that bad in it,
B) He’s a good sport and not particularly bad in this one (unlike the default RT trope of “Bet he forgot THIS was on his resume!”),
C) It’s not the one thing we’d immediately remember him for, any more than remembering that Christopher Lee was in a Star Wars movie,
D) Most of his career was in British B-movies for Hammer and Amicus in the 60’s and early 70’s, so one more isn’t particularly a shock, and
E) Admit it: Do the writers even KNOW any other Peter Cushing movies besides the Star Wars ones, and no, Rogue One doesn’t count?
Like the string of jokes around a recognizable actor in RiffTrax, it feels like it’s less about letting the audience in on the joke, so much as for the writers to constantly reassure themselves that they have a joke about it.
And when the majority of the riffing in this episode, like the season, is either Star Wars, 70’s songs or the Muppets, one might reasonably wonder just how much arcane pop-lore the new writers do know.
When Universal’s E.T. ride is considered “pop culture”, it’s like that line from Civil War: “Anybody remember that really old movie, the Empire Strikes Back?”
you knew it was coming… ;) hey crew – sorry to have been awol; i’ve been deeply immersed in personal projects and a new wonk-dayjob… not much in the way of new observations i could have made in a while anyways, that hadn’t already been made by all of you! (other than the too-old/cranky/feeble/”i want my banana pudding” types… ;0) danzilla, your verbotic prowess is intimidating! and you’re primarily responsible for making said “same observs” i could have done… (you and i both though need to do something about our “cj” naming choices, and let our friend “original” cornjob have it to himself! he’s a treasure, and neither of us should continue taking his name in vain…)
it’s been a few weeks now since i’ve watched this, or much of s11… i’ve gone back to the “comfort-food” rotation of joel eps, just to keep the air filled and keep familiar company in the background while i concentrate on other things. but a coupla observs, just to contribute to this landmark epi entry…
– i always liked these “journey to the center of the earth”-style scifis, if only just to see how they depicted the burrowing-thru-solid-rock as a special effect; was always intrigued by depicting something that was not easily shown from a “third-person view” camera position; after all, the camera would itself be immersed within solid rock/magma/substances, so how do we get to see the craft? probably not an effect ever really done effectively till the (easily-riffable) “the core” from a decade or so ago (“south park did it!” ;0)…
– “Reptilicus Metalicus” – easy, is also “Umbilicus,” updated! it was probably created out of the old parts of the umbilicus. soooo, it’s just one end of the tube(s) leading up to the (new??) SOL… which is another question yet to be answered (is this SOL – and for that matter, the bots – a new one, or did the old one get revived/survived/salvaged somehow? time-portal tech or who-knows-what? yah, yah, “should just relax…” but it’s still a valid question, that will probably be answered with some very casual quick aside by the mads and/or bots in the future…)
– has peter cushing appeared in a mstied movie before? if not, this is a landmark presentation, just for that fact alone.
– “Caroline Munro is an 11. Maybe a 12.”… i hear ya brutha… and i’ll refrain from expounding further on her obvious charms for the sake of decorum and tastefulness. ;0 i would though like to observe that it’s terribly sad how women characters were treated as such casual eye-candy back then, without being more involved in the plot throughout… we needed to see “more of her,” and i -don’t- mean “fewer cloths” ;0… just that she should have been more involved in the plot, from start to finish. i know it’s easy to always go “star wars this, star wars that” about modern-moviemaking, but it’s startling really to consider how easily lucas (for all his weaknesses) managed to make leia an intrinsic character to the saga from the very start. her role in the movie(s) was -important and necessary- … not even spielberg got the hang of that for a long time (arguably, until the very obvious “the color purple”).
– “Fun fact: apparently a number of Kickstarter backers were accidentally omitted from 14 episodes worth of credits, so several weeks after the season debuted, a second, longer end credits sequence was created with the missing names, and added to this episode, necessitating the switching of the first version of the episode with the new one on Netflix and the addition of a few extra songs.” – thanks for letting me know that! did they update the VHX site with the updated version? wonder if my ks name would be in that one; they missed it the first time… i didn’t bother complaining about that; it’s not important, but it’d be nice to re-dl it for posterity’s sake if so.
– “As a Benny Hill fan, who can quote Fred Scuttle routines from memory since its first US 70’s airing, I MUST lodge my usual protest about gagsters who remember absolutely nothing about the show except everybody running around to Yakkity Sax, and dismissing it accordingly.” … and i won’t be happy until they make a joke about the “happy organ” tune, from around about that same era of music! ;0 (if you must youtube it up, the artist is dave “baby” cortez ;)… it’s a toe-tapper! makes you wanna put on rollerskates.)
