Mystery Science Theater 3000: Story, Cast and Series Facts

Story and premise

Mystery Science Theater 3000 started as a locally produced television show for KTMA in Minnesota but soon grew in popularity. It moved to Comedy Central (originally the Comedy Channel), then to Syfy. After an eighteen-year hiatus, the crew of the Satellite of Love returned in 2017, airing on Netflix for two seasons. In 2021, the production started its own streaming service, The Gizmoplex, where the riffing of cheesy movies continues. Rifftrax revitalised the series once again in 2026 with four more episodes of the series. 

Over the years, there have been several "test subjects": Joel Robinson, Mike Nelson, Jonah Heston, and Emily Connor along with their robot friends Tom Servo, Crow T Robot, and Gypsy (now GPC) all subjected to bad movies thanks to a host of mad scientists including Doctor Clayton Forrester, his mother Pearl, and most recently Kinga Forrester.

Series details

• Title: Mystery Science Theater 3000
• Format: Scripted
• Language: English
• Genres: Comedy, Science-Fiction
• Premiere date: 1988-11-24
• Final broadcast date listed: 2023-02-10
• Status in TVmaze: Ended
• Web channel listed by TVmaze: The Gizmoplex
• Network country: United States
• Typical episode runtime: 117 minutes
• TVmaze community rating: 5.9/10
• TVMaze ID: 19499
• IMDb ID: tt0094517
• TVDB ID: 74806

Cast and credited roles

• Conor McGiffin — Tom Servo
• Baron Vaughn — Tom Servo
• Kevin Murphy — Tom Servo
• J. Elvis Weinstein — Tom Servo
• J. Elvis Weinstein — Crow T Robot
• Trace Beaulieu — Crow T Robot
• Kelsey Ann Brady — Crow T Robot
• Hampton Yount — Crow T Robot
• Bill Corbett — Crow T Robot
• Trace Beaulieu — Doctor Clayton Forrester
• Joel Hodgson — Joel Robinson
• Frank Conniff — TV's Frank

Seasons in the TVmaze catalogue

• Season 1: premiered 1988-11-24; final listed air date 1990-02-13; episode order: 13.
• Season 2: premiered 1990-09-22; final listed air date 1991-02-02; episode order: 13.
• Season 3: premiered 1991-06-01; final listed air date 1992-01-25; episode order: 24.
• Season 4: premiered 1992-06-06; final listed air date 1993-01-30; episode order: 24.
• Season 5: premiered 1993-07-17; final listed air date 1994-02-05; episode order: 24.
• Season 6: premiered 1994-07-16; final listed air date 1995-03-25; episode order: 24.
• Season 7: premiered 1996-02-03; final listed air date 1996-05-18; episode order: 6.
• Season 8: premiered 1997-02-01; final listed air date 1997-12-06; episode order: 22.
• Season 9: premiered 1998-03-14; final listed air date 1998-09-26; episode order: 13.
• Season 10: premiered 1999-04-11; final listed air date 1999-08-08; episode order: 13.
• Season 11: premiered 2017-04-14; final listed air date 2017-04-14; episode order: 14.
• Season 12: premiered 2018-11-22; final listed air date 2018-11-22; episode order: 6.
• Season 13: premiered 2022-03-04; final listed air date 2023-02-10; episode order: 13.
• Season 14: episode order: 4.

Source and licence

Adapted from Mystery Science Theater 3000 on TVmaze. The synopsis is reproduced as plain text; catalogue facts, cast and season records are selected and reformatted. This adapted text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, following the TVmaze API licence. Network and web-channel credits identify the service listed in this source; they do not establish current streaming availability.