MST3K Weekend
Mahoning Drive-In Theater - Lehighton, PA
There have been a lot of very cool special guests at the Mahoning in the years that we've been coming here, but there has been no one that I was as excited to meet as Joel Hodgson. He was the creator and the first star of one of my favorite things that I ever watched on television, Mystery Science Theater 3000. I've gotten to see Joel (and Jonah) in person six years ago at the Kirby Center in Wilkes-Barre during the MST3K 30th Anniversary Tour, but I've never actually met him or had the opportunity to talk with him before this weekend and shake the man's hand and thank him for making me laugh for three decades.
Mahoning Drive-In Theater - Lehighton, PA
There have been a lot of very cool special guests at the Mahoning in the years that we've been coming here, but there has been no one that I was as excited to meet as Joel Hodgson. He was the creator and the first star of one of my favorite things that I ever watched on television, Mystery Science Theater 3000. I've gotten to see Joel (and Jonah) in person six years ago at the Kirby Center in Wilkes-Barre during the MST3K 30th Anniversary Tour, but I've never actually met him or had the opportunity to talk with him before this weekend and shake the man's hand and thank him for making me laugh for three decades.
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| Show banner designed by Andrew Kern |
This most definitely was an ultimate fan event! There are few things that have made me laugh consistently for as many years as MST3K. It was introduced to me when I was 15 years old by a friend named Darwin. He and I worked at Burger King in the fall and winter of 1995 before my manager discovered that I had lied about my age on the job application and told me that I couldn't come back to work until I was 16. We were both big fans of sci-fi, but he was about ten years older than me and he introduced me to dozens of shows and movies that I hadn't seen before, including Doctor Who, Nowhere Man, and dozens of others.
One of the current shows that Darwin and I were both obsessed with at the time was Sliders. It's a series about four adventurers who had gotten lost traveling through parallel worlds trying to get back to their home world. It was on hiatus between its first and second seasons when he and I met, and I was a little late in discovering the show, so I missed the first three episodes and didn't really know how the story got started. This was years before the days of streaming video. Hell, it was before DVD's existed, which made it practical for companies to release a full season of television shows on home video. Thankfully, Darwin had recorded the whole series from their first airings and he dubbed a copy of the episodes onto a blank VHS tape. There was room at the end of the tape, so he added a surprise that he thought I would enjoy. That surprise was an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 where Joel, Tom Servo, and Crow riffed on Pod People. It was the first time I had ever seen it, and it sparked a love of the series that continues to this day.
This is the Pod People episode that kicked off my love of MST3K. If you've never seen the show before, the plot goes something like this. Your host, who is either Joel, Mike, Jonah, or Emily (depending on the season) is being held captive by mad scientists who force our hero and their robot friends to watch (and make fun of) cheesy movies. In this case, the host is Joel, and the cheesy movie in question is a sci-fi flick from 1983 called Extra Terrestrial Visitors (which was re-titled as Pod People for the show). It's a blatant E.T. ripoff which, like most of the films shown on MST3K, is the very definition of "so bad it's good".
If this post is your introduction to this crazy world and you want to see more, you're in luck. Hundreds of episodes have been made available on various official sources free of charge. The first ten seasons are available for free on the MST3K website and app, Gismoplex. You can also watch individual classic episodes on their YouTube channel, which is where the video above is from. You can also tune into a 24 hours stream of episodes that span the history of the series for free on Tubi, Pluto, Plex, YouTube, and probably several other places that I've never heard of. None of these are bootlegs or fan streams, by the way. They're all from official, licensed sources that were made available for people to watch for free
My friend Zach (right) is the biggest MST3K fan that I know. He created an awesome mural that was used as the backdrop for the stage outside of the concession building, and he also built these two incredible replicas of Crow and Tom Servo.
Zach was also giving out free copies of his Quest-O-Tron game, which I will go into greater detail about in a post later this month.
Joel Hodgson and MST3K executive producer, writer, and comic book artist Harold Buchholz had a Q&A session with fans who purchased VIP tickets on both Friday and Saturday afternoon. I didn't videotape either of these, but plenty of folks did so you can probably hunt it down if you are so inclined. On both days, someone in the audience asked Joel what movie he wishes he could have done an episode on, and without hesitation, his answer both times was Happy Feet.
