Netflix
The crowdfunded 14-episode revival season of Mystery Science Theater 3000the 90s cult favorite about making fun of bad movies with your robot friends, officially arrives on Netflix on April 14. The show’s deal with Netflix was announced last summer by series creator Joel Hodgson, and Hodgson announced the launch date to the project’s Kickstarter backers early this morning. Production was completed in October for the new season, and in recent weeks small groups of Kickstarter supporters have been shown the premiere episode at a handful of “Red Carpet Kickstarter Screening” events.
the crowdfunding MST3K revival project was announced in late 2015, and it managed to raise $6.3 million in Kickstarter pledges and other donations. The scale of the project and the enduring popularity of the show 16 years after its cancellation attracted fairly large talent to the project, both in front of and behind the camera, including Felicia Day and Patton Oswalt as regular series and a roster of guest stars that includes Jack Black , Joel McHale, Jerry Seinfeld and Mark Hamill. Jonah Ray, the show’s new host, was already an established comedian when he was hired, and the show’s lead writer, Elliott Kalan, was also the lead writer for the Jon Stewart era. daily show and co-host of the successful flop house movie podcast on the Maximum Fun network.
Hodgson has said in interviews and Kickstarter updates that it’s important to him to keep the original show’s homemade lo-fi feel, but this is undeniably a flashier production than the old show. A handful of old show writers and performers, including Bill Corbett (Crow’s second voice), Kevin Murphy (Tom Servo’s second voice), and Mary Jo Pehl (the late series villain Pearl Forrester) return as writers or in guest appearances, although others were content to wish the new project only well.