I was wondering if anyone’s had any interesting encounters with the MST cast.
A few years back, I invited Mary Jo up to Canada for the weekend to hold one of her humor seminars for our authors association. She was living in Minnesota at the time and I gave her a call to discuss particulars. It was kind of surreal talking with her on the phone and she started teasing me about the invitation saying: “So, how do I know you’re not an axe murderer?” When I picked her up at the airport several weeks later, I think the first words out of my mouth were: “Hi…I’m the axe murderer.” We got along famously after that.
Do you have a story?
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“At the NYC CT show in September I saw Joel and Dave Allen smoking outside of the theater well before the show and they were both kind enough to talk to me for a few minutes. Other than that at the RI CT I met the CT crew again as well.”
Joel. . . smoking? Please tell me you’re kidding.
In 1993, I worked as a cashier at a grocery store right after graduating from high school.
One day, a woman came in wearing an MST3K shirt and I said to her ‘wow, that’s my favorite show!’ and she told me that her nephew actually was the executive producer of the show — turns out it was Jim Mallon’s aunt. Next time she came in, she said to me ‘Jim wanted to know from a regular fan how you feel about the change in hosts. They are getting a lot of reaction from people and not all of them are happy.’ I told her that I thought the show was better than ever (and that’s probably true — the season 4 to 6 range is the best MST3K ever got, I think).
About a week later, she comes back to the store and hands me a plastic bag. I opened it and looked — Jim Mallon had sent her a t-shirt and a pad of notepaper with the MST3K logo on it as as thanks for my feedback. That’s why I will never say a bad word about Jim and never said anything when Joel came out not too long ago and said that he wanted to leave because of Jim. My only contact with Jim was nothing but positive.
Gary Bowden @45…
I found it! The file is 218mb. A little too big to attach to an email (even “rar-ed”, it’s still 128mb…my email limit is 100mb). Any alternative suggestions on how I can get it to you?
I don’t have any brushes to share (other than one meet and greet), but I have thoroughly enjoyed reading about other peoples’ experiences. This once again proves that the Best Brains are, almost without exception, nice people that are worthy of our fandom.
I met them at Cinematic Titanic. Great, great people.
I was visiting my brother in San Diego a few years back, and we had gone out to a bar called Blind Melons down in Pacific Beach. My brother and I had just been served our second round of drinks when Mike Nelson stepped up to the bar right next to me. Mike reached over, picked up my glass, and drank my whole beer right then and there. He then leaned in to whisper “No one will ever believe you,” and walked away.
Joel Hodgson smokes, so what? I’m not going to stop watching Warrior of the Lost World or Gamera vs Guiron just for such little fact.
Yes, but I don’t like it when someone harms themselves. Especially when that someone is intelligent enough to know better.
What are you going to do? We know smoking kills, but it’s cool!
Well, I guess my fears of out-living my beloved Joel will probably come true. Damn. :( I don’t want to be there when it’s announced.
Joel, drop em, my friend, drop em. You can do it. I know the camel swayed you to the cancer sticks but that is just a cartoon, and he lies to kids.
Smoking doesn’t make you cool it makes you…cuckoooooo.
/just sayin
:-(
(seriously, I hope he’ll drop those in favor of more food)
@ #58 —
And also the fact that smoking does have a tendency to shorten one’s lifespan and I’ll admit it — I’m selfish — I want to see Joel and the CT crew doing awesome riffing for as long as possible.
Rocky Jones #53..Glad you found it.I was wondering if you could let Michael Slusher know at mst3k.org and see if he could sell it on his site? That’s the only thing I can think of at the moment.Not unless you could burn a copy and mail it to my home address,but don’t think that would be a good idea on here though.Let me know what you think,ok?
Gary Bowden @62….
Hmmm….options, options…How about relocating this train of thought away from this crowded bus terminal, and continue via private email? You can reach me, strangely enough, at…
rocky.jones.winky@gmail.com
I’ll make sure I keep checking back for new mail…
Sincerely,
Rocky Jones – “Spaced” Ranger
I was just at the Cinematic Titanic Show in Green Bay and I admit meeting them was intimadating. I didn’t get many words out,but I did get autographs. I just hope I didn’t give them the “fanboy creeps” too much.
Okay, so I don’t remember meeting the guy, but:
My dad co-produced KTMA telethons with Jim Mallon back in the late 1980’s. I recall being at one, I was probably only three or four years old, and I’m certain Jim was walking about. I recall being back stage, and now that I think about it, considering it was the KTMA studios I very well could have been in the original KTMA era studio. Not sure if this was pre, during or post KTMA MST3K. My dad said Jim was a great guy, I assume if I ever met Jim and dropped my dad’s name he’d remember him.
Being a video producer in the Twin Cities area, my dad ended up hiring one of the set builders for MST3K: The Movie. I asked the guy what it was like to build the SOL, and he didn’t really care. He said he didn’t like the movie, but he did like Drop Dead Fred, a movie he also worked on.
I’m so jealous of all these! Can’t wait for March to meet the Titans.
