Mystery Science Theater 3000
| Television series | |
|---|---|
| German title | Mystery Science Theater 3000 |
| Original title | Mystery Science Theater 3000 |
| Country of production |
 United States
|
| original language | English |
| Year (s) | 1988– |
| length | 100 minutes |
| Episodes | 217 |
| genre |
Comedy , science fiction , television satire |
| idea | Joel Hodgson |
| music |
Charlie Erickson , Joel Hodgson |
| First broadcast | November 24, 1988 (USA) on KTMA TV |
| German-language first broadcast |
October 2, 1999 on Premiere Film |
| occupation | |
| |
Mystery Science Theater 3000 , shortly MST3K , is one of the US -amerikanischen comedian Joel Hodgson created comedy - television series from the period 1988-1999. The essence of the series is that a human and two robots (played by puppets ) watch B-movies and comment on them and make fun of the films .
This kind of commentary ( called riffing ) is roughly comparable to the participation of the audience on the Rocky Horror Show . Pauses in dialogues are filled with new lines of text, comments (or sound effects) are interposed, or a viewer stands in front of the screen as part of the film scene . Often scenes are re-enacted or continued in skits between the film sequences (which usually ends in chaos).
MST3K is characterized by the high number of quotable comments, some with very obscure allusions, especially to US politics and television culture of the 1970s and 1980s. Another characteristic is the low budget of the series, which is mostly self-deprecated. For example, the wires in the opening visible at full intention on which objects in front of a paper mache - setting move. Stylistically, this fits very well with the theme of the series: bad films.
Mystery Science Theater 3000 is largely unknown in non-English speaking countries. The individual episodes of the series were never translated into German, but the movie for the series made it to Germany as a video release . The film was dubbed by several German comedians from Frühstyxradios , including Oliver Kalkofe and Oliver Welke . In the course of the so-called Kalkfreitags - the 20th anniversary of Kalkofes TV screen - the film had its free TV premiere on Tele 5 on April 18, 2014 (Good Friday) . The series also inspired Kalkofe to create his series The Worst Films of All Time (SCHLEFAZ), which has also been shown on Tele 5 since summer 2013.
Characters, their actors and plot
Both the actors and the characters played have changed several times during the 11-year history of MST3K. From the first to the eighth season, the entire line-up was replaced.
The series has only a very loose framework story , which actually only becomes more important in seasons 8 to 10. The reason to watch the series is not this story, but the films shown. Initially, the action takes place "next Sunday n. Chr. " ( "Next Sunday, AD "), so in the present , but later also in different time periods of the past and the future , such as the ancient Rome and the world of Planet of the Apes .
Joel Robinson (Joel Hodgson), cleaning power on a " satellite -Verladerampe" is, by the mad scientists ( mad scientists , shortly Mads ) Dr. Clayton Forrester ( Trace Beaulieu ) and Dr. Laurence Erhardt ( Josh Weinstein ) shot against his will with a rocket at a space station , the Satellite of Love ( SOL for short ). Their goal: to find the worst movie ever, and Joel is their guinea pig for it . You yourself live in an underground laboratory called "Deep 13".
In order not to lose his mind on his own, the technically very talented Joel builds four robots from parts of the Satellite of Love : Crow T. Robot (Trace Beaulieu / Bill Corbett ), Tom Servo (Josh Weinstein / Kevin Murphy ), Gypsy (Jim Mallon / Patrick Brantseg) and Cambot . In addition, the SOL itself has a (female) voice called the Magic Voice ( Jann Johnson / Bridget Jones / Mary Jo Pehl ).
Cambot films the action on the SOL and can therefore never be seen himself, except in the opening credits, where he looks in a mirror. Gypsy keeps the space station in good working order and is usually too busy to keep Joel company. Only Crow and Servo watch the films with Joel.
Dr. Erhardt is declared missing after the end of the first season without giving any further reasons and is replaced by TV's Frank ( Frank Conniff ), who is Dr. Forrester stands by as an assistant and whipping boy .
In the middle of Season 5, Joel escapes from the Satellite of Love in an escape pod . Dr. Forrester promptly kidnaps the contract worker Mike Nelson ( Michael J. Nelson ) and sends him into space as a replacement for Joel.
