ftp.ee.pdx.edu/2014.02.ftp.ee.pdx.edu.tar/ftp.ee.pdx.edu/pub/mst3k/sol/sol.30

Internet Message Format | 1994-02-02 | 45KB

From rsk  Thu Nov 12 23:05:36 1992
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 92 23:05:36 EST
From: rsk (Rich Kulawiec)
Posted-Date: Thu, 12 Nov 92 23:05:36 EST
Received-Date: Thu, 12 Nov 92 23:05:36 EST
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Satellite of Love News #30
Status: OR

This issue, and the next one, consist entirely of reprints of
various articles dealing with MST3K.  A big thanks to Lisa Jenkins,
undoubtedly the most prolific correspondent this mailing list
has ever seen (and probably one of the better typists ;-) ),
for sending all of this along.  I've hung on to these for a while,
waiting for a bit of a lull to send them out; since I also need
to test a new sendmail config file tonight, I'm taking this
opportunity to pound the daylights out of everyone's mailer...starting
with ours.

Bon appetit, hypnotized love-slaves of Hercules,
---Rsk

----------

From: [e-mail] (Lisa D. Jenkins)
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 92 17:03:38 CDT
Subject: MST3K articles

From MST3K's humble beginnings to its present, here are more articles!


From: Twin Cities Reader*
Date: May 31-June 6, 1989
Headline: T.V.
Subline: _Mystery Science Theater 3000_ The Last Voyage?
Photo(s): Joel Hodgson and Crow in "The ultimate couch potato show." [Joel
          with *long hair* and original Crow on original set.]
Author: Brauer, David
Page(s): 19
Note: MST3K has been put "on hiatus" from KTMA-TV 23.

This is an unauthorized reprint.

"WELL, WE COULD PUT A LITTLE LIGHTER fluid on it," says Joel Hodgson, staring
intently at the scale model of a Kentucky Fried Chicken store in front of him.
He's pondering how to make the thing go up into flames when the Godzilla toy
rigged to spout butane comes crashing down on it.

"Hairspray'd work," suggests a buddy.

"Actually, nondairy creamer works," replies Hodgson.

"Yeahhh, right," answers the friend.

"It does," insists Hodgson.  "They use it in flash pots all the time."

They settle for styling mousse, which looks a little like snow on the model's
rooftop, but it doesn't light.

Such are the creative struggles on the set of _Mystery Science Theater 3000_,
the best cult show on local television.  But if you haven't already seen it,
you may never.  The show aired its last broadcast last Sunday on KTMA-TV 23
and went "on hiatus," a TV term meaning near-death but with a pulse.

No one involved seems sure if it will be back, and if it's not, MST 3000 will
enter the ranks of such honored but departed local classics as Dave Moore's
_Bedtime Newz_.  It will be gone before most people know enough to miss it.

The show is a triumph of low tech and local talent: MST 3000 mixes the wit of
three Twin Cities comics (Hodgson, Trace Beaulieu, and Josh Weinstein) with
Hodgson's famous gizmos, which have been a staple on the Twin Cities comedy
circut for years.

MST 3000 is like a Salvation Army _Pee Wee's Playhouse_, a little less cheery
but a lot more wickedly cynical.  The show is set on an orbiting space station
where Hodgson has been sent by two evil scientists (played by Beaulieu and
Weinstein).  The premise is that Hodgson is trapped and forced to watch the
worst old movies in the world--usually Japanese monster films--by his captors.
For company, Hodgson has built robot friends (operated by Beaulieu and
Weinstein) from spare parts on the space station, and together they relieve
the boredom by mocking the movies.

The show's appeal, says Weinstein, "is a little scarey.  It's the ultimate
couch potato show.  People always sit and watch movies and hack on them.  Now
they can do it without doing anything."

Despite the production values--Hodgson says the robots came from "found
objects and cost no more than 10 bucks each"--MST 3000 is easily the most
creative show on local TV.  Of course, that isn't hard when you consider that
most other locally produced shows in the Twin Cities are gloppy, sappy talk
shows or gloppy, sappy newscasts.

But MST 3000 has struck a chord; at last count, the fan club had 1,131
members, and the show (airing opposite _60 Minutes_) has drawn as high as a
"four" rating--this on a station whose top-rated show is _The Andy Griffith
Show_.

The fan club reflects the show's appeal: It's for smart, cynical kids of all
ages.  "We've got a strong 7- to 10-year-old contingent who are attracted to
the puppets," says producer Jim Mallon.  "But what's even more amazing is that
their moms send in for memberships, too.  And that's only about 30 percent of
our membership: We've got a lot of college students and couples in their late
'20s and early '30s."

Says Hodgson, "It's a show that can be watched by the whole family, or as a
cult thing.  That's really amazing to me."

Hodgson left comedy a few years back in a well-publicized retirement, but he
has returned to the scene with a vengeance: He's a staple at the Comedy
Gallery, has worked on Louie Anderson's upcoming NBC show, and will be off
next month for a writing stint with HBO.  Hodgson's income is in the
thousands-per-week range, but he still takes time out for MST 3000, a show
that requires, by his estimate, about 16 hours a week and earns him "next to
nothing."

But, adds Hodgson, "I guess my dream is to be able to make TV in Minneapolis.
It's really hard for me to make TV in L.A., and it's obvious people are more
talented here, more so than on the East or West Coast."

