The Mads Are Back: Glen or Glenda
Poster by Tim Holly
Original Language: English
Produced by Chris Gersbeck
Written & Performed by Trace Beaulieu & Frank Conniff
Release Date: July 21, 2020
Quality: 720p
$3.99 to rent
48-hour streaming period
Watch on TV, mobile, and tablet
$11.99 to own
DRM-free download available
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Watch on TV, mobile, and tablet
Season 1, Episode 1
Recorded live July 21, 2020
Trace Beaulieu & Frank Conniff, "The Mads" from Mystery Science Theater 3000, took their touring act online on July 21, 2020 with a live-riff of Ed Wood’s GLEN OR GLENDA (1958), and have held the monthly tradition ever since. Presented here is the full recording from The Mads' first livestream, including a post-show Q&A with Trace Beaulieu & Frank Conniff, hosted by Chris Gersbeck.
Glen or Glenda, the legendary debut film from director Ed Wood, Jr. (the infamous visionary behind Plan 9 From Outer Space), is a hilariously confusing but gentle tale of a young “transvestite” (played by Ed himself) who must come to grips with his identity as an angora-loving cross-dresser while also struggling to find acceptance from his fiancé and society at large. Narrated by horror movie icon Bela Lugosi, and featuring heaps of unrelated stock footage, strange dream sequences and gloriously campy dialogue, Glen or Glenda, despite its many failings as a film, helped revolutionize cinema by presenting a very progressive tale championing tolerance and kindness toward gender-nonconforming people … in 1953! “Pull the string! Pull the string!”
Frank Conniff is a comedy writer and performer who began his TV career writing for the Peabody award-winning series Mystery Science Theater 3000, where he also played “TV’s Frank,” the bumbling yet lovable mad scientist sidekick. He then went on to be a writer, producer and actor on the ABC TV series Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and he was a writer and producer on The Drew Carey Show on ABC, The New Tom Green Show on MTV, and the satirical series O2BE on the Oxygen Network, where he was also a cast member. He was head writer of the animated Nickelodeon series, Invader Zim, and also was a writer and producer for the Air America Radio network, where he provided material for on-air personalities Rachel Maddow, Marc Maron, Lizz Winstead, Al Franken, Janeane Garofalo, and Randi Rhodes. He was a writer and performer on Viewpoint with John Fugelsang on Current TV, and on Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell on the FXX network, and he also writes and performs on The Jimmy Dore Show on Pacifica Radio.
Trace Beaulieu is a comic actor, writer, performer. He was a founding member of the Emmy- nominated, Peabody Award-winning, cult hit show Mystery Science Theater 3000. In addition to writing, occasionally directing, designing and building sets and props, Trace performed the puppet character Crow T. Robot, and mad scientist Dr. Clayton Forrester. He repeated these roles in the 1996 film version of the show, MST3K: The Movie. Trace wrote for ABC’s America’s Funniest Videos for nine seasons. He played a recurring character on Freak and Geeks, and has had cameo appearances on The West Wing and Arrested Development. For six years, he toured with the original cast of MST3K in a live movie riffing show called CINEMATIC TITANIC. Trace is currently the voice of A.R.T. the robot on Paul Feig’s Other Space on Yahoo TV.
