Spinoff Idea: "Mystery Science Theater 4000"

[jjb3k]

I've been thinking again about how I would do my own MST3K fanseries, and it eventually spawned this concept for a spinoff. How's this sound to you?

"Mystery Science Theater 4000"

Prologue: Gypsy comes to visit Mike, Servo, Crow, and Cambot after ConGypsCo gets bought out by a competitor. While all the bots are together again, Mike notices that they're out of rice and sends them down to the store to get some more for dinner. On the way, the four robots get totally lost in the city and encounter a pack of wild dogs, who chase them down an alley and into a dumpster. Before they can escape, the dumpster is emptied into a trash truck and taken to the local dump...located near the Gizmonic Institute. The bots try to seek help at the lab, only to wander into an experimental room that turns out to be the bridge of the SOL2, which is promptly blasted off into space. Wondering what just happened, the bots discover that they have a new human companion...

Premise: At the Gizmonic Institute, Dr. Forrester's rarely-spoken-of half-brother Craig Forrester teams up with TV's Frank's simpletonish cousin Fred to relaunch the movie-watching experiment. Their subject is Jesse, another hapless Gizmonic janitor, who's tricked aboard the SOL2 and shot into space with his four stowaway robot companions. Thus, the bad movies begin again, with Jesse, Servo, and Crow right there to make fun of all of them!

Episodes: I've only devised the first five seasons so far, and I had a bit of help in that respect. Seasons 1 and 2 are reorganizations of Mighty Jack's Mythical Season 11, with "Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster" and "Night of the Lepus" thrown in to balance out Season 2 to 13 episodes. Season 3 is MJ's Season 12, and the first half of Season 4 is MJ's Season 13 (what can I say, he has some great choices for MSTed movies). 414 through 420 were taken from "The Official Razzie Movie Guide" by John Wilson, while 421 through 424 come from The Agony Booth. Everything in Season 5 comes from B-Movie Central.

Season 1
101 “Attack of the Puppet People”
102 “Fiend Without a Face”
103 “Sssssss”
104 “The Giant Claw”
105 “Sorority Girl”
106 “Hawk the Slayer”
107 “Future Force”
108 “Cat Women of the Moon”
109 “The Norseman”
110 “The Wasp Woman”
111 “The Astounding She-Monster”
112 “Charro”
113 “Mars Needs Women”

Season 2
201 “Night Monster vs. the Navy”
202 “Attack of the Crab Monsters”
203 “The Highwayman”
204 “Killdozer”
205 “Giant from the Unknown”
206 “Baffled”
207 “Bride of the Gorilla”
208 “Through Fire, Water, and Brass Pipes”
209 “The X from Outer Space”
210 “House on Haunted Hill”
211 “Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster”
212 “Night of the Lepus”
213 “From Hell It Came”

Season 3
301 “Devil Girl from Mars”
302 “Gamera vs. Viras”
303 “The Braniac”
304 “Samurai D.A.”
305 “The Hideous Sun Demon”
306 “Journey to the Seventh Planet”
307 “Viva Kneivel!”
308 “She-Demons”
309 “Cosmos: War of the Planets”
310 “Monster from Green Hell”
311 “Warning from Space”
312 “The Crater Lake Monster”
313 “Neutron vs. the Death Robots”
314 “Killers from Space”
315 “High School Confidential”
316 “Wild Guitar”
317 “Werewolf in a Girl’s Dormitory”
318 “The Brain from Planet Arous”
319 “I-Man”
320 “Invisible Invaders”
321 “Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny”
322 “The Cape Canaveral Monsters”
323 “Frankenstein’s Daughter”
324 “Starlight”

Season 4
401 “Frankenstein Conquers the World”
402 “Reptilicus”
403 “The Devil’s Hand”
404 “Attack of the Beast Creatures”
405 “Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster”
406 “Man Beast”
407 “Horror of the Blood Monsters”
408 “CC and Company”
409 “It! The Terror from Beyond Space”
410 “Gymkata”
411 “Monster Dog”
412 “Destroy All Monsters”
413 “The Fists of Bruce Lee”
414 “The Beach Girls and the Monster”
415 “Trog”
416 “Yor, The Hunter from the Future”
417 “Beyond the Forest”
418 “The Conqueror”
419 “The Tingler”
420 “Glen or Glenda”
421 “Thor and the Amazon Women”
422 “Starflight One”
423 “The Savage Bees”
424 “Zardoz”

