Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Watching the Un-MSTied versions

I mentioned a while back that I was watching the movies that Mystery Science Theater 3000 riffed. The original versions. Without the riffing.

Why am I doing this? Heck, I don't know. Lots of things I do for no good reason. It's what I do.

Anyway, I've actually seen most of the movies. I've got 25 more to go.

Let's do some numbers real quick. There are 213 episodes of MST3K, counting the revival series on Netflix, and the local season on KTMA TV-23 in Minneapolis way back in 1988-89. There's also the movie from the "pilot" episode, which was really just a demo reel, not an actual pilot episode. That brings us up to 214 episodes.

Now, keep in mind that nine of the movies from the KTMA season were later re-done in Season 3 on Comedy Central. That means there are 205 movies to watch. Well, I've watched 155 of them. That means there are exactly 50 more to go. Here they are, in episode order, with alternate titles, or sometimes, original titles, listed along with them.
  • The Green Slime
  • Invaders from the Deep
  • Revenge of the Mysterons from Mars
  • SST - Death Flight
  • Superdome
  • The Legend of Dinosaurs
  • The Slime People
  • Untamed Youth
  • Women of the Prehistoric Planet (The Prehistoric Planet)
  • Wild Rebels
  • Lost Continent
  • Godzilla vs. Megalon
  • Pod People (The Pod People) (The New Extraterrestrials)
  • Daddy-O
  • Master Ninja I
  • Master Ninja II
  • Warrior of the Lost World
  • Secret Agent Super Dragon
  • Teen-Age Strangler (Terror in the Night)
  • Teen-Age Crime Wave
  • Village of the Giants
  • The Dead Talk Back
  • Code Name: Diamond Head
  • Last of the Wild Horses
  • The Starfighters
  • The Sinister Urge
  • San Francisco International
  • Kitten with a Whip
  • Red Zone Cuba (Night Train to Mundo Fine)
  • Escape 2000 (Escape from the Bronx) (Bronx Warriors 2)
  • The Mole People
  • The Thing That Couldn't Die
  • The She-Creature
  • Agent for H.A.R.M.
  • Prince of Space
  • Devil Doll
  • Invasion of the Neptune Men
  • Space Mutiny (Mutiny In Space)
  • Time Chasers (Tangents)
  • Werewolf (Arizona Werewolf)
  • The Deadly Bees
  • The Space Children
  • The Touch of Satan
  • Quest of the Delta Knights
  • Soultaker
  • Final Justice
  • Hamlet, Prinz von Dänemark
  • Wizards of the Lost Kingdom II
  • Carnival Magic
  • At the Earth's Core
All of the other movies, the other 155 movies, I've watched. Some I watched before there was an MST3K. I enjoyed some of them. Some, I absolutely hated. Which movies fall into which category is something I'll get into when I'm done watching them all.

Of course, that assumes I'll be able to watch them all. But, I know me. I'll figure out a way. In fact, 17 of these 50 are, or have been, recently available on DVD. The other 33 might be difficult. However, many of those have shown up online, though sometimes just briefly. There are only about four that I've not seen as available online or on DVD, even if briefly. I suspect I'll be able to see them all before the year is out.

I'll keep you posted.

Sunday, June 4, 2017

Kudos to Comcast

Up front, let me tell you that I absolutely hate those sorry grawlixes at NBC news. NBC can just cease to exist as far as I'm concerned.

Having said that, I do want to say some nice things about their parent company, Comcast.

Several days back, my mother's home phone went out. She has Comcast's XFINITY Triple Play, with cable TV, Internet service, and home phone provided by them. It's what she wants, it's what she's got.

Only, her home phone went out, and the local office -- people that have always been good to her and seem to want to take care of their customers -- told her that it would be a week and a half before someone could go by and service her account.

I jumped on social media (The Twitter and The Facebook) and let my displeasure be known about their making an 81-year-old widow woman do without a home phone for 10 days. Well, turns out that Comcast reads The Twitter and The Facebook. They reached out and asked for more information. After some communication back and forth, they left word that someone would be by on Sunday. That was last Sunday. And, someone did come by.

Comcast service tech Patrick made the visit on a Sunday afternoon, and, before he left, her home phone was working. He inspected all the lines under the house, in the attic, and outside. He found an issue -- actually, something that was still working but would become an issue in the future -- and got that fixed. She and I were happy with his service.

But that's not all. Let me relate about a family friend from the church, an 81-year-old woman who lives alone. She had DirecTV service that hasn't worked since summer, plus AT&T home phone, Internet (6 Mbps DSL), and cell phone (flip phone) service. They weren't giving her any discounts, despite having four services from AT&T (remember, they own DirecTV). She was paying out a lot of money.

No more.

Today, Comcast made their scheduled service installation visit, and hooked up her cable TV, Internet (75 Mbps), and home phone (ported her number). Service tech Eddie came by within the service window, and set to work to make her a happy customer.

He didn't work fast, but he didn't piddle around, either. He went through the steps, verified everything was working at each step, worked to clear up some hiccups along the way -- yes, I was there and watching -- and, when he left, she had everything she was wanting. And, she'll pay less for more. She's happy.

As much as people dump on Comcast -- and I'm sure much of it is deserved -- I think it's proper to say when something goes right. Maybe those people that trash Comcast have legitimate complaints. I'm certain they do. But, what they don't have is Patrick and Eddie serving them. People like Patrick and Eddie make Comcast look good.