I’ve watched most of the MST3K episodes over the years but my memories of a lot of them are cloudy at best. I’d love some recommendations on lesser-talked-about episodes and episodes you think are similar in some way. I always seem to enjoy episodes even more when they’re recommended to me or someone shares an interesting tidbit about them.
How about something along the lines of: “if you liked that episode, I think you’ll like this one!”
Here’s a couple of mine to start us off:
If you liked Eegah (506), I think you might like Girls Town (601).
The plot of this one is actually pretty dark but the charisma of “teen” delinquent Silver (27 year old Mamie Van Doren) and the subplot dragging in young pop star Jimmy (Paul Anka in his first acting role) make this movie almost enjoyable on its own. Watcher beware, you might get Archie Hall Jr. flashbacks during young Paul Anka’s musical performances. This episode is also the debut of the Umbilicus.
If you liked Catalina Caper (204), you might like The Horror of Party Beach (817).
Definitely not as light-hearted as Catalina Caper but it’s just as ripe for riffing. There’s swingin’ 60’s beach dances, odd dubbing of one of the main characters, and a ridiculous sea monster caused by the dumping of radioactive waste. Once you learn that it was shot over 3 weeks on a budget of $60,000 you might even start admiring how well they did with what little they had.
Feel free to ask for recommendations or to give them!
I think it makes sense to go backwards with a lot of these, especially since some younger viewers might not have seen the older series.
So I’ll go obvious, if you liked Ator (1206), you should probably check out Cave Dwellers (301), which is the sequel to Ator and a strong episode in its own right (in my opinion, season 3 is when the show really upped its game)
I’m going to throw out the obvious; Ator to Cave Dwellers to maybe the first part of the Ator movie again. That’s how it happened for me, anyways.
I also, also feel like Bloodwaters of Dr Z, Squirm, and Boggy Creek 2 go together because it’s like visiting all the bad parts of I 95
Edit: well ya gosh dun diddly beat me to Ator and Cave Dwellers. Shucks.
Edit Edit:
Ohmigosh, so I got on my laptop for this part. I have never had an opportunity to bring this up to any audience that may give a damn, but I have personally found that ‘Blood Waters of Dr Z’ pairs really, really, really well with the video game ‘Resident Evil 0’ (which can be beaten in around 3 hours). Like, it’s the peanut butter and jelly of B movie to B game transitions (if that were a thing). Anyways, I don’t want to give you all too much of a peak into my nerdy life, but it’s almost become an October tradition.
If you liked Laserblast, I think you’ll like The Day Time Ended. Both are late '70s sci-fi flicks with some endearing animated effects. There’s a familiar face or two in both from '70s TV. I think both are very enjoyable experiments.
If you liked Riding with Death, you might want to give The Amazing Transparent Man a try.
The latter film is a 50s black-and-white mad science misadventure, so you won’t get any mellow grooviness, but the invisibility shenanigans are a hoot and well worth checking out.
If you liked The Day the Earth Froze, I think you’ll like The Sword and the Dragon and The Magic Voyage of Sinbad, all Russo-Finnish productions directed by Aleksandr Ptushko.
