MST3K (1001)

1001 - Soultaker - Man, it was good to see Joel and Frank on the show again. After four-and-a-half years of Mike, I was starting to forget what Joel's goofy, easy-going demeanor was like. I miss him. Yeah, Joel seems a little out of practice at being on camera again. Big deal. Joel's weirdness-resulting-in-creativity Joelitude shines through all the same. And, Frank obviously had a lot of fun stepping back into the shoes of his former TV persona. He mugs for the camera just like he always used to, shoving his generous face too close to the lens and fixing it with his trademark benignly stupid appearance. Frank was good people.

A little dangerous for the newbies to be bringing back the old schoolers, though. "Oh yeah, I remember now when the show was like that..." might not be a good thing to bring up in the minds of the viewers if they prefer the old days to the new. This might be especially true to the Mad host segments. Frank and Dr. F. were about as good as those segments can possibly be.

"Man, that guy's got a small face!" There was some fine riffage going on in this episode as well. I didn't laugh as much as I was expecting to -- I already knew I liked this episode -- but that might be because I'm not feeling great today. And, on that note, I should cut this short.

"Being low class, we only had corncobs for windows." (8/10)

film d. Michael Rissi (1990)
mst d. Kevin Murphy (11 Apr 1999)