MST3K Will Officially Riff Mac And Me This Thanksgiving
The official trailer is out for the next season of MST3K, set to debut on Netflix Thanksgiving weekend. It’s been dubbed “THE GAUNTLET” because it’s expected many viewers will, in the tradition of the holiday, swallow it all in one go. It’s six episodes long and includes a movie many fans thought would never get an actual episode. It’s been riffed on by countless Internet critics over the years, but never the Bots themselves.
It’s Mac and Me, the ill-conceived 1988 ET knockoff about a paralyzed boy and the rubbery O-faced thingamajig he befriends. Its existence was purely a corporate venture stuffed with blatant product placement, including a now-famous over-the-top visit to a McDonalds restaurant where everyone is inexplicably dancing their heads off.
Ronald himself appears at the front of Mac and Me’s trailer, introducing the picture to the world. He was the first thing anyone saw. And according to an interview that I can’t seem to Google yet I swear I read two months ago, his original role was intended to be much larger. Ronald would have played a supporting character and helped the alien reunite with his family, but McDonalds ordered a reduced role.
There’s more than just Mysterious Alien Creatures: MST3K also breaks ground by riffing its first Asylum Pictures movie, 2013’s Atlantic Rim. The other four flicks are Roger Corman’s Lords of the Deep (1989), The Day Time Ended (1979), Killer Fish (also 1979) and Ator The Fighting Eagle (1982).
Because the new season of MST3K premieres on Thanksgiving, the usual Turkey Day Marathon livestream will occur a few days earlier. Watch for it on Youtube Sunday, November 18.