Rating: 
Summary: It hurts me to do this...
Review: ... but I can only give this video two stars. I love MST3K to the deepest depths of my soul but even I found it hard to get through this episode from the Comedy Central years (Season One)... Dr. Larry Erhardt (TV Frank's predecessor) is annoying in the extreme and I wanted to fast-forward through most of the host segments with him in it. Even Joel seems a little lackluster in this one. Buy this ONLY if you are a die-hard fan of the show and want to complete your collection or you are just very interested in the early years of MST3K and have money to burn. Some of the riffs made me laugh out loud... but there are startlingly few of them (even compared to Comedy Central years: Season Two--when I started to watch the show). If you are a first time viewer of MST3K or became a fan during the Sci-Fi years, I would recommend Eegah, Skydivers or either Shorts 1 and 2 to start you off.
Rating: 
Summary: i'm gonna come right out and say it...
Review: ...i don't like season 1! i don't like dr. erhardt as much as tv's frank (who does?) and the riffing is more sparse and of a slightly weaker style. but i was thinking, for a new fan seeking to discover mst3k, this may not be a bad jumping off point (although manos is a better start). this episode is indicative of the true original philosophy of mst3k. most of the best episodes aren't mystery or science-oriented (manos, mitchell, many sci-fi eps such as jack frost or final sacrifice), but the crawling hand is a true, cheesy, BAD scifi/horror movie. and that was the original intent of the show: to riff on bad scifi/horror flicks. and the riffing IS good, it's just not as good as it would become in later seasons. nobody should miss out on this episode, but other episodes are better, and once you're well-versed in mst3k-dom, you'll revisit this episode less often than the others.
Rating:
Summary: i'm gonna come right out and say it...
Review: ...i don't like season 1! i don't like dr. erhardt as much as tv's frank (who does?) and the riffing is more sparse and of a slightly weaker style. but i was thinking, for a new fan seeking to discover mst3k, this may not be a bad jumping off point (although manos is a better start). this episode is indicative of the true original philosophy of mst3k. most of the best episodes aren't mystery or science-oriented (manos, mitchell, many sci-fi eps such as jack frost or final sacrifice), but the crawling hand is a true, cheesy, BAD scifi/horror movie. and that was the original intent of the show: to riff on bad scifi/horror flicks. and the riffing IS good, it's just not as good as it would become in later seasons. nobody should miss out on this episode, but other episodes are better, and once you're well-versed in mst3k-dom, you'll revisit this episode less often than the others.
Rating:
Summary: You will believe a hand can crawl!
Review: Ah, MST3K Season One. I can see how some people, even MST3K fans, might be disappointed by this video. Instead of TV's Frank, Dr. Forrester has Dr. Larry Erhardt (John Weinstein) for a sidekick, and it is Weinstein rather than Kevin Murphy supplying the voice of Tom Servo. The set looks as cheap as it really was, the silhouettes in the theater are sort of green-looking, Joel sometimes seems to forget which bot is which, and the jokes are sometimes rather lame. However, the show is still hilarious. If you've never seen a Season One episode before, cut Weinstein's Servo voice some slack. Initially, I hated it, but being fortunate enough to have the whole first season on tape, I found that this initial Servo incarnation was actually pretty funny in his own right after I got used to him. This one video probably won't make you a Weinstein fan, but give him a chance. As for the movie itself, The Crawling Hand was perfect MST3K material--there's a silly plot, an annoying teenager, and some incredibly bad acting. America's space program is apparently run in a little warehouse somewhere in the middle of nowhere, and the scientists there are in a tizzy. On two occasions, a guy has been sent to the moon, landing successfully, then being lost on his way back to earth. This second time, communication is reestablished with the astronaut 20 minutes after he has run out of oxygen. He begs the men in the control room (actually, it's really just a desk) to blow him up before he reenters the atmosphere. The doctor-type guy finally hits the red button. Meanwhile, a supposedly smart slacker goes swimming in the ocean with his Swedish girlfriend, and while they are frolicking around they run across a human hand lying on the beach. Naturally, our hero decides he must have that hand; he sneaks back that night (apparently this is the one beach in California that no one whatsoever goes to) and makes the wonderful hand his own, lovingly placing it in his landlady's storage room behind some relish. Soon, the hand (which does crawl, just like the title says) begins strangling people (that's gonna happen, you know). At this point, the sheriff, AKA Alan Hale (Skipper!), commences an investigation. One print found on the body of the first victim is matched to the fingerprint of the blown-up astronaut, and that's when the Space Boys come out to try and clean up a little of their mess. To complicate matters, our boy who found the hand begins having episodes wherein he turns into an "Elvis zombie" with heavy mascara under his eyes and feels compelled to strangle people himself. As you may have guessed, it all comes down to some hand to hand combat in the end. I think this is one of the best Season One episodes. I particularly enjoyed one skit in which the guys all pretend to be William Shatner being choked by a disembodied hand. Joel and the bots are still developing the real spirit and style of the show, but the genius is already unmistakably there. Most importantly, I can assure you that this show is very funny.
