Mystery Science Theater 3000 (often abbreviated as "MST3K") is an American cult television comedy series created by Joel Hodgson and initially produced by Best Brains, Inc. that originally ran from 1988 to 1999. Following a highly successful Kickstarter campaign, Netflix picked up the show for an 11th season and 12th season from 2017 to 2018. Satellite of Love LLC (the show's current owner) crowdfunded a 13th season, released in 2022, and a new streaming site with which to distribute it, the Gizmoplex. The series features a human test subject and their robot sidekicks, Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot, who are trapped aboard an orbiting satellite by a mad scientist from the Forrester clan. There, they are subjected to terrible movies in the hopes that one will drive them insane and allow the scientist to rule the world. To cope, the host and the robots provide running commentary on the film, making fun of its flaws and wisecracking (or "riffing") their way through it in the style of a movie theater peanut gallery. The series has featured numerous giant monster films, including Godzilla vs. Megalon, Ebirah, Horror of the Deep, and the first six Gamera entries.
Cast
Actor's name on the left, character played on the right.
Joel Hodgson as Joel Robinson (Seasons 0-5; Season 10 guest appearance) / Ardy (Seasons 11-12)
Josh Weinstein as Tom Servo / Dr. Laurence Erhardt (Seasons 0-1) / Gypsy (Season 0)
Trace Beaulieu as Crow T. Robot / Dr. Clayton Forrester (Seasons 0-7)
Kevin Murphy as Tom Servo (Seasons 2-10) / Professor Bobo (Seasons 8-10; Season 11 guest appearance)
Frank Conniff as TV's Frank (Seasons 2-6; Season 10 guest appearance)
Jim Mallon as Gypsy (Seasons 1-8)
Michael J. Nelson as Mike Nelson (Seasons 5-10)
Mary Jo Pehl as Pearl Forrester (Seasons 7-10; Season 11 guest appearance)
Bill Corbett as Crow T. Robot / Brain Guy (Seasons 8-10; Season 11 guest appearance)
Patrick Brantseg as Gypsy (Seasons 8-10)
Jonah Ray as Jonah Heston (Seasons 11-12)
Baron Vaughn as Tom Servo (Seasons 11-12)
Hampton Yount as Crow T. Robot (Seasons 11-12)
Felicia Day as Kinga Forrester (Seasons 11-12)
Patton Oswalt as TV's Son of TV's Frank (Seasons 11-12)
The show's first 21 episodes (often referred to as Season "0" or "KTMA") aired on a public access station in Minnesota, and the five Gamera films were among those riffed a second time when it was picked up by Comedy Central. However, Sandy Frank blocked re-airings of these episodes, starting in 1996.[2]
The Godzilla vs. Megalon episode was ultimately released on DVD as part of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 Volume 10 box set in 2008, but due to confusion regarding ownership of the film's English dubbed version (Best Brains had been led to believe that Godzilla vs. Megalon and Ebirah, Horror of the Deep were both public domain films), the set was pulled within weeks of its release and ultimately re-released two years later, with The Giant Gila Monster replacing Godzilla vs. Megalon. Included on the new set (known as Volume 10.2) was a brand-new host segment showing the crew giving a tutorial on swapping out the movies, and TV's Frank being admonished by Dr. Forrester for not obtaining the rights from Toho. Throughout the segment, the title Godzilla vs. Megalon is either referred to as the "Japanese giant lizard movie", or intentionally has its syllables grunted out or coughed over.
Selected video releases
Rhino Entertainment DVD (2006) [Mystery Science Theater 3000 Volume 10]
Region: 1
Discs: 4
Audio: English
Subtitles: None
Special Features: Video Jukebox with 15 songs from the show, outtakes (15 minutes), photo gallery
Notes: Episodes included are Godzilla vs. Megalon, Swamp Diamonds, Teen-Age Strangler, and The Giant Spider Invasion. Out of print and extremely rare; the more readily-available Volume 10.2 replaced Godzilla vs. Megalon with The Giant Gila Monster.
