Misplaced Pages

#201798

166-513: Although similar in style to the successful Mystery Science Theater 3000 series shown on cable TV a few years later, the Canned Film Festival differed in that its comedy scenes occurred strictly during the commercial intermissions instead of adding peanut gallery type satire during the actual run of the movies. In addition, the script, although comic in nature, often reflected upon the serious contextual and cultural subjects contained in

332-520: A Kickstarter campaign to fund the revival to move forward. Hodgson felt the Kickstarter approach was necessary so that the show's style and approach would be determined by fans rather than through a network if he had sought traditional broadcast funding, as well as to demonstrate the demand for the show through a successful campaign. The Kickstarter was launched in November 2015, seeking $ 2 million for

498-485: A "Directors List", and Andy Krieg took over "THE LIST" from Hank Driskill, which would later be renamed the "Actress List". Both lists had been restricted to people who were alive and working, but soon retired people were added, so Needham started what was then (but did not remain) a separate "Dead Actors/Actresses List". Steve Hammond started collecting and merging character names for both the actors and actresses lists. When these achieved popularity, they were merged back into

664-534: A Christmas episode, to bring the total season to fourteen episodes. The Kickstarter became the largest one for Film & Video, surpassing the $ 5.70 million raised for the Veronica Mars film, but was ultimately surpassed in March 2019 for an animated series based on the web series Critical Role . Hodgson believed that the revival would need a whole new cast, pointing out that the cast had completely turned over in

830-526: A Top 250 list devoted to ranking television shows. IMDb originally used a more sidebar/list-based view on title pages. However, in 2010 the site updated pages to more free-flowing layouts, and offered logged-in users an "advanced view" site preference setting called "Combined view", or this could be done on an ad-hoc basis by simply adding /combined to the end of the URL (e.g. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2358891/combined), for users to choose should they prefer

996-416: A copy of The Golden Turkey Awards , and he had previously wondered why no one had made any program about these "adorable, weird movies" listed within it. Hodgson said that part of the idea for MST3K came from the illustration for the song "I've Seen That Movie Too" (drawn by Mike Ross) in the liner notes from Elton John 's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road album, showing silhouettes of a couple sitting in

1162-890: A fan-operated movie database on the Usenet group "rec.arts.movies" in 1990, and moved to the Web in 1993. Since 1998, it has been owned and operated by IMDb.com, Inc. , a subsidiary of Amazon . The site's message boards were disabled in February 2017. As of 2019, IMDb was the 52nd most visited website on the Internet, as ranked by Alexa . As of March 2022, the database contained some 10.1 million titles (including television episodes), 11.5 million person records, and 83 million registered users. The title and talent pages of IMDb are accessible to all users, but only registered and logged-in users can submit new material and suggest edits to existing entries. Most of

1328-421: A general message board meant for debates on any subjects. The Politics board started in 2007 was a message board to discuss politics, news events, and current affairs, as well as history and economics. By February 20, 2017, all the message boards and their content were permanently removed. According to the website, the decision was made because the boards were "no longer providing a positive, useful experience for

1494-706: A head shot to open their page, as well as to upload hundreds of photos to accompany their page. Anyone can register as an IMDb user and contribute to the site as well as view its content; however, those users enrolled in IMDbPro have greater access and privileges. IMDb originated in 1990 with a Usenet posting entitled "Those Eyes", by the English film fan and computer programmer Col Needham , about actresses with beautiful eyes. Others with similar interests soon responded with additions or different lists of their own. Needham subsequently started an "Actors List", while Dave Knight began

1660-459: A humorous reaction from the studio audience as the type of aesthetic he wanted for the show. Hodgson had made dozens of such robots from random parts before as art that he sold to friends and others, and knew he could incorporate that into the show. Both old movies and music inspired several of the show's character names as developed by Hodgson. The show's name came from the promotional phrase "Mystery Scientist" used by magician Harlan Tarbell and

1826-492: A longtime friend and self-professed MST3K fan, as a special guest writer for an episode of the revived series, but decided during the Kickstarter that he would also be a good fit on-camera. Rebecca Hanson, an alum of The Second City , took the role of Gypsy as well as Synthia, a clone of Pearl Forrester who assists Kinga. Har Mar Superstar leads the "Skeleton Crew", a house band in Kinga's lair. Pehl, Corbett, and Murphy cameo on