In the last episode of the sixth season, TV's Frank is taken into the world beyond by Torgo the Wise, a heavenly being. For him, draws Pearl Forrester ( Mary Jo Pehl ), the mother of Dr. Forrester, in Deep 13. Due to a lack of funds, Dr. Forrester at the end of Season 7 to end the experiment and release the SOL from orbit. The station is thrown to the edge of the universe and its inhabitants transform into energy beings after some bizarre events. In a scene based on the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey , Dr. Forrester a vision of the "worst movie of all time" in the form of a gigantic video cassette . When touched, he transforms into a star baby.
Season 8 begins with Mike, Crow and Tom returning to their old forms. They find they are above earth again, but in a distant future (2525) when intelligent apes rule the world, led by none other than Pearl Forrester. The earth is (accidentally) destroyed by Mike, but Pearl and the chimpanzee Professor Bobo (Kevin Murphy) escape and chase the Satellite of Love in a rocket-powered VW bus. You will meet a race of super-intelligent beings who call themselves "Observer" and who carry their brains around in bowls. Your world is also being destroyed by Mike. The only surviving observer ( Bill Corbett ), mostly called the Brain Guy by everyone , joins Pearl and Bobo.
After a few adventures in a wormhole and in ancient Rome, the SOL reaches the earth of the present again. Pearl, Bobo and Observer take a stand on Forrester Castle, the old family seat of Pearl's ancestors, and continue the experiment on Mike.
In the last episode of season 10, Pearl finally loses control of the Satellite of Love , which then prepares to land on earth. Mike, Crow and Servo survived the crash, found a flat share and from now on spend their time watching and commenting on bad films on television.
Typical sequence of events
One episode of MST3K begins with the scientists contacting Joel or Mike after a scene from daily life on the Satellite of Love . In the Joel era initially a "Invent exchange" (place Invention exchange ) held in which the residents of the SOL and Deep 13 try each other in the presentation of a bizarre possible invention to excel, such as a water table football , face underwear ( chinderwear ) or a rock guitar with a predetermined breaking point for musicians "who like to smash their instruments".
The scientists then send “today's experiment”, i.e. the film shown in the respective episode, to the station. An alarm sounds, warning lights flash, everyone shouts “We've got Movie Sign!” (Something like: “It's film alarm!” Or “We're receiving a film signal!”) And flees in panic into the cinema of the SOL, Cambot flies through a long corridor with a series of doors.
The film fills the whole screen . Only at the lower edge you can see the silhouettes of a row of cinema seats and the three viewers, Joel / Mike, Crow and Servo. The commentary is interrupted three times by skits (or sometimes musical numbers), which often relate directly to the film or advance the general plot. The space station is occasionally visited by characters or monsters from the film.
The episodes of earlier seasons usually end with the reading of fan mail. After the credits , most of the episodes repeat a short but particularly memorable excerpt from the film, which is known as the stinger .
The characters know they are on a TV series. The commercial breaks typical for television are announced by Joel or Mike with "Commercial Sign" (similar to the Movie Sign ) and Dr. Forrester occasionally complains about low ratings .
Films shown
The films shown in MST3K are without exception those that have been shown in the cinema or on television, but often only in the USA. Typical are horror and science fiction films from the 1950s and 1960s, American television films from the 1970s and 1980s or video versions of movies, mostly those that can be found on the burial table in the video shop . However, for example, a German television production of William Shakespeare's Hamlet and a German sexploitation / horror film called Ein Toter hung in the network ( The Horrors of Spider Island ), both from 1960, in an English dubbed version MST3K, fell victim to the victim .
Some episodes have a short supporting film , such as an episode or two of the old series Commando Cody , or an educational or promotional film of the type found in the Prelinger Archives .
These films do not always deserve the rating “bad”, and even low-budget B-films are often entertaining in their own way. Often they show deficiencies in the acting talent , the narrative or the cinematic realization. The comments from Joel / Mike and his colleagues are also rarely really malicious. It's more about having fun with the movies than making fun of them. In addition to bad films like The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies , Robot Monster and Giant Spider Invasion , more serious films were also edited like The Magic Sword (1962) - epoch-making for fantasy films at the time, now almost unknown due to its age. In general, the quality of an episode already depends on the “naked” entertainment value of the original film.