– “I asked at the time whether this was a “Dynasty Ending”, where terrorists come in and shoot up Alexis’ wedding, and we wait the entire summer break to see whether anyone renewed their contract to survive, or needed to.” MAX SHOT J.R.!! hey, that works!! :)
– “When Universal’s E.T. ride is considered “pop culture”, it’s like that line from Civil War: “Anybody remember that really old movie, the Empire Strikes Back?” ;0 today for the first time, a girl replied “i don’t know that song” when i asked if she’d ever heard “she blinded me with science”… now -that’s- a sign that “i’m getting too old!” ;)
– and a production aside: solving the problem of always introducing the bad movie as “the nightmare-fueled world” is as easy as, say, programming up an adverb-adjective scrambling engine, just for starters for idea-fodder. (available for hire!)
– nit-picky diffs and quibbles with the previous commercial-network seasons aside, i’ve really, really enjoyed this new season. each ep is, literally, in and of itself, a new “mst3k MOVIE”… not least noticeably with the longer end credits (though we should sort of mentally truncate them just prior the KS lists). i don’t think it was super-intentional, but at the same time, -these- are joel’s ideal vision of what an MST movie should look like. it’s a collective work, more so than any previous version, of course, but… it is, in most/many ways, -his- version of what an MST movie is. and we got -14- of them!!!!! :)
aside from those few points, i feel like the cranks around are seeing a bit too much forest, not enough trees… understandable when you get too old and moldy. ;) if you’ve got a right to criticize the things we like, then we’ve got a right to criticize you for not liking what we like. zero-sum, b*tches! ;) enjoy hating on s12 when it comes. you know you’ll watch it, just to hate on it, then come onto a “fan forum” (a FAN FORUM, do you understand what that -means??- ;0) to GRIPE about it. dumbasses… ;0
okay, to quote some random sorority chick yelling out the window of a car driving past my renowned artsy-fartsy dorm long ago: “the sun’s out! run back to your caaaaaaves!” (to which all of us standing upon the veranda actually applauded her spontaneous moment of creativity… ;)
I’m willing to forgive the current crew apparently not having the Pynchonian depth of pop culture knowledge that the writers in the old days had for the Solaris reference in Cry Wilderness.
I just did not like this movie/episode. And it is the one Peter Cushing film I have seen where he actually wasn’t that good, probably not his fault, but he did not rise above the material as he so often does.
The season I liked. It has potential and I am ready to see Number 12 if they decide to do it, which I think was the true test for Season 11. Super-classic? No. Fun and worth my time? Yes.
Wow, I don’t have a lengthy end-of-season essay prepared. Err, the dog ate it. But here are a few thoughts.
What I like:
Jonah – He’s different from Joel and Mike, but that’s a good thing. It’s easy to see that he was a fan of the original show.
Crow – Hampton’s new Crow is so spot-on, it’s easy to forget that it isn’t Trace.
The music, for the most part, was great! “Every Country Has a Monster” joins the MST3K classic songbook, in my opinion.
The Skeleton Crew – I enjoyed the house band, along with Patton’s voice-overs on the fake bumpers, although the Crew’s costumes were downright embarrassing.
The special effects were the perfect blend of good and cheesy.
What I didn’t care for:
I only laughed once at the new Mads. Something here really doesn’t work for me.
Even though I finally learned to distinguish Baron’s voice from Jonah’s, I find myself missing Kevin as Tom.
The cameos were almost uniformly awful… and there were some really talented people in them! They just brought the show to a halt.
I guess I’ll get used to Gypsy’s new voice, but right now it just feels wrong.
There’s a lot to like here and I think if the show gets another season, some of the kinks will get worked out. Overall, I’m glad season 11 happened.
Hmm. Bit of a middling episode for me. Decent riffing. Watchable movie, which seemed to be a bit like an less coherent version of The Land that Time Forgot with Peter Cushing doing almost the same crappy performance that he did in Dr. Who.
My guess is that Jonah just got vacuumed up through Reptilicus Metallicus (not to be confused with Reptillicus, Metallica, or “Epicus Doomicus Metallicus” by Candlemass) instead of being chewed up by it. That was probably him walking on the outside of the S.O.L. during the credits, unless it was someone else coming to retrieve Jonah from the insides of Reptillicus.
