Thoughts on the restarting of Mystery Science 3000

I have to make a quick personal comment about the potential restart of Mystery Science 3000.

For those who don’t know Joel Hodgson has announced he is doing a Kickstarter to restart MST3K. You can find details and give here.

I spent a chunk of my day trying to run down who was involved because the Kickstarter page only lists Joel. After not getting anywhere I ran across the Entertainment Weekly article where Joel states this is his baby and that the other people we associated with the show may come on to write and cameo with the show having a new cast. Mike Nelson explained on his Facebook page that he has nothing to do with it and how he makes no money from MST3K.

I mention this because I know some people were going to determine their involvement financially by how many of the group get involved.

Personally this being an all Joel thing makes we wary. I’ve seen stuff he’s done and liked it but I’ve seen more that really missed the mark. For my money when he is balanced by the other MST3K people (say Cinematic Titanic) he produces great stuff but left to his own devices he’s incredibly hit or miss.

Additionally while I know that while Mike and the rest didn't come up with the idea for MST3K and all of that, I kind of feel they really should take part and have a stake in it. Say what you will about MST3K Mike was a more connected to the show writing it before he took over from Joel.Outside of Kevin Murphy he is the longest tenured writer, missing only the first two seasons.

Taking things further as much as MST3K is a cult thing, if it wasn't for Mike, Bill Corbett and Kevin Murphy doing RIFFTRAX  and keeping movie riffing in to forefront, there would be less demand for MST3K now, RIFFTRAX is the current gateway drug.

This isn't a who do you prefer as host argument, this to me is something more akin to who made the show run? It was in large part due to Mike whose work made some of the later Joel episodes so good. I think Mike and Bill and Kevin should be there. Do I expect that to happen?  No.

Will I back it? Yes I will but not at the level if the whole band was back together.  Frankly without a good team of writers I don't know if Joel will be able to sustain more than a few episodes of the show

Should you back it? That's something you'll have to determine for yourself.