Mystery Science Theater 3000 is 20 years old, and Shout Factory is celebrating the birth of television’s favorite cow-town puppet show with a four-DVD set.
The new collection, released Tuesday, includes four fan-favorite episodes, plus essential extras that track the show’s rise from local Minnesota TV show to international cult classic.
Through several incarnations, MST3K took what many folks do while watching bad movies at home and made it into an entertainment phenomenon.
The show unfurled the worst movies available while a man marooned in space cracked wise about the cinematic missteps with his two homemade robot companions, Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo. It was a beautifully simple premise that built up a global fan base during its 10 years on The Comedy Channel, Comedy Central and the Sci Fi Channel.
The new Mystery Science Theater 3000: 20th Anniversary DVD collection selects four episodes from the series: "First Spaceship on Venus," featuring show creator Joel Hodgson as host; "Werewolf" (see clip, embedded below); "Laserblast"; and "Future War," with later host and head writer Michael J. Nelson. The limited-edition, $70 set comes in a metal gift box with four custom lobby cards and a Crow T. Robot figurine.
"I’m delighted that people still seek out the show," Nelson (pictured) told Wired.com. "It’s something I don’t think any of us could have predicted — that 20 years later there would still be a following for our Midwest-produced, extremely low-budget, sci-fi comedy/puppet show."
The four episodes are cool, but what makes the new DVD set a must-buy for fans of the show are the special video features looking at MST3K‘s history and production. The folks at Shout Factory spread out a comprehensive history of the show’s conception, creation and legacy across three of the set’s discs.
The show’s entire cast (including Hodgson, Nelson, Trace Beaulieu, J. Elvis Weinstein, Kevin Murphy, Bill Corbett, Mary Jo Pehl, Frank Conniff, Paul Chaplain, Bridget Jones Nelson and producer Jim Mallon) offers remembrances from MST3K‘s run. Their natural personalities on camera offer a good idea why the show worked so well. They all seem like well-grounded folks.
From his home in Minnesota, Corbett (Crow T. Robot, Mark II) speculated on why the show worked so well then and lives on to this day: "Why are people still into MST3K 20 years after it debuted, and nearly 10 years since we filmed a new episode? MST3K was intelligent, but not pretentious," he said.
"It was playful, but not juvenile. It was sharp, but not mean-spirited. It was quirky and original, but not snobbish. And it was always funny. Cripes, it was funny.
"All that, plus people in silly costumes, jumping around with puppets. I felt privileged to be a part of it."
The fourth DVD offers the complete reunion panel from this year’s Comic-Con International, hosted by Patton Oswalt. It was the first time the casts mingled since Nelson, Murphy and Corbett started one MST3K spinoff (RiffTrax) and Hodgson, Beaulieu, Weinstein, Pehl and Conniff started another (Cinematic Titanic). As the video shows, everyone got along like old times, and the fans ate it up.
Reminiscing on the show and the panel, Conniff said, "To know that I am a part of something that seems to be of lasting value is a very nice feeling. I feel very lucky that around 20 years ago, fate brought me to the same city as Joel and that vast imagination of his. MST3K and now Cinematic Titanic continue to be a great gift in my life."
Images courtesy Shout Factory
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