MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000: XXII IN STORES DECEMBER 6 FROM SHOUT! FACTORY
FEATURING TIME OF THE APES, MIGHTY JACK, THE VIOLENT YEARS, AND THE BRUTE MANOur long cultural nightmare is over. On December 6, Shout! Factory, in association with Best Brains Inc., will release Mystery Science Theater 3000: XXII, a 4-DVD set that includes “Time Of The Apes,” “Mighty Jack,” “The Violent Years,” “The Brute Man” and a cornucopia of extras worthy of the holiday season. All four episodes are previously unreleased on DVD, and “Time Of The Apes” and “Mighty Jack” are two of the most beloved and most requested episodes of the comedy phenomenon!
Disc 1 of Mystery Science Theater 3000: XXII features “Time Of The Apes,” which enjoys a mythical cult status among MSTies. Adapted (i.e., shredded and stitched into incoherence) from the 1974 Japanese series “Saru No Gundan,” “Time Of The Apes” follows the travails of a scientist and two small children who are accidentally frozen and thawed into a future ruled by apes. The plot may sound familiar, but the riffs are absolutely unique.
Over on Disc 2 we have the long-awaited “Mighty Jack,” one of the funniest episodes of one of the funniest TV series ever made. The Japanese apparently had a license to kill television when they handed this prized Tsuburaya production to Sandy Frank. Long before “junk bond” joined the English lexicon, the 007-ish exploits of Mighty Jack — a government organization created to defeat the notorious crime syndicate known as “Q” — took everything that was bad about cool and thrilling espionage movies and threw the rest out. Fortunately for us, Joel and the ’bots had a license to riff. And fortunately for you, Shout! Factory has a license to release it on DVD.
Next up, “The Violent Years” is a tale from 1956 of girls gone wild. Mike and the ’bots take on this low-budget black-and-white potboiler about a neglected rich girl and her hardened gang of babes who, thanks to inside information from her unwitting father, always manage to stay one step ahead of the police. In this delirious episode, we find the Mads “softening to reach a wider audience,” which includes performing their new theme song, “Living In Deep 13.” The DVD also includes the 1952 short film “A Young Man’s Fancy,” wherein a visiting young man prefers the household electrical appliances to the teenage daughter.
Last but not least, Mystery Science Theater 3000 presents “The Brute Man.” Rondo Hatton plays a disfigured man, a/k/a “The Creeper,” who hunts down and kills the people responsible for his deformity. During his downtime, he falls for a blind woman and engages in some light felony by stealing to pay for an operation to restore her sight. She may regret that. The DVD includes the 1948 short film The Chicken Of Tomorrow. Remember the stylish sequence in Casino that takes us through the mechanics of the operation? It’s like that, except with chicken farming and without the style.
Bonus Features Include:
New Introduction By Mary Jo Pehl
Origin Of The Creeper: Birth Of A B-Movie Icon
Introductions By August Ragone, author of Eiji Tsuburaya: Master of Monsters
The Making Of MST3K (1997)
Mystery Science Theater Hour Wraps
Ed-ucation: Archival Interviews with Delores Fuller & Kathy Wood
The DVD Menus of MST3K
4 Exclusive Mini-Posters By Artist Steve Vance
|
 |
Official Vol. 22 Press ReleaseHere’s the official press release for Vol. 22. Nothing in here you don’t already know (and I’ve deleted the boilerplate stuff at the bottom).
17 Replies to “Official Vol. 22 Press Release”Commenting at Satellite News
We are determined to encourage thoughtful discussion, so please be respectful to others. We also provide an "Ignore" button ( Comments are closed. |
|
Satellite News is a fan site for the Mystery Science Theater 3000 television and Netflix series. It is an independent publication written and compiled by Chris Cornell (msampo@aol.com) and Brian Henry (erhardt4@aol.com). Satellite of Love, LLC does not maintain this web site, nor is it responsible for this site's content.
All content posted on Satellite News is copyright © 2024 by Chris Cornell and Brian Henry, except where otherwise noted. This Date in MSTory is written and compiled by Steve Finley, Chris Cornell and Brian Henry. Copyright © 2024 All rights reserved. Please do not reproduce This Date in MSTory items in any form without express written permission from the authors. Items of MST3K news may be duplicated or reposted, as long as Satellite News is cited as the source. The views and opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of Satellite of Love, LLC. No warranty is expressed or implied that the information given herein is completely accurate, and in fact this information can and will change at any time. So there. Mystery Science Theater 3000, its characters and situations are copyrights and trademarks of Satellite of Love, LLC. Banner image created by Larry Lee Moniz. |
|
) to help our users cope with "trolls" and other commenters whom they find annoying. Go to our
You can get another stress ball by ordering from Shout.
I made it to the statement “Time of the Apes & Mighty Jack are two of the most beloved & requested episodes…”
That seems a rather arbitrary statement, with little proof to offer for backing it up.
I can agree that Time of the Apes is a classic and notably absent from release for a long time, but not so sure about Mighty Jack.
Reminds me of Frank calling the first segment ever on the first CT episode ever “the most beloved segment in the history of CT”.
I would’ve said “Time Of The Apes” and “The Violent Years” are two of the most beloved and most requested episodes.
And why no mention of Ed Wood in the Violent Years summary? You’d think his involvement would be a big selling point.
I am gonna buy the **** out of this!
Yeah, they claim that Mighty Jack is “one of the funniest episodes . . .” The hell? It’s not terrible, but I don’t think most of us go head over heels for it . . .
