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Post by christmas on Feb 21, 2018 23:24:15 GMT -5
I think I only ever happened upon the MST Hour once or twice on my local CBS affiliate. I've never seen an actual episode of it since, except for the individual wraps (when Shout remembers to include them). I was wondering what an actual episode looked like in addition to that. Did they cut out the regular theme song? Did they replace the regular series bumpers with alternate MST Hour ones? Did they cut scenes from the movies?
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Post by Diet Kolos on Feb 22, 2018 10:57:57 GMT -5
I love pedantic questions. Let's get pedantic and really dig in:
I've only ever seen small opening bits of an episode, but it opens with the Jack Perkins intro, then cuts to the last bit second of doorway and straight into the Prologue. I'm assuming they cut the regular end credits for the MST Hour outro.
I don't know if they cut the actual episode, but I assume they'd have to.
Each intro/outro for the MST Hour takes up about ~2.5 minutes. That's 5 or more minutes of total episode to cut. The regular theme song and end credits of an episode are only about 1:30 and 1:00, respectively. So another 2.5 minutes had to come from somewhere. The bumpers wouldn't do it, there's only 9 of them and they're each only ~6 seconds. Only another minute, roughly.
So some theater bits must've been cut.
However... things get complicated when you consider that half of the MST Hour episodes are from Season 3, which ran for ~97 minutes per episode. The rest used Season 4-5 episodes at ~92 mins per.
Whenever Comedy Central re-ran early 97 minute episodes, they'd run from, for example, midnight to 2:05am.
So those Season 3 MST Hour eps must've had even more cut out.
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Post by davidbeegah on Feb 22, 2018 11:04:05 GMT -5
I noticed several cuts to the MST3K Hour. The most noticeable to me was in Hercules Unchained. The entire fight scene with the sleepy Hercules and the guy who gained his strength from the ground. Before the Herc tosses him into the water was cut. That's the only one off the top of my head. But there were other. You have to consider fitting Mike a Jack Perkins in the beginning and ending segments as well.
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Post by leeharveyosmond on Feb 22, 2018 12:16:44 GMT -5
i've got two of them on dvd (from skyronitor when his site was still going), gamera & the amazing colossal man. both of them actually have the full opening theme after each jack perkins intro. it should also be noted that they re-did the silhouettes too, at least for season 3 episodes. the blue tint that the black & white movies had in the regular episodes is gone as well. this is very noticeable on the official dvd releases that have the bumpers (when they do a recap at the start of part 2).
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Post by christmas on Feb 22, 2018 20:30:24 GMT -5
Thanks gang, this is illuminating!
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Post by potnoodle on Feb 24, 2018 19:53:27 GMT -5
The MST3K hours were definitely edited down for time reasons (and also to accommodate the "Jack Perkins" intros and wrap-ups). As I recall, at least a few minutes of the movie were cut in both halves of the full length episodes. The host segments were never edited. There were two other major deviations from the original episodes: The end credits not only included the original end credits in full plus a second set of credits which pertained exclusively to the Perkins bits. Also, the closing theme was a piano solo with a different theme from the Love Theme.
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Post by Afgncaap5 on Feb 25, 2018 18:05:56 GMT -5
I confess I've always sorta regretted that I never saw any of these live. Feels like an entire facet of the show that I didn't get to take part in.
Granted, I also know in my head that it's "just edited versions of the episode, featuring Mike as Jack Perkins" but still.
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Post by Diet Kolos on Feb 26, 2018 8:28:50 GMT -5
I confess I've always sorta regretted that I never saw any of these live. Feels like an entire facet of the show that I didn't get to take part in. Granted, I also know in my head that it's "just edited versions of the episode, featuring Mike as Jack Perkins" but still. To be fair, there is one important distinction that the MST Hour has: It's the only professionally shot Mystery Science Theater product from BBI outside of The Movie. The Jack Perkins segments were all shot at KTCA, the PBS station in Minneapolis where they used to shoot "Newton' s Apple", with professional make-up artists, lighting, camera work, etc. Kind of a peek into what a BBI-produced MST3K with a slightly larger budget/studio could've done. |
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Post by Treadwell on Feb 28, 2018 0:15:14 GMT -5
Did you just say BBI weren't professionals?
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Post by gorncaptain on Feb 28, 2018 14:17:26 GMT -5
I confess I've always sorta regretted that I never saw any of these live. Feels like an entire facet of the show that I didn't get to take part in. Granted, I also know in my head that it's "just edited versions of the episode, featuring Mike as Jack Perkins" but still. To be fair, there is one important distinction that the MST Hour has: It's the only professionally shot Mystery Science Theater product from BBI outside of The Movie. The Jack Perkins segments were all shot at KTCA, the PBS station in Minneapolis where they used to shoot "Newton' s Apple", with professional make-up artists, lighting, camera work, etc. Kind of a peek into what a BBI-produced MST3K with a slightly larger budget/studio could've done. Did not know that. I long presumed they shot it at Best Brains between seasons when they could put up that set in the space where Deep 13 usually stood. Any idea if they shot all the Jack Perkins wraparounds in one go? I can't imagine Mike enduring that makeup for several days. |
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Post by Diet Kolos on Feb 28, 2018 14:53:13 GMT -5
Did you just say BBI weren't professionals? It would be a stretch to call them pros. Kevin and Jim were probably the only ones with an prior experience making TV, and it was pretty limited experience at that. Joel was a performer, not a writer or actor or director. Everyone else was a stand-up. They weren't pros, and that was the charm. |
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Post by Diet Kolos on Feb 28, 2018 14:54:55 GMT -5
To be fair, there is one important distinction that the MST Hour has: It's the only professionally shot Mystery Science Theater product from BBI outside of The Movie. The Jack Perkins segments were all shot at KTCA, the PBS station in Minneapolis where they used to shoot "Newton' s Apple", with professional make-up artists, lighting, camera work, etc. Kind of a peek into what a BBI-produced MST3K with a slightly larger budget/studio could've done. Did not know that. I long presumed they shot it at Best Brains between seasons when they could put up that set in the space where Deep 13 usually stood. Any idea if they shot all the Jack Perkins wraparounds in one go? I can't imagine Mike enduring that makeup for several days. There's a bit in the ACEG where Mike talks about the experience of filming those. I believe they were shot over the course of a month or two, on weekends, early in the morning because the makeup took an hour or more to put on. And he was miserable most of the time. |
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Post by Afgncaap5 on Mar 1, 2018 14:49:26 GMT -5
More and more I'm reminded that I need to reread the ACEG.
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Post by Treadwell on Mar 4, 2018 0:02:28 GMT -5
Did you just say BBI weren't professionals? It would be a stretch to call them pros. Kevin and Jim were probably the only ones with an prior experience making TV, and it was pretty limited experience at that. Joel was a performer, not a writer or actor or director. Everyone else was a stand-up. They weren't pros, and that was the charm. Kevin and Jim were salaried employees producing television. No matter that it was a cowtown UHF station. It counts. As for the rest, they were being paid by a cable network to produce television. That also counts. |
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