Still, the MST 3000 crew wonders if the Twin Cities are ready.  Says Beaulieu
simply, "This is one the viewers will have to decide.  We all want to keep
doing it, but the trouble is we don't have the resources."

The trouble, says Mallon, is that local television is reluctant to do local
entertainment programming.  "About all they do is news, which is a tremendous
money-maker."

At TV23, he says, it's even more of a stretch.  The tiny independent station
was formed out of the ashes of Spectrum Sports and produces very little local
programming.

Adds Hodgson, "What you lose is the _Roundhouse Rodneys_.  That stuff was cool
because it was something neat that came from right around you.  I grew up in
Green Bay with Cowboy Eddie, and you know, that show was *mine*."

Mallon adds, "I mean, we had a message machine for fans, and the 45-minute
tape was filled in an hour.  We're hoping to have a local convention at a
theater this summer so fans can see these guys perform.  After all, they're
used to being onstage and getting that feed-back right away."

Hodgson says he hopes the show will be back so he can get his ultimate MST
3000 film, _Mars Needs Women_.  "I always wanted to host a monster movie
show," he says.  "I don't want this to end."

Editor's Note:  KTMA's address is 2505 N.E. Kennedy St., Minneapolis, MN
55413.

From: Twin Cities Reader*
Date: October 11-17, 1989
Headline: _Mystery Science Theater_: A New Mission
Photo(s): [Joel with original Crow and original Tom.]
Author: Brauer, David
Page(s): 71
Note: MST3K picked up by HBO's Comedy Channel.

This is an unauthorized reprint.

_Mystery Science Theater 3000_, the locally produced show featuring comedians
Joel Hodgson, Josh Weinstein, and Trace Beaulieu, will be picked up by a
national cable channel beginning in mid-November.  MST 3000, which spoofs bad
films (usually Japanese monster flicks) in an outer-space setting, attracted
an active local following on KTMA Channel 23.  The show was in danger of
expiring when the station closed this summer, but will now go national on the
new Comedy Channel, a 24-hour HBO-sponsored project scheduled to debut
November 16.  "We're tentatively scheduled to air Saturdays and Sundays," says
producer Jim Mallon.  "We've signed for 13 weeks."  All the cast members will
return, and they'll probably have a wider selection of movies from which to
choose.  "We don't want to think of it as better movies," Mallon laughs.
"Probably mroe of the same, but we can be a little choosier about what gets
made fun of."

Although only cable subscribers will be able to see new episodes, Mallon says
Paragon Cable (which recently bought Rogers Cable's Minneapolis-area
franchises) will offer the Comedy Channel on the same basic service level as
MTV and ESPN.  "It shouldn't cost people any extra to see it if they're
already hooked up," he explains.  The deal won't exactly allow cast members to
get rich.  "HBO is making this a pretty lean and mean operation," Mallon says,
but adds, "We now have enough to devote a full-time staff to making the show
in Eden Prairie."

From: St. Paul Pioneer Press Dispatch*
Date: October 13, 1989
Headline: Hodgson Takes Act to HBO
Photo(s): [Unfortunately only of Bob Protzman.  Ew!]
Author: Protzman, Bob
Page(s): C3
Note: MST3K moves to the Comedy Channel; Land O'Loons III

WARNING!  This man just doesn't have his facts straight!  Plus MiSTy comments
by typist.  }B-)

This is an unauthorized reprint.

Twin Cities comedian Joel Hodgson's wacky "Mystery Science Theater 3000" has
been picked up by HBO and will debut on HBO's new 24-hour all-comedy network
on Nov. 18.

This will be Hodgson's second brush with the big time.  He make it nationally
in 1983 with multiple appearances on "Late Night With David Letterman" and
"Saturday Night Live," and HBO and Showtime cable specials.

But then Hodgson abruptly quit comedy, saying he didn't enjoy performing
anymore, that the spontaneity had gone out of his shows after so many TV
appearances.  Fortunately for us, Hodgson returned to the stage in the summer
of '87 with his gizmos and gadgets and gimmicks and his childlike imagination
intact.

From time to time since then, Hodgson has appeared in local clubs, and earlier
this year, 20 shows of his "Mystery Science Theater 3000" were seen on Channel
23, KTMA-TV.  On the program, a vintage movie was shown, and Hodgson and
cohorts commented on it through a set of puppets who appeared on screen.

Hodgson's company, Best Brains, will produce the show.  It will be filmed
beginning next week in a warehouse owned by Hodgson in Eden Prairie, which is
being converted to a studio.

The cast and crew of "Mystery Theater 3000" [sic] included producer Jim
Mallon, the "puppeteers"--Hodgson, Trace Belieau [sic], and Josh Weinstein--
cameraman Kevin Murphy, writer Mike Nelson, and office and production manager
Alex Cahr [sic].  [Well, I think this whole thing is "sic"!  ldj]

Hodgson says the two-hour "Mystery Theater 3000" [sic] will be shown on HBO
three times weekly.

By the way, Hodgson will be performing at the Comedy Gallery at Riverplace,
Oct. 25-29 and Nov. 1-5.

                                    .  .  .

Hodgson also will be part of KTCA-TV's "Land O'Loons III," which will be taped
at the new Channel 2 Telecenter in St. Paul on Oct. 21.  Jeff Cesario will
host, and other comedians scheduled to perform are Lizz Winstead, Joe Keyes
[sic, I think] and Susan Norfleet.