About the whole Joel smoking thing, hope he can quit soon, it’s very dangerous and I don’t want anything happening to him. But who are we to judge? I for one am overweight. Food is my addiction. Especially pasta. Most people have an addiction of some type.
Oh, the only celebs I’ve ever met are the author Janet Evanovich and Peter Noone of Herman’s Hermits. I love my HH. And I think I saw Martin Landau in Walmart once. Well, if not him, then his twin.
Oh, and big Tom and Ethan Zohn from Survivor Africa, if that counts. Tom lives the next town over and Ethan was visiting. Had quite a crush on Ethan at the time.
MST was such a group effort that I decided that if I communicated with one of the Brains, I would get a conversation going by asking them something about themselves that only they could answer – everyone loves to talk about “moi,” right? I loved Kevin’s host segment when he appeared as the Emperor Hadrian and noticed that he was reciting a lot of Latin. So I emailed him to ask him about that and learned that it was part of a real, famous poem by Hadrian, his last words. Kevin took a lot of Latin at his parochial high school. We wrote back and forth a little about that and he was charming. Then, at GatewayCon in St. Louis, when I met the Brains in the autograph line, I told Bill that I had attended the production of his play in Chelsea, MI and liked it and we gossiped a bit about that production before I had to move on. He seemed very pleased to be able to talk about it and I was thrilled, of course!
Only two “MST3K”-related brushes with greatness (excluding “Cinematic Titanic” meet-and-greets):
Back in 1995, after graduating from college in Upstate NY and being unemployed for a few months, I wrote a letter to Best Brains, Inc. asking if I could do an internship or free work for the show (hoping that it would lead to permanent work there). Surprisingly Mary Jo Pehl sent me a letter explaining that they only accepted internships from students that hadn’t graduated (duh!) but also that, since I was used to Upstate NY winters, I was ill-equipped to handle the cold of Minnesota winters and was better off looking for work in warmer locales. XD I lost Mary Jo’s letter when I moved to Manhattan for work in 1997 (the same job I still have) but I still found it amazing that an “MST3K” writer/talent would take the time to write a reply to a nobody person like me asking for an internship at BB.
The 2nd encounter involves Roger Corman. Sometime in the mid-2000’s Corman came to a video store in NYC to sign copies of some of his classic movies coming on DVD for the first time. I went there to get copies of those DVD movies signed for a friend in Queens that wanted them but couldn’t make the trip to Gotham. When I came to him I told him my favorite movie of his was ‘The Undead’ and he smiled. Then I told him I’ve only seen it on “MST3K” and then re-enacted for him the ‘STAAAAAY’ yell. His face went from bemusement to frowned anger. He signed the DVD’s and pushed them toward me without saying a word (I thanked him for his time). Gave the DVD’s to my friend for free (he was supposed to pay me what they cost) and told him the chance to tell Corman to his face that I liked “MST3K” and yelled ‘STAAAAY’ at him was worth the DVD’s cost plus a lot more. 8-)
Joel smokes caused a furor. Mike downing a drink doesn’t bat an eye. Maybe he jumped into his car and on the way home drove in front of a school or through a suburban neighborhood. That’s really cool!
#69
Oh, it wasn’t as simple as that. He groped a girl outside the bar, smashed a few cars in the parking lot, hit a mailbox, and spun donuts on a little league’s ballfield.
I toured Best Brains with my wife in September 1993 — after the last Joel episode had been taped, but before the first Mike episode had been aired. We saw most of the cast on the tour. Trace was carrying a drill and said, “You have to excuse me, I’m going to go drill a peep hole in the ladies room.” Mike said, “I hope you’ll still be watching the show in a couple of months.” My favorite encounter was with Frank. He was just coming into the building as we were concluding the tour. Sarah Wisner (our tour guide) gave him a *big Hollywood introduction*: “And here’s TV’s Frank!!!!!!!!!!!!” He had an “Oh, people know who I am?” look on his face. It was a neat moment. You had to be there. (:-\)
#70
Of course, there’s the Hobgoblins scene with Daphne
(who goes ALL THE WAY on a first date) driving the
prevert through a playground to the makeout spot.
I have had the unique pleasure of meeting the main cast of MST3K at least once,
And have had the pleasure of talking with Bill, Mike, and Kevin, almost every year
at the San Diego Comic-con.
I met the whole cast at the 25 Anniversary event in San Diego and they were all
Nice, forthcoming, and great to the fans. Before a big signing, Joel came to the
Line and talked with us, saying things were a little late and would start soon. He posed with fans and answered questions, was very congenial and it was the highlight of the convention for me.
Bill, Mike, and Kevin attend every year and they were great to my kids every time. My children grew up on MST3K and to meet these “heroes” was a big event. To be remembered by them, year after year, Is a pleasure they still talk about.
#65 @ Barry
That sucks, liking Drop Dead Fred, but hating MST3K the Movie. If it was because of executive meddling, I can understand, but…
Either way, awesome story.
