“Are you ready to watch a really s—ty movie?” So asked Joel Hodgson, creator and original host of Mystery Science Theater 3000, before a packed Saturday-night house at New York City’s Nokia Theatre. The occasion: a live performance of Cinematic Titanic, his MST3K follow-up project with fellow castaways from the Satellite of Love. Primed after a decade of MST deprivation, the 2,100-strong crowd roared its assent.
Before Hodgson came on stage to announce the celluloid craptacular du jour, the night’s proceedings kicked off with Mary Jo Pehl, f.k.a. Pearl Forrester, who introduced CT‘s guest MC, David “Gruber” Allen. Allen, a deep-voiced vet of Freaks and Geeks and Gilmore Girls, performed a stand-up set with up-to-the-minute jabs at the Tea Partiers and Toyota, then brought out erstwhile Tom Servo puppeteer J. Elvis Weinstein. Weinstein strapped on a bass guitar to duet with Gruber on a musical salute to scary, tear-stained clowns (no apologies to Smokey Robinson). Perhaps most enthusiastically received was “TV’s Frank” Conniff, rechristened DVD’s Frank in honor of CT‘s primary mode of distribution. Conniff wasted no time rousing the assemblage by ramming a stake into Twilight—Bella “likes the werewolf because he has hair on his junk”—and pitching his own kiddie takeoff, Teen Count Chocula. Finally, Hodgson arrived, along with Trace “Crow T. Robot” Beaulieu, to give shout-outs to his Titanic crewmates before they took their places left and right of the movie screen to commence the B-movie riffage.
Tonight’s B movie, Danger on Tiki Island (or, more suggestively, Brides of Blood), was a 1968 Filipino monster mash-up ripe for japery. What plot could be gleaned through the crashing tsunami of spectator guffaws revolved around a lantern-jawed scientist, his oversexed platinum-blond wife, and a gung ho Peace Corps hunk arrived on an island inhabited by radioactive mutant crabs and natives bent on virgin sacrifice. Also on the island: midget houseboys, bare-back flogging, killer trees more animated than the cast, a murderous butterfly suspended on visible wires, heavy-breathing sound effects, and an ominous theremin score to rival the more overwrought musical accompaniment on Lost. The comedic piece de resistance: a virgin-craving rubber creature resembling “the Michelin Man after a fiery crash,” in the apt words of Mary Jo Pehl. Its climactic transformation provoked perhaps the evening’s most memorable zinger: “All this wouldn’t have happened if we had…the public option!”
From all appearances, the assembled fanboys and girls got their fix of schlock and snark, judging by the prolonged standing ovation following the end credits. But how about you, fellow MSTies? Has Cinematic Titanic whetted your pop-trash cravings after a 10-year drought? Do you miss the robots, the Invention Exchange, or that insanely zippy theme song? Should Joel Hodgson and Co. be given a new television berth, say, on Showtime or Coco’s TBS? Or are they better off unencumbered by network rules and restrictions? And much as I confess to being a diehard for Team Joel, what do you think of Mike Nelson’s post-MST3K movie-ribbing project, RiffTrax?
And as a final fillip, enjoy this clip of Hodgson, Beaulieu, and Weinstein’s recent sitdown with MSNBC MSTie Keith Olbermann.
How can you ignore RIFFTRAX?
Oops, actually you didn’t.. my bad. Anywho, I am a big fan of both teams but it sucks that this guys can’t get together anymore and do more mst3k stuff..
Rifftrax is OK, but some of them are pretty darn lame. Cinematic Titanic is always excellent and it replicates that MST3K magic far better than Rifftrax.
Personally like Rifftrax more because they give it to the big-budget movies that deserve it like Transformers, Batman & Robin and of course, Twilight.
But Rifftrax does do some bad films like Transformers and Cloverfield. They even do The Star Wars Holiday Special, even riffing the commercials.
Nothing would make me happier than to have those boys back on the air, plus Mary Jo.
Team Mike… But I’ll take MST3K in any form. Saw my first RiffTrax at a theater in December, which was involved trashing old short Christmas specials. Huge audience, very varied in ages and backgrounds. Loved being there… Would go NUTS if MST3K came back somehow!
I would love to have the whole gang together too. I have been watching MST3K on Netflix like crazy. I am more on Team Mike but I hate “The Film Crew”. Are RiffTrax any good?
