mike nelson-related stories
Posted Jun 27th 2009 3:03PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: OpEd, Web, Celebrities, Reality-Free
Actor, comedian and classically trained suit wearer Joel McHale has taken his talent for riffing to the next level.
The star of
The Soup and the upcoming NBC sitcom
Community has joined forces with Michael J. Nelson's
Rifftrax.com to provide a running comedy commentary for the perennial craptastic 80s classic
Red Dawn. Nelson announced the guest commentary on the Rifftrax site and
his Twitter blog earlier this week.
Rifftrax, for those who may not be familiar with the site and are therefore in no way cool, is the comedy website that provides downloadable MP3s of funny movie commentaries featuring the voices and talents of the minds behind
Mystery Science Theater 3000 including Nelson, Bill Corbett and Kevin Murphy. It is the only reason I still own all three
Matrix films, that and the fact that my desk is missing part of a leg.
Continue reading TV's Joel McHale riffing with Rifftrax on Red Dawn
Posted Feb 20th 2009 3:05PM by Nick Zaino
Filed under: TV Squad Lists, Casting, Reality-Free
It's hard to see beloved characters leave your favorite shows. You have created a bond with them, perhaps even projected their values onto yourself in an effort to raise the self esteem you had before, say, you fell down the
Law & Order rabbit hole and started to believe the shows were actual news and not just "ripped from the headlines." But change is inevitable, and sometimes, it works out. Here are a few that worked (at least for me).
1. Current cast of Law & Order: I know, I know, who could replace Lenny Briscoe? No one, really. But the current pairing of Anthony Anderson and Jeremy Sisto as NYPD partners is the best the series has produced. They changed the feel of the show. Perhaps because we're still getting to know them, they are less predictable then previous tandems, and both evoke a certain hard-nosed quality that seems a bit more gritty and real. Plus, Anderson has chops as a stand-up comic, and could easily fill the wisecracker role, if need be.
Continue reading Seven of TV's best replacements
Posted Feb 5th 2009 6:36PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Celebrities, Reality-Free
Mike Nelson is a good guy. And he has
always seemed like a
reasonable guy to me. But now I think he's lost it a little.
For the entire month of February, the
Mystery Science Theater 3000 host/head writer is going to eat
nothing but bacon. That's right, nothing but bacon for an four weeks. Make sure you have your best suit dry cleaned for the inevitable funeral in March.
OK, maybe he'll survive like Morgan Spurlock did, though Spurlock's whole experiment was rather lame and misleading, in my opinion. But eating nothing but one of the most incredibly unhealthy foods (the fat! the grease! the salt!) for an entire month? I'm not too sure about that. He'll be drinking liquids, but most of them are alcohol (and water). No veggies or fruits for an entire month. Wow, even if you ate nothing but pizza for an entire month you'd at least get dairy and fiber and maybe some veggies. Mike will be keeping track of his progress (with bacon photos!)
at Rifftrax.
Godspeed Mike. Godspeed.
Posted Feb 3rd 2009 2:02PM by Nick Zaino
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, TV on DVD, Reality-Free
Here are a couple of names that should make
MST3K fans excited - Joe Don Baker and Joe Estevez. Yes, those two names guarantee a certain amount of cinematic terribleness, a feast for Joel, Mike, and the Bots, especially Baker, whose bumbling, making-love-to-banjo-music cop movie Mitchell is one of the best.
MST3K XIV includes four episodes from three different seasons, including two from the final season, Season Ten:
The Mad Monster from Season One: With the old cheesy set that Joel and Trace revealed at an M.I.T. lecture they accidentally delivered two weeks early. If they'd known they had two more weeks, they'd have put more work into the concept. When it was originally released, The Mad Monster was probably fairly advanced and stylish from a technical standpoint. But it's still poorly acted, and
MST3K seems to have a special place in its collective hearts for bad werewolves. Also includes the short
Commando Cody & The Radar Men from the Moon. A fiery Invention Exchange: Joel's "Hell in a Hand Bag" anti-theft device and Forrester's monster role playing game with a fire-breathing Godzilla. Tom Servo also hits on a blender.
