Mystery Science Theater 3000 (often abbreviated as MST3K) is an American cult television comedy series created by Joel Hodgson and produced by Best Brains, Inc., that ran from 1988 to 1999.
The series features a man and his robot sidekicks who are trapped on a space station by an evil scientist and forced to watch a selection of bad movies, often (but not limited to) science fiction B-movies. To keep sane, the man and his robots provide a running commentary on each film, making fun of its flaws and wisecracking (or "riffing") their way through each reel in the style of a movie-theater peanut gallery. Each film is presented with a superimposition of the man and robots' silhouettes along the bottom of the screen.
Series creator Hodgson originally played the stranded man, Joel Robinson, for five and a half seasons. When Hodgson left in 1993, series head writer Michael J. Nelson replaced him as new victim Mike Nelson, and continued in the role for the rest of the show's run.
During its eleven years, 198 episodes and one feature film, MST3K attained critical acclaim. The series won a Peabody Award in 1993, was nominated for two Emmy Awards (in the category of Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing for a Variety or Music Program) in 1994 and 1995, and was nominated for a CableACE Award.
In 2007, James Poniewozik listed Mystery Science Theater 3000 as one of Time magazine's "100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME."
MST3K - Attack of the (The) Eye Creatures
Multi-eyed aliens try to frame a pair of smoochin’ teens.
MST3K - Cave Dwellers
Must be seen to be believed
MST3K - Escape 2000
The Bronx is a wasteland! Must find the rebel alliance of street gangs!
MST3K - Gamera vs Zigra
Joel and the bots; Gamera vs. a talking shark?
MST3K - Godzilla vs. Megalon
"Rex Dart -- Eskimo Spy!"
MST3K - Hobgoblins
"Hobgoblins, hobgoblins, what do you do with those hobgoblins? They're over here, they're over there, those darn hobgoblins are everywhere!"
MST3K - Horror of Party Beach
Mike and the Bots go to town...
MST3K - I Was a Teenage Werewolf
Michael Landon goes wolf for the MST3K crew!
MST3K - It Conquered the World
"He learned too late that a man is a feeling creature..."
MST3K - Jack Frost
Based on a real Russian folktale, with Jack Frost, Baba Yaga, and Father Mushroom! Winter wild!
MST3K - Laserblast
Doomed, ostracized teen finds laser gun from aliens, goes mad with power, blows up a lot of stuff, and then the aliens return for some reason...
MST3K - Master Ninja
Featuring Lee Van Cleef, Timothy Van Patten, and the funk-fusion "Master Ninja Theme Song!"
MST3K - Parts: The Clonus Horror
Peter Graves, Keenan Wynn, and Dick Sargent make the screen talkatively creep with scientific clone horrors!
MST3K - Pod People
"Pod People isn't that Nia Peeples brother?"
MST3K - Pod People
"Idiot control now"
MST3K - Samson vs. The Vampire Women
El Santo, as "Samson," fights off a clutch of vampire women (it's a clutch, right?)
MST3K - Santa Claus
It's Santa vs. Satan in this delightful, trippy romp deep into Mexican fantasy
MST3K - Shorts
MST3K presents: "Chicken of Tomorrow," "The Selling Wizard" and "What About Juvenile Delinquency?" with others.
MST3K - Soultaker (1999)
"Soooooooooooooooooooooooooultaker!"
MST3K - The Atomic Brain
A modern-day parable of the rich wishing to live forever in young, nubile bodies...
MST3K - The Brain That Wouldn't Die
The first full episode with Mike Nelson.
MST3K - The Day The Earth Froze
Weird Finnish fantasy about a witch & a "sampo," with a short "Here Comes the Circus!"
MST3K - The Deadly Bees
The TV sequence toward the beginning features a performance by British pop group The Birds (not to be confused with The Byrds). The group's lead guitarist is Ronnie Wood, later of The Rolling Stones.
MST3K - The Human Duplicators
George MacCready, Hugh Beaumont and a guy who looks like Dick Clark fight Richard Kiel's ceramic android army!
MST3K - The Incredible Melting Man
This movie terrified us as kids...
MST3K - The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent
Roger Corman directed this film about vikings and, eventually, an OK sea serpent. (Also, "The Home Economics Story" short)
MST3K - Viking Women and the Sea Serpent
Roger Corman's epically-titled viking escapade riffed on by Joel and the Bots.
MST3K - Warrior of the Lost World
It's Mad Max meets Knight Rider! with the Paper Chase guy and the chick from the 1st Star Trek movie!
MST3K - Werewolf
"Wher-whilf?"
MST3K - Outlaw of Gor
Jack Palance and a parade of buffalo shots for the Sat of Love crew!
Dec. 11, 1993
MST3K - Diabolik
The final episode
MST3K - Fugitive Alien
"He tried to kill me with a forkliiiift..."
MST3K - Fugitive Alien II
The muddled saga of Fugitive Alien continues.
MST3K - Gamera vs Guiron
"So we Hikeeba all over the place and talk of a thousand wonderful days"
MST3K - Gorgo
Foiled by Maltin!
MST3K - Mighty Jack
"Slow down the plot!"
MST3K - Prince of Space
one of Time magazine's "100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME"
MST3K - Puma Man
Star Donald Pleasence once cited this as the worst film he had ever been in.
MST3K - Squirm
Mutant worms in the south
MST3K - The Creeping Terror
A huge walking carpet-- er, alien from an advanced civilization - comes to Earth where people commit suicide by climbing into its mouth-- er, it eats people. Yeah.
MST3K - Time of the Apes
Another Sandy Frank "classic."
MST3K - Track of the Moon Beast
Featuring "Johnny Longbow" & "The Band that Played California Lady."
