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Long Weekend Discussion Thread: Best Memories Connected to Watching MST3K

I’m going to springboard off an email I got from alert reader Timmy who, in suggesting a slightly different topic (that we’ve already done), recalled his family viewings:

“…we used to watch the show and have dinner in front of the TV.”

That made me think back fondly to my mom (who passed away this week at the age of 87). Every Sunday afternoon for years we would watch a different episode — we got through all 10 seasons, and many of the comments that are in the episode guide originated as notes I took during those viewings. She loved the show and loved to hear her laugh uproariously at it.

What is your most pleasant memory of watching MST3K?

69 Replies to “Long Weekend Discussion Thread: Best Memories Connected to Watching MST3K”

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  1. cityofvoltz says:

    I will share three…as they are short:

    The Early Years: Mid way through high school, my aunt who lived across the street taped the episodes from cable, i would then cook a tray of pizza rolls and watch- from seaon nine till the show ended, (and for a while there after) thats how it was;)

    The official vhs years: once I had turned 21 rum and coke became a staple for mst3k. My brother and I were watching space mutiny- we’d both been drinking and when cambot threw up the stats on the screen- oh we roared!.

    Humanoid Woman: In early 2009, After dinner and a few drinks, i started watching humanoid woman (DAP) at around midnight– and was captivated once again laying on my comfy couch. perhaps it was the electronic soundtrack, perhaps the alcohol, or perhaps being on the brink of falling asleep. I stayed up till 2am to finish it and yes work started at 8am the next day. AMen.

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  2. terrorcotta says:

    I think I might have mentioned this before, but my son was born on the Saturday Comedy Channel premiered MST3K. I knew of the show beforehand from seeing it on some trip or other so I knew to leave the VCR rolling before I left for the hospital. The show literally saved my sanity on those late night/early morning baby sessions. He grew up thinking “My White Goddess” and “Only Love Can Pad the Film” were nursery rhymes.

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  3. MikeK says:

    I only got to watch it regularly on TV during the Sci-Fi era. I think it was just nice to have something to watch on Saturdays, first in the afternoon and the evening replay and then on Saturday mornings. I have three distinct memories of the show, neither of which are warm and inviting, but not bad either.

    1) The premiere of Werewolf. I wanted to watch MST3K that afternoon, but my dad was going to visit his uncle and wanted me to go with him. I did, although would rather have stayed at home. Fortunately, I was able to watch Werewolf at my dad’s uncle’s home, so it turned out well.

    2) My first recording of MST3K. This was when the show started in reruns, back in 1999. I recorded Riding With Death, commercials and all. I had to leave the VCR running while I, along with my dad, mom and brother, went to work cleaning an apartment in a building that my parents own. Again, not pleasant, but it’s a very clear memory of MST3K.

    3) This one is a lot nicer. It’s simply how amused I was to see Quest of the Delta Knights as an upcoming episode of MST3K. It was amusing because the Sci-Fi Channel, prior to MST3K, made a huge deal about the PREMIER OF QUEST OF THE DELTA KNIGHTS on one Saturday. They treated it as if it were some epic fantasy movie. How wrong they were.

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  4. Deus Ex Machina says:

    Most pleasant memory of watching MST3K was my own moment of discovery.

    I was working late at night with a colleague who was finished with work but didn’t want to go home, so he went into a room with cable TV and turned on Comedy Central. (I didn’t have it at the time.) From the room, I heard him say, “Oh, good! Mystery Science Theater 3000’s on!” My reply was, “What?” and he replied, “Just watch a little. You’ll love it.”

    I watched the last 90 minutes of Eegah! that night. Didn’t get home from work until about 5 a.m. Not long after, SciFi picked up the series, and I recorded every episode from the SciFi era. Even introduced my brother to the show, and he’s even more nuts about it than I am.

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  5. Cornjob says:

    My condolences Sampo. I’m glad you were able to share and enjoy MST together.

       6 likes

  6. PumaFace says:

    On my first date with Michelle I asked her if she’d ever seen MST3000. She hadn’t, so we watched Robot Rumpus together. She barely cracked a smile. Needless to say, there was no second date.

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  7. Yipe Striper says:

    Best memories connected to watching MST?

    well, surviving college comes to mind…

    but a singular memory of a single episode? I’ve told this story before, but i know you are all dying to hear it again… so…

    Warrior of the Lost World– i didn’t so much “watch” it, i heard my roommate watch it while i was working on my upstairs toilet, which had gone all “Omeega” on me. You know the drill.

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  8. Cornjob says:

    Re: #56:
    The potential boyfriend was found miles away unharmed and of normal size. There was no 2nd date.

       5 likes

  9. PALADIN says:

    I am a bit torn here….

    I have SO MANY wonderful memories connected with watching the show…..

    * The first Saturday episode I saw –“The Amazing Colossal Man”–and how much I immediately loved the concept, having seen ‘Colossal’ on “Shock Theater” Saturday morning tv as a kid…

    * The Turkey Day Marathons adding SO MUCH to Thanksgiving ( and to my ever-growing collection of taped episdoes each time).