The taping will be a fund-raiser for KTCA, the first in a series of special
events the station will stage to replace its former fundraising program
"Action Auction."  Thus, it's going to cost a whopping $150 per person.  [Oh?
ldj]  For tickets, call Cheryl Kohout at 222-1717.  The show will run sometime
in December.  [I'll wait for the movie.  ldj]

[...]

From: Star Tribune*
Date: April 1, 1990
Headline: Great Fun If You Can Get It
Subline: Cover Story
Cover photo: Joel Hodgson/ Dave Matheny writes about the local comedian's
             return to TV on the HBO cabel Comedy Channel [l-r, Crow, Hodgson,
             Servo on old set from first CC season.]
Photo(s): Joel Hodgson [in jumpsuit next to planet.]
Author: Matheny, Dave
Page(s): TV Week 1, 3, 34
Note: "Local" review of MST3K after it went to the Comedy Channel.

This is an unauthorized reprint.

_Mystery Science Theater 3000_ is not like any other show you have ever seen.

It's a new way of watching bad old movies.  Comedian Joel Hodgson and two
robotlike puppet friends sit and watch old cinematic turkeys and make funny
remarks.  The viewer sees the movie, but with Hodgson and friends
superimposed, as if they were sitting a few rows in front of you in a movie
theater.

"Ouch," says the robot named Crow, when a character is impaled on a spike or
ininerated by a rocket exhaust.  "That's got to hurt."

"Yeah, I don't care *what* your background is," adds Hodgson.

"No amount of training is going to do you any good in that situation," says
Tom Servo, the other robot.

The show originated in the Twin Cities, at KTMA-TV, Channel 23, in 1988.
Local viewers who became fans of _Mystery Science Theater_ (MST) during the
show's first season will have mixed feelings about the show having gone to
cable.  They'll be proud that MST now has an estimated 6 million viewers and
get fan mail from Texas, Hawaii and all over.

On the other hand, they can only see it if they get the Comedy Channel on
local cable.  So far, Nortel, Star Cablevision and King Video Cable are the
only systems carrying the Comedy Channel locally.

The new MST could be described as like the old one only a lot more so, with
strong upward mobility.

After that first season of scraping by on a tiny budget, Hodgson got the
Comedy Channel to bankroll the ritzier version.  Although grateful to KTMA,
the crew was happy to move from a corner of the KTMA studio to a roomy set of
offices and studios in an industrial park in Eden Prairie.  The MST production
company is now called Best Brains.

Producer Jim Mallon, who midwifed the original show, left KTMA to produce MST
full time, as did production supervisor Kevin Murphy and several others.  And
the voices of the robots, local comics Trace Beaulieu (Crow) and Josh
Weinstein (Tom Servo), went from a very limited gig--a day and a half for each
show--to working full time for Best Brains.

And the movies got a lot worse, which means they got wonderfully better.  The
original MST had used an obscure 1960s Japanese series about a turtle-monster
called Gamera, a low-rent Godzilla so devoid of personality that the producers
tried to give him some by having him save childrenn from other monsters.  The
new MST plucks films from the public domain, such as "The Crawling Eye," "The
Slime People," and something that Hodgson described as "several Mexican TV
shows edited into one movie" and called "Robot vs. the Aztec Mummy."

Still, the MST crew liked the crazy imagery of the Gamera movies.  Producer
Mallon (who also is the voice of the robot Gtypsy) said the show "works best
with fantastic images.  They give the comedians silly things to work off of."

Weinstein and Beaulieu also appear as evil scientists in the MST introductory
segment, which explains the show's prmise: The two evil scientists, who run
the Gizmonics Institute, have shot Hodgson into space; once there, the lonely
Joel uses spare parts to build robots so he can have friends to help him watch
the dreadful movies sent up by the scientists.

The Comedy Channel's vice president for original programming, Julian Goldberg,
said the show was chosen partly because of its evocation of the memory of
going to stupid movies as a teenager, partly because there is something
delightful about the idea of a man building robots that become friends.

"The fan mail runs the gamut, from 10-year-olds to factory workers coming home
from the second shift," he said.  "People ask why Crow is the way he is, or
why Servo is like that."  Crow has an innocent, childlike quality, Tom Servo
is a wise guy, Gypsy is a remarkably dense but lovable.

Hodgson is that rarest of all showbiz types, a young comedian who jettisoned a
career in the comedy big leagues.  In 1984, having made appearances on the
_David Letterman Show_ and _Saturday Night Live_, and having had NBC president
Brandon Tartikoff after him to participate in a proposed new situation comedy,
Hodgson got out.

"You go on Letterman so you can get booking in clubs in places like Columbus,
Ohio, for two weeks.  I hate having to be in some place like Columbus when I
want to be here."

He isn't that kind of comic.  He's the kind of comic whose office wall is
given over to a big diagram explaining Masters of the Universe toys.  He's in
a category of one, shy ad genuine, with an uprecedented, goofy, gadgetoid-
science humor.

He came back to the Twin Cities, to a bungalow near the State Fairgrounds, and
made and sold robot sculptures, repaired Gobot costumes used in Tonka trade
shows, and co-wrote a comedy special for cable TV.

He resumed live comedy, breaking up audiences at Scott Hansen's Comedy Gallery
in Riverplace/taking a leaf-blower and using it to blow thousands of straw
wrappers at an audience, or to play "Amazing Grace" on a bagpipe.

Best Brains does not stop with Mystery Science Theater 3000.  Among Hodgson's
new show ideas is "Robotropolis," in which a prominent human being, such as
Joe Montana or Bill Moyers, "would be interviewed by robots about what it's
like to be a human being," Hodgson said.

The concept is "a little dangerous," Hodgson said, because the show would
explore the relationship between man and robot and the level of sophistication
that robots will achieve in this decade.

Said Goldberg, "There's a sense that he really is orbiting the Earth, he's not
an actor, he really works at the Gizmonic Institute."

From: The New York Times*
Date: September 6, 1990
Headline: Wry "MST 3000" a Trash-Film Treat
Photo(s): Droll Host: Joel Hodgson
Author: Schultz, Paul
Page(s): [unknown]

This is an unauthorized reprint.

The movie theater darkens and you can see the silhouettes of three wise guys
in the front row.  On the screen, Mamie Van Doren undulates and sings out-of-
tune faux rock in a prison farm's cotton field--the forgettable classic,
"Untamed Youth."  Or maybe the alien Ro-Man plots mankind's destruction in his
gorilla suit with a diving helmet in "Robot Monster," perhaps the apogee of
cinema-dreck.

All the while the three smart alecks crack jokes during the movie, turning the
interminable and tacky into a new comic landscape littered with puns, pop-
culture references and street-level criticism.  Siskel and Ebert it's not.

It's the Comedy Channel's "Mystery Science Theater 3000."

Comic Joel Hodgson is the host-in-space on the show, the premise of which is
as bizarre as the films presented.  Hodgson plays a lab tech marooned in Earth
orbit by mad scientists.  Each week, he and his robot buddies are made to
watch a bad movie as part of a crazed experiment.

Hodgson's sidekicks complement his own droll commentary; Tom Servo, resembling
a gumball machine on steroids, booms out absurdities in the deep, smarmy tones
of a TV announcer.  (Hodgson says the character is based on "Laugh-In's" Gary
Owen.)  And Crow, seemingly assembled from space jetsam, chimes in with gibes,
malapropisms and other galactic shtick.

"MST" has quickly become a cult favorite--a sorely needed one for the Comedy
Channel--and HBO, which operates the 24-hour all-laughs cable channel,
recently green-lighted the show for a second season.  Starting Saturday, Sept.
15, "MST" runs 7-9 p.m. with a repeat on Sunday at 11 a.m.

The 30-year-old Hodgson created the show two years ago in Minnesota, where it
ran for a season before being picked up by the Comedy Channel.  In the early
'80s, though, Hodgson was another kind of star-bound comedian, doing
Letterman, "Saturday Night Live" and club dates all over the country.  His act
features weird props of his own invention, like the "head cranker" or Chiro-
Gyro.

Though Hodgson says he was well on his way to becoming "a comedy avatar," he
grew tired of having to spend hours on L.A. freeways searching for prop
material.  So after turning down a lucrative series deal with NBC, he moved
back to the Minneapolis area in 1985.  There he formed a production company,
Best Brains, with "MST" producer Jim Mallon.  The show still orginates from
their studio in Eden Prairie, Minn.

The idea for "MST" came from Hodgson's love of science fiction (though the
show features other kinds of genre trash) and the feeling of listening to wee-
hour deejays.  "Driving late at night," Hodgson says, "you hear those talk-
radio guys and it's kind of spooky and cheerful at the same time."

Hodgson says some of the funniest TV is "being with other people who are
making comments" about what's on the air.  This is the spirit "MST" tries to
capture.

Helping Hodgson in his comedic quest are technical director Kevin Murphy and
set designer Trace Beaulieu, who also write and provide the voices of Servo
and Crow.

With the new season, Hodgson says to look for "better production values,
upgraded sets" and titles like "King Dinosaur," "Rocket Ship X-M" and "Jungle
Goddess."

Hodgson says the show "is subject to whatever HBO gets for us" in the way of
movies.  But whether the film du jour is "The Crawling Hand" or "Side
Hackers," Hodgson promises "to keep doing what's interesting to us."

From: Montgomery [Alabama] Adverstiser*
Date: [unknown]
Headline: 'Science Theater' Scores with Bombs
Subline: Review
Photo(s): SPACE COMEDIAN: Joel Hodgson has appeared on 'Late Night' [Joel with
          hands on hips in spacey background.]
Author: Harmon, Rick
Page(s): [unknown] to D4

This is an unauthorized reprint.

NOTE: _Mystery Science Theater 3000_, appears on The Comedy Channel, which is
already available on Selma cable.  A spokesman for The Comedy Channel says he
is currently negotiating with Montgomery cable companies to carry the channel
in the fall.

_Mystery Science Theater 3000_ is like the airplane the Wright Brothers flew
at Kitty Hawk, N.C.  It's not a new idea.  It's just the first time the idea
has worked the way it should.

The idea here is recycling bad entertainment--to take terrible movies and
include additives, usually a voice-over sound track--that can transform awful
drama into amusing comedy.

_Mystery Science Theater 3000_ doesn't succeed in creating amusing comedy.  It
succeeds in creating hilarious comedy.

It wasn't hard to find the problem with the early failures to transform these
movies into good comedy.

They weren't funny.

They were gimmicks.

As you watched the films, they became less and less funny as the gimmick wore
off until the movie parodies were more tedious than the movies they parodied.

As you watch _Mystery Science Theater 3000_, you laugh harder and harder
because the only gimmick here is humor.

