Film watched: The Green Slime.
Experiment K00-The Green Slime is the unaired 14 minute pilot of Mystery Science Theater 3000, shown as a "proof of concept" to the management of KTMA in the fall of 1988. In the video, Joel Hodgson himself explains that he had voluntarily shot himself into space on his ship, the Satellite of Love, and was joined by his robots Crow, Gypsy, and Beeper (the prototype for Tom Servo). Interestingly, there was little to no riffing in the theater (Joel originally guided the viewer through the movie. The act of riffing evolved from that). Moreover, the theater segments themselves are extremely short, with just a few minutes of the movie shown at a time before we return to the host segment.
This VERY early version of MST3K had never been seen in its entirety by the fans until 2008 when Joel screened it at a con.
The Segments:
Segment 1- Joel, calling to the audience, introduces himself, the Satellite of Love and the theater. He soon leaves to the movie.
Segment 2
- Crow and Beeper are introduced to the audience by Joel, sends a message to President Reagan and presents the Chiro Gyro. Crow soon joins Joel into the theater.
Segment 3
- Joel introduces and pets Gypsy, who acts like a dog. Joel also mentions 25 other robots on the ship doing tasks and finding the Secret of Life. Beeper and Crow join Joel into the theater.
Segment 4
- Joel shows the vacuum flowers, but Gypsy gets sick from the sick flower. Gypsy and Crow join Joel into the theater.
Segment 5
- Because Gypsy got sick, conclude that The Virus is spreading around the ship. Beeper soon gets infected, and so does Joel.
Segment 6
- Everything goes back to normal on the Satellite. Crow goes meta and foams Joel.
The Mystery Science Theater 3000 presentation of The Green Slime has examples of:
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Lots. Among the most jarring is Beeper himself, the crude door sequence, and the lack of riffing in the theater.
- Lost Episode: Thought to be, until Joel showed the entire pilot at a convention.
- Noticing the Fourth Wall: Crow's epiphany in the last segment"Joel? Did you ever wonder that maybe this spaceship isn't really a spaceship at all, but a television set built for the amusement of the viewing audience? And I'm not really a robot, but a puppet built to look like a robot, who is in reality being controlled by a puppeteer under this table! And you're not a scientist/inventor trapped in outer space, but just a comedian playing a part on a television show that you wrote!"
- The Pilot
- The Unintelligible: Rather than Tom Servo, Joel and Crow are joined by Beeper, who speaks in beeps that Crow has to translate. The reasons this was changed for the series should be pretty obvious.
