MST3K: 20 Years Later

In the not to distant past, 1988 A.D. to be precise, a guy named Joel got together with some of his writing buddies and put together a TV show for the local UHF station, KTMA, in Minnesota.  The premise of the show was simple enough.  A man, stranded in a space station orbiting earth, is tortured by his employers by being forced to watch the bottom of the celluloid barrel.  For companionship, he builds a couple of robot pals to join him in his hellish fate.  That’s it.  Sure, throughout the show’s 11 years on the air, and 198 full episodes, the man escaped, was replaced, the satellite escaped earths orbit and was chased around the galaxy by the employer’s mom, a cheeky man-monkey, and a pasty “Brain-guy”, but if all that sounds confusing and contrived, then repeat to yourself, “it’s just a show, I should really just relax.”  This was Mystery Science Theater 3000.

    This past Tuesday saw the release of SHOUT! Factory’s brand new 20th anniversary deluxe box set.  It includes a crow figurine, a couple of postcard-like lobby cards, a fancy pants tin box, and (most importantly) four DVD’s featuring four never before released episodes. 

    What are the episodes?  Does it matter?  Few episodes of MST3K are recognizable by name (Manos: Hands of Fate, and Mitchell come to mind), because in the end, we watch these movies for the individual jokes, not the movie.  Can you tell me the plot of “Pod People”?  Probably not, but do you remember Joel and the bots singing along to the sadly catchy “idiot control now” (it stinks!)?

    This past summer, we here at geekscape got the opportunity to sit down with a couple of the best brains behind this superbly hilarious phenomenon, Trace Beaulieu, Jim Mallon and the ever sleepy Joel Hodgson.  Trace (Dr. Forrester / Crow), Jim (Gypsy), and Joel (Duh) were kind enough to spend a couple of minutes with us to talk about the early days of creating a show, the transition to a nationwide cable station, and the circle-of-life-like way that the show remains relevant.

    Starting the show at KTMA was a down and dirty, $100 budget, work of love that survived off of the prepurchased movie catalogue that the station already had the rights for.  For those 22 episodes, this show blossomed into the underground sensation that it deserved.  It was one of the last shows I can remember that had an official fan club that offered membership cards and read hand written letters on the air.  This was a single market show that never forgot its roots.

    When Comedy Central (then called Comedy Channel) picked up the show, they initially wanted the show to move away from its Minnesota homebase and over to the cable channel’s fancy new digs in New York City.  Joel, Trace, and the rest of the crew refused.  They took a bold stance to stay where they were.  The fact that the studio CC offered had 12 foot ceilings, plus CC executives were way too busy trying to start a new cable channel meant that Joel and crew would eventually win that battle.  Luckily enough, it was pretty much the last battle they ever had with the network.  As my mom used to always say to me when I was growing up, “A network free set is a happy set.”  Wait was that my mother or my executive producer, I always get those mixed up.

    So, with a $25K budget, Trace created a new set, the bots were given a fancy new overhaul, and the first official season of MST3K began.  Throughout the next ten years, Joel left, head writer Mike stepped up to join the mockery, TV’s Frank left, only to be replaced by Dr. Forrester’s Mom Pearl (Magic Voice’s voice, Mary Jo Pehl), the show left Comedy Central and moved to the Sci Fi Network, Dr. Forester left, also replaced by Pearl, and a feature film was made of Mike and the bots bashing the shlockey  “This Island Earth”.

But what really happened during those 11 years?

Well, I was around 12 or 13 when I saw my first episode, and was 22 when the Satellite of Love sent its last transmission.  During that time, I graduated high school, lost my virginity, learned that Thanksgiving was a time to hit record on my VHS and return every five hours or so to switch tapes, laughed like a madman while lounging in the den, and tried to understand the obscure jokes that seemed to make my dad laugh so hard he couldn’t see straight.  During those years, it honestly felt like MST3K was written specifically for me and my dad.  I cannot remember how many times he and I watched that show together.  While other dads helped their kids build model planes or played catch, my dad would light up at the opportunity to turn on the heater during a cold weekend morning and watch a new (or taped if there wasn’t a new episode that week) episode of Mystery Science Theater.  Every once in a while, we would explain a couple of the jokes during a commercial, but for the most part, all the attention went to Joel and his stranded companions as they riffed on some of the worst movies ever made.

This show is a part of who I am.  I learned from this show’s “shotgun” philosophy of joke telling.  I commended the writers for how obscure the jokes went at times, and made a point to always pay attention to the obscure.  To this day, I’m known by many to be the guy that gets things.  I love making references that only one person gets.  It is such a personal way of communicating humor.  It’s one thing to make people laugh at you when you fart, it’s a completely different joy when you can make someone laugh by farting the theme song to “Small Wonder”.

The Mystery Science Theater 3000: 20th Anniversary Edition Set is in stores NOW!