Monday, September 1, 2014

Update on Mystery Science Theater 3000


When a friend told me he was a fan of the "Mystery Science Theater 3000" show from the 1990s, I told him about the location in Second Life where all of those cheesy B movies were being shown (click here for the 2008 article). But years later, was it still around?


The answer is yes, though the place has changed. Gone is the mock-up of the Satellite of Love. Instead, the place looks like a classic cinema, with Crow and Tom Servo on each side, and with a snack bar up front. But there's no admission fee, just go on in, and you'll see the featured film from the beginning. There's plenty of seating, and even late at Sunday night I found a few others watching the show. So you too can "riff" the movies in good company (provided you started seeing it at the same time).

For those who don't know, "Mystery Science Theater 3000" was a comedy show on television in which the "plot" is of a man, sent out into space by a mad scientist and made to watch B-rated movies as part of an experiment to see just how terrible movies have to be and see in how much of a quantity before watchers go insane. But their subject keeps his sanity by poking fun at the flicks, or "riffing," alongside robots that he built, the two shown most in the movie being Tom Servo and Crow. The show ran on the Comedy Central channel from 1991 to 1997, and the Sci-Fi Channel from 1997 to 1999. After it's cancellation, the show continued in reruns for years, and eventually in Second Life.

The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Cinema is at This Island Earth (194/159/22). There's also a group you can join, presumably to be updated of when the movies change.

Bixyl Shuftan

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