MST3K!! LOST!! SUNNY!! 4400!! SOUTH PARK!! TREATMENT!! SEXY!! PYTHON!! PRISONER!! HercVault!! -- Ain't It Cool News: The best in movie, TV, DVD, and comic book news.

Published on Tuesday, May 6, 2008 - 1:44am

MST3K!! LOST!! SUNNY!! 4400!! SOUTH PARK!! TREATMENT!! SEXY!! PYTHON!! PRISONER!! HercVault!!

I am – Hercules!!

Harry Knowles has no love for “Mystery Science Theater 3000” so I assume he skipped “Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie” -- but I suspect if he forced himself to watch the big-screen version of the cult cable franchise he might reconsider.

I remember the MST3K movie as the funniest thing I saw in a cinema in 1996, with mockery -- of the perfectly compelling 1955 Universal sci-fi thriller “This Island Earth” -- that left my face runny with tears. Unlike the weekly TV show, which was always slapped together in a matter of days, the jokes in the big-screen version were (if I’m remembering correctly) honed and tested during a long series of live screenings. The result provides one of the highest laugh-per-minute ratios this side of the original “Airplane.”

The final season of “The 4400” picked up in a world rich with a superhero-chemical called “promicin,” which was developed from examining the physiology of the title characters. Anyone could inject themselves the widely circulated black market sci-fi substance, but only half of those who did gained a superpower; the other half just died. I thought it a supercool premise. Even if you survived, you could still end up with a crappy superpower. The lure of promicin was so strong, even members of law enforcement decided to give it whirl.

“Crossing Jordan” was the medical examiner drama Tim Kring created and oversaw prior to creating and overseeing “Heroes.” Damon Lindelof, who went on to co-create “Lost,” was on its writing staff. If you judge “Jordan” less than twice as exciting as “Heroes” or “Lost,” keep in mind that “Jordan,” unlike “Heroes,” didn’t have “Pushing Daisies” creator Bryan Fuller on the writing staff during its first season. And “Jordan” never made use of the writing talents of J.J. Abrams, David Fury, Javier Grillo-Marxauch, Carlton Cuse, Drew Goddard, Brian K. Vaughn or any of the other “Lost” scribes.

It starred tall, skinny “Law & Order” vet Jill Hennessey, always markedly easier on the eyes than Jack Klugman.

The set is loaded with extras, including:

* Deleted scenes from eight of the 23 first-season episodes.

* Commentaries by Kring, director-producer Allan Arkush and composers Wendy & Lisa (formerly of Prince’s Revolution; subsequently of “Heroes”) on four episodes, including the pilot and season finale.

* “A Conversation With Series Creator Tim Kring, Producer/Director Allan Arkush and Producer Dennis Hammer.”

* “Jill Hennessey and Allan Arkush talk about Jordan.”

* “Steve Valentine, Ravi Kapoor and Kathryn Hahn Talk With Allan Arkush.”

* “Allan Arkush and Tim Kring Talk With Miguel Ferrer.”

Herc’s Popular Pricing Pantry

This week, dirt-cheap pricing on the two best series ever to emerge out of Great Britain: