Mystery Science Theater 3000 is an American science fiction comedy film review television series created by Joel Hodgson. The show premiered on KTMA-TV in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on November 24, 1988. It then moved to nationwide broadcast, first on The Comedy Channel/Comedy Central for seven seasons until its cancellation in 1996. Thereafter, it was picked up by The Sci-Fi Channel and aired for three more seasons until another cancellation in August 1999. A 60-episode syndication package titled The Mystery Science Theater Hour was produced in 1993 and broadcast on Comedy Central and syndicated to TV stations in 1995. In 2015, Hodgson led a crowdfunded revival of the series with 14 episodes in its eleventh season, first released on Netflix on April 14, 2017, with another six-episode season following on November 22, 2018. A second successful crowdfunding effort in 2021 produced 13 additional episodes shown on the Gizmoplex, an online platform that Hodgson developed which launched in March 2022. As of 2023, 230 episodes and a feature film have been produced as well as three live tours.
Michael John Nelson is an American comedian and writer, most known for his work on the television series Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K). Nelson was the head writer of the series for most of the show's original eleven-year run, and spent half of that time as the on-air host, also named Mike Nelson. In addition to writing books, Nelson is currently part of the online movie riffing site RiffTrax, and was previously part of the straight-to-DVD Film Crew with fellow MST3K alumni, Bill Corbett and Kevin Murphy.
Kevin Wagner Murphy is an American actor and writer best known as the voice and puppeteer of Tom Servo on the Peabody Award-winning comedy series Mystery Science Theater 3000. Murphy also records audio commentary tracks with Michael J. Nelson and Bill Corbett for Nelson's RiffTrax website.
Mary Jo Pehl is an American writer, actress, and comedian. She is best known for her various roles on the television series Mystery Science Theater 3000.
William DanielCorbett is an American writer and performer for television, film and theatre. He was a writer and performer on the cult television show Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K), for which he voiced Crow T. Robot during the show's later seasons on the Sci Fi Channel. During that time, he also played the character Observer, along with other minor roles.
Paul Francis Tompkins is an American comedian, actor, and writer. He is known for his work in television on such programs as Mr. Show with Bob and David, Real Time with Bill Maher, and Best Week Ever, later renamed Best Week Ever with Paul F. Tompkins.
RiffTrax is an American company that produces scripted humorous commentary tracks which are synced to feature films, education shorts, and television episodes. With the talents of former Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) cast members and writers, RiffTrax also produces several live shows each year which are broadcast to movie theaters. The style of commentating originated from MST3K, their earlier television series, in which they would similarly mock films aloud while watching them. As of September 2023, RiffTrax has riffed 522 feature films, 462 short films, and 16 TV episodes.
Shadow Moon is a fantasy novel written by Chris Claremont and George Lucas. Published in 1995, it was the continuation of the 1988 motion picture Willow. This is the first book of the Chronicles of the Shadow War trilogy, followed by Shadow Dawn and Shadow Star.
Ernest Christy Cline is an American science fiction novelist, slam poet, and screenwriter. He wrote the novels Ready Player One, Armada, and Ready Player Two and co-wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation of Ready Player One, directed by Steven Spielberg.
Paul Rust is an American actor, comedian and writer. He starred in the 2009 film I Love You, Beth Cooper and in the Netflix series Love.
Ready Player One is a 2011 science fiction novel, and the debut novel of American author Ernest Cline. The story, set in a dystopia in 2045, follows protagonist Wade Watts on his search for an Easter egg in a worldwide virtual reality game, the discovery of which would lead him to inherit the game creator's fortune. Cline sold the rights to publish the novel in June 2010, in a bidding war to the Crown Publishing Group. The book was published on August 16, 2011. An audiobook was released the same day; it was narrated by Wil Wheaton, who was mentioned briefly in one of the chapters. In 2012, the book received an Alex Award from the Young Adult Library Services Association division of the American Library Association and won the 2011 Prometheus Award.
Modelland is a young adult novel written by model Tyra Banks and ghostwriter Michael Salort, published in 2011.
TekWar is a science fiction novel written by William Shatner, assisted by (uncredited) science fiction author Ron Goulart. It was first published by G. P. Putnam's Sons in October 1989. TekWar is the first of nine novels, and created an entire TekWar franchise, which includes the TekWorld comic book series, the video game William Shatner's TekWar, the TekWar TV series, and several related TV movies, including TekLords.
The Flop House is a comedy podcast about films that flop, either commercially or critically, produced every two weeks. It is made in Brooklyn, New York and hosted by Dan McCoy, Stuart Wellington, and Elliott Kalan. Each episode focuses on a specific bad movie, a film noted for being a critical or commercial failure.
Armada is a science fiction novel by Ernest Cline, published on July 14, 2015 by Crown Publishing Group. The story follows a teenager who plays an online video game about defending against an alien invasion, only to find out that the game is a simulator to prepare him and people around the world for defending against an actual alien invasion.
Emily Joanne Axford is an American actress, writer, and producer. She is best known for her various roles in CollegeHumor videos, her role as Emily on the truTV comedy Adam Ruins Everything, and for her role on the Pop original Hot Date, co-starring her husband, Brian K. Murphy.
Ready Player Two is a 2020 science fiction novel by American author Ernest Cline. It is the sequel to his 2011 debut novel Ready Player One. Plans for a Ready Player One sequel were first announced in 2015, though Cline did not begin writing the book until late 2017. Cline attributes further developments to the critical and financial success of the film adaptation of the first novel released in 2018. The story follows Wade Watts who, after winning control of the OASIS, discovers an advanced virtual reality headset and subsequently a new quest for a mysterious prize.
Pop culture fiction is a genre of fiction where stories are written intentionally to be filled with references from other works and media. Stories in this genre are focused solely on using popular culture references.
A Science fiction podcast is a podcast belonging to the science fiction genre, which focuses on futuristic and imaginative advances in science and technology while exploring the impact of these imagined innovations. Characters in these stories often encounter scenarios that involve space exploration, extraterrestrials, time travel, parallel universes, artificial intelligence, robots, and human cloning. Despite the focus on fictional settings and time periods, science fiction podcasts regularly contain or reference locations, events, or people from the real world. The intended audience of a science fiction podcast can vary from young children to adults. Science fiction podcasts developed out of radio dramas. Science fiction podcasts are a subgenre of fiction podcasts and are distinguished from fantasy podcasts and horror podcasts by the absence of magical or macabre themes, respectively, though these subgenres regularly overlap. Science fiction podcasts have often been adapted into television programs, graphic novels, and comics.
