How about TV Series that deserve a commentary track.
I remember that at one point the clueless suits at Comedy Central had suggested that the show switch to TV shows rather than movies (probably because they hated that 2-hour time slot). BBI rejected the idea, but what if they hadn’t? What TV show(s) would have been perfect for our experiments?
I would definitely nominate any of the latter seasons of of ’60s-’70s westerns “Bonanza,” “Gunsmoke” “The High Chaparral,” stuff like that. Dreadful stuff.
Your pick?
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Given all the love they’ve showed slamming Peter Graves, Mission:Impossible is a no-brainer. They’d be helped immensely by the fact that all their locations were restricted to Southern California, so that even their Eastern European missions looked almost tropical. :-)
Voyage to the bottom of the sea…..1] Richard Basehart…just for you Gypsy[wink-wink] 2] That had some of the hookiest monsters I have ever seen…:eek:
The many Star Treks.
I forgot Kolchak The Night Stalker.
They could have done riffs on the MST Hour. Then it would have been a riff within a riff within a riff.
I’ve always wondered what they could do with Emergency!, which did have Clonus star Tim Donnely as one of the firefighters, long stretches without dialogue, occasional pedantry and moralizing, and, of course, a man named Randolph Mantooth.
7th Heaven for its dreadful moralizing that became absolutely insufferable the longer the show was on the air.
The Brady Bunch, because what family is actually as loving as the Brady’s.
Any episode of Baywatch.
And Little House on the Prarie, which became more ridiculous and further from the source material the longer it was on the air.
Star Trek Voyager and Enterprise.
Love her in movie musicals but…The Partridge Family.
Bewitched, The Love Boat (hello double and triple entendres)
and…of course…Lost in Space (think
mysty sets were on the minimal side? And There is the infamous
vegetable episode—that one hurt a whole lot).
Dukes of Hazzard would be at the top of my list…
MANNIX!
They sort-of did some TV with The Master, Gemini Man, General Hospital, and San Francisco International. Both the Riding with Death and Master Ninja movies were some highlights of their seasons.
But there’s a fair amount of “They actually let this on network TV?” out there. Idea I’d love to see happen (hints to Rifftrax: Please make these happen some day):
– Manimal. Who wouldn’t love to see the MSTAAG (Mst and Alum groups) take on one of the worst show ideas ever?
– Cop Rock. It’s like Glee without irony overdose and loathsome characters.
– Electra Woman and Dyna Girl. Weird kid’s superhero shows the male producers obviously enjoyed making more than the children enjoyed watching? Yes, please!
– Team Knight Rider. The soulless syndicated version that took the fun out of the original shows, and made it look like a Power Rangers ripoff. Speaking of which….
– Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters from Beverly Hills. USA’s cut-rate version of Power Rangers, itself a cut-rate version of a Japanese show.
How about “My Mother the Car” with Jerry Van Dyke???
Has anyone heard of this one?? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0422974/ It’s called Poochinski starring Peter Boyle about this talking bulldog who shows up at a policeman’s feet that turns out to be his late partner…
Just one more, I really would LOVE to see them do some old DRAGNET episodes. Joe Fridays street wise straight talk every episode was a real highlite for me and it ould be fun to see what the boys and bots could do with it.
#14: Poochinski never aired, though. It was a rejected pilot. The clips of it that exist on the internet are from an ABC special on rejected pilots.
‘Small Wonder’. Its been needing a take down for a long time.
Also ‘Night Gallery’ and ‘Love American Style’. I know they did a skit slamming ‘LAS’ on MST3K, but I’d like to see what they could do with a full episode.
Well, since they riffed “Angel’s Revenge” they might as well riff “Charlie’s Angles”. Speaking of that show, the Brains riffed John Forsythe in “Kitten With a Whip” which co-stared Richard Anderson. Since they made riffs, and based a host segment, on Anderson’s Oscar Goldman character from those 70s “Bionic” TV shows the Brains could have done both “The Six Million Dollar Man” and “The Bionic Woman”.
