#ktma

[rubber-garage]

A (large?) post of some of the mst fanart I’ve made this month

[nerds-yearbook]

On December 31, 1988, "The Mads", Doctor Clayton Forrester and Doctor Laurence Erhardt, who have stranded inventor Joel on the Satellite of Love along with his robot pals, make their first appearance on Mystery Science Theater 3000. ("Gamera vs Zigra" MST3K, TV)

[rod-dogg-reviews]

ALERT : Hi there. I am Jrod. This is our very first review of anything. Being that it’s one of our favorite things in the world, myanxiety level is through the roof.

I keep overthinking and proof reading. So worried if our words are right or wrong. Please bare with me while I get our first review done. I look forward to releasing this new post.

Thanks for stopping by. Check ya later.

ROD-DOGG-OUT

[kingtigermartialarts]

#Choose to be #GREAT #ktma #blackbelt #excellence #kingtigermartialarts #virginiabeach #mindset (at King Tiger Martial Arts) https://www.instagram.com/p/CkDfCbcOkgw/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[vaporlocke81]

ユートピアへの旅 by desert sand feels warm at night from Aquablanca 音楽レーベル

🎦☯👣 ŴÃ𝕐 𝕆ᶠ 𝕝ｉ𝔽έ ♖⚙️🦴. 🏝️

[tictacwaverly]

decided to do my own take of the robots of mst3k that were supposed be in the show but never did! Thank you @kiki3509x for sending me the images!

[jimintomystery]

MST3K's most wanted

I've been organizing my Mystery Science Theater 3000 collection, so I've become preoccupied with the handful of episodes that are not easily available, and the reasons why. In case in anyone else is interested, I thought I'd share what I've learned.

For our purposes we'll be focusing on the ten seasons that aired on cable, from 1989 to 1999. With the post-2017 episodes, it's trivial to purchase them on home video or streaming. And the pre-cable stuff, from KTMA, is widely available as bootleg footage, which is probably about as good as you're ever going to get. But the episodes from the cable era have been notoriously difficult to re-release, and require special attention.

Of the 176 MST3K episodes that aired on cable, 166 have been released on home video, and 145 are available for streaming/download on the Gizmoplex. As someone who's been trying to collect the whole series since the 1990s, I think that's pretty impressive. But there are 40 episodes that have been particularly tricky. Let's take a look, won't you?

Currently available on the Gizmoplex, but never on home video (1):

913 - Quest of the Delta Knights

As I understand it, nobody was sure who owned the rights to this movie, or how to contact them, for years. The situation has only recently been cleared up, perhaps too late for a DVD release.

Currently available on the Gizmoplex, but out of print on home video (8):

203 - Jungle Goddess

317 - Viking Women and the Sea Serpent

319 - War of the Colossal Beast

510 - The Painted Hills

619 - Red Zone Cuba

806 - The Undead

808 - The She-Creature

912 - The Screaming Skull

It looks like all of these went out of print due to being on a set where a different episode's rights expired. Theoretically Shout Factory could re-release any of them in a "Lost and Found" set, but that may not be cost-effective as people move away from collecting physical media.

Currently available on home video and MST3K's official YouTube, but not on the Gizmoplex (1):

615 - Kitten with a Whip (Vol. 25 DVD, 2012)

Kitten is one of the Universal movies that could only be licensed for physical media. And yet, it's the only one I can find on the official YouTube channel. Beats me why that is.

