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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“Squirm” actually freaked me out when I saw that one for the first time, at 5. Another one of my favorites as a kid was “Phantom Planet,” with the goofy dog monster. Thank God for Richard Kiel.
My kids love it when Joel, Mike, and the bots make fun of fat, obese, actors in the films. Ring of Terror is a prime example. When they show the overweight couple eating, they laugh and laugh. Fatness is fun!
Man, don’t hide monster movies from kids. Nothing on MST3K is anywhere near the likes of modern gore stuff like Saw or The Devil’s Rejects. When I was a kid I saw the movie ‘The Blob’ (50’s version with Steve McQueen) and it scared the hell outta me. But years later it’s fun to go back and relive it from an adult perspective, able to see it for how cheesy it is.
I was watching “Poopie” one day when my then 8 yr old came down and watched and laughed with me. I was very encouraged and tried to get her to watch “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians” but it didn’t keep her attention(I’m hoping she groes into it). My nephew on the other hand loves them all but really enjoys all the shorts.
Final Sacrifice…. “Let this be a lesson kids…”
Warrior of the lost world might be cool for older kids, as well as girl in gold boots, future war, and swamp diamonds.Also first spaceship on Venus and the rebel set. Movies I’d avoid: Merlin’s shop, Angel’s revenge,hellcats and sidehackers.
We have two girls, 18 and 7, and we’ve raised them on MST3K. Our family favorite is Jack Frost (https://www.mst3kinfo.com/aceg/8/813/ep813.html) which we watch every year on Christmas Eve. :)
I don’t have any baby goats.
Oh, you mean children?
Got none of those either.
I can’t imagine that anyone under the age of say, 30?, could really enjoy any episode, or at least get half the references.
I find that even people who arent near my age (44) don’t even get all the references. They may get about 70-80% if they are within 5 years of my age, but generally only people my age get 90-100% of the references. Mainly because the writers are all my age, so we’ve experienced basically the same culture and era.
I guess then I will have to say which episodes my cat likes, since that’s the only little one I have around here. She is, however highly intelligent for an animal. The most intelligent cat I’ve ever encountered, and I’ve known many a cat.
She seems to enjoy Devil Doll, The Girl in Gold Boots, Riding With Death, Blood Waters of DR Z, The Projected Man, The Space Children, The Screaming Skull, Track of the Moon Beast, and a few others… and Killers from Space (TFC). Probably because I play them all so much.
She sat right in front of the tv last time I played Killers from Space, and the thing was loud, too. She didnt seem to mind one bit though.
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[He walked on feet I’d Never seen before]…..”Oh wait, they were my feet…heh”.
(Crow – Track of the moon Beast)
My kids grew up on MST3K. They watched it at first because mom and dad did, and they liked the robots.
Later, as they got older, they developed their favorites and even had opinions of Joel Vs Mike.
Santa Clause Conquerors the Martians is still a holiday favorite.
Early favorites include Catalina Caper and the Hercules movies.
We use to watch the science fiction films before the kids saw them riffed so they knew and liked
Earth Vs. the Spider, and First Spaceship on Venus.
Magic voyage of Sinbad is good for kids as is Jack Frost of course.
As they got older they liked Screaming Skull, Jungle Goddess, and It Conquered the World.
But when they were younger it was the color shows they liked, Day the Earth Froze, Quest for the Delta Knights.
It has been interesting to see how they have changed and developed in their tastes for MST3K over the years.
It has been a real indicator of their emotional growth.
(and how sad it THAT) :lol:
Not recommended for younglings: *Horrors of Spider Island*. It’s one of the most hilarious MST3K episodes, but the film itself has got sleaze all over it. I think it wanted to be a porn film when it grew up. Show the kids *The Magic Sword* instead!
My daughter, 11, LOVES Space Mutiny, Eegah, MST3K: The Movie, Manhunt in Space and can’t get enough ( I own well over 75 MST’s on disc)
she also went to the last Rifftrax Live at Xmas with me and another family of fans and totally fell out.
It’s like a secret language we now have around other people…
‘Watch Out For Snakes!” “Right in the Winky!” and her favorite “Nerdy Joe not included..”
SODIUM!”Horror at Party Beach” is still my son’s favorite. I got my little 4 yr old hooked-now a junior in college,he still quotes from it. I miss our Sat mornings, eating cheerios and laughing together!
Those goofy Japanese sci-fi movies are always BIG favorites with kids: I remember watching them as a kid, and groaning and laughing at the cheesy special effects, bad dubbing, etc. As for MST, my kids always loved “Prince of Space”; they’re both in college now, but still maniacally repeat “Ahh, plince of space . . . ” at the drop of a hat. They still love all the shorts, too: we used to have “family evenings” watching a string of them in a row (the joys of home video recording . . .), and “Mr. B Natural” to this day occupies a special place of honor in our household. As does “Mutiny in Space”–that’s one they still request, and “Big McLargeHuge”, etc., are part of the family lexicon. For some reason, my daughter always liked “Attack of the Eye Creatures” when she was little, and would always ask to watch it. ( :?: :?: Don’t ask me why . . . ) “Eegah” was a fav to, for a while: my son went through a period when he would shout out “Watch out for snakes!” at every opportunity–maybe ’cause he heard me doing it. :mrgreen:
Well as Mike stated in an interveiw “we’ve always tried to make the show as family friendly as possible, to where even our more adult jokes will just fly right over the kids heads” that being said, how about “Merlin’s Mystical Shop of Wonders” its got a very saturday morning kids tv kinda feel to it. Tho like the M&tB this movie is actually quite frightening, satanic, and filled with murder and Borgnine tells this story to his grandson who looks to be 10 or younger wtf??? This movie has always perplexed me as who the intended audience was supposed to be.
Tho like M&tB said**
My son LOVES mst3k and has been watching it since he was 2 (he’s 7 now). He really doesn’t watch much of the ‘movie’ part, he just LOVES the in between stuff. He even made his own Servo and Crow out of found objects when he was 5.. His favorites are Last of the Wild Horses cause he enjoys when the Mads go into the theater, Boggy Creek Creature, and Shorts volume 2.
#58 – “I can’t imagine that anyone under the age of say, 30…” Well, I was a strange child and got a lot more references than I probably should have and now it’s been quite sometime since I’ve watched an episode and not understood a joke – so even as a kid I remember watching the show for the jokes (my brothers having control of the TV or VHS would always change it during host segments, it took me a while to get how amazing those could be). I never really watched the show for the movies themselves, except maybe the Godzilla or Gamera movies because I was a fan of those anyways (what kid wasn’t?). If I had a little daughter, and didn’t mind them hearing certain jokes because they’d go over their heads or whatever, then I’d have to say that (besides all the good ones already named) Gunslinger would be a good one. I thought Beverly Garland was just wonderful when I was little.
I think the Godzilla and Gamera movies automatically make this list; even as an impressionable kid, I knew the creatures in those movies were fake, so imagine what the jaded kids of today think of them! Also, the goofy Russo-Finnish movies and Catalina Caper don’t seem to be too violent or graphic to disturb younger viewers.
When I was a little kid, I loved the wisecracking puppet show my parents watched sometimes, and then the guy got his arm pulled off on The Brain That Wouldn’t Die and I was all like “aaaaaaaa”
So don’t show your kids that one I guess.