‘Mystery Science Theater 3000’ Revival Heads to Netflix
UPDATE: Mystery Science Theater 3000 will be released on April 14th. As AV Club reports, Netflix announced the show’s premiere date and unveiled a full cast photo via Facebook.
In December, after the movie-mocking cult TV show Mystery Science Theater 3000 raised an astounding $5.7 million in a Kickstarter campaign to produce new episodes, creator Joel Hodgson told Rolling Stone he hoped to have some news regarding the revival in time for Comic-Con. On Saturday at the San Diego event, Netflix announced that the 14 new episodes of MST3K would head to the streaming service “in the not-too-distant future.”
Hodgson is back on board overseeing all facts of the revival, with comedian Jonah Ray and actress Felicia Day also cast in the series. Community‘s Dan Harmon and Joel McHale have joined as writers for the revival alongside former Daily Show head writer Elliott Kalan. The show’s original cast – including Mary Jo Pehl (Pearl Forrester), Bill Corbett (Crow T. Robot) and Kevin Murphy – will also reprise their roles.
When MST3K‘s Kickstarter launched in November 2015, Hodgson originally set a goal of $2 million to create three new episodes, which he reached in less than a week. “We thought we’d hit it within the month; I was completely astonished when we went past that,” Hodgson told Rolling Stone. Instead, by the time the Kickstarter ended, the MST3K revival had reached $5.7 million from over 50,000 backers.
As Hodgson aims to satisfy those longtime fans that helped revive the program, in addition to bringing the original cast back together, the show will also employ their classic method of production.
“The big thing is practical effects. One thing I’ve noticed over time that really worked for us is that we did everything in-camera; we really didn’t do anything in post, and that worked to our advantage because I think people perceived it as a document of a day” Hodgson said. And it really is, because we shot the show for two days—one day we did the host segment and the other day we did the movie segment—so it’s almost in real time. I call it a miniature golf aesthetic, where all of the effects are practical.”
In the not-too-distant future. @MST3K pic.twitter.com/L9IpZW2Cmb
— Netflix US (@netflix) July 24, 2016