( CNN ) -- As long as there have been movies , there have been bad movies . For a long time , they were forgotten -- or wished to be . But there were those who remembered . One of them was Harry Medved . In the 1970s and '80s , he co-wrote four books on bad movies , some with brother Michael . Along with Danny Peary 's 1981 book `` Cult Movies , '' Medved 's works helped blaze a trail . The films included the high and low . Alain Resnais ' inscrutable `` Last Year at Marienbad '' was in there ; so were `` Robot Monster , '' `` The Horror of Party Beach '' and the films of Ed `` Plan 9 from Outer Space '' Wood . The choices got attention . Medved was written up in People magazine and guested on talk-show panels . `` We were thrilled at becoming part of the national discourse on movies that are so bad they 're good , '' says Medved , who now writes for the film and ticketing site Fandango . Some of his targets were n't so thrilled . Medved remembers sharing a couch on the old `` Merv Griffin Show '' with Burt Reynolds . `` He accused me of making money off of bad movies , '' Medved recalls . `` I told him he had made millions off of his own bad movies , so I did n't see the problem . '' Other actors can only smile and shrug . Carrie Fisher , no stranger to bad films , told CNN that she made one film because it earned her a trip to Israel . Michael Caine , who starred in `` Jaws : The Revenge , '' once wrote , `` I have never seen it , but by all accounts , it is terrible . However , I have seen the house that it built , and it is terrific . '' Gradually , Hollywood detritus got more attention from the mainstream . Joel Hodgson and his colleagues created `` Mystery Science Theater 3000 , '' which featured the cast watching bad movies and yelling jokes at the screen . The show ran from 1988 to 1999 . Putting Hollywood 's biggest bombs back together . Hodgson , who confesses that `` when I was a kid , I thought God made the movies , '' says that he could always find something good in what he was joking about . `` When you write ( the riffs ) , you spend a lot of time with the film , '' says the comedian . `` There are certain things that you ca n't get over , like certain performances that are great , but they 're within the body of this ( bad ) movie . '' These days there 's an afterlife well beyond `` MST3K . '' Medved mentions there 's a book in the works about the production of `` Robot Monster . '' The making of `` The Creeping Terror , '' a 1964 film about a man-eating alien , has inspired the more dramatic `` Creep ! `` , about the con-man director behind the film . `` Manos : The Hands of Fate '' is being restored , thanks to a Kickstarter campaign . `` The Room , '' which Entertainment Weekly called `` the 'Citizen Kane ' of bad movies , '' has led to `` Rocky Horror '' -like midnight-movie participation , a video game , a live reading and a book coming in October . Bogdanovich on hits , flops and surprises . If you want the original bad stuff more or less straight , there are also live events to harness your happiness . Hodgson occasionally tours with his `` Cinematic Titanic '' show ; former `` MST3K '' writer and host Michael J. Nelson has a show called `` RiffTrax . '' ( If you want to play at home , Shout ! Factory has been issuing DVDs of `` MST3K '' episodes ; Volume XXVII is due July 23 . ) It all goes to show that there are many paths to immortality . The `` Attack of the Killer Tomatoes '' creators used Medved 's inclusion to create a franchise , for example . And Ed Wood ? The man became the subject of an Oscar-winning film . `` Ed Wood 's widow was not exactly thrilled when we lauded him with the Golden Turkey Award as 'the worst director of all time , ' `` says Medved . `` ( But ) we helped bring an underground cult for 'Plan 9 ' above ground . I think Wood would have enjoyed the resulting attention . ''
Hollywood has long history of bad movies , but few attracted attention until ' 70s . Michael Medved one of the leaders in calling attention to film badness . ` ` Mystery Science Theater , '' ` ` , Titanic , '' ` ` RiffTrax '' invite attention . Some bad movies have long history .