From: TJOHNSON@ADCALC.FNAL.GOV

Date: Fri, 12 Jun 1992 2:18:27 -0500 (CDT)

Subject: MST3K article from Chicago Sun-Times

Chicago Sun Times,

Television and Radio, Section 2

Page 45

Thursday, June 11, 1992

'MST 3-K' TWISTS OLD FLICKS INTO WILD GLEE

written by Lon Grahnke

(Large photo at top of article is typical publicity shot of Joel and all three 'bots on the bridge of the SOL. The caption reads: "Joel Hodgson cracks wise during moldy old B movies on "Mystery Science Theater 3000" at 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. Saturdays on Comedy Central.")

Blame it on solar flares, red Kryptonite or cosmic debris. Blame it on Emperor Ming from the planet Mongo and his evil cathode-ray plot to keep Comedy Central off my Oak Park cable system.

Whatever the cause, I lost three years of snorts, hoots and belly laughs in the black hole of missed TV opportunities. Relief finally arrived last weekend, when I howled and cackled my way through this season's first three episodes of "Mystery Science Theater 3000."

"MST 3-K," as it's known to a rabid legion of B-movie consumers, is an exotic and brain-twisting habit craved by addicts of pop-culture wisecracks. Fresh doses of satire and trivia are dispensed weekly at 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. Saturdays on the Comedy Central channel. Reruns from the first three seasons are shown at 11:30 p.m. Fridays.

Moldy flicks ranging from "Santa Clause Conquers the Martians" and "Radar Men from the Moon" to "Jungle Goddess" and "The Giant Gila Monster" turn into giggle festivals when they're projected through the peculiar prism of "MST 3-K."

In a cheap cable concept that crosses "Flash Gordon" with "Wayne's World," the "MST" series relies on an intentionally absurd sci-fi concept, explained every week in the "3-K" theme song. Amiable lab technician Joel Robinson (played as a deadpan straight man by Joel Hodgson, the series' creator and co-writer) has been shot into space by his Gizmonic Institute bosses. They force Joel to watch "cheesy movies - the worst we can find" so his brain damage can be mercilessly monitored by a mad scientist (Trace Beaulieu).

Cleverly saving what's left of his sanity, Joel has created robot buddies to help him endure the weekly Attack of the Mind-Rotting Movies. The mechanical Crow (also played by Beaulieu, a co-writer) and Tom Servo (co-writer Kevin Murphy) join Joel for sarcastic quips and commentary aimed at the rubbish on te screen. The creative team also includes Michael J. Nelson, Frank Conniff and Jim Mallon, who share in the acting, writing, music, art direction and production duties at the Best Brains studio in Minnesota.

Film snobs complain when people insist on jabbering in movie theaters. In the case of "MST," however, the endless insults from Joel, Crow and Tom Servo turn cinematic litter into hilarious comedy for those who understand the obscure film and TV references in the gibes. (All of those double features, 52 or more each year from age 7 through 18, are finally paying off for me.)

The "MST" movies are dumb, dumber and dumbest, but the "3-K" wits are as sharp as you can get on TV. During this Saturday's assault of "The Giant Gila Monster" (1959), a black-and-white creature feature with a cast of nobodies, and next week's trashing of "City Limits" (1984), a post-apocalyptic biker flick with Kim Cattrall, Robbie Benson, Re Dawn Chong and James Earl Jones, the sardonic remarks fly like a meteor shower of one-liners.

Silhouetted in the lower-right corner of the TV screen, Joel, Crow and Servo outdo each other with deadly accurate celebrity impressions,nasty putdowns, lines from old movies and TV shows, and cryptic asides relating to Jim Morrison, Robert DeNiro, Nirvana, Robert Mapplethorpe, Michelle Shocked, Raffi, U2, Shiners, Terence Trent D'Arby, Robert Bly, Sting, Spaulding Gray's "Monster in a Box" and August Wilson's plays. The jokes are too good to spoil here.

The hipper-than-thou humor of "Mystery Science Theater 3000" is definitely not for everyone. But those who want more can contact the MST 3-K Info Club, Box 5325, Hopkins, Minn. 55343. And those of us who don't get Comedy Central can take heart by following the "MST" motto: Keep circulating the tapes!