From: jenkins@mhd1.moorhead.msus.edu (jenkins lisa)
Date: Fri, 22 May 92 11:04:47 CDT
Subject: those darn articles, again!
From: Los Angeles Daily News
Date: [unknown]
Headline: Comedy Series on Cable Gives Bad Movies a Good Talking To
Subline: Television
Photo(s): Joel Hodgson and his two robot pals on "Mystery Science Theater
3000", who give a running commentary as they're forced to watch
bad movies. [l-r Gypsy, Crow, Joel, Servo]
Author: Moca, Diane Joy
Page(s): [unknown]
LOS ANGELES--It has happened to almost everyone who regularly goes to the movies: While you're trying to enjoy the film, the person behind you is yakking non-stop.
For years moviegoers considered this habit nothing more than an annoying frustration, but today Joel Hodgson is making a living at it. In late 1988 Hodgson created an offbeat series, "Mystery Science Theater 3000" (9 a.m. and 6 p.m. Saturdays, Comedy Central cable), in which he stars as a lab technician marooned in outer space who is being used in an experiment to study the effects of bad movies on the human species. He and his two robot pals offer humorous remarks throughout these low-grade films, such as "Pod People," the 1981 thriller about creatures from outer space, and "Gamera vs. Barugon" (1966), one of many classic Japanese monster films.
"The show is based on the idea that people talk during bad movies," Hodgson explained. "I had to create a situation where he was forced to watch and couldn't leave the theater."
From science fiction stinkers to horrendous biker flicks, home viewers watch the films while the three guinea pigs sit in the front row of the theater (where viewers can see their silhouettes), mercilessly offering their biting commentary.
Although Hodgson said, "I never have and never would do it in a theater," he admitted that he does make numerous comments "when I watch TV. I started doing it in college.
"We had no idea if people would like it or would be really offended that we were talking over the movies. People like the way we handle stuff. We handle violence with boredom. We punch a hole in the reality that the films were made in. People find that pretty liberating."
The series is littered with both common-place and obscure references to pop culture, history, literature and current events. The comment range from a comparison to Laura Palmer (of "Twin Peaks"'s fame) to a jab at the Los Angeles Police Department about the Rodney King beating.
"One thing that makes it work is a certain amount of TV literacy," Hodgson said. "If viewers aren't into TV, they are not going to understand how disposable TV is, and that's definitely a tenet of the show. There's so much TV that we can talk over TV. Our show wouldn't have worked 10 years ago because there just wasn't so much TV."
Hodgson, who was a successful comedian by the time he was 21, started the series on KTMA, an independent channel in Minneapolis. After the first 20 shows generated more than 1,000 pieces of mail, it was picked up by cable.