Joel: Some of the movies were really terrible.
[Cut to Mads]
Mads: THANK you!
So let’s wrap it up. Give us your pick for best and worst episodes of the Comedy Channel season. And feel free to offer any other season one thoughts.
For best, I am going to have to go with 104- WOMEN OF THE PREHISTORIC PLANET. The movie’s watchable and goofy, the segments are clever and the riffing is a little taste of what’s to come.
For worst, I am going with 103- MAD MONSTER. It’s would fit into KTMA just fine. Enough said.
My only other comment is to agree with something several posters noted in recent weeks: the quaility of the host segments, beginning with 110- ROBOT HOLOCAUST, falls off sharply. There really isn’t anything memorable in episodes 110 through 113. I only really noticed it this time through and I have no explanation for it.
What are your picks?
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Favorite: The Black Scorpion – and not just because it was my first episode. It’s a great old giant monster flick with great stop motion effects. And some great riffing. Just the scene in where they find the wrecked house with the baby (“What’s behind the curtain? It’s a dead cop!” and the whole game show description by Josh along with “Look back here…it’s a key light”).
Least favorite: Project Moonbase – crap film. And if you offered me $100 I couldn’t quote you one riff from it.
You guys are dumping on “Mad Monster” too much. True, most of the movie is tough to get through, but there’s that one strech of riffs about halfway through, beginning with the Beverly Hillbillies parody, and ending with “how do you like my little film so far?!!” that has got to be some of the best of the series.
Anyway, I think the best was “The Crawling Eye.” I don’t care what anybody says, but the actual “Crawling Eye” movie, at least the European version, is an out-and-out classic. For worst, I can only speak on behalf the episodes I’ve actually seen (101 through 107), so my pick would be “The Crawling Hand.” Too much air. Even if an episode has too much air and not enough riffs, if the movie’s entertaining enough, that can still make it a good episode. “Crawling Hand” is bland and boring, despite being three scoops of sci-fi cheese, to sustain an entertainig episode.
chapter four of Radar Men from the Moon on,became a little stale.
the Crawling Hand was some what slow.(tell him im smoking).
my favs Robot Holocaust,Black Scorpion. :-D
Don’t ask me why, but for some reason I’ve always enjoyed “The Slime People” from season 1. It’s high on my “episodes I’d love to see come out on DVD list”. Some of my other favorites from season one are “Untamed Youth”, “Robot Holocaust”, and “The Black Scorpion”. Even though it’s certainly not a grat episode, I like “The Crawling Eye” just for the fact that it was the first episode on national TV. And back when I first got a copy of it, it was one of those episodes that I thought I’d never get to see. I also always enjoyed “Robot Monster” just because the movie itself is so funny to watch and the same can be said for “The Crawling Hand”. “Moon Zero Two” was interesting just because it was so different from the other movies they did that year. The rest of them have their good and bad moments, but the only one from that season that I always had a rough time watching without falling asleep was “Project Moonbase”.
Robot Monster was tough but ok. Didn’t like the Black Scorpion. Moon Zero Two…yuck. Commando Cody got sickening, I know its not an episode by itself but I think it deserves to be here.
BTW I loved Robot vs. the Aztec Mummy
Sitting through two Commander Cody shorts back to back was rough.
I’m surprised at the indifference that “The Crawling Hand” is getting. I think it’s a highlight of Season 1, although that may just be because I’ve only seen the Season 1 eps that have come out on video.
On the other hand, I agree with the chorus of MSTies who think that “The Robot Vs. The Aztec Mummy” is the worst of the season. Even the obvious riff on the title went unsaid. (The title TOTALLY looks like a Supreme Court decision. You could easily make a joke about how it was issued by the Warren Court and is still precedent today. Or maybe I just have too many lawyer friends.)
