25 years ago today, Mystery Science Theater 3000 aired its first episode on what would become Comedy Central. Watch it here with us!
I'll be perfectly honest, I didn't know this was coming, otherwise I would have worked up a more in-depth feature about the whole thing. But I didn't, and this is the best I can do this afternoon. 25 years ago today, Mystery Science Theater 3000 had its national debut, airing its first episode on The Comedy Channel (we now know and love it as Comedy Central).
Mystery Science Theater 3000 had already aired an entire season on Minneapolis/St. Paul's KTMA the previous year, but November 18th marks the 25th anniversary of the show coming to the channel it would call home for most of its run. I didn't discover MST3Kuntil a few years later, but once I did, it was off to the races. There's a brilliant oral history of MST3K that you can read over at Wired.
Anyway, that's all I've got. If you have the time to kill, kick back and watch Mystery Science Theater 3000 season 1, episode 1: "The Crawling Eye" right here. Riff along in the comments if you're feeling it. Also note, you can watch this in much better quality if you just go ahead and buy the official release from Shout! Factory (it's on Volume XVII). They deserve it for helping to keep the Satellite of Love spinning for us all these years.
Luckily, MST3K is kind of still around. There's an official YouTube page that posts full movies, and that's where we can find this year's Turkey Day Marathon. Older episodes will get a new life via public broadcasting. There might even be more beyond that! And you can still get your fix of the talented people involved thanks to Rifftraxand Cinematic Titanic.
Thanks for everything. Here's to 25 more.
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