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From the Desk of Crow T. Robot Hello all and welcome to the "News" portion of the site. Here you can get news, Tom's ramblings, Crow's ramblings, the Nanites rambling, and my ramblings. Along with other yummy tib bits that make you keeping coming back for more. Enjoy! |
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News and other Stuff ***December 22, 2000***
< You may have noticed Frank Conniff listed as "Consulting Producer" in the opening credits of "The Drew Carey Show." Frank tells us he shows up twice a week to help punch up scripts. But there's absolutely no truth to the rumor that he's dating Mimi. < Satellite News have learned from their covert Sci-Fi Channel sources that MST3K reruns are scheduled to continue at least through the end of 2001. Here is a little bit of information from Satellite News: "Now, we know what some of you may be saying to yourselves. You're saying: "Self, weren't we told repeatedly that the show's contract runs out at mid-year 2001?" And we hear your self answering: "Yes, we were." We wondered about that too, as well as this troubling issue of you talking to yourself. And while we can't solve that latter problem, the answer to the former question is: Apparently the people at the Sci-Fi Channel who told us that were mis-informed." There's still some confusion about when the rights to MST3K actually expire, but if and when Satellite News finds out, we Misties will get a definite answer to how long MST3k will be on the air. < HarperCollins Books has informed Satellite News that Mike Nelson has signed with the company to write two more books! The first will be an all-new collection of essays (tentatively due in book stores in early 2002), and the second will be Mike's first novel! There is no further information about this, but as soon as I find out more it will be posted. Congrats, Mike! < Rhino Home Video today confirmed reports that popped up on several DVD websites this weekend: The next two MST3K episodes on DVD will be episode 517- BEGINNING OF THE END and episode 515- WILD, WILD WORLD OF BATWOMAN. We have no info, yet, about any special features on the DVDs, which are due on Jan. 23, and will be priced at $19.95. That same week, Rhino is slated to release episode 209- HELLCATS and the SHORTS VOL. 3, on videotape, also priced at $19.95. < Good news for those folks who hate getting up early on Saturday morning to watch MST3K! Sci-Fi Channel's website has posted a basic schedule for the show in January, and its time slot has moved from 9 a.m. Eastern and Pacific time to 10 a.m. The schedule doesn't list which episodes will be shown yet. When we get that info, we'll let you know! < Kevin Murphy has started writing a column, entitled "The Bottom Shelf," for a new magazine called Total Movie Magazine. The first installment, in the December-January issue, is on the newsstands this week. Each column will feature a review of three thematically tied movies which, as Kevin describes it, "are either so bad or so bizarre they fly under the radar. Sounds like a puppet show I used to know. For the holidays, I reviewed three films entitled 'Jack Frost,' including the beloved Russian version we enjoyed on MST." < < First, the bad news: Rhino Home Video announced today that the release of episode 209- HELLCATS and the SHORTS VOL. 3 tape has been delayed until January 24. BBI informs us that the tapes will therefore NOT be included in the Holiday Catalog, but they will be for sale by the Info Club once they're available. Now, the good news: Rhino has also announced plans to release two more DVD episodes this winter. Dates and titles are TBA. As is usual with Rhino, everything is tentative at this time and could very likely change again. Stay tuned! < Here are the contents of the SHORTS VOL. 3 tape, due to be released January 24th: "Speech: Using Your Voice" from episode 313- EARTH VS. THE SPIDER "Aquatic Wizards" from episode 315- TEENAGE CAVEMAN "Is This Love?" from episode 514- TEENAGE STRANGLER "Selling Wizard" from episode 603- THE DEAD TALK BACK "Young Man's Fancy" from episode 610- THE VIOLENT YEARS "Out of this World" from episode 618- HIGH SCHOOL BIGSHOT "Once Upon a Honeymoon" from episode 701- NIGHT OF THE BLOOD BEAST |
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"May A Flight of Angels Sing Thee to Thy Rest" Let's take a moment to remember those who have were in the movies that were riffed over the years on Mystery Science Theater 3000.
