From: jenkins@MHD1.moorhead.msus.edu (jenkins lisa)

Date: Thu, 25 Jun 92 8:55:07 CDT

Subject: MST3K--more articles!

From: The Washington Post

Date: June 5, 1992

Headline: Defying Gravity

Subline: TV Preview: Comedy Central's Wonderful Bad Movies

Author: Shales, Tom

Page(s): Style [?]

 

It's show time. You grab your bag of Cheetos, find your favorite chair, make yourself nice and comfy and sit back to enjoy the movie. Then three people plop themselves down in front of you and proceed to make wisecracks all through the film.

Sheer hell? No, sheer heaven, at least on Saturday mornings, when cable's Comedy Central presents "Mystery Science Theater 3000", the patently irresistable show in which abominable old movies are eviscerated by Joel Robinson and his smartalecky robot pals Crow and Tom Servo.

After months of reruns, MST3K returns tomorrow morning at 10 with a new season of 24 shows. Comedy Central is now seen in about 24 million cable homes; Montgomery County's cable system added it in December and Jones Intercable of Alexandria may be adding it at the end of this month. If it's not on your system, well, throw a fit.

In the weeks ahead, Joel and the 'bots will wreak havoc on such mouth-watering, stomach-churning titles as "Attack of the Giant Leeches," "Hercules Against the Moon Men," "First Maidens From Outer Space" and "The Beatniks."

Most of the MST3K films are B movies at best, but the new season starts with a big-budget bomb: Gregory Peck, Gene Hackman, Mariette Hartley and other shockingly recognizable names in "Space Travelers," a recut (and mercifully shortened) version of the 1969 snoozer "Marooned," which was just shown in its original version last night on the TNT network.

Ironically enough, or maybe too ironically, "Space Travelers" is about people stranded in space, also the premise of MST3K. Exiled to permanent orbit in a satellite by "evil overlords" at the Gizmonic Institute, Robinson and his robotic cronies are forced to watch the films as part of an open-ended and essentially pointless scientific experiment.

Dr. Clayton Forrester, head evil overlord, tells the victims tomorrow, "The presence of Gregory Peck or Gene Hackman does not diminish the pain in any way."

The robots continually but understandably confuse James Franciscus, who is in the movie, with Anthony Franciosa, who is not. They also get Lee Grant mixed up with Lou Grant. When Franciscus, as one of the astronauts, looks out the porthole and sees clouds over Florida, he says, "Somebody's gonna have a hurricane," and Joel and the 'bots astutely respond, "Subplot! Subplot! Subplot!"

MST3K comes not out of Hollywood or New York but out of Minneapolis, where it is put together with affectionate malice by writers and producers Jim Mallon, Mike Nelson, Trace Beaulieu (who also plays Forrester and is the voice of Crow), Kevin Murphy (the voice of Tom Servo), Frank Conniff (who brilliantly plays Frank, Forrester's softheaded assistant) and series creator Joel Hodgson, who plays Joel Robinson.

Reached at Best Brains Productions in Minneapolis recently, Hodgson sounded tired and cranky, but he always sounds tired and cranky, at least when reached.

"The new shows look really good," Hodgson boldly declared. "We've been able to get really high-level movies, for us. We've got our ducks in a row." He confessed there had been some dissention among the staff and said his temperamental behavior was the cause of it. But that's over now. "They just confronted me one day and said, 'Don't do it anymore. It's really uncool and unprofessional,'" a chastened Hodgson said.

Actually, Hodgson and his cohorts were "ready to start delivering new shows in January." But Comedy Central chose to delay the return until the summer, because of what Hodgson suspects was a "budget crunch." Much of the programming on Comedy Central consists of monotonous excerpts from stand-up comedy acts. MST3K is the channel's crown jewel, its "Masterpiece Theatre" and "Sesame Street" rolled into one.

Fans, who call themselves Mistees, are growing in number and dogged in devotion. A couple thousand lucky ones will be able to see live performances of MST3K that Hodgson and his collegues will give on July 10 in a Minneapolis movie theater. Hodgson also said that a movie version of the show is being considered.

Comic and talk show host Dennis Miller recently cited MST3K as one of his favorite shows in a "TV Guide" interview. And it was named among the top five cable programs by critics responding to an Electronic Media poll.

It is, in short, a joy, a treasure, a golden voyage of discovery, a sweet-natured celebration of human fallibility. And it can run forever, because new bad movies are made ALL THE TIME. Imagine--Joel and the 'bots meet "Far and Away"!

Though its cast is perhaps not as auspicious as that of "Space Travelers," Hodgson and company have another classy (for them) title booked for the new season: "City Limits," showing June 20. Its cast includes James Earl Jones, Kim Cattrall and Robby Benson. Leonard Maltin's "TV Movies and Video Guide" describes the 1985 sci-fi flop as "an incoherent mess set 15 years in the future after a plague has devestated the planet." I can't wait.