Difference between revisions of "Mystery Science Theater 3000"
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:<blockquote>"'' MST3K ... made the late Frank Zappa an instant convert when he channel surfed into "this guy wearing a clown nose and a beanie copter roasting a puppet over an open fire. The clown was now-departed (and much beloved) Founding Father Joel Hodgson; the roasted puppet was plucky Tom Servo; and Zappa was equally bemused by the cinematic turkeys being roasted for the main course. "He just loved crummy old science fiction movies," says writer and voice of Servo Kevin Murphy, who thought "Frank Zappa on line one" was a joke until he picked up the phone. And though Zappa died before fulfilling plans to collaborate with Best Brains on a giant spider movie "told from the spider's point of view," the Mothers of Invention mastermind would have had a field day digging through the moldy vaults now at MST's disposal."'''</blockquote><div align="right">–Total TV Online dated November 1, 1997</div> | :<blockquote>"'' MST3K ... made the late Frank Zappa an instant convert when he channel surfed into "this guy wearing a clown nose and a beanie copter roasting a puppet over an open fire. The clown was now-departed (and much beloved) Founding Father Joel Hodgson; the roasted puppet was plucky Tom Servo; and Zappa was equally bemused by the cinematic turkeys being roasted for the main course. "He just loved crummy old science fiction movies," says writer and voice of Servo Kevin Murphy, who thought "Frank Zappa on line one" was a joke until he picked up the phone. And though Zappa died before fulfilling plans to collaborate with Best Brains on a giant spider movie "told from the spider's point of view," the Mothers of Invention mastermind would have had a field day digging through the moldy vaults now at MST's disposal."'''</blockquote><div align="right">–Total TV Online dated November 1, 1997</div> | ||
| − | In their turn the makers and actors in the program were all big Zappa fans. This explains why they made references to him quite often. <ref>http://home.comcast.net/~eichler2/mst3k/fzmst3k.htm</ref> | + | In their turn the makers and actors in the program were all big Zappa fans. Actor and puppeteer Kevin Murphy (voice of Tom Servo) explained in an interview: ''"(...) So instead of listening to the 1910 Fruitgum Company, my brother Chris brought home Frank Zappa’s first album [[Freak Out!]], and this was… what was it, 1966? And here’s this bizarre album, and the first song is “[[Hungry Freaks, Daddy]],” and it’s a double album, and it has bassoons and glockenspiels and just was delightful. It was just weird. One of my first albums when I had the money to buy it was [[Uncle Meat]]. (...) Zappa based a lot of what he did on the work of [[Edgard Varèse]], and folks like that, which is very atonal and difficult to listen to. And I think he liked to do that because it put people on edge. I remember him saying in his autobiography that he liked to play the low notes really loud because it always unsettled people more. The high notes would make them irritated and angry but the low notes would make them feel bad and they didn’t know why. (...) I just thought it was fun and weird."'' <ref>http://asitecalledfred.com/2007/07/18/interview-kevin-murphy/</ref> This explains why they made references to him quite often. <ref>http://home.comcast.net/~eichler2/mst3k/fzmst3k.htm</ref> |
''"Mystery Science Theater 3000"'' once showed one of Zappa's favorite films ''"[[The Killer Shrews]]"'' and referenced the cover of ''[[Weasels Ripped My Flesh]].'' Other films that were shown and mocked were ''[[It Conquered The World]]'' and two [[Godzilla]] movies. | ''"Mystery Science Theater 3000"'' once showed one of Zappa's favorite films ''"[[The Killer Shrews]]"'' and referenced the cover of ''[[Weasels Ripped My Flesh]].'' Other films that were shown and mocked were ''[[It Conquered The World]]'' and two [[Godzilla]] movies. | ||
Revision as of 01:11, 29 October 2013
Mystery Science Theater 3000 ("MST3K") was an American comedy tv show, originally broadcast from 1988 to 1999.
The program was both comedy show, film program and sciencefiction show. It featured a man (in the first seasons Joel Hodgson and later Mike Nelson) and his robot sidekicks (Crow, Gypsy, Tom Servo, Cambot) who are trapped on a space station by an evil scientist. The villain forces them to watch several extremely bad movies in order to drive them insane so he can take over the world. To keep themselves sane the man and his robots poke fun at everything they see in the film. Each film is presented with a superimposition of the man and robots' silhouettes along the bottom of the screen.
The concept of the show was only a vehicle for the hilarious comments about the ridiculous plots, acting and special effects of all these films. Most of the pictures shown in the program were low budget science fiction, horror and monster movies.
The tv series quickly received a cult following and even spawned a movie.
Zappa references
Zappa was a big fan of the show, which may not come as a surprise due to his love for all these cheap B-movies. (See Monster Movies, Cheepnis and The Radio Is Broken).
" MST3K ... made the late Frank Zappa an instant convert when he channel surfed into "this guy wearing a clown nose and a beanie copter roasting a puppet over an open fire. The clown was now-departed (and much beloved) Founding Father Joel Hodgson; the roasted puppet was plucky Tom Servo; and Zappa was equally bemused by the cinematic turkeys being roasted for the main course. "He just loved crummy old science fiction movies," says writer and voice of Servo Kevin Murphy, who thought "Frank Zappa on line one" was a joke until he picked up the phone. And though Zappa died before fulfilling plans to collaborate with Best Brains on a giant spider movie "told from the spider's point of view," the Mothers of Invention mastermind would have had a field day digging through the moldy vaults now at MST's disposal."'
–Total TV Online dated November 1, 1997
In their turn the makers and actors in the program were all big Zappa fans. Actor and puppeteer Kevin Murphy (voice of Tom Servo) explained in an interview: "(...) So instead of listening to the 1910 Fruitgum Company, my brother Chris brought home Frank Zappa’s first album Freak Out!, and this was… what was it, 1966? And here’s this bizarre album, and the first song is “Hungry Freaks, Daddy,” and it’s a double album, and it has bassoons and glockenspiels and just was delightful. It was just weird. One of my first albums when I had the money to buy it was Uncle Meat. (...) Zappa based a lot of what he did on the work of Edgard Varèse, and folks like that, which is very atonal and difficult to listen to. And I think he liked to do that because it put people on edge. I remember him saying in his autobiography that he liked to play the low notes really loud because it always unsettled people more. The high notes would make them irritated and angry but the low notes would make them feel bad and they didn’t know why. (...) I just thought it was fun and weird." [1] This explains why they made references to him quite often. [2]
"Mystery Science Theater 3000" once showed one of Zappa's favorite films "The Killer Shrews" and referenced the cover of Weasels Ripped My Flesh. Other films that were shown and mocked were It Conquered The World and two Godzilla movies.
After Zappa passed away in 1993 the makers dedicated the first episode after his death in his memory. They played a song called "The Greatest Frank of All" (originally written about Frank, one of the villains in the show) over the end credits.