Continue reading Mystery Science Theater 3000 XIV -- DVD review
Posted Jan 15th 2009 3:01PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Web, Reality-Free
It's sad that we don't have
Mystery Science Theater 3000 anymore, but it's great that we have two spinoffs/reunions to entertain us. Joel, Trace, Frank, Mary Jo, and J. Elvis have
Cinematic Titanic, and Mike, Bill, and Kevin have
Rifftrax. I'll leave it to you to discuss which one you like the best. I'm partial to Rifftrax. And if you've never heard what the guys do, tonight might be a good time to check it out.
At 9pm ET (6pm PT), there will be a
live, free Rifftrax performed by the guys for everyone to see and hear on their computer. Probably the very same computer you're reading this one, unless you're at work. And if you're at work you shouldn't be spending all of your time on a TV site. Get back to work.
What they'll be riffing is
Self-Conscious Guy, a short film from 1951 I'm assuming is about a guy who is self-conscious. I've never heard of it, but the shorts that
MST3K used to do were some of the funniest stuff they did, so this should be good. I'm going to watch this instead of
Grissom leaving CSI.
Posted Oct 31st 2008 1:10PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, TV on DVD, OpEd, Reality-Free
I think I'm getting spoiled by special DVD sets. I have a lot of "complete series" sets and anniversary sets, and many of them are these massive, well put together sets that seem to be really complete and perfect. I'm thinking of sets that I own for such shows as
The Twilight Zone,
The West Wing,
Friends, and
The Dick Van Dyke Show, as well as season sets in shows like
The X-Files and
The Simpsons.
I say we're spoiled because I think that even die hard fans of
Mystery Science Theater 3000 might be a little disappointed by the packaging for their new
20th Anniversary DVD set (there's two actually - a limited edition tin box and a regular set; this review is for the limited edition box in the pic above). Not for the content, but for the way it is put together.
Continue reading MST3K: 20th Anniversary - DVD review
Posted Jul 26th 2008 11:04AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, TV on DVD, Reality-Free
Fa la la!
We told you last month about the new 20th anniversary DVD set for Mystery Science Theater 3000 that is going to be released later this year. The gang announced the details and the release date for the set yesterday at Comic-Con.
The 4 DVD set from Shout! Factory will be released on October 28 and will include four never-before-released movies: Laserblast, First Space on Venus, Werewolf, and Future War. Along with the movies will be tons of new interviews with everyone ever involved in the show, a documentary about the history of MST3K, footage of the Comic-Con Reunion panel, lobby cards, and even a collectible Crow T. Robot figurine! The set will come in a special 20th anniversary tin box (see pic above).
Continue reading In the not too distant future, a 20th anniversary MST3K set will be released
Posted Nov 2nd 2007 12:05PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Programming, Web, Celebrities
Are you a Mike person or a Joel person? And of course by Mike I mean Mike Tyson, and by Joel I mean singer/piano man Billy Joel.
OK, I'm actually talking about Mystery Science Theater 3000 hosts Mike Nelson and Joel Hodgson. Some people like Joel, who was the original kidnapped guy stuck on a ship with robots, but other people are loyal to Mike, the guy who took over for Joel when he left the series. I liked them both of course, though I think Mike grew on me a more. The commentary on The Brain That Wouldn't Die had me in tears.
Fans of Joel will be happy to know that he's coming back with a very MST3K-sounding project called Cinematic Titanic.
Continue reading Ride the Cinematic Titanic with the original MST3K
Posted Sep 16th 2007 9:01AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Industry, Programming, Web, Celebrities
Posted Jul 9th 2007 6:30PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: TV on DVD
Here are the new TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.
