One of the mainstays of MST3K is references to previous episodes. Which one(s) really tickle you?

My pick: The melodious “Starfighters” theme.

What’s yours?

Update: I just heard about this, but there’s still time: The CT folks will be making a public appearance at Videorama, 2310 N. Lombard, from 1-2:30 p.m.

Portland Monthly has a piece pegged to this weekend’s Cinematic Titanic shows.

Update: Oregon Live also has a preview.

Also: Here’s a teaser video for this leg of the tour.

Oh, and I’ve been meaning to mention: If you haven’t been to the Cinematic Titanic Web site lately, they recently unveiled a gorgeous redesign.

An open thread for reports from this weekend’s Cinematic Titanic shows in Portland.

First shown: 3/11/95
Opening: Crow thinks that he has amnesia
Intro: Desperate for ratings, Dr. F. turns M&TB into the cast of “Renegade”
Host segment 1: Crow latest screenplay is a “black-sploitation” film
Host segment 2: Mike does his Fonz, Crow and Tom disapprove
Host segment 3: Aaron Spelling’s house passes by
End: The shame-o-meter, the Mads are Bobby Riggs and Billy-Jean King
Stinger: “Shine your love!”
(120 votes, average: 4.55 out of 5)
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• I’m torn about this episode. The riffing is great, consistently hilarious. The host segments however, are mostly terrible. The result is one of those “good not great” entries.
• By chance, this was the last episode ever shown on Comedy Central, in late December of ‘96.
• When it debuted, it was the first new episode in nearly two months and the beginning of three eps in three weeks as the season came to an end. But after that MSTies were in for a long draught: there were no more new episodes for EIGHT MONTHS, the longest break since the break between season 1 and 2.
• I kind of like the “amnesia” opener, because it’s just silly and doesn’t try to be anything more than that.
• But the intro, with Dr. F and Frank dressed as Rollie Fingers and Tug McGraw, and transforming M&tB into the cast of “Renegade,” is, as the kids say, random. Maybe it’s because I never watched a single episode of “Renegade.” I dunno. Just seemed to go nowhere.
• The Reference site has a page for this one. However, here are two I caught that they don’t mention: The much-lamented TV show “The Duck Factory” and Crow’s warning about his “elaborate network of trusses,” a reference to the “Fred Garvin, Male Prostitute,” bit on Saturday Night Live.
• Segment 1, in which we get yet another reading of yet another spec script by Crow, also kind of goes nowhere. But I will grant that it’s building toward a classic segment in season seven, so I will cut this one some slack.
• Segment 2: meh.
• Segment 3, featuring Aaron Spelling’s house: well, of course mad prop props to whoever built the house. Just gorgeous. It’s cute idea, and I do appreciate that they don’t belabor it. Still, it’s hardly a laugh riot.
• The end segments, featuring the shame-o-meter, and a funny bit with Frank and Dr. F dressed as Billie Jean King and the now almost completely forgotten Bobby Riggs, almost save it for me, but not quite.
• Fave riff: “It’s Dworkinfest ‘78!”

The rumors you have heard are true.

Conor writes:

One of the things we like to do here at RiffTrax (during those rare moments when we’re not absorbed by our frequent, mandatory company-wide Schnappi sing-alongs) is to challenge ourselves. Sure, it’s easy enough to make hay out of a bear-suited Nicholas Cage, but what really tests one’s mettle is to see how he reacts when he’s staring down the business end of THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER MADE. Yes, our respect and admiration for “Casablanca” is unbounded, but if our motto—We Don’t Make Movies, We Make Them Funny—is to have any meaning at all then it must be tested by fire. So we offer you this, our first in a series of RiffTrax Challenges, where we step outside our comfort zone (our comfort zone, by the way, is a large rumpus room here at RiffTrax Towers, with lots of bean bag chairs, thick shag carpet and a huge supply of Cheddar ‘n’ Bacon Easy Cheese) for our equivalent of a corporate “team-building” exercise. (We tried the more traditional rafting expedition but lost half our staff. We think it was at a Mobil Station in Bakersfield, CA.)

Will Mike, Kevin and Bill triumph? Merely survive? Suffer a huge smackdown by an angry, gargantuan Sidney Greenstreet? Join us for our first ever RiffTrax Challenge to find out!

The riff will be out Tuesday, June 2. Free sample here.

