Who thought fans of Mystery Science Theater 3000 would take “keep circulating the tapes” so seriously? 25 years after viewers outside of the Minneapolis-St. Paul area got their first look at the Satellite Of Love, reruns of the show are set to return to TV—and, if the final grafs of Wired’s exhaustive oral history of the show are to be believed, creator and original host Joel Hodgson is gearing up for a full MST3K revival on the Internet. Though it doesn’t contain much in the way of new info for the diehard MSTie, Brian Raferty’s “Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Definitive Oral History of a TV Masterpiece” is still worth a read, as it finds the cast and crew speaking far more candidly than in any official history of the show. It also concludes with the following money quote from Hodgson, elaborating on plans for “a new online incarnation of the show, one that will feature a fresh (and as-yet-unannounced) host and cameos from many MST3K alumni.”
“Hodgson: I’ve talked to a bunch of fans about their lives and what MST3K means to them. I’m overwhelmed by how people took to that show. It really affected them. I thought, if enough people still love it, maybe we can bring it back.
Even avid viewers sometimes don’t realize that every major role in the show had been swapped out over time. So in my mind, the show is built to be refreshed with new people and new ideas. It’s like Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle as it applies to MST3K: If it doesn’t change, it’s not the same show. And fortunately for us, as long as there are movies, there are always going to be cheesy movies.”
As previously proven by years of post-credit stingers, with MST3K, it always pays to stick through to the end.