Welcome to Riffzilla A-Go-Go: A Mystery Science Theater 3000 Watching Blog!

Mystery Science Theater 3000 is, to me, the greatest TV show of all time, bar none. The Wire? Breaking Bad? I spit derogatorily at them! To me, no show was as smart, funny or endearing as MST3K. Plenty of shows have come close to me, from the aforementioned to The Twilight Zone, Invader Zim, Gravity Falls, the Avatar series, The Simpsons and South Park. But personally, MST3K was, and still is, the pinnacle of televised entertainment to me. 

But, I have to confess, that I’m not a very good fan. How, you ask? Well…I haven’t seen every episode.

“Scandalous!” you say, perhaps popping a monocle out of place and dropping your snifter.  Yes, sad but true. I’ve been a fan for 20 years now, watched and re-watched episodes until I can recite them verbatim, but still, I haven’t seen every episode of my beloved Mystery Science Theater. And with the recent fundraiser that's going to kick new episodes into our lives, what sort of fan would I be if I watched the new without appreciating the old? Especially since I've been sitting on my lazy butt, postponing doing this blog since before the Kickstarter for new episodes was announced!

Which brings me here. After purchasing as many DVDs as I can find, trading tapes, and a few more…illicit means…okay, hell, I downloaded a gigantic torrent with every episode, special and snippit of MST available, and I’m going to use them to fill in the gaps of my fandom.

Welcome to Riffzilla A-Go-Go: A Mystery Science Theater 3000 Watching Blog!

This will be a critique and catalogue of MST3K’s ten years of riffing on movies; to see the episodes I’ve missed, to revisit the ones I’ve only watched once or twice, and to again enjoy the ones I adore. I’ll be going non-chronologically, to surprise myself with unseen episodes, to review old faves, and to reacquaint myself with ones I haven't seen in a while. However, I won’t be covering the KTMA episodes unless the movies used there were also used for the main run. I’m mainly doing this to adhere with the wishes of the writers as stated in the Amazing Colossal Episode Guide because, “the shows were seminal and formative, which is to say they weren’t very good.” As an aspiring artist and novelist who has plenty of embarrassing early work, I totally understand where they’re coming from (the analogy they make of a famous writer having a short story written in high school unearthed hits pretty close to home).

I may try to see a few of the un-MSTied versions of some of the movies, if they pique my interest, to see the quality and history of the original movies, maybe see a few missed opportunities for jokes, and hopefully find a few interesting tidbits along the way. I'll try to provide links to other reviews of episodes, as well as links to The Annotated MST and Satellite News, among others, where possible. But don't expect total, professional objectivity here. This is just one fan's personal blog, and it's just my opinion. I want to delve into how the show affected me, its lasting appeal, and explore the movies and riffs. I aim to publish a review every week or two, as well as provide a video countdown of my six favorite riffs of each episode! Why six? Five is boring, and there are six doors in the doorway sequence, which provides a convenient buffer for editing video clips.

Finally, I’d love for any readers to add in their own two-cents of MST fandom, be it their thoughts on certain episodes, nostalgia for the show, how it affected them, movie trivia, and anything else you feel like adding!

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoy it, and once again, welcome to the Riffzilla A-Go-Go!