look back in humor: the stars reflect on the end of 'mst3k

7/28/2019 Look Back in Humor: The Stars Reflect on the End of 'MST3K'

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Look Back in Humor: The Stars Reflect on the End of "MST3K"

SCI Mystery Science Iheater 3000

Sundays, I I p.m. to I a.m. ET,repeatlng Saturdays, I I a.m. to I p.m.

By Frank Lovece

It's the beginning ofthe end.

No, not producer Bert I. Gordon's grade-Z movie ofthat name, the one with the "giant"grasshoppers "climbing" picture postcards of office buildings. It is, sadly, the begirning ofthe end for the TV show that rightflrlly rifed it and a couple hundred other bad movies.

On Sunday, April I l, the acclaimed and award-winning Mys tery Science Theater 3000

begins its tenth and final season.

"It's a little sad, but IVe been doing this for a long time," says

the soft-spoken stax and head writer, Mke Nelso4 with a bitmore relief than re$et. "It certainly doesn't have the same

cultural significance as the end of ,Seinfeld. Of cowse," he adds,uwhat I've heard from everyone is, 'Just don't make your last

episode hke Seinfeld s."'

MSZ3rKs big finale, giving the"mystie"

treatment to 1968's Danger: Diabolik, prenietes

August 8. Ironically, the series'actual final show (Merlin's Shop of Myslical Wonders,

starring Emest Borgnine) runs sometime in Sgptember "The rights to the movie arent

gonna clear till then," explains writer-perfdrmer Kevin Murphy, who does the robot/



1997. Hodgson returns for a guest shot on the season premiere, the

1990 stinker Soultaker, along with former cast-member Frank Cormiff (now a story editor

on Sabrina the Teenage Witch, for which Hodgson is the magic consultant). Missing, for

reasons both Murphy and Nelson are vague about, is founding writer-actor Trace

Beaulieu, who played the mad Dr. Forrester and performed the puppet Crow T. Robot.

Unlike when Comedy Central dropped the show, no reprieve looks

likely this time, and so the production company, Best Brains, will be

closing up shop. "Last time, early on," says Murphy (Ieft, with Tom

Servo), "we got some signals from the Sci-Fi Channel that they'd be

interested, so wehung around. This time I think everybody's gonna start

to get on with their lives. If there's an occasion or a demand, we'll get

back together and put up the old set and do it. It's kinda like the circus:.

You caa fold it up here and put it up in Toledo, Not that we're moving

to Toledo, mind you. "

Fans have organized a save-the-show campaign, with somehelp from the fan club's Web site, Satellite News. But while

there was talk last time around ofnew dtect+o-video

editions, and this time of occasional M^923X specials,

Nelson believes "it's unlikely anything else will happen, at

least very soon." Hg like Murphy and fellow Best Brains

Mary Jo Pehl (who plays Pearl Forrester), Bill Corbett(Crow and the Brain Guy) and Patrick Brantseg (Gypsy),

plans to stick around Minneapolis and continue, if possible, to do TV from there.

"But y'know," Nelson half-jokes, "once I'm working at Subway, packing meat in

sandwiches, if somebody comes along and says, 'Hey! Road showl Whaddya think?,' who

knows? I may just drop my jalapeflos and go."

What if other csble networks picked up ilfS?Jfi? Find out here'



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By Frank Lovece

Whm Myaery Science Thedter 3000 came to the Sci-Fi Channel from Comedy Central,the show was told to focus on sci-filfantaqy films. No more westerns. No nore gangsterfilms. No more sidehacker movies.

So what would hap pen f MST3K were to be rescued b y someother cable network? KevinMurphy and Mke Nelson respond to our suggestiom:

Home and Garden W

KM: O[ geez. Let's see.. . We'd have to do Ihe Good Eafih. Mr. Blandings Builds his

Dream House. Ihe Money Pit. There arent too many low-budget bad movies aboutlandscaping and home improvement. On the other hand we could aqtually critique justabout any program on Home and Garden TV.

ESPN

MN: We'd do Brazilian soccer garnes. In Portuguese, of course. Brain Guy could teachme.



MTV

KM: Just stick Kurt Loder on there and let us keep babbling over him. And Tabitha

Soren.

MN: td be slapping Dweezil Zappa. I could easily fill a half-hour with that.

The Cartoon Network

' KM: Notlin' but Scooby-Dool Quite possibly the stupidest thing that anybody has ever

put on anything that has color involved.

The History Channel

KM: Just give us any newsreel narrated by Lowell Thomas, and let us go.

MN: OIL thd ail-Iitler charmel. I think we could do flrn things with a serious, two-hour

documentary on Mllard Fillmore.

Tlrc Food Naworh

MN: We gotta stop that Emeril from sayingrlBAMI'r I gotta take a shot at that. It's a

tlreeletter, one-syllable word, and he's just ridin' it like a mule. After the four thousandthUBAM!,'

Tom Servo's head would just explode.

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look back in humor: the stars reflect on the end of 'mst3k

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