Posted on 11/07/2022 9:12:52 PM PST by Morgana
With the support of a fandom nearly 35 years in the making, the quirky comedy show "Mystery Science Theater 3000" launched a new season this year of lampooned movies on its own streaming service.
The Gizmoplex, as the platform is called, may help ensure the future of the show — in which a janitor, trapped on a satellite orbiting Earth, is forced to watch "bad" movies with his wisecracking robot friends.
Joel Hodgson, a Wisconsin native and creator of MST3K, recently appeared on Wisconsin Public Radio’s "The Morning Show" to discuss how the show has endured — and how local Wisconsin television programming inspired him to pair "puppets and cheesy movies."
Growing up in Fort Atkinson in the 1960s, Hodgson said he remembers watching — both on TV and live in-studio — Cowboy Eddie and his ventriloquist, Howie Olson, on the WISC-TV show "Circus 3." He also has fond memories of Albert the Alley Cat, a sock puppet who delivered weather reports from TV6 in Milwaukee.
"It had a huge effect on me," Hodgson said. "And I'm kind of doing the same thing. That’s where it kind of started for me."
Hodgson was fairly successful as a standup comic when he started MST3K on a small TV station in Minneapolis in 1988. The show bounced around cable networks and was distributed on VHS tapes and DVDs before going into syndication.
In recent years, the show twice received funding to produce more episodes by raising more than $6 million through crowdsourcing campaigns on Kickstarter. Hodgson said he wasn’t entirely surprised by the success of these campaigns.
(Excerpt) Read more at wpr.org ...
MST3K is another thing that couldn’t be made today.
Except that they are still making it and Joel is back!!!!
We’ll send him cheesy movies
The worst we can find
Lalala!!!
Always good for a few laughs
I never liked it. I was in grade school staying up Friday nites watching Universal horror films hosted by Zacherly wearing his Woolworths Halloween vampire costume. He inserted himself into the films in a funny but not mocking way. MST3K was plainly into mockery. Today decades later I revisit those Zacherly years by watching Svengoolie on METV.
One of the best shows ever. Our family has two generations of Misties.
Let me know when they lampoon Plan 9 From Outer Space or Sack Lunch.;
There’s always “Blame it on the Rain” or “The Muted Heart”
I saw the live version of Plan Nine by Mike and the original robots at San Diego Comic Con one year. Hysterical of course
To this day, whenever I’m watching a show and someone says, ‘He/She’ dead.’, I have to say ‘Jim’.
Na-Nu Na-Nu
There are probably more cheesy movies nowadays. But because of copyright issues we won’t be able to make fun of them.
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