THE WORST WE CAN FIND - Christmas Advent Calendar: Day 23 - MST3K REUNION SHOW

 

It’s Day 23 of The Worst We Can Find Christmas Advent Calendar and Christmas Eve. What’s a better tradition than bringing the family together to celebrate, which is exactly what we get with The MST3K Reunion Show!

The MST3K Reunion Show

Program: RiffTrax

Air-Date: June 28, 2016

Plot: It’s the 20^th live show from RiffTrax and its tenth year; going strong with multiple live shows during the year and their various releases through various streaming platforms. Frank and Trace were also going strong, touring as The Mads in live shows around the country. Finally, Joel was back in the game with the coming return of MST3K on Netflix starring Jonah Ray. With all that in mind, it was a natural fit to bring everyone together for one of the RiffTrax live shows.

The performance was filmed and sent to theaters around the country as remains custom for RiffTrax live shows, but this specific event took place at the State Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota in a homecoming in the city where it all started. After a short intro showing brief clips from earlier live shows, and with a portion of the stage set up with a version of the MST3K logo, the show begins with Bill, Mike, and Kevin introducing the others that will be appearing that night: Mary Jo Pehl, Bridget Nelson, Trace Beaulieu, Frank Conniff, Jonah Ray, and Joel Hodgson. The program features eight shorts done with the various teams of riffers before the final two are done by all involved.

The Talking Car (1969) – Produced by AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety and Alfred Higgins Productions, this short stars Brian Forster, who later played Chris Partridge on The Partridge Family after the first season. The short has Forster as Jimmy, a boy who missed out on a fishing trip after almost getting hit by a car. He later dreams of meeting three talking cars who discuss with him traffic safety.  The cars are given cartoon eyes and mouths, making them disturbing to look at, and with a dog that camera cuts to in order to growl at times, it’s a perfect starting short for the riffing by Bill, Mike, and Kevin.

After a brief congrats to some of the cosplayers coming to see the show, Bridget and Mary Jo are introduced with a shocker of a story by Mike, and then given the reins to riff the next short.

A Word to the Wives (1955) – This comedic short sponsored by the Woman’s Home Companion is directed by Normal Lloyd (a frequent Hitchcock collaborator) and stars Marsha Hunt and Darren McGavin. With people like that, you’d expect something better than a standard “look at my electric house!” hard sell, but that’s what you get here, with McGavin hamming his way in his unique manner that tells you “I’m only here for the paycheck.”

A clip of Mothra is shown next, since it was RiffTrax's next live event, and then Frank and Trace are brought out. Frank makes the mistake of announcing they’re doing way too many movies at their next live shows (and a mention of everyone telling Frank that he needs to work PG13), and then it’s on to their riff, which is one of their most sinister of shorts from the Night of Shorts collection.

More Dates for Kay (1952) – It’s a Coronet short that is SUPPOSED to show girls how to be less of a wallflower, but really comes off as teaching young girls how to put out for any many boys as possible. It’s as horrifying as it sounds, and right in the wheelhouse for The Mads to riff. It is really the best short of the show and worth seeing, but creepy and depressing at the same time.

Shake Hands with Danger (1980) – An early riff by RiffTrax and a favorite returns for the live performance with Bill, Mike, and Kevin doing the duties. It’s directed by Herk Harvey of Carnival of Souls fame and features more than a dozen hazardous accidents in the workplace, including some gore effects that may not go over well for the squeamish (which Bill cautions people about before the short begins). Even with all the head injuries and limb detachments, however, it’s a good one for the RiffTrax guys to bring back for the special event.

A quick promotion of the at-the-time newish RiffTrax app to help synch up movies with their riffing, and then Jonah Ray and Joel Hodgson are brought out for the next short.  Joel mentions the start of the show back at KTMA and the loving only-in-Minnesota responses from fans back in the early days.