History of origin
Mystery Science Theater 3000 was created in 1988 by a group of Minneapolis comedians . With the help of some employees of the local TV channel TV23 / KTMA that this often sacrificed their free time and equipment of the station by closing time were allowed to use a (unsent) were pilot and 21 episodes produced and broadcast. This "zero season" has not been repeated or otherwise published since then and is outside the official count of the seasons, as KTMA could only be received in Minneapolis. The first episodes are still out of the impromptu commented out.
For fear of being thrown out of the program because of a lack of audience approval, the creators of the series set up an answering machine , the number of which was displayed on the screen. A short time after each broadcast, the tape was full of mostly positive comments, some of which were played in excerpts in the next episode. Later, people started reading fan mail (often sent by children) instead, a tradition that was maintained in the series for many years.
Motivated by the positive response, the producers of the series peddled their concept under the name Best Brains, Inc. on several national broadcasters. The Comedy Channel (later Comedy Central ) showed interest and financed a total of seven seasons from 1989 to 1996 (seasons 1 and 2 with 13 episodes each, seasons 3 to 6 with 24 episodes each and season 7 with 6 episodes).
Joel Hodgson, inventor of MST3K and cast the main character, left the series in the middle of the fifth season to pursue other projects. His role was taken over by Michael J. Nelson, the lead writer who has made a few brief appearances on the series in the past.
After Season 7, MST3K was canceled by Comedy Central. The future of the series was uncertain for some time, but in 1997 the SciFi channel bought the rights and produced three more seasons (season 8 with 22 episodes, seasons 9 and 10 with 13 episodes each). The series officially ended in 1999 and no old episodes were repeated between 2004 and 2017.
On Kickstarter.com , Joel Hodgson successfully raised money for an eleventh season with a new cast. The new episodes have been running in English-speaking countries on Netflix since April 14, 2017 . In advance, the old seasons were also published by the same provider.
On November 23, 2017, it was announced that Netflix had extended the series for a 12th season. In November 2018, the six episodes of this season were released.
Seasons
Season overview
| Season | Episodes | First broadcast in the USA | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season premiere | Season finale | Channel | ||
| 0 | 22nd | November 24, 1988 | May 28, 1989 | KTMA TV |
| 1 | 13 | November 25, 1989 | 3rd February 1990 | The Comedy Channel |
| 2 | 13 | September 22, 1990 | February 2, 1991 | Comedy Central |
| 3 | 24 | June 1, 1991 | January 25, 1992 | Comedy Central |
| 4th | 24 | June 6, 1992 | January 30, 1993 | Comedy Central |
| 5 | 24 | July 24, 1993 | 5th February 1994 | Comedy Central |
| 6th | 24 | July 16, 1994 | March 25, 1995 | Comedy Central |
| 7th | 6th | February 3, 1996 | May 18, 1996 | Comedy Central |
| 8th | 22nd | February 1, 1997 | December 6, 1997 | SciFi channel |
| 9 | 13 | March 14, 1998 | September 26, 1998 | SciFi channel |
| 10 | 13 | April 11, 1999 | August 8, 1999 | SciFi channel |
| 11 | 14th | April 14, 2017 | April 14, 2017 | Netflix |
