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Cinematic Titanic / Los Angeles Times today [message #171055] Fri, 16 January 2009 10:31 Go to next message
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Originally posted by: Tom Carberry

Joel Hodgson's new effort revives 'MST3K' magic
'Cinematic Titanic' is a Web project with the same format as the cult TV
show that mocked bad movies.
By Tom Shales
January 16, 2009
Noel Coward once noted "how potent cheap music is." The old boy never saw
"The Brain That Wouldn't Die" or he might also have observed how enjoyable,
how amusing and even how comforting a lousy movie can be.

It's no sacrilege to quote Coward in a story about a television series that
celebrates bad movies: "Mystery Science Theater 3000." To the dismay of its
truly devoted fans, the show is gone now but then again, not entirely gone.
Old episodes, including the one featuring "The Brain That Wouldn't Die," are
available on DVD; a special 20th anniversary collection is just out. Even
better, the show was reincarnated in late 2007 as "Cinematic Titanic," a
series of videos available on the Web and reuniting most of the original
cast.

That includes, most critically, Joel Hodgson, 48, the brilliant boomer who
created the series 20 years ago and hosted it on Comedy Central in the
channel's pre-dirty era. His high concept: A janitor, stranded in space with
a bevy of wacky robot pals (assembled from odds and ends found on the
spacecraft -- actually puppets), is forced to watch terrible old movies by a
mad scientist who controls their environment from Earth. To keep themselves
sane, Hodgson and his robot friends make the movies entertaining by pelting
them with wisecracks.



There was nothing on TV like it, and it was wonderful. Al Gore was one of
the show's fans -- and admitted it. In its day, it received the prestigious
Peabody Award, and much more recently, it popped up on Time magazine's list
of the 100 best television shows ever.

In "Cinematic Titanic," the robots, sadly, are gone, but the basic format
and the show's essence remain -- an indoor sport that Hodgson calls "riffing
on movies" and thus turning such sow's ears as "The Wasp Woman" or "Earth
vs. the Spider" into hilarious silk purses. He is joined by four colleagues
from the original cast and writing crew. In stark silhouette against the
movie screen, they watch the nearly unwatchable and poke fun aplenty.

The fourth of the releases is, in a break from usual practice, a title
previously lampooned on "MST3K" but with all-new smart-alecky remarks:
Joseph E. Levine's presentation of "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians," a
1964 monstrosity that features little Pia Zadora as Girmar, a green Martian
child who watches too many lousy TV shows from Earth, thus bringing the
concept full circle, sort of.

Reached in Chicago, where he and his cohorts had just finished a live stage
version of "Santa Claus" -- to the laughs and cheers of "MST3K" fans and
their kids -- Hodgson says that as a rule, he doesn't want to revisit films
in the new episodes. But "Santa Claus" posed too many tantalizing
possibilities, had holiday allure and offered the challenge of coming up
with fresh material.

"It's kind of been our top-selling new title so far," Hodgson says. "And we
didn't repeat a single joke."

Yes, he misses the robots, but "this is a little more direct, kind of like a
play. We can kind of be ourselves. We all met in stand-up originally, so
everybody's got that performer instinct."

Hodgson apparently could not have simply put "MST3K" back into production
because the copyright belongs to a former partner, Jim Mallon. They split
partly over Mallon's insistence on directing a feature-film version of the
show that flopped in 1996. The movie, which Hodgson sat out, made the
mistake of ridiculing "This Island Earth," a 1955 sci-fi film that was just
a little bit too good to lampoon. Three years later, the TV show ran out of
steam and was canceled.

Hodgson left the series several years before it ended because he became
disenchanted with what interlopers were doing to his baby. The final
collapse of the original partnership essentially divided the gang into two
camps. Those who were faithful to Hodgson joined him on the new project.

"I'm super-proud of 'MST3K,' " Hodgson says, "and of all the really talented
people I work with. I say that because they're nearby and can hear me
talking."

As before, the topical quips and pop-cultural references are cheerily flung
about throughout the five-person commentary that accompanies the film du
jour. Many are references that would have been meaningless back in the
"MST3K" days -- such as Lipitor, digital converter boxes and Jar Jar Binks.

There are also intentionally obscure references designed to test a viewer's
memory for trivia. Those include "This is Carlton, your doorman." Remember?
It was heard regularly from an off-screen voice on the vintage sitcom
"Rhoda," a spinoff from "The Mary Tyler Moore Show."

For Hodgson, riffing on movies again is somewhat bittersweet. "I feel like I
was cheated out of five years of 'MST3K,' " he says, "so I'm thrilled about
this. When I left the old show, I made it sound like I had something else I
wanted to do, but I didn't. I just felt like I needed to go. I really
thought about it, and I went through a lot of therapy later because it was
kind of a personal tragedy for me." From the new venture he hopes to get
"five good years, that's all," and then he'll be happy.

