Like most holidays, Thanksgiving gives people a chance to engulf themselves in traditions. For some, it’s food and football. For others, it’s family and friends. But for the really cool people, it Mystery Science Theater 3000 marathons! Fans can take comfort in knowing that even if their family, food and friends all disappeared, the MST3K marathon will still be around to offer up a full day’s worth of sarcasm and shitty movies.
Shout Factory, who will be holding big sales for MST3K DVD sets all month long, will be presenting the marathon via the series’ official YouTube page. Starting at 12 p.m. ET on Thursday, November 27, comedy fans can plop down and watch six different Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes, each of which was hand-chosen by show creator Joel Hodgson himself. And yes, Hodgson is filming brand new introductions and bumpers for the marathon, viewers will be getting all new jokes to go with the classic ones.
According to Nerdist, some special guests will be joining Hodgson for these host segments. That could mean anyone from Mike Nelson to Tom Servo showing up for a few gags. Or maybe, just maybe, they found the actual Crawling Eye to make an appearance. It’s unknown at this point which episodes Hodgson has picked, but one can assume it’s amusing, since they all are.
Here’s the official announcement video.
Hodgson will be reteaming with MST3K alum Trace Beaulieu for Paul Feig’s upcoming Yahoo TV series Other Space, which also takes place in outer space. Maybe that means Beaulieu and/or Crow will be in the special guest lineup. The pair also worked together for the similarly riff-centric Cinematic Titanic. (Not to be confused with RiffTrax.)
Mystery Science Theater 3000’s connection with Thanksgiving goes back to its 1988 debut on KTMA, but it was fully established during the Comedy Central era. The cable station started the Turkey Day celebration in 1991 and carried it on until the series switched to Sci-Fi, which ran its own marathon for one year. It’s definitely time to get this tradition going again, and if they wanted to surprise audiences with the announcement that MST3K is coming back with brand new episodes next year, that would be cool. But if not, at least Shout Factory is throwing a set of free coasters in with some of the DVD orders. Where can I get a Bill Corbett gravy boat?