SECTION 10

#1732876329202

1992-538: A means of creating unobtrusive censor bars for scenes containing nudity. The show transitions into and out of the theater via a "door sequence", a series of six doors that open or close as the camera (presumably Cambot) passes through them. At regular intervals throughout the episode, the characters leave the theater and perform sketches, usually inspired by the events of the film or short being shown, frequently making use of original songs and prop comedy . Some sketches bring in new or recurring characters or other devices;

2158-401: A middle-aged aficionado of romantic drama stories, and Becky (Laura Galusha) a girl in her early twenties who offered a young feminist perspective to the movies. The men included Jack (F. Richards Ford), Fitzy (Patrick Garner), and Chan (Philip Nee). Jack, as well as the being the love interest of Becky, was also Limekirk's newspaper reporter who was required to review the movies. Together with

2324-494: A myriad of TV commercial ads, also made cameos in television shows such as Monsters , Chappelle's Show , and Law & Order , and more recently in theatre, starred as Mr. Cunningham in the Broadway version of Happy Days The Musical . Rick Ford (identified as F. Richards Ford in the series credits) made appearances in episodes of Married... with Children and Mama's Family as well as movies like The Tattoo Chase and

2490-514: A play on the name of Sun Ra 's band, the Myth Science Arkestra. The "3000" was added to spoof the common practice of adding "2000" to show and product names in light of then-upcoming 21st century, and Hodgson thought it would set his show apart to make it "3000". Dr. Forrester was named after the main character of The War of the Worlds . The Satellite of Love was named after the song of

2656-480: A podcast about bad movies. Dan Harmon and Joel McHale also wrote for the show, along with the on-screen cast members. Hodgson also brought in guest writers for certain episodes that included Justin Roiland , Rob Schrab , Nell Scovell , Ernie Cline , Pat Rothfuss , Dana Gould , and Tammy Golden. Additionally, Paul & Storm and Robert Lopez composed original songs for the new episodes. The revival retains

2822-435: A process known as riffing. Each two-hour episode would feature a single movie (often edited for time constraints), sometimes preceded by various old shorts and educational films , with Joel, Tom, and Crow watching in silhouette from a row of theater seats at the bottom of the screen. These "theater segments" were framed with interstitial sketches called "host segments". The show's cast changed over its duration; most notably,

2988-491: A registered user or visitor is in the entertainment industry and has an IMDb page, they can add photos through IMDbPRO. As one adjunct to data, the IMDb offers a rating scale that allows users to rate titles on a scale of one to ten. IMDb indicates that submitted ratings are filtered and weighted in various ways to produce a weighted mean that is displayed for each title. It states that filters are used to deter ballot stuffing ;

3154-482: A regular voter ". In addition to other weightings, the Top ;250 films are also based on a weighted rating formula referred to in actuarial science as a credibility formula . This label arises because a statistic is taken to be more credible the greater the number of individual pieces of information; in this case from eligible users who submit ratings. Although the current formula is not disclosed, IMDb originally used

3320-444: A replacement for Hodgson on camera, the crew found that none of the potential actors really fit the role; instead, having reviewed a test run that Nelson had done with the 'bots, the crew agreed that having Nelson (who had already appeared in several guest roles on the show) replace Hodgson would be the least jarring approach. The replacement of Joel by Mike would lead to an oft-jokingly "Joel vs. Mike flame war " among fans, similar to

3486-494: A rural trailer-home couple in search of intelligent life. Insulted by the country-folks' offer of a simple diet cola, a flash of light from the alien converted them to English-accented intellectuals wielding Diet Dr. Pepper bottles, and transformed their tasteless lawn ornaments to modern abstract art sculptures. Aside from providing advertisement for the show's main sponsor, the subtle movie references contained in these commercials may be another reason why they were aired alongside

SECTION 20

#1732876329202

3652-423: A scale of 1 to 10, and the totals are converted into a weighted mean -rating, with filters in place to mitigate ballot-stuffing . User profile pages show a user's registration date and, optionally, their personal ratings of titles. Since 2015, "badges" can be added showing a count of contributions. These badges range from total contributions made to independent categories such as photos, trivia, and biographies. If

3818-657: A second season as evidenced by the first season end credits that solicited viewers to submit their favorite "best of the worst" movies via mail correspondence, it was not known how far these plans had progressed when the series was cancelled. Although the fictional setting for the show was in Texas, according to Rick Ford's biography in IMDb , scenes within the Ritz theatre were actually filmed inside an old movie house in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Overall,