Currently available on home video, but not on the Gizmoplex (16):

401 - Space Travelers (Vol. 32 DVD, 2015)

522 - Teen-Age Crime Wave (Vol. 33 DVD, 2015)

524 - 12 to the Moon (Vol. 35 DVD, 2016)

601 - Girls Town (Vol. 39 DVD, 2017)

605 - Colossus and the Headhunters (Vol. 38 DVD, 2017)

614 - San Francisco International (Vol. 32 DVD, 2015)

704 - The Incredible Melting Man (Vol. 36 DVD, 2016)

801 - Revenge of the Creature (Vol. 25 DVD, 2012)

802 - The Leech Woman (25th Anniversary Edition DVD, 2013)

803 - The Mole People (Vol. 26 DVD, 2013)

804 - The Deadly Mantis (Vol. 27 DVD, 2013)

805 - The Thing That Couldn't Die (Vol. 29 DVD, 2013)

814 - Riding With Death (Vol. 36 DVD, 2016)

815 - Agent for H.A.R.M (Vol. 33 DVD, 2015)

901 - The Projected Man (Vol. 30 DVD, 2014)

1013 - Diabolik (Vol. 39 DVD, 2017)

I was able to find the DVD sets listed above on Shout Factory's website. As far as I know, they'll remain in print for the foreseeable future, but there's no way to know how long that will last.

The general pattern with these episodes is that the movies are owned by major studios that would only license them for physical media. Columbia owns Teen-Age Crime Wave and 12 to the Moon. MGM owns Girls Town and The Incredible Melting Man. Paramount owns Diabolik. But the big player here is Universal, which controls the rights to Space Travelers, San Francisco International, Revenge of the Creature, Leech Woman, Mole People, Deadly Mantis, Thing That Couldn't Die, Riding With Death, Agent for H.A.R.M., and Projected Man.

The odd man out here is Colossus and the Headhunters; I can't find any info on who owns the rights to this film, which may be part of the problem.

The real hard cases, the stickiest of wickets, are below...

Released on home video, but now out of print (5):

212 - Godzilla vs. Megalon (Vol. 10 DVD, 2006)

309 - The Amazing Colossal Man (VHS, 1996)

910 - The Final Sacrifice (Vol. 17 DVD, 2010)

1001 - Soultaker (Vol. 14 DVD, 2009)

1012 - Squirm (Turkey Day Collection DVD, 2014)

Megalon and Colossal Man were both recalled when rights issues came up after they were released. Oops. These were produced by Rhino, back before Shout Factory took over.

The Final Sacrifice is particularly tough to find, even unofficially, because director Tjardus Greidanus is very aggressive about tracking down download links. I always figured someone was similarly possessive of Soultaker, since it's clearly a passion project, but that's purely my speculation.

The Turkey Day DVD set is still available on Amazon at a reasonable price, so Squirm is still relatively accessible for now.

Never released on home video or streaming (9):

201 - Rocketship X-M

213 - Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster

311 - It Conquered the World

416 - Fire Maidens of Outer Space

418 - Attack of the the Eye Creatures

807 - Terror from the Year 5000

809 - I was a Teenage Werewolf

905 - The Deadly Bees

906 - The Space Children

In 2017, Shout released its final (?) MST3K DVD collection, which included Satellite Dishes, a compilation of host segments from episodes that "may never get a legitimate release." This included the nine listed above, as well as The Amazing Colossal Man and Quest for the Delta Knights. Of course, Delta Knights eventually got a digital-only release, which is cause for a glimmer of hope. But the others are probably tougher nuts to crack.

Wade Williams owned the rights to Rocketship X-M and had a particular sentimental attachment to the film. His death in 2023 may make it easier to negotiate with his estate, but I wouldn't count on that being a swift process.

Godzilla vs. Megalon and Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster are part of a prestigious franchise, and it's remarkable MST3K got away with riffing on Godzilla movies in the first place. I get the impression that Japanese culture doesn't particularly appreciate the sort of mockery MST3K is known for, so the rights to these two movies may be a long, long shot. Then again I used to think there was no hope of for the Gamera episodes too.

Fire Maidens, Deadly Bees, and Space Children are owned by Olive Films, and currently licensed to Paramount. It's possible a deal can be made later on, but not until the current arrangement expires.

