MST3K episodes that you didn’t like the first time you saw them but which were better and funnier after subsequent viewings. For me, it was “The Skydivers,” thought it was boring as heck and not funny the first time. I think the comments from others at Satellite News — especially the Skydivers-named “Dark Grandma of Death” — made me appreciate the jokes and the movie’s weirdness more. Also, “Time Chasers,” because when I first saw that episode, the movie wasn’t that old and the clothes and hairstyles weren’t as outdated and funny as they seem now.
Invasion USA is a good example for me. Thought it was very dull the first time I saw it, on repeat viewings my rating has improved quite a bit.
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I remember not liking Season 6’s “Bloodlust” on first viewing, and finding the episode only of interest for the first appearance of Pearl Forrester. But later I grew to like the episode a bit. It’s no masterpiece, but def has a some great riffing. I still think the host segments are duds though.
Soultaker is still right up there for me in this category; I didn’t care much for it the first time I saw it, but then I watched it again, and the riffs caught me (“Shut up! Zeppelin’s always right!” “Natalie, don’t tongue the Reaper!”), and then the movie itself caught me, and its soundtrack, and then I could appreciate the host segments, and seeing Frank and Joel again.
But I also had that happen with Future War. It was such a muddle, so incredibly stupid, and I thought, “Meh.” However, my husband loved everything about it, and if I said I was going to watch it, he’d sit down with me and laugh himself silly. He even told me he’d like to watch Future War unriffed, and he thought it was a terrific movie all on its own. Since then, I’ve come to agree with him – it really is ridiculously fun.
BTW, Yeti of Great Danger, you made my whole weekend! May coffee and Petey Plane fill your life with goodness, and may there be no acid in your parachute to bring you down.
Can’t think of any episodes I initially disliked but grew to enjoy offhand. However, I can tell of host segments that, when I first heard them described, thought they sounded terrible, but found them hilarious when I actually saw them. These would include the Charlie McCarthy Hearings from Rocket Attack U.S.A. and the Orville Redenbacher sketch from Godzilla Vs. Megalon.
The first time I saw “Deathstalker & the Warriors from Hell”, I thought, “Meh . . .”, and the only thing I remembered from it was Servo’s line “His area mocks us!” When I went back to it on DVD many years later, I couldn’t stop laughing, and now it is firmly in my top 10. Also “Starfighters”: I originally thought that was the ultimate MST write-off episode, but now after having watched it a few more times, I love it! (Jeez, I’ve been writing about “Starfighters” a lot lately . . . )
The movie ‘The Unearthly’ just took so long to get going I almost fell asleep, even with Joel and the Bots riffing it. Now it’s fun to watch, especially for the overacting Bowery Boy palooka and the Tor Johnson sketch.
for me ‘it lives by night’ just didn’t do it for me at first. unlike it’s contemporary, ‘track of the moon beast’ it lacked the charm, non-stop action and wit. however, after sitting through it a couple more times, i learned to appreciate sheriff pervert, doctor mod love, the drunk philosopher and the mites a little more to where i won’t pass it by in my rotation.
“Avalanche.” I rated it pretty poorly in the season 11 wrap up WDT. It got so many positive reviews that I tried to analyze my objections. First was that I got enough of ’70s disaster films in the ’70s, so there was a built in Pavlovian reaction to recoil from the unpleasant experience. And besides, “Airplane” had already skewered the genre well enough. That wasn’t very satisfactory, so I figured I must have missed something. From “He’s up to his ass in celebrities” (Let it go) to “She died as she lived, all lit up,” a much better experience the second time around.
Someday I’m going to give “Jack Frost” a second chance.
Fire Maidens was that way for me. Just didn’t get it at first. Now it’s probably my favorite Joel eposode.
to be honest, that happened to most of the episodes for me, very few got me right away. But one that took a while was Leech Woman, the thing tha– JEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED
“Mitchell” — This was a hard pill to swallow for two reasons. First off, it just reeks of “’70s TV movie” – cheap, ugly, formulaic, etc. A genre that to me is like nails on a chalkboard. Second, it was Joel’s last episode, so that added a layer of sadness to the whole thing the first couple times I watched it. But after giving myself some time to adjust, I was able to get into the riffs more, and now it’s one of my favorites.
