Mystery Science Theater 3000: C/D, S/D.

Reptilicus is such a classic. Fun fact: Dirch Passer was such a star back then, that a working title for the film was 'Dirch and the Dragon'

Weird that the movie ditches him halfway through, then. Patton's intro of the movie as starring Dirch Passer and...? was the first thing I laughed at.

The episode itself was pretty funny. I agree with the sentiment that they seem to be anticipating the riffs a bit too much--a few times I swear their jokes come in ahead of what they're riffing on. There is a bit of dead air here and there, undoubtedly the result of Reptilicus being a pretty boring film for something about a giant lizard attacking Copenhagen. The non-movie segments were whatever--but as I've said before, I never really cared much about anything but the riffing.

I'm halfway through the first ep and not hating it. Several things that aren't working all that well seem like the kind of thing they can find their groove with, given time. Particularly the timing of some riffs (agreed about crammed-in verbiage and slightly-ahead-of-schedule delivery, both of which suggest yet-unsettled nerves to me), and the general personality of the skits which so far are meh. Surprised they'd go immediately for a 'song' skit rather than something that helps establish the vibe between new guy and the robots.

Also agreed that the voices are too samey. New Servo is no Kevin Murphy but then, nobody is. Nobody seems to have a talent for impressions/voices the way that Trace (and also Mike and in his way Joel) did, but that's something that it doesn't make sense to really judge this quickly. Mostly I'm just glad that the stuff I was really bracing myself for them to get wrong or too-slick hasn't exactly felt that way. This could actually end up being... good!

from what i can tell, at 5 eps in, the joke pacing slows down

Oh, it seems the American version cuts out the best scene with Dirch :( Here it is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifEI7OlkQH8

i was ready to cringe @ the monster rap and it's still only an OK bit but they got me back w/

"And by that I mean Jiufeng and Peng, giant Chinese birds, and one of them turns into a fish."

Nu Servo has a Phil Hartman/Zap Brannigan kind of voice which suits his character. I can't always distinguish between him and Jonah yet. (sidenote, i always thought kevin murphy as servo was too influenced by dennis miller's style of passing off obscure references as jokes. no idea if it was really murphy or one of the other writers.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4MugHxp2CI

i guess it depends, as ever, on whether you know the obscure refs or not...

"Get Courtney Love!"

I think it was Rosenbaum who pointed out the "Flemish painting" line in The Movie as an example of a dumb miller-esque line used as filler.

yes: final paragraph of http://www.jonathanrosenbaum.net/1996/04/no-joke/

OK I was trying not to be cynical during the development, but the first episode was just an exhausting onslaught of riffs. It really needed to breath better. Certain riffs would have been better if they weren't sandwiched between 5-6 others in a relentless burst. The delivery was a little too try-hard as well. It's not like they didn't let you breathe but there were way too many portions I found overwhelming.

I like the verse in Monster rap when they rhyme Luxembourg with itself x 5, it makes me laugh

The Time Travelers turned out to be a decent (if dated) movie. I liked how it used magic tricks instead of special effects. The riffs didn't work for me in the competently made sections. Its skits were the best yet.

That's one of my least favorite things Rosenbaum ever wrote. (Though I do agree The Movie is no great shakes.)

Also just reminds me of the Master Ninja riff. "Let Dennis Miller do Dennis Miller, Demi!"

Har Mar Superstar is a bit much.

Avalanche: soporific Corman-produced 70s disaster movie. The tendency to cram riffs into every free space is apparent here. Lots of figure skating without dialogue, so they make up silly move names that I didn't find funny. During the ending there's a long silence, and they fill it with... letters to tripadvisor? who writes letters to a website? There's also a skit with another terrible song. Best jokes come from the genre-awareness, that the movie tries to get away with its filler and bad characters because of the title. Love the riffs where they personify and root for the avalanche.

Avalanche and At The Earth's Core are the two that I am most looking forward to watching, as I vaguely remember both movies as Saturday afternoon filler on TV as a kid.

IIRC some footage from Avalanche is also used to dress up 1979's awful Meteor with the sense that the meteors are indeed wreaking disaster around the globe. (Not sure where they got the Hong Kong tidal wave stuff in the same sequence.) So really, you see that flick and you're really covering your Saturday afternoon TV filler bases.

avalanche was fun imo! the tripadvisor riffs made me lol, and i liked the iceskating riffs too. idk that this show holds up to too much deep scrutiny? even the old seasons would buckle under too much in-depth analysis

Beast of Holllow Mountain is enjoyable for the shared audience & riffer agitation of WHEN IS THE MONSTER GOING TO SHOW UP. It is a really weird awkward not good movie but the riffing is fun & has a more relaxed pace imo

i think they are getting better at the more continuous riffs vs rapid-fire one offs

this show is like super important and formed a lot of what comedy is to us idiot losers born in the 70s and 80s.

i get that

idk. i feel like exegesis is to comedy as nutrition is to big macs. it starts to feel more like science & less like the fun thing it was intended.

but that's always been my beef with comedy conversations on ilx so i should probably get over it by now & just let nerds be nerds <3

Land that time forgot is shaping up to be the perfect lazily entertaining mst episode

Finally got to watch Reptilicus. Agreed that the riffs seemed to be coming too fast and the timing was off - wish they had edited their material a bit and let it breathe more. I still enjoyed it a lot, largely because it's a great movie for riffing. There was a stretch starting with "how about reportercus shutupicus?" where I laughed at every riff for like two minutes

^^ Started watching Ep. 1 last night and ended up stopping it early because I had a headache and needed to lie down. But there were many time where riffs had me laughing so hard I was crying during the stretch you mention and even after. Especially good were, "Father! You remembered my birthday! But what did you do to my pony?!" and "A fire in the aquarium? This'll sort itself out."

