New Mystery Science Theater 3000 Episodes to Debut on Thanksgiving

New Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes to debut on Thanksgiving

Attention Mystery Science Theater 3000 fans, the A.V. Club is reporting that the 12th season of the beloved series is set to debut on Netflix this Thanksgiving, or Thursday, November 22. The date is obviously significant as that particular time slot has long been synonymous with MST3K marathons and premieres.

“Thirty years ago on Thanksgiving Day 1988 is when we premiered Mystery Science Theater 3000 in the Minneapolis market,” said creator, original host, and executive producer Joel Hodgson. “We were competing with 60 Minutes for the same time slot, and I think history has shown which is the better show.”

Created and co-directed by Joel Hodgson, the Mystery Science Theater 3000 revival stars Jonah Ray (The Nerdist Podcast, Maron) as Jonah Heston, along with his robot sidekicks Tom Servo (Baron Vaughn, Grace and Frankie) and Crow T. Robot (Hampton Yount, The Eric Andre Show), who are forced by Kinga Forrester (Felicia Day, The Guild, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog) to watch (and hilariously mock) terrible movies onboard the Satellite of Love. Comedian Patton Oswalt (Young Adult) appears as TV’s Son of TV’s Frank, Kinga’s henchman.

In late 2015, Hodgson started a highly-successful Kickstarter campaign to fund the new season, which through voracious fan contributions netted $5.7 million, a Kickstarter record. The B-movie titles for the new season were licensed through Shout Factory, the label that also distributes the classic episodes of MST3K on DVD/Blu-ray. Highlights from Season 11 included the bigfoot kids movie Cry Wilderness, 70’s disaster flick Avalanche and the sexy sci-fi romp Star Crash, as well as a guest star roster that included Wil Wheaton, Erin Gray, Neil Patrick Harris, Jerry Seinfeld, Joel McHale and Mark Hamill!

The original Mystery Science Theater 3000 was created and hosted by comedian Joel Hodgson and produced out of Minnesota from 1988 to 1999 for 197 episodes, each cracking jokes over a different piece of trash cinema from badly-dubbed Japanese Gamera movies to the obscure sleaze masterpiece Manos: The Hands of Fate. Halfway through the show’s run, Hodgson left the show over creative differences and was replaced as host by head writer Michael J. Nelson, who also starred in 1996’s Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie.