Top 5 Season 1 episodes

TOP 5 SEASON 1 EPISODES:

1. 106 The Crawling Hand: B

2. 113 Black Scorpion: B-

3. 104 Women of the Prehistoric Planet: B-

4. 110 Robot Holocaust + Commando Cody 9: C

5. 112 Untamed Youth: C

Season 1 Summary

101 The Crawling Eye:  I found this to be a

very middle of the road episode. There are some great

moments in the theater, but it's a bit too slow. The host

segments where not bad (especially seg 3), but they weren't very good either.

102 The Robot Vs. The Aztec Mummy + Commando

Cody 1: This was not a very impressive episode. While the few great riffs and clever host segments keep it from being a complete failure, but the majority of the theater segments are very weak and they can get a tad bit tedious.

103 Mad Monster + Commando Cody 2:  A few gems in the theater and some great host segments save an other wise sub-par episode.

104 Women of the Prehistoric Planet: This was a pretty good episode, with strong riffing and some fun host segments

105 The Corpse Vanishes + Commando Cody 3: The riffing was still a bit sparse, but there

where just enough good/great lines to keep this from completely stinking

106 The Crawling Hand:  This episode is just

short of an A. It's a very much above-average episode.

Especially for season 1.

107 Robot Monster + Commando Cody 4 and 5:  This episode managed to keep a smile on my face and got a few good laughs out of me. An average

episode overall.

108 The Slime People + Commando Cody 6:  There are some good spots, but most of the episode is pretty forgettable.

109 Project Moonbase + Commando Cody 7 and 8: There are some classic host segs and some nice riffs, but the riff quality drops a bit too much later

on.

110 Robot Holocaust (1987) + Commando Cody 9:   A pleasant stream of decent riffing and some decent host segs make for a nice sit. It's not hilarious,

but it's not bad, that's for sure.

111 Moon Zero Two: There are some great

moments, but overall this experiment is a little under

average.

112 Untamed Youth: A smooth episode that

kept my interest and left me chuckling throughout.

113 Black Scorpion: A pretty funny episode

that left me satisfied. Still not uproariously hilarious,
but still well worth your time.

113 Black Scorpion

113 Black Scorpion: I say this will a dash of despair, but this will be our last venture with the (at that time) young Josh  Weinstein at the helm of Tom Servo, and the role that he took with him, Dr. Erhardt. While Dr. Erhardt wasn't too funny in the first season, I really liked him in the KTMA era. We got to see a lot more of him, and he had some really great moments with Forester around that time. Even though he has gotten some heat from fellow MSTies, I've fallen in love with his Tom Servo. He might not me as bombastic and animated as Kevin Murphy's take on the bot, but he was still a great character. He was mellow and a bit of a smart-ass, with enough wit and charisma to perfectly balance out with Trace's Crow. I have to admit, while I know that the series is about to REALLY rocket into the stratosphere of hilarity, I'm still going to miss Josh. The original big three are no more. Well, until Cinematic Titanic came around, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Nothing' beats a good old fashion giant monster movie. Like this neat little flick about giant Scorpions that terrorize a Mexican town. All that you have to say in "Willis O' Brian did the creature effects" and I'm IN! To be fair, I've seen the un MSTed version on TCM a few times in my childhood so I already knew what I was in for. There are better giant monster flicks, but this one is fun enough, and really, what more can you ask?
Verdict: 4/4-Fun!

I was pleasantly surprised by this episode. The riffing started very strong and unlike some other episodes it doesn't die down at all. I wasn't laughing TOO hard, but there was just enough great wit in the theater to keep me laughing or at least giggling.

Intro: The boys party
Invention Exchange: Joel's giant party favor, The Mads' have a misshape and end up as mutants.
Seg1: The boys speak Spanish
Seg2: Tom and Crow talk about human behavior while Gypsy dresses like a scorpion.
Seg3: The boys talk about Willis O'Brien
End: Letters are read, the mads are still mutated.
Overall: I loved this batch of host segs. The letter that goes WAY too much into Crow's head was hilarious! Seriously, I almost had to pause the episode!

Verdict:  A pretty funny episode that left me satisfied. Still not uproariously hilarious, but still well worth your time.