Joel Hodgson, a stand-up comedian who has performed on _Late Night with David
Letterman_ and _Saturday Night Live_, has a deft hand on the controls of this
comic vehicle.

He plays a laboratory technician whose bosses have marooned him in outer
space.  As if this weren't bad enough, his hateful employers continue to
torture him by bombarding him with a terrifying variety of different cheesy
science-fiction or monster films that would never be approved under the Geneva
Convention.

In this season's premiere, his employers send him "Rocketship X-M," a 1950
film in which Lloyd Bridges, Hugh O'Brian and that spectacular actress Osa
Massen try to land on the moon, but somehow miss it and land on Mars instead.

It is perhaps better described by Joel's despicable boss as a film that "will
assault your pop and folk sensibilities...a chillingly uninteresting assault
of mind-numbing, gut-wrenching, brain-bloating non-action."

In an attempt to cope with this horror, Joel has built robots to keep him
company and he and the robots heckle the film mercilessly and hilariously as
it is shown.

The heckling is fast, furious and funny.

The result is a sarcastic, inventive invective that makes _Mystery Science
Theater 3000_ one of the funniest programs on cable TV.

From: New York Times*
Date: July 12, 1991
Headline: Comic's Notebook
Subline: [] a New Cable Channel, Looking for a Laugh
Photo(s): Joel Hodgson, the host of "Mystery Science Theater 3000," with one
          of his heckling props.  [Crow.]
Author: O'Connor, John J.
Page(s): [unknown]

WARNING!!!  MiSTy pointers enclosed in brackets.

This is an unauthorized reprint.

[...]

While new to New York, "Mystery Science Theater 3000"--known to true fans as
"M.S.T. 3000"--really took off last year on HBO's Comedy Channel.  The star is
30-ish Joel Hodgson, whose skill as a "prop comic," creating odd objects for
his act, won him frequent invitations in the mid-1980's to "Saturday Night
Live" and "Late Night with David Letterman."  But disillusioned with the fast
track, Mr. Hodgson returned to Minneapolis where, in partnership with Jim
Mallon, former manager of a television station, he developed "M.S.T. 3000."

The idea is almost wickedly simple.  In an outer space set that looks like a
reject from an old Flash Gordon serial, Mr. Hodgson plays Joel, a laboratory
technician shot into orbit by his nasty bosses, Dr. Clayton Forester [sic]
(Trace Beaulieu) and Dr. Lawrence Ehrhardt (Josh Weinstein).  Joel is
condemned to watch, as the theme song explains, "cheesy movies, the worst ever
made."  [The synopsis for this article is obviously from the KTMA-TV 23
episode. ldj]

So each Saturday at 10 A.M. and 7 P.M., he and his hand-made robot pals, Tom
Servo, Crow, Gypsy and Cambot (voices provided by Mr. Beaulieu and Mr.
Weinsteain), sit in silhouette at the bottom-right corner of the screen and
offer their running commentaries on some of the world's dopiest movies.  The
art of heckling never had it so good.

Tomorrow's main feature is "Time of the Apes," a Japanese production dubbed in
English.  The child stars have been renamed Johnny and Caroline.  Opening with
still shots of apes ("Hey," wonder our kibitzers, "who took these pictures,
anyway?  Diane Arbus?"), the movie wastes no time in getting to an earth
tremor ("What was in the oatmeal?") presaging an earthquake that will leave
the youngsters trapped in a cryogenics lab's freezing machine ("I hate these
Minnesota winters").

They then wake up in a land run by apes and are forced to flee through forests
("Look up there: Ned Beatty!") and hide in caves ("Well, it's not much but
it's close to the bus lines.")  There are, of course, innumberable close calls
("Get back to the Ponderosa and tell Hoss we're in trouble.")

Meanwhile, around the commercial breaks, Joel and his friends return to the
main set to play around with whatever tickles their decidedly odd fancy.  One
intermission tomorrow offers, in line with the apes motif, Joel's version of
the famous Scopes trial.

"I'm your host, F. Lee Bailey," he announces in front of a life-size cardboard
cutout of Judge Wapner.  On his recommended reading list is "Welcome to the
Monkey House" by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.  Touching every base from goofily
adolescent to high-tech surreal, and outfitted cleverly with Mr. Hodgson's
signature props, "M.S.T. 3000" is ingenious and often inspired television.
And relatively, it's done for peanuts.

From: Springfield News-Leader
Date: June 4, 1992
Headline: Fun With Bad Flick
Author: Hughes, Mike
Page(s): D4

This is an unauthorized reprint.

Even in the schizophrenic world of cable TV, this is strange.

The movie "Marooned" shows up twice in three days.  It's offered as a good
thing the first time, a bad one the second.

Believe the second.

The film shows up a 7 p.m. today on TNT.  Then it reaches Comedy Central twice
Saturday (9 a.m. and 6 p.m.), under an assumed name; there, it gets the
mocking it richly deserves.

The latter, you see, is the season premiere for _Mystery Science Theatre
3000_, one of TV's wittiest series.  It's also part of a Saturday spurge on
cable.

"Marooned" is a 1969 film that had Oscar-winning special effects and a once-
respected cast.

Richard Crenna, Gene Hackman and James Fransiscus are stranded in their
capsule.

Back on Earth, Gregory Peck moans that they're doomed and David Jansen snarls
that we must keep trying.

They key people are rarely face-to-face; some aren't even mobile.  Here's a
movie that rarely moves, filled with somber bureaucrats.

