(NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ) -- The award-winning TV comedy Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) is coming to New Brunswick in an all-new LIVE show featuring Joel Hodgson on Saturday, October 26, 2019. Hodgson was the original host and the creative vision behind the beloved TV and Netflix comedy series for more than three decades. The event features two never-before-screened films: No Retreat, No Surrender at 3:00pm and Circus of Horrors at 7:00pm. Tickets for the show range from $29-$55.
Following the wildly successful Watch Out for Snakes! Tour in 2017 and 30th Anniversary Tour in 2018, Hodgson will don the red jumpsuit one final time as Joel Robinson to host Mystery Science Theater 3000 Live: The Great Cheesy Movie Circus Tour alongside the world’s greatest and only movie riffing robots, Tom Servo, Crow, and Gypsy. The show gives fans the chance to sit in the same theater with their favorite movie characters and promises all of the MST3K signatures and rapid-fire hilarity that have built MST3K’s loyal following over more than 30 years: a cheesy B-movie, hilarious riffing, wisecracking robots, silly sketches, and Hodgson in the red jumpsuit as host Joel Robinson.
Premiering in 1988 on KTMA-TV in Minneapolis, MST3K has earned its place in history as one of the Top 100 TV Shows of all time (Time, Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly), receiving multiple Emmy® nominations and a Peabody Award along the way. Following a record-setting Kickstarter campaign, the series was revived in 2017 with all new episodes now streaming on Netflix.
No Retreat, No Surrender - A self-conscious teen becomes a martial arts master under the tutelage of Bruce Lee’s ghost. Featuring fresh-faced Jean-Claude Van Damme as a brooding hit man and a Bruce Lee lookalike, who looks nothing like Bruce Lee.
Circus of Horrors - Garish 1960’s British thriller showcasing colorful circus acts, plastic surgery, and animal attacks by stagehands in fur suits. Warning: Features pop hit “Look for a Star” over and over again.
State Theatre is located at 15 Livingston Ave in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
For more than 30 years, the award-winning comedy television series Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) has been known as one of the top cult TV shows of all time. The story of a human host and his robot sidekicks trapped aboard a satellite and forced to watch cheesy movies by their captors, MST3K has maintained its reputation thanks to its fervently devoted fan base, known as MSTies.
Created by Joel Hodgson, the first season of Mystery Science Theater 3000 aired in 1988 on KTMA-TV in Minneapolis. Set on the Satellite of Love, the series follows a hapless host trapped by mad scientists on a satellite in space who is forced to watch some of the most outrageously unfortunate B-movies ever created. To keep sane, he’s built two robot sidekicks and together they do a running commentary on the films, affectionately mocking their flaws with inspired wisecracks and acting as a lively movie theater peanut gallery.
MST3K’s national broadcast life began in 1989 on the Comedy Channel (later to become Comedy Central), where it ran for seven seasons. The show’s final three seasons aired on the Sci-Fi Channel. Series creator Hodgson originally played the stranded man, Joel Robinson. When he left in 1993, series head writer Mike Nelson replaced him as the new B-movie victim and continued the role for the rest of the show’s run. The format provided to be popular, and during its 10 seasons and 197 episodes on Comedy Central and the Sci-Fi Channel, it attained a loyal fan base and critical acclaim, including a Peabody award and two Primetime Emmy® nominations.
In late 2015, Shout! Factory and creator Joel Hodgson formed a new partnership, known as Satellite of Love LLC, to acquire the global IP rights to MST3K with the aim of producing new episodes and managing and developing the IP in other areas. The highly successful MST3K Kickstarter campaign to #BringBackMST3K, spearheaded by Shout! Factory and Hodgson, surpassed its goal by funding the production of 14 new episodes and set the world record as the highest-funded film and video crowdfunding campaign in history. The new episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000 debuted as a Netflix original series on April 14, 2017. Later in 2017, Netflix renewed the series for another season.
Joel Hodgson started in show business as a stand-up comedian during college, headlining in comedy clubs in Minneapolis. After graduation in 1982, Hodgson moved to LA and became a regular at The Comedy Store on the Sunset Strip.
In 1983, Joe was booked for his first network television appearance on Late Night with David Letterman and HBO®’s Young Comedians Special with John Candy. The following year, Hodgson became a series regular on both Letterman and NBC’s Saturday Night Live. In 1987, Hodgson was invited by Jerry Seinfeld to co-write Seinfeld’s first HBO® special, Stand-Up Confidential, where he began to take an interest in other aspects of production.
It was in 1988 that Hodgson created Mystery Science Theater 3000, the ground-breaking movie riffing series, which premiered on St. Paul’s local UHF station, KTMA, in Minnesota.
In 1995, Hodgson was involved in creative development for The Jim Henson Company and Walt Disney Television. As a writer, Hodgson co-wrote the Disney feature Honey We Shrunk Ourselves with Nell Scovell, as well as Cartoon Network’s Space Ghost Coast to Coast. Hodgson also was a magic consultant for the series Sabrina the Teenage Witch and for Penn and Teller’s Sin City Spectacular.
In November of 2015, Hodgson created the #BringBackMST3K Kickstarter campaign, and along with the show’s “backers,” raised over six million dollars to fund new episodes for MST3K.
The first new season after the Kickstarter was titled MST3K: The Return and featured an all-new cast as well as cameos by the original MST3K cast and writers. It launched on Netflix in April 2017 and received critical acclaim, including “100% Fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes. The second season of MST3K, entitled MST3K: The Gauntlet, was also met with critical praise, including another coveted Rotten Tomatoes “100% Fresh” review.
Currently, Hodgson is the Chief Creative Officer of his company, Alternaversal, which is responsible for creating the new IP for MST3K. This includes the #BringBackMST3K Kickstarter campaign, 20 feature-length episodes for Netflix, two national tours of Mystery Science Theater 3000 Live, and a six-comic mini-series on Dark Horse Comics.
