FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Shout! Factory to release Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume XVI
AS A LIMITED-EDITION 4-DVD BOX SET
JAM-PACKED WITH TOM SERVO FIGURINE, MINI-POSTERS,
AND A TREASURE TROVE OF BONUS CONTENT
Featuring Never-Before-Released MST3K Episodes The Corpse Vanishes, Warrior Of The Lost World, Santa Claus and Night Of The Blood Beast

IN STORES NATIONWIDE DECEMBER 1, 2009

With the holidays upon us and the spirit of goodwill toward men in the air, the only presents under the tree on the Satellite of Love are four movies anyone else would return the next day. But thanks to the steady stream of wisecracks from Joel, Mike and their robot pals Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot, there are enough ho-ho-ho’s to make this the best holiday ever! So come all ye faithful and let us adore the comedy madness that is Mystery Science Theater 3000!

Continuing the celebration of Mystery Science Theater 3000’s cinematic chuckle-fest, Shout! Factory, in association with Best Brains, Inc. proudly presents Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume XVI limited-edition 4-DVD box set featuring the collectible Tom Servo figurine on December 1, 2009.

The side-splitting collection of the infamous MST3K features the show’s never-before-released film episodes The Corpse Vanishes, Warrior Of The Lost World, Santa Claus and Night Of The Blood Beast, along with a new interview with Warrior Of The Lost World director David Worth, Santa Claus Conquers The Devil: A 50-Year Retrospective, Night Of The Blood Beast (Turkey Day Version), Turkey Day ’95 intros, original theatrical trailers, and 4 exclusive MST3K mini-posters by artist Steve Vance. This Limited-Edition 4-DVD box set includes a figurine of Tom Servo, the perfect companion to the Crow T. Robot figurine included in last year’s now out-of-print Mystery Science Theater 3000: 20th Anniversary 4-DVD box set.

So 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 XVI. This Limited-Edition 4-DVD box set will be available for a suggested retail price of $64.99.

MST3K: THE CORPSE VANISHES

Bela Lugosi stars as a sinister scientist who kills virgin brides in order to extract glandular fluids that will keep his aging wife young and beautiful. Aided by an evil shrew and her miscreant sons, they set about on a reign of terror. Horror ensues!

MST3K: WARRIOR OF THE LOST WORLD

Take Knight Rider, then plop him on a motorcycle in a post-apocalyptic world, and you’ve got The Rider, aka Warrior of the Lost World. In this brazenly derivative tale, our valiant hero must rally the forces of the Elders, the Outsiders and the Marginals to vanquish the oppressive forces of Prosser and the evil Omega state!

MST3K: SANTA CLAUS

Silent night, devilish night! Santa Claus wants to deliver presents to the children of Mexico City, but the demon Pitch wants to nothing more than stop him in his quest! How many other holiday movies have a Satan dance number and Pan-Galactic Gargle Blasters?

MST3K: NIGHT OF THE BLOOD BEAST

It’s always bad news in a sci-fi movie when an astronaut returns dead from outer space, then the base he lands at is overrun by a sinister alien. In this Roger Corman cheapie, the resurrected astronaut and alien embryos spell disaster for humanity!

The Mystery Science Theater 3000 series was created by Joel Hodgson and produced by Jim Mallon. After a year on KTMA TV in Minneapolis, its national broadcast life began in 1989 on the Comedy Channel (later to become Comedy Central), where it ran for seven seasons. The show’s final three seasons aired on the Sci-Fi Channel. The premise of the series features a hapless man who is trapped by mad scientists on a satellite in space and forced to watch old B-movies of questionable worth. To keep sane, he’s built two robot sidekicks, and together they do a running commentary on the films, affectionately mocking their flaws with inspired wisecracks and acting as a demented movie theater peanut gallery. Series creator Hodgson originally played the stranded man, Joel Robinson. When he left in 1993, series head writer Mike Nelson replaced him as the new B-movie victim Mike Nelson, and continued in the role for the rest of the show’s run. The format proved to be popular. During its eleven years and 198 episodes (including one feature film), MST3K attained a loyal fan base and critical acclaim. The series won a Peabody Award in 1993, and was nominated for writing Emmys® in 1994 and 1995.

I’m not a Netflix customer, nor am I the owner of a computer that could successfully stream a movie, nor do I have an internet connection at home that would let me do that (and I’m too busy at work), so I have no idea what these people are talking about, but all day long people have been tweeting about the fact that a whole mess of MST3K episodes showed up this morning on some Netflix streaming queue that, according to them, weren’t there before.
Nobody at Netflix responded to my attempt to ask them what exactly had been done, so I can’t say exactly what has been done, but apparently, reportedly, a bunch of MST3K eps are now available for streaming at Netflix, when they weren’t before.

If this is true, Netflix may have done a great deal of damage to our nation’s productivity level.

Download it here. Free sample here.

If you happen to find yourself in the Twin Cities area anytime in the next five days, you should know that Josh is performing with Chris Bliss at the Acme Comedy Co. through Saturday. Check it out!

Steve Penhollow of the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette reviews Cinematic Titanic.

