Joel: Some of the movies were really terrible.
[Cut to Mads]
Mads: THANK you!
So let’s wrap it up. Give us your pick for best and worst episodes of the Comedy Channel season. And feel free to offer any other season one thoughts.
For best, I am going to have to go with 104- WOMEN OF THE PREHISTORIC PLANET. The movie’s watchable and goofy, the segments are clever and the riffing is a little taste of what’s to come.
For worst, I am going with 103- MAD MONSTER. It’s would fit into KTMA just fine. Enough said.
My only other comment is to agree with something several posters noted in recent weeks: the quaility of the host segments, beginning with 110- ROBOT HOLOCAUST, falls off sharply. There really isn’t anything memorable in episodes 110 through 113. I only really noticed it this time through and I have no explanation for it.
What are your picks?
) to help our users cope with "trolls" and other commenters whom they find annoying. Go to our
BEST: Robot Holocaust, featuring the most watchable movie of season one. Runner up: Moon Zero two.
WORST: The Corpse Vanishes.
I have to give the best to Women of the Prehistoric Planet (Robot Holocaust is certainly up there as is the Crawling Hand and Untamed Youth.)
I don’t know if there was a “worst” (given the novelty and the show’s relative infancy.) I didn’t think much of the Robot Monster (it took me a while to get through it.)
Out of those I’ve seen, the best one was Robot Monster (a classic goofy bad movie) and the worst was The Crawling Eye (too much dead air and bland riffs).
Robot vs the Aztec Mummy was a tough one to get through. Too many lags between riffs. I’ve seen it twice now and that’s enough for me.
Best would be Robot Monster. I’ve preached about this one before, it’s in my top 10 all time episodes. Silly story, ridiculous script, horrible special effects, and a laughable monster. Perfect riffing material. Need I say more?
Best for me?
Well, I haven’t seen all of the episodes, but for best….. maybe I’d have to go with 110 – Robot Holocaust.
For worst, 102 – Robot vs the Aztec Mummy. ****ty film, awful riffing, boring host segments. Not one of the best episodes.
Klisch, you picked my least favorite of Season 1. I wanted to like Robot vs Aztec Mummy, but just had a hard time sitting through it.
I’m not sure that I can name a “best episode” from this season. I have a sneaking fondness for The Slime People (how can you not love a movie with the line, “We’ve always known there were fish in the ocean, haven’t we?”), but I don’t know that I would call it the best of the season. Still, it makes me laugh, so that counts for something.
Best: Robot Monster
Best: The Slime People. Bad monster, bad acting, bad everything.
Worst (and I may get crap for this): Untamed Youth. Enough of the singing! And I don’t care for Mamie whateverhernameis. I hate singing in movies. And the whole “plot” (I use that term very loosely) about a bunch of kids sentenced to a cotton picking farm by the worst judge ever, just doesn’t do it for me.
Mad Monster was a slog to get through pace wise but the Slime Peeps was much too smokey to abide visually for very long so they tie for last place.
Robot Holocaust is number one with a few tied at second.
I’m not a huge fan of season 1. For a long time the only episode I’d seen was Women of the Prehistoric Planet on Vol. 9. But I started on season 1 last year. In a not-so-good season, I think the best was the first, The Crawling Eye, and one of the worst was what immediately followed it, Robot vs. the Aztec Mummy.
My fave was Moon Zero Two, with Women of the Prehistoric Plant as a close second.
Robot vs the Axtec Mummy was too slow for me. The only reason why I favour Robot Monster to this is because I liked the swamp scenes + random dancing, as well as the blender host segment.
Worst has to be The Crawling Eye; fell asleep every time I’ve tried to watch it – haven’t seen the eye yet!
Best is tough, ‘Prehistoric’ and ‘Holocaust’ are fine – but my favorite is probably Untamed Youth. :beauty: :hypnotized:
Best: Robot Monster.
Love the movie and the riffing, plus two Cody shorts.
Worst: Robot vs Aztec Mummy.
Way too slow and boring on every level. And the Robot appears at the very end then show over.
Also most riffs fall flat and didn’t really care for the Demon Dogs. (but that’s just me)
For best, I’d have to go with The Crawling Eye. The monsters were
inately kind of goofy, but the plot had a sort of film noirish
quality, although more could have been made of the psychic sisters.
