One of the best television shows of all time riffed one of the worst movies of all time December 21, 1991 when Mystery Science Theater 3000 featured Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. Joel and the bots sit through a poorly-acted, poorly-written movie with a lame plot. Martians kidnap Santa Claus and take him back to Mars because there isn't anyone there to give presents to the children. It marked the film debut of Pia Zadora.
Star Trek: Deep Space 9 and Star Trek: Voyager each won 3 Primetime Emmys at the 47th annual ceremony held September 10, 1995. My girl Cyndi Lauper won for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her work in Mad About You. Babylon 5 won Outstanding Individual Achievement in Makeup for a Series for Acts of Sacrifice. Angela Lansbury was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her work in Murder, She Wrote. The X-Files received 7 nominations, four of which were for the episode Duane Barry. Mystery Science Theater 3000 was nominated for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing for a Variety or Music Program. CCH Pounder was nominated for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for her performance in The X-Files.
DS9 won:
Outstanding Individual Achievement in Makeup for a Series for Distant Voices
Outstanding Individual Achievement – Special Visual Effects for The Jem’Hadar Outstanding Individual Achievement in Hairstyling for a Series for Improbable Cause
Voyager won:
Outstanding Individual Achievement – Special Visual Effects for Caretaker Outstanding Individual Achievement in Main Title Theme Music for Jerry Goldsmith Outstanding Individual Achievement in Makeup for a Series for Faces
Voyager was nominated for:
Outstanding Individual Achievement in Cinematography for a Series for Heroes and Demons Outstanding Individual Achievement in Costume Design for a Series for Caretaker Outstanding Individual Achievement in Graphic Design and Title Sequences Outstanding Individual Achievement in Hairstyling for a Series for Caretaker Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music Composition for a Series (Dramatic Underscore) for Caretaker Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music Composition for a Series (Dramatic Underscore) for Heroes & Demons
X-Files was nominated for:
Outstanding Drama Series Outstanding Individual Achievement in Cinematography for a Series for One Breath Outstanding Individual Achievement in Editing for a Series – Single Camera Production for Sleepless Outstanding Individual Achievement in Editing for a Series – Single Camera Production for Duane Barry Outstanding Sound Editing for a Series for Duane Barry Outstanding Writing for a Drama for Duane Barry
Murder, She Wrote was also nominated for Nominated for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Art Direction for a Series for Death ‘N’ Denial Outstanding Individual Achievement in Costuming for a Series for Murder A La Mode Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music Composition for a Series (Dramatic Underscore) for Murder in High C
Mike and the bots were subjected to the campy, Spanish movie Santa Claus, December 24, 1993 on Mystery Science Theater 3000. In this film, Santa Claus must deal with an imp from the devil who tries to brainwash Earth's children. Viewers can really feel their pain!
Fortunately, Kevin Murphy appears briefly as the real Santa Claus!
One of the best lines:
Narrator: [in film] Children from the USA...
Crow T. Robot: ...are too spoiled and lazy to help Santa!
Michael J. Nelson, born October 11, 1964 in St. Charles, Illinois, has been nominated for two Primetime Emmys for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing for a Variety or Music Program, that program being Mystery Science Theater 3000, one of my favorite shows of all time.
According to imdb.com, he was working as a waiter at T.G.I. Fridays and doing stand-up comedy when he was offered a job typing for MST3K. He was allowed to make comments on the movies they were watching, and they were so impressed with his wit, they made him a staff writer. Later, he became the head writer.
Joel Hodgson picked him as his replacement when he left the show. One reason cited was because he looked great standing next to bots Crow, Tom Servo, and Gypsy.
A truly, campy, cheesy movie Fire Maidens of Outer Space hit US movie theaters September 6, 1956. It is one of the perfect victims for Joel and the bots to skewer on Mystery Science Theater 3000.
A group of men exploring the 13th moon of Jupiter find it to be forested and discover the last remnants of Atlantis, an old man with a bevy of young, beautiful women and a monster. The women are desperate for husbands and the old man is trying to get them married off to keep the colony alive. But there is that pesky monster to contend with.
It has been described as one of the worst movies ever!
Gamera vs. Guiron, the fifth installment of the Gamera series in the Showa era, was released March 21, 1969 in Japan. Daiei Films introduced Gamera in 1965 to compete with Godzilla, but we all know how that went.
Two kids discover a spacecraft that landed near their home with the door wide open. They go inside despite the bratty little sister threatening to tell Mom. The doors close and the two boys are whisked off to another planet and Gamera must come to their rescue. First he has to battle Guiron, a strange creature with a curved blade for a head.
It was featured twice on Mystery Science Theater 3000.
Another black & white cinematic masterpiece of horror, Terror From the Year 5000 was released January 18, 1958. It's more like A Big Annoyance from the Year 5000 but I wasn't asked. Mike and the bots from Mystery Science Theatre 3000 were also underwhelmed.
A scientist has managed to invent a machine that can capture objects from the future. Of course, things don't go as planned and a mysterious woman comes through the machine with deadly consequences.
They try to build up suspense but it takes almost an hour into the movie before something exciting actually happens.
Lead actor Ward Costello appeared in Star Trek: The Next Generation as Admiral Quinn. The evil woman shapeshifter was played by Salome Jens, who also starred as a shapeshifter in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
It was released as a double bill with The Screaming Skull, another horror movie classic! If you enjoy these low-budget C or D movies, you can't miss this one.