3984-415: A spokesperson said: "We make it easy for users and professionals to update much of our content, which is why we have an 'edit page'. The data that is submitted goes through a series of consistency checks before it goes live. Given the sheer volume of the information, occasional mistakes are inevitable, and, when reported, they are promptly fixed. We always welcome corrections." The Java Movie Database (JMDB)

4150-558: A stay on the bill pending a further trial, on the ground that it possibly violated the First Amendment because it inhibited the public consumption of information. He also questioned the intent of the bill, as it was ostensibly meant to target IMDb. In February 2018, Chhabria struck down the statute, and in June 2020, the Ninth Circuit affirmed Chhabria's judgement, holding that the statute

4316-411: A subsidiary, private company. This gave IMDb the ability to pay the shareholders salaries for their work. In the process of expanding its product line, Amazon.com intended to use IMDb as an advertising resource for selling DVDs and videotapes. IMDb continued to expand its functionality. On January 15, 2002, it added a subscription service known as IMDbPro, aimed at entertainment professionals. IMDbPro

4482-450: A theater watching Gone with the Wind . Hodgson also likened the show's setting to the idea of a pirate radio station broadcasting from space. Hodgson credits Silent Running , a 1972 science-fiction film directed by Douglas Trumbull , as being perhaps the biggest direct influence on the show's concept. The film is set in the future and centers on a human, Freeman Lowell ( Bruce Dern ), who

4648-470: A well-known writer for The Simpsons ) and Trace Beaulieu to develop the pilot show. By September 1988, Hodgson, Mallon, Weinstein, and Beaulieu shot a 30-minute pilot episode, using segments from the 1968 science-fiction film The Green Slime . The robots and the set were built by Hodgson in an all-nighter. Joel watched the movie by himself, and was aided during the host segments by his robots, Crow (Beaulieu), Beeper, and Gypsy (Weinstein). Hodgson used

4814-511: A write-in campaign to keep the show alive. This effort led the Sci-Fi Channel, a subsidiary of USA Networks , to pick up the series. Rod Perth, then-president of programming for USA Networks, helped to bring the show to the Sci-Fi Channel, stating himself to be a huge fan of the show and believing that "the sci-fi genre took itself too seriously and that this show was a great way of lightening up our own presentation". Writing and production of

4980-494: A yearly membership fee to IMDbPro. IMDbPro can be accessed by anyone willing to pay the annual fee of US$ 149.99. Membership enables a user to access the rank order of each industry personality, as well as agent contact information for any actor, producer, director etc. that has an IMDb page. IMDbPro also allows existing actors to claim their name page, as well as production companies to claim titles they own/manage. Enrolling in IMDbPro enables members who are industry personnel to upload

5146-411: Is No. 1 on the list, and has been since 2008. The "Top 250" rating is based on only the ratings of "regular voters". The number of votes a registered user would have to make to be considered as a user who votes regularly has been kept secret. IMDb has stated that to maintain the effectiveness of the Top 250 list they " deliberately do not disclose the criteria used for a person to be counted as

Canned Film Festival - Misplaced Pages Continue

5312-414: Is assembled through a similar process although only 10,000 votes must be received to qualify for the list. The Top 250 list comprises a wide range of feature films, including major releases, cult films, independent films, critically acclaimed films, silent films, and non-English-language films. Documentaries, short films and TV episodes are not currently included. Since 2015, there has been

5478-769: Is in order of the original air date listed on the Internet Movie Database using the name of the featured B movie as the episode title, as no other naming format was suggested during the program run. Mystery Science Theater 3000 Mystery Science Theater 3000 (abbreviated as MST3K ) is an American science fiction comedy film review television series created by Joel Hodgson . The show premiered on KTMA-TV (now WUCW ) in Minneapolis, Minnesota , on November 24, 1988. It then moved to nationwide broadcast, first on The Comedy Channel / Comedy Central for seven seasons until its cancellation in 1996. Thereafter, it

5644-639: Is reportedly creating an IMDb_Error.log file that lists all the errors found while processing the IMDb plain text files. A Wiki alternative to IMDb is Open Media Database whose content is also contributed by users but licensed under a Creative Commons license (CC BY) and the GFDL . Since 2007, IMDb has been experimenting with wiki-programmed sections for complete film synopses, parental guides, and FAQs about titles as determined by (and answered by) individual contributors. IMDb, unlike other AI-automated queries, does not provide an API for automated queries. However, most of

5810-544: Is the last crew member of a spaceship containing Earth's last surviving forests. His remaining companions consist only of three robot drones. MST3K and the Joel Robinson character occasionally reflected Lowell's hippie -like nature. Hodgson wanted the feel of the show to appear homemade, and cited the example of a crude mountain prop used during the Saturday Night Live sketch "Night on Freak Mountain" that received