“Hamlet” — Not only is this the darkest, dreariest movie they’ve ever done, the Shakespearean language made it hard to follow. Later, I looked up a “Cliff’s Notes” style plot summary online, which helped a lot, and eventually I came to love this episode. It’s on my regular rotation.
When I first moved to Orlando Florida (many moons ago.. left not too long after), I didn’t have Comedy Central, so an old college friend was kind enough to send me a couple of VHS tapes (ah, the old days) of recently broadcast episodes.
When I first saw “Brute Man”, I had a few chuckles, but I moved on and didn’t think much more about it. Years later, when I caught up with it digitally, it was like a whole new episode for me. Easily now in my top 10.
Gare
For us it was SECRET AGENT SUPER DRAGON. It seemed like one incredibly washed-out movie the first time around, but with the second viewing our entire perspective changed, and it remains one of our go-to feel-good episodes. The host segments are very solid as well (and we even named one of our cats after Crow and Tom’s creation, Minski!).
The entirety of Season 9-10. I was foolish and young and didn’t give the Sci-Fi years a chance. I have learned the errors of my ways and jumped into season 11 whole heartedly. 9-10, it turns out, are some of my favorite seasons at this point.
Bass Ackwards –
How about one that works the opposite way. WILD WILD WORLD OF BATWOMAN. Every time I watch it the movie gets darker because every time I watch it a little more of the movie emerges from the murk.
That could be a different WDT. I was trying for a positive vibe!
And thank you, Dark Grandma of Death, for making me laugh about Coleman Francis, again.
“Hi, I’m Super Clown!!”
Gare
Definitely “Manos”. It took me three tries just to get through it but once I did I could focus on the riffs and not the plot. Now it’s one of my favs. Nearly every riff I laugh at is Joel’s though, which I find weird.
In the interest of MSTie tranquility I withdraw my non-positive comment, Yeti. Wild Wild World of Batwoman is a trip to the moon on gossamer wings.
WILD WILD WORLD OF BATWOMAN – Not so much about first time seeing it brand new, but the first time seeing it in a while (from a bit later through first being able to see it on YouTube), the movie was so unbearably awful that it was hard to sit through. Later, once I dared myself to try it again, that aspect didn’t bother me at all from then on.
THE INCREDIBLE MELTING MAN – The first time seeing it, I did WAY too much looking away from the screen (not like knowing to “listen” to the show away from the screen during “Charred fingah” part in MANOS or the operation scene in FU MANCHU) for all the gruesome, over-the-top melting in the movie. Later viewings are much easier: I just go on YT and only watch the host segments. Problem solved.
I don’t know if this counts, but when the show went to the Sci-Fi Channel (Syfy? Siffy? Whatever it’s called now) I thought it was just OK at first. But as time went on I loved the Sci-Fi episodes and they are among my favorites now. I missed Trace/Dr. Forrester so much I think that colored my opinion, but now I find myself in the mood for a Bill Corbett Crow episode, and Kevin’s Professor Bobo always cracks me up. (for example, Bobo making a sandwich in ‘The Undead’ always slays me!)
The most recent one has been “The Christmas That Almost Wasn’t.” First try, my SO fell asleep early on. Second try, I fell asleep.
Then I checked the cast list, in imdb. One jaw-dropper after another-Paul Tripp (Sam Whipple), who co-wrote the script, ORIGINATED THE CHARACTER OF SAM WHIPPLE IN 1952, on “Tales of Tomorrow,” a very early TV show. The butler, John Karlsen (Blossom) was in “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.”
So on the third try, I got all the way through. Holy hell-l-l-o, this thing dives off into deep, deep Ed Wood territory, where in the last thirty minutes you have to question whether even the guy who wrote the script remembers what the original premise was. Total batsnot weirdness that shoots right past “Santa Claus.” A new favorite.
[Paul Tripp was a force of nature in early U.S. TV. Youtube has a complete show of him as “Mr. I-Magination,” from around 1950. Oh, yeah, it’s the same guy.]
It’s definitely a trip of some kind!! Seriously, your idea would make a good WDT too. Next week, Sampo?
As soon as I watch Season 11 again I’ll have an answer.