 

112 Untamed Youth

112 Untamed Youth

Hey, would you look at that! MST3K finally gets it's first exploitation flick and boy is it's tone all over the place. The flick is about problem-causing teens that are sent to work at the cotton mill of a very crooked fellow. The film bounces back and forth from a serious (cautionary?) tale about the abuse of the teens that work there and the sleazy fellow that runs it to a light-hearted " don't let the man bring you down" musical romp. I'll give it this though, the rougher spots are well done, and some of the musical numbers are pretty catchy.
Verdict: 3/4-Watchable! Weird tone shifts. While it's still awkward, there was some good acting and decent writing behind parts.

This is one of the rare season 1 episodes that almost everyone can agree is pretty decent when it comes to the riff quality. I've seen it on a few top lists and I can see why. This episode is pretty good throughout. It had a very "Robot Holocaust" riff style to it. Not hilarious, but smooth and decent.

Intro: Tom has a tapeworm
Invention Exchange: Joel's anti-smoking pipe, The Mads' tongue puppets
Seg1: Greg Brady tribute
Seg2: We see what's inside Gypsy's head
Seg3: Gypsy's sick
End: How to be like the goofy guy
Overall: These segments where amusing for the most part. I enjoyed seg 3 the most, it also gave us our first Tom Servo clone!

Verdict: A smooth episode that kept my interest and left me chuckling throughout.

111 Moon Zero Two

111 Moon Zero Two

MOOOON ZEROTWOOO! Dig that funky awesome opening! I could watch that all day. Why wasn't
THAT the movie? Oh, and that theme song! If doesn't get you to sing along then nothing will!
You know I actually went back and re-watched it after I finished the experiment!
Verdict: 4/4-Fun! It's got a kickin' theme song and fun animation.

Wait..there was a MOVIE after that? Well I'll be darned!

The riffing is pretty sharp, but it dies down periodically. It eventually crawls back up. There where a few memorable lines here ant there, but overall I'd say that this episode has some rocky riffing.

Intro: Joel explains the show
Invention Exchange: Joel's food teleporter, The Mads' celebrity toothpaste dispenser.
Seg1: The boy's program pageant
Seg2: Future games
Seg3: The boys duke it out in zero gravity
End: Good things and bad things for ram chips. Letters are read.
Overall: The host segments are...actually kind of lame. But I did get a bit of a kick out the Mads' invention.

Verdict: There are some great moments, but overall this experiment is a little under average. 

110 Robot Holocaust

110 Robot Holocaust: Ok folks, here's the scoop on Commando Cody: All of the Cody shorts are charming, but I never really got enough laughs from them as other MSTies have. They're all a bit enjoyable, but not as much as I would have liked.

Now THIS movie is my cup of tea! Nothing' says lovin' like a poorly made direct to video sci-fi flick from the 80's. This is the kind of movie that I would pick up on VHS from the local mom-and- pop video store back in the day. It also reminds me of a movie that I would grab during a long afternoon on Ebay. It's cheap, it's dated, and I dig it.
Verdict: 4/4-Fun! It's not everybody's cup, but I just can't say no to 80's cheese.

This episode used to be a part of my regular rotation so, needless to say I'm rather fond of it. The riffing isn't legendary, but it get's the job done. It's like the MST version of easy listing. Sure It's not a howler, but there are some really awesome lines and it kept me chuckling the whole experiment.

Intro: The boys sing the blues.
Invention Exchange: Joel's Monster-truck pipe, The Mads' emoting ski-mask.
Seg1: Joel does some funny faces.
Seg2: The SOL, sitcom style...until Cambot's sitcom simulator breaks.
Seg3: The boys play Robot Holocaust...it goes poorly.
End: Letters and the Name-the avocado guy contest is announced.
Overall: Sg 3 was a big ol' howler. Josh really shines as Servo, I'm just sayin'.

Verdict: A pleasant stream of decent riffing and some decent host segs make for a nice sit. It's not hilarious, but it's not bad, that's for sure. 

109 Project Moonbase

109 Project Moonbase

It's a trip to the moon, but uh-oh there's a terrorist on board. Oh me, oh my is this film unpleasantly sexist. It's also a bit bland. I find myself having a very hard time thinking of something else to say about this flick other than that.
Verdict: 1/4-Awful! Dull and pumped full of sexist idiots.

