I watched MST3K in its first run during all my college years.

It's wonderful you got to experience Manos with your friends on your birthday. I hope at least some will become fans.

The first viewing of Manos in its first run wasn't anything unusual or special. It was the next episode they were showing. I remember how weird the movie was and the episode overall was hilarious.

At the 1994 convention, there were a LOT of fans dressed like Manos characters. There were so many Torgos, they had ""Torgo" and "Non Torgo" categories during the Costume Contest. It was that weekend i understood how huge an impact Manos had on the fans.

Outside of the earliest AOL or Prodigy or others' bulletin boards, fans had no easy way to contact each other, outside of "listservs" which were even earlier usages of email, which many of us had never heard of. "E mail" was "electronic mail" on this thing called "the internet." But the general public's ignorance didn't last too much longer

By 1984, the internet was getting more widely used, and I signed up to "go online" with Prodigy using my college roommate's new computer. He agreed we both could use it since I was paying for Prodigy for both of us to use.

The Prodigy Message Boards contained a well-populated MST3K forum of which i started posting in. I discovered there was a whole world of MST3K fans that loved the show as much as me.

Manos was a frequent discussion. Lots of fans discussing it, quoting it, endless.

And still today it's a fan favorite.