MST3K The KTMA Era

Unaired Pilot

The Green Slime

Episodes
Invaders from the Deep
Revenge of the Mysterons from Mars
Star Force:  Fugitive Alien II
Gamera vs. Barugon
Gamera
Gamera vs. Gaos
Gamera vs. Zigra
Gamera vs. Guiron
Phase IV
Cosmic Princess
Humanoid Woman
Fugitive Alien
SST- Death Flight
Mighty Jack
Superdome
City on Fire
Time of the Apes
The Million Eyes of Sumuru
Hangar 18
The Last Chase
The "Legend of Dinosaurs"

Featured in DVD sets:

Nineteen episodes are unreleased

Two episodes were released digitally

One episode is lost

As Star Wars once declared "Every Saga Has A Beginning."  That slogan was used to advertise The Phantom Menace, which is probably the one Star Wars movie every Star Wars fan wants to forget at least before The Rise of Skywalker outcringed it.  Likewise, there are large groups of MSTies who struggle with the KTMA run of episodes or just ignore them entirely, which I think is a shame because while they aren't refined or hilarious, they are interesting and charming.

This first run of episodes is technically not "canon" to the series itself.  The series would reuse various films from it, canonically changed Joel's character name from his real name of Hodgson to "Robinson," and don't even include this season in the show's official season count (fans refer to it as "Season 0").  That being said, the relaunch series started numbering the episodes in their opening credits, and the episode count includes these episodes so...just repeat to yourself it's just a show and I should really just relax?

KTMA was the original network the series was broadcast on, a UHF station in Minnesota.  When asked if he had any ideas for a new TV show to fill air time, Joel came up with this nutty idea about watching movies with the audience.  He gathered some fellow comedians in Trace Beaulieu and Josh Weinstein and handed them a couple of crude puppets and wahlah, Mystery Science Theater 3000 was born.  But there is a learning curve present.  You can tell early on that they aren't quite sure what this show is yet, as the pilot features Joel dropping movie trivia while the first actual episode features meta gags like Joel silently eating popcorn or drinking soda.  Trace and Josh are more vocal in the theater, trying to start conversations and spitball some comedy to amuse the audience, which leads to much more embracing of improv comedy later on before pre-scripting it in the next season as they finally understood what they had.  That learning curve makes the KTMA episodes tough to stomach for most because this season requires patience and understanding.  Some people just want the good stuff, and god speed on that, but I want to see the history being made.  KTMA is history in real time (and reel time), so it's a special season for me.

The movie selection is just from the movies that were licensed to the network at the time, which were usually just cheap packages that no network would normally want.  A lot of them are TV projects that are just shows edited into movies or lousy direct-to-TV movies.  The first three episodes of the series aren't even real movies, and we finally get one in Gamera vs. Barugon in episode four.  Still that was an imported foreign film cheaply dubbed for a children's VHS line, so some might argue that the first "real" movie might be Phase IV in episode nine.  Other theatrical releases include City on Fire, Hangar 18, and The Last Chase, while cheesy VHS dubs of foreign films include the Gamera series, Humanoid Woman, and The "Legend of Dinosaurs."  TV shows edited into movies include movies edited from Gerry and Sylvia Anderson productions like Stingray, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, and Space:  1999, while also featuring imported Japanese shows like Star Wolf, Mighty Jack, and Army of the Apes.  TV movies include stinkers like Superdome and SST- Death Flight.

Interestingly there is only one black and white film this season, the original Gamera film.  Black and white would feature more prominently in the next season and throughout the classic series.

Also of note is that ten of the movies featured during this season were reused on the series later on, which most people don't mind because there was always greater comedy to be mined from them outside of a few improv heckles.  Most of the Sandy Frank imported films were reused in the show's third season with the exception of Humanoid Woman and The "Legend of Dinosaurs," while The Million Eyes of Sumuru is featured in the lineup of the relaunch's season 13.  As a side note, Hangar 18 was featured on RiffTrax, so there is a more professional riff of that film floating out there too.

As for standout episodes...well that depends.  Different episodes stand out for different reasons, but rarely because they're an excellent example of what this show is.  Episodes have jokes or references that get refined later on, while the show's premise gets richer in small ways.  For me, whole judging whole episodes from this season largely depends on what movies I find more watchable where I find the crude commentary can be a fun add-on.  Cosmic Princess tops that list for me because I think the movie is goofy and fun, as are the daffy SST- Death Flight, the disastrous City on Fire, and a couple of silly Gamera movies.  Less tolerable are episodes like Superdome and Gamera vs. Zigra, which aren't fun watches by their lonesome and not very fun on this incarnation of the series.  Mighty Jack is pretty weak, while the original Gamera suffers from only having one commentator and no real dynamic.  However, in defense of the latter I think it's hate is quite overblown because the movie is amusing enough to do some lifting.

This original run of MST3K won't be everyone's cup of tea, but if you want to see this germ of an idea spread and finally begin to click then I recommend giving it a shot.  It's a cool season to watch play out, though it helps if you tolerate the movies themselves.  Not everyone is willing to do that, but if you're willing to let the KTMA episodes learn how to walk so the Comedy Central episodes could run then you just might find that there is something here that is worth preserving and celebrating.

Top Five Episodes:

1.  Cosmic Princess

2.  SST- Death Flight

3.  City on Fire

4.  Gamera vs. Guiron

5.  Gamera vs. Barugon

Bottom Five Episodes:

1.  Superdome

2.  Gamera vs. Zigra

3.  Mighty Jack

4.  Gamera

5.  Time of the Apes