First and foremost, because it’s the space race, cold war, and counter-culture rolled into one, so it’s the golden age of goofy space travel, biker films, James Bond rip-offs, alien invasion, and drug paranoia, plus it was also the beginning of affordable color film stock and portable cameras, so everything is brightly colored and moves at a much quicker pace than the earlier 50’s films.
Plus, at least in the years leading up to 1969, you’ve got the tail end of the atomic era, where the general populace didn’t really know much about science, so you could just bullsh*t your way through by attaching the word “atomic” to anything. Until we actually started going there, for all anybody knew, the moon and mars had breathable atmospheres, there could be lost dinosaurs on islands out in the South Pacific, and rather than giving you cancer, exposure to radiation could grant you super powers or turn people into 50 foot tall mutants.
Kinda depends on the genre. I like the monster movies of the '50s and '60s, disaster films of the '70s, the sci-fi of the '80s, the action movies of the '90s.
If I’m just picking movies that have already been riffed, then I’d be a touch choice between '66 and '67, but I think '67 wins out for me because it’s got the best of the cheesy spy and biker movies, which are my two favorite underrepresented forms of riff fodder.
But in terms of bad movies in general, 1969 is peak goofy fashion and space race obsessions, and there are a lot of films like Moon Zero Two that could only have been made at that singular point in time.
I have to say 70’s if gun to head had to choose. And I think the reason is that since I was born in '69, I saw all 70’s movie as a kid and most of them that I saw that ended up on MST3K, I only saw as a kid, and I love the drastic difference of seeing them on MST in such a drastically different way. One, as an adult having seen several decaded of movies, and with them being riffed, else I probably wouldn’t watch them again, since they are framed from a kid’s perspective. Does that make sense to anybody? Not sure I even get it!
For decade, 1950s. Something about those old sciencey or spacey movies is so fit for riffing. Maybe it’s partly the rock solid assuredness that man’s (often just the men’s) righteous morality will save all of humanity. But there’s also the wayward youths, the legendary heroes, and even the doggo (them?)self.
60s. The sweetness and turbulence of the time handed it a bipolar quality. The warm milk of the early 60s, the oddity of it by mid-decade, and the New Hollywood values in even the junk of the end of the 60s bend the variety further than any other time. Eegah (1962), The Creeping Terror (1964), Monster a-Go-Go (1965), Manos (1966), The Bubble (1966). These are products of the reset and are even more WTF because of it. The cultural background of this period enriches much of the schlock and this disconnect powers the films.
Hands down the absolute worst sound I’ve ever heard in my life and it just goes ON AND ON AND ON AND ON… and on. Praying for death clearly didn’t work as I’m still here somehow.
Definitely the 1940s. The Brute Man, Jungle Goddess, I Accuse My Parents, Last of the Wild Horses, and Radar Secret Service was 1950, but I’ll count it.
The 1950s/early '60s monster movies are the best, practically what movie riffing was made for.
Besides that, though, I have a soft spot for the groovy ‘60s. I only wish there were less violent, crime-y, motorcycle-ridden (and ridin’) movies in the psychedelic realm. And I really love the cheesy spy movies, some of the most rewatchable MST3Ks.
The '70s is my favorite pop culture decade overall, but B movies in general (esp. early '70s) from then tend to be more sleazy, gruesome and too-unpleasant for my taste. Particularly the Grindhouse type. MST3K has mostly pretty good ones from then, though.