The Keswick Theater in suburban Philadelphia has announced their New Year’s Eve show: Cinematic Titanic. It will apparently be a three-movie marathon!
Tickets go on sale Saturday at noon (Eastern).
The three movies will be: “War of the Insects,” “Samson and the Seven Miracles” and “Frankenstein’s Castle of Freaks.”

Update: Tickets are on sale now..

By the way, the movie that will be riffed at the November 21 show in St. Louis’s Family Arena will be “War of the Insects.

Alert reader Clint pointed us to this story about a pretty severe layoff at Rhino. It’s unclear what this means for continued distribution of Rhino’s MST3K box sets, but seemed like enough of a peg to hang this question on: What’s your favorite extra on a Rhino MST3K DVD?

My pick: The “extra footage” on the Vol. 3 disks with outtakes and unused takes. It’s fascinating to watch that backstage stuff.
What’s yours?

A couple of days ago it was…

Download it here. Free sample here.

And today it’s…

Download it here. Free sample here.

And, coming Tuesday, Sept. 29:

First shown: 3/15/97
Opening: Tom “comfort rates” everything
Intro: The Observers make Pearl and Bobo fight, but the M&TB aren’t getting the message
Host segment 1: The Observers offer their superior food
Host segment 2: Mike sends Crow back in time, but soon regrets it
Host segment 3: The Observers croon “When I Held Your Brain in My Arms”
End: Mike sets Crow up with a blind date from the year 5000, while Pearl declares her humanity?
Stinger: Observers
(107 votes, average: 4.13 out of 5)
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• Get Kevin’s take here.
• This ranks up there as one of the most incompetent movies they’ve ever done and, as you know, that’s saying something. An amatuer cast playing unlikeable characters, a glacial pace to a plot that makes zero sense. Laughable special effects and a story with no payoff. Bleah. The segments are all pretty good, but I think the riffing is a bit sub-par this time. There are still plenty of great riffs, but they seem a little thinner than usual. All in all a fair-to-good outing.
• This was the seventh new show in seven weeks! I remember the incredible feeling of being overwhelmed with great new MST3K episodes with barely enough time to assimilate it all. I was almost happy to have the two-week break that followed this show, just so I could catch my breath (figuratively speaking).
• Daleism: As the nurse/alien takes off her gloves, moist guy says “Your hands!” and of course the riff is: “I thought you were Dale!”
• For those who want a full list of the colors of Mike, Ward E has it.
• Mike once again channels “The Frugal Gourmet” Jeff Smith. Last time was in episode 608- CODE NAME: DIAMOND HEAD.
• Then-current riff: “I’m Jaye Davidson.” Davidson was still being talked about for his performance in “The Crying Game” five years earlier. “Suddenly Susan” then a popular sitcom starring Brooke Shields.
• Obscure references: The short-lived 1995 series “The Single Guy,” Mrs Pynchon, a character in the TV series “Lou Grant.” Also: Servo sings the jingle for the long-defunct Northwest Orient airlines. Also: Nice obscure Beatles reference: “He’s a clean old man.” Classical music fans probably enjoyed the reference to the Brodski Quartet, a British classical string ensemble.
• Lots of Jimmy Carter references in this one, since the handyman vaguely resembles him. Of course, Carter’s administration was more than 30 years ago. To a lot of this show’s young fans, they may as well be making Chester A. Arthur references.
• Kevin breaks out his great Flash Bazbo impression. The character was a creation of Chris Guest back when he was making records (and I do mean records) for National Lampoon. “Hellooo?…Hellooo?”
• That’s Beez as the sparkly “Terror.” Not sure how I feel about uglying her up (if such a thing is even possible).
• “When I Held Your Brain in My Arms” was an immediate hit?and the channel was nice enough to put the entire song on their web site. Note that Mike lip synchs to Kevin’s vocals but Bill lip synchs himself.
• Annoying commercial: The special message from American Online boss Steve Case. To refresh your memory, AOL went to a flat-rate, unlimited-use pricing structure and, naturally, usage skyrocketed and AOL’s system wasn’t ready for jump in membership. For a couple of months, connecting (for you kids, we used to have to connect to the internet via telephone lines, and we liked it that way!) was hit-and-miss at best and busy signals were the order of the day. Anyway, in this commercial Case strolls through what is ostensibly an AOL call center and apologizes for failing to foresee that when you cut the price of something, more people want to use it.
• This is another movie in which all the sets seem to have filth covering the walls! Weird.
• For non-Trekkies, Pearl’s little speech about the nature of humanity is the sort of thing Captain Kirk would spout about once an episode, usually after refusing to take part in some staged fight.
• The Observers steal the stinger again: Here’s a roundup of likely choices.
• Fave riff: Of all the plot holes to fill, they choose the scuba gear plot hole!”

LOS ANGELES–Actor-writer-producer-director Robert Ginty, perhaps best remembered as the star of 1980’s “The Exterminator,” died here Sept. 21 of cancer. He was 60. MSTies will remember him as “the Paper Chase guy,” the title character of the movie in episode “501- WARRIOR OF THE LOST WORLD.”
Variety has his obit here.

Thanks to Kate for the heads up.