Mystery Science Theater 3000, often abbreviated MST3K, is an American ^ b. English is the de facto language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 80% of Americans age five and older. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language cult television A cult following is used to refer to a small or large group of fans that are either somewhat or highly dedicated to a specific area of pop culture comedy series created by Joel Hodgson Joel Gordon Hodgson is an American writer, comedian and television actor. He is best known for creating Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) and starring in it as the character Joel Robinson. In 2007 MST3K was listed as "one of the top 100 television shows of all time" by Time.com. Hodgson is currently "movie riffing" with and produced by Best Brains, Inc., that ran from 1988 to 1999.

The series features a man and his robot sidekicks who are trapped on a space station by an evil scientist and forced to watch a selection of bad movies The films listed here have achieved notably negative reception as being called one of the worst films ever made. The films have either been cited by a combination of reputable sources as the worst movie of the year, or been on such a source's list of the worst movies of all time. Examples of such sources include Roger Ebert's list of most hated, initially (but not specifically limited to) science fiction B-movies A B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture that is not definitively an arthouse or pornographic film. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature. Although the U.S. production of movies intended as. To keep sane, the man and his robots provide a running commentary on each film, making fun of its flaws and wisecracking (or "riffing") their way through each reel in the style of a movie-theater peanut gallery A peanut gallery is an audience that heckles the performer. The term originated in the days of vaudeville as a nickname for the cheapest seats in the theater; the cheapest snack served at the theater would often be peanuts, which the patrons would sometimes throw at the performers on stage to show their disapproval. The phrases "no comments. Each film is presented with a superimposition of the man and robots' silhouettes along the bottom of the screen.

Series creator Hodgson originally played the stranded man, Joel Robinson Joel Robinson is a fictional character featured in the American science fiction comedy television series Mystery Science Theater 3000 . He was portrayed by Joel Hodgson, the creator of the series, for six and a half seasons. When Hodgson left in 1993, series head writer Michael J. Nelson Michael John Nelson is a U.S. comedian and writer, most famous for his work on the cult television series Mystery Science Theater 3000 (M.S.T.3K). Nelson was the head writer of the series for most of the show's eleven year run, and spent half of that time playing the on-air host, also named Mike Nelson. In addition to writing books, Mike is replaced him as new victim Mike Nelson Mike Nelson is a fictional character in the comedy science fiction television series Mystery Science Theater 3000. Portrayed by actor/head writer Michael J. Nelson, Mike is a likable, sometimes dim temp worker from Wisconsin who comes to work for the mad scientists Dr. Clayton Forrester and TV's Frank in Deep 13 while they prepare for an evil-, and continued in the role for the rest of the show's run.

During its eleven years, 198 episodes and one feature film Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie is a theatrical adaptation of the television series Mystery Science Theater 3000. The date of the movie's production, between seasons 6 and 7 of MST3K, explains the absence of both TV's Frank (Frank Conniff), who left the series in the finale of Season 6, and Pearl Forrester (Mary Jo Pehl), who arrived in, MST3K attained critical acclaim. The series won a Peabody Award The George Foster Peabody Awards are annual, international awards for excellence in radio and television broadcasting. They honor distinction and achievement within the fields of broadcast journalism, documentary film making, educational and children's programming, and entertainment. First awarded in 1941 for programs from the previous year, they in 1993, was nominated for writing Emmys The Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards , Grammy Awards (for music) and Tony Awards (for stage) in 1994 and 1995, and was nominated for a CableACE Award.

Premise

The show's loosely-defined plot serves chiefly as a pretext for the movie commentary and the comic sketches, known as "host segments," which appear throughout each episode.

Two mad scientists, Dr. Clayton Forrester Dr. Clayton Deborah Susan Forrester is a fictional character on the television series Mystery Science Theater 3000 . Named for the hero of the 1953 film The War of the Worlds, Dr. Forrester was the chief mad scientist on the show from its inception in 1988 through the seventh season in 1996, and also appeared in Mystery Science Theater 3000: The (named after the main character in The War of the Worlds), played by Trace Beaulieu Trace Beaulieu is an American puppeteer, writer, and actor. He is best known for his roles on Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K), and his sidekick Dr. Laurence Erhardt Dr. Laurence "Larry" Erhardt is a fictional character and one of the two original villains on the cult television show Mystery Science Theater 3000. He was played by Josh "J. Elvis" Weinstein, played by Josh Weinstein, launch Joel Robinson (Hodgson), a janitor working for Gizmonic Institute, into space and force him to watch truly horrible B-movies A B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture that is not definitively an arthouse or pornographic film. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature. Although the U.S. production of movies intended as. They do this in order to measure how much bad-movie-watching it takes to drive a person crazy, and to pinpoint the perfect B-movie to use as a weapon in Dr. Forrester's scheme of world domination. Forrester's scheme was as such, when he found a movie so bad that it broke Joel's spirit, he would unleash it on an unsuspecting populace and turn everyone into mindless zombie slaves. The sycophantic TV's Frank TV's Frank, played by Frank Conniff, is mad scientist Dr. Clayton Forrester's lab assistant in the television comedy series Mystery Science Theater 3000. He appears at the beginning of Season 2, with the departure of Forrester's earlier co-scientist Dr. Laurence Erhardt, and continues through Season 6. According to The Mystery Science Theater 3000, played by Frank Conniff Frank Conniff is a writer and actor who is perhaps best known for his portrayal of TV's Frank on Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K), replaced Dr. Erhardt in the second season premiere on the Comedy Channel (third season overall), following Weinstein's departure from the series.

