First shown: 12/10/94
Opening: Mike has a headache
Intro: Frank clones a dinosaur, Crow mixes a potion that makes Tom Servo huge!
Host segment 1: “Specialty breads”
Host segment 2: Crow and Tom don’t know what is wrong
Host segment 3: Crow and Tom fail to break into Gypsy’s diary
End: Mike reads a letter while the bots reenact the end of the movie, Dr. F. gives the dino something to chew on!
Stinger: “A million bucks!”
(96 votes, average: 4.15 out of 5)
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I may not be a shipping clerk, but let’s take a look at this one anyway.
• I suspect this is going to be one of those “Sampo’s theorem” things, where somebody is going to declare their undying love for this episode, but for me the phrase for this ep is “hit and miss.” Admittedly, the short is strange, what with the fey devil conning angels into tempting bread truck drivers, but it’s a little long and it feels to me like their riffing kind of runs of out of steam toward the end. The movie is just a bit too drab for me, and while the riffing is great in some places, it kind of dies down in others. The host segments are hit-and-miss as well.
• Jurassic Park had been out for more than a year, so the cloned dinosaur but was hardly a brand new bit, but I do like Frank patiently saying “No…no…bad boy…” as Dr. F is devoured.
• Mike really does suffer from chronic headaches, as he said in a New York Times piece a couple of years ago.
• Props, as it were, to Jef Maynard on giant Servo. Movie bad!
• Segment 1 is sort of a state park joke of a segment. Yes, the bread truck driver was kind of a dork. We get it.
• Segment 2 gets off a cute punchline…then keeps on going for some reason.
• Non-spaghetti ball bumpers: Bulletin board, book, beaker.
• That’s Malcolm Atterbury Stanley Adams, the poor man’s Jackie Gleason, as they wry safe cracker.
• Segment three is kind of dud, but I do like the obscure reference to the ’60s TV show “T.H.E. Cat” which I absolutely LOVED when I was kid (so of course it was cancelled). Oh and props to Jef again for the great blown up bots in this segment.
• Mayhem in the theater: Tom does a “Don’t pay the ferryman” joke once too often and Mike hurls him out of the theater.
• That sounds like Kevin as the voice of the dinosaur at the end. Kind of similar to his killer shrew voice.
• Fave riff: How’s the German-expressionist date going?

Download it here. Free sample here.

All previously announced RiffTrax DVD titles are now available for pre-order on Amazon. Also available: a “Shorts Volume 2″ DVD that’s not currently listed on the RiffTrax site. All DVDs are listed at $9.95 and will be released on June 16. If you’d like to order them, we’d appreciate it if you’d use the following links:

RiffTrax Shorts Volume 1
RiffTrax Shorts Volume 2
RiffTrax: Carnival of Souls
RiffTrax: House on Haunted Hill
RiffTrax: Little Shop of Horrors
RiffTrax: Missile to the Moon
Rifftrax: Night of the Living Dead
RiffTrax: Plan 9 From Outer Space
RiffTrax: Reefer Madness
RiffTrax: Swing Parade

Thanks to Philip R. Frey aka “Rhindle The Red” for the tip!

With an extremely short notice–it was announced only an hour ahead of time–RiffTrax beta tested its live pay-per-view capability with an impromptu live riffing by Mike, Kevin and Bill on Tuesday. For $0.10, people were able to watch the crew riff the 1949 short “Cooking: Terms and What They Mean.” There was no audience interaction or Q&A session during this test, but RiffTrax promises that there will be in the future.

In last week’s episode guide discussion thread, “Miqel” had some thought-provoking obervations:

The Taxonomy of Riffs: Listing of Types of Riffs
• Title & Credit Riffs - mostly puns, name juxtapositions/combinations or pronunciation jokes
• References - literary, cultural, film, religious, historical, musical, political
• Ironic Humor - “it’s the music that makes this scene come to life” - in a scene that is starkly silent
• Observational Humor - non-joke factual references to things about the film, example, “this film has certain flaws”
• Advertising Related - product related jokes, sketches or jingles
• Music Riffs -
- song lyrics, “Hey Joe” - “Where ya goin’ with that gun in your hand”
- hummed or sung melodies - examlpe, humming batman Tv show theme, refueling music from skydivers
- Musician riffs - examlpe: singing REM songs when character onscreen resembles Michael Stipe
• Jokes
- Ironically lame or old jokes “take my wife, please”
- “inside” jokes relating to regional or cultural beliefs
• Puns
• Line Finishing - example; ‘I’m not a medium’ - - “I’m a petite”
• Drug, Hippie & 60’s - allusions, sight gags, puns & Jokes
• Alcohol & Drunk jokes
• Oblique Sexual References - including crossdressing, GLBT and gender jokes
• Crass Humor - jokes that are sorta cruel and mean
• Juvenile Humor - timeless fart, pee and poop jokes
• Playground Humor - really simple childrens jokes
• Micro-Specialized Humor - such as JFK riffs only meaningful to well read assasination conspiracy researchers
• Synonyms and Homonyms - Fun with language riffs.
• Ruthless put-downs
• Repeating Riffs
- Callback lines taken from riffed films,
- Callback jokes or lines taken from previous episodes
- Callback lines taken from non-riffed popular films or culture
• Non-Film Related Non-Riffs
- when they discuss stuff amongst themselves while in the theater,
- Also times where they ‘loose it’ and go crazy, try to escape or bawl during ruthlessly bad films

Would you make any changes? Did he leave any out?