Oh, and for worst it has to be The Robot vs. the Aztec Mummy. Most
of the film recycled from an earlier one, and about the lamest
‘climax” fight in any horror/sci fi movie.
After 13 comments, it’s Robot Holocaust and Robot Monster tied for the lead each with a score of 3 (RH = 3 votes for, none against; RM 4 for, 1 against.)
In the worst category, The Robot vs The Aztec Mummy is winning hands down by -6. Nearest runner up is Mad Monster with -2.
So it looks like the Robots are definitely creating the most buzz, with the Monsters close behind.
My personal choices? I have to agree with Robot vs Aztec Mummy — this is one movie that is so bland that I don’t think the riffers could make it bearable even at the top of their form. For best, I kind of like the Slime People.
I’ve only seen the season 1 episodes released by Shout! My favorite so far is Robot Monster. Hilarious by itself, great riffing, two of the Cody shorts, which I love.
The worst for me, so far, would have to be Robot vs. the Aztec Mummy. No movie has come closer to breaking me than that one.
Robot Monster is probably my favorite Season One episode to watch repeatedly, so I’ll call that one “the best”. I’ll have to differ with many others here on Robot Vs. Aztec Mummy because though the film is slow the goofiness and disjointed nature of it make it very amusing for me and I like the riffing on that one a lot. Mad Monster is probably the slowest of Season One and though I don’t dislike it for the sake of this poll it is probably my pick as “the worst”.
For the best of Season One I would have to say THE CRAWLING EYE and ROBOT MONSTER, which I found pretty easy to get through.
For the worst: ROBOT VS THE AZTEK MUMMY, MAD MONSTER, THE CORPSE VANISHES, and the CRAWLING HAND were all hard to get through.
The Good: The Slime People (I’ve only seen it once, but I really enjoyed it. Hope it comes out on
DVD.)
The Bad: The Crawling Hand
The Ugly: The Robot vs. The Aztec Mummy
Best: Untamed Youth
Worst: The Robot Vs. The Aztec Mummy
Best is a toss up between WOMEN OF THE PREHISTORIC PLANET and ROBOT MONSTER, I’ll give the advantage to ROBOT MONSTER for the inclusion of a Commando Cody short. Worst is ROBOT VS. THE AZTEC MUMMY which always..ALWAYS puts me to sleep. More the fault of the film than the riffing.
Best:
Robot Monster: One of the most iconic turkeys make for (IMO) the best episode of the season. I thought they should of had Ro-Man in the Hexfield Viewscreen rather than Valeria in 201.
Robot Holocaust: The first of many, many, MANY more bad 80’s films to come. The Avocado Dad still makes me laugh to this day. YOU AND YOUR DAUGHTER ARE DOOMED!
Moon Zero Two: Mediocre host segments but Joel’s wild go-go dancing in the theater makes this worth it.
The Robot VS. The Aztec Mummy: Bite me, I think it’s funny! Commander Cody’s debut, the over-the-top The Bat and the worst looking robot in cinematic history equals comedy gold in my book. I REALLY wish the Brains could have done more bad Mexican movies.
Worst:
Mad Monster: A REALLY poor quality print hurts this one for me, although Tom’s hitting on Joel’s blender makes me laugh. No one drinks from MY gal!
I agree with #19. I liked THE CRAWLING EYE and ROBOT MONSTER, perfectly made for MST3K riffing. Worst: THE CORPSE VANISHES. Those really old movies like that are just too boring to get through.
I haven’t seen all of season one, but here goes:
Worst:Robot vs Aztec Mummy-I think it would have more potential if done after the Brains had found their stride.
Best:Robot Monster-It just works!
On another note, my least favorite part of season one is Commander Cody. With the exception of Hired, I really don’t care for the serial shorts. On the other hand, a short on cereal… :-/
There’s four episodes I have yet to see from season one. But of the ones I’ve seen I have to agree that Mad Monster is the worst. The guys do their best, riffing like champs…but the movie is so bland.
My favorite of the ones I’ve seen is probably Robot Monster. Its just so silly and absurd.
I also want to give some love to The Corpse Vanishes. Its getting slammed. I’ve even seen it unriffed.