My girlfriend and I drove up to MN from Chicago for the CT Launch party, and bumped into Trace as we were having dinner before the show. She told him how she was in nursing school along with some other small talk, and eventually he was on his way. About 10 minutes later, he came rushing back, asking her “How real of a nurse are you? We’ve got someone injured back here who just had a bad fall on the ice.” Turns out it was Josh. So, we went backstage, said hi to a very pained Josh, and she went about taping up his ankle. Mary Jo was back there too. They were cracking jokes the whole time and were very nice and appreciative, and Josh gave us free CT shirts and announced our names from the atage during the show. A year or so later when they came back to Chicago I met Josh again, and we had a nice chat about our very auspicious first meeting.
I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Joel, Trace, Frank, Mary Jo and Josh at two different Cinematic Titanic shows in Minneapolis respectively in October 2008 and just this year after their live recording of Rattlers in September (the only two times CT has been in the Twin Cities actually). Each time they’ve been great to talk with and so friendly and gracious. Oh and Gruber rocks too of course! :) Hopefully one of these years I’ll be able to go to a Con somewhere out west and finally meet Mike, Bill and Kevin.
@68 That was a great story. Really makes one think Corman is humorless shmuck though.
I should add, I wanted to go to one of Bill’s shows in Minneapolis recently but was unable. My best friend went though and got to meet Kevin and took a pic with him, very envious.
About 7 or 8 years ago I went to a Mike Nelson appearance at a small North Carolina college. As I was walking over to the hall where he was appearing, there was a tall fellow ahead of me walking up to the same building. It was Mike Nelson, but I didn’t catch up to him.
I went in, gave my ticket, and entered the auditorium to find a seat. It was sparsely filled at that point. I got down near the front, when I looked back Mike was at the very rear of the room, looking over some notes. I got up and went back and introduced myself to him and we had a nice conversation for about 15 minutes. It was pretty funny. He has a son with a Latin name while I have a wife with a Latin name. We talked about how his in-laws (I think it was the in-laws) just don’t get MST3K and wished he would go out and get a job. Just general chit chat. I didn’t ask him any nerdy questions about MST minutae (he’s been asked those a million times!). I left him to retook my seat. He did a great show. Afterwards I caught him in a hallway and got my photo taken with him. He’s pretty tall standing next to me.
Other than that I’ve been an extra in several movies, in scenes standing next to John Travolta, Timothy Hutton, Madeline Stowe, EG Marshall, Virginia Madsen, Armand Assante, to name a few.
#78 Are you the real, the mellow Ben Murphy? How’s Robert Denby? Ellusive as always I hope.
Joel smokes, how shocking!
A friend asks his friend… “Do you smoke after sex?” His friend says “I don’t know, I never looked.” BAH-DOOM-BOOM!
Hey, All!
Just for the record, Joel DOESN’T smoke. Josh is the one who was smoking with Dave Allen. I don’t know if the original poster meant to say Josh, or just didn’t recognize him and thought it was Joel.
RAD
Am I too late to jump in on this thread?
I’ve had 3 run-ins with MST3k folk, which considering I’ve lived in the Twin Cities most of my life is way too few.
I met Mike at a book signing for Death Rat! and got him to sign a bunch of stuff for me. He was very nice and funny.
I saw the whole CT crew at their kick-off event at Acme Comedy club back when CT first started, but unfortunately didn’t get to meet any of them at that time.
However, about a year earlier I went to Acme with my wife and sister in-law. Her sister was in town so we decided to go to Acme one night for something to do. I was pleasantly surprised when we got there and Josh was one of the comedians performing that night. After the show I saw him by the bar so I went over and talked to him. I might have been the only person there that night that knew he was the original Tom Servo, and when I brought up MST3k he seemed a bit surprised I knew about it. We chatted for about 10 minutes. It was great.
Hopefully next week I’ll be able to meet Trace and Mary Jo at their book reading here in town. Sooner or later I’ll collect the whole set.
In early 2007 on a whim I emailed Mary Jo telling her that I am a big fan of the show and the usual fan stuff. I expected that my email would be intercepted by an agent or seceretary and said as much in my email but that “I hope you pass it along to Mary Jo”. Much to my surprise, Mary Jo emailed me back personally, jokingly telling me that she doesn’t have an agent. A few friendly emails passed and then I mentioned Blobfest.
Blobfest is a festival held in Phoenixville, PA (where I live) which celebrates the B-movie “The Blob” and is held every year in July. She was intriqued to say the least and asked me several questions about it which I more than willingly answered. Then to my surprise, she emailed to tell me that she was coming to that years’ Blobfest (2007) and she did. She was a judge in the costume contest and after the contest I walked over to her and introduced myself as the guy who thought she had an agent. She was quite gracious and we talked for a few minutes. Unfortunately I didn’t get back to the Fest that night. She was signing autographs.
I worked as a call screener/producer for a local radio talk show, and each week the host would bring on a national author with a new book. This was at the time of “A Year at the Movies” by Kevin Murphy, so I tried to book him, promising the show would stay on point with his current project and likely far away from MST3K. I also played the midwest card, seeing as how the cast was pretty proud of that. He responded to the email with his contact info, we spoke on the phone (surreal to hear Servo), and set up the segment. I never revealed I was a mstie because I thought that would be unprofessional in the situation.
But I do have his email to me printed out, framed, and hanging.