The major bugbear for MST3K fandom is Susan Hart, the widow of American International Pictures co-founder James Nicholson. One way or another the AIP catalog was split up and Hart laid claim to several of their films, including Amazing Colossal Man, It Conquered the World, Eye Creatures, Terror from the Year 5000, and Teenage Werewolf. Hart's price for licensing her movies is very high, and it seems Shout has given up negotiating with her. I suppose the situation could change when she passes away, but I'd feel rather silly hoping for an old woman to die just so I can pay 8 bucks to watch robots laugh at a werewolf movie.

In conclusion, I've already purchased all the movies available on the Gizmoplex (I got most of them in a Kickstarter reward package), and the 31 that aren't available there can be obtained by, ahem, other means. So it's a great time to be an MST3K fan, and I'm still amazed how easy it is to watch the show nowadays.

[paulsebert]

Mystery Science Theater premiered on KTMA Tv on November 24, 1988

[orangecharactersmackdown]

now that we're done here (at least for now; there's been some talk about making polls an annual thing, so maybe there'll be another orange character smackdown next year. I'll also still be looking over here for notes/tags/etc), I'm looking to start another tournament, but I have enough ideas that idk what to go with first, so to stay on-brand: let's put it to popular vote!

here are my possible next polls (to be clear, I'm probably gonna do all of these eventually, but this contributes to the order):

Obscure Character Showdown: did your fav character lose a tournament, or not even get into it, that they were very qualified for, because they're too obscure? or have you wanted to enter a character in a tournament, but they've never qualified for one? enter them here! in this poll, the least number of submissions take precedent, so characters with more than one submission are less likely to get in! that means you gotta dig deep and submit something you think no on else will

Chronic Anxiety Tournament: for all your favorite characters with chronic anxiety, whether directly stated in canon or not! for all types of anxiety disorders, including generalized, social, OCD, PTSD, panic disorder, agoraphobia, and more

Fictional Dog Competition: self explanatory

Dog Breed Battle: also self explanatory. there will be no tolerance for chihuahua hate, pitbull/bully breed hate, or hate for any other breed

Zombie Bracket: for your favorite undead characters who are not ghosts or vampires!

Dating Sim Bracket: bracket for dating sim characters, both dateables and non-datables

Junji Ito Character Bracket: this is really just for me and the other Tomie girlies

Biggest Losers Beatdown: inspired by tournaments that put other poll's winners against each other. did your fav lose out in the first round? like real bad? submit them here! whoever loses the hardest in the first round is automatically crowned Biggest Loser, but the competition will continue to find out who is the Most Winningest Loser

Album Bracket: tournament for albums. no specific genre. I just like music. each matchup will contain links to 3 songs from each album (either submitter picked or by most popular track) so people voting can hopefully click through and find new music

MST3K Episode Brawl: let's determine the best episode of MST3K, according to tumblr! I want to do all 230 episodes (from KTMA to Gizmoplex), so it'll be quite a long one

[foone]

Dinosaur Grahams, by Salerno!

(An advert from KTMA channel 23, 03/05/1989 from this VHS rip)

[the-technicolor-whiscash]

I decided in my infinite wisdom a few weeks ago to try and watch all of mst3k from the beginning (minus KTMA) and like I don’t pay a lot of attention to the movies I mostly just have it as background noise but like let me tell you. Some of these early movies are fucking wild. The Robot vs the Aztec Mummy? A movie where half of it is focused on a fucking mummy and some haunted girl and the robot doesn’t show up until the last like half hour and then fights the mummy for maybe like 2 minutes? Who the fuck came up with that.