~:~MARIE WINDSOR, RIP~:~ BEVERLY HILLS, CA--Marie Windsor, who, in her six decades in show business, appeared in scores of movies, often playing flinty, tough-talking molls, died here Sunday. Dubbed "The Queen of the Bs," MSTies will remember her as hard-edged prison escapee Josie in episode 503- SWAMP DIAMONDS. She died one day before her 78th birthday. Born Emily Marie Bertelson in Marysvale, Utah, one of her earliest memories is of her maternal grandmother taking her to silent movies. Soon little Marie was putting on plays for her family, who encouraged her by enrolling her in acting classes. She attended Brigham Young University for two years before setting out on her show business career. She won a series of local beauty contests and in 1940 was accepted as a student of famed acting coach Maria Ouspenskaya. Living at the famed Hollywood Studio Club (other residents have included Donna Reed and Marilyn Monroe), she first found work as a model for pinup legend Alberto Varga, and as a cigarette girl at The Mocambo, a popular Hollywood watering hole. In 1941, she was spotted there by Hollywood producers, who got her first role in Hal Roach's "All-American Co-Ed." She had a number of other small and unfulfilling parts, and in 1943, she agreed to tour the country with a comedy stage show. The show closed after only a few dates, but the connections she made doing the show led her to several years in radio in New York. That led to work in stage plays, where she was spotted by an MGM talent scout who signed her to a studio contract. She was given more dull and unmemorable roles, and in 1948, she broke free of the studio system and began to get better parts, including roles opposite George Raft, William Elliott, John Wayne, Joel McCrea Shelley Winters, Lloyd Bridges and John Ireland. In 1952, she landed the lead in what was to be one of her most memorable movies, the film noir, "The Narrow Margin." "My agent climbed through the window of the casting director with a test that I had made out at 20th Century Fox -- and that was it," she later recalled. "We certainly made a lot of noise with that picture. It ran with all the top pictures and we got all the reviews." It is still recalled by many as one of the very best B films ever made." It was followed by a role in Stanley Kubrick's classic noir, "The Killing." Indeed, Kubrick delayed the start of filming so that Windsor could complete her work with Roger Corman on the movie that would make her memorable to MSTies, "Swamp Women" (later retitled "Swamp Diamonds"). "God, it's just such a corny picture," she later recalled. "We had such a rough location on it. We were treading around in mud up to our waists. It looked like there was only about a foot of water and then you'd step down and just keep on going. We saw many poisonous snakes swimming around us, and I daresay there were many we didn’t see! On dry land, we had to jump off trucks and perform activities usually done by stunt people, of whom there were none in this company." Windsor also had fond memories for her co-stars Beverly Garland and Mike Connors. "Terrific. Darling people," she said several years ago. "We [still] exchange Christmas cards -- and Beverly just called me a couple of days ago." In all, Windsor appeared in more than 70 movies, including: 1947's "Song of the Thin Man"; 1949's "The Fighting Kentuckian" (the first of her three films with John Wayne); 1950's "Dakota Lil"; 1954's awful 3-D "Cat-Women of the Moon" ("Oh gosh, it's almost embarrassing," she later said of the film); 1955's "Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy"; 1957's "The Girl in Black Stockings" (with Mamie Van Doren); 1963's "The Day Mars Invaded Earth"; 1971's "Support Your Local Gunfighter" and 1979's "Salem's Lot." She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1983. She also more than 200 guest appearances on TV shows including "Perry Mason," "Maverick," "77 Sunset Strip," "Rawhide," "Charlie’s Angels," "Simon and Simon," "Fantasy Island" and "Murder, She Wrote." On stage, she won a Los Angeles Drama Critics best actress award for her performance in "The Bar Off Melrose" in 1987. A longtime activist in the Screen Actors Guild, she received the union's Ralph Morgan Award for 25 years of distinguished service in 1990. SAG also voted her a Lifetime Membership on its board of directors. By 1992, Marie had resigned from the board, but she also was named Honorary Chairperson of the SAG Film Society, which she co-founded with Barbara Barron several years earlier. She is survived by her husband Jack Hupp and their son. RIP, Marie. ~:~JUN FUKUDA, RIP~:~ TOKYO--Director Jun Fukuda, whose career in movies and television spanned five decades and included directing five Godzilla movies, including the movies in episodes 212- GODZILLA VS. MEGALON and 213- GODZILLA VS. THE SEA MONSTER, died here December 3 of lung cancer. He was 76. Born in February 17, 1924 in Manshu, Korea, he was attending Nippon University as an art student when he was called into the service in World War II. After the war, he returned to Japan and joined Toho Studios in 1951. He worked for many years as an assistant director; his directorial debut came in 1959. His final feature film was in 1977, but he continued directing programs for television and documentaries until he became ill a few years ago. |
Tom Sevro presents "The Calender" While singing my song about the '70s, it was brought to Mike and Crows attention that I was not singing about the 1970s but of the years 70 AD-79 AD. This, of course rather upset me. I mean, if people mean the 1970s why don't they get off their lazy butts and say "the 1970s". I don't know shinola about the 1970s. Mike, who had unpluged my wall of sound to tell me this, simply told me to sing one of my other songs. So, I did. I sang one pinned about the 50s. And of course, with my luck, I had done it again. I was not singing about the 1950s but about 50 AD-59 AD. I mean, come on folks! What's the point of using the calender? Why don't we through it out all together if we're not going to use it! YOU ARE ALL A BUNCH OF NINNIES AND MORONS! MORONS ALL OF YOU!! But, I digress... |
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