Trapped on board the Satellite of Love The Satellite of Love is the fictional main setting of the comedy television series Mystery Science Theater 3000. It is a giant bone-shaped spacecraft that Joel Robinson (later replaced by Mike Nelson) and his friends — robots Crow, Tom Servo, Gypsy, Cambot, and the noncorporeal Magic Voice — live in. The vessel was in orbit above Earth during (S.O.L.) — a reference to the Lou Reed Lewis Allan "Lou" Reed is an American rock musician, songwriter, and photographer. He is best known as guitarist, vocalist, and principal songwriter of The Velvet Underground, and for his successful solo career, which spans several decades and crosses multiple genres. The Velvet Underground gained little mainstream attention during their song — Joel builds four sentient Sentience is the ability to feel or perceive. The term is used in science and philosophy, and in the study of artificial intelligence. Sentience is used in the study of consciousness to describe the ability to have sensations or experiences, known to Western philosophers as "qualia". In eastern philosophy, sentience is a metaphysical robots that populate the ship (ostensibly because he is lonely, and as a homage to the 1972 film Silent Running). The robots are Tom Servo Tom Servo is a fictional character from the American science fiction comedy television show Mystery Science Theater 3000 . Tom is one of two wise-cracking, robotic main characters of the show, built by Joel Robinson to act as a companion and help stave off space madness as Joel was forced to watch low-quality films. Servo, along with the other (voiced first by Weinstein, then by Kevin Murphy beginning in Season 2 on Comedy Channel, Season 3 overall), and Crow T. Robot Crow T. Robot is a fictional character from the American science fiction comedy television series Mystery Science Theater 3000 . Crow is a robot, who, along with others, quips and riffs upon poor-quality B movies (voiced first by Beaulieu, then by Bill Corbett He was a writer and performer on the cult television show Mystery Science Theater 3000 , for which he voiced the robot Crow T. Robot during the show's later seasons on the Sci Fi Channel and played the character Observer and other minor roles. In 2001, Corbett co-wrote the Sci Fi Channel miniseries The Adventures of Edward the Less with several beginning in Season 8 [first year on the Sci-Fi Channel, ninth overall year of the show]), who accompany Joel in the screening room; Gypsy Gypsy is one of the robot characters on the television series Mystery Science Theater 3000. She is larger and less talkative than the other robots. Gypsy normally only appeared during the show's host segments and introduction, but briefly took a seat in the theater to watch the movie in episode #412 . She was only able to deliver a couple of " (voiced first by Weinstein, inhaling as he spoke, then by Jim Mallon Jim Mallon is an American television and film producer and writer, most notable for being executive producer of the Peabody Award-winning series Mystery Science Theater 3000 . He is also president of the series' production company, Best Brains, Inc., directed more than 75 episodes of MST3K, and played the role of Gypsy from the first season until and later by Patrick Brantseg Patrick Brantseg was the Art Director and puppeteer for "Gypsy" on Mystery Science Theater 3000, taking over the character from Jim Mallon, the show's producer, mid-way through the show's eighth season. He began his career at Best Brains, Inc. as an intern in 1992. In that same year he was hired to work in the art department under the, both using a falsetto Falsetto is the vocal register occupying the frequency range just above the modal voice register and overlapping with it by approximately one octave. It is produced by the vibration of the ligamentous edges of the vocal folds, in whole or in part. Commonly cited in the context of singing, falsetto, a characteristic of phonation by both men and voice), who does not appear in every episode but handles the "higher functions" of the S.O.L. (such as steering the ship); and Cambot Cambot is one of the fictional robot characters on the Mystery Science Theater 3000 television series. It is through Cambot's "eye" that viewers watch Joel Robinson and the other robots as they watch the movies that are sent to the Satellite of Love each week, the recorder of the experiments who is visible only in a mirror during the opening credits and occasionally interacts with the others (for example, when Cambot is asked a yes-or-no question, the onscreen image will shift up and down or left and right, as if Cambot were nodding or shaking itself in a "yes" or "no" gesture). Also making intermittent "appearances" in the show's early years is Magic Voice Magic Voice is the voice of the Satellite of Love's computer on the science fiction/comedy TV series Mystery Science Theater 3000. She provides general announcements, like "commercial sign in 15 seconds", but occasionally participates in the dialog of the show's "host segments". Her personality implies a maturity somewhat, a disembodied female voice whose primary role is to announce the start of the first commercial break in each episode.

