'MST3K: The RiffTrax Experiments': Inside the $2.7 Million Revival

Fans raised $2.7 million on Kickstarter to bring back "Mystery Science Theater 3000" — and this time the original riffing trio is back on the Satellite of Love. "Mystery Science Theater 3000: The RiffTrax Experiments," the latest revival of the cult comedy series, reunites Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett for four new episodes filmed in Minneapolis.

The first episode, "Mystery Science Theater 3000: The RiffTrax Experiments — Sting of Death," is now available on the RiffTrax website. The remaining three episodes will debut in the coming weeks.

How did the RiffTrax team return to MST3K?

The original series ran from 1988 to 1999, mostly on Comedy Central and the Sci-Fi Channel. Creator Joel Hodgson starred as the host forced to watch cheesy films alongside robot sidekicks Tom Servo and Crow, riffing on obscure titles like "Manos: The Hands of Fate" and "Space Mutiny." Hodgson left mid-run and Nelson replaced him.

After the show ended, Nelson and fellow writer-stars Murphy and Corbett launched RiffTrax, which grew from a website into live performances and its own FAST channel. Hodgson revived "MST3K" at Netflix in 2017 and launched the streaming platform The Gizmoplex — without the RiffTrax team.

That changed in January, when Hodgson sold his ownership in the series to Radial Entertainment and departed again. Radial recruited the RiffTrax team, which had not been formally involved in any new iterations of the show since 1999, to return for four episodes. Fans backed the reunion with a $2.7 million Kickstarter campaign.

Who is back on set?

Variety visited the set at the Cinequipt production facility in Minneapolis in May, as the cast and crew neared the end of a rapid-fire shoot. The host segments were already filmed and most main sets torn down, leaving robot puppets and spare props scattered around the studio — including a sign for the show's fictional sponsor, "Syd's Olive Loaf."

Much of the original crew returned, including director of photography Jeff Stonehouse, props master and puppeteer Patrick Brantseg, and costume designer Beth "Beez" McKeever. "MST3K" veterans Trace Beaulieu and Frank Conniff, both writers on the original series, are also back. Beaulieu starred as the mad scientist Dr. Clayton Forrester; Conniff played his sidekick, "TV's Frank."

"I'm glad Jeff [Stonehouse] pushed me to do it because it was so much fun," Beaulieu says. "And then once we were all on set as the Mads, it was just like we hadn't left."

Conniff added his own spin on the reunion: "I was overweight and old looking even back then, so there wasn't much of a change to anything."

Nelson said the reunion came without friction. "I was really proud when we got this thing together and you call people up, and you realize…there's no baggage," Nelson says. "It's not like a band where, 'Oh, we don't talk to that guy anymore.' It's just been fun to have everybody back."

The shoot was also a family affair: Brantseg's and Corbett's daughters worked on the show, and Stonehouse's son contributed to the design of one of the robot puppets.

What movies are getting the riff treatment?

Three of the four movies have been revealed: "Sting of Death," "Space Raiders" and "Deathsport." The film being riffed during Variety's visit was kept a closely guarded secret.

Nelson, Murphy and Corbett filmed their riffs in the show's trademark silhouette, positioned in front of a giant green screen. Concealed behind a cutout shaped like a row of theater seats, they watched the movie in real time on monitors with scripts in hand. The jokes are timed to the second to match the action on screen.

RiffTrax's longtime senior writers and producers, Sean Thomason and Conor Lastowka, supervised from a balcony above the soundstage floor.

How does writing for MST3K differ from RiffTrax?

Lastowka draws a sharp line between the two formats. "There's no comparison. It's a very different rhythm writing for this show," Lastowka says. "The bots & Mike are characters, but at RiffTrax Mike, Kevin and Bill are just themselves, so we can make references to their lives in a way we can't for Mike, Servo and Crow."

Thomason describes the dynamic in the theater seats: "Bill and Kevin are like Little Rascals as the bots, and then Mike reins them in. It's very much that big brother dynamic."

The format is efficient. Because the actors' mouths are hidden in silhouette, flubbed lines can be quickly re-recorded and dubbed in later. The team starts shooting around 9:30 a.m. and wraps by 2 p.m.

Still, the schedule marks a big change from RiffTrax's audio-based workflow. "We have a studio at our homes. We can start and stop," Murphy says. "This is more akin to when we do live shows, where we really have to be on and have to have everything buttoned down before we get out there."

The recording sessions cap a long preparation process of repeated viewings. "You're watching the same movie, chunks of it at least, over and over and over again," Murphy jokes. "It's probably not mentally healthy."

While movie riffing has never become a mass comedy format, "MST3K" has influenced generations of performers. Conniff points to Master Pancake Theater in Austin, Texas, a group RiffTrax has worked with: "They took what we did and made it their own."

With three episodes still to debut in the coming weeks, the reunion the fans paid $2.7 million for has only just begun rolling out.