Not so long ago, in a galaxy not so far away, a janitor got zapped into space by two mad scientists, who forced him to watch B movies with his robot companions.
That premise became Mystery Science Theater 3000, which first aired on a UHF channel in Minnesota, but eventually landed on Comedy Central and later Syfy, going on to become its own kind of cult classic.
Although the series was officially canceled in 1999, the show made riffing on bad movies into an art. Now, one of the creators of the series, Joel Hodgson, wants to bring Mystery Science Theater 3000 back and reintroduce the comedy of making fun of bad movies.
A new Kickstarter project by Hodgson seeks to raise $2 million to create an all-new Mystery Science Theater 3000 with a brand-new season will full-length episodes.
But why would Hodgson want to revive MST3K? The answer is simple: the demand is there.
"The simplest answer is that there are a lot of cheesy movies left to riff, and a lot of people who would still enjoy watching them with us," writes Hodgson on the Kickstarter page. "Plus, I think there's a place for us. Nowadays, riffing is everywhere!"
Hodgson points out that with social media, riffing on bad movies and TV has become mainstream, thanks to everyone sharing opinions on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. For example, this kind of riffing turned B movie Sharknado (and its sequels) into a cult phenomenon. People love making fun of bad things.
Of course, finally getting to the point to revive MST3K hasn't been easy. First, there's the financial issue, but with the rise of crowdfunding, that's a hurdle easily overcome if fans donate to the cause. The more complicated reason as to why it took so long to work on a revival is due to legal issues.
"Thanks to the Last Will and Testament of one eccentric old heiress, the rights were tied up for years," wrote Hodgson. "It took time to work those issues out, but with the help of my friends at Shout Factory, a special chokehold I perfected in WuDang that I like to call 'The Persuader,' and a night I had to spend in a haunted house as a term of the old lady's will, we succeeded."
Hodgson states that this summer finally saw these rights issues resolved, so now progress on new episodes of MST3K can begin.
However, bringing back MST3K is expensive: the first $2 million raised only funds about three episodes. It will take a total of around $5.5 million to do a full season of 12 episodes.
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