Alert reader Courtney writes:

I don’t know if something like this has been covered, but I’m wondering if we can collect a “required viewing” list of shows, movies, or music that is most often referenced in MST3K. My best example is Hogan’s Heroes – I never watched this show while MST3K was on the air, but it was one of my husband’s favorite shows from childhood that he introduced me to a few years ago and I couldn’t believe all the MST3K references I recognized after I first watched one or two episodes! Are there other movies, or tv shows – or particular episodes of tv series – that are recommended viewing for fans to understand the sources of some of MST3K’s more frequent jokes/references?

I checked and we have done required movies and required music threads, but not one for TV. So let’s get to it!

My pick is an easy one: “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” They’ve done dozens of references, so they clearly love it. The Minneapolis setting of the show didn’t hurt either. “A little song, a little dance, a little seltzer down your pants…”

What show would you suggest?

We are doing episode 508- Operation Double 007 in the episode guide this week, and, out of the blue, the lady who owns one of the inventions in that episode, Sara the Bobbin’ Buzzard, contacted us wondering what it might be worth. We had no idea, and Susan (the lady who owns it) doesn’t want to commit to sell on e-bay just yet. She’s just kind of testing the waters to see what it might bring. (She paid a few hundred when she bought it).
Here’s a couple of photos…

She says…

The Bobbing Buzzard was in the invention exchange in episode 508- Operation Double 007. Sara was a novel take on the perpetually drinking duck novelty. So
instead of bobbing into a glass of water she bobs into a plate of carrion, which looks mostly like some sort of intestines (yarn, string, crumpled up paper painted red and glued to a red plate.) She has a length of fishline attached to the back of her head to help her ‘bob’. Originally she had some red water in her posterior but it dried up before I purchased her. She was made in 1993. I have an authenticity certificate from BBI.

Wanna buy it? Have an offer? You can reach her at audge76 at gmail dot com.