Mystery Science Theater 3000 is the cult television series that took movie lemons and turned them into comedy lemonade by adding a humorous commentary track, referred to as riffing. Talking back to the screen and mocking what is transpiring is a long-standing tradition among movie fans; The Rocky Horror Picture Show being the most well-known example of an audience augmenting the movie-watching experience with their involvement.

In 1988 comedian Joel Hodgson (who credits the science-fiction film Silent Running along with shows from his childhood, Beany and Cecil, and the CBS Children's Film Festival, as influences) created the series at Minnesota station KTMA with a talented, creative team. The premise was that mad scientist Dr. Clayton Forrester sent Joel Robinson into space and forced him to watch bad movies in an effort to discover the one that was so bad it would break a man’s spirit, which he could then use for his world-domination plans. On the ship, Satellite of Love, Joel invented robots, such as Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot, to keep him company.

After five and a half seasons, Hodgson left due to creative differences with producer Jim Mallon. Head writer Mike J. Nelson replaced him, which is still a source of controversy for some MSTies, as the fans are known, until the series’ end in 1999.

To commemorate MST3K’s 20th Anniversary, Shout Factory has released a four-DVD set. The episode numbers and movies contained within are:

#211 First Spaceship on Venus (1959). This movie, made in Eastern Europe, is about a team of astronauts who go to Venus and discover a world destroyed by nuclear weapons. Joel hosted this second-season episode, which aired on Comedy Channel, a precursor to Comedy Central. The video and some of the jokes show their age. The video quality is not great and Crow’s antenna creates a strobe effect when the puppet is silhouetted while watching the movie.

Topical jokes about Dan Quayle and Roseanne singing the National Anthem are dated and had me wondering if the kids today would understand them. There is a charm to this episode as the sets have a cable-access look to them, Joel reads viewer mail, and in the credits the audience is told to “keep circulating the tapes,” which is how fans could turn new people onto the show before the Internet made that easy.

#706 Laserblast (1978). This one is about a teenager who turns into a monster due to his use of an alien weapon. The highlights from this movie are the stop-motion scenes of the aliens who are giant-sized creatures that look like turtles without shells. The budget for the series had obviously been increased, as there is an improvement in the quality of the sets and the video image.