I got the Episode Guide book!

[XerxesTheCat]

I got the Amazing Colossal Episode Guide! I found it in a Half-Price Books store! It was there! Waiting for me to buy it! WHAHOO!

Although, I gotta say, I was surprised when I met the cashier. He looked disappointed by me buying this book, and sulked, "It's a good thing you bought this. I was going to." There was nobody else in line to be helped, and so we chatted a little about MST3K. He talked about how he liked Joel better, and I mentioned that I like both. He then commented about how he hates it that they only release a few episodes to DVD at a time instead of the whole series, and I explained it's because of rights issues.

Then, the freaky thing happened. He talked about that he remembers seeing MST3K when it was just a Minneapolis station. That startled me, and I immediately asked, if he has the first three missing episodes of KTMA. And you know what he says next? That he does! I'm sure he was lying, but before I could pose a follow-up question, his supervisor came in and told him to stop goofing around and help other customers (a line was starting to form behind me), and the supervisor chased me out of the store. Crap. Post your thoughts.

[Phantom Engineer]

It's unlikely but ask him again another time. It's at least worth looking into if you have the chance.

[laughinghobgoblin]

If you actually get the "lost" episodes, I bet they'll make you a moderator immediately.

[gammer]

and I'll be first in line to offer my services to convert them to DVD for you

[ds_36]

It's definitely worth following up on it. I wouldn't go as far as saying he was lying (unless he was acting crazy or something like that), most likely he does have some KTMA episodes, just isn't actually aware of which ones are missing. You can always just call the store, and ask to talk to him, I hope you got his name.

Anyway, keep us updated (no disappearing!)

[XerxesTheCat]

One thing I remember him saying also was that he used to post here at this very message board a few years ago. I think that's an obvious gesture that he was lying. If he had the missing ones, wouldn't he post about them?

[ds_36]

xerxesthecat said:

One thing I remember him saying also was that he used to post here at this very message board a few years ago. I think that's an obvious gesture that he was lying. If he had the missing ones, wouldn't he post about them?

Not necessarily, I'm sure everybody's heard the story about Ted Dean posting that he had K02 and K03 on Deus Ex Machina's Tape Trading Post back in 1997 as it says on MST3K Temple. However, if you look at DAP Central's forums, the poster TServo4 claims that he has contact with Ted Dean and was close to getting the episodes (of course this was back in 2002), and then if you go to his website (http://web.archive.org/web/20020314025014/http://www.mst3k.cc/articles/missing/) he has a post from Ted Dean who claims that he had sent out a few copies of those two episodes to some people, but the episodes were of really horrible quality so he "temporarily" stopped trading it.

While I agree it's pretty unlikely that this is true (it makes no sense that no video or stills have popped up on the internet in all these years), there is a tiny chance that it's true and the guy at the bookstore got a copy or he got it some other way and he just never felt comfortable bragging about it to a whole board of people.

Anyway, you should just go to the store around opening when it should be pretty empty and you'll have some time to talk to him. It's worth checking out a little more...

[Melting Manos]

xerxesthecat said:

I got the Amazing Colossal Episode Guide! I found it in a Half-Price Books store! It was there! Waiting for me to buy it! WHAHOO!

Although, I gotta say, I was surprised when I met the cashier. He looked disappointed by me buying this book, and sulked, "It's a good thing you bought this. I was going to." There was nobody else in line to be helped, and so we chatted a little about MST3K. He talked about how he liked Joel better, and I mentioned that I like both. He then commented about how he hates it that they only release a few episodes to DVD at a time instead of the whole series, and I explained it's because of rights issues.

Then, the freaky thing happened. He talked about that he remembers seeing MST3K when it was just a Minneapolis station. That startled me, and I immediately asked, if he has the first three missing episodes of KTMA. And you know what he says next? That he does! I'm sure he was lying, but before I could pose a follow-up question, his supervisor came in and told him to stop goofing around and help other customers (a line was starting to form behind me), and the supervisor chased me out of the store. Crap. Post your thoughts.

I refuse to believe anyone had the foresight to tape the show when it was in its infancy like that. Stranger things have happened, but I highly doubt it.

[CBG]

laughinghobgoblin said:

If you actually get the "lost" episodes, I bet they'll make you a moderator immediately.

Aim high, kids.

[kernunrex]

manos2 said:

I refuse to believe anyone had the foresight to tape the show when it was in its infancy like that. Stranger things have happened, but I highly doubt it.

The first two are really unlikely (who's taping random UHF shows on Thanksgiving?). K03 I can see. Someone caught the double-feature of K01-K02 and thought, "Cool. I'd better tape the next one in case I forget."

[laughinghobgoblin]

I don't know, maybe someone was watching KTMA, and they saw MST3K came on, and decided that the show looked cool and started taping it.

[CBG]

Well, I've got video of the pitch meeting between Jim and Joel...

[Captain Wrong]

kernunrex said:

manos2 said:

I refuse to believe anyone had the foresight to tape the show when it was in its infancy like that. Stranger things have happened, but I highly doubt it.

The first two are really unlikely (who's taping random UHF shows on Thanksgiving?). K03 I can see. Someone caught the double-feature of K01-K02 and thought, "Cool. I'd better tape the next one in case I forget."

Considering I found a stack of VHS tapes of random junk from Minnesota including a KTMA movie broadcast from around the same time period, I don't necessarly think that's as unlikely as people might assume. I buy unlabled VHS tapes all the time and you'd be amazed at the stuff people taped. Finding it, now that's the issue.

That said, I think your friend at the bookstore's story stinks to high heaven. ;D

[kernunrex]

captainwrong said:

kernunrex said:

The first two are really unlikely (who's taping random UHF shows on Thanksgiving?). K03 I can see. Someone caught the double-feature of K01-K02 and thought, "Cool. I'd better tape the next one in case I forget."

Considering I found a stack of VHS tapes of random junk from Minnesota including a KTMA movie broadcast from around the same time period, I don't necessarly think that's as unlikely as people might assume. I buy unlabled VHS tapes all the time and you'd be amazed at the stuff people taped. Finding it, now that's the issue.

Reading davy1031's link above, that seems to be how the last close-encounter with K02-K03 happened.

Back in the day, my dad and grandfather used to insist that you needed to "break in" a new tape by recording on it once. They'd tape random channels all the time to fill them. Of course, they were then re-filled with movies. No room for random Joel Hodgson shows to exist there (not that I lived in the Twin Cities, anyway).

[Phantom Engineer]

I have to think that the only way they were taped is if someone was already a fan of Joel's comedy or by a friend or family member.
In any event I doubt they will ever surface but I would love to be proved wrong.