Mst3k, if Only You Were Still with Us!

For the uninitiated, Mystery Science Theater 3000 was probably one of the most inventive shows ever conceived by man.  I’m not going to go into a whole lot of detail about it (since I’m assuming most people have heard of Google by now), but suffice to say, it is missed.

The show itself gained major popularity at the same time the internet was taking off in the typical suburban home.  Add to that the little fact that people who were fans of the series were also the only people really using the internet (well, that and early porn addicts), and it means that many of the earliest fan sites were dedicated to the show!

Funny thing is, though, I really think it came about in the wrong time frame.

See, the show itself had issues keeping a network.  Comedy Central dropped it when they changed management, and then Sci-Fi did the same when they went to their “Only 2% of our shows need to be good” policy.  There was a movie, but thanks to the studio backing Pam Anderson’s “Barbwire” instead, the movie was only 74 min long (shorter than most of the episodes!) and released on maybe 15 screens at a time.  Most fans didn’t even know it existed!

There were video sames to help out, and merchandising, but in the end TV just dropped it for being too niche and not as profitable as other ventures.

So how do I think it could’ve done better now?

See that?  I just embedded a short video into my post.  The scary adventures of Mr B Natural (one of the funniest clips from the show, I think).  It cost me nothing, and anyone who comes to the site can enjoy it.

It’s sad because I really think shows like this have always needed the Internet as a medium, and only now is it finally here for them.  Even then, however, most don’t make it here.  Instead we get MTV’s latest crap-fest streaming live on their site (or the re-cap reel).

Just think what the world could be like, though; an IPTV “channel” for every niche show you’d ever want.  Just RSS them all, and you can sign up for only the ones you want!  And instead of Comedy Central showing “Super Troopers” for the umpteenth time this week, I could just be streaming shows I actually want to watch to my TV!