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annakie · 7 years

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I’ve been meaning to make a post about my love for Mystery Science Theater 3000, and how it’s influenced me for so much of my life, and about the new episodes, and now this.

So, getting to see Trace Beaulieu and Frank Conriff riff live last night is a good of an excuse to do it as any.

Long post and a few more pics, including some kinda cool Manos stuff, below.

Like a lot of MST3k fans of old, I discovered the show by being bored and channel surfing in the 90′s, finding this show where these 3 guys kept talking over a movie, and eventually sticking around long enough to see a few host segments and start to enjoy the show.

I honestly couldn’t tell you what the first MST3k episode I sat through from beginning to end first, though it may have been Frist Spaceship on Venus, in a rerun. I know I became a fan before Joel left, my senior year of high school. I clearly remember watching the last few Joel episodes, being sad he left, and then being shocked when Mike showed up. I liked Mike just as much and was in awe when I found USENET about a year later and read through many of the great Joel vs Mike flamewars on rec.arts.tv.mst3k.misc.

I didn’t post a whole lot on the group, though I did a little. At the time, MST3k to me was this really cool under-ground-y feeling thing, few people I talked to knew what it was (though I converted many), the first fandom I participated in online, and my favorite show.

My family didn’t always have cable, it usually depended on how bored my dad was, he’d subscribe and cancel on a whim, so when we had it, I recorded the hell out of the episodes. When we didn’t, sometimes my grandma did, so when I could, I’d head over to her place with a VHS tape and hang out with her while we watched the show. I think she didn’t really love the show, but she loved me coming over to hang out with her.

I still have a box full of my MST3k VHS tapes. I even used to circulate them sometimes, for awhile when we had 2 VCRs at the house, thanks to help from USENET tape trading circles.

In 1995 or so was when I realized I was living in El Paso, going to UTEP, and it dawned on me that I might be able to dig up information on Manos: The Hands of Fate. The Internet was a much smaller place back then, and we didn’t have the benefit of things like IMDB, so even after digging online I couldn’t figure out an exact timeframe for the release of the movie. I spent probably 12 or so hours skimming through months and months worth of microfiche scans of the El Paso Times and El Paso Sun Herald looking for some mention of the movie.

I eventually hit jackpot and found not only some advertisements for the premiere, but also the review that was written the next day after the premiere. I printed out scans of the movie poster advertisements and snail mailed them to the guy who ran the biggest MST3k fansite at the time, then typed out the transcript of the reviews and another short article about the movie for USENET. I’m fairly certain we wouldn’t have the movie poster image for Manos online if it wasn’t for me, and the guy who put them on his site.

The images have faded and the pages have gotten a bit stuck together after 20ish years, but I still have the printouts I didn’t send.

I also remember the night the show premiered on Scifi, I drove to Las Cruses with a friend after a long day at a water park where I got super sunburned to watch the episode with my brother and sister-in-law. I was so dehydrated and sun-sick that I think I had to run to the bathroom a few times, but it was worth it. MST3k had been saved.

Round about 1996 I decided I needed a solid Internet name that would stick, especially since I was chatting on IRC a lot and joined the Scifi Channel’s IRC channel, since MST3k was now on Scifi, and became one of the regulars on the server. I’d managed to pick one of the very few copies of the MST3k Amazing Colossal Episode Guide that had come to El Paso, so I flipped through the book until I landed on episode #422 - The Day the Earth Froze. That was already one of my favorite episodes, and the heroine of the not-that-bad-for-a-MST3k-episode was named Annakie. That felt just weird enough to be an internet handle, and just obscure enough that only MSTies might get the origin.

I’ve been Annakie on the internet ever since. I wouldn’t learn for a good 15 years that Annakie is actually some people’s real name, and so the last few years it’s been harder to snag my name on sites, but I try.

I joined the fanclub. MSTie #54377. I still have several of my old newsletters.

(Uh the newsletter wasn’t “from Sergio”. My boyfriend at the time had sent me a Christmas present, my mom wrote that on the newsletter when she left them both in my room that day.)

The Scifi channel IRC server would host chats with the stars of various shows, and occasionally that included MST3k. Once, Kevin Murphy picked his nose at me.

I was so excited to be spending the summer in Dallas the year the MST3k movie came out. It was showing at a theater, in a location I was near to, the first week I was in Dallas. Unfortunately, I didn’t have control over where we were going that evening. We did go to a movie that night, but not MST3k. The people I was with promised we’d go see the movie next week (or at least drop me off.)

It wasn’t in theaters anymore the next weekend. I was quietly devastated and only simmered with rage for a few weeks. :) I eventually got to see it, by special ordering the VHS for more than I could afford to spend many months later. I still have that VHS tape, damnit.

When the end came, I was living in Dallas, but couldn’t possibly afford cable. I scavenged the show when I could. The syndicated one-hour version of the show hosted by Mike-As-James-Lipton was a particular godsend. I’d been unable to watch most of the last couple of seasons, but managed to get a friend’s parents to record the last episode for me.

Eventually, I was able to afford a house, and cable TV, and managed to catch up on most of the SciFi episodes that I missed before they, too went off the air. The morning that the final MST3k rerun aired on SciFi I sat on my couch, drank a mimosa and cried a little when it ended.