I had heard quite a lot of very good things about this episode, so, naturally I was pretty excited to see it for myself. After another relatively weak Cody short, the feature started up, and the first half was really strong and had me cracking up. Sadly, after the halfway point the riff quality started to drop considerably.

Intro: The Bots and the bath
Invention Exchange: Joel's water juggling, The Mads' insect-e-sketch
Seg1: Joel and the Bots play Commando Cody, with Tom as Cody and Crow as Krog.
Seg2: Neckties of the future
Seg3: SPACOM!!
End: Letters are read. Crow and Tom Servo are upside down.
Overall: Segs 2 and 3 had me in hysterics! SPACOM has to be one of the best moments of the season.

Overall:  There are some classic host segs and some nice riffs, but the riff quality drops a bit too much later on.

108 The Slime People

108 The Slime People

The slime people come out of the earth, encase a city/country side in a force field (the hell?), kill almost everybody, and cover the place in fog. Oh my god, the fog. This movie has so much fog that there are entire scenes where you can't see ANYTHING but the onslaught of fog. The fog-less scenes where ok though and I'm a sucker for apocalyptic settings, so I kind of dug that aspect.
Verdict: 1/4-Awful! Who want's to see a movie when half of it is covered in fog?

The first time that I saw this experiment I absolutely loved it! The second time around however, I found the riffing to be very hit-or-miss. There where some really great lines, but  they where rare among the hundreds of merely amusing riffs.

Intro: Crow is a morning bot.
Invention Exchange: Joel's cartoon goggles, The Mads' screaming cotton candy.
Seg1: Cody on trial.
Seg2: The boys consider how to improve movie
Seg3: Fog. Lots of it.
End: Joel makes a pie, but Gypsy eats it.
Overall: Not much to say about these host segs. They have a bit of the old Season 1 charm to  them, but none of them are too amazing. I did love the cartoon goggles though.

Verdict:  There are some good spots, but most of the episode is pretty forgettable. 

107 Robot Monster

107 Robot Monster

The Ro-man empire has destroyed all of humanity with it's..uh...er....bubbles? Bubbles or no bubbles, the sinister Ro-man (just one) is sent to kill the eight *boom* I mean five people left on this earth. There's not much to say about this movie that hasn't already been said. It's silly, stupid, poorly acted, poorly made, and the Ro-man costume is as goofy as can be. And I loved it.
Verdict:4/4-Fun! As silly and strange as you can get....and it's awesome.

While not as hilarious as the last outing, the riffing here is still pretty solid. I had my fair share of chuckles, and a few howlers. Oddly enough, I actually had fun with the Commando Cody shorts. This was a pretty fair episode riff-wise I'd say.

Invention Exchange: Joel's cumber bubble bond and The Mads' flaming woopie cushion
Seg1: The Boy's discuss how Commando Cody flies
Seg2: Crow and Tom play Robot Monster
Seg3: Surrealism
End: The boys' Ro-Man presentation
Overall: The host segments are amusing enough, but the 3rd host segment was another KTMA remake.

Verdict:  This episode managed to keep a smile on my face and got a few good laughs out of me. An average episode overall.

106 The Crawling Hand

106 The Crawling Hand: One night, when I was but a young lad of 12 I went on YouTube in search of trailers for old B-movies. I found quite a few, 'Godzilla VS The Smog Monster', 'The Killer Shrews', 'TNT Jackson', ect. I eventually found a Trailer for a film called 'The Crawling Hand'. One the side bar I found a link to a Video titled 'Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Crawling Hand 1/8'. It looked curious, so I went ahead I clicked it....

A killer arm crawls around strangling people and bugging a young college student that is beginning to be taken over by the same evil space power that now posses the hand. EGADS! Now that's a plot! It's also a cheap and extremely silly movie. Also, I think that it should be called 'The Crawling Arm', but that's a nit pick.
Verdict: 3/4 Watchable! Complete with overacting and silly production.

