As a mom I love to watch the show with my family, but limit episodes that I think are too violent or scary for my 5 year old. My daughter loves the host segments and all the Godzilla/Gamera ones, Squirm and Russian fairy tales. I remember growing up watching Dr. Who with my parents and getting really scared over some of the goofy monsters. I was wondering what episodes other Misties find especially great for the kiddos. Also wondering if some younger fans remember being scared of a monster or effect that is totally lame when seen as an adult.
Molly: Those Daleks freaked me out when I was little, too! I would definitely pick the later Gamera movies as good for kids, since that’s who they were really aimed at. I’m surprised “Squirm” makes your list–I would think a five-year-old girl would run screaming from a room full of worms. One of the nice things about MST3K is that it tends to defang some of the scariest stuff. When you’re not taking a movie seriously, it’s hard to get frightened by it. I think any of the Russo-Finnish Quartet work well for kids, as does “The Magic Sword.”
Parents? What are your kids’ favorite episodes?
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I saw the un-mistied version of “Squirm” on television when I was about 8 years old and it scared the hell out of me. For an adult, it’s just goofy, but for a kid…
That said, the Gamera and Godzilla movies are ideal for children. There’s something fascinating about men in big rubber suits hitting each other.
No kids but I’m pretty immature so I count myself as qualified to make recommendations. Obviously the Santa, Godzilla and Gamera all qualify. Most of Space Mutiny would be fine for kids these days as well as Future Wars. The one Lassie movie should also do well. Last, certainly not least, would be Time of the Apes although parents run the risk of their children responding to anything and everything with ‘I dont care!’.
I actually remember seeing Samson vs the Vampire Women as a kid and was scared witless when Thundra(?) first chomped on the female victim.
I think kids would find the silliness of Wild Wild World of Batwoman fun. If the boredom factor doesn’t creep too far in, The Giant Gila Monster would also be a pretty safe one for the youngsters. You may want to stay away from “I Accuse My Parents” though…. ;-)
For my kids, the Gamera movies are great, of course “Santa Claus Conquers The Martians,” “Santa Claus” and “Jack Frost” are some of their holiday faves, but they also ask to watch “Master Ninja I,” “The Painted Hills (It is Lassie after all), “Merlin’s Shop Of Mystical Wonders” to name a few.. They also like to watch the Best Brains comps of host segments, or the music DVD. My kids are 7 & 10.. Although the 10 year old, is starting to want to watch the whole series.. so we’ll see..
My daughter also loves to watch both Santa Claus and Santa Claus Conquers the Martians during the holidays. She is 10.
My son loved Cave Dwellers and Pod People when he was 7 or 8; I think Cave Dwellers is still one of his all-time favorites.
As for me, I remember seeing Teenagers from Outer Space when I was 6 or 7, and being scared by the skeletonizing ray guns.
I’m not a parent, but I agree that the Godzilla and Gamera movies, along with the Russo-Finnish fantasy movies and both Christmas movies would be a good choice. I think kids might get a kick out of “Prince of Space”, but “Invasion of the Neptune Men” would bore them to tears.
A lot of “The Shorts” are fun for kids because they feature kids in a goofy retro way, like “Mr. B Natural” and “Keeping Clean & Neat.”
Let’s not forget Robot Rumpus.
I also have a 5 year old and he pulled out one of my boxed sets and asked what this was. He saw Crow and Tom on the cover and was curious. After watching it for about 28 seconds, he became uninterested. I’ll wait till he’s older and try again.
All I remember is when my now adult son stayed home from school when he was eight he picked out “Red Zone Cuba” ’cause he liked how Coleman Francis looked like Curly and the joke(s) MT&B made about him. nyuk, nyuk, nyuk.
My preteens LOVE Merlin’s Shop of Mystical Wonders, Cave Dwellers, Pod People, Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, Time Chasers, Beginning of the End (grasshoppers on postcards–what’s not to love about that?), Future War, Creeping Terror and many more. They love most of the 70s and 80s movies given the MST3K treatment. Scariness hasn’t been an issue for us I guess. Joel/Mike and the bots make it easy to focus less on what might be scary.
I don’t think I’ll ever let them watch Hobgoblins though; that is just too nasty for kids.
EEGAH is a good one! A misunderstood monster that just wants love! :smile:
MST3K episodes for kids… Do kids have two hour long attention spans and senses of humor that understand jokes from prior to the year 2000? :lol:
For kids I’d suggest all the Gamera episodes. Except maybe Gamera vs. Barugon since the movie itself is so boring. I’d also choose Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster, Time of the Apes, Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, and Santa Claus.