Radar Secret Service! Loved the “Last Clear Chance” short but would never watch the feature. Shout Factory has the episode up for free streaming on my cable service and decided to watch it as I relaxed one evening. It was hilarious! It helps that as I get older the dry, talky films really crack me up. I demand less action and more fast talking, preferably by dudes that all look the same!
Believe it or else, I’ll second that: :)
Thanks to being completely anal-retentive about getting through the Shout DVD’s, I was able to take second-looks at episodes I was originally starting to ignore in the background by the time they were on Saturday morning, and could re-appreciate just how silly most of the Last Clear Chance/Days of Our Years self-righteous railroad-short riffs were.
First time through Invasion USA, my usual reaction to Mike-era episodes…Second time, I started to become a little more patient with the S6 episodes, since I thought they were a little better than the cranky S7 and the off-topic Scifi S8-10:
Trace and Frank were still on the riff writing, Mike’s character was still a “nice” guy because they hadn’t found a handle on his character yet (and MK&B hadn’t become their proto-RT selves), “theme-riffing” and world-trolling weren’t things yet in the gags, and there were some moments where the comics could still have silly fun with the movie that was actually on screen. (Except for Last of the Wild Horses, of course.)
And while it’s no Batwoman, there are enough ridiculous/unexplainable moments in Invasion to go with the cold-war hysteria–Sort of like Rocket Attack USA without as much of the director’s public-service propaganda, and more of the crazy naive B-movie moments.
Starfighter. It’s such a long slog of repetitive Nothing that the episode feels about three times as long as normal. But now I enjoy it as a solid background episode.
San Francisco International
I don’t know if it was all the paneling or a smugness overload, but when I first watched it I was unimpressed to say the least. Years later I started building up my DVD collection and this was one of the last ones I got. Even then I waited a few months before I finally got up the nerve to watch it again. At about the first host segment I realized this was a very funny episode, and I hadn’t even gotten to what is now my favorite part. The riffing when Davey takes off in the plane is pure gold. At one time this would have been in my bottom 10 episodes, now it’s in my Top Ten
I think I’m a bit like wombspaceoxygenator; many episodes/movies are hard to get through on first viewing but improve with familiarity. But if I had to pick one that really fits the question, I’d have to say Invasion of the Neptune Men.
At first viewing, this one was unbelievably difficult to get through, especially after the laugh-fest of Prince of Space (the movies are similar, but something about Prince of Space and its riffing makes it so much more entertaining to watch). After later viewings, Neptune Men has improved, though it doesn’t make anywhere near my top 50.
I have assigned nearly 40 episodes to late night/early morning viewing and found this refreshes the content. Examples of episodes here are:
Untamed Youth; The Hellcats; Mighty Jack; Fire Maidens of Outer Space; Invasion of the Neptune Men and even Beast of Hollow Mountain. As my brain slows down from a long day, new comic gold is found with repeat viewings at wee hours.
For me it was not one episode but Season 7, at first I wasn’t too crazy about the riffing or the movies but after watching them a couple more times they began to grow on me, and now Escape 2000 and Deathstalker are two of my go to episodes and the others are in my top 40 as well.
I had a lot of trouble with “Manos” the first time I saw it. It wasn’t until I saw it with a group at ConventioCon I that I could sit through it and see how well the episode turned out. I guess I just needed the support.
For the first five viewings or so, Red Zone Cuba I thought was the worst. Then one day, I put it on and it became freakin’ hilarious! Just goes to show, sometimes it takes a few viewings to really catch the magic in an episode.
Other episodes that took a few tries because they seemed excessively dull or just terrible were Rocket Attack USA and Blood Waters of Dr Z. Now, I love them!
The same thing happens occasionally with regular movies, too. Didn’t care for Tropic Thunder the first time, then it all clicked the second time. First time I watched Robert Altman’s Nashville I was confused and didn’t think it was that great, then I revisited it and now it’s one of my favorite movies ever.
Conversely, there are a handful of MST3K episodes that the more I watch them, the less I like them. And they are showing no signs of going the opposite direction for me. Those are 815-821. It’s as if the vibe I loved in MST3K completely evaporated in this chunk of episodes. Yet, most fans seem to love them. I will say that 815-821 are a case of tail wagging the dog, as the host segments from that era are pretty sharp and funny.
The Castle of Fu Manchu (terrible -> not bad); but I have to skip the Host Segments, because they grossly oversell the meta-joke.
