What is Mystery Science Theater 3000?
Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K for short) is a show whose premise is that mad scientists have marooned someone in space on a satellite and are forcing them to watch bad movies as part of a twisted experiment. To survive the experiment, they make fun of the movies as they watch them with the help of two robots that the initial test subject built out of parts of the satellite, and their efforts are then broadcast for our enjoyment.
The experiment has changed hands a few times over the course of the series run, with new mad scientists taking over and occasionally test subjects escaping and new ones being captured and sent to the satellite. But the format of the show has stayed mostly in tact over the years: the bulk of the episode is spent watching and "riffing" the movie, with a silhouette of theater seats over the bottom of the screen so you can see the human test subject and the bots as they mock the film. In between the theater segments, there are "host" segments* made up of video calls between the host and the mad scientists (Mads, for short), scenes of daily living on the satellite, and sketch comedy performances by the host and bots that are usually (but not always) reactions to what they've seen in the movie. There are some running gags and lore that carries over, but each episode mostly stands alone.
*The human subject of the experiment is also called the host of the show, because the characters are aware that their experiences are being broadcast as television.
The show initially ran from 1988-1999, first on a local Minnesota TV station called KTMA (1988-1989), then on the Comedy Central cable channel (1989-1996), and later on the SciFi Channel (1997-1999). New seasons were shot for Netflix in 2017 and 2018, and the showrunners managed to make a crowdfunded independent season in 2022 on their own streaming platform called the Gizmoplex. The original TV episodes show stream on the Gizmoplex for free, and on several other free-with-ads streamers and on official and fan-run YouTube channels.
What is this project?
To promote a kickstarter to fund the Netflix seasons, in 2016 MST3K fans were asked to vote for the top 100 episodes of the original series (not counting that first local television only season). I have lots of knitting to do, so I am watching the list from bottom to top while I knit, and writing about what I think of each episode. You are welcome to watch along with me, or reply with your own thoughts on any episodes you remember!