While away from "MST3K," he worked for a year on the then-new "Jimmy Kimmel
Show." He was in charge of comic special effects, such as a dog that
appeared to fly off the stage and zoom over the studio audience with blue
sparks coming out of its butt. Otherwise, he has been kicking around
Hollywood.

Most of the films reviewed, on the new show and on the old, don't qualify
even as B pictures; they're sub-B, maybe X, Y or Z pictures, although the
roster has included such seemingly reputable big-budget Hollywood features
as "Marooned" (1969) starring Gregory Peck, Gene Hackman, Richard Crenna and
Lee Grant, and directed by John ("The Great Escape") Sturges. For all that,
it was a suffocatingly insufferable stinker.

Old "MST3K" titles were previously released by Rhino home video, but Hodgson
says "Cinematic Titanic" episodes and additional "MST3K" shows are available
via Shout home video, a company he thinks will pay more attention.

Asked to name his favorite episode of the old show, Hodgson cites "Hercules
Unchained," another Levine production but this one fairly respectable.
Hodgson admires the way an entire fake temple was built for the film and
then torn down by Hercules (Steve Reeves) as part of the finale.

He also has fond memories of this critic's personal favorite episode,
"Manos: The Hands of Fate," a riotously uneventful 1966 horror movie about a
family captured by a maniac who has a harem of lady wrestlers in party
dresses. The director, Harold P. Warren, made his debut and swan song with
this picture; though he was often referred to as a fertilizer salesman, he
was really an insurance salesman.

Almost nothing happens in the a bizarro-world masterpiece. " 'Manos' is kind
of considered the worst movie ever made now," Hodgson says, "and we kind of
discovered it. People get off on how awful these movies are."

Awful, yes, but in the transforming hands of Hodgson and friends, also
wonderful.

Shales writes for the Washington Post.

---------------------------------------------

Tom Carberry (#45505, and interesting comments by Joel re: BBI)
Re: Cinematic Titanic / Los Angeles Times today [message #171170 is a reply to message #171055] Fri, 16 January 2009 22:47 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Jim Ellwanger is currently offline  Jim Ellwanger
Messages: 40
Registered: September 2012
Karma: 0
Member
In article <vL1cl.192$z4.40839@okeanos.csu.net>,
"Tom Carberry" <jtj0012@134.139.2.10> wrote:

> Joel Hodgson's new effort revives 'MST3K' magic
> 'Cinematic Titanic' is a Web project with the same format as the cult TV
> show that mocked bad movies.
> By Tom Shales
> January 16, 2009

This article originally appeared in the Washington Post back on December
30. In the print edition of the L.A. Times, this article appeared on
the same page as a weirdly-shaped ad for the show "Big Love." I assume
its appearance today was the result of some poor editor desperately
scouring the wires for something, anything that would fit into the hole
left by the ad -- and they had to go back two and a half weeks to find
it.

--
Jim Ellwanger <usenet@ellwanger.tv>
<http://www.ellwanger.tv> welcomes you daily.
"The days turn into nights; at night, you hear the trains."
Re: Cinematic Titanic / Los Angeles Times today [message #171291 is a reply to message #171170] Sat, 17 January 2009 17:42 Go to previous message
Jonah Falcon is currently offline  Jonah Falcon
Messages: 213
Registered: August 2003
Karma: 0
Senior Member
I prefer Rifftrax. I just enjoy having Mike, Tom and Crow doing it (Mike,
Kevin, Bill). Yes, I know Joel and Trace are doing CT, but somehow, those
three do it for me.

Well, I enjoyed Mike, Kevin and Chad Vader, too. >:)

"Jim Ellwanger" <usenet@ellwanger.tv> wrote in message
news:usenet-3995C9.19472716012009@news.dslextreme.com...
> In article <vL1cl.192$z4.40839@okeanos.csu.net>,
> "Tom Carberry" <jtj0012@134.139.2.10> wrote:
>
>> Joel Hodgson's new effort revives 'MST3K' magic
>> 'Cinematic Titanic' is a Web project with the same format as the cult TV
>> show that mocked bad movies.
>> By Tom Shales
>> January 16, 2009
>
> This article originally appeared in the Washington Post back on December
> 30. In the print edition of the L.A. Times, this article appeared on
> the same page as a weirdly-shaped ad for the show "Big Love." I assume
> its appearance today was the result of some poor editor desperately
> scouring the wires for something, anything that would fit into the hole
> left by the ad -- and they had to go back two and a half weeks to find
> it.
>
> --
> Jim Ellwanger <usenet@ellwanger.tv>
> <http://www.ellwanger.tv> welcomes you daily.
> "The days turn into nights; at night, you hear the trains."
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