*all but runs in gleefully*

I am ecstatic to see this SF open up! I have to proudly admit I am a hardcore MST3K fan and am always snapping up everything MST3K related I can lay my mitts on, provided I have the cash. Plus I have a stack of old VHS-taped shows I keep on hand from the old "Keep Circulating the Tapes" era.

I got into the show circa Season 2 or 3 (91-92 timeframe if I remember correctly). I was rather bored one night and perusing the channels on my TV...I skipped over MST3K several times that evening but when I discovered nothing else was really on it got my curiousity piqued and I stopped over for a few minutes to see what it was all about. Within 10 minutes I was laughing myself silly. Within a half hour I was a lifelong fan and have been ever since! (the episode I watched was the horrid "Castle of Fu Manchu" starring no less than Christopher Lee in the title role).

My favorite host of the show (between Mike and Joel): Joel, although I love em' both!

Favorite bot: Crow T. Robot....this one always crushes me in the end though because Servo tosses out some real hilarious one-liners and has some great pipes when he wants to start crooning at someone on the screen.

Favorite Episode: This is sooooo tough...so many MST3K episodes are hilarious from start to finish, but two of them in particular stand out as my favorite of favorites. Season 5 episode "Mitchell" and Season 3 triumph "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians", starring a super young Pia Zadorra.

The infamous "chase scene" from Mitchell

Best Episode Ever Made: "Manos: The Hands of Fate". Seriously, this is the Citizen Kane of MST3K episodes and practically revered for good reason!

Torgo (awkwardly) struts his stuff for the first, but never the last, time!

Best short ever!: "Mister B Natural". This is the stuff of legends and has never been topped!

The video subtitle says it all: "Ahh the joys of music...and the terrors"

I gotta stop now or I'll spend all morning here and I gotta get to sleep at some point.

I love MST3K! I never saw it on TV, but when I was a kid we rented some on VHS and now I see them on netflix. They are awesome!
I have to say I like Mike's episodes a little better oveall, but that's a hard call!
Tom Servo is my favorite bot and character (when Kevin Murphy does his voice).
I haven't seen them all yet, so my favorite episode may still be out there. But I love Devil Fish, that one had me in tears.
Manos was almost too painful to watch even with their riffs!

TheGeneral, I had not seen that one, but I just viewed a clip of it on youtube and it's hilarious! I'll see if I can't find the whole thing online somewhere. Thanks for that one!

A few suggestions for super funny episodes:

Cave Dwellers (Joel)
Space Mutiny (Mike)
Squirm (Mike)
Catalina Caper (Joel)

And of course anything by the late, great Coleman Francis, with 3 to choose from!: Red Zone Cuba, The Beast of Yuca Flats, and The Skydivers (all Mike). It hurts me that they didn't get more Bert I. Gordon movies in...there's The Giant Gila Monster which is a hoot, but for a really good time, check out Teenagers from Outer Space (Joel)

I am not very familiar with the series, but I found this Q&A on reddit. The former head-writer of Mystery Science Theater 3000 is doing an AMA (Ask Me Anything), where redditors are asking him questions about the series.

He may not be answering questions anymore, but I'm sure it's still interesting!

Fair warning!

There may be inappropriate questions/content, though nothing too ridiculous I would imagine.

Thanks for those suggestions, Shadowlander! I haven't seen the first 4 you put up, I gotta check those out. I did see Teenagers from Outer Space, that one was great .
Another really good one is The Creeping Terror, "Did anyone in the '50's ever think of running?" LOL. And the host segment when Mike just stands there and plays the horrible song from the movie on his stereo, it was so stupid that it became so funny.
A lot of host segments are really out there, I think my family wonders about me when I'm laughing like crazy at all of them.
The first one I ever saw was Pod People. "You can do magic things!" "It's called evil, kid"

And I love how Tom Servo frequently dances and sings along to the movie soundtracks.

I'm not as conversant with MST3K as I should be. This is rather embarrassing as it had its start right here in the Twin Cities!

I find this little clip amusing:

"He tried to kill me with a forklift!"

Incidentally, I remember the first time we watched The Lion King 1-1/2 as a group. I commented that the part with the silhouetted figures in theater seats in front of the screen offering commentary was like MST3K, and had to explain what I meant to my friends who weren't familiar with the original.