5976-655: The Canned Film Festival . The series may also be remembered as one of the many little-known works of Laraine Newman's acting career. While she performed in countless supporting roles throughout Hollywood following her tenure on NBC 's Saturday Night Live , her work with the Canned Film Festival is rarely credited. The careers of other noteworthy stars also include this show, such as Kathryn Rossetter who played support roles in movies, electronic media ( video games ), and television shows such as Law & Order , Cosby , Touched by an Angel , L.A. Law , and Kate & Allie . Patrick Garner, in addition to appearing in

6142-475: The Coke/Pepsi rivalry , mentioning only an Orwellian syndicate which manufactured a soft drink named "Clone Cola". At least two of the "Planet Dullzon" commercials incorporated alien bar scenes reminiscent of the famous "cantina scene" from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope , and most of them included a Han Solo -like main character wearing a cowboy hat and accompanied by a short alien sidekick. Also aired were

6308-727: The Gizmoplex , an online platform that Hodgson developed which launched in March 2022. As of 2023 , 230 episodes and a feature film have been produced as well as three live tours. The show initially starred Hodgson as Joel Robinson , a janitor trapped by two mad scientists ("The Mads") on the Earth-orbiting Satellite of Love and forced to watch a series of B movies to monitor his reaction to them. To keep his sanity, Joel crafts sentient robot companions, including Tom Servo , Crow T. Robot , and Gypsy , to keep him company and help him humorously comment on each movie as it plays,

6474-475: The Satellite of Love out of orbit, with Mike and the 'bots escaping and taking up residence in an apartment near Milwaukee, where they continue to riff movies. A "lost" episode produced earlier in the season but delayed due to rights issues, Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders , was the final season 10 episode of MST3K (and the last of the original run), broadcast on September 12, 1999. Reruns continued to air on

6640-698: The "Kirk vs. Picard" discussions in the Star Trek fandom. Conniff left the show after Season Six, looking to get into writing TV sitcoms in Hollywood. TV's Frank was soon replaced on the show by Dr. Forrester's mother, Pearl (Pehl). By 1996, Comedy Central had started creating an identity for its network under the new leadership of Doug Herzog , which would lead to successful shows like The Daily Show , Win Ben Stein's Money , South Park and Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist . This left MST3K as an oddity on

6806-471: The 1978 CBS Children's Film Festival instead. Either way, due its 11-season run (as opposed to the single season Canned Film Festival ) it is clear that MST3K was much more successful in the B movie satire genre despite the lack of a large sponsor like the Dr Pepper Company. However, it is also possible that its success over the Canned Film Festival was due to it reaching a wider audience through

Canned Film Festival - Misplaced Pages Continue

6972-419: The 1980s (although coincidentally, Max Headroom itself was also a television series which lasted only a short time in the 1980s). Those who remember the Canned Film Festival might recall the numerous Dr. Pepper television commercials aired concurrently with the show. These included the post-apocalyptic and cyberpunk -toned "Planet Dullzon" and "Cola Wars" ads alluding to (but never directly addressed)

7138-593: The Canned Film Festival can best be described as a curtailed advertising experiment by the Dallas-based Dr Pepper Company to break into the late-night television market in 1986, as the anticipated second season never materialized. It never gained the cult status that Mystery Science Theater 3000 did, nor did it match the Max Headroom advertising campaign run by the rival Coca-Cola Company in

7304-491: The Internet Movie Database Ltd. Founder Col Needham became the primary owner. General revenue for site operations was generated through advertising, licensing and partnerships. In 1998, Jeff Bezos , founder, owner, and CEO of Amazon.com, struck a deal with Needham and other principal shareholders to buy IMDb outright; Amazon paid $ 55 million for IMDb and two other companies. Bezos attached it to Amazon as

7470-531: The Internet Movie Database also maintained message boards for every title (excepting, as of 2013, TV episodes, which used the same message board for the whole series) and name entry, along with over 140 main boards. To post on the message boards a user needed to "authenticate" their account via cell phone, credit card, or by having been a recent customer of the parent company Amazon.com . Message boards expanded in recent years. The Soapbox started in 1999 as

7636-507: The Japanese-inspired Godzilla commercials, in which the famous B-movie creature and his female counterpart craved billboard -sized cans of Dr. Pepper as a libation against destroying the city they were attacking. Perhaps motivated by the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey (or its more recent 1984 sequel, 2010 ), a Diet Dr. Pepper commercial was aired during the series which included a monolithic -type alien spacecraft visiting

