A new Mystery Science Theater 3000: 20th Anniversary DVD collection is out with episodes showing:
- “First Spaceship on Venus” – Featuring show creator Joel Hodgson as host
- “Werewolf”
- “Laserblast”
- “Future War” – With later host and head writer Michael J. Nelson.
The limited-edition, $70 set comes in a metal gift box with four custom lobby cards and a Crow T. Robot figurine.
The show’s entire cast (including Hodgson, Nelson, Trace Beaulieu, J. Elvis Weinstein, Kevin Murphy, Bill Corbett, Mary Jo Pehl, Frank Conniff, Paul Chaplain, Bridget Jones Nelson and producer Jim Mallon) offers remembrances from MST3K‘s run. Their natural personalities on camera offer a good idea why the show worked so well. They all seem like well-grounded folks.
“It was playful, but not juvenile. It was sharp, but not mean-spirited. It was quirky and original, but not snobbish. And it was always funny. Cripes, it was funny.
“All that, plus people in silly costumes, jumping around with puppets. I felt privileged to be a part of it.”
The fourth DVD offers the complete reunion panel from this year’s Comic-Con International, hosted by Patton Oswalt. It was the first time the casts mingled since Nelson, Murphy and Corbett started one MST3K spinoff (RiffTrax) and Hodgson, Beaulieu, Weinstein, Pehl and Conniff started another (Cinematic Titanic). As the video shows, everyone got along like old times, and the fans ate it up.
Reminiscing on the show and the panel, Conniff said, “To know that I am a part of something that seems to be of lasting value is a very nice feeling. I feel very lucky that around 20 years ago, fate brought me to the same city as Joel and that vast imagination of his. MST3K and now Cinematic Titanic continue to be a great gift in my life.”
[via Wired]
