mystery science theater 3000

So, make the 12 episode goal happen already.

As if having the perfect cast of Jonah Ray, Baron Vaughn, Felicia Day, Hampton Yount, and Patton Oswalt wasn’t a cherry on top of Mystery Science Theater 3000 coming back, Joel Hodgson announced this morning that they’ll have a stellar guest writing staff:

Here’s a list of writers who have already agreed to come help out:

• DAN HARMON, the incredible mind who created Community, hosts the Harmontownpodcast, and co-creator of the very funny Rick & Morty.

• JUSTIN ROILAND, the other creator of Rick & Morty, as well as a very talented voice actor/comedian/artist, and a huge MSTie.

• ROB SCHRAB, an original remote writer for MST3K, co-founder of the seminal Channel 101… and now, director of the next Lego Movie.

• NELL SCOVELL, a long-time collaborator and friend, will be “in the house” too. She’s currently writing on the The Muppet Show but has worked on The Simpsons, Newhart andIt’s Garry Shandling’s Show, among others.

• ERNIE CLINE, the New York Times best-selling author of Ready Player One, which will soon be a movie from Steven Spielberg! If you’ve read RP1, you know how good Ernie is with cultural references.

• PAT ROTHFUSS, the New York Times best-selling author of The Name of Wind, has offered to have a “story breakfast” with me and go over “story beats” for the next series… and a few of you can join us!

• PAUL & STORM, the hilarious musical act, W00tstock founders and stars, musical contributors to Despicable Me 2, my good friends and the hosts for Friday’s live “Final Countdown Telethon” will be contributing riffs and some special music!

• DANA GOULD, the brilliant comedian and former Simpsons writer, who will also probably appear on camera as well for a cameo or two. But actually, that gets into the area of our Guest Cameos, which is a topic I want to save for tomorrow.

• ROBERT LOPEZ, the EGOT-winning songwriter from Avenue Q, The Book of Mormon andFrozen, has offered to write some original songs for us!

The main writing staff was handpicked by Hodgson and, like pretty much everything with this revived MST3K, he was glad to bring in new blood. He added in this announcement:

So, our next staff writers are mostly people I’ve met in my travels, who I thought were funny and who have a knack for movie riffing. They come from all walks of life:

• One is a teacher at a Montessori school,
• One works in a bookstore,
• One does graphics for a college,
• One is in advertising,
• One writes for a women’s online magazine,
• One has a local public radio show,
• One does IT for a design firm…

For the MST3K loyal, Joel also has got you covered:

Pretty cool, huh? I’m excited to have so many new faces and voices helping out. But I also want to make sure it’s not “too” new – you know, even as the show changes, I want to make sure we’re honoring MST3K’s past.

So, like I said, we’ve now made offers to all of MST’s original writers. While it seems like most of them won’t be available to join us, at least for now, I still hope they’ll decide to join us later. We’ll always be glad to have them back, even if it’s just for an episode or two when they can spare some time.

And actually, I’m happy to tell you that a few MST veterans have agreed to come back and “Pitch” in – not just as writers, but in other creative departments too – to make sure MST3K still has the spirit of the little cowtown puppet show you know and love:

• CHARLIE ERICKSON,or, as he’s now known in the international DJ scene, Chuck Love, was the musical genius behind the original MST3K theme song, as well as the arranger of the haunting “MST3K Love Theme.” Charlie will be back to work on some new arrangements for us… and hopefully some new music, too!

• BEEZ McKEEVER, MST3K’s original “Prop Diva,” will return to design special costumes for the bots. (Watch for her special line in the credits: “Robot Fashions created by Miss Beez of Duluth!”)

• CRIST BALLAS, our original MST3K hair and makeup designer – and a long time friend – will also be joining us in that department, as well as plying his real trade: creating Academy Award-winning special effects makeup!

And finally…

• PAUL CHAPLIN – old “Pitch” himself! – the veteran writer (over 144 MST3K episodes!) will be back demonstrate his mastery of “the craft we call riff”… and more important, to show the newer MST3K writers how we did it back in the day!

As it stands now, the Kickstarter for MST3K has raised $4,190,969 and are almost at its 9 episode goal of $4.4 million. There’s only 56 hours to go (just over two days) and it’d be great, especially with all the above info, if they could get to the $5.5 million goal so there will be 12 new feature length episodes. 

Back MST3K here.