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“Gateways to Geekery”The AV Club has a nice rundown on the show and which episode are most accessible to new comers. I mostly agree with their assessments.
20 Replies to ““Gateways to Geekery””Commenting at Satellite News
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Fascinating article. I mostly agree with their assessments as well.
I’d probably add Soultaker, Zombie Nightmare, Girl in Lovers’ Lane and perhaps Teenagers from Outer Space.
I’d also go with Werewolf–maybe not as the first one, but definitely one of the first five.
Cave Dwellers would go on my list of possible gateways. That was one that did it for me back in the day, after all.
My gateway – and the gateway that I still recommend is “Mitchell”. Nothing is as universally hilarious as Joe Don Baker.
At the right time of year, Santa Claus Conquers the Martians is a solid starting point. More generally, I go with Cave Dwellers, Gamera, or Hercules Unchained. Godzilla vs. Megalon if you can get it.
Tell ’em to start with KTMA episodes 1, 2, or 3.
Simple, really……. ;-)
When I tell people about the show I usually mention starting with Cave Dwellers, Manos, or Gamera. Gamera because that was the one that started me, I still remember catching it one afternoon flipping through the channels.
The other two, well…they are classics after all
I’d say start with the movie – if you don’t like it, it’s mercifully short; On to Quest of the Delta Knights, and after that, I largely agree with the AV Club too. But the one thing that bugs me is that the blog entries below have repeated complaints of Hamlet as a low point – I freaking LOVE the Hamlet episode! The only bit they seemed to miss was in pointing out Ricardo Montalban as the dubbing voice of Claudius. And I wouldn’t suggest Space Mutiny to anyone who knows BSG, because of the big, obvious hole in the riffs for that one. I’m also really happy that AV not only nodded to the Gameras, but picked the perennial favorite – Guiron as the episode of choice – good call!
Welcome to the small but proud brotherhood of Hamlet lovers, Robert. :handshake:
Though a particularly funny episode, I wouldn’t suggest Mitchell to a newbie, simply because all the host segments are built around Joel leaving. Similarly, though Space Mutiny is one of my all-time favorites, it has some rpretty weak sketches that might bewilder a newcomer, especially all the stultifying Roman times stuff. In my opinion, a sampling of shorts are the perfect way to indoctrinate someone to the concept of riffing., then you show them The Movie as a simple introduction to the characters and premise. Only after that should you drop a real stinkburger on them. Picking that gateway episode really depends most on your friend’s personal tastes.
Of course, if it’s December, then picking a couple starter episodes is a no-brainer…
I usually introduce people to the show with the lively fun of Cave Dwellers. Works every time. Pod People is another good one and that’s on the AV Club list. Space Mutiny also really fun. Final Sacrifice puts me to sleep, I would never recommend that one to a novice MST3K watcher.
I completely agree with the article about “Monster A Go Go”. I don’t at all get why this one is such a fan favorite. It is just so mind numbingly boring that The Brains could really do nothing with it. (sorry I am sure someone will be offended by this, its just my two cents :-) )
Am I the only one that thinks Outlaw (of Gor) is a great episode for newcomers? (Possibly as a second or third ep, if not the first.) I’m surprised no one else has mentioned it.
Hot… tired… thirsty…
SAMPO!
A good weekend discussion thread would be based on this article:
If you were to introduce someone to the series, with ONE EPISODE, what would that gateway episode be?
And the next step?
Where not to start??
The trouble with the later years is that for some bizarre reason, they introduced a story arc with the skits – a bad retelling of that second planet of the apes movie. No only is that painfully unfunny, if you watch them out of order, they don’t make any sense
Catalina Caper, Cave Dwellers, and Pod People did it for me. However, the writing on the show did nothing but get better as the years went on, so there are a ton from the SCIFI years that would help introduce a newcomer to the format. As far as the confusing host segments, perhaps start with an episode where Pearl and Co. are home in Castle Forrester. I’ve shown people Girl In Gold Boots and it usually goes over well, it being an overdose of 60’s sleaze and cheesiness. If it’s a newcomer who’s fascinated by incredibly bad film, though, I go with Manos, Hobgoblins, or Red Zone Cuba.
I’ve had good luck with Touch of Satan with newcomers, even though the movie has been described here as slow. Giant Spider Invasion is great too but I’m in Wisconsin so it might be all the WI jokes that people like. I think Manos would be a pretty terrible place to start. A little too trial by fire. It might be a mistake to start with the episode that grabbed you. I loved the first season when I was in middle school but I feel the show, kind of like The Simpsons, grew along with me.
@ Jeremy: The bizarre reason for the attempted story arcs is because the SciFi Channel, in their infinite wisdom, demanded it. Then the morons ran the episodes out of order anyway and eventually realized it was stupid.
@ NoOneOfConsequence: I agree Outlaw would make a great introductory episode, but an official, pristine copy from Shout Factory would help.
@Sharktopus: Oh yeah… no official copy. I keep forgetting about that travesty. :(
Well, here’s to hoping that Shout Factory can get the rights some day soon.
With the untold pennies WB could make on a super deluxe Gor blu-ray 2-pack? Don’t hold you breath! That would surely give the newest Star Wars cashgrab a run for its money. (Ow, I think I pulled a sarcasm muscle.)
I really can’t imagine why any company would be unwilling to squeeze a few more bucks out of these stinkburgers. What’s the thought process there? Is there some sort of pride issue involved? But there’s no shame in Hollywood. I just don’t get it…
As a Gor “fan,” you may enjoy this article from Cracked: http://www.cracked.com/blog/gor-most-ridiculous-nerd-fantasy-ever-filmed/
Ooh, you probably want to put some ice on that.
Thanks for the article! Somewhere I have a VHS recording of the original Gor that I snagged when Starz or Encore ran it in ’03. Now if only I had a working VCR…