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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ct0Z2bQndM My friends, from 1988 until 1999, there was a little show that touched all of us in one way or another. A show that showed all of us just how fun bad movies could really be if you had some friends to watch them with you...or at least a pair of snarky robot sidekicks. And now, almost 17 years later, we stand here about to receive the greatest gift we could have ever asked for. But let's cut to the chase. I've been living under a rock for the past 30 years, what is Mystery Science Theater 3000? Well, I'm glad you asked. MST3k follows a relatively simple premise: A mad scientist decides that in order to rule the world he has to suck out everyone's will to oppose him by subjecting them to the worst movie ever made. But in order to find that movie, he first sets up a test subject in orbit around Earth. That test subject takes parts of the satellite he is held hostage within and builds robot companions to sit through the movies with. A series of misunderstandings occur which allow the original test subject to escape the satellite, forcing the scientist to replace him with a guy he got from a temp agency. Eventually, the scientist's mother takes over the experiment along with her sidekicks, a Bottom line, schlubs are sent into space to watch the best worst movies of all time. And some of the absolute worst films of all time, I'm looking at you, Monster-A-Go-Go. And it's been immensely influential, popping up in things as random as Futurama to Arrested Development....and what may be the most out of left field reference of all goddamned time. Your premise interests me. Where is a good place to get started on this series? Glad you asked. Really, you can start in just about any era, whether it be right at the beginning in Season 1, or when the series was sort-of-not-really-rebooted on the Sci-Fi channel in Season 8. Personally, I recommend starting earlier, and getting a feel for the show before you tackle some of the truly legendary terrible movies the series featured. No man should venture into the depths of Manos: The Hands of Fate unprepared. No matter what, you'll start to pick a favorite era for each of the hosts. Ok, so what are some episodes you recommend from each of these eras? Well, that's gonna differ from person to person, but I'll sum up my own personal picks of good entry-level episodes.  The Joel Era Featuring: Joel Hodgson as Joel Robinson, Kevin Murphy/J. Elvis Weinstein as Tom Servo, Trace Beaulieu as Dr. Clayton Forrester/Crow T. Robot, Frank Conniff as TV's Frank The Crawling Eye Robot Monster Godzilla Vs Megalon Gamera (and all the sequels) The Amazing Colossal Man & War of the Colossal Beast It Conquered the World Teenagers from Outer Space Bride of the Monster Eegah!  The Mike Era Featuring: Michael J. Nelson as Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy as Tom Servo/Professor Bobo, Trace Beaulieu as Dr. Clayton Forrester/Crow T. Robot, Bill Corbett as Brain Guy/Crow T. Robot, Frank Conniff as TV's Frank, Mary-Jo Pehl as Pearl Forrester. The Brain That Wouldn't Die Beginning of the End Zombie Nightmare Escape 2000 MST3K The Movie/This Island Earth Revenge of the Creature The Final Sacrifice Space Mutiny Werewolf Joel's era as host does have more jumping-on points, but honestly, you can't go wrong with This Island Earth. Hang on, does the thread title say something about a "return"? What's going on there?  DEBUTS APRIL 14th, 2017! drat right there's a revival happening! With that, we begin the "Jonah Era" of the show. Show creator and original host Joel Hodgson announced a Kickstarter drive in November of 2015 to fund a new season of the show, with the hope that it might be picked up by one of the networks or streaming services. The drive raised over 6.3 Million Dollars, making the MST3k Revival the largest Film/Video Kickstarter of all time. Preproduction began January 4th, 2016 with a target of 14 New Episodes with the new cast...and who are these lovely people?  Well, we have stand-up Jonah Ray as Jonah Heston, Hampton Yount as Crow, Baron Vaughn as Tom, Felicia Day as Kinga Forrester (daughter of Clayton), and Patton Goddamned Oswalt as TV's Son of TV's Frank! In addition, many celebrity fans of the show have expressed interest in appearing during host segments such as Jack Black, Neil Patrick Harris, Bill Hader, and - no joke - Mark Hamill! In addition, several original cast members (notably Mary Jo Pehl, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett) will be reprising their roles. Finally, at San Diego ComicCon 2016, Joel officially announced the series will return via Netflix and will first appear on the US, Canada, UK, Australia, and New Zealand versions of the streaming platform! An official start date is yet to be announced. How can I get caught up on the old episodes? Well the good people at Shout! Factory regularly issue boxsets of at least 4 episodes a few times a year (generally you get 2 Joel and 2 Mike episodes per), and are now re-releasing the older sets originally published by Rhino Video. In addition, you can buy episodes from iTunes...but then they only work on your iOS device. For more flexibility, I personally recommend either the DVD's, or the good people and former cast members/writers of MST3k at RiffTrax release a new digital episode of classic MST nearly every Monday for about $10 USD. Finally, you can go to The Official YouTube Channel to stream select episodes for free. (My advice is to turn annotations off because holy poo poo do they get inane and annoying.) Also, there are people hosting various episodes on their personal YouTube channels...but whether this is  or not is kind of up in the air as the original series usually had a message to "KEEP SHARING THE TAPES", meaning tape the episodes and share them around with friends. Basically, there are ways to view the episodes without owning them, but best not to overly advertise them. So please, sit back, grab some friends, catch up on one of the greatest shows of all time. Around here we mostly just quote it endlessly, with occasional interludes, but with work on the new episodes starting soon, we all have something to look forward to. Wait, if they're on a satellite, where do the air and food come from? Buddy, it's a television show, you should really just relax. Ensign_Ricky fucked around with this message at 01:04 on Mar 23, 2017 |
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Jul 24, 2016 05:57
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Sanzuo posted:So now that Netflix has picked it up, what are the chances we'll see more seasons beyond the 14 new episodes? I would say very very good. Netflix knows how to promote a show, plus as long as the riffing is on point it should be a slam dunk.