WOMEN OF THE PREHISTORIC PLANET, ROBOT HOLOCAUST, and UNTAMED YOUTH are quite good. ROBOT MONSTER is a surprisingly messed up movie. [SPOILERS] Like the monster wanting to mate with the daughter. [END SPOILERS]
Unlike everybody else whose mentioned it (correct me if I’m wrong about that) I actually kind of liked The Crawling Hand. I admit, the host segments suck and the riffing isn’t top-notch, but I still like it. It’s probably because I’ve seen the movie un-riffed.
I also happen to like The Crawling Eye, simply because it was first on national TV, and very fascinating to watch. Plus, it wasn’t really that bad.
But in reality, I’d have to say Robot Monster is the best, even though I’ve only seen the movie part, and not the Cody shorts (I’m waiting until I get The Corpse Vanishes so they make more sense). I’ve seen Robot Monster un-riffed too, by the way, I even have it on DVD. It’s interesting.
But as for worst, I’ll probably have to go with Robot vs. the Aztec Mummy, like so many others. The reason is that I always liked watching the old first season episodes, but I could rarely ever get through them online, the poor image quality combined with the sparseness of humor just made it not worth it. I got Vol. XV when it first came out. It was the first Shout! set I got (I now have XIV, XV, XVII, XVIII, and XIX), so for a long time, (I got t my next ones, which were XVIII and XIX, simultaneously last Christmas) that was the only first-season episode I had, and I watched it so often, it got to the point where I just couldn’t get through it anymore, and I still can’t. Plus, by now, I am much more fascinated by the episodes from season 10.
Much as I like the simple old-school early-Joel goofiness of Robot Monster, #1 nailed it:
My first channel-flipping, not-in-the-guide look at MST3K, once our cable system had finally added The Comedy Channel, was the homemade 80’s goofiness of “Robot Holocaust”, during one of the many “Now, where is that city?”
(“It’s the Kids From Fame!”
“The secret compartment of my ring I fill..”)
Holocaust and Moon 02, the first uses of color, and first hints that things were going to get a LOT goofier. :D
And Corpse Vanishes felt like the 80’s David Letterman’s old “Coffee Cup Theater”, where he would show one baffling minute of an old scratchy Monogram B-movie that made absolutely no sense out of context–
I still have trouble telling it apart from “The Mad Monster”.
I agree with Sampo’s picks. Women of the Prehistoric Planet is a silly movie on its own and J&TB don’t have any problems riffing it. Robot Monster is a close second, although I think Robot Holocaust is pretty funny too. Mad Monster and The Corpse Vanishes are just very dull movies and the Brains didn’t do all that much with either of them. It took me several sittings to get through both of these.
@23 – Would this be the perfect opportunity to say that for urban-legend trivia-nitpickers, Humphrey Bogart never said “Play it again, Sam?”, Kirk never said “Beam me up, Scotty”, and Valeria never said “You and your daughter are doomed”?…Or has it already been pointed out? ?:-)
(If you’re wondering, Mike Nelson did, in “Rocketship X-M”.
Anjelika Jager comes close on many occasions, but the confusion probably comes from when she threatens the scientist with some dire outcome “for you…and daughter.”)
@31 – Not to mention it’s “The Phantom of Krankor” in Prince of Space. There was no character by the name of “Krankor.”
Best: “The Crawling Eye”
Worst: “Robot vs. Aztec Mummy”
My favorite episode is THE CORPSE VANISHES. It has everything, Bela chewing up scenery, the untalented and annoying reporters even a dwarf.
The worst is ROBOT VS THE AZTEC MUMMY. An unwatchable print told almost entirely in unneeded flashbacks.
The fight scene in MOON ZERO TWO is one of the goofiest things ever filmed. The roaring scorpions in the BLACK SCORPION gets too annoying. I like MAD MONSTER but I enjoy the mad scientist movies from the fifties. The riffing is very slow though.
Interesting race for second place so far in favorite. If only the
first counted when several are given I believe the total through
#33 is:
Robot Monster-10
The Crawling Eye-4
Women of the Prehistoric Planet-3
Robot Holocaust-3
The Slime people-2
Others-1
Moon Zero 2-1
The Crawling Hand-1
Untamed Youth-1
The Corpse Vanishes-1
Oops. “Others”, of course, shouldn’t be there. Although it might
have made a great Ed Wood movie, complete with transvestites.
