Customer Reviews

The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Amazing Colossal Episode Guide

5 star:		(48)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I can't believe how funny this book is. This is not an in-depth geeky, nostalgic look back at the 6 years of MST3K. It's basically a shallow geeky continuation of the show in book form, where they make fun of everything about the show itself, instead of just the movies.
This is all done in the context of listing the episodes in order of broadcast, and then filling with memories of the cast(every cast member contributes-- except Joel, of course), details from the movies and shorts, and "tidbits" like "our favorite lines of all time". It also goes a little bit into how the show got on the air, and how sometimes things weren't so great. In case you're a Joel fan like me, there is no trashing of him, but he is rarely mentioned.
The long and short of it is-- if you ever laughed at anything that was done or said on MST3K, you will "get" the humor of this book. I still laugh at the idea that there are about 12 prefaces, introductions, and introductions to the prefaces before you get to Chapter 1. They're just funny people.

Though it may not cover the recent Sci-Fi channel seasons, this book does cover the majority of MST3K's 10 year run, and many consider that the golden years of the series.

The writers of this book are the cast and crew of MST3K themselves, and they are as funny here as they are on the show. Kevin Murphy especially lends many laughs, particularly in his description of how he got the role of Tom Servo (and you'd be amazed how much trouble some one went through to hurt his feelings...read the book for more!). The history of the show, from Season 1 on, is told in each chapter followed by reviews of the respectful season's episodes.

Each episode has a mini-review along with some side-comments from the cast member who reviewed it. Some simply give feelings of pain while others, especially for classic episodes like any of the "Gamera" treats, give us hilariously sarcastic comments.

This book is every thing I liked about the series and what it stood for: getting together with friends and making fun of bad movies. I'm not usually for TV series guides, but this is an excellent copy because it has the same style and humor of the series. Read it and expect to laugh.

By all means, buy this book for all of the reasons stated in the many raves in this section, but I'm not crazy about it. My taste runs mostly to Mike-Hosted episodes, and most of the seasons Mike did aren't covered in this guide. I was hoping for some real, groupie insider information on the MST crew, but it's just more off-the-wall goofing around like in the show. I'd be willing to pay much more for a real factual guide to EVERY episode, written by one of the many serious students of this show. Any takers??

Although it seems impossible given the hundreds of jokes during each episode of MST3K, the writers actually found additional funny things to say about each of the cinematic messes that they picked apart during the first six years of MST3K. Features like the "MST3K Monster" boxes included on some pages and the guide's plot synopses for each film are often as funny as anything seen in the original episodes. My only complaint is that some of the pages have a bit too much blank space and given the quality of the writing in this book I would have loved to see more jokes filling up those pages. Otherwise, this book is a comedy gem that you'll want to revisit many times. Movie sign!

I didn't get hip to MST3K until it was on the Sci-Fi channel, and I had missed 7 years of gut-busting laugher from the Comedy Central Era, so this book was crucial in order to have a synopsis and chronological guide to all the episodes. While it's nice to have a list of episodes, it is a shame there is no complete guide spanning all 10 seasons. (Though you can get season 7 on mst3kinfo.com and the sci-fi channel website has ep guides for 8-10 as well.) The one thing that kept this from being a 5 star book is that the layout STINKS more than the band in POD PEOPLE and there is no listing of the episodes themselves, without any commentary in the appendix. All things considered, that is a minor flaw to an otherwise enjoyable book.

This book has lots of background data for the die hard MST3K fan. I thought much of the data was a bit distracting and would have liked to have seen more ludicrous commentary on the individual episodes. Instead during some of the episode descriptions we read aimlessly paragraph after paragraph about flat background producers who were hired, left, spilled pop on themselves etc... I watched the show for joel/mike and the robots and never knew anything about too many others involved in the process and hoestly could have cared less if I did.

i'm a serious reader who reads actual novels and classic literature, but not even Joyce's "Ulysses" can top the genius of The MST3K Amazing Colossal Episode Guide.

i've read this book DOZENS of times, and reference it nearly daily. i would give my first born child for a new edition that covers EVERYTHING (season 7 wasn't aired yet when the book was written). if you are looking for updated episode capsules, consult mst3kinfo.com for season seven and mst3k.com (the scifi site) for the sci-fi channel episodes.

i can't say enough about this book. it should be twelve times longer because i can't get enough mst3k. it really inspired me to collect every episode and turned my from a casual fan in to a ridiculous fanatic. and i mean that in a good way.

even if you've never seen the show, this book will still make you laugh. kevin's vonnegut anecdote, mike's miles o'keefe tribute, "your area and you," and the hilarious "bunular funular" anatomy diagram photo from the convention are all highlights that require no knowledge of the show to appreciate.

i truly think anybody with an interest in modern humor should own a copy of this book

While this is a really fun book with a great bunch of interesting information, the show has been canned (sadly), so how about a new version? How about an update to cover the seasons the show was on the SF Channel? Still, it's a fun read and has a high re-readability!

OK, so this really only covers 6 seasons of the show, was written in 1995/96 and has nothing on the SciFi channel run. Still, for any fan of MST3K it is an indespensible guide to the show's history, and a hilarious tour of the best(worst) films ever lampooned on the show.

As said above, the book covers the first 6 seasons of the show, with brief section about the infamous KTMA Public Access years and a short rundown on the truncated season 7 on Comedy Central. Each movie is first given a very funny synopsis and then an analysis is made by one of the writers. Usually it's completely bizzare, especially if the analysis is by Mike Nelson, the show's head writer. The synopsis' also include great lines like "I want to hurt this movie" and "please, PLEASE don't reveal the super secret ending of Manos:The Hands of Fate". Each episode also has a breakdown of the "host segments", the skits that serve as bumpers for the movie, and every so often TV's Frank(writer Frank Conniff) pops up with his thoughts on a particular movie experience. The book also chronicles the various monsters that have appeared in the films over the years, from Godzilla to Torgo.

The history of the show is also included, from the birth of the idea to the conventio-con, expo-fest-a-rama held in 1995. It's all done tounge in cheek, but serves as a good guide to how the show went from public access obscurity to cult hit with it's own motion picture. If you ever loved this show, or simply want to decide who lives and who dies, you must own this book.

This book is essential to the Mystery Science Theater 3000 fan. The only flaw is that it was written when the show was still on the air. As a result, the last few seasons are not included. I HIGHLY encourage the writers to come up with a second episode guide, complete with all ten seasons, so that I, and the other MSTies out there, can rush to the bookstore and do our part to send the writers' children to college.

This book gives episode run-downs (of the rotten movie and of the better host segments). It also lists off some of the groups favorite jokes and explains many of the most obscure ones. My fingers are tired from all this typing. Just buy it already!