Joel has no control over when the movies start, because—as the original theme song stated -- "he used those special parts to make his robot friends." (Those "robot friends" being Cambot, Gypsy, Crow, and Tom Servo. The opening theme-song lyrics were changed repeatedly in later seasons to accommodate plot changes, like when Mike Nelson replaced Joel Robinson.) He must enter the theater when "Movie Sign" flashes, because Dr. Clayton Forrester (and in later seasons, his evil would-be tyrant mother Pearl) has numerous ways to punish Joel/Mike for non-compliance, including shutting off the oxygen supply to the rest of the ship, and electric shocks. As the movies play, the silhouettes of Joel/Mike, Tom, and Crow are visible at the bottom of the screen, wisecracking and mocking the movie (a practice they often referred to as "riffing") in order to prevent themselves from being driven mad.

Several times during each movie (about every half-hour when shown with commercials), Joel (and later Mike) and the bots perform skits, songs, or other short sketch pieces (called "host segments") that are usually related to the movie they are watching. These segments sometimes even feature "visits" by prominent characters from a shown movie, such as Torgo from Manos: The Hands of Fate, "Jan in the Pan" from The Brain That Wouldn't Die The Brain That Wouldn't Die, also known as The Head That Wouldn't Die, is a 1962 science-fiction/horror film directed by Joseph Green and written by Green and Rex Carlton. The film was actually produced and completed in 1959, but was not released until three years later. A scientist develops a means to keep human body parts alive. When he, Ortega from The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies, and Mothra Mothra is a kaiju, a type of fictional monster who first appeared in the serialized novel The Luminous Fairies and Mothra by Takehiko Fukunaga, Shinichiro Nakamura, and Yoshie Hotta. Since her film début in the 1961 film Mothra, she has appeared in several Toho tokusatsu films from Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster, released in Japan as Godzilla, Ebirah, Mothra: Big Duel in the South Seas and known internationally as Ebirah, Horror of the Deep, is a 1966 kaiju/tokusatsu film directed by Jun Fukuda and written by Shinichi Sekizawa. The special effects were directed by Eiji Tsuburaya. It is the seventh film in the original Godzilla.

Many episodes without movies long enough to fill the show's run time also include screenings of unintentionally hilarious short films or "shorts," including educational films An educational film is a film or movie whose primary purpose is to educate. Educational films have been used in classrooms as an alternative to other teaching methods from the 1940s through the 1960s, a training film for Chevrolet Chevrolet , also known as Chevy (pronounced /ˈʃɛvi/), is a brand of vehicle produced by General Motors Company (GM). Founded by Louis Chevrolet and ousted GM founder William C. Durant on November 8, 1911, Chevrolet was acquired by General Motors in 1917. Chevrolet was positioned by Alfred Sloan to sell a lineup of mainstream vehicles to sales managers, and films intended to teach children about posture Webster's New World Medical Dictionary defines "neutral posture" as the stance which is attained "when the joints are not bent and the spine is aligned and not twisted." In this position, a person is able to completely and optimally attain balance and proportion of his or her body mass and framework, based on his or her or personal hygiene Hygiene is an old concept related to medicine, as well as to personal and professional care practices related to most aspects of living. In medicine and in home and everyday life settings, hygiene practices are employed as preventative measures to reduce the incidence and spreading of disease. In the manufacture of food, pharmaceutical, cosmetic. On one occasion a Gumby Gumby is a green clay humanoid figure who was the subject of a 233-episode series of American television which spanned over a 35-year period. He was animated using stop motion clay animation cartoon was used as a short, and on three other occasions, segments from 1960s episodes of the soap opera A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on television or radio. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers such as Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive, and Lever Brothers as sponsors General Hospital General Hospital is an American daytime television drama. It is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as being the second longest-running American soap opera currently in production and the third longest running drama in television in American history after Guiding Light and As the World Turns. It premiered on the ABC television network were used. These are less frequent in later episodes. They are nonexistent in season 8 (the first Sci-Fi Channel season), because during that season the Sci-Fi Channel's executives required that every film be a science-fiction, fantasy, or horror movie. The restriction was lifted for the final two seasons, with season 9 featuring two shorts (including the aforementioned Gumby film) and season 10, one short (in the penultimate episode).