| 12 | 6th | 22nd November 2018 | 22nd November 2018 | Netflix |
Episode overview
|
Number (total) |
Number (season) |
Original title | First broadcast |
|---|---|---|---|
| 001 | 0.00 | The Green Slime | no charisma |
| 002 | 0.01 | Invaders from the Deep | November 24, 1988 |
| 003 | 0.02 | Revenge of the Mysterons from Mars | November 24, 1988 |
| 004 | 0.03 | Star Force: Fugitive Alien II | November 27, 1988 |
| 005 | 0.04 | Gamera vs. Barugon | 4th December 1988 |
| 006 | 0.05 | Gamera | December 11, 1988 |
| 007 | 0.06 | Gamera vs. Gaos | December 18, 1988 |
| 008 | 0.07 | Gamera vs. Cigra | December 31, 1988 |
| 009 | 0.08 | Gamera vs. Guiron | January 8, 1989 |
| 010 | 0.09 | Phase IV | January 15, 1989 |
| 011 | 0.10 | Cosmic Princess | January 22, 1989 |
| 012 | 0.11 | Humanoid woman | January 29, 1989 |
| 013 | 0.12 | Fugitive alien | 5th February 1989 |
| 014 | 0.13 | SST: Death Flight | February 19, 1989 |
| 015 | 0.14 | Mighty Jack | February 26, 1989 |
| 016 | 0.15 | Superdome | March 12, 1989 |
| 017 | 0.16 | City on Fire | March 19, 1989 |
| 018 | 0.17 | Time of the Apes | April 2, 1989 |
| 019 | 0.18 | The Million Eyes of Sumuru | May 7, 1989 |
| 020 | 0.19 | Hangar 18 | May 14, 1989 |
| 021 | 0.20 | The Last Chase | May 21, 1989 |
| 022 | 0.21 | The "Legend of Dinosaurs" | May 28, 1989 |
|
Number (total) |
Number (season) |
Original title | First broadcast |
|---|---|---|---|
| 023 | 1.01 | The Crawling Eye | November 25, 1989 unoccupied |
| 024 | 1.02 | The Robot vs. The Aztec Mummy | November 18, 1989 unoccupied |
| 025 | 1.03 | The Mad Monster | December 2, 1989 unoccupied |
| 026 | 1.04 | Women of the Prehistoric Planet | February 10, 1990 unassigned |
| 027 | 1.05 | The Corpse Vanishes | December 9, 1989 unoccupied |
| 028 | 1.06 | The crawling hand | December 16, 1989 unoccupied |
| 029 | 1.07 | Robot monster | December 23, 1989 unoccupied |
| 030 | 1.08 | The Slime People | December 30, 1989 unused |
| 031 | 1.09 | Project Moonbase | January 6, 1990 |
| 032 | 1.10 | Robot Holocaust | January 13, 1990 |
| 033 | 1.11 | Moon Zero Two | January 20, 1990 unoccupied |
| 034 | 1.12 | Untamed Youth | January 27, 1990 unoccupied |
| 035 | 1.13 | The Black Scorpion | 3rd February 1990 |
|
Number (total) |
Number (season) |
Original title | First broadcast |
|---|---|---|---|
| 036 | 2.01 | Rocketship XM | September 22, 1990 |
| 037 | 2.02 | The Sidehackers | September 29, 1990 |
| 038 | 2.03 | Jungle Goddess | October 6, 1990 |
| 039 | 2.04 | Catalina Caper | October 13, 1990 |
| 040 | 2.05 | Rocket Attack USA | October 27, 1990 |
| 041 | 2.06 | Ring of Terror | 3rd November 1990 |
| 042 | 2.07 | Wild Rebels | 17th November 1990 |
| 043 | 2.08 | Lost Continent | November 24, 1990 |
| 044 | 2.09 | The Hellcats | December 8, 1990 |
| 045 | 2.10 | King Dinosaur | December 22, 1990 |
| 046 | 2.11 | First Spaceship on Venus | December 29, 1990 |
| 047 | 2.12 | Godzilla vs. Megalon | January 19, 1991 |
| 048 | 2.13 | Godzilla vs. the sea monster | February 2, 1991 |
|
Number (total) |
Number (season) |
Original title | First broadcast |
|---|---|---|---|
| 049 | 3.01 | Cave Dwellers | June 1, 1991 |
| 050 | 3.02 | Gamera | June 8, 1991 |
| 051 | 3.03 | Pod People | June 15, 1991 |
| 052 | 3.04 | Gamera vs. Barugon | June 22, 1991 |
| 053 | 3.05 | Stranded in Space | June 29, 1991 |
| 054 | 3.06 | Time of the Apes | July 13, 1991 |