H. G. Wells' science-fiction classic novel (with some creative liberties), War of the Worlds, premiered on the big screen August 26, 1953. It starred Gene Barry as Dr. Clayton Forrester (sound familiar?).
It was released within a generation of Orson Welles' iconic and panic-inducing radio broadcast in 1939. It was the biggest science-fiction movie of the year.
It won an Academy Award for Best Effects, Special Effects and has been selected for preservation by the Library of Congress in its National Film Registry.
Mystery Science Theater 3000 named its main antagonist Dr. Clayton Forrester as an homage to the film.
Universally accepted as one of the worst films ever made, Monster A-Go-Go was released July 1965. It is a black and white science fiction film directed by Bill Rebane and an uncredited Herschell Gordon Lewis.
Rebane began filming the movie but ran out of money and abandoned it in 1961. Lewis needed a second film for a double-feature, so he bought the film and added some scenes to it. He was unable to gather the original cast members, which resulted in half the characters disappearing halfway through the movie with no explanation. One actor from the original who appeared in the Lewis version had changed his looks so dramatically, he had to play the brother of his original character.
The result is a disjointed, incoherent film that leaves the audience thinking "Huh?" The ending is left wide open with little resolution, almost as if there was a sequel planned. We are so lucky there never was one.
However, the movie lives on in Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes.
Mike Nelson, Tom Servo and Crow made it to the big screen in Mystery Science Theatre 3000: The Movie, released April 19, 1996. Universal gave it a limited release but it was distributed to so few theatres, many fans did not realize that it had been released.
The cast - Mike Nelson, Trace Beaulieu, Kevin Murphy and Jim Mallon - spoofed a science fiction movie This Island Earth, a 1955 release which is better than most of the movies they usually riff.
Apparently, they had such a bad experience with the studio, they spoofed their experience when they skewered The Incredible Melting Man.
I enjoyed it, but many of the television episodes are funnier.
The third installment of the Gamera series, Gamera vs Gyaos, was released March 15, 1967 by Daiei Films. It introduced the Gyaos, who became a favorite adversary of Gamera, kinda like King Ghidorah to Godzilla.
It was released in the U.S. as Return of the Giant Monsters and spoofed by Joel and the Bots on Mystery Science Theatre 3000.
From the brilliant mind of Bert I. Gordon, Earth vs. the Spider (or The Spider) was released September 1958.
A town is terrorized by a gigantic spider that appears from a cave. The sheriff and others manage to knock it out with DDT, thinking they have killed it. So they store it in a high school gymnasium for study. What could go wrong?
The band playing music and teenagers dancing revive the beast and it runs amok through the town.
Joel and the bots skewered in Mystery Science Theatre 3000. The best line (or worst pun): "It's Carol's dad's Caverns!" Ouch.
Tormented, released September 22, 1960, is another Bert I. Gordon "classic". Although billed as horror, it's wonderfully campy and hilariously dissected by Joel and the bots on Mystery Science Theatre 3000.
An aspiring musician lets his ex-girlfriend fall to her death from a lighthouse so she won't interfere with his upcoming nuptials. Soon, her ghost starts wreaking havoc on his life.
One of the biggest mysteries is why a young woman is marrying a man 22 years older than she is. Actually, the actor playing Tom Stewart is 4 years older than the actor playing his future father-in-law. Oh, well.
Anyway, Lugine Sanders, who plays the bride-to-be, is a native Oklahoman!
Super-campy The Brain that Wouldn't Die was released on August 8, 1962. When a mad doctor's fiance is beheaded in a car crash, the doctor manages to keep her head alive in a pan, hooked up to tubes with colored liquid flowing through them. "Jan in the Pan" is how she would later be known as in pop culture. The actress Virginia Leith reportedly hated the movie so much she refused to return for post-production work.
Michael and the bots had a great time skewering this movie of unspeakable horror from hell!
Certainly not the crown jewel in Ed Wood's tiara of campy movies, but "Bride of the Monster", released May 11, 1955, was Wood's only commercially successful film upon its release. It was Bela Lugosi's last movie where he had a speaking part and it was hilariously sliced and diced by the crew of the Satellite of Love, "Mystery Science Theatre 3000".
I especially love the scene where the newspaper clerk's pencil keeps appearing and disappearing.
A-dork-able Joel Hodgson, born February 20, 1960, is the main man responsible for bringing us "Mystery Science Theatre 3000" the snarkiest show on television. While on air, Joel and the 'bots, Tom Servo and Crow, they sliced and diced the 'C' and 'D' sci-fi movies every week. Their wit and humor are sorely missed.
Noel Neill, born November 25, 1920, is probably best known for her portrayal of Lois Lane in "The Adventures of Superman" which ran from 1952 to 1958. She replaced Phyllis Coates who starred in the role from 1952-1953. Both Neill and Coates starred in "Invasion USA", a wonderfully forgettable sci-fi movie about the Soviets invading the USA. Joel and the bots conducted a battle of the Lois Lanes when they featured "Invasion" on "Mystery Science Theatre 3000".
Trace Beaulieu, born November 6, 1958, played Crow T. Robot and the evil Dr. Clayton Forrester on Mystery Science Theater 3000, one of the best shows on television. I really miss that show!
Mystery Science Theater 3000 is one of my all-time favorite shows! It's snarky and sarcastic wit in slicing and dicing horrible movies made it a must-watch every week for me. Unfortunately, after it's end at Comedy Central, SyFy picked it up and it had another good run, but now lives on in Youtube videos.
The voice of the irrepressible Tom Servo, Kevin Murphy celebrates his birthday today!