[thezanyarthropleura]

Film Ranking and Retrospective

So, after evaluating all twelve Gamera films based on purely objective metrics like turtle spin velocity, character development, how much I cried, number of potential sapphic relationships, and least amount of tapeworm, here they are from favorite to least favorite:

Gamera the Brave

Gamera: Guardian of the Universe

Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris

Gamera 2: Advent of Legion

Gamera: Super Monster

Gamera vs. Zigra

Gamera vs. Guiron

Gamera vs. Barugon

Giant Monster Gamera

Gamera vs. Gyaos

Gamera vs. Viras

Gamera vs. Jiger

Gamera the Brave takes the top spot for being so much more than it needed to be, perhaps taking a few steps outside what makes a typically good monster movie to just be an all-around great film. Of course, the Heisei trilogy still aren’t far behind, balancing the two a lot better than the Brave does and building an excellent cast of characters to the point that the hardest decision on this entire list, and the one I’m most likely to go back on at any moment, is ranking these three films against each other. Super Monster reaches for the stars just like the Brave does, daring to be something wholly unique despite its objective flaws, and is held back only by a gut punch ending after the likes of which I can’t actually make myself put it higher than the Heisei films. And of course, the rest of the Showa films are still going to end up ranked lower by being products of their time and having a relatively limited approach to in-depth storytelling, but there are still some I find exceptional for more unique reasons than I once thought I would. I even genuinely like most of Jiger, it’s just so much sensory hell it can be tricky to watch.

But my goals during this extended fixation weren’t really centered on pitting the films against each other - there was a lot of discovery, too. About halfway through March I did something I hadn’t expected I’d want to at the beginning, and bought myself the Arrow Video complete Showa era collection, mainly to get a physical copy of Super Monster but also with the bonus of getting to see Japanese versions of all eight films. In fact, I’ve now seen the Showa films probably just about any way one can see them, be that the subtitled original Japanese version, the AIP dub or first import English version, the Daiei pre-international dub (which I’ve learned is a more accurate term than “Sandy Frank”), the MST3K edition, the MST3K KTMA edition, the MST3K Fanmade edition, or specifically in Gamera: Super Monster’s case, the Elvira’s Movie Macabre edition or the Cinema Insomnia edition that’s missing a whole third of the movie.

That’s quite a lot of watching the Showa movies, and I think really a big theme for all of this was gaining a better appreciation of those films, specifically Noriaki Yuasa and his vision. He imagined Gamera as a hero for children, specifically because, as a child himself, living through the second World War and its aftermath, he came to believe adults were untrustworthy and too easily swayed by propaganda, and if that doesn’t make him the most relatable kaiju film directer of all time I don’t know what could possibly top it. Screw Gamera: Rebirth, the next one should be Gamera vs. Fox News.

Oh, right, speaking of which, I haven’t talked about that, either. And that’s because most of the major reasons I like the existing Gamera films so much tend to be more happenstance, and have little to do with how well they’ve followed the franchise formula. So far, nothing about Gamera: Rebirth has told me anything about how well it will handle its human characters, whether any of their stories will be relatable to me personally, whether it’ll have a strong environmental stance like Zigra, and actually with what we’ve seen of the cast, it seems like there aren’t going to be too many women in this series at all. Of course, that could always change, and there’s always a chance the one lady we’ve seen in the trailers could be compelling enough on her own to still make it a favorite, like with Mai in Gamera the Brave, but we won’t know anything for sure until release. But if, as seems most likely, Rebirth really is just a throwback to the early Showa era, I think now I can be a little more okay with that.

(I do actually quite like the monster designs revealed thus far. If I ever go back and write that possible Gamera vs. the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sequel, there’s a good chance of that magenta Neo-Jiger showing up in the Triceraton arena).

I think, if I were to put into words what makes Gamera unique among kaiju cinema, it’s that Gamera is most consistently a story about a giant monster interacting with humans, in most cases one or more specific humans. When I write for Toho kaiju (and by that I mean Battra), I’ll admit I’m basically just using yet another combination of the 37853590434 creative ways people have come up with to tell a story that’s still really about humans but using the monsters as the characters - and we do this because the monsters do have character. Unlike most giant creatures in the west, Japanese daikaiju represent things, they have emotions and personal values and life purposes, and often unique dynamics in interacting with one another. But you can’t really do much with just this side of things for the Gamera franchise, since there’s not a single monster in any of the full-length films whose relationship with Gamera is anything but antagonistic. But Gamera is already about the relationship between humans and monsters, and that was what I wanted to specifically take these couple of months to explore here, as it’s very similar to the stories I've already been straying farther from canon in order to tell with the friends and enemies of the other Big G.