7802-563: The Netflix support was helpful for the prior two seasons, the streamer had required the production team to produce all their episodes at once, which did not work well and resulted in creative burn-out. By using the Gizmoplex approach, the production team would be able to produce new content at their own pace. Further, by establishing the continuation of the show in the Gizmoplex format, MST3K could continue even without Hodgson's involvement, so long as

7968-488: The Oscar-nominated 12:01 PM , and is also very active in regional and professional theatre. Laura Galusha's acting career seemed to be brief, as she is recorded to have appeared on screen only once in an episode of CBS Schoolbreak Special in 1985, whereas Phil Nee (identified as Philip Nee in the series credits), in addition to working behind the camera as a writer and technical crew, has performed several cameos over

8134-534: The Sci Fi Channel for several years, ending with The Screaming Skull on January 31, 2004. The shows later moved to off-network syndication. Starting in 2010, Hodgson had been trying to bring back MST3K , spurred on by fan appreciation of the cast and crew 25 years since the show's premiere and the success of his Cinematic Titanic project. Hodgson also considered the timing to be ideal, with non-traditional outlets like Netflix picking up original series, and

8300-616: The State of California enacted state bill AB-1687, a SAG-AFTRA -backed anti-ageism statute which requires "commercial online entertainment employment services" to honor requests by their subscribers for their ages and birthdays to be hidden. By the beginning of 2017, IMDb had received more than 2,300 requests from individuals to remove their date of birth from the site. Included in this group were 10  Academy Award winners and another 71 nominated for Oscars, Emmys , or Golden Globes . On February 23, 2017, Judge Vince Girdhari Chhabria issued

8466-405: The actual page views of the more than 200 million monthly visitors to the site." Initially IMDb STARmeter Awards were given in two categories, IMDb Fan favorite STARmeter Award and IMDb Breakout STARmeter Award . Celebrating 20th anniversary of IMDbPro, it launched IMDb Icon STARmeter Award , which is given to prominent artists of the industry who have appeared in the top 10 positions throughout

SECTION 50

#1732876329202

8632-424: The affected character to the audience. After this, they carefully scrutinized entire films for other such offensive content, and once one was selected and assured the rights, committed to completing the episode with that film. Obtaining the rights was handled by the cable networks. Some licensing required buying film rights in packages, with the selected bad movies included in a catalog of otherwise good films, making

8798-470: The back of a movie". Production of an average episode of MST3K during the Comedy Central period took about five to nine days once the movie was selected and its rights secured. The first few days were generally used for watching the movie and scripting out the riffs and live action segments. The subsequent days were then generally used to start construction of any props or sets that would be needed for

8964-426: The basic premise of the show remains consistent: a human test subject—first Joel Robinson ( Joel Hodgson ), then Mike Nelson ( Michael J. Nelson ), and most recently Jonah Heston ( Jonah Ray ) and Emily Connor (Emily Marsh)—has been imprisoned aboard the spacecraft Satellite of Love by mad scientists (collectively called "The Mads") and is forced to watch a series of bad movies in order to find one that will drive

9130-472: The biggest comedic effect on the audience. Recording and most of the production was completed over September and October 2016 in Los Angeles on a very condensed schedule. In the revival, Ray, Yount, and Vaughn recorded the riffs for all fourteen episodes in a sound studio over a period of a week, allowing them to better synchronize the riffs with the film. This also helped to simplify the process of recording

9296-466: The cable channel nationwide. After the second season, The Comedy Channel and rival comedy cable network HA! merged to become CTV: The Comedy Network (later changed to Comedy Central ). During this period, MST3K became the newly merged cable channel's signature series, expanding from 13 to 24 episodes a year. To take advantage of the show's status, Comedy Central ran "Turkey Day", a 30-hour marathon of MST3K episodes during Thanksgiving 1991. The name of

9462-422: The case of United Video Properties Inc., et al. v. Amazon.Com Inc. et al. , IMDb and Amazon were sued by Rovi Corporation and others for patent infringement over their various program listing offerings. The patent claims were ultimately construed in a way favorable to IMDb, and Rovi / United Video Properties lost the case. In April 2014, the decision was affirmed by the U.S. Court of Appeals. In January 2017,