Shout! Factory DVD (2011) [Mystery Science Theater 3000 Vol. XXI: MST3K vs. Gamera]
Region: 1
Discs: 5
Audio: English
Subtitles: None
Special features: "So Happy Together: A Look Back at MST3K and Gamera" featurette (23 minutes), The Mystery Science Theater Hour wrap-arounds for Gamera and Gamera vs. Guiron (5 minutes), theatrical trailers for all five movies, "Gamera vs. the Chiodo Brothers" featurette (24 minutes), "Gamera Obscura: A Brief History by August Ragone" featurette (30 minutes)
Notes: Episodes included are Gamera, Gamera vs. Barugon, Gamera vs. Gaos, Gamera vs. Guiron, and Gamera vs. Zigra (all from Season 3). Out of print.
Special features: Return to Eden Prairie: 25 Years of Mystery Science Theater 3000 documentary (70 minutes), "Ninth Wonder of the World: The Making of Gorgo" featurette (31 minutes), "Life After MST3K" featurette focusing on Mary Jo Pehl, Moon Zero Two introduction by Constantine Nasr (10 minutes), The Mystery Science Theater Hour wrap-arounds for The Day the Earth Froze, "Leonard Maltin Explains Something" clip, "Last Flight of Joel Robinson" featurette (10 minutes), interview with Marilyn Neilson, posters and original trailers for Moon Zero Two, The Day the Earth Froze, The Leech Woman, and Gorgo
Notes: Episodes included are Moon Zero Two, The Day the Earth Froze, The Leech Woman, Gorgo, Mitchell, and The Brain That Wouldn't Die.
Shout! Factory DVD (2014) [Mystery Science Theater 3000 Volume XXX]
Region: 1
Discs: 4
Audio: English
Subtitles: English
Special features: Stringer of Death: Making The Black Scorpion, Writer of Gor: The Novels of John Norman, Director of Gor: On Set with John "Bud" Cardos, Producer of Gor: Adventures with Harry Alan Towers, Shock to the System: Creating The Projected Man, extended trailer for "The Frank" music video, four mini-posters by Steve Vance
Notes: Episodes included are The Black Scorpion, Outlaw (of Gor), The Projected Man, and It Lives by Night.
Shout! Factory Blu-ray / DVD (2018) [Mystery Science Theater 3000 Season 11]
Region: A (Blu-ray) and 1 (DVD)
Discs: 8
Audio: English
Subtitles: English
Special features: We Brought Back MST3K documentary (73 minutes)
Notes: Episodes included are Reptilicus, Cry Wilderness, The Time Travelers, Avalanche, The Beast of Hollow Mountain, Starcrash, The Land That Time Forgot, The Lovers of Hercules, Yongary, Monster from the Deep, and Wizards of the Lost Kingdom.
Shout! Factory Blu-ray / DVD (2019)
Region: A (Blu-ray) and 1 (DVD)
Discs: 3 (standard) or 4 (Backer Edition)
Audio: English
Subtitles: English
Special features: All special features, totaling one hour, are exclusive to the Backer Edition: intro By Joel Hodgson, Behind-the-Sketches featurette, Inside the Riffs featurette, Under the Puppets featurette, Scaling the Models featurette, outro by Joel Hodgson and Jonah Ray
Notes: Episodes included are Mac and Me, Atlantic Rim, Lords of the Deep, The Day Time Ended, Killer Fish, and Ator, the Fighting Eagle.
Videos
Full episodes
Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode K05 - Gamera
Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode K06 - Gamera vs. Gaos
Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode K07 - Gamera vs. Zigra
Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode K08 - Gamera vs. Guiron
Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode K21 - The "Legend of Dinosaurs"
Host segments
"Jet Jaguar Song" (from episode 212 - Godzilla vs. Megalon)
"Tibby, Oh Tibby" (from episode 302 - Gamera)
"Michael Feinstein's Gamera" (from episode 312 - Gamera vs. Guiron)
"Leonard Maltin Recommends Gorgo" (from episode 909 - Gorgo)
Waiting for Gorgo (from episode 909 - Gorgo)
Miscellaneous
CBS News Saturday Morning appearance talking about Godzilla
GODZILLA parody from the 2nd Annual Blockbuster Review
A brief shot of Godzilla's tail slide from Godzilla vs. Megalon appeared in the show's opening from episode 317 (The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent) to 512 (Mitchell).
This is a list of references for Mystery Science Theater 3000. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]
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