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Pared-Down Episodes Headed to Public TelevisionAfter hinting it might happen last Novemnber, it looks like a edited versions of a few MST3K titles will come to some public television stations.
Sounds like pledge drive fodder… Now if only they’ll show “Overdrawn at the Memory Bank”… 25 Replies to “Pared-Down Episodes Headed to Public Television”Commenting at Satellite News
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edited episodes, better then nothing.
When loving lovers love
When loving love on wings of gold
In loving love we fly above
Their love is such a soft and precious love
It’s love
A lovely love is all we seem to need when
We’re in loving love
But then, it’s gone
It is nothing but a memory
OBSERVER: Memory
PEARL: Memory
OBSERVER: Memory
PEARL: And then it’s back
And loving lovers love again
OBSERVER: Who knows where it flies?
PEARL: The lustrous love must rise
OBSERVER: Into the endless skies
PEARL: A new day shining bright
OBSERVER: Your heart has wings to fly
PEARL: And no one else can fly
OBSERVER: I really can’t say why
PEARL: I really do like pie
OBSERVER: I know a couple of guys
PEARL: They really do like pie
BOTH: And loving lovers love as loving lovers love,
Golden, shimmering, lustrous, lovely, loving,
Loving love.
Did they say what would be edited? Some of the movie or the host segments? That’s not much out of a 92 min. episode that most of the later seasons ran. I just hope they show different episodes than Retro-TV did.
“And now, a very special pledge week special of a special pledge week special.”
I’ve said this before, but if they’re going to edit the episodes in any way, they could cut the theme song down (maybe remove the “Robot Roll Call” portion), and cut out at least one host segment. I’d be ok with that. But, cutting out ANY of the theater segments is a no-go for me. That’s where the true meat of MST3K is.
Hello, PBS!
“If ‘Are You Being Served’ is the kind of programming …”
“I’m the Crime Bill! (Bang Bang!) I’m the Crime Bill! (Bang Bang!)”
“Today on ‘Satellite of Love Sunday Morning’ we are livid with proudness in presenting the Sir Thomas Neville Servo Consort of the Middle Ages Just After the Plague Singers …”
Gee, but it’s good to be back home! Eurgh.
Actually, it is. :)
(Yeah, and M&tB could never figure out the appeal of Benny Hill or the Stooges, either.)
Used to be BBCAmerica, but now they’ve got a guy who likes Star Trek:TNG reruns better.
And before we follow Mike’s lead in giving the Salman Rushdie/Leonard Maltin treatment to PBS, just because he wanted someone to blame the movie on, it was produced by -A- local Oregon PBS station, back in the early, early 80’s, before PBS had actual national network programs outside of their NYC station to speak of.
You could just as well beat up on “The Lathe of Heaven” for the same crimes, and frankly, I’d mind that less.
(Oh, and that wasn’t supposed to be a poke at Mark Russell, who is not actually dead yet, but hasn’t been seen since the Bush Jr. election–It was supposed to be a takeoff of wacky Washingtonian stage-theater comedy groups who shall remain nameless, and it wasn’t even in the Overdrawn episode to begin with.
Even if Russell WAS dead yet, though, the haterz still won’t be able to let it go for the next fifteen years.)
I hope I can get a sturdy tote bag emblazoned over its entire surface with the color brown.
Why, just this morning you know I was toting something, only it wasn’t in anything so no matter how I tried to tote it it fell all over the place …
Well, I was born and raised in the DC area, and still live in Washington, DC, and the group you’re thinking of would be an outfit called the Capitol Steps who, for some unearthly reason, have been an institution of some sort around here since the ’70s. That “Supercalifragilisticexpialiwhacky” sketch wasn’t far off from your typical Capitol Steps performance — dry, trite, and toothless.
Mark Russell isn’t much better — a watered-down, low-rent Tom Lehrer. I don’t know if he still wastes time on PBS, but the last time I managed to watch more than five minutes of him at a time, I damn’ near sprained every muscle in my face cringing at his weak gags and wide-open coddling of his supposed “targets”. Russell is an insult to political satirists everywhere.