Best: Robot Holocaust.
Runners Up: Robot Monster, Women of the etc,etc.
Worst: Corpse Vanishes
Runner Up: Mad Monster
My arbitrary rankings:
Feel free to disagree.
110 Robot Holocaust
107 Robot Monster
104 Women of the Prehistoric Planet
112 Untamed Youth
111 Moon Zero Two
102 Robot vs Aztec Mummy
106 Crawling Hand
109 Project Moonbase
113 The Black Scorpion
101 The Crawling Eye
108 The Slime People
103 Mad Monster
105 Corpse Vanishes
Best: Untamed Youth. I love the juvenile deliquint flix. The fact the kid’s while being fed dog food have the energy to dance all night after working in the fields all day. It must be the calypso!! Oh and MAMIE!! Worst: The Slime People. All that fog. It just hurts to watch it. It took me 3 days to get through it! The riffing is good but my eyes couldn’t take it all at once.
Could barely make it through Robot Vs. Aztec Mummy, but I did get to the end, which is more than I can say for Mad Monster. Very slow movie, very slow riffing.
I’d agree that Robot Monster is a highlight, although I admit I haven’t seen very many S1 episodes. I did just watch Project Moon Base just the other day, which was surprisingly good. Inane movie, but they react well to that inanity, especially the treatment of the women (in that regard, it’s a good double feature with Jungle Goddess). It’s a good J Elvis episode.
Completely agree with Kevin 25: I don’t much care for the Commando Cody shorts. They’re better than the Phantom Creeps, but not by much. I love the mental hygiene shorts, though.
@38 – Commando Cody was a good warmup in S1, just to get people used to the concept–If they hadn’t done a 40’s serial, you know everybody would have written in asking for one.
(And why does the EG treat the film breaking in Robot Holocaust as a behind the scenes “accident”?–It was near the end credits anyway, and I remember just taking it for granted that the Mads were evil enough to leave it “unfinished” anyway: “That is just totally sadistic.” “…THANK you!” :) )
But you can really see the weariness with the idea setting in with Phantom Creeps and Undersea Kingdom in S2:
Watching pretty much the same short over and over was fine for S1’s ad-libbing, but felt pointless by the time we got quality written riffs…”X Marks the Spot” just OPENED UP a whole new wacky playing field in Season 2.
Robot vs. the Aztec Mummy gets more s**t than it deserves. I personally thought it was funny. Maybe the best of the season. The worst would have to be Mad Monster. Mad Monster was the first season 1 episode I ever saw, and I hated it so much I almost decided not to give it another chance. But more season 1 episodes appeared on dvd in the Shout Factory collections, so I didn’t have a choice. Fortunatly season 1 also has Robot Monster, The Crawling hand, and some other good ones.
Tragically I’ve one seen a handful of season one eps, so I’ll go over my opinions of all of them.
Crawling Eye: I really enjoyed the movie eventhought it’s a little slow. The riffing isn’t that great and the series have had many great running gags, but all the Forest Tucker jokes are trying. I’m glad Shout put it out just because it’s the first ep of the national runn.
The Robot (YEAH!) vs. The Aztec Mummy (BOO!): The movie is goofy and interesting but also really dull. Like a lot of people have stated; it would have been nice if they did this movie later in the run. The riffing isn’t very good and the demon dogs host segments are lame and unfunny.
Mad Monster: Uninteresting movie and way worst than RvsAM.
The Corpse Vanishes: Bela at his worst and possibly the single most annoying Lois Lane type character ever. The riffing wasn’t very good and I could live a long happy life without ever hearing, “And now I walk backwards!”, again.
Crawling Hand: Don’t remember much about except, “Murders the word”.
Robot Monster: A great bad movie, good season one riffing, and a really like the host segment with the bots playing Ro-Man and Great Guidence (sp?).
I’ve only seen what’s been released on dvd. I can say that I did really enjoy “Women Of The Prehistoric Planet” and “Robot Monster” but thought “The Crawling Hand” was a total snoozefest.