Here’s my contribution, though I can’t claim credit for thinking it up. A good buddy of mine once described what he called the three levels of reference riffs.
• Level one is a straight reference that fully explains itself. Example: A latina is singing on screen and somebody riffs “It’s Gloria Estefan!” The lady looks like a popular culture figure, and you’ve observed that. Mildly funny (a.k.a. the “state park joke”).
• Level two makes a reference without explaining what the reference is to. Example, in the same scene: “Where’s the Miami Sound Machine?” The lady looks like a popular culture figure and you’ve observed that indirectly. Moderately funny.
• Level three, the level that makes MST3K great and separates it from what most other riffers do, takes the reference one level further by adding a witty twist: Example (from episode 204- Catalina Caper, in which the latina singer saves the mood of the party): “Hey, it’s Gloria Estefan and the Catalina Deus Ex Sound Machina!” That’s (at least) three jokes in 11 words, people.

Download it here. Free sample here.

In addition: RiffTrax has announced availability of five more DVDs: The “three-riffer” versions of “House on Haunted Hill,” “Plan 9 From Outer Space,” “Missile to the Moon,” “Carnival of Souls” and “Swing Parade” join the previously-released RiffTrax DVDs of “Night of the Living Dead,” “Little Shop of Horrors,” “Reefer Madness” and “The Best of RiffTrax Shorts Volume One.” All these DVDs include both the movie and the RiffTrax track; no synching necessary. They are now priced at 9.95 each.
Each feature DVD includes the black and white version of the movie, which you can watch either riffed or unriffed. Each DVD also includes a different song by the RiffTones.
Also, buy any five of the DVDs at once and your RiffTrax account will automatically receive a $10 credit good towards your next purchase. Or buy any three DVDs at once and your RiffTrax account will automatically receive a $5 credit good towards your next purchase. These credits are available for a limited time. More information here.

First shown: 12/3/94
Opening: Playing D&D
Intro: For the Mads’ new neighbors from Deep 12, M&TB present topical comedy show: “Supercalifragilisticexpeali-wacky!”
Host segment 1: “A joke by Ingmar Bergman”
Host segment 2: M&TB reenact the table cloth making scene
Host segment 3: Ilya Murametz visits on the Hexfield
End: Gypsy’s review of the musical, The Mads are full of themselves!
Stinger: The wind demon takes a dive
(87 votes, average: 4.18 out of 5)
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I have a plan! Let’s take a look at this episode:
• Of course, this is the third of the Ptushko Russo-Finnish trilogy, starring a lot of the same people as “Day the Earth Froze” and “Magic Voyage of Sinbad.” Like the other two, it’s based on Russo-Finnish mythology/legend, is a very pretty and clearly very expensive movie and is completely OUT THERE. They have plenty to work with here and the riffing almost HAS to be good, and it is. The host segments are fun…mostly. Not much to gripe about, really.
• This was the fourth new episode in 10 days. MSTies were delirious. It went back to the more typical weekly schedule after this, and within months the show was to go away for quite a while, but this embarrassment of riches was nice while it lasted.
• The opening segment is wacky fun, though “I must take my own life” is probably not the funniest punchline, especially for a sketch about this topic.
• The first time I saw this, when Mike said “Mordor and Rivendell” I said “Those are places!” right along with Tom. What a Tolkien nerd I am.
• In fact the Mads are also very nerdy this week, what with the comic books in plastic bags and the fear of girls. Poom!
• That’s Mary Jo (in Deep 13 for the second week in a row) and Bridget, of course, as the girls from Deep 12. Never did find that laundry room, I’m guessing…
• “Supercalifragilisticexpeali-wacky!” is sort of The Capital Steps meets Mark Russell. So, not really funny at all.
• Servo isn’t kidding when he says “I’m Mike Wallace.” It really is!
• Non-spaghetti ball bumpers: Book, bulletin board, film canister.
• Segment 1 was much discussed in the forums. It moved too slowly for some people. Also, not everybody knew who Ingmar Bergman was, and not everybody was familiar with the Upper Midwestern tradition of “Sven and Ole” jokes, so it took some explaining.
• Callback: o/` “Heeey, it’s the undersea kingdom…” o/`
• Call-forward: a “Legend of Boggy Creek” mention.
• Segment 2 very silly, and another chance for Gypsy to shine. I love the lyrics to her song.
• Once again we get to enjoy the work of voice actor Paul Frees, who provides the voice of the evil Kalin. Crow mentions “moose and squirrel” because most people recognize his voice as that of Boris Badenov on “Rocky & Bullwinkle.” In MSTed movies, he did the grunts and groans for Glenn Manning in 319-WAR OF THE COLOSSAL BEAST and was the narrator in 804-THE DEADLY MANTIS. He also wrote and directed the movie in episode 415- THE BEATNIKS!
• As for segment 3, well, let’s just give Kevin credit for committing to the bit. “HAM,” indeed!
• Fave riff: This baby can handle everything but a three-headed drago-…aw, son of a…

Download it here. Free sample here.

Shout! Factory has sublicensed the MST3K 20th Anniversary Box Set to Beyond Home Entertainment, who has retitled it as “Mystery Science Theatre 3000 - Vol. 1″ for release in Australia and New Zealand. It’s due out on June 10th, but you can pre-order it now.

Note: This is NOT the same as the Vol. 1 set released by Rhino Home Video.

Thanks to David Hill in New Zealand for the head’s up!

Alert reader Trevor returns with another good suggestion:

Worst Ensemble Cast.
This one goes to Squirm. Everyone in this movie is so hideous to watch. From the creepy sheriff to the beanpole sister, yikes. And not one of them shows any acting skill.

Hmm. LOTS of good choices here, but I am going to go with one many of you may not have seen. It’s the cast in the movie in episode 105- THE CORPSE VANISHES. Everybody in this movie is either hopelessly over the top or completely terrible. All the newspaper characters think they’re in a community theater production of “The Front Page” and poor Bela doesn’t quite know if he’s Dracula, or what.

What movie would you pick?