The Beast of Hollow Mountain: genre mismatch of oater and monster movie, with a script worse than you'd suspect. The monster part takes a while to start up, but when it does, oh boy. They finally start building on riffs over time. (Are the episodes listed in the order they made them? It feels like it.)

So far I'd rate the episodes
1. Reptilicus
2. The Beast of Hollow Mountain
3. The Time Travelers
4. Cry Wilderness
5. Avalanche

reportercus shutupticus cracked me up so much

I watched Cry Wilderness last night and it was amazing. The pace and sharpness of the jokes had me in near-hysterics the entire time. (And the host segment with the Servo clones felt really Mike-era to me.)

Oh, and when the kid was hitchhiking up the mountain and the truck pulled up, I said to my wife, "Oh, please, let there be a 'Rowsdower' joke." I was only off by one scene!

Agreed that the initial eps are too frenetic and intense, with the riffs arriving before your brain can process what it's seen. They seem to start to relax and inhabit the moment better beginning with Star Crash or so. This makes some sense because I think they recorded every show in one massive push, which must have been gruelling. Haven't finished the season yet (on Land that Time Forgot) but I think they stuck the landing.

The characters need some more time to settle in – Servo's not quite there yet; I miss the dumber, kind-hearted Gypsy, I can see why they felt compelled to do something about her but right now she has no real personality, I assume that'll come. In the theater each of them sounds like the other so much I can't tell them apart, which wasn't true in the Joel/Mike shows where Joel and Mike have very distinct personalities from the bots.

Some skits are really weak and others are stunners (the monster rap), which is just like the original show. When you went back to the set you never really knew which you'd get. I have to say that the skits with the Mads are so far generally not that great, but we'll see how it goes. (Interesting that they relocated the 'conversations with people outside the ship' to the Mads rather than on the satellite.)

I wonder how people who weren't MST fans before are liking the show, I really hope they are, so they get some more time to see where they can go. Now we can see that rebooting the show with a new cast was the right call, I don't think people would really take to a reunion/nostalgia act.

Huge article on MST history, some great stuff in here: https://www.wired.com/2014/04/mst3k-oral-history/

plan on finally catching up w this this weekend.

lol @ "Rowsdower" i just watched that episode. "He looks like a clown without makeup"

Starcrash is great

I'm dying

Starcrash is one of my favorite movies. it is peak late 70s post-Star Wars cheap Italian rip-off. they were smart about it and got James Bond's John Barry to do the soundtrack. it is way more colorful than any other post glam rock sci fi even Flash Gordon. do they riff the international cut? there is an original cut of the film that features some extended performances that were cut because they were too hammy.

i caught some of the first episode last night. i like it! it feels very much like watching a new MST3K. i admit the voice for Tom Servo threw me off at first during the theater scenes but he ended up making me laugh anyways. this crew shows promise! i can't wait to watch Starcrash. i'll probably skip ahead...

i laughed so hard so many times

also i'm in love w nina cassini now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKsRlEsIcpg

also i'm in love w nina cassini now

― Yoni Loves Chocha (VegemiteGrrl)

would you say you're... obsessed with her?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTqQgjR57qc

lol yes

what's gypsy's deal

how come she's only ever in each thing like once

and what's the basket thing she's always either picking up or dropping off

is it secret

oh nevermind according to the Wikipedia, she's too busy/smart to care. also she's a notary, that's cool

ending riff to Loves of Hercules had me in tears, omg

Cry Wilderness was very funny too. 2-for-2 so far! Are the skits shorter than they used to be? it seems like they come and go more quickly

yeah they are much more compact

Wizards of the Lost Kingdom is bananas

Starcrash is besting me. I have no idea what is happening in that movie. Watched the first half a second time, still no idea.

Its riff frequency is a lot better though. They even held back when David Hasselhoff was shouting "Stella!"

Wizards of the Lost Kingdom II - less pants, not *as* bananas, 100% more David Carradine

The Land That Time Forgot: based on a Burroughs story, it starts off well, then gets sidetracked by its makeup and hand puppets -- pretty good hand puppets, mind, but not good enough to come across as full-sized dinosaurs. Lots of riffs on bland, Shatner-looking leading man Doug McClure, star of long-running but forgotten TV oater "The Virginian". Many references to Simpsons character Troy McClure, and this season loves its Simpsons references. Also Game of Thrones, which gets three different riffs in this episode alone.

The Loves of Hercules: my favorite so far. One of those bad movies I love that combines pleasurably incompetent parts with painfully boring parts. It's great how they forgot how to shoot a movie during the Hydra fight. The simple plot means I don't need to expend brain energy to follow both the movie and the riffs. And the riffs definitely help getting through those boring parts. I laughed a lot.

'The Land That Time Forgot' felt like an odd inclusion to me - it's a classic! I must have seen that once a year since I was a kid. It's like putting 'Journey to the Centre of the Earth', or 'Jason and the Argonauts' on there.

Lmk when y'all finish this off

Honestly I haven't had time to go back beyond that preview showing of the first one. (Vacation and work and etc. will do that to you.) But the fact I'm in no rush miiiight say something about how I'm regarding the rest of this.

It's also like 20 hours worth of TV