I’d also recommend some shorts on their own for kids. Mr. B Natural, A Case of Spring Fever, and the Gumby short. Although if a parent doesn’t their child subjected to lots of sexual confusion humor maybe they shouldn’t let their kid see Mr. B.
I would not suggest Mighty Jack because its also boring. Nor would I suggest the Sci-Fi Channel Japanese episodes Prince of Space or Invasion of the Neptune Men because they’re too mean spirited for kids. Especially Neptune Men, which might be the angriest MST3K episode of them all. Thinking back to it, I could not suggest Godzilla vs. Megalon either because Joel and the bots direct death wishes at the little boy in the movie. Although to be fair to all the episodes I say are too mean, I’m not sure a kid would actually pick up on that. Though maybe I’m not giving kids enough credit.
My cousin, who first watched an episode with me when he was six, loved Prince of Space. He also got a kick out of Godzilla VS Megalon.
I saw my first episode when I was eleven; our local ABC affiliate would air the episodes at 11:30 on Saturday nights. It was “Pod People.” I know several jokes passed over my head, but the McCloud, Sledgehammer, Yoda, and Smuckers riffs stuck out in my mind.
My wife and I always felt every episode of MST3K was acceptable for our son when he was growing up back in the 90s. The adult stuff flew over his head so we never had to explain a joke or a reference for him because the rapid patter of the riffing always provided something else for him to laugh at. He particularly enjoyed the two Santa Claus movies, the Creeping Terror,Prince of Space, Space Mutiny and Hobgoblins, plus the shorts compilations and every host segment.
Now if you’re talking about watching those movies on their own without the MST3K treatment, well, that’s a different story…
My son has loved MST3K since he was about 9 or 10. He can watch most of them because they usually have been cleaned up and most of the bots adult jokes are over his head. I believe his favorites are Outlaw, Warriors of the Lost World, Godzilla/Gamera and Riding with Death.
I think we are also forgetting how young a lot of the letter writers were. There clearly was a large family fan base from the start.
I asked my 11 year old son which were his top 5 (he’s been watching since he was about 8)
In no particular order: Killer Shrews, Space Mutiny, Hobgoblins, Screaming Skull and oddly, Girl in Gold Boots.
My son and I also exchange a lot of MSTism’s, like Even though this is Italy, leave X, where an appropriate scene plays out on TV, which is actually quite often.
I bet the old sci-fi movies would be good for kids, like Rocketship XM, First Spaceship to Venus, King Dinosaur, Space Travelers, Firemaidens from Outer Space, Crash of the Moons, 12 to the Moon. Not too much to scare them since they usually just sit around the rocket and talk!
Also the Hercules movies would probably entertain kids, and aren’t too scary.
My daughter likes both Santa films, don’t know if she has a favorite, but I can tell you the ones that she dosen’t like, the black and white episodes.
Exterminate!!
I have watched the short “Alphabet Antics” with my daughter and she loves it!! Mst3k is educational!!
You know, I enjoyed “Gorgo” a lot when I was young. Perhaps kids would enjoy that episode as well?
All I know for sure is that “The Incredible Melting Man” would be out of the picture, pretty much.
As a kid, I never really got to see MST3K much. But I did recall seeing a clip from The Creeping Terror around the time it was first aired. Even though I didn’t get the show since I was young, I did laugh my ass off at how crappy the monster looked and the jokes made about how the people just crawl into it’s mouth.
But my favorite episode was Giant Spider Invasion, largely because of the ridiculous host segments. It was through the Sci-Fi era that I had become a fan.
Just like post #1 Saint Rude, I have seen and own Squirm. MST3K edits a lot out of it, making it seem really tame. Yes, it is pretty lame in the full version (rated R on MGM’s dvd release), but the “Now you gonna’ be da worm face!” makes a lot of sense in the R version. I won’t ruin the movie for those that haven’t seen it un-edited, but the two scenes involving Roger that they cut out are pretty freaky.
“Overdrawn at the Memory Bank” seems safe for kiddies in original and MST3K version.
The Indestructible Man was the movie that scared me half to death when I was a kid, but obviously it’s pretty goofy now. Butcher Benton getting his vocal chords burned out really freaked me! As for now, my son and I love “Time Chasers”, “Space Mutiny” and “Daddy-O”. We actually text each other with the various names for Dave Ryder!
