“Mystery Science Theater 3000” is getting the entire band back together.
In honor of the Rifftrax 10th anniversary, the whole principal cast from the cult TV series will reunite for a special reunion show.
The reunion will include:
Michael J. Nelson (Mike Nelson)
Kevin Murphy (Tom Servo)
Bill Corbett (Crow T. Robot)
Frank Conniff (TV’s Frank)
Trace Beaulieu (Dr. Clayton Forrester, Crow T. Robot)
Mary Jo Pehl (Pearl Forrester)
Bridget Nelson (Nuveena, Mr. B Natural)
Joel Hodgson (Joel Robinson)
In addition, the host of the rebooted series, Jonah Ray, will also join the cast for a live riff of a movie that will be broadcast into theaters nationwide on June 28. Tickets will be available beginning April 15.
“Mystery Science Theater 3000,” which launched on a Minneapolis UHF station in 1988, featured Hodgson and later Mike Nelson and two robot sidekicks as they riffed on cheesy B-movies by providing their own hilarious commentary.
It then moved to Comedy Central and finished its run on the Sci-Fi Channel (now Syfy) in 1999 after 197 episodes. Hodgson recently acquired the rights to the show in a joint venture with Shout! Factory.
In 2006, Nelson, Murphy, and Corbett launched RiffTrax. The service offers downloadable audio tracks for A-list feature films, as well as educational shorts. RiffTrax also does live shows in theaters that are broadcast around the country, which have featured movies like “Sharknado” and “Starship Troopers.”
Hodgson and Shout! Factory launched a Kickstarter campaign to create a new season of the show featuring a new cast. The campaign smashed crowdfunding records when it concluded in December, raising more than $6.3 million, surpassing the record set by the “Veronica Mars” movie, which raised $5,702,153.
The “MST3K” campaign raised $5,764,229 off of Kickstarter and $600,000 from online merchandise sales with over 47,000 people contributing.