“This week on Sons of Anarchy”
Who else hopes to see TV’s grandfather of TV’s son of TV’s Frank show up at Moon 13 next season with his spacepod gang, “The Progeny of Entropy”?
(I can’t find the original post where someone noted the resemblance, but here’s the picture that inspired it: http://screenrant.com/patton-oswalt-ron-perlman-david-harbour-hellboy-dinner/ . Scroll down toward the bottom.)
Ten Years From Now –
When reading This Day In MSTery (thanks to Sampo’s hard and constant labor) it came to me that MST3K is a product of time. The movie people listed in TDiM largely did their work long before many of us were born and the original show is now to the point of occasionally requiring some translation for younger viewers. Is it any wonder that Season 11 is different? It has to be.
All of that has been written before in one form or another, but I would like to add the perspective of time to our thoughts on these new episodes. Whether or not MST3K continues to a Season 12 or beyond I think it would be interesting to fast forward ten years in time and read what those crusty old millennials are saying about the show in 2027 (I wonder if there will be flappers in the “roaring twenties again) and who, for cryin’ out loud will be the next Doug McClure?!
I’m going to stick to the episode itself, rather than the season as a whole. I figure that might well be the subject for next week’s WDT.
Anyway, I thought the movie was OK, if cheaper looking than the other two McClure/Burroughs/Amicus movies. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but McClure did well as a stalwart hero, Caroline Munro was attractive, and Peter Cushing makes any movie watchable. And it’s good to see an old-fashioned adventure story without today’s “darker & edgier” trappings.
I thought the riffing was OK, though I think they went overboard on the McClure/Food riffs. The host segments were OK, and I did like Growler. I don’t see him getting promoted to opening credits, but having him back once in a while would be nice. I suppose I could’ve done without the cliffhanger ending, but I am interested in seeing how they resolve things next season. (Like, say, Jonah showing up on the SOL, and the ‘bots asking, “What? We thought you’d change into a hot babe!”)
Not the best season finale I’ve seen, but at least it didn’t make me heavily annoyed like a few others I could name. In fact, I thought it worked out fine.
Solid season. The crew will definitely benefit from a second season. Like any season of MST3K there are some films I really like and some I’ll completely forget. I’m just happy it’s back and given the audience I don’t see any reason for it not to continue in one way, shape, or form.
It’s waste a great finale episode. After so much WTF episodes I think it was smart to end with a crowd pleaser watchable movie. I think Doug McClure and Caroline Munro should become regulars on mst3k. A very trippy movie which brought out some great Beatles riffs. I loved the smelt song. Host segments were Great. It was so awesome to see Pearl, brain guy, and Bobo on the moon 13 set and mingling with kinga and max. That is one thing I didn’t like about about season 11… It bugged me that all the cameos where doing a green screen stationary shot.
A great episode. Season 11 is the best thing out there right now. Bring on season 12!
So, our hero and the doddering scientist step off their drilling machine into a giant cavern at the center of the Earth and our hero intrepidly…continues to smoke his cigar. Never-before-seen flora, brand new to human science? Puff some cigar smoke at it! Long hike through the woods ahead of you? There’s no better time to keep smoking a cigar!
This reminded me of the scientists in The Time Travelers who step through a time portal, run away from scary people chasing them through a post-apocalyptic desert, meet up with advanced beings from the future and…keep their white labcoats on – and clean – the entire time. And also, why were they wearing lab coats in the first place? They were dealing with electronic equipment, not chemistry experiments.
I guess what I’m saying is that sometimes people in these bad movies have different or downright inappropriate priorities than they ought to. Which I suppose is one of the things that make these bad movies bad.
I’ve remarked about these color movies before, but it bears repeating in this, the last episode of the season. I can tell you all the reasons Joel et al would have come up with to not do any black-and-white movies in this new experiment, but I just feel like the one thing missing from season 11 was at least one black-and-white film. I know, the aspect ratio would have had to be dealt with, and I know that supposedly younger people don’t like black-and-white things (although I’m sure the kind of person who might watch this show would have no problem with it, regardless of age). But these big, color movies all kind of blur together for me.
One of the great things about the previous seasons of MST3K was that you never knew what kind of movie you were going to get or how it was going to look. One week, a crisp and clear B & W film from the 1950s, the next week a grainy, color, out-of-focus movie from the 1970s. And then one week later, something that was recorded on tape for PBS.