By the way, I don’t have kids, so maybe kids don’t freak out over ’70s horror films.
I’d say the Rocky Jones adventures are good for kids as well, as the target audience was kids. Otherwise, the serials (Radar Men, Phantom Creeps, etc) and other shorts work well too.
When I was a kid I liked watching the Godzilla and Gamera movies, but only for the big monster fights. All the stuff the humans did in the films didn’t interest me. Modern kids would probably feel the same way about them.
The two Santa Claus films would be okay for kids, if just a bit disturbing in parts (especially the Mexican Santa Claus movie).
The Shorts collections are good, as well as the Santa movies. Depending on what scares your kid I would also suggest I accuse my parents, (good for discussions about responsibility, and it moves fairly well for a B&W) Cave Dwellers, Radar Secret Service, Wild Rebels, The Final Sacrifice, the Rocky Jones flicks, and the corpse vanishes. Of course I would be a horrible parent, i think so you might want to take my suggestions with a very large grain of salt.
I can vouch, as a kid during the show’s original run, that “Time Chasers”, “Werewolf”, and “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians” were my favorites. Sometimes the goofiness just transcends age.
Hey, thanks for all the input. I never thought of the shorts- Gumby would be great. She loves the host segments so I always just think of those. What I love is that the show is so family friendly and it is something we can all enjoy unlike 90% of kids tv now. She can usually make it through a whole episode unless it is very talky. I can’t believe a kid sat through Red Zone Cuba!
For those curious as to why she liked Squirm, she loves lizards, snakes and dinosaurs so I think it just fit into that for her.
Also, the scariest thing in Dr Who for me was from an episode called the Talons of Wang Chang. There was this little marrionette named Mr Simm who would come to life and stab people. He had the heart of a pig or something and would snort when he went around. Looking back now I realize he was just a smelly little dummy who will never have any ham.
“I think we are also forgetting how young a lot of the letter writers were. There clearly was a large family fan base from the start.”
#18 brings up an excellent point. I didn’t discover MST until I was in my 30’s, and once I’d gotten hold of the early years of the show, I was surprised at how many kids were writing letters and making drawings of the characters. I would have done the same if I were a kid then. How many of those kids (and early adult-aged members of the MST Fan Club) stuck with the show? Anyone here?
In one famous instance of this, a person who had their childhood drawing shown on air kept a videotape of the host segment, which helped DAP Central complete their version of KTMA episode #15 – Superdome.
My son loves these episodes the most of the several dozen he’s seen:
– First Spaceship On Venus
– Santa Claus Conquers The Martians
– Space Mutiny
– Circus On Ice (from Monster A-Go Go episode)
– Wild Rebels
All the Russo-Finnish would be perfect (Sinbad, Jack Frost, The Magic Sword, Day the Earth Froze), they are bright and garrishly filmed. They are also incredibly goofy. Gamera and Godzilla flicks would be good. Puma Man is a hoot, with the crazy flying antics of Puma Man. Of course the two Santa themed movies would greatly entertain the wee ones.
One not mentioned is Catalina Caper; a pretty tame beach blanket bingo movie. It’s got a cartoon for the credit sequence, singing, dancing and a goofy plot about a valuable scroll that was stolen from a museum.
As for Shorts; Posture Pals, Keeping Clean & Neat, Spring Fever, What to do on a Date, A Day at the Fair, Alaphabet Antics, and Design for Dreaming come to mind. There are also some very good Rifftrax Shorts as well; One Got Fat, Skipper Learns a Lesson, If Mirrors Could Speak, Safety Harm Hides, Christmas Toy Shop, A Visit to Santa, and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer (NOT the Rankin/Bass that’s played every year).
I have no kids,but I do have a faithful dog named Baxter who watches the show with me. I’d say his favorite is Jack Frost. Lots of extreme closeups of menacing people, the evil pig sled and the black cat give him plenty to bark at. He growled a lot during Mitchell the other night, too. Can’t really blame him.
I was just going to suggest Catalina Caper. When I first saw it I was about 10-11ish and I loved it, even if the sixties gags all went over my head. I just loved how they mocked the unfunny pratfall guy and the “Owie!” noises they made when the actors ran around on the street barefoot.
Now I kind of scratch my head at the episode. Today I focus more on the rich teen jokes and the jabs at Little Richard but I was nostalgic for the episode for a long time.
