Bring back MST3K!
Over time, fans watched in sorrow as the beloved riff-fest TV series Mystery Science Theatre 3000 dwindled away to nothing as it lost the rights, one by one, to the bad movies it lampooned. The series’ demise left a big snark-shaped hole behind for many of us. It’s not like the world suddenly ran out of bad movies—where were our marooned spaceman and bots to give them meaning?
For the woefully uninitiated, the concept behind MST3K was simple, and a little unhinged: A hapless maintenance guy, first Joel Hodgson and then Mike Nelson, is abducted and stranded on the Satellite of Love. Hodgson, AKA “Joel Robinson,” builds himself some decidedly low-tech robot companions. Together they spout riotously funny commentary on the terrible movies they’re forced to watch by evil overlords monitoring Robinson’s mind.
Starting in the mid-’80s, MST3K survived cast major changes, a leap from Minnesota public TV to Comedy Central and then to what is now Syfy, amassing a fervent cult following of “MSTies” along the way. There was a feature film, there were conventions, and there were a couple of online spinoffs involving competing teams of ex-cast members, Rifftrax and Cinematic Titanic.
Now, the video above is part of a new Kickstarter campaign to resurrect MST3K and introduce it to a new generation, and it’s already halfway to its goal, passing the $1 million mark with 30 days to go. The idea is to produce sets of new episodes—and the more money raised, the more episodes they can make. It’s unclear who else from the original series is involved, but just reading the hilarious Kickstarter page will get MSTies right back into the joyously bonkers mood.
Update, Nov. 12, 2016: This post has been edited to clarify that The Mads, the evil overlords in Mystery Science Theater 3000, forced Robinson and Nelson to watch films so they could monitor their minds. Torture was just a bonus.
