Deep Hurting ... MSTie Style

One of the first movies I saw from the MST3K (Mystery Science Theater 3000) group was Hercules Against the Moonmen, which featured an epic sandstorm and Deeeep Huuuurting. Um, you'd had to have been there, but trust me, it was funny. Anyway. I became an MST3K fan. If you're not a fan and have no idea what I'm talking about you should probably just look away now, there's probably not much point to go into an explanation. But if you are interested in the history and makeup of the show, the best place to go is Satellite News (click here to go there).

Left to right: Gypsy, Crow T. Robot, Joel, Mike, and Tom Servo

There is, of course, a raging debate, ala Kirk and Picard, as to who was the better host. Joel Hodgson (show creator and host up through half of season 5) or Mike Nelson (host from half of season 5 until the end of it all, which was season 10). I like them both, but if forced to pick, would give my nod to Joel, just as I would give my nod (does a nod count as a vote?) to Kirk. But I'm not insinuating (or implying or inferring) that Joel slept with all the space chicks. To the best of my knowledge, he did not. Then there are, of course, the Mads (Dr. Forrester and TV's Frank).

Background: TVs Frank (Frank Conniff).

Foreground: Dr. Forrester (Trace Beaulieu)

And let's not forget about Pearl and Brain Guy and Bobo. I may have liked both Joel and Mike, but as far as the Mads go, it wasn't close with Dr. Forrester and TV's Frank getting far more nods than Pearl, BG, and Bobo. But I digress. Let's see. Sadly, the show went away after a hearty 10-year run. But like all good things, it's come back ... sort of. What? Don't all good things come back? They don't? Screw it, they did in this case. Pretty much everyone associated with MST3K has jumped back into the movie-riffing business. Here's a rundown:

• RiffTrax (click here to go there) - An ingenious development where Mike Nelson and sometimes Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett or guest riffers like Weird Al or Neal Patrick Harris riff on any movie they want, putting it all into an audio file. Then by following their directions you can sync their riffing audio to the movie in question (assuming you own the movie, but why the hell would you buy the riff without owning the movie? What were you thinking?!). By doing this they've bypassed the whole getting permission from the movie maker to riff on the movie. They will never have to worry about regaining rights to a movie in the years to come (which has plagued re-releases of MST3K movies (which are now coming out from Shout Factory (click here to go there) instead of Rhino. Which is nice cohesion as Shout Factory also sells The Film Crew (see the next bullet))).
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The Film Crew (click here to go there) - This is Mike, Kevin, and Bill (the Sci-Fi Channel MST3K group) riffing on crappy old movies, just like MST3K. With this you get the movie and the audio all in one package just as God intended. Which means they have to cut deals with the movie makers to riff on their movies.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Cinematic Titanic (click here to go there) - Joel is back (and so is Josh Weinstein, who was one of the originals and went away within the first year or so of MST3K - I wasn't around at the time, so I couldn't tell you exactly when, so back off). Anywho, this is Joel, Josh, Trace Beaulieu, Frank Conniff, and Mary Jo Pehl doing a very MST3K-type show with silhouettes on the screen and everything. A rip off? Hell, Joel created MST3K and he can do anything he wants, short of ridding the world of 8-track tapes. And Sixlets.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Mystery Science Theater 3000 (click here to go there) - That's right, even MST3K is back (kinda). Jim Mallon, the executive producer who did not get along with either Joel or Josh (or so I'm led to believe from my nasty back-alley dealings, and from the riffing I heard from Mike, Kevin, and Bill, they didn't exactly like the guy either) is putting cartoons together of the Bots (Tom, Crow, and Gypsy). Um, honestly, I've yet to see one of these that was actually good. Ah, well, 3 outta 4 ain't bad (you can guess which way my nods go here).