{"id":4826,"date":"2017-04-20T08:30:10","date_gmt":"2017-04-20T12:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mst3kinfo.com\/?p=4826"},"modified":"2017-04-23T08:15:38","modified_gmt":"2017-04-23T12:15:38","slug":"episode-guide-special-short-assignment-venezuela","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mst3kinfo.com\/?p=4826","title":{"rendered":"Episode Guide Special: Short- Assignment: Venezuela"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"top\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mst3kinfo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/Aven.jpg\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.mst3kinfo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/Aven.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"Aven\" width=\"263\" height=\"200\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-7066\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mst3kinfo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/Aven.jpg 263w, https:\/\/www.mst3kinfo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/Aven-150x114.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 263px) 100vw, 263px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Short:<\/strong> (1956) An American oil executive struggles to assimilate after he is transferred to South America.<\/p>\n<span id=\"wp-postratings-4826\" class=\"wp-postratings\" data-nonce=\"f5dce87685\"><span class=\"wp-postratings-vote wp-postratings-scale wp-postratings-shape-star\" style=\"--wp-postratings-shape:url(data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=%27http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg%27%20viewBox=%270%200%2024%2024%27%3E%3Cpath%20d=%27M12%202.4l2.95%205.98%206.6.96-4.77%204.65%201.12%206.57L12%2017.46l-5.9%203.1%201.12-6.57L2.45%209.34l6.6-.96z%27\/%3E%3C\/svg%3E)\" data-post-id=\"4826\" role=\"radiogroup\" aria-label=\"Rate this post\"><input type=\"radio\" id=\"wp-postratings-4826-5\" name=\"wp-postratings-4826\" value=\"5\" data-rating=\"5\" \/><label for=\"wp-postratings-4826-5\" style=\"--wp-postratings-step-fill:70%\"><i class=\"wp-postratings-item\"><\/i><span>5 Stars<\/span><\/label><input type=\"radio\" id=\"wp-postratings-4826-4\" name=\"wp-postratings-4826\" value=\"4\" data-rating=\"4\" \/><label for=\"wp-postratings-4826-4\" style=\"--wp-postratings-step-fill:100%\"><i class=\"wp-postratings-item\"><\/i><span>4 Stars<\/span><\/label><input type=\"radio\" id=\"wp-postratings-4826-3\" name=\"wp-postratings-4826\" value=\"3\" data-rating=\"3\" \/><label for=\"wp-postratings-4826-3\" style=\"--wp-postratings-step-fill:100%\"><i class=\"wp-postratings-item\"><\/i><span>3 Stars<\/span><\/label><input type=\"radio\" id=\"wp-postratings-4826-2\" name=\"wp-postratings-4826\" value=\"2\" data-rating=\"2\" \/><label for=\"wp-postratings-4826-2\" style=\"--wp-postratings-step-fill:100%\"><i class=\"wp-postratings-item\"><\/i><span>2 Stars<\/span><\/label><input type=\"radio\" id=\"wp-postratings-4826-1\" name=\"wp-postratings-4826\" value=\"1\" data-rating=\"1\" \/><label for=\"wp-postratings-4826-1\" style=\"--wp-postratings-step-fill:100%\"><i class=\"wp-postratings-item\"><\/i><span>1 Star<\/span><\/label><\/span> (<strong>189<\/strong> votes, average: <strong>4.66<\/strong> out of 5)<br \/><span class=\"wp-postratings-text\" id=\"wp-postratings-4826-text\"><\/span><\/span>\n<p>\u2022 You can watch this one <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=PJY2S_brQbQ&#038;t=301s\">here<\/a>.<br \/>\n\u2022 The short was originally intended to be one of two that were to be included on a planned MST3K CD-ROM (back when CD-ROMs were a big thing; recall &#8220;Monty Python&#8217;s Complete Waste of Time&#8221;). The project fell through when the bottom fell out of the CD-ROM market and the company that was going to produce the product, <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Voyager_Company\">Voyager Co.<\/a>, got radically downsized.<br \/>\n\u2022 For the record, the second short, never seen by anyone outside of BBI as far as we know, riffed on an industrial film called &#8220;Mylar, What&#8217;s It To You?