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Jul 24, 2016 06:06
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BaronVanAwesome posted:Was the original episodes ever available on Netflix streaming? I swear I saw them there once but couldn't find them last time I looked. I may be insane. Some select episodes were once. Then Hulu got them, but with this news it's safe to say they'll be back. RandomPauI posted:I hope they do "Death Bed, the Bed that Eats". I would've been on board with this until I found out that DB:TBtE is actually a pretentious art film, and not a horror per se. A pretentious art film about a cannibalistic bed, but my point remains. Despite the awesomeness of the title, DB:TBtE is loving boring with one or two moments of "Wait, what?"
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Jul 24, 2016 07:55
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RandomPauI posted:I know that you can make a pretentious art film about anything, but how do you make one about a bed that eats people? To be honest, poorly. NowonSA posted:Foodfight is so bad it legit traumatized me, I don't want them to do it. I also couldn't get through the rifftrax of the last airbender because the movie was just too drat bad to tolerate even with a riff going. I'd like to see Foodfight as a Rifftrax Live event personally. If only because then they can give it the R-rated teardown that loving piece of poo poo deserves.
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Jul 24, 2016 16:45
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The Ape of Naples posted:That's true though they do curse sometimes. I know Kevin dropped the F-bomb in that one Christopher Walken movie. I think they all did. Although the funniest F-Bomb I've heard was from Kevin during the last Sketchfest where in reference to The Room he mutters "God I hate that loving movie."
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Jul 24, 2016 17:12
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The Ape of Naples posted:Did they ever do that in a regular MST3k? Want to say they did. Also, for the record I don't want them to go 'blue' I was just curious if they would considering the venue and writers. I think MST3k being a show that the whole family could enjoy is what helped it. Though I still wouldn't say 'dickweed' in front of my mother. Just the one skit during Mike's trial where Crow supposedly drops a bajillion f-bombs.
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Jul 24, 2016 17:46
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Timby posted:Pretty much -- obviously he's persona non grata now, but there's a reason Bill Cosby's stand-up was popular for decades after he recorded it: He actually wrote jokes, instead of just going for vulgarity. And excessive bleeping can be just as funny. On the original Birdemic riff, at one point Bill just goes off on how stupid the movie is (not unlike the aforementioned Crow skit) and it's just hilarious.
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Jul 24, 2016 18:40
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Monster A-Go-Go at least gave us Circus On Ice. Just like how Manos gave us Hired!-Part Two. Also I sincerely hope Mike cameos at some point as Torgo.
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Jul 24, 2016 20:39
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The Ape of Naples posted:Remember when they tried to make Ortega the new Torgo? Hey I like Ortega. edit: Updated the OP with Escape 2000 and The Final Sacrifice. Just remember, we want that to primarily list good jumping on points for the show, not just personal favorites. I tried to use Hobgoblins to introduce my wife and it took her two years to give the show another shot. Ensign_Ricky fucked around with this message at 21:51 on Jul 24, 2016 |
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Jul 24, 2016 21:47
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Timby posted:Do we know that? Joel said it last night at the panel.
