In the actually fairly-a-while-ago past, a little cable access show in Minnesota became a comedic cultural phenomenon. Yes, Mystery Science Theater 3000, the show about a man, his robots, mad scientists, and bad movies, turns 30 this year and is actually more powerful than ever, with production of the second season of its Netflix revamp beginning this week. It all started with creator/original star Joel Hodgson, who is still masterminding the new show, and is fully responsible for its return. For many, Hodgson’s Joel Robinson is still the definitive host of the series, which means a lot of people will be extra stoked to hear he’ll make his return to the silhouette seat this year.
In an announcement that makes MSTies everywhere yell “Rowsdower!” in excitement, news has broken of a 30th anniversary live tour—after the major success of 2017’s Watch Out for Snakes Tour—which will feature reboot host Jonah Ray, Crow, Tom Servo… and Joel Hodgson himself putting back on the red jumpsuit, riffing two brand new movies!
Hodgson wrote in a statement:
We’ll be performing two completely different shows as part of the tour, featuring two incredibly strange and cheesy feature films: The Brain, a Canadian sci-fi suburban nightmare, and Deathstalker, a fun sword and sandal epic with some surprisingly muppety monsters!
As with last year, these are two completely different shows they’ll be alternating throughout the tour. Beginning on October 9 in Portland, ME, the tour will last six weeks, span 29 cities, and comprise 42 shows. Tickets go on sale to the general public 10pm ET on Tuesday, June 5, 2018. So, you know… be ready for that.
We’re super stoked for Joel to return to the riffing seat. He and several other MST3K alums had the troupe Cinematic Titanic in the years prior to the Kickstarter reboot, and the character of Joel Robinson made an appearance on the season premiere of season 10 back in 1999, though he didn’t riff. This will be Robinson’s first time riffing since the 1993 classic episode Mitchell. Hamdingers be damned!
Image: Best Brains
Kyle Anderson is the Associate Editor for Nerdist and a devout MSTie. He is the writer of 200 reviews of weird or obscure films in Schlock & Awe. Follow him on Twitter!
More for you to mentally imbibe!
- Why no episode of MST3K should be forgotten!
- The original finale of MST3K was one of the best episodes ever!
- Re-Animator star promises an ‘expanded Lovecraft universe‘ is in the works!