9628-485: The character of Joel was replaced by Mike Nelson (played by Michael J. Nelson ) halfway through the show's fifth season. Other cast members, most of whom were also writers for the show, include Trace Beaulieu , Josh Weinstein , Jim Mallon , Kevin Murphy , Frank Conniff , Mary Jo Pehl , Bill Corbett , Paul Chaplin , and Bridget Jones Nelson . The 2017 revival features a primarily new cast, including Jonah Ray who plays

9794-520: The characters of Dr. Forrester (Beaulieu) and Dr. Erhardt (Weinstein) from the KTMA era and crafted the larger narrative of each episode being an "experiment" they test on Joel. The show began its national run shortly after the Comedy Channel went on the air in November 1989. MST3K was considered Comedy Channel's signature program, generating positive press about the show despite the limited availability of

9960-422: The characters to enter the theater. In the theater, the human host and 'bots Tom and Crow sit in a row of theater seats, shown in silhouette along the bottom of the screen, an approach Hodgson called "Shadowramma". The three then riff on the film (which is sometimes accompanied by one or more shorts ) as it plays for both them and the audience. Occasionally, the silhouette format is used as a source of humor, or as

10126-491: The content becomes the exclusive property of IMDb with the full right to copy, modify, and sublicense it, and they are verified before posting. However, credit is not given on specific title or filmography pages to the contributor(s) who have provided information. Conversely, a credited text entry, such as a plot summary, may be corrected for content, grammar, sentence structure, perceived omission or error, by other contributors without having to add their names as co-authors. Due to

SECTION 60

#1732876329202

10292-399: The data can be downloaded as compressed plain text files and the information can be extracted using the command-line interface tools provided. There is also a Java-based graphical user interface (GUI) application available that is able to process the compressed plain text files, which allows a search and a display of the information. This GUI application supports different languages, but

10458-607: The demand from fans of the show remained. During the Kickstarter, Hodgson confirmed that due to the name being seen by some as an ethnic slur against Romani and other itinerant peoples , Gypsy was renamed to GPC around 2019. Internet Movie Database IMDb (an initialism for Internet Movie Database ) is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, plot summaries, trivia, ratings, and fan and critical reviews. IMDb began as

10624-413: The entire writing staff watching the film together several times through, giving off-the-cuff quips and jokes as the film went along, or identifying where additional material would be helpful for the comedy. The best jokes were polished into the script for the show. Riffs were developed to keep in line with the characterization of Joel, Mike, and the 'bots. Further, the writers tried to maintain respect for

10790-408: The episode featuring the movie The Slime People where Laraine dreamt that Chan was possessed. What role Chan's character brought to the series is less clear, although he sometimes provided a childlike response to the episode plots, such as taking a spin in one of the lobby's clothes driers after being inspired by the outer-space setting of the featured movie Project Moonbase . Chan's muteness in

10956-432: The episodes in the days preceding this. During the 2017 "Turkey Day" Marathon, Hodgson announced that Netflix had greenlit a twelfth season of MST3K . Shooting of the twelfth season started on June 4, 2018, and would have six episodes, written to encourage bingewatching and make the series more amenable to non-fans. Further, they created a stronger narrative in the host segments, so that casual viewers would recognize

11122-417: The episodes were completed within a single day, which did not allow them for doing multiple takes unless necessary. Campaign backers at higher tiers were able to see the first episode at limited "Red Carpet Kickstarter Screening" events shown in a few theaters during February and March 2017. The fourteen episodes were released on Netflix on April 14, 2017, though Kickstarter backers had the opportunity to see

11288-430: The event was not only inspired by the traditional turkey meal served on Thanksgiving, but also by use of "Turkey" from The Golden Turkey Awards to represent bad movies. This tradition would be continued through the rest of the Comedy Central era. Though the show did not draw large audience numbers compared to other programming on Comedy Central, such as reruns of Saturday Night Live , the dedicated fans and attention kept

11454-483: The executive producer for the remake, though does appear briefly as Ardy, one of Kinga's henchmen who send Jonah the episode's movie. Hodgson was assisted by Kalan, Richard Foos, Bob Emmer, Garson Foos, Jonathan Stern , and Harold Buchholz. The revival was produced by the companies Satellite of Love, LLC, Alternaversal Productions, and Abominable Pictures . Production for the new season began on January 4, 2016, with movie selection and script writing. The film selection

11620-471: The featured movies, sometimes providing historical insight into their production. An example is seen during the episode featuring Project Moonbase , where female spaceship commanders were discussed as an accurate future prediction by the 1950s era movie, as were cordless telephones and big screen televisions . The featured B movies of the series were not full-length, and edited to fit the show's approximately two-hour timeframe per episode. The series plot

