It’s not my favorite episode, but I would go with Rocketship X-M for history’s sake. First appearance of Frank and of Kevin as Tom.
Easy. 12 To The Moon.
SO underrated, with an enjoyable plot despite the inevitable hokey feeling. Plus KITTIES!!
OH WOW
Now this? THIS is a great question. A hell of a stumper of a puzzler of a sadistic choice of a question.
…
… I suppose I can’t ask for a 31-way tie here, huh?
Well, in lieu of a 31-way tie, I’m dreaming the impossible dream and going with Godzilla Vs. Megalon.
I maintain that it’s the first real masterpiece of the show. The riffing is incredible (THE WRESTLING COMMENTARY OVER THE FIGHT SCENE, AHHHHHHHHHH) and the host segments are screamingly hilarious, especially the out-of-nowhere gut-bustingly dark Orville Popcorn sketch. It’s an episode that I’d like -all- MSTies to see.
HOWEVER.
I also have a soft spot for The Amazing Colossal Man, which was the first episode that I taped off of TV, thanks to the Mystery Science Theater Hour. It wasn’t my first episode (that’d be Alien from L.A.), and it wasn’t even my first episode of the MST Hour (that’d be Pod People).
But it was an episode that still meant/means the world to me.
Also, happiest of birthdays to ya, @CLANG_Potroast!
I won’t be taking episodes that have been on DVD into account, because I have all of them and while digital would be nice, I already own them.
Narrowing that down, my answer is 100% Fire Maidens of Outer Space. Best episode of the fourth season and one of Joel’s best episodes, with some all-time classic host segments.
Fire Maidens was the first to pop in my head when I saw the title, and I’d insist on a Ballyhoo documentary to accompany it.
I’m also not going to consider those I have on an official disc release already, or Delta Knights, which I have streamed and downloaded, so that leaves me with
Rocketship X-M | Godzilla vs the Sea Monster | It Conquered the World | Fire Maidens | Eye Creatures | Terror from the Year 5000 | Teenage Werewolf | Deadly Bees | Space Children | and Colossal Man, since there’s no disc, just the brief VHS release.
X-M is historic, that has appeal, Sea Monster, of course. Teenage Werewolf is a favorite, but my home copy looks pretty nice, so not a priority. My “It Conquered” home copy doesn’t look nice, and could use an upgrade, however, it’s not a huge personal favorite, so
looks like I’ll stick with my original thought, a nicer looking copy of Fire Maidens, dark Crow, extras (including the Kickstarter bit with Joel and Ashely (maybe even a special MST Freezepop song from her)
screengrab by optiMSTie
Out of all the stuff that hasn’t had an official release?
Rocketship X-M has the most historical significance (first appearance of TV’s Frank and Kevin Murphy as Servo, set redesigns for Deep 13 and the SOL, etc.), but in terms of overall hilarity?
I’d have to go with Attack of the the Eye Creatures. Funny as HELL. You get to see Joel get uncharacteristically angry and snippy with the movie’s characters and laziness, you have the origin of the “DANG SMOOCHERS ON MY PROPERTY!” recurring joke, so much great material on the terrible characters and overwhelming cheapness of the whole piece, it’s just fantastic.
That, and the Rip Taylor Trio host segment is an all-timer. 10 out of 10 episode, easily.
It really is a tremendously underrated and underappreciated episode.
The movie has all the tedium and pain of a Monster a Go-Go, and, like Monster a Go-Go, still manages to be utterly hysterical.
And the Timmy host segments are the BEST.
I’m putting in another vote for Fire Maidens of Outer Space. This is such an underrated classic.
No matter how many times I watch it, when Timmy quietly sneaks into the theater, it still jolts me. It’s an all-timer sequence.
Terror from the Year 5000. It’s an underrated episode AND it features the awesome (and beautiful) Salome Jens as the woman from the year 5000. She is remarkable!
One of many compelling cases for Season 8 being the best overall season of MST3K.
No DVD release, but I must have played the hell out of my VHS recording of the episode.
AND it provides prototypes of the large dumb space jock nicknames we would get later in Space Mutiny!
Which in turn had their antecedents in the “Dark One” jokes from Robot Holocaust.
Eye Creatures isn’t one I have on heavy rotation, but when I do watch it, it’s a lot of fun.
Yeah, it’s another favorite, that doesn’t get talked about a lot.
Come to think of it, Tom needs to comfort rate this thread.
I completely agree that season 8 is the best of Mst3K. Just going through this episodes, not a loser in the bunch!
Dahgwan?
Lots of good ones there but I was a Teenage Warewolf, Soultaker, and Final Sacrifice are my final 3. Maybe roll a 6-sided die to choose from those.
I would say San Francisco International, too. While most of the host segments were punts due to the Urkel running gag, I think the riffs in San Francisco International are so underrated. I’d love for more people to discover it.
Plus I think TV movies are a great source of riff fodder. Especially with such actors as Pernell Roberts, David Hartman, and Clu Gulager.
Are you on alert?