Last Updated on 29 February 2024

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This section of the site is a tribute to one of the funniest and most creative shows most of us have ever seen. Mystery Science Theater 3000, or MST3K for short, is a TV show featuring a guy and a couple of robots trapped in a satellite and being forced to watch the worst movies ever made. The fun for us is watching them make fun of the movies. As one commercial used to say, “It’s like watching really bad movies with three of your funniest friends.” Sometimes the movie wasn’t long enough for the 90-minute (plus commercials) episode, so they would add a “short” at the beginning.

Mystery Science Theater 3000 first aired on KTMA, a public access UHF station in Minneapolis/St. Paul on November 24, 1988. There were 21 episodes that aired on KTMA, which provided material for a “pitch tape” that resulted in the show getting picked up by the Comedy Channel. On Thanksgiving, November 25, 1989, the show premiered on the Comedy Channel, which merged with Ha! and became Comedy Central during the second season. In May 1996, Laserblast was the last episode to air on Comedy Central, when they were dropped. By February 1987 the show had been picked up by the Sci-Fi Channel and was running again, for three more seasons.

In August 1999, the show ended, and in the last episode Mike and the Bots returned to earth. In the following years, some spinoffs, including Cinematic Titanic and RiffTrax, arose, created and performed by former MST3K folks. Then in 2010, Joel Hodgson started a Kickstarter to bring back Mystery Science Theater 3000. It was one of the most successful fundraisers in Kickstarter’s history! Since then, two seasons have aired on Netflix, in 2017 and 2018. And in 2022 they launched the Gizmoplex, hosted by THEM, so they don’t have to rely on the whims of networks anymore! The next crowdfunding attempt did not succeed, so the future is questionable, but there are still 13 seasons for us to enjoy.

To find out more about the show, including information and IMDb links for episodes, shorts, and more, use the links at the top of this page. Below is a spreadsheet with the data I collected last time I watched all of them in order.