I like the descriptions of the season 1 episodes in the ACEG the most
The best of Season one is Robot Holocaust, followed closely by Untamed Youth, Prehistoric Planet and Black Scorpion. Unlike most everyone else, I really enjoy the host segs on the last few eps of Season one! Worst of the first season, Aztec Mummy, movie’s dullness, not the hosts.
My complete list is on my blog, but the winners and losers were
BEST: UNTAMED YOUTH
Beating out PROJECT MOON BASE, ROBOT HOLOCAUST, MOON ZERO TWO, THE BLACK SCORPION by a cup size.
WORST: THE ROBOT VS. THE AZTEC MUMMY, MAD MONSTER
Both THE CORPSE VANISHES and THE CRAWLING EYE were better movies than those two, so they earn a star just for being watchable, even though the riffing is equally poor.
MVP: Josh
Guest who overstayed his welcome: Commando Cody
I’m going to take issue with Sampo’s comment about 103: “It would fit into KTMA just fine.”
The movie selection during the KTMA years was much more colorful (literally) than this early batch from Season One. None of these creaky B&W’s would have belonged there. In fact, despite all the advances we’ve seen in this season, I’d rank it overall at about equal to Season Zero for the sheer enjoyment I got out of that weird collection of world cinema.
And yeah, the host segments kinda drop off, and rarely played a role in my rankings. I started watching ep. 201 and it is a major leap forward, with the skits perhaps being superior to the movie riffing.
EricJ @ #39: Undersea Kingdom doesn’t show up until Season 4.
Going by which Season 1 episodes I’ve re-watched the most, I’m breaking with the consensus and going with PROJECT MOONBASE as my favorite. The SPACOM sketch makes me laugh every single time. Also, being a fan of old serials, the double dose of Commando Cody adds to my enjoyment.
As for worst Season 1 episode, I agree with everyone else. MAD MONSTER, hands down worst of the season, possibly of the series.
I’d better voice my support for Robot Holocaust as the best, though it looks like it’s pretty much out of the running on the vote count. It was the only season one ep I saw for a long time, thanks to its inclusion in a Turkey Day marathon, but I still think it’s great. And the movie is a blast, too.
Worst would definitely go to either Mad Monster or The Corpse Vanishes. Movies that dull are tough to save. But I’ll go with Mad Monster, too.
Double oops. I forgot to include Sampo’s selection earlier. So
here’s an (hopefully accurate) updating (through #47) of
positive picks.
Robot Monster-11
Robot Holocaust-5
Women of the Prehistoric Planet-5
The Crawling Eye-4
Untamed Youth-3
The Slime people-2
Moon Zero 2-1
The Crawling Hand-1
The Corpse Vanishes-1
Project Moonbase-1
Robot vs. The Aztec Mummy-1 :shock:
I have only seen the season ones released on DVD yet I have my picks for the best and worse.
The best: Robot Monster. A horrible plot and bad acting and bad writing make for great riffing.
Runner Up: Women of the Prehistoric Planet. An actual decent plot and some fine host segments with witty riffing all add up for a great time.
Other good: Invetion Exchanges. While they were kinda reused, there were some decent moments and my favorite Invetion, Clay and Lar’s Flesh Barn was pitch perfect
The okay: Host Segments. While some of them were reused they were suprisingly alright for a while before getting bad.
The Bad: Crawling Eye. The riffing was not that strong and despite that it was the first nationally broadcasted episode, it stinks
Runner Up: Robot vs Aztec Mummy. Despite alright host segments and an okay short, there was bad riffing, making it hard to sit through.
Other bad: Commando Cody shorts. The first few were okay, but they begun to become bland and bad.
Well that concludes my list.
The Worst: Crawling Eye
I tend to have a certain level of fondness for Season 1, despite the fact that some parts (particularly the host segments) don’t really hold up after seeing what would come later on. Therefore, it’s a bit easier for me to come up with the Best than the Worst.
Best: Project Moonbase. It’s unashamed Fifties misogyny and the Spacom host segment (which for me is among the all-time best still) put it over the top.
Runners-up: Moon Zero Two and Robot Holocaust
Worst: If I have to pick one, it would be Robot Vs. the Aztec Mummy for the reasons everyone has already stated. Possibly the only movie I could say would be improved with the addition of a masked Mexican wrestler.
Runner-up: All the Commando Cody shorts.