Following this, we lined up outside of the projection booth to take a photo with Joel, and then both he and Harold set up at the tables outside of the concession booth to meet fans, sell merch, and sign autographs.
I picked up an 8x10 of Joel with his robot friends which he signed to me. He also signed my copy of the Rhino VHS release of Pod People, which is especially meaningful to me as it was the first episode that I'd ever seen.
I also picked up two books from Harold's table: the trade paperback of Mystery Science Theater: The Comic, which is a collection of issues 1-6 of the comic, and a holiday book called The Neat Before Christmas that Harold wrote and illustrated. Both Joel and Howard signed the MST3K book, and Harold signed the Christmas one.
The special guests also hosted a costume contest on both nights.
I only took video of the costume contest on Friday night, but both nights were a lot of fun. The winner on the first night was a dude from Virginia who was visiting the Mahoning for the first time. He was playing Torgo from Manos: The Hands Of Fate, and he absolutely killed it.
As much as I loved the Torgo costume, my vote would have gone to her incredible Tom Servo costume. We met her while we were standing in the autograph line and my friend Carrie snapped this photo of her. Her mother made the costume and she did an outstanding job!
The special burger at the concession building was a reference to the invention exchange from the Season 6 episode from 1994 in which Mike Nelson and his robot friends riffed on the 1964 film The Starfighters. It was Cowboy Mike's Own Original Red Hot Ricochet BBQ Burger. It's BOLD!
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| Show t-shirt designed by Tom Bifulco |
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| Show poster designed by Andrew Kern |
Night One - Friday, October 4
Friday night kicked off on the big screen with a Joel episode from Season 5 that started with a documentary short film from 1954 called The Truck Farmer, followed by 1944 feature length film I Accuse My Parents. I'm pretty sure that I've seen this episode before, but it's been a very long time so I didn't really remember anything. Seeing an episode of MST3K at the drive-in with hundreds of other fans is a whole different experience. Laughter is contagious, especially on this lot.
Zach brought his robot friends to the path of the projector beam to add some extra fun to the classic intermission reel that played between each of the films.
Next up was a Jonah episode from Season 12 featuring the horrendous 1988 ET clone, Mac And Me. This is widely regarded as one of the worst movies ever made and for good reason, but it's such a train wreck that you can't help but to have a good time watching it and laughing at it, with or without commentary.
The last film of each night was not an MST3K episode, but a 35mm screening of a classic movie selected by Joel. Unfortunately, fog started to roll in about 20 minutes before the end of Mac And Me, and it continued to get worse during the third feature of the night, which was the 1959 film The Big Circus.
The description of this movie didn't sound like the kind of thing that I would have gone out of my way to see. It was really more of a bonus attraction for me so I wasn't too disappointed, but this was by far the foggiest that I have ever seen it get on the lot in the time that I've been coming here. I ended up staying for the whole movie, which felt a bit like listening to a radio drama while looking at an abstract light art project on the big screen. The fog was mostly cleared up for the last ten minutes of the film, so at least we got to see the end and the secret feature.
The idea behind this weekend's event was that it would honor the full history of Mystery Science Theater 3000 by including one film from each of the show's hosts: Joel (1989-1993), Mike (1993-1999), Jonah (2017-2022), and Emily (2022-current).
Friday night kicked off on the big screen with a Joel episode from Season 5 that started with a documentary short film from 1954 called The Truck Farmer, followed by 1944 feature length film I Accuse My Parents. I'm pretty sure that I've seen this episode before, but it's been a very long time so I didn't really remember anything. Seeing an episode of MST3K at the drive-in with hundreds of other fans is a whole different experience. Laughter is contagious, especially on this lot.
Zach brought his robot friends to the path of the projector beam to add some extra fun to the classic intermission reel that played between each of the films.
