DVD extra: Join the 'Mystery Science Theater' peanut gallery

By Steve Jones, USA TODAY

So what would transpire if some poor souls were marooned in outer space and forced by evil scientists to watch the worst movies and TV shows in history? More than likely, the castaways (actually one castaways and his robot friends) would end up ragging on the tripe they are viewing.

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  Comedy Central

  The gang's all here: Joel Hodgson, left, and his robot pals pose with mad scientists Clayton Forrester and Frank Conniff.

Comedy Central

The gang's all here: Joel Hodgson, left, and his robot pals pose with mad scientists Clayton Forrester and Frank Conniff.

Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume XX (2011, Shout Factory, not rated, $60), is the latest DVD set from the Emmy Award-nominated Comedy Central/Sci Fi Channel program that ran from 1988-99. This volume finds marooned Gizmonic Institute janitor Joel Robinson (creator Joel Hodgson), Crow T. Robot (Trace Beaulieu) and Tom Servo (Kevin Murphy) riffing on the awful dialogue and even worse acting of the 1953 black-and-white film Project Moonbase, four episodes of the short-lived 1984 TV series The Master, and The Magic Voyage of Sinbad, which was released in the U.S. in 1962.

First, a little background info on the B-list fare being served up: Moonbase, which was co-written by author Robert Heinlein, is set in the future (1970 ), though the attitudes and cheesy sets are anything but forward-looking. Master stars the late Lee Van Cleef(The Good, The Bad and The Ugly) as a World War II veteran, who stays in Japan and becomes a ninja, but violates their code when he leaves for America to search for his daughter. Timothy Van Patten plays his unlikely apprentice. A young Demi Moore and martial arts star Sho Kosugi are guest stars. The Sinbad film was originally released as Sadko in Russia in 1953. The hero, who was renamed when the movie was dubbed into English, journeys in search of the Bluebird of Happiness.

It's all ample fodder for the acerbic Joel and crew, whose wisecracks compete with the unintentional humor found in whatever they are watching. As the films are being shown, they are seated in a movie theater with their silhouettes superimposed along the bottom of the screen. When they are not watching movies, they are shown bantering with Joel's megalomaniac tormentors ? Dr. Clayton Forrester (Beaulieu) and Dr. Laurence Erhardt (Josh Weinstein). Forrester's ingenious plot for world domination is to find a movie so horrendous that when unleashed on the general populace, they would become his zombie slaves. Yikes.

The four-disc set comes with several extras including an introduction by Beaulieu, an interview with Master guest star Bill McKinney, "Tom Servo vs. Tom Servo" ? a panel at the 2010 Dragon*Con pop culture convention in Atlanta, four exclusive mini-posters by artist Steve Vance and a featurette exploring "The Look of MST3K." It all makes for a mocking good time.

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