My own thoughts: I’m part of a private riffing group and one of the things we do is get together on weekend nights and riff whatever is on Turner Classic Movies. That has meant we have riffed a lot of truly great movies, and while back we did riff “Casablanca.” Now, I’m with Conor: this is probably one of the three or four most captivating, enthralling movies ever made, and Bogart, maybe the best, most natural actor ever to come out of old the Hollywood system, is flawless in it, as is just about everybody else.
But. What we’ve found over the years is that a movie doesn’t have to be bad to be riffable. It just has to take itself very seriously. And “Casablanca” definitely does that. The result was a memorable riff: plenty of things to riff on, even as we enjoyed a truly wonderful movie.
I’m looking forward to this one.

The “Geek Beat” blog at the Phoneix New Times offers a report on the Cinematic Titanic shows last weekend.

Blogger Jason Bailey interviews Kevin.

Shout! Factory’s official press release for Volume XV:

The Uproarious MST3K blasts off again on DVD!
Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume XV
Featuring MST3K Film Episodes THE ROBOT VS. THE AZTEC MUMMY, THE GIRL IN LOVERS LANE, ZOMBIE NIGHTMARE and RACKET GIRLS, Limited-Edition Mini-Posters, and All-New Bonus Content IN STORES NATIONWIDE JULY 7, 2009 from Shout! Factory

In space, no one can hear you laugh. Unless, of course, you are aboard with the hilarious and beloved space travelers on The Satellite of Love from Mystery Science Theater 3000 to skewer B-movies. To further celebrate Mystery Science Theater 3000’s cinematic chuckle fest, Shout! Factory, in association with Best Brains, Inc. proudly presents Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume XV 4-DVD box set on July 7, 2009.

The side-splitting 15th collection of the famed MST3K features the show’s never-before-released film episodes The Robot Vs. The Aztec Mummy, The Girl In Lovers Lane, Zombie Nightmare and Racket Girls, four limited-edition mini-posters, along with a wealth of new bonus content, including new interviews with the stars from “Zombie Nightmare” Frank Dietz and Jon Mikl Thor in Zombie Nightmare = MST3K Dream featurette, Glimpses Of KTMA: MST3K Scrapbook Scraps I (original wrap-around segments from the KTMA season), Behind The Scenes: MST3K Scrapbook Scraps II, Kevin Murphy And Trace Beaulieu In A Sneak Peak From the upcoming Hamlet A.D.D., and promos. Join Joel, Mike, Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot as they supply their own playful brand of commentaries on some of cinema’s most misunderstood “masterpieces” in Shout! Factory’s Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume XV. This collectible 4-DVD box set is priced to own at $59.99.

MST3K: THE ROBOT VS. THE AZTEC MUMMY
The battle between machine and the undead comes to a chilling conclusion when an insane scientist invents a robot for the sole purpose of stealing an ancient artifact guarded for eternity by an Aztec mummy!
Only the second show produced after MST3K’s original year on KTMA, this remarkable episode features J. Elvis Weinstein as a virtually unrecognizable Tom Servo, plus the first part of the classic short Commando Cody & The Radar Men From The Moon.

MST3K: THE GIRL IN LOVERS LANE
After his spoiled protégé’s frequent missteps leave him with the responsibility of making things right with the law, local pimps and hoodlums, Bix Dugan’s life as a drifter may finally be coming to an end. And what a shocking ending it is!
Join hosts Joel Hodgson, Servo and Crow as they send up the movie that divided the MSTie nation. Love it or hate The Girl In Lovers’ Lane, this memorable episode’s song—“What A Pleasant Journey”—is guaranteed to have you in stitches!

MST3K: ZOMBIE NIGHTMARE
When a young baseball player is struck and killed by a car full of rambunctious teens, his grieving mother convinces a mysterious voodoo priestess to resurrect her son, allowing his zombied corpse the vengeance necessary to finally rest in peace.
The Satellite of Love crew—Mike, Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot—takes on this 1986 zombie classic starring Adam West and Tia Carrere in her very first feature film role!

MST3K: RACKET GIRLS
When lowlife wrestling manager-turned-gangster Umberto Scalli takes $35,000 from the wrong crime boss, he’s forced to run for his life. Real-life female wrestlers Peaches Page, world champion Clara Mortensen and Mexican champion Rita Martinez—as you’ve never seen them before—star in this sinister tale of deceit, drugs, prostitution and smack downs!
In this hysterical episode from MST3K’s sixth season, Mike Nelson, Crow and Tom Servo challenge the “gorgeous gals of the ring” for the comedy championship of the galaxy! But what’s funnier? The riffs onboard the Satellite of Love—or the Racket Girls themselves? Also includes the popular short Are You Ready For Marriage?

Fanbolt.com interviews Mike.

Jonathan Coulton and Paul and Storm will riff “Tron.”

It’s available now. Free sample…here: