Ok, first things first: let's start with Mystery Science Theater 3000. If you've heard of or watched this show previously then you have mostly like come to two conclusions either 1. It's totally awesome or 2. It's totally stupid. If you haven't seen this show, this you're missing out! Mystery Science Theater 3000 is a real treat because it's a great comedy show that is almost, ALMOST set-up like a children's show. It's starts out with this cutesy song about a guy stuck in space and being chased by a bad guy. While in space he builds some "robot friends" out of parts on his ship to keep him company. In an attempt to make the good guy go insane the bad guy sends these cheesy old movies for him to watch. Instead they make fun of each of the movies and as the song suggests "you should really just relax". During the span of the series, we had two different men who played our "good guy"- Joel Hodgson and Mike Nelson. The two main robot characters are Tom Servo and Crow who are voiced by Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett respectively. Other voice actors portrayed the two robot characters, however these two voices are the most notable. For the majority of each episode, the stranded man (either Joel or Mike depending on which season you are watching) and the robots watch corny, cheesy B-rated movies and make constant jokes on the acting, scripting, and visuals of the motion picture.
What I find the most creative about this show is how clever and funny the acting is. The guys don't even have to try to "act". Most of the time it seems like natural, improvised jokes they throw at the camera. To show what I mean, here's a clip from the episode where they are watching the movie "Werewolf":
This is honestly one of my favorite jokes, I just love how they randomly start singing songs to the beat of the music in the end credits. By the way, the "Werewolf" episode is a pretty good one so check out it sometime if you'd like a good laugh!
Something else I find extremely creative about this show is the design of the robots. They're puppets much like Jim Henson's creations, these guys could easily move, talk, spin, and everything in between through their master puppeteer. It's used as a joke in the theme song, but in all seriousness I really enjoy the visual concept of the robots. They're designed to look like common objects and parts from a ship. The most notable features are the ping-pong eyes on Crow and Tom Servo's classic gumball machine finish. Unlike cartoon characters or traditional children's show characters, these puppets aren't meant to look like a specific creature, just inanimate objects (which reminds me a little bit of Disney's Beauty and the Beast).
When the series came to an end in 1999, a lot of people were devastated that this great cult-classic was shutting it's doors. However the cable channel Sci-fi (Syfy) did rerun the show on several occasions until about 2004. A few short years later, Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett brought the magic of Mystery Science Theater back to life with a new program called RiffTrax. This time the guys decided to take their comedic commentaries to the popular and well-known films. I first came across RiffTrax around 2008 when I was looking up old Mystery Science Theater episodes and was so excited that these guys have made a comeback to their movie parody and joke ways. Since then RiffTrax has made fun of big hits like Titanic, Star Wars, Twilight, Dr. Who, and most recently my favorite movie of all-time The Wizard of Oz.
Unlike Mystery Science Theater, RiffTrax is a seperate product and does not air on TV. Instead, you go to RiffTrax.com and purchase an MP3 of the commentary which you play along with the corresponding film or you can order a DVD of the film so you can watch the movie with our without their commentary. I've only gotten to listen to a few of the RiffTrax commentaries but I promise you they're just as good as Mystery Science Theater. Especially for you die hard fans of Twilight or anti-Twilight fans, RiffTrax does a terrific job of making fun of each scene in the movie. They constantly comment on the poor acting from the characters, and Edward's "problems". Either way it's great stuff. The thing to remember though is that Nelson and the crew are not out to "ruin" movies, the only make fun of them. I've done the same thing watching a movie and just making ridiculous comments about why a character isn't doing something.
I should also mention that RiffTrax doesn't have a visual to accompany the film, nor is there a side plot like in Mystery Science Theater. The guys come onto the track and introduce themselves while giving you instructions on how to keep this track in sync with your movie, so you don't miss a second of humor in the scene. RiffTrax gets to have a place on my Creative Mastermind list because the concept alone is just brilliant! It's a whole new way to experience some of our favorite films, and RiffTrax does a pretty good job of staying in line with their jokes too. Very similar to shows like Saturday Night Live or MadTV, these guys are not out to offend anyone, they just enjoy having a good time making fun of movies. Here's a great sample clip from Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban for you to get idea of how they work in the "good movies" compared to the low-budget, cheesy movies of Mystery Science Theater.
Even if you're not a Harry Potter fan, you've got to admit the jokes in this clip were pretty good (especially towards the end). Either way, both Mystery Science Theater and RiffTrax gave the public a good, creative way to experience movies through comedy and natural humor. I love all of the pop culture and music references they make in each of their shows which I feel also drives their popularity. It's not offensive and it's not killing the greatness of these films either. The guys have said on many occasions there's several of these films they really enjoy and don't want to the public to get the idea that they're hating on a specific franchise, actor, director, or whatever. No matter how you put it though great writing, excellent production, and innovative character designs are all reasons why I give the cast and crew of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and RiffTrax a place on my Creative Mastermind list.
If you have a suggestion for a Creative Mastermind, please share you ideas with me by either commenting on this post or you can send it to The Creative Cabana via Facebook or Twitter. In the meantime keep warm, and watch out for frostbite! Have a great afternoon everyone.
*I do not own Mystery Science Theater 3000 or RiffTrax. All rights and content of both Mystery Science Theater and RiffTrax belong to their respective owners, producers, writers, etc. I also do not own any of the films mentionned in this post and give all credit to their respective studios and owners for their production. Images used in this post were gathered from Google Images search results. Both videos clips came from YouTube users, and I do not own the content for those clips as well. It is not intended for this post to be an endorsement for Mystery Science Theater 3000 or RiffTrax, but instead a post of praise and appreciation for the effort put into the creating of these shows. No Copyright Infringement Intended.
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