Every one of the movies this season, no matter what genre it is or what the story is about, all look about the same. They’re all in color, and they all look pretty good. Not a lot of scratches or skips (maybe none, actually, at least that I can remember). At The Earth’s Core is sharp and in focus and in bright colors. Similarly, I was just looking at the title sequence for The Time Travelers again and it looks amazing.
I can’t believe I’m complaining about the movies looking good, but here I am doing it.
Okay fine, I guess I’m not complaining as such, I’m just pointing out that, as far as the movie-watching aspect of MST3K goes, there’s a sameness that goes from episode to episode in this season that really just doesn’t sit right with me for some reason. It may be that I’m just used to the variety from previous seasons, but I feel like some fundamental aspect of the show has changed and that it’s so subtle that it’s barely consciously noticeable. In a season where MANY aspects of the show were fundamentally changed, this is the only change that I think really mind. And I’m not even really sure why.
But, on the ‘plus’ side, there are plenty of bad effects and creatures and wonderfully horrible sets in At the Earth’s Core and the rest of these films to make up for how good they otherwise look.
Peter Cushing is some kind of genius because he plays these doddering old people so annoyingly well (here and in the Doctor Who films he did) that he makes you want to reach through the screen and just shake and shake and shake him. The commitment he has to being so annoying (and so dubbed most of the time) is peculiarly wonderful. Or wonderfully peculiar. Whichever is better. Doug McClure is pretty much the embodiment of the 70s (I mean the 1970s, of course), and only in a male-dominated film industry would a kind of pudgy, nearly middle-aged, cigar-smoking man be the ‘action’ hero and get the (younger) girl.
That this film was made at Pinewood Studios is an indication that, well, even the best movie studios have their off days.
It is truly wonderful to see Paul Chaplin on the show, and the Pearl-Brain Guy-Bobo trifecta are put to great use in the final scene.
Whatever niggling complaints I can come up with, though, I was thoroughly entertained by this episode and by this new season of MST3K as a whole. Being able to watch these new episodes was like being a kid again and getting to open a bunch of presents. I’ve watched all of the episodes more than once, and always find something new either in the riffing or in the film itself that I didn’t see or get before. And that repeatability is one of the things I have always loved about this show. Say whatever you want to about this new season, but at least in that regard it’s just like any other season of the show.
Being able to watch an MST episode for the 10th time and still notice new things is one of the great things about it. No other show or movie I know of has the same rewatch value.
Caroline Monroe is certainly a stunningly beautiful woman with hypnotic eyes. I like her costume in this movie a lot more than the Dominatrix’ boots and leather bikini she wore in Starcrash, but that’s a matter of taste, and Steffi the babysitter from Gorgo is about the only mean girl I’ve ever been very attracted to. From looking at her IMDB page I got the impression that she was on the periphery of big time stardom but didn’t quite crack the big time. She had a small role in a James Bond film with Roger Moore. As someone else pointed out she was quite underused here. I’m up for seeing more of her. You know what I meant!
His three MST appearances are the only place I’ve seen Doug McClure, but I rather like him. Let’s see more of him too. Definitely not that!
I agree with pretty much everything you wrote there. Well stated!
Wow, here’s another post with which I am in almost total agreement.
As to the embarrassing costumes, I attended the live show in Phoenix this past weekend, and, um. It was, how shall I say, batchtacular.
Oh, did you get invited to the writing room or something? You seem like an authority in whose opinion I should invest my trust.
I think in these quotes lies the kernel of truth I’ve been searching for. The specialness of the first Mistie crew came from these wildly different individuals thrown together and making magic. The new crew, although extremely talented came from the same egg carton (except for Paul Chaplin, great he’s back). The writers of seasons 1-10 brought that quirky midwestern humor in every riff. The writing in season 11 was very good but not as edgy.
What also surprised me was what I would consider rookie mistakes like pacing. Professional comedians certainly know when to let a joke sink in, yet the mile-a-second pace seemed like (I have no knowledge, just a guess) that writers were pushing to get their favorite lines in.
If there’s a season 12, I would like to see some black and white movies and damn the cropping (can’t they make a joke about that?). The B&Ws are target-rich and there’s still thousands made out there to riff (just saw The Land Unknown on Svengoolie, it’s PERFECT) And please make Felecia Day worthy of being Pearl Forester’s granddaughter. Make whoever is the protagonist is hate the movie and hate life itself, as it warmed our heart with such stinkers as The Lost Continent and Hobgoblins. And please, make their voices distinctive enough to make it easier to tell the difference.
