Was there something in your past that primed you to become an MST3K fan? For me it was a local Friday late night show called “Project Terror” — “Where the scientific and the terrifying emerge.” The shows which years later were fodder for Mystery Science Theater were new to me in our dark, late-night living room with the sound on our Zenith TV turned down low so Mom could sleep. How about you, or are you just a natural born MSTie?
In Philadelpbia is was Doctor Shock’s “Fright Flicks,” But even more it was my brother Curt’s fascination with monster movie of all kinds. It was one of the few things we both liked.
What about yoou?
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How could I forget about Mad magazine?! As with many others here it made an impression on me, and one of my favorite parts was their movie parodies.
The first time I ever read Mad was way back in 1964, when I was 9. We’d just moved, and the house we rented had a couple old issues of Mad left in a drawer.
Let me add my voice to those praising Mad Magazine and their terrific movie parodies! They also had great TV show parodies, and features like “Unfortunate Stand-up Comedy Gigs” (I can’t remember the exact title, but that was the gist): one of these was Jackie Mason doing his schtick to an Arab army! This stuff, too, prefigured MST3K.
For anyone who wants to look it up, Dinky Dunstan was in the fifth episode, where they had Annette Funicello make a guest appearance. Other persons who appeared on the show include Rod Serling, Barbara Eden, Bob Denver (who at the time was best known for portraying Maynard G. Krebs), Gypsy Rose Lee, Sebastian Cabot, and Bob Newhart.
Star Trek –
Yes, the original Star Trek. Talk about a show that had a fan base that lasted and grew long after the show was done. Sound familiar, MSTies? I remember the never-turned-off television in the student union always had a crowd around it at four PM on weekdays with people cheering for the Enterprise crew and booing the Klingons. Everyone knew which red shirt was about to get it because we’d seen them all before. We knew the catch phrases. “He’s dead Jim.” How many of you were Trek fans before Joel set foot in the Satellite of Love?
At least as far back as when Channel 11 ran it, so you’re talking early-mid 70s.
You don’t even have to say where, just say “Channel 11” and “Star Trek”, and people automatically KNOW you’re talking about WPIX-11 NYC in the 70’s.