Mystery Science Theater 3000

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Mystery Science Theater 3000
Mystery Science Theater 3000
Air date November 24, 1988 –
August 8, 1999 (original run),
April 14, 2017 (season 11),
November 22, 2018 (season 12)
March 4, 2022(season 13)
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 11-12)
Gizmoplex (season 13)
Genre(s) Comedy
Episodes 230
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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. Following a highly successful Kickstarter campaign, Netflix picked up the show for an 11th season and 12th season from 2017 to 2018. Hodgson spearheaded another Kickstarter for a 13th season in 2021, which will be hosted by a new "virtual theater" called the Gizmoplex. 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 featured several Japanese monster films during its earlier seasons: Godzilla vs. Megalon, Ebirah, Horror of the Deep, and the five Showa era Gamera films distributed in the United States by Sandy Frank and King Features Syndication during the 1980s. Season 13 featured a sixth Gamera film, Gamera vs. Jiger.[1]

Cast

Actor's name on the left, character played on the right.

  • Joel Hodgson   as   Joel Robinson (Seasons 0-5; Season 10 guest appearance) / Ardy (Seasons 11-12)
  • Josh Weinstein   as   Tom Servo / Dr. Laurence Erhardt (Seasons 0-1) / Gypsy (Season 0)
  • Trace Beaulieu   as   Crow T. Robot / Dr. Clayton Forrester (Seasons 0-7)
  • Kevin Murphy   as   Tom Servo (Seasons 2-10) / Professor Bobo (Seasons 8-10; Season 11 guest appearance)
  • Frank Conniff   as   TV's Frank (Seasons 2-6; Season 10 guest appearance)
  • Jim Mallon   as   Gypsy (Seasons 1-8)
  • Michael J. Nelson   as   Mike Nelson (Seasons 5-10)
  • Mary Jo Pehl   as   Pearl Forrester (Seasons 7-10; Season 11 guest appearance)
  • Bill Corbett   as   Crow T. Robot / Brain Guy (Seasons 8-10; Season 11 guest appearance)
  • Patrick Brantseg   as   Gypsy (Seasons 8-10)
  • Jonah Ray   as   Jonah Heston (Seasons 11-12)
  • Baron Vaughn   as   Tom Servo (Seasons 11-12)
  • Hampton Yount   as   Crow T. Robot (Seasons 11-12)
  • Felicia Day   as   Kinga Forrester (Seasons 11-12)
  • Patton Oswalt   as   TV's Son of TV's Frank (Seasons 11-12)
  • Rebecca Hanson   as   Gypsy / Synthia Forrester (Seasons 11-12)

Selected episodes

Season 0

Season 1

Season 2

Season 3

Season 6

Season 9

Season 11

Season 12

Season 13

Availability

The show's first 21 episodes (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.[2]

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 dubbed version (Best Brains had been led to believe that Godzilla vs. Megalon and Ebirah, Horror of the Deep were both public domain films), the set was pulled within weeks of its release and ultimately re-released two years later, with The 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.

Selected video releases

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 replaced Godzilla vs. Megalon with The Giant Gila Monster.

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

  • 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 (2013) [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 (31 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.

Shout! Factory DVD (2014) [Mystery Science Theater 3000 Volume XXX]

  • Region: 1
  • Discs: 4
  • Audio: English
  • Subtitles: English
  • Special features: Stringer of Death: Making The Black Scorpion, Writer of Gor: The Novels of John Norman, Director of Gor: On Set with John "Bud" Cardos, Producer of Gor: Adventures with Harry Alan Towers, Shock to the System: Creating The Projected Man, extended trailer for "The Frank" music video, four mini-posters by Steve Vance
  • Notes: Episodes included are The Black Scorpion, Outlaw (of Gor), The Projected Man, and It Lives by Night.

Shout! Factory Blu-ray / DVD (2018) [Mystery Science Theater 3000 Season 11]

  • Region: A (Blu-ray) and 1 (DVD)
  • Discs: 8
  • Audio: English
  • Subtitles: English
  • Special features: We Brought Back MST3K documentary (73 minutes)
  • Notes: Episodes included are Reptilicus, Cry Wilderness, The Time Travelers, Avalanche, The Beast of Hollow Mountain, Starcrash, The Land That Time Forgot, The Lovers of Hercules, Yongary, Monster from the Deep, and Wizards of the Lost Kingdom.

Shout! Factory Blu-ray / DVD (2019)

  • Region: A (Blu-ray) and 1 (DVD)
  • Discs: 3 (standard) or 4 (Backer Edition)
  • Audio: English
  • Subtitles: English
  • Special features: All special features, totaling one hour, are exclusive to the Backer Edition: intro By Joel Hodgson, Behind-the-Sketches featurette, Inside the Riffs featurette, Under the Puppets featurette, Scaling the Models featurette, outro by Joel Hodgson and Jonah Ray
  • Notes: Episodes included are Mac and Me, Atlantic Rim, Lords of the Deep, The Day Time Ended, Killer Fish, and Ator, the Fighting Eagle.

Videos

Full episodes

Mystery Science Theater 3000
episode K05 - Gamera
Mystery Science Theater 3000
episode K06 - Gamera vs. Gaos
Mystery Science Theater 3000
episode K07 - Gamera vs. Zigra
Mystery Science Theater 3000
episode K08 - Gamera vs. Guiron
Mystery Science Theater 3000
episode K21 - The "Legend of Dinosaurs"

Host segments

"Jet Jaguar Song"
(from episode 212 - Godzilla vs. Megalon)
"Tibby, Oh Tibby"
(from episode 302 - Gamera)
"Michael Feinstein's Gamera"
(from episode 312 - Gamera vs. Guiron)
"Leonard Maltin Recommends Gorgo"
(from episode 909 - Gorgo)
Waiting for Gorgo
(from episode 909 - Gorgo)

Miscellaneous

CBS News Saturday Morning appearance talking about Godzilla
GODZILLA parody from the 2nd Annual Blockbuster Review
Dr. Forrester's MST3K Vol. 10.2 Upgrade Seminar

Trivia

  • Ebirah, Horror of the Deep and Godzilla vs. Megalon are the only two films featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000 to later become part of the prestigious Criterion Collection.
  • A brief shot of Godzilla's tail slide from Godzilla vs. Megalon appeared in the show's opening from Episode 317 (The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent) to 512 (Mitchell).
  • U.S. posters for Godzilla vs. Gigan and Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla appear in the 1992 TV special This is MST3K.
  • Inspired by the desire to create episodes for the three Showa era Gamera films that were not riffed on the original show, a group of dedicated fans produced the fan-made series MST3K vs. Gamera: Round 2 to positive acclaim.[3][4][5]

External links

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]

  1. 1.0 1.1 Hodgson, Joel (10 May 2021). "How It Turned Out & What It All Means. The Next Movie for Season 13! Plus: More Info on Kickstarter Rewards, Timing & Surveys!". Kickstarter.
  2. Part 14: Battles on Many Fronts (1996)
  3. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDwE9iCr6IJHIX6ee9coo8rASDPCwPMFJ
  4. https://mst3k.fandom.com/wiki/MST3K_vs._Gamera:_Round_2
  5. http://bindingpolymer.com/wp/2019/03/29/mst3k-vs-gamera-round-2/

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