The Film Crew
Encyclopedia
Mystery Science Theater 3000
Mystery Science Theater 3000 is an American cult television comedy series created by Joel Hodgson and produced by Best Brains, Inc., that ran from 1988 to 1999....
, comprising former MST3K cast members Michael J. Nelson
Michael J. Nelson
Michael John Nelson is a U.S. comedian and writer, most famous for his work on the cult television series Mystery Science Theater 3000 . Nelson was the head writer of the series for most of the show's 11-year run, and spent half of that time playing the on-air host, also named Mike Nelson...
, Bill Corbett
Bill Corbett
Bill Corbett is an American writer and performer for television, film and theatre. He was a writer and performer on the cult television show Mystery Science Theater 3000 , for which he voiced the robot Crow T. Robot during the show's later seasons on the Sci Fi Channel and played the character...
, and Kevin Murphy
Kevin Murphy (actor)
Kevin Wagner Murphy is an American actor and writer best known as the voice and puppeteer of Tom Servo on the Peabody Award-winning comedy series Mystery Science Theater 3000.- Early career :...
. They hosted Legend Films
Legend Films
Legend Films, a San Diego-based company, was founded in August 2001. The company specializes in the conversion of feature films, both new release and catalog titles, and commercials from their native 2D format into 3-D film format utilizing proprietary technology and software...
' colorized
Film colorization
Film colorization is any process that adds color to black-and-white, sepia or monochrome moving-picture images. It may be done as a special effect, or to modernize black-and-white films, or to restore color films...
Three Stooges
Three Stooges
The Three Stooges were an American vaudeville and comedy act of the early to mid–20th century best known for their numerous short subject films. Their hallmark was physical farce and extreme slapstick. In films, the Stooges were commonly known by their first names: "Moe, Larry, and Curly" and "Moe,...
DVD release, packing in the four Stooge shorts that have fallen into the public domain
Public domain
Works are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...
: Disorder in the Court
Disorder in the Court
Disorder in the Court is the 15th short subject starring American slapstick comedy team the Three Stooges. The trio made a total of 190 shorts for Columbia Pictures between 1934 and 1959.-Plot:...
(1936), Malice in the Palace
Malice in the Palace
Malice in the Palace is the 117th short subject starring American slapstick comedy team the Three Stooges. The trio made a total of 190 shorts for Columbia Pictures between 1934 and 1959.-Plot:...
(1949), Sing a Song of Six Pants
Sing a Song of Six Pants
Sing a Song of Six Pants is the 102nd short subject starring American slapstick comedy team the Three Stooges. The trio made a total of 190 shorts for Columbia Pictures between 1934 and 1959.- Plot :...
, and Brideless Groom
Brideless Groom
Brideless Groom is the 101st short subject starring American slapstick comedy team the Three Stooges. The trio made a total of 190 shorts for Columbia Pictures between 1934 and 1959.-Plot:...
(both 1947).
The Film Crew also maintained a website with humor columns and other content geared toward its fans.
On television
The Film Crew also occasionally hosted segments between movies on American Movie Classics, Sundance Channel, and the Starz/EncoreStarz!
Starz is an American premium subscription channel that features mainly first-run motion pictures, along with some original programming...
cable channels in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
In August 2005, during Encore
Starz!
Starz is an American premium subscription channel that features mainly first-run motion pictures, along with some original programming...
's "Midnight Movies
Midnight movies
The term midnight movie is rooted in the practice that emerged in the 1950s of local television stations around the United States airing low-budget genre films as late-night programming, often with a host delivering ironic asides...
" schedule, The Film Crew provided introductions for the documentary on the subject Midnight Movies: From the Margin to the Mainstream
Midnight Movies: From the Margin to the Mainstream
Midnight Movies: From the Margin to the Mainstream is a 2005 documentary written and directed by Stuart Samuels, based on his book on the subject....
and for the cult classic
Cult Classic
Cult Classic is a Blue Öyster Cult studio recording released in 1994, containing remakes of many of the band's previous hits.-Track listing:# " The Reaper" - 5:05# "E.T.I...
s The Rocky Horror Picture Show
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
The Rocky Horror Picture Show is the 1975 film adaptation of the British rock musical stageplay, The Rocky Horror Show, written by Richard O'Brien. The film is a parody of B-movie, science fiction and horror films of the late 1940s through early 1970s. Director Jim Sharman collaborated on the...
, Reefer Madness
Reefer Madness
Reefer Madness is a well-known 1936 American propaganda exploitation film revolving around the melodramatic events that ensue when high school students are lured by pushers to try "marijuana" — from a hit and run accident, to manslaughter, suicide, attempted rape, and descent into madness...
, Night of the Living Dead
Night of the Living Dead
Night of the Living Dead is a 1968 American independent black-and-white zombie film and cult film directed by George A. Romero, starring Duane Jones, Judith O'Dea and Karl Hardman. It premiered on October 1, 1968, and was completed on a USD$114,000 budget. After decades of cinematic re-releases, it...
, The Harder They Come
The Harder They Come
The Harder They Come is a 1972 Jamaican crime film directed by Perry Henzell.The film stars reggae singer Jimmy Cliff, who plays Ivanhoe Martin, a character based on Rhyging, a real-life Jamaican criminal who achieved fame in the 1940s...
, and Pink Flamingos
Pink Flamingos
Pink Flamingos is a 1972 transgressive black comedy film written, produced, composed, shot, edited, and directed by John Waters. When the film was initially released, it caused a huge degree of controversy and thus became one of the most notorious cult films ever made. It made an underground star...
