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Mystery Science Theater 3000
| Mystery Science Theater 3000 | |
 | |
| Premiere | November 19, 1989 |
| Creator | Joel Hodgson |
| Network/Provider | KTMA-TV (season 0)
Comedy Channel (seasons 1-2) Comedy Central (seasons 3-7) Sci Fi Channel (seasons 8-10) Netflix (seasons 11-12) The Gizmoplex (season 13) |
| Style | 120-minute sci-fi comedy |
| Company | Hair Brain Productions (season 0), Best Brains Productions (seasons 1-10), Alternaversal Productions (seasons 11-12), Satellite of Love, LLC (seasons 11-12), Abominable Pictures (seasons 11-12), Shout! Factory (seasons 11-12) |
| Seasons | 12 + 1 unofficial |
| Episodes | 217 + 8 specials + 1 pilot |
| Status | Renewed through season 13 |
| Origin | USA |
Mystery Science Theater 3000, known to fans as MST3K, is a program based around ridiculing ("riffing on") bad movies set in the far away time of "next Sunday A.D.". The show follows Joel Robinson (Seasons one through five) and Mike Nelson (Seasons five through ten) as they are forced to view these movies. The movies are part of an evil experiment created by the evil Dr. Clayton Forrester. He believes that if he can discover the worst movie in the world, he can air it on television around the globe and use it to break the will of humans everywhere. Joel and Mike are two blue collar workers who become his unwitting test experiments and are shot into space to live aboard the Satellite of Love.
Once Joel arrived on the satellite, he constructed robot friends to keep him company. Gypsy, the female robot, was designed to pilot the ship. Cambot was constructed in order to tape the experiments and allow Joel to entertain the people of Earth. Joel then created Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot, two wisecracking robots to keep him company and help him retain his sanity while watching the bad movies. At some point Joel had control over when the movies started and stopped, but he used those parts of the machinery in the creation of his robot friends. The robots are the only cast members to remain throughout all ten seasons of the show.
Each episode begins with a cold opening and a short joke that has no relation to the movie about to be viewed. In the next segment, the evil villain in charge at the time introduces the bad movie that the robots will be forced to watch. In the seasons that Joel Robinson was the host, this segment was used as an invention exchange between him and Dr. Clayton Forrester.
When the villain activates the movie, an alarm goes off on the Satellite of Love and the crew members must hurry to the theater or be punished. The transition to the theater is accomplished by Cambot flying through numerous doors that open as he approaches. Once in the theater, the crew are represented by silhouettes at the bottom of the screen. The crew add one-liners and jokes to turn the bad movie they are watching into comedy. They leave the theater three times during each episode to host segments and skits.
Contents |
Cast
| Actor | Character | Duration | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Main Cast | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | |
| Trace Beaulieu | Crow T. Robot | * | * | * | * | * | * | * | * | ||||
| Dr. Clayton Forrester | * | * | * | * | * | * | * | * | |||||
| Joel Hodgson | Joel Robinson | * | * | * | * | * | * | o | |||||
| Josh Weinstein | Gypsy | * | |||||||||||
| Tom Servo | * | * | |||||||||||
| Dr. Laurence Erhardt | * | * | |||||||||||
| Jim Mallon | Gypsy | * | * | * | * | * | * | * | * | ||||
| Kevin Murphy | Tom Servo | * | * | * | * | * | * | * | * | * | |||
| Professor Bobo | * | * | * | * | |||||||||
| Frank Conniff | TV's Frank | * | * | * | * | * | o | ||||||
| Michael J. Nelson | Mike Nelson | * | * | * | * | * | * | ||||||
| Mary Jo Pehl | Pearl Forrester | o | * | * | * | * | * | ||||||
| Bill Corbett | Crow T. Robot | * | * | * | |||||||||
| Observer | * | * | * | * | |||||||||
| Patrick Brantseg | Gypsy | * | * | * | |||||||||
| Jonah Ray | Jonah Heston | * | |||||||||||
| Hampton Yount | Crow T. Robot | * | |||||||||||
| Baron Vaughn | Tom Servo | * | |||||||||||
| Rebecca Hanson | Gypsy | * | |||||||||||
| Felicia Day | Kinga Forrester | * | |||||||||||
| Patton Oswalt | TV's Son of TV's Frank | * | |||||||||||
| Orange/Red/o indicates a recurring or guest role during that season. Dark Green indicates top billing during that season. | |||||||||||||
Seasons
| Season | Premiere | Finale | # | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| KTMA-TV | ||||||
| Season Zero | November 24, 1988 | May 28, 1989 | 21 + 1 | |||
| The Comedy Channel | ||||||
| Season One | November 19, 1989 | February 13, 1990 | 13 | |||
| Season Two | September 22, 1990 | February 2, 1991 | 13 | |||
| Comedy Central | ||||||
| Season Three | June 1, 1991 | January 25, 1992 | 24 | |||
| Season Four | June 6, 1992 | January 30, 1993 | 24 + 1 | |||
| Season Five | July 17, 1993 | February 5, 1994 | 24 | |||
| Season Six | July 16, 1994 | March 25, 1995 | 24 + 2 | |||
| Season Seven | November 23, 1995 | March 18, 1996 | 6 | |||
| Sci Fi Channel | ||||||
| Season Eight | February 1, 1997 | December 6, 1997 | 22 + 3 | |||
| Season Nine | March 14, 1998 | September 26, 1998 | 13 + 2 | |||
| Season Ten | April 11, 1999 | September 12, 1999 | 13 | |||
| Netflix | ||||||
| Season Eleven | April 14, 2017 | 14 | ||||
| Season Twelve: The Gauntlet | November 22, 2018 | 6 | ||||
| The Gizmoplex | ||||||
| Season Thirteen | — | — | 13 | |||
| Feature Films | ||||||
| Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie | April 19, 1996 | |||||
In-Depth
- At a Glance: Additional information about the series
DVD Releases
External Sites
- Renewed
- Program
- Comedy Central
- Sci Fi Channel
- Netflix
- Comedy
- Science Fiction
- Outer Space
- Abominable Pictures
- Best Brains Productions
- Hair Brain Productions
- Resurrected Series
- 1980s
- 1990s
- 2010s
- 2020s
- 1988
- 1989
- 1990
- 1991
- 1992
- 1993
- 1994
- 1995
- 1996
- 1997
- 1998
- 1999
- 2017
- 2018
- 1988 Premieres
- 1989 Premieres
- TIME Magazine's 100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME
- Mystery Science Theater 3000