By that time MST3k had been a part of my life, and one of my favorite things for about a dozen years. I had a giant poster of Mike, the Bots and the Mads that had been stuck up and pulled down from my childhood bedroom, to a dorm room, back to my room in my family’s house, then four apartments in Dallas. I hadn’t put it up in my house because the corners were torn off and I wanted to get it framed. Never have. It’s around here somewhere. I instead took an 8x10 glossy I’d picked up somewhere, probably ordered it online, and framed it. A few years later, I managed to snag a rare MST3k The Movie poster on ebay for something outrageous, like $75 or something. It was worth it. It’s still framed and hanging in my house.

So yeah, so for awhile, that was the end.

I followed what all the alums did, like many did. I read Timmy Big Hands, but Rifftrax was exciting. I haven’t gone to as many Rifftrax shows as I should have or bought as many as I should have, but I do support them when I can. When Cinematic Titanic was new, they came to Dallas and I went to that show. At the time, the biggest thrill I’d had. I didn’t stay after to meet them, I’d promised a friend we’d go out when I got out of the show and I am still really, really kicking myself for that decision because I could have had that meet and greet moment with Trace, Frank, Joel, Josh and Mary Jo. It was a really great night, and at the time, one of the most awesome nights of my life.

A few years later, I’d gotten super into The Thrilling Adventure Hour, and finally got to go see my first show in LA at Largo for the 2014 Sparks Nevada’s I’m from Earth Day Special. One of the episodes was written by Bill Corbett and he also guest starred in it. I was thrilled to get to see and talk to several Workjuice Players who I had met three weeks earlier at Emerald City Comic Con, but honesty, my best memory of that night was getting to meet Bill Corbett, even briefly.

Last year when Joel announced the Kickstarter, I took a serious look at my finances and came up with a number I felt was OK to donate. It was enough for a few decent rewards, and best of all, my name in the credits of an episode. (I haven’t gotten to that episode even yet but I included “Annakie” as my middle name when I filled out the backer kit questionnaire.)

I was skeptical, but if Joel was behind it, I decided to trust it. As great as Rifftrax is (and it is!) and Cinematic Titanic was, there’s just nothing like MST3k itself. So I breathed a sigh of relief as soon as the Kickstarter was funded and watched the live stream at the end of the campaign. I was a bit trepidacious about the new cast, though I’m a fan of Felicia, am OK with Patton and had never heard of any of the other guys. I felt better once it was clear the rest of the cast was invited back and some agreed to make appearances.

I decided basically to trust Joel, and go in with an open mind. The big MST3k reunion show where Joel and Jonah riffed together set any doubts that I still had at ease anyway. Netflix picking up the show was a huge relief.

I’m still not done with the season. I watched most of the first episode the day it came out, then decided to stop and give my views to Netlfix.

I love it. Jonah is fantastic, and I love him just a much as Joel and Mike. The hardest thing for me to get over has been a new voice for Tom -- Barron is GREAT, we just had the same Tom for so long. The new Mads are great. I like the riffing pace. It’s still the same show, still my favorite show. I actually want to write a lot more on this but this post is really long. But suffice it to say, I agree with almost everyone else on the new show. When do we get a season 12 pickup?

So despite the fact that I follow both Trace and Frank on twitter, and the Alamo Drafthouse near me, I somehow didn’t notice that The Mads Are Back was coming to Dallas until last week. Luckily, there were still (very few) tickets left to Saturday’s performance. Apparently, they did an entirely different movie on Friday, but that was sold out.

I didn’t know they were going to be doing a meet and greet before the show, and since I was going alone I ended up not arriving until about 15 minutes before the show started. I managed to hop into line just before the line got cut off behind me, and, though it was rushed, I got to shake both Trace and Frank’s hands, thank them for coming to Dallas, and got my now very used and fragile Amazing Colossal Episode Guide signed, right on the “The Day the Earth Froze” page. I mentioned I was having them sign that page since I go by Annakie on the internet, and so they signed it to Annakie. :)

(You can see how the pages are starting to fall off the binding there. I’ve read the book once or twice.)

I wore a Thrilling Adventure Hour shirt, Frank commented on it, which made me particularly happy.

The show was great (except for the really annoying people sitting near me, who nearly got thrown out and I guess eventually were too drunk to stay), and they did a Q&A afterward.

I think we MiSTies are so lucky these days. The show went from cable access, to Comedy Central, then to SciFi. We eventually got Rifftrax, and Cinematic Titanic, and now we have The Mads doing their own thing, and.... the show itself is back. Aside from following a few MST3k related blogs on tumblr, a few groups on Facebook, and most of the cast on twitter. I haven’t really been in the central part of the fandom in a long awhile, (though I have made a few gifs) but when I dip my toes in, it’s still a pretty good place.

It also brings me a lot of joy to see so many new people discovering the show. People who were born during or even after the run of the show jumping in and loving it, too, is just so awesome.

Next year, the show turns 30, and it’s still as great as ever, and maybe even stronger than ever. Whatever they do next, I’m on board.

#mst3k #mystery science theater 3000 #frank conniff #trace beaulieu #mst3000 #annakie's mst3k stuff #annakie's mst3k gifs

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