The new Mystery Science Theater 3000 gets an April Netflix release
Mark it down, MST3K fans – the reboot of the Minnesota-made cult comedy hits Netflix on April 14.
While we knew the updated, Kickstarter-backed Mystery Science Theater 3000 would be coming this year, we didn't have an official streaming date until late Wednesday night, when Netflix made the announcement in a tweet.
Even if you've never watched the show, you've probably seen its trademark visual – silhouettes of a man and his robots sitting in the front of a theater, watching a terrible-looking movie. Like this:
The premise is simple: The man and his robots are forced to sit through some of the worst movies ever made, and to cope with their situation, they make jokes throughout.
The show premiered on KTMA public TV in Minneapolis in 1988, and is the brainchild of Wisconsin-born Joel Hodgson. He attended college at Bethel University in St. Paul, according to IMDB. He then moved to Los Angeles where he got his start in show business, WIRED reported, before moving back to Minneapolis and helping launch Mystery Science Theater 3000.
He left the show in 1993 over creative differences. It was canceled three years later.
But there’s still a big cult following, and Hodgson launched a Kickstarter campaign to resurrect the series. The effort broke Kickstarter records, bringing in more than $5.7 million, and Netflix announced in July it would be picking up the 14-episode reboot.
Hodgson is being joined by a handful of other celebrities for the reboot, including Jonah Ray as the new host, comedy actor Patton Oswalt playing the Son of TV's Frank, and actress Felicia Day as Kinga Forrester, while Joel McHale, Dan Harmon and Elliott Kalan have signed on as writers.
Mary Jo Pehl, Bill Corbett and Kevin Murphy will also reprise their roles in the reboot, Netflix has said.
