When Joel Hodgson left as the host of Mystery Science Theater 3000 in 1993, it was a sad day for fans of the delightful comedy series he’d created, but Hodgson was quickly replaced by one of the show’s writers, Michael J. Nelson, and things moved on. Though Nelson had a different hosting style from Hodgson’s, he soon settled into the role and continued to front the show for the rest of its run, earning the respect of audiences who were initially unsure whether MST3K could continue without its original host.
Post-MST3K, Nelson has been creating audio commentary tracks for B-movies with RiffTrax, along with Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett, who voiced Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot in later seasons of MST3K. It’s been a successful endeavor that has been happily trucking along for 20 years, but this week Nelson announced that RiffTrax will boldly cross over with MST3K for four new, as-yet-untitled episodes called The RiffTrax Experiments.
“Getting a chance to revisit MST3K after all this time has really energized all of us at RiffTrax,” Nelson said (via Variety). “And for my part, hey, I truly did miss standing next to plastic puppets. It’s been too long.”
Mystery Science Theater 3000: The RiffTrax Experiments is being backed by a new Kickstarter campaign that will help RiffTrax riffers Nelson, Murphy and Corbett return to their MST3K roles, with Mary Jo Pehl also confirmed to return as Pearl Forrester. The campaign aims to raise $20,000 to fund the new episodes, but it has been emphasized that they’ll proceed regardless of whether that goal is met.
