"Mystery Science Theater 3000" (1988) TV series 1988-1999

Creator:

Joel Hodgson

Seasons:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11

Release Date:

24 November 1988 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

We've got movie signs!

Plot:

In the not too distant future, a man and his robots are trapped on the Satellite of love, where evil scientists force them to sit through the worst movies ever made.

Plot Keywords:

Robot | Mad Scientist | Epic | Puppet | Cult Comedy

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Primetime Emmys. Another 1 win & 10 nominations

Cast

Kevin Murphy	...	Tom Servo / ... (182 episodes, 1988-1999)
Jim Mallon	...	Gypsy / ... (143 episodes, 1989-1998)
Trace Beaulieu	...	Crow T. Robot / ... (139 episodes, 1988-1996)
Michael J. Nelson	...	Mike Nelson / ... (121 episodes, 1990-1999)
Mary Jo Pehl	...	Magic Voice / ... (120 episodes, 1992-1999)
Frank Conniff	...	TV's Frank / ... (107 episodes, 1990-1999)
Joel Hodgson	...	Joel Robinson / ... (99 episodes, 1988-1999)

Also Known As:

MST 3000 (USA) (short title)
MST3K (USA) (short title)
Mystery Science Theater 2000 (USA) (working title)
Mystery Science Theater Hour (USA) (rerun title)
Mystery Science Theatre 3000 (UK)
The Mystery Science Theater Hour (USA) (syndication title)

Runtime:

97 min (199 episodes)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White | Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Australia:M | USA:TV-14 | USA:TV-PG

Filming Locations:

Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

Company:

Best Brains

Trivia:

According to Mike Nelson, many amateur filmmakers who were fans of MST3K offered to make bad movies specifically for the show.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: In many episodes you can hear the sound of the bots and the host turning the pages as go through their manuscripts.

Quotes:

Dr. Forrester: Nelson! A recent study by a research group at Senior's Lifestyle revealed that, and Frank quotes...
TV's Frank: Owning and caring for a pet decreases hyper-tension, slows the heart-rate, and lowers blood pressure. Unquote.
Dr. Forrester: Obviously the cuter the pet the lower the heart-rate... Anyway, I've designed the world's most adorable pet! It will make you so placid, so care-free, that I'll be able to rule the world and you won't even notice! You, as per usual, are the test case. Frank?
TV's Frank: And his name is... NummyMuffinCoocolButter! Oh, yes, and he's the nummiest little thing there's ever been! Oh, yes you are!
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "The Simpsons: Who Shot Mr. Burns?: Part 1 (#6.25)" (1995)

Soundtrack:

To Earth

Movie Sign!

Mystery Science Theater 3000, one of my favorite shows of all time, I'm serious. This is one of the best television shows ever created, why is it such a cult classic? Ever see a really bad movie? I know you have, we also know how much we love to make fun of a really bad movie, that's exactly what the characters of Mystery Science Theater 3000 do, they take the worst movies of all time and absolutely tear them a new one. They are like the friends we want to have around when you feel like you wasted your money at the movies, because at least you can get a good laugh at just making fun of it. I saw this show for the first time in 1998 when my parents finally broke down and got cable, the first channel that popped up when I turned on the TV was the sci fi channel and what looked like a fun werewolf movie... then I noticed three little figures in the corner. I didn't get it, why are they talking through the mov... oh, because this is a really bad movie and they are saying everything that I am thinking... I'm in love! At that point I was hooked and tuned in every week to see a new episode.

The show first started off with Joel, a man who is stranded on the satellite of love space ship with several robots: Crow T. Robot, Tom Servo, Gypsy and Gambot. He is being tortured by our villain, Dr. Forrester with terrible movies. Eventually in the middle of season 5, we got a new host, Mike Nelson. He was a slave to Dr. Forrester, but is now sentenced to the same fate as Joel to see the most horrible movies of all time. We also later on got a different villain, Dr. Forrester's mother, Pearl Forrester who is trying to take over the world while presenting horrendous movies to Mike and the bots.

The great thing about this show is it didn't just make fun of horror movies, nope, any bad movie could face the hand smack of Mystery Science Theater 3000. I couldn't choose a favorite episode, but I stepped into the Mike era so most of my favorites come out of those seasons like: Prince of Space, The Final Sacrifice, Space Mutiny, Girl in Gold Boots, The Brain that wouldn't Die, Squirm and Soultaker. Not only do they make fun of movies, but "educational" shorts as well with the scary "A Date With Your Family" and "Spring Fever!" that are frankly the most disturbing thing on film. Like most shows, not every episode is a classic, but is always guaranteed a good laugh. There are some haters on this show saying that they hate seeing people talk through the film, if you really want to see films like the one's they make fun of, I pity you.