Americans at Work: Barbers and Beauticians (1960) – A short from a series made by the AFL-CIO to show support for various service industry jobs in the country, this one focuses namely on a couple of people getting their hair done while describing how important and training-intensive the occupations are. For many MST3K fans, this was a first look at the “new guy” who would be become the host of MST3K in the Netflix years and onward, Jonah Ray, and he does a fine job playing off the RiffTrax team with Joel. Look for the Podium Switch … which ends up with them right back at the same podiums they started from. Joel is obviously pushing Jonah, but that’s understandable with the new MST3K just around the corner.

Mike introduces two of the major writers for RiffTrax, Conor Lastowka and Sean Thomason and then members of the RiffTrax team from behind-the-scenes before a ten-minute montage of various movie riffs from over the first ten years of RiffTrax is shown, including clips from movies that are only available as audio commentaries. They then bring out everyone for the final two shorts.

Stamp Day for Superman (1954) – A short featuring the cast from the Superman series to help promote U.S. Saving Bonds. It’s not too far out of the realms of a standard episode of the series, except the robber doesn’t want to steal, he’s broke and needs to learn how to save money; hence the lesson to be learned by buying Saving Bonds (and, yes, yes, we all know that the $25 bond Forrester gave Frank can now be cashed in 2023, thank you … it’s a funny reminder, but everyone has thought of it.  Everyone.) It’s about bonds but seems to be more about doing cool things with a typewriter for half the running time, to be honest.

At Your Fingertips – Grass (1970) – One final short before everyone can scurry away is another RiffTrax favorite from the ACI production team. It’s supposed to be showing how kids can build toys and masks with grass and weeds, but really just becomes a type of Lord of the Flies homage before it’s all over. Still, is corn grass? (What? Well, yes, everyone says that line too, but it’s not like the $25 bond thing if I repeat the grass joke. No. But I – If – oh, okay. I hang my head in shame, and a grass mask would complete that shame.)

Favorite Riff: (After introducing Bridget and Mary Jo to the crowd)

Mike: Now, Bridget you were telling me a very funny thing backstage, and do you mind if I bring this out in front of the audience? I understand that you’re married to me!

Bill:  What is this about?!

The Riffing: This was a chance to see nearly everyone from the MST3K back together again for the first time riffing, and the programming is done effectively with everyone giving a chance to shine. By doing so, The Mads get to promote their touring, and of course Bridget and Mary Jo get to show off their glowing work, but more specifically, Joel gets to promote the new version of MST3K. This was important in some ways as that passing of the torch no doubt felt needed. There were (and in some cases, still are) sore feelings for some fans about the shift away from the old cast to a new one with the revived MST3K. Compounded by the mid-western tendency of the cast to avoid discussion personal issues, and the emphasis of repeatedly asking former cast members – in particular Trace and Frank – about their involvement in the new show, and it didn’t help to secure the feeling that all was fine among the old crew.

Yet, the MST3K Reunion show helped show that if there were issues “the play is the thing” (or “riff is the thing” as it were). The new show could go on, and it was clear that Jonah had the chops to go the riffing route with his introduction here. More importantly, besides reminding us as fans where it all started, it also shown how riffing had flowered into other projects that were going strong: The Mads continuing to tour with their own live shows, which continues today in a monthly format at The Mads Are Back. Mary Jo doing her own thing at Dumb Industries and still pairing up with Bridget for RiffTrax, as well as appearing as Pearl in the new version of MST3K (making Mary Jo the nexus-point of all realities in the riffing world). And of course, there’s RiffTrax, going strong at 10 years here and continue to go strong into the future (with Joel, Frank, and Trace, as well as Jonah, all saluting RiffTrax in a pre-show clip when they did their live show for The Return of Swamp Thing in 2022).

The live MST3K Reunion is successful as a celebration of the art of riffing. And, besides, getting together with old friends to bond over old times and new is one thing we always look forward to during the holidays.