Mystery Science Theater 3000

{{{name}}} Air date November 24, 1988 – August 8, 1999 Producer(s) Jim Mallon, Kevin Murphy, Joel Hodgson Distributor Rhino Home Video, Shout! Factory, Vivendi Entertainment Channel(s) KTMA (Season 0), Comedy Channel (Seasons 1-2) Comedy Central (Seasons 3-7) Sci-Fi Channel (Season 8-10) Netflix (Season 11) Genre(s) Comedy Episodes 197

Mystery Science Theater 3000 (often abbreviated as "MST3k") is an American cult television comedy series created by Joel Hodgson and produced by Best Brains, Inc. that originally ran from 1988 to 1999. An 11th season will be available to stream on Netflix in April 2017. The series features a man and his robot sidekicks Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot, who are trapped aboard an orbiting satellite by a mad scientist from the Forrester clan. There, they are subjected to terrible movies in the hopes that one will drive them insane and allow the scientist to rule the world. To cope, the host and the robots provide running commentary on the film, making fun of its flaws and wisecracking (or "riffing") their way through it in the style of a movie theater peanut gallery.

The series notably features several Japanese monster films during its earlier seasons, including the versions of five Showa-era Gamera films that were brought to the United States by Sandy Frank and King Features Syndication during the 1980s.

Episodes Featuring Giant Monster Movies

Season 0

• K04 Gamera vs. Barugon
• K05 Gamera
• K06 Gamera vs. Gyaos (as Gamera vs. Gaos)
• K07 Gamera vs. Zigra
• K08 Gamera vs. Guiron
• K21 Legend of Dinosaurs & Monster Birds (as The Legend of Dinosaurs)

Season 2

• 212 Godzilla vs. Megalon
• 213 Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (as Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster)

Season 3

• 302 Gamera
• 304 Gamera vs. Barugon
• 308 Gamera vs. Gyaos (as Gamera vs. Gaos)
• 312 Gamera vs. Guiron
• 318 Gamera vs. Zigra

Season 9

• 909 Gorgo

Season 11

• 1101 Reptilicus

Availability

The show's first season (often referred to as season "0" or "KTMA") aired on a public access station in Minnesota, and the five Gamera films were among those riffed a second time when it was picked up by Comedy Central. However, Sandy Frank blocked re-airings of these episodes starting in 1996.

The Godzilla vs. Megalon episode was ultimately released on DVD as part of the "Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume 10" box set in 2008, but due to confusion regarding ownership of the film's English dub version (Best Brains had been led to believe that Godzilla vs. Megalon and Ebirah, Horror of the Deep were public domain films) the set was pulled within weeks of its release and ultimately re-released two years later with Giant Gila Monster replacing Godzilla vs. Megalon. Included on the new set (known as Volume 10.2) was a brand-new host segment showing the crew giving a tutorial on swapping out the movies, and TV's Frank being admonished by Dr. Forrester for not obtaining the rights from Toho. Throughout the segment, the title Godzilla vs. Megalon is either referred to as the "Japanese giant lizard movie", or intentionally has its syllables grunted out or coughed over.

DVD Releases of Giant Monster Episodes

Rhino Entertainment DVD (2006) [Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume 10]

• Region: 1
• Discs: 4
• Audio: English
• Subtitles: None
• Special Features: Video Jukebox with 15 songs from the show, outtakes (15 minutes), photo gallery
• Notes: Episodes included are Godzilla vs. Megalon, Swamp Diamonds, Teen-Age Strangler, and The Giant Spider Invasion. Out of print and extremely rare; the more readily-available Volume 10.2 replaces Godzilla vs. Megalon with The Giant Gila Monster.

Shout! Factory DVD (2011) [MST3K Vs. Gamera: Mystery Science Theater 3000, Vol. XXI]

• Region: 1
• Discs: 5
• Audio: English
• Subtitles: None
• Special Features: "So Happy Together: A Look Back at MST3K and Gamera" featurette (23 minutes), The Mystery Science Theater Hour wrap-arounds for Gamera and Gamera vs. Guiron (5 minutes), theatrical trailers for all five movies, "Gamera Vs. The Chiodo Brothers" featurette (24 minutes), "Gamera Obscura: A Brief History by August Ragone" featurette (30 minutes)
• Notes: Episodes included are Gamera, Gamera vs. Barugon, Gamera vs. Gaos, Gamera vs. Guiron, and Gamera vs. Zigra (all from Season 3). Out of print.

Shout! Factory DVD (2003) [Mystery Science Theater 3000: 25th Anniversary Edition]

• Region: 1
• Discs: 5
• Audio: English
• Subtitles: None
• Special Features: Return to Eden Prairie: 25 Years of Mystery Science Theater 3000 documentary (70 minutes), "Ninth Wonder of the World: The Making of Gorgo" featurette (30 minutes), "Life After MST3K" featurette focusing on Mary Jo Pehl, Moon Zero Two introduction by Constantine Nasr (10 minutes), The Mystery Science Theater Hour wrap-arounds for The Day the Earth Froze, "Leonard Maltin Explains Something" clip, "Last Flight of Joel Robinson" featurette (10 minutes), interview with Marilyn Neilson, posters and original trailers for Moon Zero Two, The Day the Earth Froze, The Leech Woman, and Gorgo
• Notes: Episodes included are Moon Zero Two, The Day the Earth Froze, The Leech Woman, Gorgo, Mitchell, and The Brain That Wouldn't Die.

External Links

• Official site
• Official Twitter account
• Streaming links for 67 episodes, including Gorgo (Shout Factory TV)
• Satellite News, the show's official fan site

References

This is a list of references for Mystery Science Theater 3000. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: ^[1]