11786-411: The film 2001: A Space Odyssey . Hodgson had wanted to use a "motivated camera" for taping, a concept related to motivated lighting ; in this mode, all the shots would appear to have been taken from an actual camera that was part of the scene to make the scene appear more realistic. This led to the creation of Cambot as a robot that the host would speak to during host segments or recording them while in

11952-449: The films and avoided making negative riffs about them, taking into consideration that Joel, Mike, and the 'bots were companions to the audience while watching the movie, and they did not want to come off sounding like jerks even if the negative riff would be funny. Hodgson stated that their goal in writing riffs is not to ridicule films as some have often mistaken, but to rather instead consider what they are doing as "a variety show built on

12118-464: The fledgling World Wide Web under the name of Cardiff Internet Movie Database . The database resided on the servers of the computer science department of Cardiff University in Wales. Rob Hartill was the original web interface author. In 1994, the email interface was revised to accept the submission of all information, which enabled people to email the specific list maintainer with their updates. However,

12284-419: The following formula to calculate their weighted rating: W =   R ⋅ v + C ⋅ m   v + m {\displaystyle W={\frac {\ R\cdot v+C\cdot m\ }{v+m}}} where: The variable W in this formula is equivalent to a Bayesian posterior mean ( see Bayesian statistics ). The IMDb also has a Bottom 100 feature which

12450-408: The host would consult an external camera, "Rocket Number Nine", to show events happening outside the Satellite , and the "Hexfield Viewscreen" would be used to communicate with other characters from the ship's bridge. At the end of each sketch, "Movie Sign" (a reference to the concept of wormsign from Frank Herbert's classic sci-fi novel Dune ) is triggered again, and the characters must re-enter

12616-446: The host, and stages for the Crow and Tom puppets. The human host wore black clothing while the robot puppets were painted black; the screen they watched was a white luma key screen so as to create the appearance of silhouettes. The actors would follow the movie and the script through television monitors located in front of them, as to create the overall theater illusion. The "door sequence"

12782-452: The human test subject in watching the film in the satellite's theater. To keep from going mad, the trio frequently comment and wisecrack during the movie, a process known as "riffing". At regular intervals throughout the movie, the hosts leave the theater and return to the bridge of the satellite to perform sketches (commonly called "host segments") that often satirize the film being watched. The general format of an MST3K episode has remained

12948-515: The lawsuit, saying the actress had no grounds to proceed with an anonymous complaint. The actress re-filed and so revealed that she was Huong Hoang of Texas, who uses the stage name Junie Hoang. In 2013, Pechman dismissed all causes of action except for a breach of contract claim against IMDb; a jury then sided with IMDb on that claim. The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court judgment in March 2015. Also in 2011, in

13114-400: The lists themselves. The goal of the participants now was to make the lists as inclusive as possible. By late 1990, the lists included almost 10,000 films and television series, correlated with actors and actresses appearing therein. On October 17, 1990, Needham converted his private database to an entity that was accessible on the Internet, and thus the database that would become the IMDb

13280-454: The live action segments while the writers honed the script. A full dress rehearsal would then be held, making sure the segments and props worked and fine tuning the script. The host segments would then be taped on one day, and the theater segments on the next. A final day was used to review the completed work and correct any major flaws they caught before considering the episode complete. Live scenes used only practical special effects , and there

13446-556: The live, handcrafted look from the original, a decision that Hodgson had to set down against others involved in production. Set and prop designers included Wayne White , Aaron Somers , Pen Ward , Rebecca Sugar and her younger brother Steven, Justin Jacobs, and Guy Davis , while live and practical special effects were planned by Adam Savage . Justin was tasked with creating full sized versions of new robots M. Waverly and Growler. Other returning staff included: Charlie Erickson, who composed

13612-481: The logistics in time. The 12th season was broadcast on Netflix on Thanksgiving aka "Turkey Day", November 22, 2018, which coincided with the show's 30th anniversary. To avoid conflicting with the new season's release, the annual Turkey Day Marathon was pushed forward to November 18, 2018. In November 2019, Hodgson confirmed to Kickstarter backers that the show would not return for a third season on Netflix, but that he would be looking into alternative outlets to carry

13778-509: The main filmography database, and as such do not need any additional verification by IMDb staff. They have already been verified when they are added to the main filmography. Registered users can choose their username, and most are pseudonymous . There is no single index of contributors, no index on each profile page of the items contributed, and—except for plot synopses and biographies—no identification of contributors to each product's or person's data pages. Users are also invited to rate titles on

