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> So anyway, anybody have a recommendation on where to start next?

As in more episodes of MST3K? The offical YouTube channel has a number of episodes uploaded.

My personal favorites on the official YouTube channel are:

• The Robot Holocaust: "In the future, a group of renegades fight to free mankind by battling the Dark One, the Room of Questions, the Vault of Beasts, and other menacing creations." The first season struggled while finding their footing, but this early episode is still fantastic.
  
  
• Time of the Apes: "A woman and two children take refuge in cryogenic capsules, only to awake as fugitives in a world populated by anthropomorphic apes." This episode is actually the show's second crack at this early '70s Japanese adaptation of Planet of the Apes. It had previously been featured when the show was running on a local television station in Minnesota.
  
  
• The Painted Hills: "Lassie, Poetic Justice, and more!" Also features a 1950s short teaching hygiene to college students.
  
  
• Mitchell: "Mitchell is a cop who plays by his own rules. Of course, his rules usually involve heavy drinking, abrasiveness, and all-around sleazy behavior." This is the final episode for Joel, the original host of the show. He couldn't have asked for a better send-off.
  
  
• The Brain That Wouldn't Die: "Just because your girlfriend was accidentally decapitated, that doesn't mean the relationship has to end!" The first episode for the show's second host, Mike. We explore matters of medical ethics such as human experimentation, patients' rights, and strip club catfights.
  
  
• Village of the Giants: "A child genius creates a growth formula that ends up in the hands of some incredibly annoying teenagers." Starring Ron Howard as the child genius!
  
  
• Samson vs. the Vampire Women:
  "Samson (AKA El Santo) may look like an ordinary masked wrestler, but he's so much more! He takes on the vampire women of Mexico and fights for justice against their leader, the creatively named The Evil One." Luchador, vampire women. Need I say more?
  
  
• The Touch of Satan: "A young man gets lost while driving, and becomes the guest of a young woman who turns out to be a witch." This movie has some of the most bizarre writing and acting I've ever seen, which makes it a perfect subject for MST3K.
  
  Now, I don't currently have an active Netflix account, but there should be 20 classic episodes available there, all of which are among the consensus fan favorites.
  
  The big omission from all this is "The Final Sacrifice", considered by many to be the best episode of the series, or at least the best episode for introducing new viewers. Shout Factory, the current distributor for the series, lost the rights to the movie recently so it's difficult to find legal options.
  
  It does appear to be available on VHX and Amazon.

Satellite of Love, LLC, (a/k/a Shout Factory, since they are at the same address), holds the trademark to the actual silhouette, or at least one version of it. https://trademarks.justia.com/868/61/n-86861602.html

The trouble with going after the Nazis, excuse me, white nationalists, for infringement as I've seen suggested elsewhere, is that the trademark holders haven't gone after other uses of the silhouette, modified like it is on that book cover or not. Take a look at the cover of the Chapo Trap House book, for example: https://www.amazon.com/Chapo-Guide-Revolution-Manifesto-Against/dp/1501187287 .

Also, there were so many years when the silhouette and use of it went unchallenged by the former holder, Best Brains, that it set a president of free use. So it would likely be a prolonged legal case with probably a not-good chance of a positive outcome for Shout Factory, who most likely doesn't have the budget for such a battle.

Edit: Apparently Best Brains may have never trademarked the silhouette.

1. Pulgasari - North Korea’s propaganda Godzilla. The monster is supposed to be a doll made out of rice by a prisoner. You can read more about its stranger-than-fiction history in Paul Fischer’s book, A Kim Jong-Il Production.
   
   
2. America 3000 - A Cannon Films production. I hope you like made-up words and the beautiful Israel countryside.
   
   
3. Popeye - A horrible flop of a 1980 musical. They built the set in Malta (you can still visit it). When they weren't filming, it was rumored to be a cocaine party.
   
   
4. Ator 4: Quest for the Mighty Sword - One of the /r/badmovies recommendations. I agree.
   
   
5. Waterworld - The most expensive movie ever made as of 1995.
   
   
6. The Giant Claw - A cult classic. This movie’s monster made audiences laugh at its premiere.
   
   
7. Street Fighter - Jean-Claude has an affair with co-star Kylie Minogue in Thailand. That doesn’t even begin to explain what went wrong.
   
