The show that changed my life. Lonely, depressed, a kid without friends, I gambled on a VHS named Cave Dwellers with weird silhouettes at the bottom. I went home, placed it in the player, and I was transported to another dimension I immediately fell for. “Music by The Super Mario Bros”, “a Mark VII Production”, “Warriors come out and PLAY-AY!!!” The hits just keep on coming in this opus of riffs and incompetence. Is this one of MST’s Greatest Hits? A classic?
My first MST3K. I laughed at the credit reenactment so hard I may have broken something, permanently. NO LESS THAN THE TREES AND STARS 
This was one of Rhino’s first three VHS releases (along with Mitchell and The Amazing Colossal Man), and I will adore it forever for that.
It’s a fantastic episode on the basis of all those great memories, but this installment can stand by itself and doesn’t need that nostalgia factor to carry that distinction of being a god-tier episode.
Yeah, the movie’s ridiculous as all get-out and inept, but not in such a way that you CAN’T watch it.
Perfect starter episode for bringing new MSTies into the fold, and those host segments have that real quintessential MST3K feel to it. Just a cozy, comfortable, homey feel, you know?
Also, that hang glider sequence forever.
Ator flies and so does my heaaaaaaaart…
Also also, that closing host segment is pure gold.
“WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM US?! WE’RE EVIL! EVIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIL!”
Pod People was the first I ever saw, but it was Cave Dwellers the following week that sold me on this show!
It’s just the kind of movie that is always giving them something to work with. Just an exceptional episode.
That hang glider sequence is riffing at it’s finest. Servo’s rant at the start is brilliant!
(And, who would’ve though we’d finally get full context regarding the long flashback sequence with 1206? 
)
At a time when it seemed like Season 12 would be MST3K’s final hour (heh, I know, I know, we should never count out our beloved zombie series), it felt kinda special that we would close a couple of longstanding Season 3 loops by bringing in Mac and Me (referenced in Pod People) and Ator the Fighting Eagle.
Also, YES
SERVO TEARING THAT WHOLE DUMB SEQUENCE TO SHREDS WAS LIFE-SUSTAINING
Pod People was the first Joel episode I saw, with the first overall episode that I saw being Alien from L.A.
But snagging that Rhino VHS copy of Cave Dwellers was something else. It felt like an event, something special and important, a seismic change to the landscape, as it were.
As it is with a lot of MST3K’s best of the best of the best, it seems. The movie is always throwing something gleefully guano at them, and that inspiration leads to wonderful results.
What a great scene.
And Mac and Me would callback to Pod People (“Chief? McCloud!” which got the biggest grin out of me the first time I watched!).
It really is a full circle!
The closing segment.
We rented the Cave Dwellers tape from the video store so much that I got really burned out on it. I probably haven’t watched it in a decade just because of that.
No!
NO!
/milesokeefe
Cave Dwellers is the first 10/10 masterpiece episode of the show. Everything comes together to kick off Season 3 and easily a top 10 episode of the entire show’s run.
Ah, the scene where our brave hero stands there while an entire room full of people is sacrificed to the monster snake. Defeating it by making it overeat was a Brannigan level of heroics!
“How much Keefe is in this movie anyway?”
“Miles O’Keefe!”
That’s an All-Timer riff right there!
The videocassette that changed my life. The packaging of these really was special.
The whole shebang.
I was also going to point out this riff. You know from the start that you’re in good hands 