Background and history

Inspirations and influences

Hodgson credits Silent Running, a 1972 sci-fi film directed by Douglas Trumbull, as being perhaps the biggest direct influence on the show's concept. The film is set in the future and centers on a human, Freeman Lowell (Bruce Dern), who is the last crew member of a spaceship containing Earth's last surviving forests. His remaining companions consist only of three robot drones (the third robot is destroyed in the beginning of the movie), though they are not able to converse with him. MST3K and the Joel Robinson character also occasionally reflected Lowell's "hippie The hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that arose in the United States during the mid-1960s, swiftly spreading to other countries around the world. The etymology of the term 'hippie' is from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into New York City's Greenwich Village and San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury"-like nature.^[1]

Although MST3K was arguably the most successful television series to satirize the B movie genre, it was not the first. Prior to MST3K's 1988 debut, the nationally syndicated TV series, Mad Movies with the L.A. Connection and The Canned Film Festival, featured many of the same movies but each lasted for only a single season in 1985 and 1986 respectively.

Hodgson cites Beany and Cecil Beany and Cecil was an animated cartoon series created by Bob Clampett, who had previously worked for Warner Bros.. As a puppet show entitled Time for Beany, it originally aired in 1949, with the animated series first appearing in Matty's Funday Funnies in 1959, later renamed Matty's Funnies with Beany and Cecil and finally Beany and Cecil in the as having likely been a subconscious childhood influence. The 1960s Bob Clampett Clampett showed an interest in animation and puppetry from his early teens in Los Angeles. The young Clampett designed the first Mickey Mouse dolls for Walt Disney. As Clampett would later claim in interviews, Disney was impressed with the young artist, and promised him a job. However, a lack of space at Disney's tiny Hyperion studio prevented cartoon series centered on a boy and his sea serpent friend. In an interview, Hodgson made loose retrospective comparisons to elements between the two shows, such as the ship (the Leakin' Lena, to the S.O.L.), and the characters of Beany (to Joel), Cecil (to Gypsy), Huffenpuff (to Tom Servo), Crowy (to Crow), and Dishonest John (to Dr. Forrester).^[1]

Another childhood influence was the CBS Children's Film Festival, a 1970s live-action program which starred Kukla, Fran and Ollie Burr Tillstrom was the creator and only puppeteer on the show, which premiered as the hour-long Junior Jamboree locally on WBKB in Chicago on October 13, 1947. The program was renamed Kukla, Fran and Ollie and transferred to WNBQ (the predecessor of Chicago's WMAQ-TV) on November 29, 1948. The first NBC network broadcast of the show took place on, Burr Tillstrom's puppet troupe which was made famous during television's early days in the '40s and '50s. The characters consisted of a human (played by Fran Allison) and her two puppet friends (both performed by Tillstrom). Each episode of Film Festival featured an international children's film, with Kukla, Fran and Ollie serving as hosts. Fran would lead discussions of the film as the episode went on, in similar fashion to MST3K's host segments.^[1]

The signature silhouetted movie seats were partially inspired by several Looney Tunes Looney Tunes is a Warner Bros. animated cartoon series which ran in many movie theaters from 1930 to 1969. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and is WB's first animated theatrical series. The regular Warner Bros. animation cast also became known as the "Looney Tunes" shorts in which an on-screen character would interact with a "theater audience member" who could only be seen in silhouette.

The name of the Joel Robinson character is a reference to the 1960s television series Lost in Space Lost in Space is a science fiction television program created and produced by Irwin Allen, produced by 20th Century Fox Television, and broadcast on CBS. The show ran for three seasons, with 83 episodes airing between September 15, 1965 and March 6, 1968. The first season was shot with black and white film, the rest in color. In 1998, a film based, which followed the adventures of the shipwrecked Robinsons, a family of astronauts (which itself traces the theme of castaway A castaway is a person who is cast adrift or ashore. While the situation usually happens after a shipwreck, some people voluntarily stay behind on a deserted island either to evade their captors or the world in general. Alternatively a person or item can be cast away, meaning rejected or discarded. Note that when a person was left ashore as Robinsons through The Swiss Family Robinson The Swiss Family Robinson is a novel, first published in 1812, about a Swiss family who are shipwrecked in the East Indies en route to Port Jackson, Australia [1812] back to Robinson Crusoe Robinson Crusoe, is a novel by Daniel Defoe that was first published in 1719. The book is a fictional autobiography of the title character—a castaway who spends 28 years on a remote tropical island near Venezuela, encountering Native Americans, captives, and mutineers before being rescued [1719]). In the pilot and first season on KTMA-TV, Hodgson used his real last name.

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