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Jul 24, 2016 22:04
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Bruceski posted:My dad did that for This Island Earth. He saw it in the theater as a kid, it was one of his favorite movies, and so our watching of the MST was interspersed with "they're leaving out the good parts!" I legitimately love the film (and the novel), so my irritation about the cuts is more based around the hilarity of what they took out. Like Brack blowing up the German with his space lasers. How do you justify cutting an exploding German from a movie???
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Jul 25, 2016 02:30
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Ms Boods posted:
Well allow me to introduce you to an artist I found on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXibTZcUDUQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdFzv2wcEko https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhVLZvEWxOo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Iaesk63JGg and of course... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uN6UnjmB1F0
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Jul 25, 2016 05:16
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Evil Mastermind posted:I don't really quote it, but I've gone on record before saying 12 To The Moon is one of my favorite episodes. I love both the riffing and the movie itself, just because it's so sincere. They really thought they were making a serious sci fi epic that was saying something about the Unknown and the peoples the world coming together. Plus I love the little things like how they had to do all their navigation math on the fly by hand. I like to think of The Phantom Planet as a sequel to 12 To The Moon. They both have that sincerity you're talking about, which is probably because they were both written by Fred Gebhardt. Also they share a bunch of cast members. And speaking of 12 To The Moon, one of the director's other films needs to be either in the new MST3k season or on Rifftrax eventually. They Saved Hitler's Brain certainly does not share that sincerity.
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Jul 25, 2016 16:03
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Evil Mastermind posted:Huh, I never noticed that before. Guess I'm due for a rewatch! ...Seriously? You never noticed the ancient guy in both movies? But seriously, if you look at Francis X Bushman's IMDB page, dude had a pretty amazing career from pretty much the dawn of film until he passed away. Dude was in the original Ben Hur. Also I can't believe we're getting a loving remake of goddamned BEN HUR. Jesus Christ, Hollywood try remaking some poo poo movies. On that note, what are some MST'd movies that you all think wouldn't be half bad if it wasn't for a few minor tweaks? (This Island Earth excepted.) Put me down for The Dead Talk Back. Really, it's the goofy acting that puts it into MST material, the actual plot is kind of clever and the ending twist out-Shyamalans Shyamalan.
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Jul 25, 2016 18:35
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Franchescanado posted:It was also a favorite of Frank Zappa, who dedicates his song Cheapnis" to it. With as many Zappa jokes as MST3k has, I don't think the overlap is coincidental. It was Joel and the bots actually. Well, just Joel and Trace.
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Jul 25, 2016 20:25
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bunnyofdoom posted:Michael Bay made the island not Emmerich. As to the former point, that's an easy understandable mistake. As to the second, let's get Michael Cera as Troy, Donald Sutherland as Pipper and make this bitch
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Jul 26, 2016 03:11
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ZZT the Fifth posted:I kind of enjoyed Operation Double 007 just for how odd it was. Well, that, and the score by Ennio Morricone. How'd he end up working on this? Same reason he did Exorcist 2 I would presume: Bruceski posted:Rent gotta be paid.
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Jul 26, 2016 22:11
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Niggurath posted:Yeah, I only realize in retrospect that the later season's Japanese fare was usually pretty racist, especially Neptune Men. Prince of Space wasn't as bad with it, but it had it's moments of bottom of the barrel racial Japanese stereotype comments. All I can remember that could be a Japanese stereotype joke was something about buying violent porn comics. And maybe one about being good at math? Either way I like it very much.
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Jul 27, 2016 05:16
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So that woman has a death grip on The Amazing Colossal Man, but let War of the Colossal Beast go?
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Jul 27, 2016 07:42
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Ballz posted:Thanks to Travis' list, I'd say we have one more boxset after the just announced volume before things get interesting. I think Pumaman was the most surprising considering the stories I'd read about no one actually knowing who owned the rights anymore.
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Jul 27, 2016 16:13
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TerminalSaint posted:The early Mike-only RiffTrax were too sad for me to even listen to. Some were pretty good. His riff of Predator was spot on.
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Jul 29, 2016 08:39
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Short interview with Felicia on the revival: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0VB8861cfU And Jonah, Baron, Hampton, and Joel discuss some of their favorite new jokes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FT3Wt_TDoLU Edit: Joel is predicting an Early 2017 release to Netflix. Ensign_Ricky fucked around with this message at 17:20 on Jul 29, 2016 |
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Jul 29, 2016 17:09
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Teek posted:Man, Hampton sounds so much like Trace's Crow that'll be interesting to see if he sticks with his natural voice or tries to adjust it. Apparently Joel told him to do his own thing and not try to mimic Trace if he can, but that seems like it would be a challenge since it's already so close to it. Not to mimic Trace...but no mention of Bill? For shame.
