Mystery Science Theater 3000 lives.
The cult favorite, canceled by Comedy Central over loyal fans' objections, has found a home on The Sci-Fi Channel starting in February. "We're off the streets," says exuberant MST producer Jim Mallon.
Seven seasons of MST originals stopped airing on Comedy Central in May. Repeats will continue to run there until early next year.
Sci-Fi has ordered 13 original episodes but won't have access to Comedy's repeats, which will be sold to local stations through syndication.
The main characters, including Mike Nelson, Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo, who sit and critique bad movies, will be back when the series resumes.
Sci-Fi Channel vice president Barry Schulman says he wouldn't dare "mess with the characters, or the fans will let you know." Schulman says he received "a couple thousand" letters during negotiations in the past few months, urging him to pick up the series.
One difference from the Comedy Central version: the movies showcased will be only of the sci-fi genre, to match the channel's programming niche.
That, it seems, suits fans just fine. "Most of my favorite (MST) shows were science-fiction oriented," says Mike Harney of Acton, Mass. He raised $4,000 through an on-line "Save MST3K" campaign and used the money to promote the series in an April ad in Variety.
Sci-Fi will use its own library of sci-fi classics and duds, which Schulman says will help cut production costs.
By Alan Bash, USA TODAY, with Lydia Gibson contributing
June 25, 1996
Copyright 1996, USA TODAY, all rights reserved. Please don't hurt me.