| 055 | 3.07 | Daddy-O | July 20, 1991 |
| 056 | 3.08 | Gamera vs. Gaos | July 27, 1991 |
| 057 | 3.09 | The Amazing Colossal Man | August 3, 1991 |
| 058 | 3.10 | Fugitive alien | 17th August 1991 |
| 059 | 3.11 | It Conquered the World | August 24, 1991 |
| 060 | 3.12 | Gamera vs. Guiron | September 7, 1991 |
| 061 | 3.13 | Earth vs. the spider | September 14, 1991 |
| 062 | 3.14 | Mighty Jack | September 21, 1991 |
| 063 | 3.15 | Teenage Cave Man | November 9, 1991 |
| 064 | 3.16 | Gamera vs. Cigra | October 19, 1991 |
| 065 | 3.17 | Viking Women and the Sea Serpent | October 26, 1991 |
| 066 | 3.18 | Star Force: Fugitive Alien II | November 16, 1991 |
| 067 | 3.19 | War of the Colossal Beast | November 30, 1991 |
| 068 | 3.20 | The Unearthly | December 14, 1991 |
| 069 | 3.21 | Santa Claus Conquers the Martians | December 21, 1991 |
| 070 | 3.22 | Master Ninja I. | January 11, 1992 |
| 071 | 3.23 | The Castle of Fu Manchu | January 18, 1992 |
| 072 | 3.24 | Master Ninja II | January 25, 1992 |
|
Number (total) |
Number (season) |
Original title | First broadcast |
|---|---|---|---|
| 073 | 4.01 | Space travelers | June 6, 1992 |
| 074 | 4.02 | The Giant Gila Monster | June 13, 1992 |
| 075 | 4.03 | City limits | June 20, 1992 |
| 076 | 4.04 | Teenagers from Outer Space | June 27, 1992 |
| 077 | 4.05 | Being from Another Planet | 4th July 1992 |
| 078 | 4.06 | Attack of the Giant Leeches | July 18, 1992 |
| 079 | 4.07 | The Killer Shrews | July 25, 1992 |
| 080 | 4.08 | Hercules Unchained | August 1, 1992 |
| 081 | 4.09 | Indestructible Man | 15th August 1992 |
| 082 | 4.10 | Hercules Against the Moon Men | 22nd August 1992 |
| 083 | 4.11 | The Magic Sword | August 29, 1992 |
| 084 | 4.12 | Hercules and the Captive Women | September 12, 1992 |
| 085 | 4.13 | Manhunt in Space | 19th September 1992 |
| 086 | 4.14 | Tormented | September 26, 1992 |
| 087 | 4.15 | The Beatniks | November 25, 1992 |
| 088 | 4.16 | Fire Maidens of Outer Space | November 26, 1992 |
| 089 | 4.17 | Crash of Moons | November 28, 1992 |
| 090 | 4.18 | Attack of the Eye Creatures | 5th December 1992 |
| 091 | 4.19 | The Rebel Set | December 12, 1992 |
| 092 | 4.20 | The Human Duplicators | December 26, 1992 |
| 093 | 4.21 | Monster a go-go | January 9, 1993 |
| 094 | 4.22 | The Day the Earth Froze | January 16, 1993 |
| 095 | 4.23 | Bride of the Monster | January 23, 1993 |
| 096 | 4.24 | Manos: The Hands of Fate | January 30, 1993 |
|
Number (total) |
Number (season) |
Original title | First broadcast |
|---|---|---|---|
| 097 | 5.01 | Warrior of the Lost World | 17th July 1993 |
| 098 | 5.02 | Hercules | July 24, 1993 |
| 099 | 5.03 | Swamp Diamonds | July 31, 1993 |
| 100 | 5.04 | Secret Agent Super Dragon | August 7, 1993 |
| 101 | 5.05 | The Magic Voyage of Sinbad | August 14, 1993 |
| 102 | 5.06 | Eegah | August 28, 1993 |
| 103 | 5.07 | I Accuse My Parents | 4th September 1993 |
| 104 | 5.08 | Operation Double 007 | September 11, 1993 |
| 105 | 5.09 | The Girl in Lovers Lane | September 18, 1993 |
| 106 | 5.10 | The Painted Hills | September 26, 1993 |
| 107 | 5.11 | Gunslinger | October 9, 1993 |
| 108 | 5.12 | Mitchell | October 23, 1993 |
| 109 | 5.13 | The Brain That Wouldn't Die | October 30, 1993 |
| 110 | 5.14 | Teen-Age Stranglers | November 7, 1993 |
| 111 | 5.15 | The Wild Wild World of Batwoman | November 13, 1993 |
| 112 | 5.16 | Alien from LA | November 20, 1993 |