My kid loves the Juke Box special features from some of the Rhino dvd sets.
As others have pointed out, the show seems to have always had a fan base consisting of families. (Families with weird senses of humor that probably are grossly misunderstood by those around them–much like some of the monsters in the movies–but still families nonetheless. They also probably put their peanut butter the fridge. Weirdos.) My family caught the “Mystery Science Theater Hour” in syndication on a local affiliate circa 1994 and we ALWAYS watched it together until syndication stopped. I would have been 10 or 11 years old at the time. We always thought it was family viewing for reasons that have already been given (adult-themed jokes fly over kids heads, movies are edited, etc).
I agree with most of the “best for kids” movies that have already been mentioned: the Hercules and Russo-Finnish films, “Pod People,” “Cave Dwellers,” the Japanese monster movies, most of the giant-bug-or-animal-attacks films, “The Painted Hills,”
I think we should also point out which episodes are NOT appropriate for kids: “Outlaw of Gor” and “Hobgoblins.” Depending on the child’s maturity, age, and what parents are sensitive to (sexual situations/dialogue/implications, nightmare potential, etc.), some parents may deem the following movies not appropriate for their kids: “Diabolik,” “Manos,” “The Brain that Wouldn’t Die,” “The Touch of Satan” “Soultaker,” and “Village of the Giants.” There are probably some others I’ve missed, though.
The later Gamera movies , and Merlin’s Magical Ernest Borgnine from Season 10 Id say off the top of my head..
The two Santa Claus movies, Gamera vs. Guiron and because every human should watch them: the Master Ninja movies.
Manhunt in Space is perfectly tame, as well as Jack Frost and the 2 Santa movies (though my mom saw “Santa Claus” as a child and it creeped her out).
I have no kids of my own, but MST3K came out on the scene when I was about fifteen. I’m well into my thirties now, but watching Wild Rebels for the first time I got hooked and I’ve watched it ever since. I would definately say the both the Santa movies are a good place to start ’em out young. The Russo-Finnish ones are a personal favorite of mine. I do like Th Sword and the Dragon. Sometimes I think kids are smarter than what we give them credit for. It takes a special kind of person to fall in love with this show.
I think “Invasion of the Neptune Men” is a pretty good movie for kids since nothing violent happens, nothing obscene happens, nothing…well OK, nothing happens period. But there are aliens involved.
I didn’t see any mention for the Grand-daddy of all MST offerings…
MST3K:THE MOVIE. “This Island Earth” was a favorite of mine at age nine and still is, but now all the better with the acid-tongue treatment.
The closest thing to scary back in 1955 was the Metaluna Mutant, now that rubber suit is just an extra laugh.
I agree with most of the movies above, i.e. Godzilla/Gamera, Russo-Finnish and the Santa movies. I would like to point out that the nature of the show itself, however. Many of the movies in their un-MSTed form kids wouldn’t watch. You couldn’t get me to sit through the regular Red Zone Cuba, Manos, or Beast of Yucca Flats. I think that Joel, Mike and the Bots sitting there making fun of the movies in of itself makes many of the movies suitable for kids. Kids see that they (J, M & TB) aren’t afraid of the movie and in turn aren’t afraid themselves. I started watching MST3K when I was a kid,(I’m 31 now) season three was just starting. I didn’t really understand a lot of the movies but I loved the jokes and the hosts. Thats what kept me coming back. I still haven’t seen EVERY episode, just a handfull left to watch, but most of it in my opinion kid friendly.
Prince of space or MST3K the movie are definitely my kids fav’s. Pod people gets high marks by my kids also.
I can’t think of any movies to add to a kids list except for Riding With Death. Let’s face it, the show was aimed at 10 year olds to began with. The only thing possibly objectionable are the cute names for sex jokes.
When I was about 5 or 6 I walked into the living room and saw the scene in Amazing Colossal Man where Glenn throws the giant hypodermic needle like a dart and impales a guy. I remember running from the room screaming and I recognizedthe scene right away when I saw it on MST about 25 years later.
I’ve never seen the Mexican Santa but I have a memory of a movie where a devil is coming down the chimney like Santa. Does that sound familiar to the rest of you folks?
Werewolf is definitely a favorite with my kids as is Hobgoblins. When my daughter first saw werewolf about age 6, it started to make her realize how cheesy that horror movie really was and I was easily able to tell her that these movies are just horrible and she got it. now she runs around going “Can we watch WereWeelf again” hahahah cracks me up…