The world of Stephen Brockelman: Memoir, Arts, Opinion
MST3K, the definitive oral history is a fun read
Mystery Science Theater 3000, Joel
Released in 1966, Manos: The Hands of Fateis a D-minus of a B movie: Its plot, about desert-dwelling pagans, makes little sense. Its cast could be out-acted by the stars of a day care holiday pageant. And the film is paced with the urgency and focus of a box turtle on lithium.
MST3K
Luckily, no one has to watch Manos alone. It’s just one of the nearly 200 horror flicks, teensploitation romps, and outer-space oddities to appear on Mystery Science Theater 3000, the cult-stoking comedy series that provided awful films with hilarious, sharp, high-speed detractors’ commentary.
And so—from WIRED Magazine—begins their definitive oral history of a television treasure: Mystery Science Theatre 3000.
Here’s one of my 2,676 favorite exchanges from the show:
Movie: Lost Continent
[A quick shot of a rocket on a launch pad.]
Crow: Oh, look! A V-2!
Tom: Aw, I could’ve had a V8!
[As the American military and science team heads for the mountain on which a radioactive rocket landed, their native guide turns to flee.]
Nolan: Aren’t you coming with us?
Native Girl: [nervously] Nooo!
Crow [as Native Girl]: Me no got lead sarong.
Native Girl: Sacred mountain taboo! No one ever come back from home of god!
Joel [as Native Girl]: Besides, you guys not see woman in long time.
As a Sr. Writer at T. Rowe Price, I work with a group of the best copywriters around. We belong to the broader creative team within Enterprise Creative, a part of Corporate Marketing Services.
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A long and winding road: My path to T. Rowe Price was more twisted than Fidelity’s green line. With scholarship in hand, I left Kansas at 18 to study theatre in New York. When my soap opera paychecks stopped coming from CBS and started coming from the show’s sponsor, Proctor & Gamble, I discovered the power of advertising and switched careers. Over the years I’ve owned an ad agency in San Francisco; worked for Norman Lear on All in the Family, Good Times, Sanford and Son, and the rest of his hit shows; and as a member of Directors Guild of America, I directed Desi Arnaz in his last television appearance— we remained friends until his death. In 1988 I began freelancing full time didn’t look back.
In January 2012 my rep at Boss Group called and said, “I know you don’t want to commute and writing for the financial industry isn’t high on your wish list, but I have a gig with T. Rowe Price in Owings Mills…” I was a contractor for eight months, drank the corporate Kool-Aid, became a TRP associate that August, and today I find myself smiling more often than not.
