The crown jewel of my 45th birthday celebration: meeting the primary person behind Mystery Science Theater 3000, the magic consultant on Sabrina the Teenage Witch and hot prop/stand-up comedian from the early Eighties…Joel Hodgson!
In celebration of the new Alamo Lakeline’s opening week, Joel came by to do his latest one-man show Riffing on Myself, take questions, do a meet n’ greet and close the evening by joining the Master Pancake crew for ripping on a Bond movie. I chose just the first three things. MPT has its moments plus those two guys are skilled but Joel alongside his original crew were the masters. They also chose a Bond flick at random when Moonraker is the best choice because it’s clearly the worst. MST3K ridiculed horrible stuff which in turn made these films funnier. MPT riffs on easier targets, good stuff.
Back to Joel since MPT has its defenders plus I applaud those guys’ efforts, I just find their comedy to be too easy.
So Riffing on Myself is a slideshow narrated by Joel Hodgson that shows the genesis of MST3K, his comedy career and other things you may not know about him. I caught a few interviews Joel did back when MST3K was new and the darling of the Comedy Channel/Comedy Central. Therefore, I figured I still knew the gist. Not really. I learned much more, namely why he left the show during its pinnacle, more on this later. There were also a couple video clips highlighting his appearance on HBO’s Eighth Annual Young Comedians Show hosted by John Candy (1983, I probably missed it then due to the ‘rents dropping cable in May); the other was the demo reel the Minneapolis TV station made of MST3K for the Comedy Channel.
What were the new things I discovered from Riffing and the Q&A:
- He helped write a special for Jerry Seinfeld. This gave him the chance to pitch MST3K to the Comedy Channel years later.
- He was offered the role Woody Harrelson got on Cheers.
- He was offered a high-school based sitcom with Michael J. Fox.
- The Minneapolis TV station originally approached Joel for advice on how to create a program showcasing stand-up comedy. When it failed, then he got to pitch MST3K.
- Joel originally hails from Wisconsin, he moved to Minneapolis to attend art college. He studied sculpture.
- (His answer to my question) He landed the gig as magic consultant for Sabrina through his magician background and he is friends with the show’s creator/developer Nell Scovell. Joel let us know he had visited with Nell recently and she’s doing alright. Side note, Nell wrote the Simpsons‘ episode of Homer “dying” from possibly poisoned sushi.
- Notice how the show’s opening credits have no CG, all the words/names are physical props. Part of MST3K‘s low-tech/shoddy charm.
- Has anyone ever complained about their movie being used on MST3K? No. Everyone he met thanked him plus they did get some money if the movie wasn’t in the public domain. Joel said a rumor floats around about Joe Don Baker being upset over Mitchell. He has never met the actor so he couldn’t confirm this.
- Joel receives royalties from the show/DVD sets (now being re-issued by the great people at Shout) and has a day job that allows him to demonstrate his creativity. He wanted everybody to know he is doing fine financially.
The supercool stuff he did was giving an explanation/reference for every key name on MST3K. These are the ones I remember:
- Gypsy was his brother’s pet turtle.
- Dr. Forrester was the main scientist in the Fifties version of War of the Worlds.
- Joel Robinson (his character) was a tribute to Lost in Space‘s Will Robinson, a favorite when he was growing up.
- The show’s trademark silhouette comes from an illustration to inside the record sleeve/cover of Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, it’s for “I’ve Seen That Movie Too.”
When someone brought up why he left the show during its peak, I about cringed but Joel was a pro. He asked the lady, “what did you hear?” politely. She said it was something about him not getting along with the head writer Mike Nelson. Joel replied, you’re close yet he and Mike remain friends. He chose this moment to clear the air regarding his departure.
Mystery Science Theater 3000 was a big hit, putting Comedy Central on the map. Joel and the gang made about 22 or so episodes a year. Since Star Trek:NG was making the leap from TV to film, the Best Brains (the production company they all shared) decided to follow suit. They could make about the same amount of money while doing only one or two “episodes” and it would free them up to work on new projects. Then trouble started when the show’s director Jim Mallon said he wanted to direct and be the producer for the first film. Joel, Trace Beaulieu, and Frank Conniff would be associate producers. He explained for those who weren’t versed in Hollywood’s ways that the title of associate producer doesn’t mean crap. Plus Joel said real directors have a vision, give the actors direction and are auteurs. With MST3K, there wasn’t a true director, just a person assigned to turn the camera on/off. So Joel decided to withdraw his shares in the company and bow out because he feared a fight between him and Mallon would destroy the show’s collaborative vibe which made it work. During my face time with him, I said, “I figured you left because you felt 100 episodes was enough and you didn’t want to get caught up in something that could get get stale. It seemed to fit your pattern.” Joel cordially said, “That was part of the cover story I wanted out there.”
Once the MPT guys got the Bond movie selected from a random drawing; Casino Royale would be hard to pick on; we attended the meet n’ greet. I got my picture with him (obviously) and he gladly autographed one of the miniposters included in my DVD set. I went with the Magic Voyage of Sinbad. I generously handed out the other three to people in line who lacked anything to sign.
It’s a shame Comedy Central killed the show for cursing Colorforms (what Kevin Murphy called South Park). I don’t Joel’s creation should’ve kept going on forever, I think the network at least owed the Best Brains team an opportunity to bring it to a conclusion. Owed? Yeah. If you watched initial years of CC, the network was a waste of bandwidth and remains so when it isn’t doing its CNN/Faux News parodies, Futurama, a couple original sketch shows and some odd gems it kills to make more room for Scrubs reruns. Instead MST3K limped over to the worse SyFy channel for two more years only to be rudely killed there. The spirit lives on through Joel’s new team Cinematic Titantic, Mike Nelson’s Rifftrax and all the numerous wannabes through North America. Joel even cracked a smile when John of MPT told him MPT’s earlier incarnation Mister Sinus Theater received a cease-and-desist letter from Jim Mallon.
I’m glad I got to meet Joel up close. The Riffing was thoroughly entertaining as it was insightful. More proof of the creative prowess we boring Midwesterners from flyover country bring to the world. I always had fond memories of Joel’s stand-up routine, I totally had forgotten his card trick using the robot quarterback toy.
If Joel comes through your city, I urge you to see him. You won’t be disappointed. Joel’s comedy was always disciplined, well rehearsed, including MST3K yet he can ad lib with the best. Mystery Science Theater 3000 was a brief bright spot in the cable/comedy wasteland of the early to mid Nineties. I’m glad I finally got to meet Joel and thank him for creating something which made my Long Dark Twenties bearable when I lived in Bloomington-Normal.