I really love the riffing in this episode! This is by-far the best job that the boys have done in the series this far! A lot of the time it's a swift and witty as the riffing from a season 2 or 3 episode. There where a lot of big laughs to be had and it makes for one of the best riffing of the season! It may not have left me completely intoxicated with laughter, but I'll be damned if it wasn't a fun time!

Intro: Joel explains the show.
Opener: Joel's safety saw, the mads' limb lengthener
Seg1: Bowling (from a KTMA ep)
Seg2: The boys act like Shatner w/ some crawling hands.
Seg3: The boys discuss the crawling hand and why it's not scary.
End: Good thing and bad thing for ram chips
Overall: I gotta say, I really like this season's trend of having host segments that revolve around the boys talking about the film's monster(s) (ie seg 2). It reminds me of the kind of conversations that I have with my friends a lot.

Verdict: This episode is just short of an A. It's really a very much above-average episode. Especially for season 1.

105 The Corpse Vanishes

105 The Corpse Vanishes:

 Bela Lugosi is a hunchback-whipping, corpse-snatching, mad scientist! If that doesn't get you attention then I don't know what will. This was a pretty basic little caper with a silly plot.
Verdict:3/4-Watchable! A cute little spook flick.

Coming off of 'Mad Monster' and 'Robot VS the Aztec Mummy' (keep in mind that 104 is actually the season finally, it was just aired out of order) I was hoping to be seeing more signs of MST3K's soon-to-be magnificence. Sadly (to some extent) this episode isn't too much of a step up from the last. The riffs are a bit less sparse, but quite a bit of them (notably in the short) seem to fall flat. However, much like the last episode, there are still a few howlers among the theater. Joel's Bela impression got some of the biggest laughs out of me in this one.

Opener: Joel's chiro-gyro and the mad's flame throwing flower.
Seg1: Servo and Crow talk about Tiger-bot magazine.
Seg2: Tag (as seen in a KTMA ep)
Seg3: Joel and Crow at the barbershop (also from a KTMA ep)
End: Good thing and bad thing for ram-chips.
Overall: I loved Seg 1. It's so rare to see Crow and Tom just hand out and get along. It also fleshed out their personalities a bit. Speaking of which, the relationship between Josh's Tom Servo and Trace's Crow was a bit different than the ones between the bots while under their other puppeteers. Trace and Josh's bots got along pretty well (as opposed to the slight rivalry between Trace's Crow and Kevin's Tom) while still feeling a bit like siblings (unlike the roommate vibe of Kevin's Tom and Bill's Crow). The other segs where cute, but I really dig seg 1.

Verdict: The riffing was still a bit sparse, but there where just enough just enough good/great lines to keep this from completely sinking.

104 Women of the Prehistoric Planet

104 Women of the Prehistoric Planet: This episode was originally the season finale, but The Comedy Channel, for whatever reason, decided to air it as episode four. The letters read at the end reference "Project Moonbase", "The Corpse Vanishes", and include the winner of the "name the avocado guy" contest from "Robot Holocaust". further evidence lies within the credits, where there are considerably more writers than in the earlier episodes.

There are women, there is a prehistoric planet, but the women are not OF the prehistoric planet! Thumbs down! Zero stars...... nah! I wouldn't do that to you guys. This is a really low budget sci-fi movie that ripps off of elements from Star Trek and has one of the dumbest twist endings in the history of MSTed movies. Oh, and it has some epically annoying comic relief.

Verdict:2/4-Bad! It's annoying and unoriginal.

The theater segments are quite refreshing, after two weak episodes it's nice to see some decent riffing. The boys are very sharp and the larger staff of writers (including Mike) means that we'll get more quality riffs and we sure do! The theater segments start out smooth and funny and stay strong until a little while near the end, but it picks back up again.

Opener: Invention exchange- Clay and Lar's Flesh Barn and Joel's TP in a bottle.
Seg1: Joel brings a doomsday device aboard the SOL!
Seg2: The boys try to disarm the Isaac Asimov Literary Doomsday Device.
Seg3: The boys fail to disarm the device and it turns them into Isaac Asimov(s)!
End: Letters (see review intro)
Overall: I had a lot of fun with the host segments. There wasn't a rotten apple among them! I even got a kick out of the invention exchange!

Verdict: This was a pretty good episode, with strong riffing and some fun host segments.