They’re very funny. I’d recommend to get the riffs of movies the guys (and most of us probably) actually disliked, like Terminator Salvation, Transformers 2, Twilight and the Star Wars prequels.
Personally, I’d avoid the stuff that was already funny and didn’t take itself seriously to begin with like Iron Man, Raiders, Drag Me To Hell (I’m actually surprised the guys didn’t seem to “get” that movie was a straight-faced, self-parody already).
Still it’s very fun stuff. They’re riffs on the Shorts available on the site are gold.
Cinematic Titanic is also very fun, just avoid their first release, The Oozing Skull, where they were a bit rustier. It improved 100% by their following releases.
Love these guys! Rifftrax is pretty fun too, but Cinematic Titanic is a little closer to MST3K because they find obscure bad movies of yore.
It’s too bad Rifftrax has to pick movies that sell, because I’d kill for them to riff garbage like Jessica Alba’s The Eye or One Missed Call instead of movies like Jaws or Casablanca.
Yes! RiffTrax does indeed need to tackle more of the truly terrible releases. Their riff on Twilight was one for the ages…
I love them both, but yes, Rifftrax’s riffing of “Twilight” was genius. I especially loved when they made light of the Edward character’s “stalker gaze.”
“He’s got the ‘guy you alert the stewardess about’ look going.”
Can’t wait till Rifftrax do Avatar. They do some Avatar references in Terminator: Salvation that left me in stitches.
Seriously, just the preview clip for their “Twilight” riff had me crying from laughter.
I never got to pick a side, since I was intro’d to MST3K post-Joel, but I’ve since seen a good number of his episodes, and I find them equally as funny as Mike’s.
But man alive, does not a day go by where I don’t miss that show. I’d do terrible, terrible things to strangers just to get this show back on the air.
Love Joel. Back “In the day” my then 75 yr old mother introduced me to this crew! She loved them. Mike is awesome too. RiffTrax is fun.
Unbelievably brilliant, was there last night …. these guys are back and at the top of their game. I think the next show is in seattle and any mst3k fans in the area must go if they can get tickets. A little more adult than the original which makes it even better. The movie itself was absolutely awful.
Yes, NickJ– absolutely top of their game, and the audience was thrilled! What an awesome experience! Better than MST. Titans rule.
Back in college, Joel was my TV boyfriend. Saw the Cinematic Titanic gang in Austin last summer and it was wonderful. Even better? They all sat and signed autographs for at least two hours and were charming, gracious and truly grateful for the audience’s enthusiasm. Love, love, love! And yes, I still have a crush on Joel.
I have been happy with the work of both “teams.” Cinematic Titanic has set itself up primarily as a live comedy act. Rifftrax efforts can sometimes be uneven, but they have produced a lot of wonderful material – their Star Wars prequel riffs, Twilight, and many of their shorts work has been great.
I like both CT and RT, although if I had to choose I’d take Cinematic Titanic because it really is closer to the original MST format. However, the riffing on Rifftrax is generally looser and more natural-sounding, as if three guys were watching and wise-cracking a movie for the first time. I’ll also vote for the notion that RT should do more obscure, grade Z movies like CT does continuously.
To answer the questions:
Yes?
Yes.
No.
Yes.
Yes.
Nooooonononono.
I would give just about anything for MST3K to comeback to the airwaves! I don’t care if it’s Mike or Joel hosting…just someone bring it back! Comedy Central’s greatest mistake was getting rid of this show!
Sorry, Rifftrax/Mike fan all the way. However, I do not remember ANY press like this in EW for Rifftrax Live. Their first event was Plan 9 from Outer Space with Trace and Kevin (aka Tom Servo and Crow) from MST3K and it was hilarious. It also included a the 50′s short on becoming a stewardess.
Saw RT Live and while I liked it alright, I think that CT Live is on a whole other level. CT’s press is not only well-deserved, it should be mandatory. It is a superior product.
@cmarorror – I’m not sure which RiffTrax PLAN 9 show you were at but Trace was not involved with the one that I saw. Mike did have Kevin with him but the third chair had Bill Corbett, who did play Crow (along with The Observer) during the Sci-Fi years.
My apologies you are correct. Nyquil strikes again. Still does not change my opinion about the show. It was hilarious.