I’ve never seen ANY of these episodes so I’m really looking forward to this set, particularly “The Violent Years” since one of my other favorite episodes is “The Sinister Urge”.
On a side note, I just got the Manos two-disc set and watched the film un-riffed for the first time ever. I did not expect my reaction to be, “huh- this film is oddly compelling”.
Four good-not-great episodes I’ll be happy to add to my collection, but I’m most excited about A Young Man’s Fancy – one of the very few MST shorts that haven’t made it to DVD yet. Now where’s my Shout Factory DVDs of The Day The Earth Froze (with Here Comes The Circus) and High School Bigshot (with Out Of This World)? The more you feed me, the hungrier I get!
Or at least a new All-Shorts DVD, with Alphabet Antics, Snow Thrills, Using Your Voice, Aquatic Wizards, Here Comes The Circus, and Out Of This World, since chances are pretty slim for obtaining the rights for Daddy-O, It Conquered The World, Earth Vs The Spider and Teenage Caveman. Maybe call it Shorts Volume 3.5?
And then there’s Robot Rumpus… Sigh.
Please please please please PLEASE let the inclusion of This is MST3K mean that Riding With Death is coming soon!!
OP-TI-CAL ILL-OOO-ZUHN-UH!!
Weird they’re including the Sci Fi Channel-era Making Of doc on a box set featuring no Sci Fi Channel-era episodes
I looked and couldn’t find the original Time of Apes (Saru no gundan) TV series. I learned it came out in Japan but I couldn’t find that version either. :( sure would buy a set with the show and the film it was made from (and used in my favorite MST3K episode).
/gave a hint
@5 – Eh, don’t expect TOO much from “Violent Years”–Tim Burton’s Ed Wood bio basically glossed over the fact that “Jailbait” was Wood’s first breakout hit, and he was typecast into girl-delinquent dramas.
And Wood without Tor & Bela is just…a lot of ex-30’s B-script cliche’s looking for the camera. (But as we know from the Bride of the Monster documentary, Tim’s movie was pretty much a crock anyway.)
Can’t remember, is “Violent Years” the one Dan Aykroyd riffed on in “It Came From Hollywood”?
(And yes, looks like they’re doing a thematic 2-pack of Sandy Frank for this one, but calling Mighty Jack as “funny and beloved” as Apes is stretching the ad hyperbole a tad.)
@10 I agree about Mighty Jack. It’s one of my least favorite episodes from the Joel Years.
I know they messed around with Glenn or Glenda in “It came from Hollywood…”
“Riding with Death” would be awesome!!! Here’s hoping for the next set.
FINALLY we get some Mike episodes. We haven’t had any since Volume XIX’s “Devil Doll” and “Devil Fish.” And those were released at holiday time 2010.
Ummmmmmm take it easy on the press releases. I am sure the person charged with drumming up support this release has some hefty college loan payments to make. You know those art degrees don’t come cheap. Besides when has any dvd release not gotten an extra large heap of hype. As for Ed Wood being left out that was a real mistake. The man is an icon. I am sure when they writing the text they googled his name and mis-spelled it and some porn actors bio popped up and just hit the delete button. :-P
This looks like another great set of episodes plus it’s a MARY-JO intro YAY!!!!!! And the making of MST3K! Give any bonus material you can get your hands on. I’d watch 10 mins of the lights being arranged on the set. Security footage of BBI parking lot. Birthday footage of Joel’s third cousin’s sister’s boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend’s aunt’s two years old daughter eating cake with her hands in a high chair.
The Violent Years has always been a favorite of mine (I have a real fondness for the “parents are to blame!” movies, and seeing how badly the message is bungled by the contents of the films themselves), and The Brute Man is in that “groove” where -to me- MST was basically firing on all cylinders. And I love the the cranky old shopkeeper, and VERY love watching Mike just completely losing it while watching the cranky old shopkeeper.
The other two… uh… well, Mighty Jack has a lot of miniatures blowing up and stuff, I guess. And some solid host segments. I couldn’t get through Time of the Apes. SO DULL. And the riffing just… maybe I’m spoiled by later seasons (and I don’t just mean “Mike”, late season 4 and season 5 Joel is in the same zone), but the riffing just didn’t feel up to the level to tackle something so lifeless and interminable. Even with the poop-flinging jokes.
I love Mighty Jack
@10, I’m not sure what you’re talking about. “Glen or Glenda” came first and was a successful movie for Ed. Here’s Ed’s filmography:
http://edwoodonline.com/thehunt/TITLES.html
Nothing there to indicate he was “typecast into girl delinquent dramas” (especially since “Jail Bait” isn’t about a girl delinquent). He wouldn’t make another “girl gang” film until 1974’s “Fugitive Girls”.
As for the biopic, it’s about Ed and Bela, so naturally skipped projects Ed only wrote (“The Violent Years”, “The Bride and the Beast”) and ones without Bela (“Jail Bait”, “The Night the Banshee Cried”). It’s not a crock. It’s not a documentary. It’s a biopic. That’s what they do. Focus on the intended narrative, which, in that case, is “Ed and Bela”.
“The Violent Years” is a great piece of Ed Wood material. No need for Bela and Tor (it’s not a horror film). Ed’s got some juicy dialogue and Jean Moorhead – wooo! The circle is now complete. All Ed-related episodes will have been released. It’s a wonderful thing.
As for the others, I prefer the KTMA version of both “Time of the Apes” and “Mighty Jack”, but these ones are solid, too.
“The Brute Man”? Utterly forgettable. Just another weak season seven episode…