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Shout Factory has been pretty dili­gent about their MST3K disc series, reg­u­larly releas­ing box sets of this mate­r­ial since pick­ing up the license.  They’ve also done some stand-alone discs and have another two set for release at the end of this month, both from early box sets: Hamlet and Gunslinger.  The first dates from the Mike Nelson years and fea­tures the crew tak­ing on a t.v. pro­duc­tion of the Shakespeare clas­sic fea­tur­ing Maximilian Schell and the sec­ond is a Joel-era episode that applies the Satellite Of Love’s tal­ents to a Roger Corman-directed west­ern.  Read on for all the schlock-satire details, plus some deals from the Shout Factory store…

MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000:

HAMLET AND GUNSLINGER


THE NEWEST MST3K DVDS AVAILABLE JUNE 21

FROM SHOUT! FACTORY

Climb aboard the Satellite of Love, as Shout! Factory, in asso­ci­a­tion with Best Brains, Inc. proudly presents Mystery Science Theater 3000: Hamlet and Mystery Science Theater 3000: Gunslinger, avail­able on June 21, 2011 from http://www.shoutfactorystore.com/prod.aspx?pfid=5257446.

Customers who pur­chase Gunslinger and Hamlet together from ShoutFactoryStore.com will receive free ship­ping and an MST3K stress ball, and cus­tomers who pur­chase all four of the MST3K single-disc titles Gunslinger, Hamlet, The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living And Became Mixed-Up Zombies, Beginning Of The End will also receive free ship­ping and and MST3K stress ball.

Conceived as pop­u­lar enter­tain­ment, but blessed with an artis­tic depth and beauty that reveal new lay­ers of genius with each view­ing, Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Mystery Science Theater 3000’s Hamlet have a lot in com­mon. It’s the old “boy meets ghost of dead father, boy loses hot mother to dead father’s rival, boy dri­ves girl­friend to sui­cide and then every­one dies” story. But, as pre­sented in a 1961 German TV movie star­ring Maximilian Schell, this one takes tragedy to a whole new level. Join Mike, Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot for a lit­tle Satellite-Upon-Avon and watch the slings and arrows fly. To riff or not to riff? Is it even a question?

In Gunslinger, sad­dle up for high noon at the SoL Corral, where Joel and his robot posse — Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot — take on the Roger Corman gang. It’s going to be a blood­bath of laugh­ter as the riffs start fly­ing and jus­tice is finally done to this 1956 low-budget Western. When the mar­shal of Oracle, Texas, is killed by a hired gun­man, his quick-shooting widow, Rose (Beverly Garland), straps on his gun and star, puts on some pants and aims to find out who did the hiring.

The Mystery Science Theater 3000 series was cre­ated by Joel Hodgson and pro­duced by Jim Mallon. After a year on KTMA TV in Minneapolis , its national broad­cast life began in 1989 on the Comedy Channel (later to become Comedy Central), where it ran for seven sea­sons. The show’s final three sea­sons aired on the Sci-Fi Channel.  The premise of the series fea­tures a hap­less man who is trapped by mad sci­en­tists on a satel­lite in space and forced to watch old B-movies of ques­tion­able worth. To keep sane, he’s built two robot side­kicks, and together they do a run­ning com­men­tary on the films, affec­tion­ately mock­ing their flaws with inspired wise­cracks and act­ing as a demented movie the­ater peanut gallery. Series cre­ator Hodgson orig­i­nally played the stranded man, Joel Robinson.  When he left in 1993, series head writer Mike Nelson replaced him as the new B-movie vic­tim Mike Nelson, and con­tin­ued in the role for the rest of the show’s run.  The for­mat proved to be pop­u­lar and remark­ably durable. During its 11-year run and 198 episodes (includ­ing one fea­ture film), MST3K attained a loyal fan base and crit­i­cal acclaim. The series won a Peabody Award in 1993, and was nom­i­nated for writ­ing Emmys® in 1994 and 1995.

MST3K: Gunslinger + Hamlet

MST3K: Gunslinger + Hamlet

MST3K: Gunslinger + HamletSHOUT! SELECT titles!      By order­ing both titles together, you will receive free ground ship­ping and a bonus MST stress ball!Gunslinger — When the mar­shal of Oracle, Texas is killed by a hired gun­man, his quick-shooting widow, Rose (Beverly Garland), straps on his gun and star, puts on some pants and aims to find out who did the hir­ing … Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot — take on the Roger Corman gang. It’s going to be a blood­bath of laugh­ter as the riffs start fly­ing and jus­tice is finally done to this 1956 low-budget Western.Hamlet — It’s the old “boy meets ghost of dead father, boy loses hot mother to dead father’s rival, boy dri­ves girl­friend to sui­cide and then every­one dies” story. But, as pre­sented in a 1961 German TV movie star­ring Maximilian Schell, this one takes tragedy to a whole new level. Join Mike, Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot for a lit­tle Satellite-Upon-Avon and watch the slings and arrows fly.To riff or not to riff? Is it even a question?