The solution is to mock it...and Comedy Central has just the people to do it.

MST 3000 was created by Joel Hodgson, a Minneapolis comic with a dryly wicked
wit.

We're told that he's in space with two robot pals.  They're forced to watch
the world's worst films; naturally, they offer a running commentary.

In the first two seasons, they've confronted such debacles as "Earth vs.
Spider" and "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians."

Saturday, they eye "Marooned," trimmed down and renamed "Space Travelers."

A week later, they'll see "The Giant Gila Monster," which has a rock singer
who doubles as a mechanic, raising money for his crippled sister's operation.
(I'm not making this up.)

Then a monster--looking suspiciously like a pet salamander--attacks cars.

The remarkable thing is that MST works both ways.

Whether its movie is a big-budget bore or something cheap and cheesy, the show
is wildly funny.

From: People Weekly#
Date: June 8, 1992
Headline: Picks & Pans
Subline: Tube
Author: Hiltbrand, David
Page(s): 13
Note: Short preview of fourth season.

This is an unauthorized reprint.

If you find the summer TV doldrums tedious, imagine what they do to your
friendly neighborhood TV critic.  Do you actually think we enjoy reviewing
three-part PBS series on ethnic clog dancing or A&E nature documentaries on
the smaller mammals of Borneo?  Do you suppose we relish sifting through
vintage rerun listings to find a 1971 episode of _Love, American Style_
featuring Richard Benjamin?  Well, do you?  This week is better than most
because on Saturday (June 6) my two favorite cable comedy series introduce
fresh episodes.  _Mystery Science Theater 3000_ starts its fourth season on
Comedy Central (10 A.M. and 7 P.M. ET) as our lost-in-space film commentators
Joel, Tom Servo and Crow sic their toothy sarcasm on _Marooned_, an execrable
1969 astronaut movie starring Gene Hackman, Gregory Peck, Richard Crenna and
James Franciscus.  It's the first time, as far as I know, that Joel and the
guys have ever gone after an Oscar winner (the movie won for special effects).

[...]

From: Skyway News#
Date: July 7, 1992
Headline: Comedy: Down to Earth
Subline: Joel Hodgson comes in from outer space to do 'Mystery Science
         Theater' at the Uptown Theatre.
Photo(s): Joel Hodgson and his robot pals Crow (left) and Tom-Servo (right)
          are getting a break from cable TV to perform live theater.  No word
          yet on what robot Gypsy (center) will be doing.  [Photo from first
          season.]
Author: Zurowski, Cory
Page(s): 20-21
Note: IT'S ALIVE! preview

This is an unauthorized reprint.

NESTLED INSIDE THE suburban command post of Best Brains Inc. sit the Gizmonics
Institute Satellite, which has become a fixed celestial body in the television
heavens.  It's the set for the popular Comedy Central cable-TV program
"Mystery Science Theater 3000."

It's from Best Brains' low-tech studio in Eden Prairie that Twin Cities native
Joel Hodgson and his two faithful robot comrades, Crow (an Armor All-coated
version of Bullwinkle) and Tom-Servo (the always cynical bubble-gum machine),
have derided, mimicked and just plain made fun of the movie trash that
Hollywood dumped into theaters and drive-ins during the '50s and '60s.

But now, after creating more than 70 episodes of "Mystery Science Theater
3000" ("MST3K"), Hodgson and the rest of the Gizmonics Institute Satellite
cast and crew are descending to Earth to venture into the unknown: They are
about to premiere a live version of "MST3K"--titled "Mystery Science Theater
Alive!"--July 10 and 11 at the Uptown Theatre in south Minneapolis.

"It's going to be a lot of fun, but putting on a live version is scarey," says
"MST3K" associate producer Kevin Murphy.  Like most of the Best Brains staff,
Murphy has many responsibilities; he's also the voice of Tom Servo.

Much like the TV series, the theatrical version features Hodgson as the
character Joel Robinson, a janitor at the Gizmonics Institute Satellite who
has been forced by evil scientists in the main space station to watch
inhumane, "B" science-fiction movies.  But Joel can't keep his mouth shut
while watching films, so audiences hear his running commentary of the screen
action.

Joining the beloved satellite mainenance man at the Uptown Theatre are his
trusty robots.  The trio will sit onstage in front of the movie screen to
enjoy the enslaved entertainment of "World Without End" in their own manner.
The 1956 sci-fi movie stars Rod Taylor as a member of a space-flight crew
that's headed to Mars.  When the spaceship breaks the time barrier, the crew
finds itself back on Earth in the 26th century.

The set of Gizmonics satellite as seen in the TV series won't be re-created
for the Uptown shows.  "It's theater, and theater has its limitations," says
"MST3K" stagehand.

Since "MST3K" emerged as one of the most nationally heralded comedies on
television, its creators--Hodgson, Murphy, comedian Trace Beaulieu (the voice
of Crow) and producer and Best Brains, Inc. President Jim Mallon--have been
asked, if not downright begged, to go on tour with the show.  Although no one
in Best Brains' brain trust knows exactly who came up with the concept for the
Uptown show, they all look to the endeavor with a handful of caution and a
semitrailer load of excitement.

"We've always had to depend on what we thought was funny, and then people
responded to it," Hodgson says.  "With the live performance, we'll get an
immediate reaction.  We know how it works on television--we've done more than
70 shows--but we still don't know how it'll work live.  It should be
interesting."

