The most hilarious television show ever made - perhaps the funniest thing ever created by humans in the history of comedy - was a show called Mystery Science Theater 3000. It ran for 10 years, from 1989 until its cancellation in 1999. It was the ultimate form of recycling in that they took and old, bad movie and made fun of it while it was showing, turning it into comedy gold.
I got the honor of meeting the show's head writer and star, Michael J. Nelson, back in 2005 after a live sketch show he did at the Shadowbox Cabaret here in Columbus, Ohio. I pleaded with him to bring the show back, since Hollywood was still churning out bad movies at an unprecedented rate. He told me that they can't bring it back because of rights issues, but that there was something very similar in the works with his fromer MST3K buddies in The Film Crew.
Fast forward to recently, when Mr. Nelson hooked up with Rifftrax, where he adds commentary tracks to movies, very similar to MST3K. Here's a sample of their commentary for Star Trek VI:
Spock! Spock! Spock!
Anyway, while this was all good, the real return of MST3K was yet to come. The Film Crew has announced that they are releasing DVDs of riffed movies, all in a very MST3k-ish premise, with entertainment mogul Bob Honcho sending movies to the three of them in their basement to comment on. There will even be sketches, too, just like MST3K. The first movie they are releasing, Hollywood After Dark, is set to come out in July, with three other ones following later this year.
The price is a bit steep - almost twenty dollars an episode - but if their skills are still as sharp as they were before, it'll be worth it. I never thought I'd see the return of MST3K in any form, so for myself and thousands of fans all over the world, this is great news.
Now, if only Joss Whedon would find someone to fund new episodes of Firefly, my life would be complete.
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