- Beauty and the Beast - Season 2
- Bewitched - Season 5 (Color)
- Extras - Season 2
- The Film Crew: Hollywood After Dark (Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett)
- Home Run Derby - Vol. 1
- Hustle - Season 3
- My Super Sweet 16 - Seasons 1 and 2
- Punky Brewster - Vols. 1-6
Posted May 2nd 2007 9:20AM by Adam Finley
Filed under: TV on DVD, OpEd, Celebrities
I have to give an initial shout out to Fantabulizer for reminding me that, despite the end of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (or, as I call it, "the greatest show ever"), Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett are still riffing away on bad movies as The Film Crew.
The three men are back in form riffing on wacky B movies, though this time they're not channeling through plastic puppets. Instead, their riffing is done like any ol' DVD audio commentary for movies that don't have commentaries, but should. You can go to their site now and vote for which of four movies you'd like to see them skewer first. Also, check out a trailer here. Sure, it's not quite the same as being back on the Satellite of Love, but it put this long-time fan back in his high school days where he began to amass his collection of VHS copies of MST3k taped from his parents' gigantic satellite dish.
[via Satellite News]
Posted Mar 13th 2007 12:02PM by Adam Finley
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Celebrities
The lackluster response to FOX News' Half Hour News Hour and the continued popularity of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report have led many to conclude that liberals are funny, and conservatives are not.
I say that's a load of hogwash. It's not about being liberal, conservative, libertarian, or whatever else you happen to be. It's about being funny, or not being funny. To paraphrase something comic Doug Stanhope once told me during an interview: 'if you're good, and you're funny, you can find work.'
That's it. You want to be a stand up comic? Be funny. You want to make a funny TV show people will love? Then make a funny TV show people will love.
All that being said, here are three funny conservatives I admire, not because they're conservative, but because they make me laugh:
Continue reading Funny conservatives - VIDEO
Posted Sep 11th 2006 1:46PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, TV on DVD, Web
Ah, great news for fans of Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume 11 of the popular DVD series will be released in February!
No word yet on which movies will be covered. Fans can keep checking Satellite News, the official Mystery Science Theater 3000 web site for updates.
In the meantime, Mike Nelson has added a bunch of new movies to RiffTrax, his downloadable commentaries. The list of movies available now includes Plan 9 From Outer Space, Cocktail (hey, I voted for that one!), Star Trek V, Road House, The Fifth Element, and Night of the Living Dead (the original). MST3K cohort Kevin Murphy joins Mike on the commentary for Star Trek V.
[via TVShowonDVD]
Posted Jul 12th 2006 1:02PM by Adam Finley
Filed under: Celebrities
You can take the man out of the Satellite of Love, but you can't take the Satellite of Love out of the man. Writer and actor Michael J. Nelson, who took over as host of the sorely-missed
Mystery Science Theater 3000 after original host Joel Hodgson split, continued to riff bad movies even after the show was canceled, providing funny commentaries for classic B movies put out by
Legend Films on DVD. Now my fellow Minneapolitan has been chosen as Chief Content Producer for the company and will be "leading the company's creative content, providing on-going commentaries and developing other premium web-based programming," according to
Satellite News, the official MST3k fan site. If you want a real insiders look at Mike's first day at his new gig, check out the video after the jump.
Continue reading MST3k's Michael J. Nelson named Chief Content Producer of Legend Films - VIDEO
Posted Jul 1st 2006 11:06AM by Adam Finley
Filed under: Commercials, Web
If you ask me what my favorite television show of all time is, I will answer, "ham sandwich." Then, after a long silence during which I'll realize I didn't hear you correctly, I'll tell you that
Mystery Science Theater 3000 is my all-time favorite show. The series was given the boot in 1999, but despite that, if you listen to interviews with any of the cast members, they still get asked if the show will ever return with new episodes. It's been seven years, people, learn to let go. At any rate, most of the cast of that series have gone on to other projects, and head writer and second host Michael J. Nelson recently posted a hysterical essay about those "Juiceman" infomercials on
his site. Apparently the juice-lovin' curmudgeon is an endless source of entertainment for Mike and his family. I haven't seen the infomercial in ages, but Nelson is right, his eyebrows do look like "mini versions of Ted Kennedy's hair."
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