MST3K Little Gold Statue Preview Special

“	Welcome to the MST3K Little Gold Statue Preview Special, the show where we tell you what to think and you accept it at face value with no back talk.	”
	- Tom Servo

The MST3K Little Gold Statue Preview Special is a special produced by Best Brains, Inc. for Comedy Central, airing on March 22, 1995 as part of the build-up for the 67th Academy Awards.

The Special[]

Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot open the show with a quick montage of Academy Award nominated films; Quiz Show, Pulp Fiction, Forrest Gump, The Lion King and Maverick. They then welcome viewers to the special explaining that they will provide you with their opinions, despite not having seen any of the nominated films. Luckily, they have acquired a large supply of screeners and will use them to judge the films.

The first category is Best Make-Up, which they predict will go to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, showing a clip of Kenneth Branagh and Helena Bonham Carter from the film. Crow then attempts to interview director Branagh, until Tom lets Crow know that it's just a pre-recorded tape.

Best Picture is awarded to Four Weddings and a Funeral and a clip is shown of Andie MacDowell and Hugh Grant having a sexually-explicit conversation. Mike has to explain the context to the bots, who are disgusted.

Best Actress goes to Miranda Richardson for her performance in Tom & Viv, a film Crow thinks is about the love of Tom Bosley and Vivian Vance. Tom corrects him. They show a clip of T. S. Eliot (Willem Dafoe) and his wife Vivienne (Richardson), which the 'bots take to be about bass fishing. They then compare the film to Deliverance, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot and Harry and Tonto.

The next category is Best Director, which Crow and Tom have decided to award based on looks. After dismissing Woody Allen and Krzysztof Kieślowski, they watch a clip of Forrest Gump director Robert Zemeckis, who leaves no impression on them. A clip of "Quentin Tartikoff" is shown and he is also rejected. The bots finally reveal that they have been toying with the audience all along and they have selected the "numptious, scrumptious, yumpdillyumptious" Robert Redford, director of Quiz Show. As the bots gush over Redford, he is shown directing the film's actors, including Christopher McDonald and Ralph Fiennes.

Coming back from commercial, the bots are stuffing themselves with hors d'oeuvres and decide to look at the Best Picture category again, with a clip from Forrest Gump showing Forrest (Best Actor nominee Tom Hanks) talking to his mother (Sally Field). Tom mocks her advice, stating "life is like a crap sandwich, the less bread you got, the more crap you gotta take" among other truisms, before agreeing with Crow that it will likely win.

Next is Best Costumes. A clip from Queen Margot featuring Isabelle Adjani and Virna Lisi impresses the bots by being "real foreigny". A clip from The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert showing Hugo Weaving and Guy Pierce in drag changes their minds and they throw their support to Priscilla. They then briefly discuss Honeysuckle Rose and Ladyhawke. Mike brings in a telephone so the bots can call Gypsy for a "Gypsy Talks to the Stars!" segment, but she's actually in her room making Pop-Tarts.

Best Song is up next, with a clip of Elton John performing "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" from The Lion King, followed by a clip of animator Tony Fucile talking about sitting next to "this massive, intense creature", which the bots take to mean John. Crow is ready to call it for the song, but Tom says not to count out "Look What Love Has Done" from Junior and shows a clip of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Emma Thompson discussing menstruation, which makes Tom gag. They don't have a clip of the song, so Tom sings an impromptu version, followed by one for "You Gotta Make Up Your Mind" from The Paper.

Returning to the Best Picture category, the bots show a clip from Quiz Show of David Paymer and Hank Azaria talking Ralph Fiennes' character into appearing on the game show Twenty-One. The bots are unimpressed until they remember that Quiz Show was directed by Robert Redford, so they show more clips of him directing while they swoon.

Best Original Screenplay starts off with a scene from Red showing Irène Jacob speaking briefly to Jean-Louis Trintignant. Tom declares the film "important" and therefore "boring", so the bots predict that it will win. They then run a clip of the "Laverne & Shirley-like releationship" in Heavenly Creatures showing Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey in an intense phone conversation, interrupted by Diana Kent. Crow declares it will win "no question".

A clip from Little Women is then shown, highlighting Best Actress nominee Winona Ryder as Jo opposite Christian Bale as Laurie. Crow declares it a "chick movie" and asks were the father is. Tom details the plight of Robert March, which leads to a discussion about Civil War myths before segueing into another Best Actress nominee, Jessica Lange in a clip from Blue Sky. Her performance (and several others) leads the Bots to decide it is the Year of the Mental Woman. Tom then announces that they will have a visit from Ed Asner after the commercial break.

Mike returns, pretending to be Ed Asner. Mike is wearing no special makeup or costume, just a name tag that reads "Ed Asner". The bots immediately make him stand in corner, quietly, so they can show a Best Picture clip from the documentary Hoop Dreams, though Crow points out was actually only nominated for Best Editing.

The bots them move on to the Best Actor category with a clip of nominee John Travolta. Tom is insulted on behalf of Gabe Kaplan when Travolta describes his Pulp Fiction castmates as "the best cast [he] ever worked with".

Pulp Fiction is again highlighted, this time for Best Picture. The bots show a clip of Uma Thurman experiencing an "uncomfortable silence" with Travolta. The bots are outraged by Mia's "potty mouth" and subsequently declare it to be the Best Picture.

The bots then wrap things up by saying goodbye to "Ed Asner" (much to Mike's annoyance) and hoping everyone enjoys "the night the stars salute themselves".

After the credits roll, the bots jump back to quickly mention The Shawshank Redemption.

Cast[]

Obscure References[]

Notes[]

This is the first "in-Universe" special, considered a part of the continuity of the show.
Although not mentioned, among the VHS tapes on the counter in front of the bots are other nominated films Ed Wood, Nell and Bullets Over Broadway.
Though it was included in the opening montage, the film Maverick was only nominated for Best Costume Design.
The major Awards that year went to Forrest Gump (Best Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, and Editing), Tom Hanks, Jessica Lange, Martin Landau, and Dianne Wiest. Quentin Tarantino won Best Original Screenplay for Pulp Fiction. Best Make-Up went to Ed Wood, Best Costume Design went to The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, and Best Song went to "Can You Feel the Love Tonight?" from The Lion King (which was one of three songs from the film that were nominated). Clint Eastwood received the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award.
In a 2022 episode of the podcast 372 Pages We'll Never Get Back, Michael J. Nelson was asked for his personal opinion about all of the Best Picture nominees from this year. He expressed ambivalence towards The Shawshank Redemption and Quiz Show, and a general dislike of Pulp Fiction and Four Weddings and a Funeral. He then admitted that he had never seen Forrest Gump and had no interest in doing so. Mike and his co-host Conor Lastowka then mentioned that both Kevin Murphy and Mary Jo Pehl had expressed a strong dislike of Forrest Gump.

Video Release[]

The MST3K Little Gold Statue Preview Special was released on DVD as part of the MST3K: Fancy Hollywood Awards Preview Specials collection. The DVD was available when purchasing Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume XXXVII directly from Shout! Factory.