I figured I have reviewed many of the movies that were parodied on this great show so I may as well review the show itself. I am one of the few Msties out there that first became exposed to this show on the Sci-Fi channel rather than Comedy Central as we did not get Comedy Central till 1998 where I live, but we had the Sci-Fi station shortly before this show came to this channel. Suffice to say I fell in love with it from the first episode aired which was "Revenge of the Creature". I have all the Sci-Fi channel shows taped including the one featuring "Gorgo" which apparently aired only twice due to copyright issues. I collect the DVDs now and a lot of the ones from the Comedy Central days are like watching new episodes for me. The cast in this one is great, I first saw the show with the last lineup on Sci-Fi. The show started out being hosted by Joel Robinson then Michael Nelson. I like both of them quite a bit, I can not say I prefer one over the other as both had their good qualities. Joel did really good voices while Mike seemed more smooth at what he was doing. I also feel that both Trace Beaulieu and Bill Corbett were both very good voices for Crow, as they both sounded quite similar, Corbett sounding a bit sharper. Hearing him first then Beaulieu it was not really a shock to the senses. However, hearing Kevin Murphy as Servo then catching one of the episodes in the first season where Weinstein was voicing him was a shock. I will say I favor Murphy, but once I got over the initial shock of hearing Servo with a much different voice he was not that bad. I just think the episodes during that initial season were a bit weaker than the rest because they were just starting out and trying to feel their way. The show started out with Weinstein and Beaulieu as doctors who sent Joel into space, forcing him to watch horrible films in the hopes they would find a movie horrible enough to somehow enslave the world. TV's Frank would replace Weinstein and was very funny as more of a henchman or toady character. He would be replaced by Pearl Forrester who was Clayton Forrester's (Beaulieu) mother played by Mary Jo Pehl and she would take over the tormentor's role for the duration of the Sci-Fi days and she would be joined by two henchman type characters in Professor Bobo played by Murphy and Brain Guy played by Bill Corbett. The show was excellent in nearly every season never missing a beat. The weakest season to me has been the first, but it was not bad then, but you can tell they had not quite gotten into a good groove yet, however it did not take long as season two shows are wonderful.
What is very irksome is that this show could have gone on indefinitely as all the principle players were willing to keep doing the show. Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett do something similar today called rifftrax, while funny I still miss the silhouettes and Servo and Crow. The first channel to get rid of this show was Comedy Central, which this show virtually built! The channel often featured this show in celebrity hosted marathons. Then new management took over and this show got the boot. Next up came Sy-Fy, the horrible station whose home grown films could keep the MST3K gang going forever! I hate the channel as they not only gave this show the boot, but they turned what was once a very entertaining channel into pure crap. They never really gave this show a chance or promoted it like Comedy Central did and once again a change in management and direction left MST3K without a home and it would cease to be. I think I begrudge the Sy-Fy channel more mainly because their change in format not only took out this show, but also made the channel just hard to watch period and I do not watch it unless it is by accident now. I also do not think they fully supported this film which is evident by the lack of episodes in the second and third season it was on Sy-Fy. The first season had nearly 25 episodes, the final two only 13.
Enough of my rant, I will simply go on to say this was my favorite show of all time and it makes me sad that it could have gone on forever, but thanks to a bunch of idiots it was canceled. I am grateful for Shout as they release the collections of the show and I hope to have them all one day as this show's humor works so much more for me than does any comedy released at the theater.
What is very irksome is that this show could have gone on indefinitely as all the principle players were willing to keep doing the show. Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett do something similar today called rifftrax, while funny I still miss the silhouettes and Servo and Crow. The first channel to get rid of this show was Comedy Central, which this show virtually built! The channel often featured this show in celebrity hosted marathons. Then new management took over and this show got the boot. Next up came Sy-Fy, the horrible station whose home grown films could keep the MST3K gang going forever! I hate the channel as they not only gave this show the boot, but they turned what was once a very entertaining channel into pure crap. They never really gave this show a chance or promoted it like Comedy Central did and once again a change in management and direction left MST3K without a home and it would cease to be. I think I begrudge the Sy-Fy channel more mainly because their change in format not only took out this show, but also made the channel just hard to watch period and I do not watch it unless it is by accident now. I also do not think they fully supported this film which is evident by the lack of episodes in the second and third season it was on Sy-Fy. The first season had nearly 25 episodes, the final two only 13.
Enough of my rant, I will simply go on to say this was my favorite show of all time and it makes me sad that it could have gone on forever, but thanks to a bunch of idiots it was canceled. I am grateful for Shout as they release the collections of the show and I hope to have them all one day as this show's humor works so much more for me than does any comedy released at the theater.