| 113 | 5.17 | Beginning of the end | November 25, 1993 |
| 114 | 5.18 | The Atomic Brain | 4th December 1993 |
| 115 | 5.19 | Outlaw | December 11, 1993 |
| 116 | 5.20 | Radar Secret Service | 18th December 1993 |
| 117 | 5.21 | Santa claus | December 24, 1993 |
| 118 | 5.22 | Teen-Age Crime Wave | January 15, 1994 |
| 119 | 5.23 | Village of the Giants | January 22, 1994 |
| 120 | 5.24 | 12 to the moon | 5th February 1994 |
|
Number (total) |
Number (season) |
Original title | First broadcast |
|---|---|---|---|
| 121 | 6.01 | Girls Town | July 16, 1994 |
| 122 | 6.02 | Invasion USA | July 23, 1994 |
| 123 | 6.03 | The Dead Talk Back | July 30, 1994 |
| 124 | 6.04 | Zombie Nightmare | November 24, 1994 |
| 125 | 6.05 | Colossus and the Headhunters | August 20, 1994 |
| 126 | 6.06 | The Creeping Terror | 17th September 1994 |
| 127 | 6.07 | Bloodlust! | 3rd September 1994 |
| 128 | 6.08 | Code Name: Diamond Head | October 1, 1994 |
| 129 | 6.09 | The Skydivers | August 27, 1994 |
| 130 | 6.10 | The Violent Years | October 8, 1994 |
| 131 | 6.11 | Last of the Wild Horses | October 15, 1994 |
| 132 | 6.12 | The Starfighters | October 29, 1994 |
| 133 | 6.13 | The Sinister Urge | 5th November 1994 |
| 134 | 6.14 | San Francisco International | November 19, 1994 |
| 135 | 6.15 | Kitten with a Whip | November 23, 1994 |
| 136 | 6.16 | Racket Girls | November 26, 1994 |
| 137 | 6.17 | The Sword and the Dragon | 3rd December 1994 |
| 138 | 6.18 | High school big shot | December 10, 1994 |
| 139 | 6.19 | Red Zone Cuba | 17th December 1994 |
| 140 | 6.20 | Danger !! Death Ray | January 7, 1995 |
| 141 | 6.21 | The Beast of Yucca Flats | January 21, 1995 |
| 142 | 6.22 | Angels Revenge | March 11, 1995 |
| 143 | 6.23 | The Amazing Transparent Man | March 18, 1995 |
| 144 | 6.24 | Samson vs. the Vampire Women | March 25, 1995 |
|
Number (total) |
Number (season) |
Original title | First broadcast |
|---|---|---|---|
| 145 | 7.01 | Night of the Blood Beast | February 3, 1996 |
| 146 | 7.02 | The Brute Man | February 10, 1996 |
| 147 | 7.03 | Deathstalker and the Warriors from Hell | February 17, 1996 |
| 148 | 7.04 | The Incredible Melting Man | February 24, 1996 |
| 149 | 7.05 | Escape 2000 | March 2, 1996 |
| 150 | 7.06 | Laser blast | May 18, 1996 |
|
Number (total) |
Number (season) |
Original title | First broadcast |
|---|---|---|---|
| 151 | 8.01 | Revenge of the Creature | February 1, 1997 |
| 152 | 8.02 | The Leech Woman | February 8, 1997 |
| 153 | 8.03 | The Mole People | February 15, 1997 |
| 154 | 8.04 | The Deadly Mantis | February 22, 1997 |
| 155 | 8.05 | The Thing That Couldn't Die | March 1, 1997 |
| 156 | 8.06 | The Undead | March 8, 1997 |
| 157 | 8.07 | Terror from the Year 5000 | March 15, 1997 |
| 158 | 8.08 | The She Creature | April 5, 1997 |
| 159 | 8.09 | I Was a Teenage Werewolf | April 19, 1997 |
| 160 | 8.10 | The Giant Spider Invasion | April 31, 1997 |
| 161 | 8.11 | Parts: The Clonus Horror | June 7, 1997 |
| 162 | 8.12 | The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies | June 14, 1997 |
| 163 | 8.13 | Jack Frost | July 12, 1997 |
| 164 | 8.14 | Riding with Death | July 19, 1997 |
| 165 | 8.15 | Agent for HARM | 2nd August 1997 |
| 166 | 8.16 | Prince of Space | August 16, 1997 |
| 167 | 8.17 | The Horror of Party Beach | September 6, 1997 |
| 168 | 8.18 | Devil Doll | 4th October 1997 |
