Geoff H

I received mine by delivery today... and was hit with another Cdn$7.90 in customs charges

K Tm S

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TheV

I got mine. It's an okay deal but I'm a little disappointed that they have the shorts in an envelope and not the case. The DVD case is a 2-disc. So that means I'll be buying my own 3-disc...I hate loose envelopes. It's kind of cheap of them IMHO.

milo bloom

Is the 2 disc case a double width like the Star Trek movies or a single width like the Star Wars prequels?

SideShow

milo bloom- it's single width, but holds a dvd on each side instead of the plastic thing in the middle that holds a disc.

I recieved mine yesterday, and was too dissapointed about the Shorts being in a sleeve (at first I thought they didn't send it) but besides that I was happy with the quality and getting it a little early.

PatrickMcCart

The Shorts 3 DVD is worth the extra cost.

Once Upon a Honeymoon and Design for Dreaming are two of the funniest short subject riffings I've seen.

Icon769

Does the Essentials include the Poopie feature that was included with the original release of manos? Someone who has this, please confirm?

ViewAskewbian

According to the Rhino website it still has Poopie.

ChrisHicks

well I was billed for this on Thursday so I guess that means its on its way.

Zenigata

Damnit. Just a word of warning to anyone who orders and on the last page gets "Cannot be displayed" - it went through. I did it a second time and now I'm charged for two. Guy gave me the cust. service number.. they should refund it right away when I call (small weekday only window), but it's just annoying.

renaldow

Saw an ad on TV for this set, they didn't mention anything about the club. Didn't see that until I went to the website and it was offered there.

Still debating about getting it and joining the club over buying the collections. The collections are a bit more expensive, but have more attractive movies featured than the ones in the Essentials. However, I'm not a fan of Mike's, and would rather see Joel. Any tips on which would be the best route, or which volumes of the collections feature more Joel than Mike?

ViewAskewbian

Depends how you look at it. The Box sets give you four films for $60 (Cdn). The single discs are about $20 here so that basically gives one disc for free. From what I can see they have been dumping over the rest of their VHS issues into the Box sets and none previously released on DVD. However, I am now weary about the "essentials" collections because I wonder if they are planing to release the already available DVDs (ie: Manos) packaged with another disc which turns out to be a cheaper way to go to collect (if, of course, you don't already have the previous discs). The Essentials here is selling for $25.

Here is a breakdown of the sets and Mike/Joel Shows:

MST3K Vol. 1
Episode 204- Catalina Caper (Host: Joel)
Episode 606- The Creeping Terror (Host: Mike)
Episode 607- Bloodlust (with short: "Uncle Jim's Dairy Farm") (Host: Mike)
Episode 609- The Sky Divers (with short: "Why Study Industrial Arts?") (Host: Mike)

MST3K Vol. 2
Episode 301- Cave Dwellers (Host: Joel)
Episode 303- Pod People (Host: Joel)
Episode 622- Angels' Revenge (Host: Mike)
Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Shorts, Vol. 1
"The Home Economics Story"
"Junior Rodeo Daredevils"
"Body Care & Grooming"
"Cheating"
"A Date With Your Family"
"Why Study Industrial Arts?"
"Chicken of Tomorrow"
(Hosts: Joel and Mike)

MST3K Vol. 3
Episode 202- The Sidehackers (Host: Joel)
Episode 320- The Unearthly (with shorts: "Posture Pals" and "Appreciating Our Parents") (Host: Joel)
Episode 518- The Atomic Brain (with short: "What About Juvenile Delinquency?") (Host: Mike)
Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Shorts, Vol. 2
"Catching Trouble"
"What To Do On A Date"
"Last Clear Chance"
"A Day At The Fair"
"Keeping, Clean & Neat"
"The Days of Our Years"
(Hosts: Joel and Mike)

MST3K Vol. 4
Episode 820- Space Mutiny (Host: Mike)
Episode 822- Overdrawn at the Memory Bank (Host: Mike)
Episode 1002- Girl in Gold Boots (Host: Mike)
Episode 1009- Hamlet (Host: Mike)

MST3K Vol. 5
Episode 1006- Boggy Creek II (Host: Mike)
Episode 1003- Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders (Host: Mike)
Episode 821- Time Chasers (Host: Mike)
Episode 908- The Touch of Satan (Host: Mike)