103 Mad Monster

103 Mad Monster:

MST3K finally gets it's first werewolf movie and boy is it bland! The werewolf is extremely lame, the plot is predictable, and the pacing is very slow indeed. There's not much else to say about this one it's just stale.
Verdict: 1/4 Awful! A bland been there, done that monster flick.

The riffing has picked up a bit from last week, but it's still weak. There where some really good lines in the theater, mainly in the beginning and around the end. There where some spots where the riffing would pick up, but shortly it would die back down.

Opener: Invention exchange-Joel's hell in a handbag and the mad's thunder lizard.
Seg1: Tom romances Joel's blender.
Seg2: The boys discuss the wolfman.
Seg3: Tom and crow have their heads switched.
End: Good thing and bad thing about the movie for ram chips.
Overall: We have another batch of winners this time around! Seg1 is even better here than it was in the KTMA days and it still cracks me up! Seg2 was pretty funny as well, but Seg3 was probably my favorite of the bunch. Servo-Crowatian! Gotta love it!

Verdict:  A few gems in the theater and some great host segments save an other wise sub-par episode.

102 Robot VS The Aztec Mummy

102 Robot VS The Aztec Mummy: 

The Aztec Mummy was in a ton of cheesy Mexican horror flicks. This was one of his latter films, and it's probably not they one that he'd want to put on his resume. This film is three things: silly, boring, and disappointing. It has some really hammy acting and some goofy as all get-out effects, but it's slower than a narcoleptic snail in molasses.
Verdict:1/4-Awful! A silly, but extremely boring flick.

I've heard nothing but bad things about this episode and I'm here to say that...yeah it's pretty bad. The riffing is weak here, even for a season 1 venture. I will admit that there where some pretty good riffs in this one (mainly at the villain's lair), but sadly they are a bit too few and far between. Even the short was weak.

Opener: Invention exchange-Joel's helmet airbag and the mads' chalk man
Seg1: Demon dogs attack the SOL and Tom tries (and fails) to fight them off.
Seg2: Enotch, the king of the demon dogs visits the SOL and offers to send the demon dogs away..until Gypsy eats him (WTF?)
Seg3: Crow tries to impersonate Enotch and convince the demon dogs to leave.
End: Joel uses a game of fetch to rid the SOL of the demon dogs.
Overall: I really liked the host segments. The only time that we ever saw the demon dogs in the KTMA days was in the opening. It was neat to see them finally worked into the show proper.

Verdict: This was not a very impressive episode. While the few great riff and clever host segments keep it from being a complete failure, but the majority of the theater segments are very weak and they can get a tad bit tedious.

101 The Crawling Eye

101 The Crawling Eye: And so it begins. After being canceled from KTMA TV 23, the Brains pitched there little puppet show to a fledgling HBO-run channel called The Comedy Channel.

While KTMA harbored the series genesis, it was here where brilliance was born.

Trollenberg Terror was an old BBC TV serial that was eventually edited down into the film "The Crawling Eye". I found this to be a very interesting little flick. I like that the eyeball monsters can mind-control people into doing their bidding. I also like the film's atmosphere, although the film's low budget keeps it from being too atmospheric. I also enjoyed the ending with the all-out giant eyeball attack on the ski-lodge!
Verdict: 4/4-Fun! A neat and cheesy monster flick.

The riffing in this one is hit-and-miss. There are a bunch of very funny lines and it's a LOT more professional and witty than the riffing of the KTMA days (with a few exceptions, of course). We'll see better theater segments latter on in the season, but this one managed to keep me chuckling and cracking up a bit.

Open: Joel's eclectic bagpipes and the Mads' canine antiperspirant.
Seg1: Joel talks to the bots about why people can't take off their heads.
Se2: Gypsy uncoils herself
Seg3: The boys talk about what makes giant eyes scary.
End: One good thing and one bad thing about the movie for ram chips.
Overall: I didn't find this batch of host segs to be particularly enthralling. However, I really got a chuckle out of seg 3.

Verdict: I found this to be a very middle of the road episode. There are some great moments in the theater, but it's a bit too slow. The host segments where not bad (especially seg 3), but they weren't very good either.