| 169 | 8.19 | Invasion of the Neptune Men | October 11, 1997 |
| 170 | 8.20 | Space Mutiny | November 8, 1997 |
| 171 | 8.21 | Time chasers | November 22, 1997 |
| 172 | 8.22 | Overdrawn at the Memory Bank | December 6, 1997 |
|
Number (total) |
Number (season) |
Original title | First broadcast |
|---|---|---|---|
| 173 | 9.01 | The Projected Man | March 14, 1998 |
| 174 | 9.02 | The Phantom Planet | March 21, 1998 |
| 175 | 9.03 | The Pumaman | April 4, 1998 |
| 176 | April 9 | Werewolf | April 18, 1998 |
| 177 | 9.05 | The Deadly Bees | May 9, 1998 |
| 178 | 9.06 | The Space Children | June 13, 1998 |
| 179 | July 9 | Hobgoblins | June 27, 1998 |
| 180 | 9.08 | The Touch of Satan | July 11, 1998 |
| 181 | 9.09 | Gorgon | July 18, 1998 |
| 182 | 9.10 | The Final Sacrifice | July 25, 1998 |
| 183 | 9.11 | Devil Fish | August 15, 1998 |
| 184 | 9.12 | The Screaming Skull | August 29, 1998 |
| 185 | 9.13 | Quest of the Delta Knights | September 26, 1998 |
|
Number (total) |
Number (season) |
Original title | First broadcast |
|---|---|---|---|
| 186 | 10.01 | Soultaker | April 11, 1999 |
| 187 | 02/10 | Girl in Gold Boots | April 18, 1999 |
| 188 | 10.03 | Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders | September 19, 1999 |
| 189 | 04/10 | Future War | April 25, 1999 |
| 190 | 05/10 | Blood Waters of Dr. Z | May 2, 1999 |
| 191 | 10.06 | Boggy Creek II: And the Legend Continues | May 9, 1999 |
| 192 | 07/10 | Track of the Moon Beast | June 13, 1999 |
| 193 | 08/10 | Final Justice | June 20, 1999 |
| 194 | 10.09 | Hamlet | June 27, 1999 |
| 195 | 10.10 | It Lives By Night | July 18, 1999 |
| 196 | 11/10 | Horrors of Spider Island | July 25, 1999 |
| 197 | 10.12 | Squirm | August 1, 1999 |
| 198 | 10.13 | Diabolics | August 8, 1999 |
|
Number (total) |
Number (season) |
Original title | First broadcast |
|---|---|---|---|
| 199 | 11.01 | Reptilicus | April 14, 2017 |
| 200 | 02/11 | Cry Wilderness | April 14, 2017 |
| 201 | 11.03 | The Time Travelers | April 14, 2017 |
| 202 | 04/11 | Avalanche | April 14, 2017 |
| 203 | 05/11 | The Beast of Hollow Mountain | April 14, 2017 |
| 204 | 06/11 | Star crash | April 14, 2017 |
| 205 | 07/11 | The Land That Time Forgot | April 14, 2017 |
| 206 | 08/11 | The Loves of Hercules | April 14, 2017 |
| 207 | 11.09 | Yongary, Monster from the Deep | April 14, 2017 |
| 208 | 11.10 | Wizards of the Lost Kingdom | April 14, 2017 |
| 209 | 11.11 | Wizards of the Lost Kingdom II | April 14, 2017 |
| 210 | 11.12 | Carnival Magic | April 14, 2017 |
| 211 | 11.13 | The Christmas That Almost Wasn't | April 14, 2017 |
| 212 | 11.14 | At the Earth's core | April 14, 2017 |
|
Number (total) |
Number (season) |
Original title | First broadcast |
|---|---|---|---|
| 213 | 12.01 | Mac and Me | 22nd November 2018 |
| 213 | 02/12 | Atlantic Rim | 22nd November 2018 |
| 214 | 03/12 | Lords of the Deep | 22nd November 2018 |
| 215 | 04/12 | The Day Time Ended | 22nd November 2018 |
| 216 | 05/12 | Killer fish | 22nd November 2018 |
| 217 | 12.06 | Ator, the Fighting Eagle | 22nd November 2018 |
Spin-offs
In 1995 a movie about MST3K called Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie was made, but it did not have any commercial success. The movie shown in this movie is Metaluna IV does not answer ( This Island Earth ). The free TV premiere in Germany was on April 18, 2014 on Tele 5 as part of the 20th anniversary of Kalkofes TV screen.
