Mystery Science Theater 3000: Difference between revisions
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Looney Toons (talk | contribs) Undo revision 1917140 by ArtsyGirl (talk) - grammar and usage. Past tense of "broadcast" is "broadcast", not "broadcasted"; plus using "broadcast" instead of "debuted" means it was a one-episode show only seen once, which is not the case. Tag: Undo |
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{{quote|''"WE'VE GOT MOVIE SIIIIGN!!!"''}}
'''''Mystery Science Theater 3000''''' — '''''MST3K''''' for short — debuted on the local [[Twin Cities|Minneapolis]] UHF station KTMA (currently CW station WUCW) in 1988. Somewhere between [[Sketch Comedy]], improv, and a late-night movie anthology, ''MST3K'' showed some of the worst films imaginable—or at least the kind of crappy [[B-Movie|B-movies]] a third-tier UHF station could afford the rights to — intercut with framing sequences following the life of the hapless Joel Robinson (Joel Hodgson), who is stranded on the "[[Fun with Acronyms|Satellite of Love]]" by [[Mad Scientist|mad scientists]] Dr. Clayton Forrester (Trace Beaulieu, a reference to the hero of the 1953 film adaptation of ''War of the Worlds'') and Dr. Lawrence "Larry" Erhardt (Josh Weinstein). During the movies, Joel is joined by Crow T. Robot (Beaulieu) and Tom Servo (Weinstein), two robots he'd contrived from spare parts, and the trio would mercilessly [[MST|riff]] on the [[So Bad It's Good|comically low quality]] of the films they watched. (Joel and The Bots were portrayed in "Shadowrama" as if they were sitting in the front row of a theater showing the movies.) The show was partially aimed towards a young audience, which made the riffing generally good-natured, unlike the bitter sarcasm of (for example) the Medved brothers of ''Golden Turkey Awards'' fame.
''MST3K'' quickly achieved cult status; after one season, the show was picked up by the fledgling Comedy Channel (now [[Comedy Central]]). Although the riffing was a lot more sophisticated—it was now written in advance, rather than improvised—the show never betrayed its low-budget roots, featuring production values which deliberately mimicked the string-powered pie plates and papier-mache aliens of the films it mocked. After the first season on Comedy Central, Weinsten left; he was replaced by the big-voiced Kevin Murphy (as Tom Servo) and the generally big Frank Conniff (as TV's Frank, who became Dr. Forrester's hapless sidekick). With this cast in place, the show hit its stride and ran for six more seasons, eventually spawning [[The Movie|a feature film]]. During the fifth season, Joel left and was [[Suspiciously Similar Substitute|seamlessly replaced]] by head writer Mike Nelson.
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* [[The Artifact]]: The Invention Exchanges sorta became this once Joel left. They were originally a way for Joel Hodgson to show off props from his magic show. They were eventually phased out.
* [[Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence]]: The SOL gang reached the edge of the universe and became pure energy in the finale of Season 7, when the show's run on [[Comedy Central]] ended. Luckily, [[Uncancelled|this didn't last long]].
** TV's Frank, ushered by [[Manos: The Hands of Fate|Torgo]] [[The Lord of the Rings|the White]].
* [[Asleep for Days]]: In [[The Movie]], Crow jokes that the departure of [[This Island Earth|Cal Meachum]] prompts Joe to sleep off his depression: "I'm gonna curl up in his sock drawer and sleep for days."
* [[Audience Murmurs]]: In early seasons Joel and the bots will simulate crowd noise by muttering "rhubarb rhubarb" - however, it's always an ''appropriate'' type of rhubarb, e.g. "journalist rhubarb" or "military rhubarb." And in Japanese movies, instead of "rhubarb rhubarb", one often catches them muttering "wasabi, bok choy, seaweed".
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* [[Incredibly Lame Pun]]: Many, but intentionally.
* [[Incredibly Long Note]]: Kevin especially is able to hold one of these, in ''The Leech Woman''. Tom loses it and acts like Ma Clampett from ''[[Beverly Hillbillies]]'' screaming *Jeeeeeed* for THE ENTIRETY OF THE ENDING CREDITS. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYEOItGC48o 57 unbroken seconds]. (This is a bit of a fake example, however—if you listen closely, you can hear where the scream was edited to sound really long.)
** Crow in "The Mole People
** Mike's "screaming" [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKL_8IKpnp4=1 in this host segment] semi-qualifies.
* [[Info Dump]]: Joel (especially in the early seasons) and Mike would sometimes--[[Expository Theme Tune|redundantly]]—explain the premise in the opening host segment. Only in ''[[Stranded in Space]]'' was it mentioned that the Mads were selling the experiments as a cable TV show. ''[[Wild Rebels]]'' is also the only episode where the theater is referred to as the Mystery Science Theater.
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'''Crow''': Did I say anything about murder? }}
* [[Syndication Title]]: In the mid-'90s [[Comedy Central]] edited some episodes down to one hour, added new introductory segments with Michael J. Nelson as "Your Host" (a parody of Jack Perkins, longtime host of A&E's ''Biography'' series), and syndicated them as ''The Mystery Science Theater Hour''.
* [[Take That]]: The host segments during
** Also a few less subtle digs, such as The Sandy Frank Song.
** They also seem to have genuine contempt for Japanese animation and think it's all super violent and/or porno.
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{{reflist}}
{{TV Guide's Top Cult Shows Ever}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:American Series]]
[[Category:Comedy Series]]
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