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Jul 29, 2016 18:15
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Jet Jaguar posted:Fun in Balloonland. Just... WTF MOVIE!?! Joel's take on "This Is Hormel!" would be loving amazing. Especially...you know.....  the tail.SirPhoebos posted:The live shows also are pretty close to the tone of MST3K. In particular Bill original "Well-drat it, is corn grass or not?!?" from the Reefer Madness show is right up there with any Tom Servo freakout. Dude, we got a Tom Servo-style freakout during that show when Kevin snapped and started running around with a fancy headdress.
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Jul 30, 2016 03:36
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Going back to the shorts, I'd be interested in seeing alternate takes on some of the Rifftrax ones, like the At Your Fingertips series or the Norman series. (Seriously I have no idea what the hell with the Norman Krasner shorts. I guess we made them in Canada, but I have no idea why. Although I very, very vaguely remember seeing one in either elementary or junior high once.)
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Aug 2, 2016 03:49
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Jack Gladney posted:They were made in Detroit, Michigan. The director/creator is dead but had a LinkedIn profile when I checked up on him. He listed himself as a producer of educational films. He never escaped Detroit. Really? I could've sworn we were responsible for unleashing Norman on the world. 
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Aug 3, 2016 01:11
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Secks posted:I love when absolutely nothing is happening and Joel just says gently caress it and opens a can of pop. You can tell its really bad when they just have to start talking about things other than the movie. Was it pop? I always assumed it was a beer. On the topic of K. Gordon Murray, holy god does MST or Rifftrax need to do Little Red Riding Hood and the Monsters. I am honestly surprised Disney didn't sue the gently caress out of someone for their "Queen of Badness"  
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Aug 4, 2016 06:11
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Oh my god, what if they did Boys Beware?! On the off chance you haven't seen it, it quite plainly states that homosexual=pedophile. It's soooo wrong and dark but in the right hands it could be loving amazing.
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Aug 6, 2016 07:56
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Bruceski posted:I'm honestly not sure if the roller coaster scene was just that bizarre or I repressed the rest. Or both. No, I remember that too.
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Aug 6, 2016 17:36
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Chokes McGee posted:The movie has no clear beginning, middle, or end. I'm not 100% sure it still isn't going. And it has Joe Don Baker. And wasn't John Saxon in the movie? What the hell happened there??
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Aug 7, 2016 05:46
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Gavok posted:You better run! Meat-balls fried in laaaaaaaaaaard!
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Aug 7, 2016 17:43
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twistedmentat posted:Because MST3K never ever aired in Canada, I only ever seen a handful in the 90s. Godzilla vs the one with Jetjaguar and Red Zone Cuba. Godzilla was great, but Red Zone Cuba is so insanely boring. I think it was just confusing that the cuba stuff was short and the rest became about swindling uranium claims. It had to have popped on some channel, as a Canadian, a fellow one introduced me to it in high school. And CTV sometimes aired MST3K The Movie as a sunday afternoon feature.
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Aug 7, 2016 23:54
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Gaz-L posted:^^ I'm kinda happy to see him in the couple of Bond films he was in, actually, for reals Oh I thoroughly enjoyed him in Goldeneye. But...The Living Daylights...hoo boy. Highlight of that film was the song by A-Ha.
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Aug 10, 2016 04:06
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Gaz-L posted:The most amazing thing about this one is how LONG it goes after what should be the end. Reminds me of the one Rifftrax did, "Paper and I", which just. Keeps. Going. On. About. The. South. Of course, even those don't hold a candle to "Setting Up A Room" in terms of mind-numbing insanity.
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Aug 14, 2016 06:24
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BooDoug187 posted:HITLER'S DEATH CAR! HERVE VILLECHAIZE'S DEATH CAR!
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Aug 26, 2016 05:35
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Mister Kingdom posted:I was dicking around on eBay and found this: At a guess? Tits.
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Aug 31, 2016 02:44
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 It's really happening, isn't it? 
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Sep 17, 2016 04:34
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Out of curiosity, has anyone received their MST3k Club card in the mail yet?
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Sep 25, 2016 23:37
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Also in the Kickstarter update, one major cameo confirmed!
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Sep 27, 2016 04:02
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Timby posted:Mary Jo Pehl, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett will be reprising their roles of Pearl Forrester, Professor Bobo and Brain Guy, but both Mike Nelson and Trace Beaulieu declined offers to return. And technically we got Trace back once, when Arrested Development did an MST3k gag. But I really hope Trace comes back for one episode at some point, just for the father/daughter reunion.
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Oct 4, 2016 01:38
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