Suncoast Motion Picture Company and On Cue in the 90s leveled the playing field. Were it not for those two stores displaying the Rhino VHS tapes, I may not of discovered MST for a few more years. Cave Dwellers (1984) drew my attention and the rest is history.
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Mitchell! He fights crime! Sort of.
This is such a good episode, but it’s also such a balanced episode. The movie and the host segments both work so well, which considering that it’s about Joel escaping really says something. It would have been so easy to end up with an episode you mainly watch for the big goodbye. It’s such a strong way to go.
The movie’s in the MST3K sweet spot. It’s bad, but watchable, has lots of riffable characters and scenes, and moves along at a good pace. It’s not so gritty that it leaves a bad taste in the mouth (in contrast, Final Justice feels like such a grim, nasty piece of film) and Joe Don Baker has enough charisma to keep the main character from being too off-putting.
We like it very much.
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Without any doubt. All the cylinders were firing and the elements complement each other flawlessly. The pace of Mitchell (1975) moves swiftly and the show is over before you know it. That says everything.
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Even though it’s a low bar, I think JDB is a bit more protagonistic in Final Justice. In the sense that at least you don’t have to see him in bed with anyone.
But storywise, yeah FJ really is a Moebius Strip, as the riffers point out. Even though it’s still barely coherent, Mitchell has more of an actual plot.
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Not Soultaker ?
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Hey, I never said he had a lot of charisma or that the character wasn’t off-putting. 
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Baby oil, my friend. Baby oil.
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Joel said in an interview he mingled with everybody on the set of Soultaker (1990) but he wasn’t allowed to go into the theater and riff on it. There was a distance there. Joel Robinson is a walk-on appearance not “back hosting MST”. What I meant is never imagining the Maroon Jumpsuit back in the saddle and riffing in the dark. Mitchell (1975) seemed the end of that. Till it wasn’t.
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“Not allowed” ?
Weird. I heard it was just time/schedule constraints. (We need to get Vampire Sara from YouTube and her genius cut-and-paste skills on this.)
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The implication implied is it was never suggested or offered to him. Joel alluded the vibe lacked the warmth and access of earlier days when he was there. Him being more involved on Soultaker (1990) simply wasn’t a conversation they had. My read on his account. For what it’s worth.
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Ah, that image really brings back memories! I definitely hung out at Suncoast frequently and see what they had to offer! Definitely instrumental in my development of my lifelong fandom!
Funny thing is: I still know exactly where it used to be! The mall where it was is still open and whenever I decide to head over, I always make sure to go by!
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Me too!! It occupies a warm place in my heart. So many essential purchases were made under that sign. I often went to the mall just for Suncoast.
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I’m glad I’m not the only one who kind of assumed this was a made-for-TV movie. I thought it was actually meant as a pilot for a series. One could easily imagine Hollywood execs thinking TV viewers across America were eagerly awaiting the opportunity to invite Joe Don Baker into their homes each week.
While Martin Balsam could be considered both a film and TV actor, Linda Evans and Merlin Olsen just don’t seem like “movie stars” to me. They were TV stars and their presence here reinforced my assumption that this was a TV movie.
But in a way, I guess it is a kind of TV movie. According to info found at Wikipedia:
In 1980, a heavily edited version of the 1975 film was released for broadcast television, in which most of the violence and all of the nudity and profanity were removed. Several scenes in the film were shot twice for this purpose.
As an example, it says the classic argument scene with the kid that ends with Mitchell’s famous catch phrase, “Buzz off, kid” actually ended with Mitchell saying “P*ss off, kid” in the theatrical version.
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Hamdingers, 7 Faces of Dr. Lao, and “What size jumpsuit do you wear?”
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Seeing him in this isn’t entirely real to me yet.
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Holy moly! My gosh is that beautiful. You nailed it my friend. “Wow-zee Wow Wow!”
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