.
Announcement
On October 19, 2006, it was announced that The Film Crew would be providing commentary tracks for a series of B-movies beginning in July 2007 through Shout! FactoryShout! Factory
Shout! Factory is an entertainment company founded in 2003 that was started by Richard Foos , Bob Emmer and Garson Foos initially as a specialty music label...
. To promote their announcement, the Crew offered a poll on their website asking viewers to sample clips of each film and choose which they would prefer to see released first out of the four titles announced.
The four titles, in order of votes received (and, as a result, their release order), are:
- Winner: Hollywood After Dark, starring Rue McClanahanRue McClanahanRue McClanahan was an American actress, best known for her roles on television as Vivian Harmon on Maude, Fran Crowley on Mama's Family, and Blanche Devereaux on The Golden Girls, for which she won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in 1987.-Early life:McClanahan was born Eddie Rue...
(of The Golden GirlsThe Golden GirlsThe Golden Girls is an American sitcom created by Susan Harris, which originally aired on NBC from September 14, 1985, to May 9, 1992. Starring Bea Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty, the show centers on four older women sharing a home in Miami, Florida...
fame) - Second Place: Killers from SpaceKillers from SpaceKillers from Space is a 1954 American black and white science fiction feature film, produced and directed by W. Lee Wilder from an original, commissioned screenplay by his son Myles Wilder and their regular collaborator William Raynor, and starring Peter Graves and Barbara Bestar...
, starring Peter GravesPeter Graves (actor)Peter Aurness , known professionally as Peter Graves, was an American film and television actor. He was best known for his starring role in the CBS television series Mission: Impossible from 1967 to 1973... - Third Place: The Wild Women of Wongo
- Fourth Place: The Giant of MarathonThe Giant of MarathonThe Giant of Marathon is a 1959 Italian sword and sandal film. It was directed by Jacques Tourneur and Mario Bava...
, starring a "well-oiled" Steve ReevesSteve ReevesStephen L. Reeves was an American bodybuilder and actor. At the peak of his career, he was the highest-paid actor in Europe.-Childhood:...
Premise
The Film Crew, stuck in the confines of a basement at work, lay down commentary tracks to every obscure movie dished to them by their boss, Bob Honcho. As part of their job, each of the three wears a matching 'working-class' uniform and an unwieldy headset while riffing on each film.Production
The episodes were produced in 2005 in association with Rhino EntertainmentRhino Entertainment
Rhino Entertainment Company is an American specialty record label and production company. It is owned by Warner Music Group.-History:Rhino was originally a novelty song and reissue company during the 1970s and 1980s, releasing compilation albums of pop, rock & roll, and rhythm & blues successes...
, who were to distribute the episodes on DVD. However, Rhino was approached by Jim Mallon of Best Brains
Best Brains
Best Brains, Inc. is an entertainment company based in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. It is best known for its creation and production of the comedy/sci-fi television program Mystery Science Theater 3000, aka MST3K . The company ceased producing the program in 1999 and closed its studio...
, who threatened to pull future releases of MST3K from Rhino's distribution unless they passed on the series (Mallon claiming that it was "too similar to MST3K" and that Rhino had to choose either MST3K or Film Crew). Rhino then ended their relationship with The Film Crew. It wasn't until 2007 that arrangements were made with Shout! Factory to release the material (requiring some "looping
Dubbing (filmmaking)
Dubbing is the post-production process of recording and replacing voices on a motion picture or television soundtrack subsequent to the original shooting. The term most commonly refers to the substitution of the voices of the actors shown on the screen by those of different performers, who may be...
" of lines from the original scripts - specifically, "Bob Honcho" was originally named "Bob Rhino", and this had to be changed due to Rhino no longer being the distributor).
Releases were NTSC but have no region encoding. Each released episode contains at least one 'extra' ('Ode to Lunch' in Hollywood After Dark and 'Did You Know...' on Killers from Space
Killers from Space
Killers from Space is a 1954 American black and white science fiction feature film, produced and directed by W. Lee Wilder from an original, commissioned screenplay by his son Myles Wilder and their regular collaborator William Raynor, and starring Peter Graves and Barbara Bestar...
).
End
During the delay when there was no distributor for the Film Crew DVDs, the sets were destroyed and the cast moved on to the similar project RiffTraxRiffTrax
RiffTrax are downloadable audio commentaries featuring comedians Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett heckling films in the style of Mystery Science Theater 3000, a TV show in which Nelson was the head writer, and later the host. The RiffTrax are sold online and delivered by digital...
, complicating the issue of any possible future Film Crew episodes. Kevin Murphy has indicated that "We haven’t gotten any new orders from Shout Factory - the new home of MST by the way - and since RiffTrax is becoming so much fun, I think you may have seen the last of the Film Crew."
As of July 13th, 2008, The Film Crew's former website, filmcrewonline.com, is no longer online. Shortly thereafter, Shout Factory put three Film Crew movies on Hulu.com; this was followed on April 5th, 2009, with all four movies being made available on YouTube.
External links
- The Film Crew at Shout! Factory
- The Film Crew on HuluHuluHulu is a website and over-the-top subscription service offering ad-supported on-demand streaming video of TV shows, movies, webisodes and other new media, trailers, clips, and behind-the-scenes footage from NBC, Fox, ABC, and Obstacle on October 20th 2011 Nickelodeon and CBS and many other...