How about “Jason of Star Command”? All they’d need to see is the lead actor crashing through a clearly wooden door on a SPACE STATION in the first episode and the floodgates would open.
Baywatch Nights!
Supertrain!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUERtAe73NI
Forgive me if I seem like a topic hog, but this is one of the best discussions I’ve seen here in a while. I also wanted to mention that I’m part of a group on Twitter called #ColumboTV, where we get together once a month to all watch the same episode of Columbo at the same time and livetweet it. We have plenty of Riffing going on during these events, and they’re always a blast. The Riffing is always good-natured, of course. :-)
They coulda milked Fantasy Island for all it was worth! And I would have loved to have seen one, but just one, episode of Supertrain. No more. Cause then they would have had to start filling in the empty time with episodes of Hello Larry, and no one needs that much Maclean Stevenson.
#21 I guess I owe Dan a Coke.
@ Blindpew: Any Filmation production would be perfect for riffing. I would add ‘The Secrets Of Isis’ and ‘Shazam!’ to the list.
Gilligan’s Island. It’s so corny and plastic that it practically riffs itself.
BBC sci- fi would work. Especially the last season of Blake’s Seven, with Paul Darrow chewing scenery at every turn. Doctor Who has some winners, too, especially during Peter Davidson’s run. The cast and crew commentary on the Time Flight DVD is a pretty good riff on its own. Of course, DW had some long story arcs, so you’d have to take a few eps out of context, but sometimes that provides good stuff for the riffers, too.
I got started on this idea watching “Master Ninja (I & II)” and remembering the “Starman” TV series based on the Jeff Bridges movie of the same name.
The 80’s shows always work the best.
Six Million Dollar Man…the Bigfoot episode
I think Barnaby Jones might be fun too :)
Actually you could break the shows down to groups like:
IRWIN ALLEN (Lost in Space/Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea/The Time Tunnel/Land Of The Giants)
NBC Shows with casts that alternate from week to week.
(NBC Mystery Movie/The Bold Ones/SEARCH)- (Someone please release SEARCH on DVD, please?)
SYFY Exclusive shows, like. . . (Oh my god, I can’t even remember any of them!)
Homeboys From Outer Space
T J Hooker
Dr. Who (probably catch hell for that.)
Ultra-7
Spectra man
Anime shows dubbed to be kid safe in America like Gigantor, Speed Racer, Battle of the Planets, and Star Blazers. (ok, maybe not Star Blazers)
One Step Beyond
Jim Henson’s Dinosaurs
IIRC Comedy Central’s idea was even worse, they wanted them doing sitcoms is what I remember hearing.
Though it’s my other show, there’s definitely some material to be mined in original run Doctor Who. When I’ve toyed with ideas for iRiffs one if for 7th Doctor Sylvester McCoy’s debut, Time & the Rani. McCoy is my favorite, but it’s the worst debut for a Doctor ever and finally seeing it (I started with his second season premiere, Remembrance of the Daleks) made me understand why despite the improvement in those last two seasons he did his era is still marmite for fans.
This is a great topic!!!! I wish I could think of more right now, but I’m sure they would have a field day with ANYTHING made by Irwin Allen. “Lost in Space” would be perfect for any number of reasons, especially the wacky creatures. And I’m with you, ck, “The Great Vegitable Rebellion” from season three was just about as ludicrous as could possibly be imagined! They could just do that one episode and I would be happy! Also, I think they could do a lot with “Land of the Lost”. I love both shows, but I often find myself riffing under my breath when I watch them. Just imagine what the professionals could do! And I also have a crazy fantasy involving unleashing the full riffing might/wrath upon the myriad of LAAAAME reality shows infesting TV these days. The possibilities are endless… :)
Has any one mentioned ALF yet?
The Walking Dead
Do Lifetime movies count? If so, Rifftrax should take a crack at them.
