Netflix Cancels ‘Mystery Science Theater 3000’ Revival
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The snarky bots of “Mystery Science Theater 3000” and their human companion, Jonah Ray, will not be returning for another season on Netflix, Variety has confirmed.
Jonah Ray, host of the new “MST3K,” tweeted Tuesday that Netflix had canceled the show, a long-running cult favorite. Netflix confirmed that the series will not return for another season.
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“We don’t know what the future holds for the show,” Jonah Ray wrote in his Twitter thread, adding, “it always seemed to figure out how to survive. From Comedy Central to SyFy. Then kept alive by RIFFTRAX & Cinematic Titanic. Whatever happens, I want everybody to know that getting a chance to be on this show was a dream come true.”
Jonah Ray wondered if AMC Networks’ Shudder streaming service might rescue “MST3K”: “Now if only I can convince @shudder to pick us up and to let us share a night with Joe Bob Briggs?” he tweeted.
Netflix had picked up two seasons of the show: the eight-episode “Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Return,” which debuted in 2017; and “MST3K: The Gauntlet,” with six episodes that launched in 2018.
As noted by The Onion’s AV Club, which previously reported the news, the timing of Netflix’s cancellation of the show is “especially tragic” because Thanksgiving has traditionally been the unofficial holiday for “MST3K” premieres and marathons.
“Mystery Science Theater 3000” originally aired on Minneapolis UHF station KTMA-TV starting in 1988 before is was picked up by Comedy Central and then the Sci-Fi Channel (now Syfy). The original series ran for 10 seasons and 197 episodes before going off the air in 1999.
In 2015, series creator Joel Hodgson and Shout! Factory launched a Kickstarter campaign to bring the show back. The campaign ended up raising more than $6.3 million, which allowed them to produce 14 new episodes for the show’s eleventh season, including a Christmas special.
The Netflix revival of “MST3K,” like the original, is set on the Satellite of Love where the host (Jonah Ray) is held captive and is forced to watch an unending stream of bad B movies peppered with snide comments from his robot compadres. In addition to Ray, the series also stars Baron Vaughn as the voice of Tom Servo, Hampton Yount as the voice of Crow, Felicia Day as Kinga Forrester, and Patton Oswalt as Max, a.k.a “TV’s Son of TV’s Frank.”
Hodgson executive produced along with Elliott Kalan, Richard Foos, Bob Emmer, Garson Foos, Jonathan Stern and Harold Buchholz. The series was produced by Satellite of Love, Alternaversal Productions, and Undiscovered North American Ape Pictures.
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