Since the episodes of MST3K are relatively long for a television series at around 100 minutes, some episodes of the third to fifth seasons were re-edited into two-parters under the name The Mystery Science Theater Hour at the end of 1993 . These episodes contain a cultural magazine- style introduction , presented by Michael J. Nelson.
There are some series specials in which trailers from Oscar- nominated films are processed. At the start of the eighth season, the SciFi Channel hosted an MST3K Home Game , in which viewers could submit their own comments on a film live via the Internet, which were then displayed.
The MST3K actors have also performed live twice at a Minneapolis movie theater at fan conventions .
Rifftrax and Cinematic Titanic
Today the tradition of MST3K is continued by Rifftrax and Cinematic Titanic . The core team of rifftrax consists of Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy (Tom Servo) and Bill Corbett (Crow), which usually comment blockbuster and these comments as a downloadable MP3 distribute files that begin with synchronization instructions to parallel to a DVD to play to be able to. The files are sold online at prices below $ 5 . Guest commentators are also regularly invited, including well-known names such as Weird Al Yankovic and Neil Patrick Harris .
Cinematic Titanic is operated by Joel Hodgson, Trace Beaulieu (Crow, Dr. Forrester), J. Elvis Weinstein (Tom Servo, Dr. Erhardt), Frank Conniff (TV's Frank) and Mary Jo Pehl (Pearl Forrester), who like to MST3K's times commenting on B-Movies. Cinematic Titanic distribute DVDs of the films with commentary and offer them online for download.
Both Cinematic Titanic and Rifftrax host live screenings of selected films with their live commentary.
Awards
Mystery Science Theater 3000 received a Peabody Award in 1993 and was nominated for an Emmy Award in 1994 and 1995 . The DVD releases were nominated for the Saturn Award in 2004, 2006 and 2007 .
Legal problems
Since other films are shown in Mystery Science Theater 3000, these must be licensed by the respective rights holder . This created some problems for the producers of MST3K.
For one thing, because of the immensely high costs involved, they couldn't use any current Hollywood films for the series, even though they would have liked to. Second, the broadcasting rights acquired were mostly limited in time, in a few cases even to a single broadcast. To the displeasure of the television stations, many episodes could therefore not be repeated at will, contrary to the usual marketing concept for television series. In addition, some rights holders denied Best Brains the necessary rights to use films in MST3K.
Although videos and DVDs continued to sell well even after the series was discontinued , new contracts had to be negotiated for these releases, which is why only a few episodes of MST3K are available in stores. For this reason, and in order to further increase the level of awareness of the series, Best Brains decided to take the unusual step of not only explicitly allowing the copying and duplication of privately recorded episodes, but even supporting fans with it. The official fan club's website maintains lists of people who trade or sell episodes on video or home-burned DVDs, and the credits of the first seasons contained the call to keep circulating the tapes .
Since the advent of broadband -Internetanschlüssen this practice is also in sharing continued.
Web links
- Official MST3K site (English)
- RiffTrax - follow-up project of the MST3K makers (English)
- Mystery Science Theater 3000 TV series 1988–1999 in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie (1996) in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- MST3K - The Movie - Quotes Collection
Individual evidence
- ↑ 20 years of Kalk - Kalkfreitag. In: tele5.de. Retrieved April 18, 2014 .
- ↑ Official launch tweet. Twitter.de, accessed on April 19, 2017 .
- ↑ Mystery Science Theater 3000 - Netflix extends comedy series for 12th season . In: moviepilot.de . November 24, 2017 ( moviepilot.de [accessed November 24, 2017]).