This is a good topic & so many great ideas already so I have to add a couple. I think CHiP`s would be a good one, lots of 70`s music & fashions plus stupid car stunts. And does anyone remember “Salvage 1” from 1979. Worst show EVER! In the pilot episode Andy Griffith played a junk man who makes a homemade space rocket and goes to the moon to get the junk NASA left behind (I`m not joking). Then on the first show of the series he agrees to never fly the ship again????? But Trish Stewart was in it too so it wasn`t all bad.
Emergency, Quincy, M.D., Knight Rider, Jake and the Fatman, Bigfoot and Wildboy.
The last 3 seasons of MASH when it got too preachy.
Some of these choices are leaning too heavily on what’s popular and MST3K movies were never popular (in the complimentary sense of the term). Recall also how difficult comedies are to riff.
I’m thinking more like…
Automan!
Supertrain!
Man From Atlantis!
Starlost!
Planet Earth!
Street Hawk!
Amazing Spider-Man (’77)!
…And we already know how well the Master, Space: 1999, Rocky Jones, Gemini Man & General Hospital would go down.
Fart Bargo mentions Dragnet [still my favorite Police Procedural, both the 50’s and 1967 versions], but how about Adam-12, its spinoff?
I’d also suggest the original Hawaii:Five-oh [book ’em Dan-o] and we should also include “By this time my lungs were aching for air” Sea Hunt.
for the 70’s [er 1970’s, Servo] CHiPs and Dallas [and the other Prime Time Soaps such as Knot’s Landing]
1980’s The A Team – though it was really a comedy at heart, the fact that 10,000 bullets are fired in just one firefight, no one ever gets hit [Okay Murdoch got wounded once, but really…] and Miami Vice?
There are a lot of ‘sitcoms’ that would actually have been funny if they’d been riffed, because they weren’t funny as broadcast.
@ 6 – LOL I love Emergency but it IS good for riffing. I’ve always liked the show, but there has been more than once that my brother and I have gotten together to watch it and have ended up doing some home-riffing.
Also, the 1960’s revival of Dragnet would work well. I’m a fan, but IMO certain episodes have dated so badly that they’re beyond impossible to take seriously today. Also, Quincy, M.E. is a longtime favorite of mine, but the overly preachy, increasingly ridiculous later seasons lend themselves incredibly well to riffing.
Also, I know from personal experience that Hunter is a lot of fun to make fun of.
#19
Would that be a sequel to Jason of the Salt Right of Fun? :)
OMG, I can’t believe someone else mentioned (or even remembered) “Salvage 1”! I watched that, mostly because it was the late 70s, and why not? Yes, prime riffing material, as are “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” and “Honey West.”
Also, I just watched a few episodes of a lovely series from 1952,”Biff Baker USA” starring Alan Hale Jr. as part of a husband-wife spy team. I’d love to see what The Brains could have done with it.
So many choices! A couple themes sound really good to me:
1. Sixties dramas – The Bold Ones, Then Came Bronson, Run for Your Life, The Fugitive, etc…
2. Seventies detective shows – Cannon, Rockford Files, Barnaby Jones, Kojak, Kolchak…
I was just a tyke in the 1970’s, and it’s funny now to watch TV shows that I was so impressed by at such a young age.
I’ve always loathed Lost In Space (Dr. Smith would’ve lasted about a day before meeting an “unfortunate” demise in my universe).
I also have a very dim recollection of Salvage 1, but I don’t really remember anything about it. I’d even forgotten the name until I read it here. I don’t recall whether I considered it plausible or not, but considering I enjoyed Gilligan’s Island…
Oh, yes, Lost In Space would be a good one. Perhaps sitcoms wouldn’t be the best choice (I already suggested Gilligan’s Island) and so I nominate the short-lived late 1960s series Here Come the Brides. Definitely in the Bonanza & Little House on the Prairie genre.