Adds Beaulieu: "The entire process for putting on a live performance is an
experiment.  We all just want to see how it will work."

If the Uptown shows are successful not only to the people behind "MST3K" but
to the audience as well, "Mystery Science Theater Alive!" could be the start
of a much larger undertaking.  Murphy, Beaulieu and Hodgson all thint that the
show might go on tour.  And quite possibly, it could be developed into a
movie.

"It's really the first step," Murphy says.  "But we'll wait and see before we
decide what comes next."

While the Uptwon performances should amuse and entertain "MST3K" fans in a
more personalized manner than the TV series, the live shows will serve as a
remedy for the cast and crew of "Mystery Science Theater 3000."  For no matter
how acclaimed or imaginative the TV series may be, as more episodes are
written, produced and performed, the entire process can become stagnant and
tiresome for the people at Best Brains.  "Mystery Science Theater Alive!"
should help to preserve the creative team's adolescent hearts and minds.

"Our performances at the Uptown are a way of protecting us from getting
bored," Murphy says.  "It will help keep things interesting to us."  Adds
Hodgson, "It's a way to keep growing."

So what happens if the show bombs and this idyllic scenario is shattered?
"We'll all start crying and hope the crowd sympathizes," says Murphy.

Nevertheless, it's likely that Kleenex will ever be needed.

"Mystery Science Theater Alive!" is performed July 10 at midnight and July 11
at 11:30 a.m. at the Uptown Theatre, 2906 S. Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis.  Call
Ticketmaster, 989-5151.

From: City Pages#
Date: July 8, 1992
Headline: Arts: Live Action Wacky Rolling Figures!
Subline: Mere tapeheads no longer, the folks at _Mystery Science Theater 3000_
         are taking it to the streets.
Cover: The Final Frontier: Mystery Science Theater goes live (Sutton, 14)
Photo(s): [Of Gamera breathing fire while Joel and the 'bots look on from
          their theater seats.]
Author: Sutton, Terri
Page(s): 14
Note: IT'S ALIVE! preview; fowl language by author (really)

This is an unauthorized reprint.

_Dear Mystery Science Theater: Hi, my name is Z-burger otherwise known as Zeek
the Geek or bugetta, but you can call me Zackary or just plain Zac (no K's--I
hate K's).  I always watch your show--even at 12:30 on Friday nights!_

_Dear Joel and 'bots: We play your show 'til we pass out--it's an amusing end
to a night of drunken imbecility._

_Dear Joel, Servo and Crow: MST3000 has convince me that I am not a freak of
nature.  You have changed my life._

Hang on there, son.  It's one thing to be a precocious child into gadgetry or
an overgrown kid who enjoys the effrontery of mixing sarcastic hi-jinks with
the lo-junk of bad sci-fi movies.  It's quite another to be tossing around
words like "life" and "changed" in the context of a cable TV *comedy* show.
We're not even taking major network, fer Conky's sake.

The bag of fan mail is thigh-high and bulging in the promo room at Best Brains
Inc., the Eden Prairie-based company responsible for _Mystery Science Theater
3000_--we've only skimmed the surface, and already we're dealing with
Messianism.  Next up is a note from a fourth-grade teacher who recommends her
students watch the show.  A pink kiss adorns another letter (with an arrow
pointing out "real lipstick") whose writer reveals she's "hot" for Tom Servo
(a robot).  Still another card comes from an appreciative thirtysomething
couple: "At our age, we find so little to laugh at."

And these are the "normal" missives (the packet of toenails went in the
circular file).  In its four years of existence, _Mystery Science Theater
3000_ (MST3K) has amassed a startling 18,000 letters, most so overwhelmingly
positive that producer (and voice of robot Gypsy) Jim Mallon worries about
getting jaded.  Fan letter support has been instrumental in keeping the little
satellite that could in orbit, first at Channel 23 and then at the fledgling
Comedy Channel.  And it definitely was a factor in Best Brains' gamble to take
MST to the people *live* this weekend at the Uptown Theatre.

"The fans have had a direct link to the success of the show," explains Mallon.
"So it's really kind of a nice circular thing where we can actually see the
fans, and they get to see the puppets and Joel and the whole performance."

"Television is kind of a bell jar," add Kevin Murphy, the melodious voice
behind Tom Servo.  "You produce these things, and you don't get any feedback
immediately."

"And you know what Sylvia Plath said about living in a bell jar," jumpsuited
exile Joel Robinson a.k.a. Hodgson recalls.  "You breathe your own fetid air."

And no doubt the air does get a mite stale up there in the satellite of love
where, according to the show's conceit, "Joel Robinson" has been sentenced (by
evil overlords on Earth) to live out his days watching bad B-movies.  Along
with his robot buddies, the bowling-pin-jawed Crow and bubblegum-dispenser-
headed Tom Servo, Joel has earned a short furlough on Earth--although another
atrocious movie is part of the bargain.

_World Without End_, a '56 Technicolor widescreen sci-fi classic (burp!), is
slated for the weekend's two Uptown shows.  Joel and the two puppets will take
their usual places in the silhouetted seats up near the stage.  Any vision
problem arising from the screen's proximity will be tempered by a handy nearby
TV monitor (although the guys insist, with the shy eagerness of seven-year-
olds, that they can see quite well close up due to much practice with nose-to-
screen TV viewing).  Acerbic commentary by Hodgson, Murphy, and Trace Beaulieu
(who channels Crow) will be overlaid on the movie soundtrack via mixing board.

