Mystery Science Theater 3000

For those unfortunate few who have never seen an episode of Joel Hodgson's MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 (referred to by fans as 'MST3K'), here is a brief rundown on all the fun you've missed out on. Dr. Forrester is your typical mad scientist. He sports big glasses, an oversized lab coat, crazy hair, and an insatiable urge to take over the world. In an effort to kick off his latest foolproof world-domination scheme, Dr. Forrester abducts a dry-witted janitor named Joel Robinson from the research center they both work at. Joel is blasted into space in an apparently escape-proof ship called the Satellite of Love, forever doomed to orbit the planet Earth. Forrester keeps contact with Joel via satellite transmission, and each week sends hims an unbearably awful b-movie which he is forced to watch. The mad doctor's idea is to keep sending movies that are so mind-numbingly terrible that it will eventually drive Joel and his viewers to insanity, thus giving him an easy outlet for conquering the world. To help preserve his sanity, Joel uses parts from the ship to build four wise-cracking robot friends that keep him company and help us to avoid cinema-induced lunacy by mercilessly heckling the films.

The show aired weekly, and re-introduced old 1950s-70s era drive-in swill to a world that has long forgotten about it. The movies they chose--The Brain That Wouldn't Die, Time of the Apes, and (most notorious) Manos: The Hands of Fate, for example--were truly some of the most awful abominations in cinema history, and how they were able to find clear, working prints of these (mostly) obscure films is beyond me. Not only was it great to be able to witness some of these "masterpieces" first-hand, but the non-stop commentary by Joel, Tom, and Crow was absolutely hysterical. There was never a dull moment when those boys hit the SOL's onboard movie theater. On occasion, there would be a break from the movie to show a humorous sketch that would further the basic plot of the show. While many of these segments were admittedly not all that funny, they didn't last long, and Forrester would call for "MOVIE SIGN!" again in no time. Come to think of it, it may not even be that these primitive skits weren't funny, but that they simply paled in comparison to the sheer hilarity that took place in the ship's movie theater.

MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 is one of the few television programs that seems to be loved by virtually everybody. Seriously--I know of not a single person who didn't like this show, nor have I ever read a single negative comment or review of it. That being said, why on Earth was such a brilliant show like MST3K canceled? It couldn't have been because of poor ratings, since the show had a huge cult following and a substantial amount of regular viewers. If anyone has any information regarding why this series was taken off the air, please contact me!

MSTK 3K was never meant to be a quality show. It's simply a cheesy skit to make fun of really, really bad movies. In a world, where everybody takes things too seriously, this show produces a much needed boost of comedy. Sitcoms tend to become the same, and humor anymore is few and far between. There is just a finite number of plot lines that a sitcom can have. And many sitcoms tend to outlast their usefullness (Friends and Fraiser). However, MST3k, the humor is always refreshing. Joel (or Mike) and the robots never run out of potshots during a movie. So many movies become untentionally funny, because they are so poorly made. The robots are very clever, when they can relate contemporary events with old movies. I'll never forget when Croww T. Robot, said when he saw a wrecked T-bird "Teddy Kennedy are you alright?"

The shorts are very clever too. They make fun of the stupid short films that you had to watch in elementary school. (Posture, grooming, what to do on a date).

The only thing that one must watch out for, is that sometimes people don't get the jokes that the robots are pitching. As long as one is up on current events, he would find this show hilarious.

I remember watching the movie when it came out to theaters in 1996. I have never been in an audience that laughed so much.

I found MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 to be one of the most creative, original, funniest and greatest shows I've ever seen. It's very unique and has never been done before. It also has some very talented and very funny people, like Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett, Kevin Murphy and Trace Beaulieu. I didn't know there were so many bad b-rated movies until these guys found them and made fun of them. Then turn watching a crappy movie into a funny and enjoyable experience. It's a shame that this terrific show is over, because this is one show that never gets old.

A lot of the movies on which I've commented on this website I've seen as episodes of "Mystery Science Theater 3000." However, I find it difficult to write about this show as a whole - not because I can't think of anything to say, but because there is so much to say that I don't know where to begin or end.

I guess I'll start by saying I approached this show prepared to be unimpressed. A show about a janitor and two robots goofing on bad movies in space? That's about the dumbest idea for a TV show I've ever heard! And in lesser hands this could have been an idiotic show, not worth bothering with. But in the hands of the troupe of writers and performers who call themselves Best Brains it is a show of rare intelligence and wit. The writing is first rate and the performances (especially in the host segments, in which skits are performed which are more or less inspired by the movie) are sharp and enthusiastic. So good was the writing that show was able to remain fresh and entertaining despite several major cast changes (by the time the series ended after ten seasons none of the original cast members remained).

Best of all, this show helped broaden my appreciation for cheesy movies. I've always loved horror and sci-fi movies (horror especially), and some of the movies shown here were familiar, but there were others I would never have seen were it not for this show. Some laughably bad, others cheesy and surreal, others pretty darned interesting. (Still others were just plain bad.)

In short, this was one of the best shows ever shown on television.

Mystery Science Theater 3000: The most intelligent show ever seen by the eyes of man, and created by man too.

This show greatly critiques the acts and creations of our imperfect society by making various remarks throughout the 'host segments' and 'movie segments' and makes good hilarity in the process.

If you have never seen it, you have to! I'd greatly recommend it for geeks and the fashionable alike, though the geeks seem to understand it a lot more.