Are the Film Crew DVDs as Funny as Mystery Science Theater 3000?

Robot roll call: Cambot, Gypsy, Tom Servo, Crowwwwwwww! Anyone who recognizes these words is probably a fan of MST3K. Anyone who doesn't know that MST3K stands for Mystery Science Theater 3000 probably will be mostly bewildered by most of what follows. No matter; what doesn't completely confuse you only makes you smarter. MST3K has gone the way of the Duesenberg, vinyl records, and intellectual discourse in politics. Where the replacements for those lost treasures of Americana are enough to make one go running for the nearest outhouse, what of the replacement for MST3K, namely The Film Crew?

I suspect that one's enjoyment of The Film Crew treatment of quickie exploitation flicks with titles like The Space Killers will derive in large part from two things, the first of which being how big a fan you were of the host segments of MST3K. Confession time: I fast forward through the host segments involving The Mads. I just don't find Dr. Forrester and TV's Frank to be particularly amusing. On the hand, I found the Brain Guys to be very and the trio of Pearl, Professor Bobo and Brain Guy to very often be terrifically funny. As for the host segments involving just the captives aboard the Satellite of Love were always good, but only excelled with Mike in charge and Bill Corbett as Crow. At any rate, your enjoyment quotient of the host segment is important in regard to enjoying The Film Crew as it relates to whether you did or not prefer the actual movie commentary and, if you did, would you have been happy had there not been any host segments at all on MST3K. Imagine if you will that you could go back in time and rewatch all your favorite MST3K movies with only the opening, closing and one interior host segment, but that the primary enjoyment would have to be derived from the movie and commentary itself. If you can honestly say that this would be something less than a problem for you, I expect you will enjoy The Film Crew.

Of course, there is a but. There is always a but and if there isn't, well, there should be. If you prefer Joel Robinson and/or Trace Beaulieu as Crow T. Robot, you maybe should stay away from The Film Crew. Me, I'm a Mike Nelson man all the way through. Don't get me wrong; I like Joel. But I would French kiss Mike Nelson. (Of course, that's an entirely different article.) Seriously, though, I just think Michael J. Nelson is probably the funniest writer in America right now and one of the five or ten funniest people at large in America. Joel...not so much. So, if you prefer the sleepy-eyed guy over the big, beefy white guy then perhaps The Film Crew might be considered the CD to your love of vinyl records.

The Film Crew doesn't offer Mike and the 'bots, but rather Mike and big 'ol Kevin Murphy and weird Bill Corbett and to be perfectly honest, I've watched The Film Crew take on Killers from Space and I've watched Joel and Trace and the gang take on Mighty Jack and, well, The Film Crew wins hands down. True, they are essentially playing themselves rather than the characters we've known and loved and it does take a little while to get used to the lack of silhouettes, but so far The Film Crew seems to be well on its way to achieving a slice of the immortality that they achieved with MST3K. What's that you say? You think I'm insane and need to be taught a lesson?

Well, go ahead on then.