And if you don't think they're nervous, you haven't heard how many rehearsals
are scheduled (um...up to 10).  Yes, that means they have to see this
presumably pathetic excuse for a movie...up to 10 times.  At least.  For a gag
that comes off like a bunch of friends, bored, kinda stoned, watching late-
night TV and talking trash, MST is one hella organized organization.  Writing
those seemingly off-the-wall jokes (now 700 per show) take 16 hours of finger-
on-the-pause-button analysis, and then the wisecracks must be assigned exactly
to the second and practiced, practiced, practiced.

"Everybody gets very *intimate* with these films," is how Mallon puts it.

Yeah, but *these* films?  _Hercules Against the Moonmen_?  _Pod People_?  _The
Sidehackers_?

"I think we've built a unique resistance to it," drawls Hodgson.  "We tend to
download right after the shows are finished.  When people come up and they're
real specific about parts of movies that we've done,...I have a hard time."

And there I was, asking if they ever had a problem controlling their laughter.

"Constantly...constantly," moans Hodgson.

"I think it's a real tribute to these guys," Mallon stresses, "and [production
coordinator] Jann Johnson, who has sat next to these guys through all 60
shows, that I've never heard the show interrupted by laughter."

"Sometimes if the laugh comes, it kind of naturally incorporates itself into
the show," says Murphy.  "But there's some kind of nice satisfaction in firing
off a joke and knowing...sometimes you can just hear the little echoes of
people busting up in the control room from way over the studio."

"There's so many things there," Hodgson muses, "that you can't really...you're
constantly getting ready for the next thing, 'cause there's so much."

Murphy concurs: "It's a little like juggling.  If you distract yourself,
you'll drop the balls."

I don't know about you, but I was slightly disillusioned by these revelations.
If what we see on TV is this sort of tense reading of well-practiced lines,
where's the genesis?  How do they come up with happy juxtaposition of
intellects, the cultural hopscotch that skips from Dr. Pepper Lipsmacker to
_Carnival of Souls_, from Jay McInerney to the Bee Gees to _Alias Smith and
Jones_?  What, besides a talented reading, accounts for the casual but
inspired idiocy that so defines MST?

Well, in a phrase, casual but inspired idiocy.  Pull back the curtain, and you
find five people sitting around on ratty couches yapping at the TV.  It's Best
Brains Inc., at 11 a.m. on a Thursday, and head writer Mike Nelson is driving
the box as Mary Jo Pehl, Frank Coniff [sic], Paul Chapman, and Bridget Jones
call out lines and cackle over each other's comments.  Business manager Heidi
LeClerc types the salient jokes into a computer; the writing staff is
currently working on that soon-to-be-legendary flick _World Without End_.

The comments come thick and sassed: A quick couplet from Paul Revere and the
Raiders' "Indian Reservation" segues into a riff on Jesse Jackson's "I am
somebody" speech; soon the group is aping telemarketing techniques and rapping
on economic and cultural colonialism.  The scene is relaxed but competitive, a
raucous hubbub of catcalls and laughter.  Yes, people get paid to do this.

Except for one season on Channel 23 that was completely ad-libbed, MST has
always been scripted.  But it's only as the show has become more successful
that Best Brains has been able to expand their writers' stable and thus take
some of the burden off Hodgson, Murphy, and Beaulieu.

As for me, that writing scene definitely eased my mind.  It seems to me that
MST has a decidedly punk-rock premise: Your words--with Joel, Servo, and Crow
as audience stand-ins--are worthier than the movie's own script; go ahead and
diss that ridiculous hairdo or outfit; what sort of lame acting is that--my
cat could do better; what fucked-up ideological assumptions is this movie
resting on, anyway?  And at MST, that lovely process of cultural
dismemberment, of gleeful demystification, is very much alive.

Which is why I'm nodding my head when Mallon says this live project is an
experiment and admits to being scared.  Darn tootin'!  You should be shaking
in your boots.  A friend of mine has already confessed plans of a major
subversive action: "We're gonna get really *baked*," she relates with relish,
"and then go down there and YELL SHIT."  Blame yourselves, dudes.  You showed
how.

Displaying a charming naivete about his newly freed audience, Hodgson notes,
"We expect to get people that really like the show, and so they'll probably
wanna hear what we're doing."

Suddenly I'm thinking of another fan letter: _Hey, Joel, what drugs are you on
and can they be bought over the counter?_  Beaulieu has a better grasp of the
situation.  "We have the Hell's Angels as security, so..."

"They promised no knives this time," maintains Murphy.

Meanwhile, the cranky hordes bestir themselves.  Who knows what rough beast
slouches toward Uptown to be born(e)?  After all, MST has received some pretty
strange gifts amid the torrent of congratulatory mail.  Like 40 pages of
computer bulletin discussion concerning a change in spelling in the MST
credits.  And Crow love doll, constructed out of Tupperware, panties, and a
bra.  "You just wanna wash your hands," shudders Beaulieu, "or take a full
shower after that."

These are the fans MST is so eager to glimpse face-to-face?  One more letter:
_Joel! Your [sic] the most magnificent hunk of man I've ever seen!  You're so
hot!  I love the way those jumpsuits cling [to] your succulent expanse of
chest and your finely molded buttocks!_

Shows start at midnight on Friday (sold out), 11:30 a.m. Saturday.  You asked
for it, guys.