Wasn’t there in fact a Mystery Science Theatre 2000? I do not care to read any posts related to 3k, or how off I am, etc.
2000 seemingly was exclusive to Comedy Central, not Sci-fi.
Joel was the host, not Mike.
Dr.Forrester was the tormentor, and not Pearl.
The Theme Song was different… and explained a whole lot more, including the la - la - la part.
Crow and Servo where always present… I can’t place Gypsy at all, nor Cambot.
Given the Title, and the 3k more or less overshadowed it… it would be older in dates than 3k.
I KNOW some fellow dopers refered to 2k… please save my sanity and prove me right.
The original idea for the name of the show was Mystery Science Theater 2000, according to the stories I’ve heard, but it was changed to 3000 before the show went national.
Originally, there was Dr. Forrester and … other guy, whose name escapes me, since I’ve never seen episodes from that era - as scientists at Gizmonics Institute. They tormented Joel, and the bots. As far as I can tell, Gypsy was around back then, but in a much less featured way.
Changes happened. The other guy left; TV’s Frank came on board; Joel left - and Forrester and Frank then moved to Deep 13; Frank left; Pearl arrived as a regular supporting character for Dr. Forrester; then the show jumped to SciFi and lost Dr. Forrester.
The theme song changed along with the major changes in the cast - sometimes the lyrics wouldn’t change, but the clips behind them always did. Once on SciFi, I think the lyrics changed every season.
Oh my God I’ve been wondering this same thing myself! I swear I saw a show on TV (before I even knew what “Comedy Central” or MST3K was) called Mystery Science Theater 2000. Dude and robots making fun of sci-fi movies. It was something I caught a time or two on the TV–thought it was clever and thought nothing more of it.
Until a year or so after that when “Mystery Science Theater 3000” appeared. I remember saying to myself “Huh…someone is ripping off that goofy show I saw a while back…” It wasn’t long before I realized this must be the same show, just under a revised title.
Please tell me under what circumstances I saw the “2000” incarnation. Was it picked up by local independent channels for a time before going Network?
See, I’m not sure. They were on a local Minnesota station for a single season - and I don’t know if they called it 2K then or not. I do know that the MN episodes aren’t rebroadcast, because they hadn’t properly solicited the rights to the movies.
Incidentally, one can find more MST information at http://www.mst3kinfo.com/, the home site of the MST3K info club, including several FAQs, one of which details the numerous incarnations of the credits sequence. No mention of an MST 2K-titled episode or episodes.
Its always been 3000. By the way saying that the Sci-Fi years overshadowed the Comedy Central years is like saying Jefferson Starship overshadowed Airplane.
The show was never called “Mystery Science Theater 2000.” They considered that name but never used it; they thought the year 2000 (even in 1989) no longer sounded “future-y” enough, so they titled it Mystery Science Theater 3000 instead.
That was its title when it began as a local show at KTMA in Minneapolis. That was its title on Comedy Central; that remained its title when they moved over to the Sci-Fi Channel.
It was always called “Mystery Science Theater 3000,” going back to the very first episodes on KTMA-TV, and then Comedy Channel (which merged with Ha! to become “Comedy Central”).
According to Joel Hodgson, he chose “3000” simply because it sounded like classic science-fiction shows like Space: 1999 or science-fiction “characters” like HAL 9000. It didn’t really have any meaning, as Joel explained:
I’ve got all but the first 3 episodes and pilot (Alas, the first three and pilot from KTMA are never to be found. ) All of the KTMA episodes refer to it as 3000.
At least one of them was released on VHS by Rhino: The Crawling Hand. And, at least in the Comedy Central years, a few of the first season episodes did get occasionally re-broadcast. It was still MST3K, even back then. And I’m pretty sure Dr. Forrester’s headquarters was always Deep 13, or at least, it was throughout most of Joel’s run on the show.
Oh, and Dr. Forrester’s first assistant was named Larry, and he was also the original voice for Tom Servo.
The Crawling Hand, episode 106, was on the Comedy Channel (before it merged with Ha! to become Comedy Central). None of the “K” season eps have been officially released.
If you haven’t seen the K shows, you haven’t missed a lot. It’s like a really bad dress rehersal for the “regular” show. There was hardly any scripted material in the theater. In some cases, several minutes would go by without a riff! Painful to watch,
I was not a big Larry fan, either. He did, however, recommend that Jim and Joel hire Mike Nelson.
I was just remembering how I used to have a copy of Godzilla vs Megalon that I taped when it was first broadcast. It’s my favorite episode of the series, by far, so I loaned the tape to a friend. And I haven’t seen it (or the friend, for that matter) since. And now I hear that it’s never going to be officially released because of stupid Sandy “Spielberg won’t return his calls” Frank. And how sad that story is, and how lucky the people are who have said that they have all the episodes still.
And to point out that my e-mail address is in my profile.
) All of the KTMA episodes refer to it as 3000.