Next up was a Jonah episode from Season 12 featuring the horrendous 1988 ET clone, Mac And Me. This is widely regarded as one of the worst movies ever made and for good reason, but it's such a train wreck that you can't help but to have a good time watching it and laughing at it, with or without commentary.
One quick side note: Joel will probably always be my favorite host. He's the first one that I saw when I discovered MST3K, so his character is what I think of when I think of the show. That being said, Mike, Jonah, and Emily are all excellent as well. I have never watched the Jonah riff on Mac And Me before, but he absolutely killed it!
The last film of each night was not an MST3K episode, but a 35mm screening of a classic movie selected by Joel. Unfortunately, fog started to roll in about 20 minutes before the end of Mac And Me, and it continued to get worse during the third feature of the night, which was the 1959 film The Big Circus.
The description of this movie didn't sound like the kind of thing that I would have gone out of my way to see. It was really more of a bonus attraction for me so I wasn't too disappointed, but this was by far the foggiest that I have ever seen it get on the lot in the time that I've been coming here. I ended up staying for the whole movie, which felt a bit like listening to a radio drama while looking at an abstract light art project on the big screen. The fog was mostly cleared up for the last ten minutes of the film, so at least we got to see the end and the secret feature.
Night Two - Saturday, October 5
Saturday night's first film was a Mike episode from Season 8 featuring the 1988 science fiction adventure, Space Mutiny. It's a South African film that is about as cheesy as an 80's sci-fi movie can get, complete with a minor character nonchalantly sitting in the background in the scene after she gets killed.
The last MST3K flick of the weekend was an Emily episode from Season 13 featuring the 1973 sci-fi/horror movie, Beyond Atlantis. It's probably the best movie out of the four that were riffed over the weekend, but there was still a lot of cheese that made it a lot of fun to laugh along with. Sid Haig steals every scene that he's in, and his "East Eddie" character is extremely quotable. I had only seen a few minutes of an Emily episode prior to this screening. She brings a lot of fun to the show and I'm glad that she's a part of this world.
Last, but not least, we got to see a gorgeous 35mm print of one of my favorite fantasy adventure films ever made, The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad. I cannot express how thankful I am that it was foggy on Friday instead of Saturday because I was looking forward to seeing this on the big screen at the Mahoning almost as much as I was looking forward to meeting Joel.
And that's a wrap on what we have now learned will be the first annual MST3K event at the Mahoning Drive-In Theater. Virgil announced to the crowd on Saturday that Joel had a great time and when asked if he'd like to come back and do it again next season, his response was "book it!". I have no doubt that this will be one of the biggest themed weekends of the season... in the not too distant future.
Saturday night's first film was a Mike episode from Season 8 featuring the 1988 science fiction adventure, Space Mutiny. It's a South African film that is about as cheesy as an 80's sci-fi movie can get, complete with a minor character nonchalantly sitting in the background in the scene after she gets killed.
I'm convinced that our friend Gene knows everyone on the planet who has ever worked in anything relating to puppetry. My latest evidence in this belief is the fact that he secured these three awesome introductions that were played on the big screen during intermission.
The last MST3K flick of the weekend was an Emily episode from Season 13 featuring the 1973 sci-fi/horror movie, Beyond Atlantis. It's probably the best movie out of the four that were riffed over the weekend, but there was still a lot of cheese that made it a lot of fun to laugh along with. Sid Haig steals every scene that he's in, and his "East Eddie" character is extremely quotable. I had only seen a few minutes of an Emily episode prior to this screening. She brings a lot of fun to the show and I'm glad that she's a part of this world.
Last, but not least, we got to see a gorgeous 35mm print of one of my favorite fantasy adventure films ever made, The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad. I cannot express how thankful I am that it was foggy on Friday instead of Saturday because I was looking forward to seeing this on the big screen at the Mahoning almost as much as I was looking forward to meeting Joel.
And that's a wrap on what we have now learned will be the first annual MST3K event at the Mahoning Drive-In Theater. Virgil announced to the crowd on Saturday that Joel had a great time and when asked if he'd like to come back and do it again next season, his response was "book it!". I have no doubt that this will be one of the biggest themed weekends of the season... in the not too distant future.