Btw, I consider nothing that I write is insightful, I’m just throwing out my thoughts. I’ll be a Mistie till the day I die.
Mary Jo, Kevin, Paul and Joel were all writers on Season 11. And please, let’s leave the hatred towards the movies in the past. I appreciate the tone of having fun with the movies so much more than the hatred spew of the latter years.
I was one of the Wedding Observers on set. First off, it was awesome to be a part of MST history and to actually be on the real SOL and Moon 13. We saw nothing of the season leading up to the finale, so the plot was a bit surprising to say the least. You want comedy gold? Sit back and listen to multiple takes of Patton Oswalt screaming “Reptilicus Metallicus… ATTTAAACCCKK!” It was extremely hard not to laugh.
Yes, it was a challenge to keep quiet about it for those long months, but especially hard when all 14 episodes dropped. I wanted to give people time to catch up to the finale on their own time.
Oh, and we did get to keep the brains and robes.
Holy cow, man! Congratulations on being a part of MST history! And thank you for the insight, I can only imagine how flipping cool it was to actually be there, and how hard it must have been not to crack up (or spill the beans)!
And I’m glad you got to keep your brain and robe! That’s gotta be a few future Halloween’s taken care of… ;)
Hatred spew? You mean the movies are fun? I thought the premise is they were being tortured with bad movies and they were being experimented on.
Someone call Joel and tell him he had it wrong on “rock climbing”.
Gotta agree here: Hate and anger, paths to the Dark Side they are–
Listen to J&tB’s delivery, even in the worst of movies, and listen to M&tB’s delivery; one seems to deliver every line up to be the deliberately annoying nut out of the respectful silence, and the other seems to go down, the way we do when we complain it’s only 3 o’clock on Thursday. Open, arrogant contempt for the movie isn’t funny, it’s just…contemptuous–Hate the movie and you do hate life itself, why not have a little anarchic sabotaging fun with both instead? That’s what smart people do, because smart people don’t make bad movies.
Yes, what we WANT to say is that Jn&tB’s riffs sound a little too “created” in the writer room, they don’t seem to feel “threatened” by the movie even if they’re not spewing personal bile at it, and there’s not as much organically silly glee yet to interact with the movie–Like the concert pianist said, “You can play the notes, now play the music”. But think that’s because they were trying to spend as little studio time filming it as possible, as opposed to a season-long show that they’d be writing and rehearsing every day.
Again, maybe producer Joel can fix that by the mythical Season 12, but he has to see the problem first, and get over his own problems with wrangling his new franchise. After all, turning into a control-nut and cutting corners is how we lost George Lucas… :(
The best way to defeat the Mads is when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. The Mads can’t stand it when the Subjects find things in the movies to have fun with.
Caroline Munro also appeared in a couple of Hammer horror movies, most notably in “Captain Kronos, Vampire Hunter”. And Bond should’ve been ashamed of himself for what happened to her character in “The Spy Who Loved Me”.
As for Doug McClure, I can see them using the sequel “The People That Time Forgot” in Season 12. He also made loads of TV shows, most notably co-starring in “The Virginian”, which is frequently run on Western and old-time TV channels.
So we get through Comic-Con and no Shout announcement about a new box set with unreleased episodes?
Argh.
The reissue of Volume Six showed up for preorder on Amazon a few weeks ago. Just checked Shout Factory and they also have it up for preorder. Guess those last few rights holders are proving to be extra stubborn.
LOL, is EricJ now creating sock puppets (Johnny Drama) to set up his Mike hating diatribes? I imagine trying to work them into every post has its limits. Why not create a “kindred soul”?
The irony of EricJ taking Mike Nelson to task for his “hatred” is very amusing as he demonstrates on a consistent basis his almost psychopathic obsession with and hatred of Mike.
I just don’t enjoy it when they hate on the movies and the people in them. Just have fun with it, is all I’m saying.
^ I refer you back to the closing segment of “Wild Rebels.”
“Joel explains how to appreciate a bad movie, then he and bots start to party, much to Dr. F’s astonishment.” – that’s the show in a nutshell, to me anyway.
I come to MST3K to have fun and enjoy the silliness of it all, not to vent frustrations. YMMV, of course.
I don’t want unbridled hate, but some movies and actors deserve it, so I feel it has always had it’s place, I’ve seen it in some Joel episodes too.