MST3K Vol. 6 (COMING IN OCTOBER)
episode 511- GUNSLINGER (Host: Joel)
episode 404- TEENAGERS FROM OUTER SPACE (Host: Joel)
406- ATTACK OF THE GIANT LEECHES (with short: UNDERSEA KINGDOM PT. 1 (Host: Joel)
MR. B's LOST SHORTS??!!
"MR. B NATURAL"
"X MARKS THE SPOT"
"HIRED!--PART 1"
"DESIGN FOR DREAMING"
"JOHNNY AT THE FAIR"
"ARE YOU READY FOR MARRIAGE?"
(Hosts: Mike and Joel)

* * *

MST3K THE ESSENTIALS:
Episode 424- "MANOS"-THE HANDS OF FATE (with short: "Hired--Part 2") (Host: Joel)
Episode 321- SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE MARTIANS (Host: Joel)
Includes Poopie Outakes

* * *

SINGLE DVDs:
Episode 106- The Crawling Hand (Host: Joel)
Episode 209- The Hellcats (Host: Joel)
Episode 424- Manos, The Hands of Fate (with short: "Hired--Part 2") (Host: Joel)
Episode 506- Eegah (Host: Joel)
Episode 507- I Accuse My Parents (with short: "The Truck Farmer")(Host: Joel)
Episode 512- Mitchell (Host: Joel -HIS LAST / Mike debuts)
Episode 513- The Brain That Wouldn't Die (Host: Mike -HIST FIRST)
Episode 515- The Wild Wild World of Batwoman (with short: "Cheating")(Host: MIke)
Episode 517- The Beginning of the End (Host: Mike)
Episode 619- Red Zone Cuba (with short: "Speech: Platform Posture and Appearance")(Host: Mike)

* * *

Hope that helps.

milo bloom

Thanks View, that just got copied into Word and saved on my hard drive. We just lost ours and I'm rebuilding my archive of "stuff".

I realize you might not have put it since it's OOP, but there's also the movie on DVD.

ViewAskewbian

Yeah, I didn't include it because it is out of print. There are, I believe, a VHS release (ie: THE MST3K Scrapbook) or two that have not been transfered over to DVD yet. Also, I did not include the Shorts Vol. 3 as it is only unique to the online offer. Hopfully it will come out on a future Box Set.

renaldow

Thanks View, that run down did indeed help out a lot. I think I may just go for some of the single discs with Joel. Others will probably disagree, but I thought the show slid a bit when Mike came on.

ViewAskewbian

Actually, most of us fans prefer the Joel era eps then Mike although I, personally, enjoy them both with Joel getting the slight edge. Yet whomever hosts, whomever does the voice of crow or whomever the Mad is does not distract from the best quality of the show which is bashing bad films. Therefore, I'd say give Mike a chance because Servo comes into true riffing form on many of the Mike shows and they are all still pretty funny.

The release of t the Vol. 6 set, however, should make you smile as they are all Joel shows save for, I believe, Mike on a short or two.

The Essentials are also both Joel shows.

milo bloom

Not to drag this off course, but I came into MST3K-sism during the Mike years, though I still never saw more than a handful. When I started buying the DVDs, they happened to skew towards Joel. I've grown to love them both. Mike being at the mercy of the bot's tomfoolery, and Joel's sometimes really surreal skits and props. (Like where he uses the Wall of Keyboards to play "newage space music" "Now just hold that until you get a record contract with Wyndham Hill. " That line especially kills me because my dad loves Wyndham Hill (and some of it has rubbed off on me.)

Arguments between Kirk and Picard I can understand, but Mike and Joel? It's all good.

darkside

I think the biggest knock against the Mike era were those terrible host segments on Sci-Fi. That is more a Pearl sucks thing and a stupid concept thing than anything against Mike. To be fair Joel screwed up many of his host segments by forgetting lines, but his personality carried them anyway.

Most of the show is the in theater riffing and that was solid all the way through to the last episode. In many cases the riffing was much better during the Mike era. If anything the first season was worse than anything from the Sci-Fi era.

So I'm very much in favor of having any episode possible on DVD no matter who hosted. They are all damn funny in some way or other.

Icon769

Did anyone get a confirmation email after they placed they're order? Also, how long did it take to arrive?

renaldow

Pearl does play a big part of the Mike hateration for me, she sucks. I didn't see them ever do anything mildly amusing. Mike also seemed to be trying too hard, it was like he had a really fake personality.