Goodness, I've become a huge fan. Favorite episode I've seen this far has been Space Mutiny. "Railing kill!" I also thought the rant about the eighties and Tom's sing-along to the credits were hilarious.

I also have a bit of fondness for The Creeping Terror ("well it's certainly creeping!") as well as most of the shorts, particularly Here Comes the Circus ("Ezekiel, the Amish clown! No buttons.").

TBG

Space Mutiny is one of the classics and certainly solid MST3K when Best Brains was at its peak.

"We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese!"

My favorite episode, or at least my favorite of the Joel era, is Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. That one had me laughing even as the opening credits were rolling. From there, classic lines. "Hey, what's in the pipe, Santa?" "Open, Coco the Clown Room!"

Favorite of the Mike era is The Final Sacrifice. ROWSDOWER! And this:

Also love another Christmas movie, Santa Claus, a Mexican movie that just gets the Santa mythology completely wrong.

I have to agree on Mr. B. Natural as the best short, but very close is Gumby in Robot Rumpus. I was a huge Gumby fan as a little kid, and saw this short many times. Seeing it with commentary brought back memories.

My favorite robot is also Crow. Love Tom too (see Canada song above), but Crow always seemed like more of a loose cannon. I wish Gypsy had more of a presence on the show, and always wondered why we never saw Cambot besides being in the opening credits.

Hey, why aren't the youtube links working?

Hey, why aren't the youtube links working?

You've got the format right, but all you need to do is put the last alpha-numeric sequence in between the {youtube} parts. It's easy enough to fix...just plug the XB4GSewE stuff in between the youtube parts and voila!

The Final Sacrifice is one of the most hilarious episodes I've ever seen, and ironically I only first watched it about a month ago! Here's an abbreviated clip and my favorite part of the whole movie!

MST3K made this small, independent Candian film rather popular and Zap Rowsdower has become something of a cult icon here in the US. So years after having made it someone tracks down Bruce Mitchell (Mitchell!), the guy who played the original part, and he talks about his experiences making the film and at the end how it is to be moderately famous among B-movie watchers. He strikes me as a genuinely nice guy, and I'd love to see features like this included on MST3K sets in the future...great stuff!

Anyone seen Lady Arwen? She promised she'd come here to taunt us and harsh everyone's MST3K-lovin' mellow.

Oh goodness, that show always has me in hysterical fits of laughter. I remember one, cannot remember the exact title, but the film they were watching took place in space. There were what I think were asteroids in the film, and one of the robots called them "honey bunches of death" because they looked like cereal!

TheGeneral, God bless ya' for letting me know they have these on Netflix! I've got 3 queued up to come to my house next week, I watched one last night (Devilfish...4 stars! ) and am getting ready to watch another.

Part of the charm of the show is the obvious low budget that the Best Brains crew was working with on a weekly basis. Surprisingly this made MST3K rather endearing in many ways, with its Bots made of recognizable elements (Crow's bowling pin nose, Tom Servo's bubble gum ball dispenser head, etc.) and set pieces that often showcased the producers creativity with everyday objects and their ability to really make things out of them.

One of my favorite parts from the Joel years (Seasons 1-5) was the Invention Exchange. Gizmonics Institute (Joel and the Mads' employer) was essentially a place with a strong focus on inventions. So at the beginning of each episode (including the first handful of Mike episodes) Joel and the Mads would introduce their weekly "Invention Exchange", usually based on some goofy or silly human perception or concept. The results were always a riot!

The "Junk Drawer Organizer"

The "Smoking Jacket" and "Robotic Arm Wrestling"

The "Gutter-Bumber-Chute" (an umbrella with a gutter system)

Oh goodness, that show always has me in hysterical fits of laughter. I remember one, cannot remember the exact title, but the film they were watching took place in space. There were what I think were asteroids in the film, and one of the robots called them "honey bunches of death" because they looked like cereal!

That, ma'am, is the classic The Phantom Planet. Honey Bunches of Death...I remember that one! Also that the titular Phantom Planet looked like a deep fried chicken nugget. Mmmm...honey mustard dipping sauce...

V8AKmXoeWuQ

Oh, wow, I didn't think anyone else liked MST3K. What do ya'll do when the people you want to watch it with are really annoying and say they hate the series? My daughter does that all the time, and it drives me crazy.

Spammer, I would recommend sending your daughter off to summer day camp while you watch. My personal recommendation would be to send her to the Dripping Lagoon resort™. It's all a child could ever want!