'Mystery Science Theater 3000' brings back Turkey Day marathon
Hide from relatives and football with free online streaming of the classic movie-mocking show's six most popular episodes.
- Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year" award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
The "Mystery Science Theater 3000" Turkey Day Marathon was as much a part of my Thanksgivings in the 1990s as marshmallowy sweet potatoes. I can't have been the only one who got the longest-running videotape available, popped it in the VCR, headed off to the family dinner and wished someone would hurry up and invent TiVo already so I wouldn't miss one bad-movie moment.
In the not-too-distant future, aka Thursday, Shout Factory will roll the six most popular MST3K movies, with creator Joel Hodgson popping in to offer memories and trivia from the long-gone, original show. The madness starts at 9 a.m. PT.
This has been a special year for MSTies. The entire cast reunited in Minneapolis in June for an event that was simulcast to theaters around the US. That night introduced many fans to Jonah Ray, who was hand-picked by Hodgson to host a crowdfunded MST3K revival, which is coming in 2017.
The films scheduled to be shown for the Turkey Day tradition of bad movies aren't being revealed in advance. But we can still guess.
There's got to be "Manos: The Hands of Fate," aka "Hands: The Hands of Fate," in part as a tribute to star Tom Neyman, who died earlier this month. Sheer fan delight in Joe Don Baker's sweatiness makes "Mitchell" seem a likely choice.
From there on out, it's anybody's guess.
We'd love to see "Pumaman" ("He flies like a moron!"); "The Incredible Melting Man," ("Steve had crackers!"); "Hobgoblins" ("It's the '80s! Do a lot of coke and vote for Ronald Reagan!"); and, maybe, "The Final Sacrifice" ("Rowsdower!").
These terrible, terrible films may not help with digestion, but as the show's theme song urges, we should really just relax.