It really helps to put on your flannel dark grey suit with the pants that come up to your rib cage and don’t forget the suspenders. A dull tie that is only four inches long completes the outfit for the maximum doughy guy effect.
Escape 2000.
At first, it was a meh to me, but I fell for the Toblerone character (when the mads started cheering him along), along with the whole “traveling under the city” thing. Yeah, the Italians really embrace life!
Should be the next Weekly Discussion Thread. For me, I’m done with Manos. Let it die a death.
The thing that brought me around to Radar Secret Service was the upgrade from a 3rd or 4th-generation VHS copy from my circulating the tapes days to the Shout! DVD that actually allowed me to see and hear the movie. I just assumed it was movie about grey blobs that mumbled to each other.
You mean it’s not?
Ha, ha! Looks like Radar Secret Service is my next reclamation project. That’s a great point about upgrading from VHS to DVD: some of my VHS copies start in media res, others are cut off at the end, and then there are all the commercials to fast-forward through. My home-made VHS version of Teenage Strangler was all fouled up–recorded at the wrong speed somehow, it wound up being a quarter of the movie taking up the entire two-hour slot. In the end, I so desperately yearned for Mikey and “Yipes Stripes” that I made the Rhino Collection Volume 10.2 my first-ever DVD purchase. Another point that I would like to second is that almost ALL MST3K episodes are better the second time through, especially if it’s a choice between an episode you’ve been avoiding and no MST at all. This is what I’ve realized from Comet TV showing two episodes every Sunday night: I’ve learned to appreciate Overdrawn at the Memory Bank, The Unearthly, Stranded in Space . . . why, even Hobgoblins! . . . as something more enjoyable to watch than yet another sporting event or (unriffed) mediocre movie.
They still aren’t, except in your head.
Delete your account.
Gare
…Wait, isn’t that what pop-up porn-spam says? Oh, sorry, that’s “Delete your history”.
(Ahem, not that I would know about such things, of course.)
On the DVD intro, Frank Conniff said the guys had the reverse reaction: For some reason, they thought the movie was hilarious on first view and wanted to do it right away, but schedules had to delay it to next season; they looked at the movie again fresh after a few months, and….”What were we thinking??”
nonono you’re thinking of Ring of Terror
I’m not so sure about there being no world trolling. Hatred towards Canada and Malta are two examples just off of the top of my head.
And enough with the delete your account nonsense. That’s getting to be more obnoxious than anything else posted here. Who cares if he has an account or not, just ignore it. (and here I am not ignoring you, so I guess I’m a hypocrite)
And then we get Every Country Has A Monster, thereby reversing the Sci-Fi eras comedic stance towards foreign countries.
Humanoid Woman: At first the title character’s appearance combined with the deteriorated color scheme creeped me out so much I couldn’t pay much attention to anything else. Eventually I got over that to a degree (I still think she looks bug eyed and her awful haircut looks like mold) and am able to enjoy the episode now.
No, it’s about grey blobs mumbling about RADAR! endlessly. It’s that little detail that really makes the movie :)
Plus, being able to clearly hear Sid Melton’s sub-vaudeville routines is SUCH an added bonus. Yeesh.
My point is, that’s not “world trolling” – that’s just a joke. Eric is constantly attempting to assign some sinister motivations to Mike, when in fact he’s just up there riffing like Eric’s idol, Joel.
Your opinion is duly noted. I’ll continue to call for his deletion, as he contributes nothing to the forum at all except pessimism and Mike-bashing. That’s what’s more obnoxious than anything else posted here, in my opinion.
Gare
A touch of satan.
When it aired, I was like 16 and never really watched horror films. D@mn Lucinda done freaked me out. I re watched it ten years later when going through the series in order. Still freaky. About that time cinematic Titanic was out and their first was strait up horror. And a friend introduced me to some classic horror and slasher from films. A few years later. Fast forward to last week when I downloaded it to my phone with Netflix. Holy hell, it’s hilarious. So that one had a slow burn nearly 20 years in the making. It IS where the fish live!
“The Violent Years”
All I remembered was the ‘rape’ scene so on later viewings i had forgotten how funny (and stupid) the rest of the movie is.
“Her lamp is a statue of Our Lady of Do You Have a Bathroom Around Here?”