As far as most of the western kaiju fandom is concerned, having such a focus on humans might appear to be the biggest risk the Gamera movies ever took, given how many fans I often see dismissing the human characters as unimportant at best, annoying at worst. Personally, I beg to differ, and the more I rewatch these films, the more I’ve begun to appreciate how remarkable it is that this one subset of historical foreign cinema, with the characters it portrays and the values it represents, became embedded in western culture all because there happened to be a market for imported special effects films. There are actually quite a lot of kaiju movies whose stories inspire me to want to write about the humans as well as the monsters. But the top of that list, if I wrote it out, would probably be stacked with more Gamera movies than anything else.

[nerds-yearbook]

The Comedy Central run of Mystery Science Theater 3000 ended on May 18, 1996 with the episode "Laserblast". This would also mark the last regular appearance of Trace Beaulieu as the Mad Doctor Forrester and the voice of Crow T Robot, both characters he did since the early local TV days on KTMA in Minneapolis, Minnesota as he did not follow the show to the Sci-Fi Network. In the episode, Doctor Forrester has to close down as he has lost his funding. He cuts the Satellite of Love loose from its orbit of Earth. Besides being made to watch the movie "Laserblast", test subject Mike and his robot friends find themselves going through a series of adventures involving sentient robots, star children, black holes until they reach the end of the universe. They decide to just transcend and just become pure energy. Meanwhile, Doctor Forrester finds himself living out the ending of 2001 A Space Odyssey until he ends up as a star child to be re-raised by his mother Pearl.

[rod-dogg-reviews]

SORRY FOR THE DELAY. FIRST TIME JITTERS

[therobotmonster]

If this is too difficult to answer, I understand. However, you have a solid overlap between MST3K fandom and overall trend analysis, so I am asking you all the same. And the question is: In the following situation, what is going with the MST3K fandom?

There seems to be this dislike of anything past S10...but then a dislike of the Mike seasons...that the *new* Joel episodes are bad, but *how* they are bad is unclear. It just comes off as this really weird space, where there's this anger for being *wrong*, but what that wrong *is* runs on unpleasant implications. Is this just ride or die for KTMA?

I might just be coming from the riffing equivalent of "no word for turquoise", because my first riffing experience was through Channel Awesome in the 9th grade, and then I found MST3K because I was looking for a copy of The Incredibly Strange Creatures on YouTube.

Honestly, I've not been involved in the larger MST3K fandom beyond watching the show and its influence on my own comedy.

I liked the new stuff okay. I felt it was perhaps over-polished for its own good, the movies weren't the best selections, and I had issues with vocal distinctiveness, especially early on. But a lot of those were "Best that could be done under the circumstances" situations and MST has had rough patches before.

The new version certainly suffered by being a streaming paywall institution. I liked the new riffs, but having to go to a special place to see them means they're just not in my rewatch cycle the way youtube or just flipping on pluto.tv is.

But if the larger fanbase is having some drama or being dicks about something... not my pitch-black circus, not my elaborately described monkeys.

[tvpromopod]

Sci-Fi 5: Mystery Science Theater 3000 - November 24, 1988

It was on this day in 1988 that viewers got their first glimpse of the Satellite of Love. Mystery Science Theatre 3000 aired on KTMA in Minneapolis and launched a long-running series that has gone through many permutations since. Hear #MST3K's origin story on Sci-Fi 5: https://sci-fi-5.libsyn.com/mystery-science-theater-3000-november-24-1988 Read the full article