I’m baffled at “The Crawling Eye” not being unanimously the worst. I’m a big fan of Season 1, and can happily enjoy just about any of them (yes, even “Aztec Mummy”, which I have a certain fondness for… I think it’s that Mexican cheesiness that we didn’t get to see too often)… but “Eye” just has sooooooooooooo much dead space mingled with not a lot of good riffs. I don’t care that the movie is better than several of the others… I’m not watching MST3K for cinema, I’m watching for great riffs, dialogue insertion, and general silliness. “Eye” bores me in a way that no other episode does… well, from this season. There are a few Season 3 and 4 clunkers I just can’t watch.
“Best” is hard to pick. “Robot Holocaust” has a real emotional attachment, so it probably gets my vote. But “Untamed Youth”, “Prehistoric Planet” and “Robot Monster” are all heavy contenders.
I have to throw down some good props for The Corpse Vanishes. I liked it. I even like the movie by itself.
My favorites would be ‘Prehistoric Planet’
first, then Corpse vanishes, and then Robot Monster. Then probably Untamed Youth just for Mamie alone.
So far the worst for me has been both of the Crawling’s. I just can’t get into either of them.
I still havent seen 3 of them, including slime people, holocaust, and scorpion so this could change.
Best: Untamed Youth
Good: Women of the Prehistoric Planet, Robot Monster, Robot Holocaust, Moon Zero Two, Black Scorpion
Bad: Crawling Eye, Mad Monster, Corpse Vanishes
Worst: Crawling Hand
Best for me – The Crawling Eye w/Robot Monster coming 2nd
Worst Moon Zero Two (thankfully its owned by Warner which means it wont wind up on a box set anytime soon) :soldier:
Apologies to those who like Moon Zero Two
Best: Robot vs Aztec Mummy. The movie is terrible, seemingly half of it is recaps of other movies. But the riffing is funny and there is so much to make fun of.
Worst: Robot Monster. Just a dark, dreary movie that even riffing can’t make me want to watch(then again, I like the human race, so seeing them all murdered but a handful, and then that handful slowly killed off isn’t much fun. Even though the remaining bunch is annoying).
I can’t belive the amount of people that hated The Crawling Hand, thats another one I loved.
Robot Monster and the Crawling Hand were both tops. That Aztec Mummy movie was pretty dull, I’ll have to go with that one.
I just rewatched Crawling Eye and I’ll take back the good for season one riffs comments. Yeesh, the good riffs were so few and far between that the search parties sent out to find them died from old age.
here’s an updating (through #66) of positive picks. Somewhat
inaccurate, since when two or more were equally cited only the
first was counted.
Of course, the race for runner-up is vital because if for any reason
Robot Monster is unable to fulfill its duties as winner, then all power
and priveleges would be transferred to the 1st runner-up. :beauty:
Robot Monster-13
Robot Holocaust-7
The Crawling Eye-6
Women of the Prehistoric Planet-5
Untamed Youth-4
The Crawling Hand-3
Robot vs. The Aztec Mummy-3
The Slime people-2
The Corpse Vanishes-2
Project Moonbase-2
Moon Zero 2-1
Black Scorpion-1
Slime People-1
Best of Season 1 would have to go to Robot Holocaust. I thought the riffing on that one was better than most of the other episodes that season.
The worst of Season 1 is the one I consider the worst of the whole series and that is Robot Vs. The Aztec Mummy. They’re too young into their ability to riff to fight this movie. So there are huge lags between riffs and what we’re stuck with is a huge lump of a 30’s mexican film which consists of three men and a woman sitting and talking about the events of the two previous movies for about 75% of the film. ugh.
Best: The Crawling Eye
Worst: The Black Scorpion
Robot Monster! Robot Monster!
Terrible script + bad acting + inept monster = Great movie!
Crawling Eye was the unfunniest, slowest, bland movie they did in season 1.
Best: I’ll say Untamed Youth since it needs the votes more, although Women of the Prehistoric Planet is up near the top as well. Honorable mentions to Robot Monster and Black Scorpion.
Worst: Robot v Aztec Mummy.
Season 1, the KTMA season not withstanding, is easily my least favorite season, though I forgive them the growing pains and there are still some worthy episodes from that season. Robot Holocaust is probably my favorite and the only unreleased season 1 episode I’m clamoring for on DVD. Besides that one, Women OF The Prehistoric Planet, Project Moonbase, and The Crawling Hand all entertain me on some level.
