MST3K: The Last Dance - Raw

I'm watching all of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes in order. More about that here and here.

Video: The Last Dance - Raw

First released: Holiday 1999

When the MST3K crew was filming Episode 1013: Diabolik, Jim Mallon took his video camera and recorded much of the proceedings. After the series wrapped, the Best Brains crew took the video and put together a documentary.

After I watched the last episode, I watched the documentary, which was released under the name The Last Dance - Raw.

It's exactly what it claims to be: a documentary of the filming of the last episode. Nothing more, nothing less.

I did find it interesting. We got to see them putting Bobo makeup on Kevin Murphy, which included him painting his teeth. No, really. Kevin Murphy paints his teeth. Betcha never saw that before. I know I never had. But if it has ever been on my list of things to see, I could mark it off. It wasn't, but I'm covered anyway.

Kevin becomes Bobo.

Repairing Servo.

There were scenes of Murphy doing repairs on a Servo puppet. Seems the head was needing replacing, and there's footage of him doing that. The hardest part, it seemed was threading the string that controlled the mouth. I never really thought about that, but silly stuff like that is what it took to keep the show running.

The general format of the videotape was to show a Host Segment, then the making of the Host Segment. I found it interesting to see the finished product, then what it took to make the product. All the false starts, the rehearsals, the plotting and planning of the shots and the effects ... it all finally comes together to create a scene.

Running puppets on the SoL.

Running puppets in the theater.

We also got to see some shots of M&tB in the theater, side by side with the finished product. That short bit could be what has kept this videotape from being released on DVD. You see, it contained scenes from the movie Diabolik, and since that movie has never been released, that probably means this video won't be released. Well, not until the movie is cleared for the episode to be released.

This video is hard to find. It was released on VHS a bit after the last new episode aired. It was one of the Best Brains videos, not a Rhino wide release. And, like I mentioned, it's never been made available on DVD, or any electronic format.

It's pretty much for fans, serious fans, of the show.

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