WE GOT MOVIE SIGN!!!
That familiar refrain was always followed by the screening of some f*cking godawful films that Joel Hodgson – then later Mike Nelson and most recently Jonah Ray – would have to endure alongside their two robot friends Tom Servo (Kevin Murphy) and Crow (Trace Beaulieu, then Bill Corbett) at the behest of some nefarious mad scientist from the Forrester clan (Trace Beaulieu again as Dr. Forrester, then his mother Pearl played by Mary Jo Pehl, and most recently his daughter played by Felicia Day).
And the films were truly awful. From the boring inanity of MANOS: THE HANDS OF FATE, to the ridiculous caveman movie starring Richard Kiel, EEGAH, which coined the infamous looped line "Watch out for snakes!", to my personal favorite, the ridiculous Italian SUPERMAN rip-off PUMAMAN ("Oh no I'm falling at a thirty-degree angle defying all laws of physics!"), among many, many, many others.
So with MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER getting its Kickstarter funded (and then some!) by devoted fans and streaming soon on Netflix, things seem to be falling into place for sequel series. It's getting a new cast, such as the aforementioned Jonah Ray and Felicia Day, but also Patton Oswalt as the son of TV's Frank, Hampton Yount as Crow, and Baron Vaughn as Tom Servo, as well as some cool new writers, including RICK AND MORTY'S Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland. Everything is looking great so far!
So to pass the baton, of sorts, Jonah Ray will be co-hosting the annual Turkey Day marathon (a mainstay for MST3k since its Comedy Central days) alongside original host and creator Joel Hodgson:
It’s time to talk turkey—cinematic turkey, that is! Shout! Factory continues its revival of the beloved MST-ie Thanksgiving tradition with a newly curated Mystery Science Theater 3000 Turkey Day Marathon on Shout! Factory TV, hosted by show creator Joel Hodgson and Season 11 host Jonah Ray.
Starting at 9 am PT / 12 pm ET on Thursday, November 24th, the marathon will feature six timeless episodes taken from the recent fan survey of the 100 Most Popular Classic MST3K Episodes, as well as brand-new episode intros.
That sounds awesome! I love Turkey Day, as it's an annual tradition my friends and I share (as is Patrick Swayze Christmas, where we will watch the SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE MARTIANS episode, then the ROAD HOUSE Rifftrax, then go to Dalton's Road House in LA to eat dinner). A few years ago, I even got to interview Joel Hodgson, and like I told him then, MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 holds a very special place in my heart (instead of cartoons, it was the reason my friends and I would get up early on a Saturday morning). So I'm beyond ecstatic to see it continuing as Jonah Ray seems a fine new addition, especially after seeing him at the MST3k/Rifftrax reunion show recently (which had every single cast member from every incarnation of the show riff on some shorts), despite one or two slip-ups.
The Turkey Day marathon, again, will be streaming on Shout! Factory's website tomorrow, November 24th starting at 9am.
Well I'll be off tomorrow, so I want to wish a Happy Thanksgiving to everyone out there (unless, of course, you live in North Dakota)! And good luck not getting into awkward political conversations this year! There's a reason I'm not going back home (besides last year's "incident", of course. Which, I don't see what the big deal is anyway, the turkey was still mostly edible).