About 20 years ago, the Satellite of Love began circling high overhead. Within the confines of this orbital station, everyman Joel Robinson was subjected to watching terrible movies, with only his wisecracking robot sidekicks -- Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot -- to help him by delivering well-timed hilarious commentary. Quickly following its 1988 debut on a local Twin Cities television station KTMA, Mystery Science Theater 3000 became a cult hit, moving to the Comedy Channel, then Comedy Central, and then eventually the Sci-Fi Network.
From 1988 to 1993, comedian and series creator Joel Hodgson played the main role of Joel, before handing over the reigns to Mike Nelson, who hosted through to the show's end in 1999. "End," though, is really used figuratively here, because even though the show is off the air, an active fan-base continues to celebrate all things MST3K, by buying the latest DVD releases or circulating videotapes of hard-to-find episodes. Riffing on bad movies has become a pastime for many MST3K fans who keep the spirit alive. At Industrial Light & Magic, there's a monthly tradition of bad movie screenings called "Flecks" that has been going on for years, and has since spread to other effects and animation studios.
Hodgson has spent the past decade behind-the-scenes developing a variety of entertainment projects, but he will soon be returning to the silhouetted spotlight when he and the original cast of MST3K debut an all-new video project, Cinematic Titanic (visit the website here). In preparation for this new venture, Hodgson visited the offices of Lucasfilm, and StarWars.com was granted an exclusive interview.
Joel, what brings you to San Francisco?
So anyway, they were thinking of having me up for an award show and it just so happened that I was getting together with original cast from Mystery Science Theater and we were doing a new piece called Cinematic Titanic. I thought, this is perfect, I'll come up for the award show, and instead of just me, we all can come up and get the award, do a Q and A about MST and then plunge into the strange new waters of Cinematic Titanic Live. It all just came together, I'd also like to thank Miles Perkins [of ILM] for helping "make it so." So, I'm here for planning meetings and to look at the theater at Lucasfilm which I just inspected and I have to say, this theater is much, much too nice for the Cinematic Titanic Live Experience. Then, tonight -- the Flecks and I are going have some pizza, watch Sean Connery in Zardoz, and riff until the wee hours.
How did Cinematic Titanic come about?
Frank and Trace and I were working on another project which involved movie-riffing and we were having so much fun writing, and performing, and looking for movies to license, it was just like the old days. But that deal went cold, as they sometimes do. So once it fell apart we sort of looked at each other and said, "we should get everyone back together for a real project". So we called J. Elvis and Mary Jo and they said yes. I said, "maybe we could call it 'Cinematic Titanic'" and Trace laughed, so I knew it was a good idea. See, Trace is an excellent barometer on that sort of thing because he only laughs when it's funny -- never out of nervousness or politeness like the rest of us. That's the long and the short of it. It's all based on the sheer fun of movie-riffing, and then all these other things started to fall into place, such as this live show, finding some new amazingly horrible movies, and getting a distributor. It's a miracle when things you love in your life can come back to you.
So let's back up. When you say original cast, who are you talking about?
That would be J. Elvis Weinstein who was the original Tom Servo and was one of the original "evil sirs" ... the mad scientists. Trace Beaulieu who was Crow T. Robot and was also Doctor Clayton Forrester, the other original mad scientist, and me, I played Joel Robinson and sang the theme song. Soon after we got it up and running came the lovely and hilarious Mary Jo Pehl, who played Pearl Forrester and Frank Connif, the big man from New York City, who's recognized internationally as TV's Frank. So the five of us are going to gather together again in Lucasfilm's beautiful Premiere Theater and gently riff live on a horribly great move. That in a nutshell is Cinematic Titanic Live.
Now, I've read in interviews in the past that you're somewhat a reluctant performer. Have you had a change of heart when it comes to publicly performing?
That's a really good question. You're absolutely right, I am a reluctant performer, but... let me try to recall all this. I started as a stand-up in my senior year in college, and moved out to L.A. for a couple of years. My entire stand-up career was about three years long, and I completely loved it. I very quickly got to perform on the Letterman show, and "Saturday Night Live," and HBO's "Young Comedians Special" so by the end of those three years, there really wasn't anything for me to do as a stand-up, except be on a sitcom, which I really didn't want to do. And wouldn't you know -- some powerful Hollywood types approached me about being on a sitcom called "High School U.S.A." And when you're that age -- I don't know anybody who's 26 who really watches sitcoms. I realize I'm saying sitcoms a lot, but just bear with me... What's another name for a sitcom?
Oh that's right, I should have started out saying Situation Comedy and then at this point switched to saying, "sitcom." So anyway, I think situation comedies are for people who are older oryounger, but when you're 26? I don't know. It just didn't seem funny to me. I'd always gotten to perform my own stuff, so I said no, and they just kept throwing more money at me. It began to kind of offend me because I started to realize my opinion was meaningless in Hollywood if they just said, "well, we can blot that out by giving you so much money."
So I quit and went back to Minneapolis, and fortunately all my friends were still hanging out after college living like bohemians, so it was a blast. I really got to extend my already arrested development even longer and hang out with them for a few years, which I was really fortunate to get to do. Minneapolis is the best.
I started doing other non-performing things, but I didn't know what I wanted to do and I was fine just waiting for the next thing to hit me. I then hung out with Jerry Seinfeld at a comedy club. I had known Jerry from working out in L.A. and he asked me to help him write his first HBO comedy special! That kind of drew me back into it. I watched Jerry very closely and I just really liked the way he played it. He seemed happy, yet still had a sense of reality, he worked hard and yet he was always fun to go to lunch with. I have to say, being around him made me feel like maybe I could actually do it again.
About a year later when we got Mystery Science Theater 3000 up and running, I was willing and ready to be the "on-camera" host, besides the thing was so weirdly from me -- I really was the only one to do it. Before we knew it MST was catching on -- it received lots of great press locally, and a really big fan club. Once on cable it got several Emmy nominations and eventually won the Peabody Award. We were having a ball, people were loving it, we were loving making it, and never got a single editorial note from the network. Quite simply it was the greatest job ever.
