A fan myself, I’ve watched the fellow fans of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) bring our show back from the brink of cancellation, create a magical shared experience from the movie, despite a badly designed release strategy, and resurrect the show to yet another television network. Fans took out full page ads in Variety. They engaged in some of the earliest mass e-mail campaigns to save our beloved show.
Now it’s time for me to do my part.
First of all, MST3K is quite simply that old television show where two robots and a guy (seen in silhouette) make fun of bad movies. It was born on a tiny television station in Minneapolis and became one of the first major hits of The Comedy Channel (which became Comedy Central). There was a movie. The show got picked up by Scifi. Then, after ten glorious years and 197 episodes, it came to an end.
The last core group of MST3K’s cast went on to found Rifftrax, which sells mp3 commentaries of the Lord of the Rings, Matrix, Marvel and Star Wars films. The professional comedy writers make fun of the blockbusters the same way they took on MST3K’s B-movie fodder.
Now the original host and creator, Joel Hodgson, has teamed up with Shout Factory to launch an ambitious attempt to bring the show back for a new generation. Felicia Day is already involved as the evil mad scientist! However, the network executives don’t think MST3K has retained the fan base to make it worth their while to invest in more seasons. Hence, the Kickstarter #bringbackmst3k.
Yes, it’s already funded. But that’s only for three episodes. The executives are looking for the Kickstarter to surpass the $5.5 million mark to prove the fans are there in strong enough numbers to make it worth their while to invest in a program that’s been off the air for almost twenty years.
I don’t have the millions to make this all happen myself. I do have drive, talent and a love of storytelling. Hence, I’m taking a much more grass roots approach to motivating others to support MST3K.
For every million dollars the Kickstarter earns, I will write and release a full Dungeons and Dragons module based on a classic MST3K episode. Over Thanksgiving, the kickstarter surpassed $3M. So, I’m guaranteed to write a module for: Manos: The Hands of Fate, Space Mutiny and The Beginning of the End.
If you haven’t seen Manos, your sanity thanks you for it. This horror film was made as a dare by a Texas fertilizer salesman in the mid 1960s. It’s become a cult classic. In a dungeon beneath a house in the middle of nowhere, the “Master” deals with his menagerie of undead wives, who wrestle one another in flimsy nightgowns over their loyalty to him and his deity, Manos. Then there’s Torgo, a creepy henchman who looks like his kneecaps are the size of watermelons, and he’s not even the weirdest character in the film.
The Manos Dungeons and Dragons module will debut at GenCon 2016.
Space Mutiny is a 70’s Battlestar Galactica knockoff, where a ship containing all that’s left of humanity drifts toward a new planet to inhabit. The evil Calgon thinks they’ve been on the ship too long and decides to take over. He uses lasers “not too different from primitive dental equipment” to torture people for information that might be valuable in his schemes. Oh, and there’s a thrilling chase scene where floor waxers zip through catwalk-filled corridors.
The Beginning of the End, written and directed by Bert I. Gordon and starring Peter Graves, tells the tale of a journalist and a scientist trying to learn why a Chicago suburb was destroyed overnight. Then, they fend off a giant grasshopper invasion of Chicago.
The modules will be released for free from my website when complete. Hopefully, my doing this will motivate gamers who once loved MST3K to support the crew of the Satellite of Love one more time, so that another generation can understand the magic of the words, “Push the Button Frank.”
For more information about my endeavors to support #bringbackmst3k, please check out my video here.