Overdrawn At The Memory Bank was one of those episodes I could barely get through. I got a new copy recently and took another crack at it, and it was just as schlocky and weak as I remembered it — the movie, that is, not Mike’n’the Bots’ work or the notorious “When Loving Lovers Love”. Along with having production values even cheaper than MST3K, it looked as if the producers had just gotten a new digital effex suite and were determined to use every toy in the box. It was also packed to the gills with more pulled-straight-outta-the-writers’-asses scientific babble than First Spaceship To Venus. To top it off, that scene where the hacked computer starts spitting out “credits” totally looked like something out of a kids’ show. Sad thing was that it still wasn’t quite bad enough to be good — it was just annoyingly banal somehow, standard-issue bland PBS fare.
I’m just trying to figure out why they have to be edited down in the first place. In recent years, PBS has been like the cable networks, where set run times pretty much go out the window, especially during pledge time.
Well, they averaged about 90-some minutes, and they’re cutting them down to 88 minutes… hell, I could live with an edited host segment or two, since I’ve seen most of the episodes so many times I’ve practically got them memorized.
Still, it’d be a shame if the next generation of fans were deprived of the joy of the Plot Shanty, or the Waffle Song.
…especially since you can never tell when they’re wrapping up the pledge drive segments. They always sound as if they’re about to wrap it up, then they go on yapping for another twenty minutes.
Used to play havoc with my Monty Python viewing back in high school. WETA in Washington, DC used to run two episodes back-to-back at 10:30 on Sunday nights; I was already pushing it as it was, it being a school night, and then during pledge season they’d butt in between episodes and yammer forever (or so it seemed) and I wouldn’t be getting to bed until nearly 12:30, because I was bound and determined to catch both episodes, I was that hardcore.
Methinks it’s time for Mike to don the ol’ Jack Perkins make-up again…
If they cut out the multiple doors-into-the-theater segments that’s a solid minute or so. Edit down the opening theme, run the closing credits at double time (and lose the stinger)… I think they could get most later episodes down to 88 minutes without losing any real content. The longer, earlier episodes, though… Maybe cut out the initial pre-commercial segment, which was always just wackiness unrelated to the rest of the experiment?
Good call Goshzilla. I was just thinking that the extra doorway sequence could go. Anybody know how many seconds it actually runs?
I also agree that the cold opens would be the most likely to get cut.
To paraphrase a Joel CT-ism, I used to think it was hilarious that Mike could imitate Jack Perkins, and…now I can’t remember why? ;)
(He hasn’t been on A&E or Biography for twenty years Mike, let it go!)
Not a big deal to edit 2 to 4 minutes. I’m just glad to be able to watch the show on TV. The DVD’s are so expensive to buy, at least I can turn on the TV and catch a couple episodes every week. So please PBS, start airing MST3K!!!
PBS, you are a strange animal. Give commercial television enough time and a loyal fanbase, and you’ll celebrate it, while at the same time aiming to be better than your contemporaries. Will we one day see a retrospective of 1980s sitcoms on your airwaves? I wonder . . .
You’re telling someone to let it go? YOU?!?
Human Beings
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDl2sKvLuLE&list=UUuxXZA3b0MIPnig4qIy7FVA&index=4
Find Our Way
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojEg5AAwIQg&list=UUuxXZA3b0MIPnig4qIy7FVA&index=5
Any word on when they will start or a list of channels that will broadcast them?
Ah PBS.
“Edited episodes.”
Remember when they were the only game in town for intellectual TV and British comedy ?
I got my first taste of Old Time Radio from the PBS station in Washington DC mentioned above.
NOW they are only offering “edited down Versions” of one of the most original programs of the 20th Century??
Because they cannot afford the TIME ????
Sad.
Very Very Sad :weep: :weep: