mystery science theater 3000 info
Sparking an interest in B movies for a generation of television viewers, Mystery Science Theater 3000 aired first on
the independent Minnesota station KTMA station beginning in November 1988. The following year, the fledgling Comedy Channel (later Comedy Central) picked up the
show, where it ran for seven seasons before cancellation in 1997. The Sci-Fi network then picked up the show, running for three more seasons until the network
canceled its order for new shows. The series then aired in reruns until 2002.   
LEFT: Mary Jo Pehl as Pearl Forrester in a Sci-Fi Channel-era shot. CENTER A: Frank Conniff as TV's Frank and Trace Beaulieu as Dr. Clayton Forrester in a Comedy Central episode. CENTER B: Series creator Joel Hodgson as Joel Robinson. RIGHT: Mike Nelson took over the role as host in the middle of season 5The cast of the series, including series creator Joel Hodgson, Frank Conniff, Trace Beaulieu, Mike Nelson, Josh Weinstein, Kevin Murphy, Mary Jo Pehl, and Bill Corbett, branched off into two different factions: Rifftrax (Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy, Bill Corbett, Bridget Jones, and Mary Jo Pehl) and Cinematic Titanic (Joel Hodgson, Frank Conniff, Trace Beaulieu, Mary Jo Pehl, and Josh Weinstein). Rifftrax, launched in 2006, focuses on downloadable 'riffs' on current films, as well as downloads of entire movies with riffs. Beginning in 2007, Cinematic Titanic released several DVDs but concentrates on live shows in a number of U.S. venues. Sadly, 2013 was the last year of live shows for the cast of Cinematic Titanic, which spelled the end of production. Series creator Joel Hodgson relaunched the series again with Netflix in 2015, with an entirely new cast and new episodes of the show in production. Thanks to a very successful Kickstarter campaign, Hodgson produced fourteen episodes of season eleven which were released on Netflix on April 14, 2017. Netflix quickly ordered a twelfth season but with only six episodes. Netflix and Hodgson went their separate ways in 2019, and in 2021 he announced a thirteenth season Kickstarter and a platform called Gizmoplex to view new episodes; these episodes debuted in March 2022. A fall 2023 fundraising campaign for season 14 failed to bring in enough money for more episodes. Produced by Chris Gersbeck's Dumb Industries, Mary Jo Pehl has her own show on Twitch titled The Mary Jo Pehl Show, and once a month she does a cold riff of a public domain film she has not seen before, usually accompanied by Gersbeck. In 2016 Trace Beaulieu and Frank Conniff started a new project titled The Mads Are Back. The pair toured the country with their hilarious movie-riffing shows until the start of the pandemic. In 2020, they moved the operation online so that fans can watch a new movie with The Mads each month, produced by Chris Gersbeck's Dumb Industries, aired live on the second Tuesday of each month. Fans who pay to watch the live show are also able to download it at a later date. |
non-riffed mst3k film now showing |
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