Which Old TV Show Do You Miss The Most?

For me, it's got to be "Mystery Science Theatre 3000", probably the most real rock and roll show that ever was. They did exactly what they wanted to do and didn't give a ____ at all whether anyone else got what they were doing. Can't get any more rock than that.

The timing of those first couple of years when "MST3K" was on couldn't have been more perfect. It was a beautiful pre-social media world. You didn't have 24/7 access to whatever you wanted whenever you wanted it. Where's the fun in that?

We were living out on Pine Point in Scarborough when one Saturday afternoon I stumbled across the show, back when Comedy Central was brand new and they were trying to fill their schedule with whatever they could scrounge up. Enter Joel and the robots. You had never seen anything like it. You're watching a crew watching a movie, all the while taking brilliant jabs and stabs at how lousy these movies are. Brilliant "ad-libs" and superb comic timing, they had it down, and we made sure we were in front of the TV every Saturday afternoon. That was how you enjoyed this show. Streaming it in a sort-of out-of-context way kinda negates the pleasures that "MST3K" had to offer.

Some peeps couldn't grasp it (another R&R appeal factor). "Why are they talking thru the movies?". If you had to ask, you weren't in the club (oh, okay, cult). A friend visting one weekend suggested taping the show as much as possible while it was still on because no one was going to believe a show like this ever existed. I ended up with four big cardboard boxes stuffed with VCR tapes of each Saturday's episode for future generations, commercials and all. Sadly lost 'em to a long ago basement flood.

Anyway, the idea of making some poor saps sit through obvious terribleness (in this case, truly awful sci-fi/horror/fantasy movies) in order to find out how much they can take, pretty much sums up a Trump rally. And this was 32 years ago! Beautiful relics of a by-gone era, "MST3K" was devious and ingenious, truly classic TV, the likes of which may never be seen again. Wish I had those tapes...