MST3K: Shorts Volume 3

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

Video: Shorts Volume 3

First released: 30 January 2001
Availability: Rhino VHS (solo/out of print), Amazon ("The Essentials 3-disk")

Though I've completed my initial project task of watching all of the MST3K episodes, I'm finishing up with the video collections that were released while the show was on the air.

There were five collections of shorts that were released during the run. This is the fourth. Naturally, it's Shorts Volume 3.

Okay, there is an explanation for that. Not sure it's a good one, but it's ... an explanation.

After Shorts Volume 1 and Shorts Volume 2 were released, the next shorts collection was named after one of the shorts. In fact, it's possibly the most famous of all the shorts shown on MST3K: Mr. B Natural. And, the collection? Mr. B's Lost Shorts??!!

So, what to call the fourth collection of shorts? Why, Volume 3, of course!

Okay, that doesn't make sense. But, MST3K isn't the only one to do something like this. For example, the movie Rambo III? It was the second movie named "Rambo" and properly should have been First Blood 3.

Then, there's the iPhone 5. It's actually the 6th iPhone: iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5. See?

So, MST3K isn't the only one to number stuff funny. So, the fourth collection of shorts is Shorts Volume 3. Deal with it.

The shorts on this volume were:

• Speech: Using Your Voice - Episode 313: Earth vs the Spider
• Aquatic Wizards - Episode 315: Teenage Cave Man
• Is This Love? - Episode 514: Teen-Age Strangler
• Design for Dreaming - Episode 524: 12 to the Moon
• The Selling Wizard - Episode 603: The Dead Talk Back
• Out of this World - Episode 618: High School Big Shot
• Once Upon A Honeymoon - Episode 701T: Night of the Blood Beast (Turkey Day) and Episode 701: Night of the Blood Beast

This collection included a short that had been previously released on another shorts collection. Design for Dreaming was also on Mr. B's Lost Shorts??!!, which had been released less than a year earlier.

Why? I dunno. They never cleared any of this through me.

Anyway, this collection is hard to find. It was released on VHS by Rhino back in 2001, and as hard as that is to find, the DVD is even more difficult to find.

You see, the only way to get Volume 3 was to order it with a special edition of The Essentials, the collection that included Episode 321: Santa Claus Conquers the Martians and Episode 424 - Manos: The Hands of Fate. The regular edition (I have that) contained just the two episodes. The special 3-disk edition (I have that, too) contained the episodes plus Shorts Volume 3. And, that was the only way to get it on DVD.

Three of the shorts are in episodes that have subsequently been released. Episode 603: The Dead Talk Back was released in Volume 8 in 2005. Episode 514: Teen-Age Strangler was released as part of Volume 10 and Volume 10.2 in 2006 and 2008 respectively. Finally, Episode 701/701T: Night of the Blood Beast was released as part of Volume 16 late in 2009.

Of course, fan copies of the episodes will include the shorts. If you can't find this collection, that may be the way to go. These are good ones.

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