MST3K: Volume XXXII
DVD
Not Rated | 480 Minutes
Shout! Factory
Release Date: March 24, 2015

In the not-too-distant future…

In the 32nd collection of episodes from the cult comedy series Mystery Science Theater 3000, Joel Hodgson, Michael J. Nelson, Tom Servo, and Crow T. Robot endure unspeakable cinematic horrors. This volume includes a space drama, a sword and sandals epic, a ’50s spy film, and a failed TV pilot about an airport.

Yes, like Agent for H.A.R.M. and Code Name: Diamondhead, San Francisco International was developed as a pilot to a TV series that – shockingly – didn’t get picked up. In addition to SFI, there’s Space Travelers, Hercules, and Radar Secret Service.

MST3K: Volume XXXII features four episodes from the Comedy Central era, two with Joel Hodgson as host and two with Mike Nelson. It’s a solid, eclectic mix of episodes spanning seasons four, five, and six. Continue reading for detailed synopses of each episode!

MST3K: Volume XXXI, The Turkey Day Collection
DVD
Director: Lewis Collins, Alex Nicol, Jeff Lieberman, Harold Kress
Writer: Jo Pagano, John Kneubuhl, Jeff Lieberman, True Boardman
Cast: Joel Hodgson, Michael J. Nelson, Tom Servo, Crow T. Robot
Shout! Factory
Not Rated | 480 Minutes
Release Date: November 25, 2014

In the not-too-distant future…

The latest collection of episodes from Mystery Science Theater 3000 celebrates the cult television series’ Turkey Day tradition. First held in 1991 to commemorate the show’s third anniversary, the MST3K Turkey Day marathon aired on Comedy Central from midnight, November 28, to 6:00 a.m. on November 29.

The annual Turkey Day marathon aired on Comedy Central until 1995, and the Sci-Fi Channel ran a Thanksgiving MST3K marathon in 1997, unofficially known as Turkey Day ’97. Last year, Shout! Factory produced an online six-episode marathon of MST3K episodes, hosted by Joel Hodgson to celebrate the show’s 25th anniversary.

Now Shout! Factory is bringing the tradition home with MST3K: Volume XXXI, The Turkey Day Collection. This collector’s edition set includes four turkeys: Jungle Goddess, The Painted Hills, The Screaming Skull, and Squirm.

Mystery Science Theater 3000
Volume XXIV
DVD
Directed by Kevin Murphy
Starring Joel Hodgson, Mike Nelson, Trace Beaulieu, Frank Conniff, and Kevin Murphy
Shout! Factory
Release Date: July 31, 2012

Mystery Science Theater 3000 is one of the greatest television shows in history. It’s easily in my top five favorite shows of all time. When I’m having a lousy day and I want to feel better about myself few things cheer me up as watching Joel Hodgson, Mike Nelson, and their sardonic robot companions Tom Servo (voiced and performed by Kevin Murphy) and Crow T. Robot (Trace Beaulieu) on the Satellite of Love rip apart the horrible Z-grade genre flicks they’re subjected to on a weekly basis by the cruel Dr. Clayton Forrester (Beaulieu) and his hapless assistant TV’s Frank (Frank Conniff) with magnificent aplomb. Shout! Factory took over the DVD distribution of the show from Rhino back in 2008 and ever since have been releasing several box sets of the show’s finest episodes every year with fresh supplements.

This time around the company has gifted us with a very special edition of MST3K: none of the movies submitted for the disapproval of the crew of the S.O.L. in this set originated in the United States. We get two movies from Japan, one from Finland by way of the former Soviet Union, and the set closes out with a oily gem from South of the border, down Mexico way. I suppose you could call this the first MST3K foreign film collection if you want to give it more class than it really deserves – which is none at all – so with that mind let’s get into Mystery Science Theater 3000 XXIV.

Mystery Science Theater 3000
Volume XXII
DVD
Directed by Jim Mallon
Starring Joel Hodgson, Mike Nelson, Trace Beaulieu, Kevin Murphy
Shout! Factory
Release Date: December 6, 2011

In the not-too-distant future, next Sunday A.D., there was a show called Mystery Science Theater 3000, that looks like it was made for me. Sure you can’t put those words to music as well as lyrics written by talented songwriters, but that doesn’t make them any less true. Yes my friends, MST3K just may be one of the funniest shows in the history of American television.

I have reviewed some of the amazing box sets released by Shout! Factory in the past, so I will spare you my passionate sermon on the greatness that people such as Joel Hodgson, Mike Nelson, Trace Beaulieu, Frank Conniff, Jim Mallon, J. Elvis Weinstein, Mary Jo Pehl, and Kevin Murphy, to name but a few, helped to give us outcasts and social shut-ins something to look forward every week during the dark decade that was the 1990s.

Mystery Science Theater 3000: Vol. XX
DVD
Directed by Kevin Murphy
Starring Joel Hodgson, Michael J. Nelson
Shout! Factory
Release Date: March 8, 2011

Before I started putting my thoughts for this review to paper, I was trying to remember what movie was being roasted over an open flame on the first episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 that I ever saw. Merlin’s Shop of Mystical Wonders? Nope, but I do recall watching about five minutes of that one. Eegah? Close, but no cigar. That episode I watched on a day when I stayed home from school with the flu and it happened at the time I had just discovered the endless source of wonderment that is Comedy Central (in the form of reruns of the original British version of Whose Line is it Anyway?).

I’m afraid my introduction to the subversively hilarious world of MST3K (which we lifetime MST-ies have earned the right to call it) was a mid-90s Saturday afternoon excoriation, all done with good humor naturally, of the 1987 cheapo sci-fi fantasy Alien from L.A. (episode 516 for you fanatics out there), the movie that kickstarted dead-eyed swimsuit model Kathy Ireland’s uneventful acting career and was one of the lesser entries in the filmography of Albert Pyun, the director who excels at bargain basement schlock staffed with actors desperate for a lightning-quick payday (he also apprenticed with Akira Kurosawa…make of that what you will).