Mystery Science Theater 3000



Mystery Science Theater 3000 (often abbreviated as MST3K) is a television show which ran from 1988 until 1999, first airing on cable on the Comedy Channel (succeeded by Comedy Central in 1991) and later on Sci-Fi. Hosted by creator Joel Hodgson (and later by Mike Nelson), the science-fiction flavored series featured the sarcastic host and his two robot puppet sidekicks, Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot making fun of "cheesy movies" -- mainly classic B-science fiction and horror films, with the occasional barbarian epic, cop drama, or biker flick.

The show is known for its diverse pop-culture references, riffing on everything from philosophers and politicians to cartoons and old commercials. The rapid-fire quips often included references to the Muppets and Sesame Street.

RiffTrax
In 2006, Mike Nelson revived the MST3K concept as "RiffTrax", a website which offers downloadable audio commentaries in the MST style. The user listens to the commentary track in sync with a DVD. Nelson has recorded RiffTrax with many of his MST colleagues, including Kevin Murphy (Tom Servo), Bill Corbett (Crow), Mary Jo Pehl (Pearl Forrester), and his wife Bridget Nelson (writer), as well as celebrity guest Neil Patrick Harris.

RiffTrax continues the MST3K tradition of Muppet references.


 * Glitter (2007) : Mariah Carey talks about a dream she's had. "I'm on this huge TV show, right? And I'm singing this song that me and my mom used to sing together." "It's called 'C Is for Cookie'," Mary Jo quips.

The Film Crew
In 2007, Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett expanded the RiffTrax concept into "The Film Crew", a line of direct-to-DVD releases. In this series, Mike, Kevin and Bill work for a friendly but lunatic boss, Bob Honcho, who wants to provide a commentary track for every movie ever made. The trio work as Honcho's "film crew", quipping over the movie. The series is, essentially, a direct-to-DVD Mystery Science Theater, but without silhouettes.


 * Killers From Space (2007) : A pair of "menacing" eyes haunt Peter Graves as he's driving. When the eyes appear, Kevin says, in a Cookie Monster voice, "Let me steal your cookie!" As they get closer, Mike sings, "It's time to meet your maker, on The Muppet Show tonight..."

Connections

 * One popular subject for the series was the 1964 Christmas oddity Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, co-starring Sesame Street cast member Bill McCutcheon as Dropo the martian.
 * After leaving MST3K, Joel Hodgson and his brother Jim worked with the Jim Henson Company to produce a show for broadcast on Noggin. This never saw the light of day.