Least favorites from that season would be the first two episodes- Cralwing Eye and Robot Vs. The Aztec Mummy. Slow, plodding movies with uneven riffing from Joel & The Bots make them two of the hardest episodes of the entire show for me to sit through…
Best-Robot Monster
Worst-Project Moonbase
I haven’t seen all the Season One episodes, but for the ones I have:
My favorite/best: “Women of the Prehistoric Planet”- when they have a shot of Tang’s chimpanzee buddy watching Linda and Tang’s little romance dance, and Joel says “I’ll have to go spank myself” (or something like that), it always cracks me up, and is an example of the mostly great riffing.
My least favorite/worst: Think I have to go with “Mad Monster”- a very poor print, very slow movie, which in this case dragged down the efforts of the writers.
Best:
Robot Monster-14
Robot Holocaust-9
The Crawling Eye-7
Women of the Prehistoric Planet-6
Untamed Youth-5
The Crawling Hand-3
Robot vs. The Aztec Mummy-3
The Slime people-2
The Corpse Vanishes-2
Project Moonbase-2
Moon Zero 2-1
Black Scorpion-1
Slime People-1
Okay, I’m game.
If I have to pick, I’d say “Mad Monster” is pretty bad all round. I also don’t like “Robot Holocaust” at all, but I suspect that has more to do with my disliking the movie itself. I’m sure that, if only I could make myself watch it, I would appreciate the Brains’ improved riffing skills.
Best? I really enjoy “Untamed Youth,” “Moon Zero Two” and “Women of the Prehistoric Planet.” Do you think the sex appeal of the female leads has anything to do with this? Hmmmm. I’ll give it to “Untamed Youth.”
In all my years of watching MST3K, and seeing all the eps from Rocketship X-M to Danger:Diabolik, I had never really watched season one in its entirety (or even about a tenth of it). I remember buying The Crawling Hand on DVD years ago and turning it off within the first 15 minutes (the “smoking” riffing in the beginning sealed the deal for me).
Finally, as a New Year’s resolution, I thought I would brave all thirteen episodes. Unfortunately all it did was make me yearn for future seasons. Granted, I’m a much bigger fan of Mike’s humor but I do enjoy many of the Joel classics- Eegah, Mitchell, and Manos are my fave three of his era.
I have the utmost respect for all in involved in those early seasons and I credit Josh for many of those early ideas and his efforts with the theme song. While I haven’t been to a Cinematic Titanic show I’m sure he’s quite the polished riffer now. He wasn’t even close to that in 1989. Many of these eps are unwatchable in my opinion because the riffing is so unfunny that its even worse than the movie. If a movie is directed by James Johnson, Josh says “Directed by James Johnson”…that’s really not a riff. Servo was pretty lifeless and dull in that first season and the Dr. Ehrhardt character fell flat complared to Frank Conniff’s “inept understudy” character he would adapt the next season. Again, I’m not saying Josh wouldn’t have blossomed and been hilarious had he stayed on, but for the first season he just wasn’t funny. But then again I don’t think Joel and Trace were too hilarious that year too. As with the Simpsons, the show really became special for me midway into season 2.
Best Episode of Season One: Women of the Prehistoric Planet (two of five stars)
Worst Episode of Season One: Robot Monster (half star out of five)
My pick for the best of Season One is “Robot Holocaust”. I love cheesy 80’s flicks and the riffing on this one is pretty good for a season one episode. The combination makes it a favorite.
My pick for the worst is “The Robot vs. The Aztec Mummy”. I don’t think I’ve stayed awake all the way through this one. The recap sequences are painful, the movie is soooo dreary, just no fun at all. The sparse riffing just kills it.
You know, I just rewatched “Mad Monster” a couple weeks ago and found it entertaining for a Season One episode. There are some hilarious bits in it, the Beverly Hillbillies scene and the scientist babbling at his ghostly colleagues being the best bits. Its slow sure, but it works. I managed to stay awake and thats always a good thing.