Season 1: In the Not Too Distant Future...

Season 1 ran from Nov 1989 to Feb 1990. And with the Crawling Eye MST3K proper begins it’s brilliant run. Things were a bit spotty early on, the riffing sparser – but about midway they started hitting a rhythm and filmed some solid episodes. Project Moonbase & Untamed Youth had me laughing frequently, enough that they warranted an honorable mention. And while Slime People might not be the funniest episode ever, there’s just something delightful about it that makes it one I enjoy (Moon, Zero, Two fits in that category as well).

Josh Weinstein was Dr. Fs assistant and was the voice of Servo. While he doesn’t get a lot of love, I always liked the man and his style of humor. Host segments were solid; many of the experiments were drawn from Joel’s stand-up act. The Cody shorts wore thin. The movies offered a lot of B&W cheese.

Note: While season 1 was pretty well split in half between 1989 and 1990, most seasons had just a small bit of an overlap from one year into the next. Therefore I will primarily focus on a single dominant year for each overview. 1989 for season 1, 1990 for season 2, etc.

MST in 1989
Season 1 saw the introduction of Deep 13 – the headquarters for the Mads.

Michael J. Nelson joins the staff. An addition that will reap great comedy rewards for the show and its fans.

What else was going on in 1989?
* George Bush becomes our 41st President
* Serial killer Ted Bundy is put to death
* Rain Man wins Best Picture at the 61st Academy Awards
* The Calgary Flames win their first Stanley Cup
* TVs Seinfeld premieres
* The Pixies release “Doolittle” 






My Five Favorite Season 1 Experiments
1. Project Moonbase (#66)

2. Untamed Youth (#87)

3. Black Scorpion

4. The Crawling Hand

5. Slime People

Award Breakdowns
Gold: 2 total
Project Moonbase, Untamed Youth
Silver: 2 total
Crawling Hand, Black Scorpion
Bronze: 5 total
Slime People, Moon Zero Two, Robot Holocaust, Women of Prehistoric Planet, Robot Monster
Tin Foil: 3 total
Crawling Eye, Mad Monster, Corpse Vanishes
Sub Par: 1 total
Aztec Mummy

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