First of
all, 2008 marks the 20th anniversary of Mystery Science Theater
3000 that debuted on Minneapolis, MN cable station KTMA TV-23 on
Thanksgiving Day November 24, 1988. According
to the creators of MST two episodes aired that day: Invaders from the Deep
(K01) at 6:00 PM followed immediately by Revenge of the Mysterons from Mars
(K02) at 8:00 PM.
The idea for
the opening using a black screen with the “space sound” and simple white
titles was first used by the folks at MST as the intro for the original
pilot they
prepared in the fall of 1988 to help sell the show to KTMA management.
Since it worked for them back then I decided why not use it again
here.
The little
clips of an old style TV changing channels were grabbed from the movie
Amazon Women on the Moon.
All except
one of the TV show clips I used is exactly what was shown THAT Thanksgiving day in
Minneapolis. I have to admit,
finding some of these clips was extremely difficult, but the hunt was fun.
The Macy's Parade started at 8:00 AM CST on channel 11, the local NBC
affiliate. I’ve literally searched for years and have
not been able to find a tape of the 1988 parade.
I ended up using a
clip of the Albertville High School Marching Band from the 1987 parade.
That’s Willard Scott of course modeling his pilgrim hat.
The colorized version of It’s a Wonderful
Life was shown on CINEMAX at 12 noon. I used two clips for this tribute that were favorites of the
MST writers. (By the way, It's a Wonderful Life was one of the
first films colorized back in the mid-1980's. The clips I used in this
tribute are from that early colorized version that was shown that
Thanksgiving day. Although the colors look
very faded by today's standards it was considered one of the best efforts for its time.)
The Detroit Lions versus the Minnesota Vikings
game began at 11:30 AM on channel 4 (CBS), actually before It’s a
Wonderful Life, but I put it here so I could squeeze in the two different
clips from the movie. I’m
sure the local football fans in Minnesota tuned in to enjoy watching their
Vikings shut out the Lions 23-0. Plus
you have to love John Madden’s "Jerk" and “BOOM.”
Hopefully you noticed during the commercial that follows the clip the
narrator saying “…in the not too distant future…”
Rankin-Bass had to create something for
Thanksgiving so they came up with Mouse on the Mayflower narrated by
Tennessee Ernie Ford. The show
came on at 2:00 PM on channel 29 (FOX).
The dinner
scene is a tip of the cap to the Norman Rockwell vision of the Thanksgiving
Feast. Some of the pictures are
from my own family’s Thanksgiving including the one of my nephew Rick
Schumaker’s daughter Caitlyn (age 2 months at the time).
The music is the traditional Christian song of praise “We Gather
Together” which has become known over the years as the “Thanksgiving
Hymn.” The crew on the
Satellite of Love performed their own version of the song, with words
modified accordingly, to help promote the 1991 Turkey Day Marathon of MST
episodes shown over 30 straight hours on Comedy Central.
The same song was used to advertise the Thanksgiving marathon the
following few years as well, with the 1993 version being sung by a large
gathering of MSTies in Edina, MN.
Here’s the original first verse:
We
gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing;
He chastens and hastens His will to make known.
The wicked oppressing now cease from distressing.
Sing praises to His Name; He forgets not His own.
And the MST version created in 1991:
We
gather together to watch cheesy movies;
At Comedy Central on Thanksgiving Day.
At Mystery Science (deep breath) Theater 3000.
It’s 30 straight hours and it’s called Turkey Day.
My family
tradition is to have Thanksgiving dinner in the mid-afternoon then we go back to
watching more football.
(This also means that we can enjoy the first round of leftovers later that
evening.)
The Dallas Cowboys lost to the Houston Oilers
25-17 in a telecast that began at 3:00 PM on channel 11 (NBC), so there was
plenty of time to catch part of the game after dinner.
Again, this is a clip from that actual game.
Fans of
MST3K don’t have much to see from the first two shows that aired on
Thanksgiving 1988. No fan tapes
from that day are known to exist. I
wanted to give a flavor for what it was like that evening, even if only for
the first few minutes, when MST premiered at 6:00 PM.
First off, that’s the actual KTMA TV-23
station ID from that era.
The intro to the KTMA episodes is pretty well
known, but after that we only have a few seconds of the beginning of what we
have been told was the very first episode, Invaders From the Deep (K01).
This clip is actually from a flashback used during a host segment in
the episode Time of the Apes (K17).
Since there were two episodes shown that day I also tacked on the first host
segment from Revenge of the Mysterons from Mars (K02). Then as the KTMA
doorway sequence takes us toward the theater we fade out.
Finally, the
music at the end of this tribute is the original KTMA closing theme played
over the show’s end credits.