The dolls return in this second complete experiment. Joel is still munching away but shares with his robot friends. Crow now has a familiar voice and Tom Servo drops by to gab and store popcorn. This and KTMA 1 were assumed lost before a master tape copy of each were uncovered in 2016 and released to 2015 Kickstarter backers who pledged enough. Josh Weinstein voices Servo after trying Crow in the last episode and Trace Beaulieu debuts as Crow T. Robot. Technically he played Crow in the pilot but shouldn’t we just relax? Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, Cornucopia, Drawing Turkeys, Chex Party Mix. “It’s a Tupperware party”, “A giant vacuum cleaner” “That puts out dust”, “I can see the string.” “Scrubbing bubbles” or “I hate to see what they do to a bathtub.”
Note: Revenge of the Mysterons from Mars (1981) is an assemblage of 4 episodes of the television series Captain Scarlett and the Mysterons. Composed into a feature film, the shows used were Shadow of Fear, Lunarville 7, Crater 101, and Dangerous Rendezvous.
In the post-KTMA era, the show never really covered anything outside of stuff involving live-action actors (excluding anything like Robot Rumpus). Certainly not anything like Supermarionation.
Is there a place in the modern era of MST3K for Supermarionation? It’s possible. A certain approach would be needed.
Both this one and K01 Invaders From The Deep are just such painful slogs of episodes for me to get through, that I don’t want to see them come back in the modern era.
Maybe it is just because the show was so different back then in the pacing of the riffs and the stretches of movie with no one in the theater and whatnot that makes it so difficult. Perhaps modern MST3K would make it more bearable, but I just don’t want to risk it.
I figure the new MST3K would liven this up substantially. Emily or Jonah could have a field day with the puppets and their bots reactions to them. So much time has passed between then and now the opportunity is ripe to dig into these again. When KTMA 1 and 2 were done, the form hadn’t even hit puberty yet. And now that it has and then some, anything is possible.
Absolutely, since the opening shot of Season 11 features Anderson-style puppets on a conveyor belt outside Gizmonics (honestly, I was expecting them to utilize this more). Heck, I’d love to see Jonah, Emily, or Joel become puppet versions of themselves like Mike in the Prince of Space episode.
Receiving K01 & K02 in full Christmas 2015 was an absolutely joy, marking the first time most of us had access to these episodes, and I devoured them. I never was into Thunderbirds and never heard of the other Anderson shows, so I had no preconceived notions of Stingray or Captain Scarlett, and I not only enjoyed the episodes, I sought out the shows themselves and enjoyed them on their own. Like the Charlie Brown Peanuts specials, I would love for MST3K or RiffTrax to riff on Supermarionation for a change of subject style.
No, you’re precisely on the mark. I was in a performance of Avenue Q, where most of the characters are puppets (though the puppeteers are not hidden at all), and all the human actors (of which I was one) have to speak to the puppet, never the puppeteer.
Michael Caine did similar with the Muppet Christmas Carol: he never treated the Muppets as props nor did his performance ever betray the scenes. He was always playing against the Muppets as if they were members of the Royal Shakespearean Theatre Group, never as if he was “in on the joke”. It’s what made that film extra special.
No overt nodding to the artificiality of the actors? For a vast majority? Yes. I can’t imagine the writers not sliding in a crack or two however. Perhaps a philosophical barb on the bots existence? Completely coincidental of course. Or Crow longing to be The Godfather using strings on Jonah to command him in a skit? Some nod to the manipulation is to be expected but not a crutch or constant reference.