My first introduction to Mystery Science Theater 3000 was back when I was in middle school. I was living in Germany, and the only English-speaking channels we got were Britain’s Channel 4 and Cartoon Network. Needless to say, I spent a lot of time watching movies rented from the video store at the Wolfgang Army base. One such movie that I rented was Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie.
Supposedly the feature film version didn’t quite live up to the standards fans had become used to, due to changes made to appeal to a broader audience, but MST3K: The Movie, with its gleefuly snarky commentary of the sci-fi classic This Island Earth, found its way into my cynical tween heart nonetheless. Truth be told, I haven’t seen as much of the show as I’d have liked, “The Pumaman” being the only episode I can remember very clearly, and I’d all but forgotten about it in recent years.
As it turns out, writer and host Mike Nelson, along with the rest of the guys and gals from MST3K are still doing what they do best, riffing movies good and bad over at Rifftrax.com. Usually you have to pay to download the tracks to play along with the movies, but tonight at 9pm EST you can catch them live for free riffing the educational short Overcoming Fear, at www.rifftrax.com/live. If you register with the site there’s a live chat during the show, and afterward, Mike, Kevin and Bill will join the chat to answer your questions. This is Rifftrax’s second live show, and it was such a huge success the first time that they promise there will be many more to come. Pretty cool, no?
Clacked by Cate Cropp
on Jan 28, 2009 @ 14:00 EST5EDT
You know I was living in germany too during middleschool and the only english channel I got was the british SSVC.
I blame it for my good english ;-)
What I wanted to say is: I never got into contact with MST3000 at all and every time I read about it I’m disappointed. So many bloggers seem to have fond memories of this show and at my advanced age I think I won’t be able to get into it anymore.
If you have Netflix, get Space Mutiny, Overdrawn at the Memory Bank and Pod People. You won’t be sorry.