We’re giving away a secret mystery box filled with goodies related to the iconic TV series, Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K). There’s only one of these so-secret-we-don’t-even-know-what’s-in-it mystery boxes we can give away, so email us quickly! You can find information about that at the bottom of the page, and visit the series’ streaming home at The Gizmoplex here.
Mystery Science Theater 3000 has had one of the strangest journeys of any television series. First, is it even a television series? The episodes are two hours long and there’s rarely long-term continuity, aside from the fact that an inventor and his or her robot buddies are forced to watch terrible movies and provide comic feedback (or riffing) while they do so. The show began on local television in Minneapolis before becoming one of the first two series (both co-created by Joel Hogson) that launched Comedy Central (then known as The Comedy Channel).
Hodgson would leave in season five, Comedy Central would cancel the show, SyFy (then known as the Sci-Fi Channel) would pick it up and then cancel it, and Netflix would pick MST3K up after 18 years and then ‘cancel’ it as well. The most recent season 13 was crowdfunded by fans and streamed through Hodgson’s own online platform devoted to MST3K, The Gizmoplex.
Which leads us to today and the hopes for a full season 14, which recently encountered an impasse after sadly not meeting its intended goal. Blame it on the strikes, the economy, the holiday season, or moving from Kickstarter to their Showmaker page — whatever the reason, it didn’t work this time, which is why we all need to keep MST3K in our thoughts and pay attention for the next fundraiser, because this show’s not ready to die yet.
Turkey Days and Giveaways
If you missed it, Mystery Science Theater 3000 held a wonderful 48-hour Mega Turkey Day Marathon Telethon featuring 24 of the show’s greatest episodes. This year’s marathon lineup was selected by the series’ writers, who were asked to choose their absolute favorite classics, the ones that set them on the path of writing for the world’s only Peabody Award-winning moving-riffing TV series featuring plastic robots. The carefully curated collection of episodes that will be screened during the event include classic episodes such as Viking Women and the Sea Serpent, classic episodes including The Pumaman that have had their visual components upgraded to 1080p from the original 480p, episodes from the show’s latest season including The Bubble, and three hilarious holiday episodes, including the Season 13 fan favorite The Christmas Dragon.
You can actually watch and revisit the marathon at The Gizmoplex, where you can also stream old MST3K episodes for free, or sign up for an account and support the show while getting access to more and more perks, such as the excellent Season 13 of the series, which MovieWeb received and wholly endorses — long live the show. Check out our Season 13 box set (and a cool Roku from Shout! Studios, one of the biggest supporters of MST3K) below:
If you’re interested in trying to win this mystery giveaway, just email us at [email protected] if you’re in the United States (for shipping purposes) and we’ll follow up with you if you’re the first person to reach out. If not, it’s okay — we have new giveaways all the time, so keep an eye out! And if you want to check out our excellent interview with Joel Hodgson about the show’s past and future, you can watch the video below:
