<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cMystery Science Theater 3000<\/a>\u201d stars Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett know a thing or two about bad movies. <\/p>\n \n\tWith the news that the show is being revived<\/a> for four new episodes and the veteran \u201cMST3K\u201d trio are returning, fans have wondered which movies they might skewer. In an interview with Variety, Nelson, Murphy, and Corbett said that they are zeroing in on just the right choices.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201c[Our] eyes are on films that are more like the ones that we used to do \u2014 sort of corny, nothing too absolutely current,\u201d Murphy told Variety. \u201cSort of classic bad, if that makes any sense, rather than modern bad.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tGiven that their Kickstarter campaign for the new episodes blew past its funding goal<\/a> in a matter of hours, the audience\u2019s appetite for cheesy movies (and seeing these three riff on them) is as strong as ever. Corbett calls the excitement around their return to the show \u201cgreat and vindicating and exciting and a little terrifying.\u201d But as they are celebrating the 20th anniversary of RiffTrax<\/a> \u2014 largely the spiritual successor to \u201cMST3K\u201d \u2014 the trio has certainly not been sitting idle.<\/p>\n \n\tStill, this marks their first return to \u201cMST3K\u201d both in front of and behind the camera since the original show signed off the Sci-Fi Channel (now Syfy) back in 1999. It is also the beginning of a new era of the show since it was officially announced just a few weeks ago that original creator Joel Hodgson had sold his interest in the series to Shout! Studios parent company Radial Entertainment. <\/p>\n \n\tBut fans seemingly have little to worry about, as these three are as game as ever to try to keep their sanity with the help of their robot friends. <\/p>\n \n\tCheck out the full Q&A below. <\/p>\n \n\tThis interview was conducted on Feb. 4. It has been edited and condensed.<\/p>\n \n\tBill Corbett<\/strong>: It feels great and vindicating and exciting and a little terrifying. We have to justify that now, and I think we can. But, you know, it\u2019s been a while. <\/p>\n \n\tKevin Murphy<\/strong>: It\u2019s really nice that even after all this time, people still have a fondness for the show, the way we did the show. And I think that\u2019s what we\u2019re seeing there. <\/p>\n \n\tMurphy<\/strong>: Wow, we did a \u201cMitchell!\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tMichael J. Nelson<\/strong>: We\u2019d have to look at the dollar amount in the calculator and see are we still ahead in today\u2019s money.<\/p>\n \n\tCorbett<\/strong>: I wouldn\u2019t recommend it. He\u2019d knock you right over.<\/p>\n \n\tCorbett<\/strong>: That was at least six months ago, but more, really, I think. Right, guys? Like maybe nine months ago, eight months ago?<\/p>\n \n\tMurphy<\/strong>: Yeah, it was last year, I think in the spring, but in the meantime, Shout! Factory went through this merger, which sort of delayed things for a while\u2026And they were in the middle of, as everyone learned, acquiring all the rights to the show from Joel.<\/p>\n \n\tCorbett<\/strong>: I just want to make it clear, we are perfectly happy AARP guys. They asked us. And I think the thing that we came up with that sounds exciting also sounds risky too, like if we don\u2019t recapture the magic, or if somebody gets a glimpse of me and goes, \u201cOh my god, what happened to him?!\u201d Me specifically. But the thing that I think ameliorated it for us was we said, \u201cCan we take a relatively small bite and do four?\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tMurphy: <\/strong>Well, when I first heard that they might want to do this, I talked to our old DP, Jeff Stonehouse\u2026And he said, \u201cOh, do it old school. We need to do this old school the way that we did it then.\u201d He was such a wizard at doing in-camera effects. And then having all our props hand built, and not relying on any sort of digital compositing or green screen beyond what we need to do in order to make the shadow work and go through the doors, simple things like that\u2026It really makes the thing that much more fun for us and for everyone involved, because it\u2019s all hands on.<\/p>\n \n\tNelson<\/strong>: Well, I would speak for Kevin here. Kevin has learned nothing in 20 years.<\/p>\n \n\tMurphy<\/strong>: Not a damn thing. Really, one thing I know that we\u2019ve learned to do better is to is how to riff. We\u2019ve learned to take our time, let the movie be the straight person, and set up the jokes for us better. So we have a lot of punch lines. And I know we\u2019ve learned to feel like dead space is not what we think it is. People aren\u2019t yearning for us to keep doing an endless stream of jokes.<\/p>\n \n\tNelson<\/strong>: I think one of the reasons for that\u2026It\u2019s that it\u2019s really hard to to riff the way that we do. And it\u2019s a writing that\u2019s not very rewarding for the average person who just wants to be a writer\u2026This is very technical writing. I happen to enjoy it. I think everyone that works with us enjoys it and loves that outcome of it, but it is really, really difficult. And I don\u2019t mean to say that \u2014 we\u2019re not nuclear sub runners here or anything \u2014 but I\u2019m just saying it\u2019s hard. And people often go like, \u201cThis sounds like fun!\u201d Then they do it for two minutes and they go \u201cWow, this is really hard.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tCorbett:<\/strong> There is almost an element of masochism in writing it. I mean, I think we\u2019ve gotten over it because we\u2019ve gotten good at it. It\u2019s a weird thing to be good at, but we are absolutely the specialists in the world\u2026We are not intimidated by many movies, although some we just feel like that\u2019s not going to be fun, or that\u2019s one we should just pass on. We have a pretty good nose for movies that are just not going to work. And that\u2019s most of them, really.<\/p>\n \n\tNelson<\/strong>: We always have some people complain. They\u2019re like, \u201cHey, why would you do this movie? That\u2019s a good movie!\u201d We\u2019re like, \u201cYeah, we\u2019ve done a lot of good movies, movies that we like,\u201d but the commentary then would match the thing. If you sit with a good friend of yours and you\u2019re watching a movie that you like, and then he\u2019s riffing on it, you\u2019d say, \u201cHey, man, come on.\u201d So that\u2019s our intent. We also enjoy this movie, and therefore the comments match it, but we\u2019re still being funny. So that\u2019s a challenge that I actually love.<\/p>\n \n\tMurphy<\/strong>: Well, I\u2019d say since we know that we\u2019re revisiting \u201cMystery Science Theater,\u201d the way that we knew it and loved it, that our eyes are on films that are more like the ones that we used to do \u2014 sort of corny, nothing too absolutely current. Sort of classic bad, if that makes any sense, rather than modern bad\u2026We\u2019re casting the net to find just the right bad for us that fits with the puppets, rather than the three of us and our voices. And there is a little bit of a difference there. \u201cMystery Science Theater\u201d was always more family friendly. RiffTrax tends to be a little bit\u2026more out there these days.<\/p>\n \n\tNelson<\/strong>: We hate families at RiffTrax.<\/p>\n \n\tMurphy: <\/strong>I think we always wanted to do it ourselves, because once someone like Netflix is involved, as good as they are what they do, you\u2019ve got more people maybe wanting to tell you what to do with it, rather than just us. We\u2019re responsible for the success or failure of this thing ourselves, and that feels right. And to have other people \u2013as well meaning as it might be \u2014 sticking their fingers in the pie, it\u2019s just not something that I think any of us would be comfortable with. We like finger free pies.<\/p>\n \n\tCorbett<\/strong>: Get out of my pie! I will also add that\u2026we have had RiffTrax stuff go out on other platforms and the way that they pay you changes depending on what mood they\u2019re in. And it only goes in one direction. So, we don\u2019t want to be at the mercy of that so much either.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source variety.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cMystery Science Theater 3000\u201d stars Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett know a thing or two about bad movies. With the news that the show is being revived for four new episodes and the veteran \u201cMST3K\u201d trio are returning, fans have wondered which movies they might skewer. In an interview with Variety, Nelson, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2272353,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[392848,392846],"class_list":["post-2272352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-mystery-science-theater-3000","tag-rifftrax"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Mystery-Science-Theater-Stars-Promise-Classic-Bad-New-Episodes.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2272352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2272352"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2272352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2272354,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2272352\/revisions\/2272354"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2272353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2272352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2272352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2272352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n\t\tThe Kickstarter campaign has raised over $1.3 million in just two days. How does it feel to see that kind of support right out of the gate? <\/strong>\t<\/h5>\n
\n\t\tI looked this up and the budget of the Joe Don Baker film \u201cMitchell\u201d was $1.16 million, so you did a \u201cMitchell\u201d in one day. <\/strong>\t<\/h5>\n
\n\t\tWell, no one is ever going to be ahead of Joe Don Baker. <\/strong>\t<\/h5>\n
\n\t\tBut seriously, when did the conversations between RiffTrax and Shout! Studios to bring back \u201cMST3K\u201d start? <\/strong>\t<\/h5>\n
\n\t\tKevin, you referenced doing the show the way you guys used to do it. What does that mean specifically? <\/strong>\t<\/h5>\n
\n\t\tAnd you guys are celebrating the 20th anniversary of RiffTrax this year. What sorts of things have you learned in that time that you want to bring to these new episodes of \u201cMST3K?\u201d <\/strong>\t<\/h5>\n
\n\t\tIt\u2019s strange to me that outside of \u201cMST3K\u201d and RiffTrax, not too many people have tried to take riffing to the level you all have taken it to. Why do you think that is? <\/strong>\t<\/h5>\n
\n\t\tI know you guys are going to reveal the four movies you\u2019ll be doing over the course of the Kickstarter campaign, but what can you share about them? Are you targeting older movies like \u201cMST3K\u201d typically did or more modern ones? <\/strong>\t<\/h5>\n
\n\t\tThen you announced that all four episodes will be released on RiffTrax later this year. Was there any discussion about partnering with a platform like Netflix like they did for the other revival seasons? <\/strong>\t<\/h5>\n