My associations with Jim are equal parts MST3K- and UW-Madison-related. Back in the superbad 70s, he was elected student council president. He and VP Leon Varjian brought the Statue of Liberty to Madison…
Jim came to the university to speak on these things 20 years after the fact, when I was a student. Afterward, I thanked him for what he’d done on MST3K this far, and got him to sign a postcard which I have somewhere (will edit if I find it…)
So, while MSTies in general may have sour grapes for Jim, my thoughts are pretty nice.
ETA
There was this on the wall in our hotel room, where we stayed at last night to see the MST3K Live! show. Serendipitous.
I don’t wanna get into the backstage stuff. That’s not my bag, and as per my username, I’d like to keep things positive.
That’s not to say that there isn’t an objective conversation to be had about his time with the show, but… it is what it is.
That being said, I dug what he brought to the role of GPC. His big “one-woman show” in The Day the Earth Froze is a lot of fun, and his evolution of the character dimensions and vocal qualities of GPC was something interesting to watch.
I wrestle with never feeling good enough and wanting to prove myself in life. It is a sincere and at times overachieving force I have to watch in life and balance every day or don’t. I hold a larger than life presence. It’s who I am. Each person is a topic in themselves and one idea sprang to another out of having an epiphany not out of a desperate draw for attention. You read me wrong. And perhaps you ought to come to me directly on this not seemingly venting to me in public. Sorry for upsetting you. Thanks.
Mallon, Mallon… yeah that’s a tangled web. Conflicts between artists and studios, producers, the business people behind the artist… it’s not new, that’s gone on for ages. Sometimes it’s a good marriage (Epstein and the Beatles) sometimes it’s a mess, leading to breakups and lawsuits and the like.
I can’t hate him, despite those conflicts, he gave Joel a place to launch and show off his baby and had a hand in getting them broader exposure after the KTMA days. So for that and for giving voice to Gyps.
There are a lot of people I was close to 20-30 years ago and now we never speak. So I’m not gonna’ look down on Mallon (or anyone he butted heads with) because they couldn’t get along well forever. Life… is like that sometimes.
Michael J. Nelson. Head writer, countless cameos, Morrissey, Torgo, Mike. Mr. Midwest and the marrow of MST3K for much of its run. He’s so reliable. When your thoughts turn to him, what hits you?
I miss him being on Twitter. While he would often take jabs at modern pop culture he didn’t like, he would just as often take shots at long-dead classical composers like Anton Bruckner, for whom he had special vitriol.
for that and for giving voice to Gyps.