Rating:
Summary: At its early best, MST3K delivers many 1st season laughs
Review: Although MST3K would really hit its stride as far as pacing, themes, sets, cast chemistry and joke writing in season 2, this is one of the best episodes from season 1 and it's the only one you can buy on DVD at the time of this writing. The jokes run a wide range of topics from the absurdity of an animated severed hand to the acting ability of Alan Hale, Jr. Although the humor is not as dense as in some later episodes like Cave Dwellers or Pod People, there is still no shortage of humor tossed at this B grade science fiction/horror film. If you love MST3K, you'll want to see this early gem.
Rating: 
Summary: the first MST3K I ever saw...
Review: came from an era when I was barely out of training pants, and I thought "The Crawling Hand" was hilarious; the show, also, had a freshly original, B-show vibe unseen on television. Well, over a decade has passed since I saw this episode, and watching it recently I couldn't believe how primitive it seemed. As mentioned in other reviews, there are long pauses in between riffs, Tom Servo's voice could induce sleep, and the deliveries are toneless and lack enthusiasm. Save for a few moments (far and between), this is a truly painful experience, and that's coming from a FAN of the show.
Rating: 
Summary: Make sure you know what you're getting
Review: For a long time, the Best Brains' resisted releasing Season One episodes, feeling that they had not yet perfected their art -- or, as they put it in the Amazing Colossal Episode Guide, 'they're not very good and we don't want them seen.' According to producer Jim Mallon, Season One is remembered as 'the awful time.' But finally they relented, and gave us Show 106, 'The Crawling Hand.' And you know what? It's not great. The MSTie interested in the complete and utter history of the show will value this glimpse of the semi-legendary Dr Erhardt, Tom Servo's old voice, and the early versions of the set and opening credits. But if you're less familiar with the show, I would recommend starting someplace else, because it got a LOT better than this, and I wouldn't want you to be scared away by one early performance. MST featured many villainous body parts and horrors-from-space in the early years. Come to think of it, they had a lot of horrors-from-space in the later years too. Cult TV aficionados will enjoy the sight of Alan Hale, Jr hamming it up in a horror flick
Rating:
Summary: This movie really choked me up.
Review: I am a great fan of Mystery Science Theater, and any chance I get to see an episode, I do, especially the retro ones, that I haven't seen before. I have to give them a hand on this one, for this touching storyreally choked me up. The MST3K crew really has a knack of taking cheesy old movies and turning them into great ones with their endless strings of one-liners.
Rating:
Summary: Not What I'm Used To
Review: I am a huge fan of Mystery Science Theater 3000, but I was disappointed with "The Crawling Hand". At first I thought it was really cute because this episode was taken from the first season, so it was interesting to see the really corny sets and even cornier special effects. However, as I watched the episode more, the more bored I became. Granted, "The Crawling Hand" is not the most exciting movie to watch, but it just didn't seem as though Joel and the bots were as funny. Tom Servo had a completely different voice and Dr. Forrester had a different assistant. I know that this episode is a part of MST3K history and for that I give it respect, but I personally just could not get into this episode. I would suggest it, though, to other fans of the series so they can make their own decisions about it. Like I said, since it's one of the first episodes, it should be watched, but don't expect to be rolling on the floor laughing very much.
Rating:
Summary: What a waste of my money!
Review: I am a huge fan of this series and was shocked at how appallingly bad this episode was. Despite some good knocks during the movie, this was a waste of $ which I could have spent on something else (perhaps "Catalina Caper" or "Wild World of Batwoman"). Being a veteran fan of the show, I read in the Episode Guide that the makers of the show wouldn't release any of the early episodes because they weren't up to the standards of their later work. How right they were. I should have listened to them, but unfortunately due to my curiosity, I wasted my hard-earned money, valuable time, and the makers of the show have irreversibly embarassed themselves. Let's hope that they redeem themselves with some excellent future video releases (a few more "Shorts" videos, please, hosted by Tom or Crow or Gypsy?).
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