As for the Joel episodes not being as good at ripping on the movies, yes and no. A lot of the original episodes are kind of terrible, and there's a lot of time between jokes. Once they got the show going, I think they really took off and hit a peak the Mike episodes never achieved.

ViewAskewbian

Although I haven't seen the bulk of the Pearl shows, I have eased some into her character. Sci-Fi requested a sort of story arch for the show and this, to me, was welcome because it added some. I like the idea of them being persued across space and time. It reminded me of when another show I adore, Red Dward, changed their format and had the crew searching for the ship. Certainly I missed the Mads but, as it has been stated in this thread, the show's heart was the riffing on bad films and I think Mike did an amazing job.

However, let's not breath new life in the long dead Mike vs Joel internet debates, shall we?

Roy28

I think the Mike/Pearl episodes are the best, but of course that's a personal opinion. I think the reason is that I didn't start watching the series until after it was cancelled, so for a while the only episodes I saw and became used to were the Saturday re-runs on sci-fi. So, after I started collecting the earlier seasons, it seemed like a different show, what with Dr. F and Frank (and Crow's voice change) being new to me, and it wasn't the same. For most people who have been fans since the beginning, it was the other way around.

Since then, I've had a chance to collect and watch almost all the episodes many times and have enjoyed almost every one (except "Hamlet" - I've never made it all the way through that one). The only ones I haven't seen are the KTMA episodes and a few here and there from the first couple of seasons.

Still though, having seen the shows many times now (in order), I still prefer Mike & Pearl to Dr. F and Tv's Frank. Mike just seemed a lot more animated and into it than Joel, and brought in some energy that was lagging a little.

Also, and many will disagree with me - I Love the Pearl character. No disrespect to Dr. F and Frank, but their characters just seemed like fairly harmless goofballs. Pearl on the other hand, was pure evil, hellbent on torturing Mike & the bots. Although she was still a goofy sort of evil, and even had an occasional tender moment, she still brought in a little extra edge that I feel improved the show.

The later Sci-fi episodes also just seemed to have better/sharper riffing, and some great host segments (Crow's "Girl in Gold Boots" dance segment never fails to crack me up, no matter how many times I watch it). Most of my favorite episodes come from the last 3 seasons.

Anyway, just my opinion. If I had seen the show from the beginning, I may feel the other way, but honestly I don't think so. To me, Mike/Pearl just had great chemisty and took the show into a different realm that I really enjoyed (not necessarily a better realm, but different - like I said, I love almost all the episodes).

Roy

darkside

Perspective has a lot to do with it. I started watching the series in year two and watched it grow to an unbelievable peak by the end of season four. Nothing could really ever live up to that again. Not even if Joel had kept doing the show. It was still a very funny show through season ten, but its golden era was season three and four when the show was just unstoppable. I think Mike takes blame thats not really his. Even if Joel would have stayed the show would have eventually been cancelled. Two hours was just too long of a time to give to one show and the costs of making the show became too high as well. I agree though that you could come into the series at any time and enjoy the show. It was very consistent in the quality of the riffing and there was always something to chuckle at in the host segments even during the Sci-Fi era.

BTW, Joel played the character sleepy on purpose. Something to do with staying up the night before the first KTMA episode building the bots. He was half asleep the first episode and just kept playing the character that way. That and its rumored he was stoned a lot when taping episodes.

To go back to the original topic I still haven't been charged for my DVD set. I really wish Rhino would hurry up and catch up on the orders.

PatrickMcCart

To be honest... Mike's influence in the show started back in the 2nd season (when he became head writer).

If you read some of Michael J. Nelson's literary works, you'll see where a lot of the humor came from. Although, Frank Conniff was responsible for a lot of great obscure jokes from season 2 to season 6 (I think only he could get away with making a reference to Abel Gance's Napoleon).


The Sci-Fi Channel episodes really didn't vary in quality like the Comedy Central ones. Some of the early season 8 episodes are mediocre, but they're saved by the 2nd half of the season.

milo bloom

Would anybody mind sharing what the name of the company shows up as when you've been charged? I used my bank check card over the phone to order a week and half ago or so, and there's a charge for about the right amount from EMI CDs and Cassette. Does that match anyone else's?

thanks