Season 5
501 “20 Million Miles to Earth”
502 “Night of the Ghouls”
503 “I Was a Zombie for the F.B.I.”
504 “The Beast from Haunted Cave”
505 “The Mighty Gorga”
506 “Sting of Death”
507 “War of the Robots”
508 “The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini”
509 “The Flying Serpent”
510 “Death Curse of Tartu”
511 “The Conqueror of Atlantis”
512 “Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things”
513 “The Alligator People”
514 “Kronos, Ravager of Planets”
515 “The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues”
516 “Shaolin vs. Lama”
517 “Strangler of the Swamp”
518 “The Witch’s Curse”
519 “Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine”
520 “The Angry Red Planet”
521 “King of the Zombies”
522 “Monster from the Ocean Floor”
523 “Two Thousand Maniacs”
524 “Plan 9 from Outer Space”

Well? Would you watch it?

[GProopdog]

I like it!

Would Mike be used in the show in anyway to try and help Jesse and friends back down to Earth, or would the bots basically just forget about him (Could be a possible running gag)?

[jjb3k]

I hadn't given that much thought, really...since this was spawned from my fanvid brainstorming, I was primarily thinking about how I and my friends might handle the show (hence why I have all-new human characters). Basically, if I were to spearhead my own fan-made episodes, these are the movies I'd do and the premise I'd use. (I have neither the time nor the finances to do so, but it's nice to dream about.)

[GProopdog]

Yeah, it is nice to dream.

As always, I'm willing to help out in anyway with MST fanvids if you need it.

[Blue Lightning]

I'd like to see some of those "Sci-Fi Channel Original Pictures" get the MST3K treatment...partly in revenge for cancelling MST3K, but mostly because they suck.

Speaking of MST3K spinoffs...after watching Episode 518 "The Atomic Brain" (specifically the "invention exchange" where M&TB spoof the Mads, and the Mads attempt to return the favor), I decided that if I ever get my rock band off the ground, it'd be cool to do a MST3K-like music video. Instead of the SOL, I'd have "The Satellite of Rock"...which would look like a cross between a double-necked guitar and the SOL. I'd be the host, two of my bandmates would play the bots (my "Crow" would have his hair spiked back to imitate Crow's nest, and my "Servo" would have a hat shaped like Servo's head.) Two other bandmates would be the Mads. The "movie" they send would be a video within the music video...all of us acting out scenes from various MST-ed movies.

[Blue Lightning]

BTW how are those movies on length? I'm curious as to what shorts you'd spoof.

[jjb3k]

bluelightning said:

BTW how are those movies on length? I'm curious as to what shorts you'd spoof.

For the ones from Mighty Jack's list, MJ also listed shorts he planned to use for certain movies, so for those, I'd go with what he already has...

103 "Sssssss" (with short "The Gossip")
105 "Sorority Girl" (with short "Care of the Hair and Nails")
108 "Cat Women of the Moon" (with short "Kitty Cleans Up")
110 "The Wasp Woman" (with short "The Cautious Twins")
111 "The Astounding She-Monster" (with shorts "Shy Guy" and "The Outsiders")
202 "Attack of the Crab Monsters" (with short "Manners in School")
207 "Bride of the Gorilla" (with short "Beginning to Date")
210 "House on Haunted Hill" (with short "Are Manners Important?")
304 "Samurai D.A." (with short "One Got Fat")
310 "Monster from Green Hell" (with short "Winky the Watchman")
313 "Neutron vs. the Death Robots" (with short "Safety: Harm Hides at Home")
314 "Killers from Space" (with short "Soapy the Germ Fighter")
320 "Invisible Invaders" (with short "Mylar: What's It To You?")
322 "The Cape Canaveral Monsters" (with short "Glen Wakes Up")
406 "Man Beast" (with short "The Talking Car")
409 "It! The Terror from Beyond Space" (with short "A Visit From Santa")

As for the episodes I picked myself, there are a number of them that feature shorter movies. I haven't picked shorts for them yet, though - I'll poke around archive.org sometime and see what I can dig up.