   
8. Glen or Glenda - If they riff this, they can add another notch to their bedpost of riffing Ed Wood/Bela Lugosi movies (the other being Bride of the Monster). Joel has said he isn't interested in doing Plan 9, as it's too easy a target.
   
   
9. Death Race 2000 - Roger Corman + David Carradine + death.
   
   
10. The Swarm - In 1978, long before Nicholas Cage over-acted as bees ate his face in The Wicker Man, there was The Swarm (starring Michael Caine).
    
    
11. The Stuff - A movie about white goo.
    
    
12. Death Bed: The Bed That Eats - Agreeing with this thread's top comment. Since Patton Oswalt joined the MST3k cast and one of his well-known recorded bits is about this film, it would be perfect. An incredibly boring film that could be made watchable by an outstanding riff!

The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Amazing Colossal Episode Guide is a great gift, even if it only covers the first seven seasons and pre-season-one KTMA episodes. Its out of print, but used copies can be found rather easily. Its also a convenient thing to get autographed if the MSTie in your life ever goes to any of the live shows. The episode guide was actually continued for seasons 8-10 as a web-only version on SyFy's website when the show was still on the SyFy channel.

Not sure if it's quite what you're looking for, but Incredibly Strange Films is a very nice book with interviews (Ray Dennis Steckler! Herschell Gordon Lewis! Ted V. Mikels! Bob Johnson! No wait...) and articles on classic B and Exploitation films. Definitely worth a read.

Amazon Link: https://www.amazon.com/Incredibly-Strange-Films-Re-Search-10/dp/1889307017

And shameless plug if you want to add more fun to manos, color along with the move or play some of the activities like "find the wrong Torgo" in my manos coloring book 😁 https://www.amazon.com/dp/0692667113/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_Dc53AbS1602XE

Yeah it has info on all the episodes through season 6 and previews for season 7, since that’s when it was written. They aren’t printing it anymore so you have to get a used copy but I got a good one for less than $10. https://www.amazon.com/Mystery-Science-Theater-Amazing-Colossal/dp/0553377833

I think so. I know that the MST3K version of Eegah released by Rhino had the full uncut movie as a bonus. I am not sure which other ones had the original movie included though.

Actually, the face value is quite a bit higher than $400.


To give everyone a point of reference:

Volume-----lowest used price on Amazon

Volume 1 --- $46

Volume 2 ----$55

Volume 3 --- $40

Volume 4 --- $69

Volume 5 --- $30

Volume 6 ---- $24

Volume 7 ---- $17

Volume 8 --- $ 58

Volume 9 --- $130

Volume 10 --- $120

___

Used price --- $589

Already on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1548401498

Save 5 bucks with code PRIMEBOOKS17.

Other movie books he may enjoy:

Joe Bob Briggs, "Profoundly Disturbing: Shocking Movies That Changed History", popular 90s cable TV host and drive-in movie champion Joe Bob Briggs lays out the context and history of 20 films that changed the pop culture landscape, from Texas Chainsaw to Deep Throat.

The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film, a gigantic A-to-Z guide to hundreds of bad movies, weird movies, basically all of the kind that have been on MST3K. Great book to flip through.

Nathan Rabin, "My Year of Flops", one of the head writers at the AV Club put out this collection of critical essays of infamous and noteworthy Hollywood bombs.

It's still available on Amazon as a digital download:
https://www.amazon.com/Mystery-Science-Theater-3000-Sacrifice/dp/B003HIC3VG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1494193022&sr=8-1&keywords=final+sacrifice

Amazon is selling this for $0.01 plus shipping if you really want to look into it.

Um, I'm looking at a DVD of Time Chasers from MST3K Volume 5 sitting not more than 10 feet away from me right now.

Amazon has used copies for not-unreasonable prices.

I just noticed it's only $27.48 on Amazon

It's available on Amazon

Links:

Reading Mystery Science Theater

In the Peanut Gallery with Mystery Science Theater 3000

Are any of the essays repeated between the books?

$33 doesn't seem like that much to me...

Or you could buy the brand-new Cinematic Titanic collection from Shout Factory, which has all the CT movies in one volume. 12 movies on 6 DVDs, but I'm guessing (hoping) no drop in quality over the original single-movie-per-DVD releases.

https://www.amazon.com/Cinematic-Titanic-Collection-Joel-Hodgson/dp/B071HGJK3G/

Kevin, you magnificient bastard, I READ YOUR BOOK!