Product Description
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A man and his puppets in space watching cheesy movies…sounds
crazy, no? But here on the Satellite of Love, you might say each
one of us is a captive audience, watching gifted writers and
performers try to make sense of it all without losing their
minds. Why do we continue to treasure this oddball TV series?
That can be answered in one word: funny!
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the beloved Mystery Science
Theater 3000, you are invited to enjoy four never-before-released
episodes as well as two long-out-of-print bonus episodes that
marked the seismic transition that occurred when Joel passed the
torch on to Mike. A new look back at the history of the show
helps us blow out the candles on a cake that only gets sweeter
with time.
Titles Include: Moon Zero Two, The Day The Earth Froze, The Leech
Woman & Gorgo. Plus a bonus disc with a double feature of classic
episodes: Mitchell and The Brain That Wouldnt Die!
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Has it really been a quarter century since Mystery Science
Theater 3000 made its debut on television? The quirky comedy
series--one part kids' puppet show, one part Saturday afternoon
creature feature, and a whole lot of smart, razor-sharp
comedy--not only helped to validate the undeniable pleasure of
poking fun at lousy movies, but also brought a fresh, pop
culture-driven perspective that has been adopted and adapted by
dozens of subsequent programs, comedy troupes, websites, and even
series creator Joel Hodgson's Cinematic Titanic and head
writer/host Mike Nelson's Rifftrax. The 25th Anniversary Edition
set, which arrives in a five-disc, limited-edition tin, presents
five of the Peabody Award-winning series' most memorable
episodes, as well as several substantive retrospective
featurettes that trace MST3K's progress from humble public access
programming to a cult favorite for viewers and critics alike. Six
experiments in all are featured on the set, four of which have
never been released on home video, including one of the show's
best, the delirious Russian/Finnish fantasy The Day the Earth
Froze from season four, which made the word Sampo a household
term among MiSTies. The rest of the set comprises the Hammer
sci-fi feature Moon Zero Two, from MST3K's debut season, as well
as the black-and-white monster chiller The Leech Woman and the UK
giant monster rally Gorgo, both culled from the show's final
seasons on air. As a bonus, two long-out-of-print
episodes--Mitchell, which marked the end of Hodgson's tenure on
the show, and the creepy-sleazy Brain That Wouldn't Die, which
kicked off the Mike Nelson era--are presented as a double feature
on the fifth disc.
For completists, the return of these two fan favorites to the
home video fold is a genuine treat, but the extensive featurettes
are equally valuable in terms of presenting a glimpse of the
series as a whole. The genre documentary company Ballyhoo Motion
Pictures does a typically stellar job with the three-part Return
to Eden Prairie, which traces the history of MST3K from Hodgson's
early concepts through its early execution on Minneapolis-St.
Paul's KTMA and transition to the Comedy Channel and later Comedy
Central. Most of the main writer-performers, including Hodgson,
Trace Beaulieu, and Kevin Murphy, as well as producer Jim Mallon
and prop designers Jef Maynard, Patrick Brantseg, and Beez
McKeever, provide their own perspective, which is buttressed by
extensive on-camera and behind-the-scenes footage from the KTMA
era. Ballyhoo is also behind the short but sweet Last Ride of
Joel Robinson, which details the various ideas behind and final
execution of Hodgson's last episode, and the Ninth Wonder of the
World, a fairly lengthy and laugh-free look at the making of
Gorgo that details, among other facts, director Eugene Lourie's
work on Chin's Limelight and the fast-and-loose careers of the
King Brothers, who produced the film. Writer Mary Jo Pehl--the
once-and-future Pearl Forrester--is profiled in a new Life After
MST3K interview, while historian Constantine Nasr does his best
to explain the curious, genre-bending Moon Zero Two and the
influence of Stanley Kubrick upon the final product. Mike
Nelson's wrap-arounds for The MST Hour's broadcast of Day the
Earth Froze, a brief but amusing tribute from Leonard Maltin, and
a high-camp interview with Brain actress Marilyn Neilson round
out the major featurettes, which are accompanied by theatrical
trailers for four of the six pictures. --Paul Gaita