MST3K Season 1

[chazraps]

As a Minnesotan, I've been a proud lifelong MSTie. Yet, I really hadn't seen a whole lot of the first season as by the time I started regularly watch, Best Brains had Comedy Central pull season one from re-airings. I caught The Crawling Hand off a Rhino tape when I was in high school and recall kind of struggling with the aesthetic. I then got The Crawling Eye from a tape trade shortly after and liked it, but after seeing how much better even the second season episodes onward were, I never really went out of my way to see them.

So even with buying the volumes, some of those first season episodes have just sat there for me. For some season, this week I decided to give a few a shot and now I'm on a pretty big Season 1 kick. I know the riffing is a bit more sparse than the second season onward, but the movies they seemed to get this first year seemed interesting enough to be engaging viewing without the need of that much riffing. I was surprised how much I found myself following the story in The Corpse Vanishes, and I also really dug Robot Holocaust and Robot Monster.

Prior to this week, I thought my favorite season 1 episode was Untamed Youth, but now I'm suddenly inspired, especially that they're all commercially available on DVD, to catch-up on all of them.

What do you think of the show's first season? Any favorite episodes?

[pegasuswarrior]

I feel the same as you pre-binge. To me, MST3K hits its stride and knows what it is in the "second season." I've not yet got to the revelation point you're at. I hope I do. Not saying that I won't or not saying it sarscastically. The way I think of MST3k is season 2 onward.

[lovingway]

I started watching MST3K from its beginning on the Comedy Channel so season 1 has a special place for me. But watching those shows now are sort of ehh.

[HMARK Center]

I get a vibe from it like you can feel the riffing style evolve over the course of season one. I had a few episodes in the box sets from season one that didn't do much for me, but I've found lately that the ones in more recent sets have been pretty satisfying watches.

Obviously it's not season two and onwards, but it's kind of fun to see it all change before your eyes.

[kevin]

I did not really like it till Mike took over from Joel. Mike is just a lot better and after the move to Syfy it was an amazingly good show.

[chazraps]

Sept 21, 2014 15:19:25 GMT -5 pegasuswarrior said:

I feel the same as you pre-binge. To me, MST3K hits its stride and knows what it is in the "second season." I've not yet got to the revelation point you're at. I hope I do. Not saying that I won't or not saying it sarscastically. The way I think of MST3k is season 2 onward.

If you're ever curious, I'd say read the descriptions of a few of the movies and go in knowing you're basically going to watch this bad movie first and foremost with the occasional riff from Joel and the Bots. It's easier than that sounds because the first season has probably the most recognizable and, dare I say, watchable bad movies of the entire Comedy Central era.

Robot Holocaust is great post-apocalyptic cheese in the vein of Future War or Warrior of the Lost World.

Robot Monster is just a classic 50s sci-fi weird absurd film.

The Corpse Vanishes is an absurd Bela Lugosi being super creepy movie with incredible pacing.

Also, just skip the Commando Cody shorts if they're not your thing. I watched them all separately first on a Shout Factory bonus disc, so now when I watch Season 1 episodes, I can just skip right to the feature.

[Kevin Hamilton]

I'm way more a Mike guy. I appreciate what Joel did, but I just don't like his episodes nearly as much as Mike's.