MST3K Serials

MST3K Central
,
1

So, I was thinking, besides features and shorts, how about the Gizmoplex also do serials? These could be released in true serial fashion, one per month and ending on the usual cliffhanger.

They could even pick up missed installments of original MST3K serials, like Commando Cody, The Phantom Creeps, and Undersea Kingdom. Plus new ones of course. I for one would love to see them do Johnny Sokko (which is sort of a hybrid of episodes and serial). That one is already in the Shout Factory catalog, too.

Whadda ya think, soirs?

12 Likes
2

Bring on more Commando Cody I say. Those are some of my favorite serials and they never got through them all

8 Likes
3

They might finish The Phantom Creeps. How fortunate! This will simplify everything!

6 Likes
4

I’m all for it. While Johnny Sokko wasn’t a serial in the classic sense it’s still awesome and would be fun.

I don’t know if it is part of the Gerry Anderson stuff SF has licensed but I’ve long been alternately creeped out and intrigued by Torchy the Battery Boy

8 Likes
5

I’d love to see some of the old Gene Autry sci-fi cowboy serials, or Don Winslow of the Navy, or Zorro’s Fighting Legion. They were pretty cool, and chock full of silliness!

6 Likes
6

I was all about The Undersea Kingdom, myself. It felt like such a shame that they only riffed two chapters of that.

5 Likes
7

The Phantom Empire would be amazing to riff on. It’s so nuts.

5 Likes
8

This is the one from the original series that I’d most like to see more of. So much zany potential.

2 Likes
9

Ooo! Captain Z-Ro. Not only would it be funny but educational.

1 Like
10

Thank you! That was what I was thinking of! That was a trip. I believe that had “robuts” and the “aerial torpedo.” Gene Autry was awesome! Dorothy Christy delivered a classic villain, chewing the scenery but still maintaining at least a little menace.

2 Likes
11

Don’t forget the girl who was an expert trick horse rider who they found an excuse to show her skills off in each episode.

I loved that they had to get from the underground kingdom of Murania back to the ranch in each episode so they could do their radio show.

3 Likes
12

That’s like how the kids in Dr. Shrinker had to be returned to normal size at the end of every episode. And yet next week, back at it…

3 Likes
13

Quick Phantom Empire story. I used to work at a recording studio and we were watching Phantom Empire after work and there’s a (often repeated) scene of the futuristic elevator going down to Murania and my boss jumps up and says, “hang on a second!” and runs downstairs to the studio. He comes back up with one of his antique microphones and- it’s what they used for the elevator!

5 Likes
14

Only if they commit to finishing them. I found the unfinished serials in the original run to be really frustrating!

6 Likes
15

I think the most frustrating was Undersea Kingdom because it was lots of fun and very silly and they only did two episodes.

4 Likes
16

For serial fanatics, look up Cliffhangers. It was a series in the 1970’s with newly-made, retro-style serials.

3 Likes
17

I remember watching Cliffhanger when it aired. It initially confused me, along with a number of other viewers, by beginning in mid-serial for most of the storylines. I recall one was a kind of Get Christy Love sort of plotline.

1 Like
18

There was a vampire thing, a cowboy thing, and a girl reporter thing. The vampire was being pursued by a vampire killer. The cowboy battled an underground high-tech civilization. The girl reporter jetted around the globe investigating a story that didn’t want to be uncovered.

1 Like
19

I love it! Let’s get big MST on the horn!

1 Like
20

Curse you now the Dr. Shrinker theme song is running through my head…

And in case it isn’t running through anyone else’s

4 Likes