A Date with Your Family (film #27 on Ephemeral Films CD-ROM (Voyager). Also, MST3K Episode #602: Invasion U.S.A. Also, film #5 on Disc #4 of The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection, Vol. 2 DVD (Rhino). Also in the Ephemeral section of Open Video Project. Also, film #4 on Our Secret Century, Vol. 3: The Behavior Offensive CD-ROM (Voyager). Also, film #395 on Prelinger Archive). [Category: Educational]

Are you afflicted with 50s nostalgia? If so, this film is a good cure. 50s kids are told in no uncertain terms that family harmony is their responsibility and is dependent upon good manners and "appropriate" behavior at the dinner table. A standard of perfection in family dining is shown that kids are expected to live up to every night! There is no room in the perfect family dinner for emotions, child requests of any kind, or any other kind of talk likely to stir the emotions. This kind of repression was the dark side of the "nice" families portrayed in sitcoms of the period. In fact, it's a lot like watching one of those sitcoms, only with a narrator constantly telling you that this is the only good way for families to be and if your family doesn't meet this standard, it's your fault. Appalling, and therefore fascinating. The msting is quite good––it couldn't help but be, considering the material they had to work with.

Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: *****. Weirdness: ****. Historical Interest: *****. Msting: ****. Overall Rating: *****.

Brothers and Sisters (film #5 on AV Geeks). [Category: Educational]

Kudos to the AV Geeks Archive for starting to put up filmstrips. This filmstrip features Steve, a small boy with an older brother and sister and a baby brother. He gets frustrated with them the way all kids do, but then he has a bad dream that they’re gone, the way kids in most educational films do. This dream cures him of all sibling rivalry, leading to a wonderfully simplistic and unrealistic ending. This is pretty lively stuff for a filmstrip. The images of Steve’s dreams are great. It’s perhaps not as much fun as seeing the dream acted out for us on film, but it makes up for it by having lots of striking still images, any of which would look great on a t-shirt. More fun than you’d think a filmstrip would be.

Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ****. Weirdness: ****. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: ****.

Appreciating Our Parents.

This is one of my favorite of the MST3K shorts. Little Tommy suddenly comes to the realization that his parents work, and so decides to be a cooperative member of the family team, unlike the slacker we all know he used to be. A film version of your mom telling you that things would be a lot better around here if you kids would just help out for once. And it probably went over about as well to its intended audience. It's fun to watch them try, though, and the film's innocent earnestness makes great fodder for msting.

Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: *****. Weirdness: ***. Historical Interest: *****. Msting: *****. Overall Rating: *****.