&#8221; You can watch the unMSTed original <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=2BY5VqCHNkY\">here<\/a>. Although the short we&#8217;re discussing today is generally thought of as MST3K&#8217;s &#8220;lost&#8221; short, that description is literally true of the &#8220;Mylar&#8221; short. The master somehow got misplaced at the BBI studio. In the Sci-Fi era, following the release of this short, a concerted effort was made to find the tape but it never turned up. It appears to be lost to the ages.<br \/>\n\u2022 This short was shown to the public for the very first time on Friday, Aug. 30, 1996, in a large hall of the Minneapolis Convention Center, at the second MST3K convention. If I remember correctly, it was Paul Chaplin who introduced the short. He coyly teased the audience a bit, saying that the short existed, but then saying he wasn&#8217;t supposed to show it \u2026 and then finally giving in and off they went.<br \/>\n\u2022 For several years, the only publicly available version of that short was video footage recorded by convention attendees. The angles to the screen were not great, and the sound was terrible (the acoustics in the large hall were atrocious, and several of the riffs were obscured by laughter and\/or applause in reaction the previous riffs), but MSTies will take what they can get. These videos, along with videos of the &#8220;MST3K: The Movie&#8221; outtakes that were also shown that night, soon found their way onto bootleg &#8220;MST3K: The Movie&#8221; DVDs that were selling on E-bay for $100 and more.<br \/>\n\u2022 It was eventually released on a VHS shorts collection from BBI and later that collection was an extra on a Rhino set.<br \/>\n\u2022 The short was an incredible treat for fans, who had not had any new MST3K for months, and did not expect to get any more for a long time. I can remember, as the short ended and the lights came up, seeing more than one fan around me wiping tears of laughter from his or her eyes. One was a friend who, a line from Season Two, muttered, &#8220;Wow, blindsided by a short!&#8221;<br \/>\n\u2022 Crow channels &#8220;Apocalypse Now&#8221; with the riff &#8220;Never get outta the boat. Absolutely goddam right.&#8221;<br \/>\n\u2022 Tom Servo and then Crow BOTH invoke country music personality Minnie Pearl with a boistrous &#8220;HOWWWDEE!&#8221;<br \/>\n\u2022 The whole &#8220;narrow-wide&#8221; thing really had folks roaring. It was one of those running gags that just gets funnier and funnier. &#8220;Well, if it isn&#8217;t Mr. Big Lake!&#8221;<br \/>\n\u2022 However, it was the riff &#8220;Bag-o in car-o!&#8221; that really brought the house down. It was a little like RiffTrax\u2019s now-infamous &#8220;Rudolph, I need you tonight,&#8221; moment during one of their live shows. People just fell out and on the amateur videos, you can&#8217;t even hear the next two or three riffs, much less figure out what they\u2019re saying. It was one of those memorable moments of being a MSTie, when you&#8217;re in a large group and the funny just gets funnier because there&#8217;s more of you to enjoy it.<br \/>\n\u2022 Fave riff: &#8220;I saw a nude midget circus.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p id=\"top\" \/>\n<p>Short: (1956) An American oil executive struggles to assimilate after he is transferred to South America.<\/p>\n<p> 5 Stars4 Stars3 Stars2 Stars1 Star (189 votes, average: 4.66 out of 5) <\/p>\n<p>\u2022 You can watch this one here. \u2022 The short was originally intended to be one of two that were to be included [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-episode-guide","odd"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mst3kinfo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mst3kinfo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mst3kinfo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mst3kinfo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mst3kinfo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4826"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.mst3kinfo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4826\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24266,"href":"https:\/\/www.mst3kinfo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4826\/revisions\/24266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mst3kinfo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mst3kinfo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mst3kinfo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}