    * Introducing other people to the show…and in turn, watching them ‘get it’ and enjoy….and on that note, getting my mom to watch “Rocketship X-M” while she was slowly dying of cancer, and then spending each and every Saturday with her watching the show and laughing with her…until she was gone.

    MST really became an important part of the background of my life over time….Too much so for any single ‘Best Of’ determination on my part.

    Not bad for a lil` ‘Cow-Town Puppet Show’.

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  10. PALADIN says:

    Y`know….

    I cannot connect one BAD memory with MST !

       3 likes

  11. Depressing Aunt says:

    Here’s my very late entry: It would have to be when my parents came to town to visit me and my brothers and they finally, *finally* watched an episode with me. (It wasn’t even my idea, it was simply something they wanted to see because everyone was bored that night. I had my VCR taping the show at my place to watch later.) It was “Revenge of the Creature.” John Agar was looking for that dog, and Crow said in a stern voice, “Here Chris the dog!” Guess what my brother’s first name is? He’s a pretty quiet and mellow guy but even he laughed at that, and my parents laughed harder.

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  12. Ed Rock says:

    My earliest memories of MST3K include my mother, she had cable (we didn’t) and when her only grandchild and I and The Wife would come up & stay awhile we’d check out SciFi channel for airtimes.

    The Bots and gentle Joel were Ma’s and The Wife’s favorites, and I had been an sf fan for over 30 years so we were in hog heaven. Ma is dead now but those were good times.

    God love mothers.

       1 likes

  13. G R Robertson says:

    September 2002. Saw Time Chasers while staying in New York. Rolling Stones at Madison Square Gardens that night. Buying a Rhino DVD in HMV off Times Square (think it was The Brain That Wouldn’t Die). Returning to England and trying to spread the word. Went back to the US/Canada 4 times for the Stones and collected the other Rhino single DVDs. Back in NY in January 2003 and caught Phantom Planet on the TV (and yes, Stones again that evening).

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  14. Jane Dobson says:

    My earliest, and probably fondest, memory of MST3K was having it on in the background while getting ready for what would be my first date with my future husband. This was during the late Sci-Fi years, when they would show an episode in the early evening on Saturdays. I had heard a little about the show (I was in high school and missed the Comedy Central seasons) but hadn’t really watched any eps. Thanks to The Phantom Planet, though, I was pretty instantly hooked. I think I mentioned the episode to my husband later that evening, and as luck would have it, he liked the show, too. The rest, as they say, is history.

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  15. Karen from NOLa says:

    I’m very sorry to hear about your mother, Sampo.

    But re: happier things like this subject of fondest MST3k viewing moments, I have two (well, three) – first, when I discovered it on the (old) Comedy Channel, Ep. 307, Daddy-O to be exact; I and my younger brother Brian (I’d just started college, he was in high school) were channel surfing, happened upon Bruno Vesota’s character walking into a building when (I think it was Joel) riffed “well, time to get more fudgesicles; good God, I’m fat . . . ” After that, we couldn’t help but laugh ourselves silly and watch it faithfully thereafter. Second, it was a staple throughout my college years at the dorm, esp. when they were playing on Comedy Central every night at midnight. And finally, when I and Brian lived together for a while during my final year of law school (his final undergrad year), I’d collected every episode (“keep circulating the tapes”!), and we’d happily riff an episode nearly every night at dinner.

    Just writing about these times makes me very nostalgic! Thanks for the topic!

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  16. Pete58 says:

    My best memory was when I was about 9 or 10 years old. It was a satrday night and Wild rebels aired for the first time. The constant riffing of kicks put me in the mood for kix cereal so during the comercial break were Joel gets jumped by the bots I went to my kitchen for a bowl of kix. For the following couple of years when I watched the show on saturday nights I would eat a bowl of kix cereal while watching. Whenever I see a box o kix at a store i always think about Steve Alame-o and his stupid guitar.

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  17. John Cameron Trade Rat says:

    After 9/11, MST3K was the first thing that was able to make me laugh, though that was a week later. I think the episode was “Horror At Party Beach.”

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  18. exitor26 says:

    I have loved MST3K since I was a younger kid in the early 90’s, but I remember one time in 12th grade Econ class we had a sub and was suppose to watch a video, but we got the sub to let us watch MST3k The Movie. About 4 of us in the class knew what MST3k was but the movie was easy enough to follow for the others to get a few laughs as well. Nice to met ya, Meacham!!!!!

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  19. The Bolem says:

    My family didn’t get cable until my last semester of high school, right as season 8 started. As much fun as the previous year of syndication was, that transitional time in my life was when I could first really get into the show. The following winter at Central Michigan University is therefore largely one fond memory of Saturday nights snowed in, all of the endless chase (well, mostly the latter half) blurring together with Toonami and movies I’d rented from Videoland and Video Unltd at opposite ends of campus, few of which were even good enough to have deserved professional riffing. I tell ya’, beating a used copy of Astynax you just found at K-mart is so much more satisfying if it’s 2:00 AM, and you’ve just endured the epic quest of Dave Ryder, Nick, or Aram Fingal.

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