It’s Been Quite A Ride For The Crew Of ‘Mst 3000’

Sat., Dec. 16, 1995

Diane Werts Newsday

Had enough “Baywatch”? Power Rangers passe? Even “Seinfeld” doesn’t cut it for some fans anymore.

But “Mystery Science Theater 3000”? That’s one show that seemed a constant in the TV universe, a rock at Comedy Central, impervious to fleeting fads and passing cults.

Yeah, right. Death and taxes remain alone at the top of the permanancy chart. “MST” is fading away, an old soldier whose services aren’t required anymore by the dominion it helped make safe for comedy anarchy.

“Our contract with Comedy Central provided us to make six shows this year, and they have technically till the end of January to tell us about next year,” says Jim Mallon, president of the Best Brains operation that makes “MST” in Minneapolis.

“But before Thanksgiving, they said they wouldn’t be renewing us beyond the current season.”

Happy holidays to you, too.

The shoestring production started on

Minneapolis’ tiny KTMA and became a national cable craze as word spread like wildfire among tube fringe freaks that something really clever was on.

“MST’s” sassy, well-referenced humor was a perfect fit with the cyberheads then building a community through new personal computers, making the show the first real online sensation. Devotees traded tapes, organized a fan club now 60,000 strong, and produced a Minneapolis convention to wallow together in their MST-ery.

Their enthusiasm even inspired a feature film deal, with “MST: The Movie” (satirizing “This Island Earth”) set to be released by Gramercy Pictures in April, right after Bantam publishes “The MST 3000 Colossal Episode Guide.”

“I have to say we’ve been very, very blessed,” Mall says. “We basically came out of nowhere and knew very little about the television industry. We’ve done seven seasons, which is like six seasons longer than most TV shows. We’ve generated a fan club of 60,000, we’ve won a Peabody, we’ve been nominated for two Emmys and six CableACEs, we got to make a feature film, we’ve finished a book with Bantam, and we’re working on a CD-ROM with Voyager and a home video deal with Rhino.”

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