13944-413: The material was not funny and declined (the proposed sitcom went unrealized). He further became dissatisfied with the Hollywood attitudes when they tried to double their offer, acquiring what he called a "healthy disrespect" for the industry. He moved back to Minneapolis-St. Paul , taking a job in a T-shirt printing factory that allowed him to conceive of new comedy ideas while he was bored. One such idea

14110-482: The message boards was met with outspoken backlash from some of its users, and sparked an online petition garnering over 8,000 signatures. In the days leading up to February 20, 2017, both Archive.org and MovieChat.org preserved the entire contents of the IMDb message boards using web scraping . Archive.org and MovieChat.org have published IMDb message board archives. Actors, crew, and industry executives can post their own resume and upload photos of themselves for

14276-455: The methodology and details for how its ratings are calculated are confidential and not accessible to the public. In fact, it sometimes produces an extreme difference between the weighted average and the arithmetic mean. The IMDb Top 250 is a list of the top rated 250 films, based on ratings by registered users of the website using the methods described. As of 5 September 2023 , The Shawshank Redemption , directed by Frank Darabont ,

14442-534: The middle of Season Eight. With this replacement, the series' entire original cast had been turned over. MST3K ran for three more seasons on the Sci-Fi Channel. During the Sci-Fi era, Best Brains found themselves more limited by the network: the pool of available films was smaller and they were required to use science fiction films (as per the network's name and programming focus), and the USA Network executives managing

14608-422: The middle-aged Fitzy, the two manifested the stereotypical male-oriented fascinations for lowbrow action, crude sexual innuendos, and took morbid pleasure in making fun of some of the movies' more macabre themes (such as nuclear warfare in the feature Rocket Attack U.S.A. ). Chan, in addition to being of Asian descent (as opposed to the rest of the cast being Caucasian), was a mute who never spoke except during

14774-572: The movie instead of just riffing at it, and took that to extend songs into the host segments. Hodgson approached Jim Mallon , at the time the production manager of KTMA, a low-budget local Minneapolis-area independent television station , with his idea of a show based on riffing on movies, using robots that were created out of common objects. Mallon agreed to help produce a pilot episode, and Hodgson hired local area comedians J. Elvis Weinstein (initially going by Josh Weinstein but later changed to J. Elvis as to distinguish himself from Josh Weinstein ,

14940-576: The movie related data are in English, as made available by IMDb. A Python package called IMDbPY (since renamed cinemagoer) can also be used to process the compressed plain text files into a number of different SQL databases, enabling easier access to the entire dataset for searching or data mining. The IMDb has sites in English as well as versions translated completely or in part into other languages ( Danish , Finnish , French, German, Hungarian , Italian, Polish , Portuguese , Spanish and Romanian ). The non-English language sites display film titles in

15106-523: The narrative that his character named "Joel Hodgson" (not yet using his character name of Robinson) had built the Satellite of Love and launched himself into space. Camera work was by Kevin Murphy , who was employed by KTMA. Murphy also created the first doorway sequence and theater seat design. These initial episodes were recorded at the long since-defunct Paragon Cable studios and customer service center in Hopkins, Minnesota . On review, Hodgson found that of

15272-521: The negotiations odd since the network was only interested in the bad film. Other times, the rights to the film were poorly documented, and the network would follow the chain of custody to locate the copyright owner so as to secure broadcast rights. In contrast to the ad-libbing of riffs from KTMA, the riffs were scripted ahead of time by the writers. An average episode (approximately 90 minutes running time) would contain more than 600 such riffs, and some with upwards of 800 riffs. Riffs were developed with

15438-449: The network taking up limited program space. Herzog, though stating that MST3K "helped put the network on the map" and that its fans were "passionate", believed it was necessary to change things around due to the show's declining and lackluster ratings. The network cancelled MST3K after a six-episode seventh season. The show staff continued to operate for as long as they still had finances to work with. MST3K ' s fan base staged

15604-875: The network to fill space that they had originally planned to use short clips of films and television shows that they could not license in time for launch. Comedy Channel offered Best Brains $ 35,000 per episode but allowed Best Brains to retain the show's rights. Best Brains was also able to keep production local to Minnesota instead of the network's desire to film in New York City or Los Angeles, as it would have cost four times more per episode, according to Hodgson. Best Brains established an office and warehouse space in Eden Prairie for filming. With an expanded but still limited budget, they were able to hire more writers, including Mike Nelson, Mary Jo Pehl, and Frank Conniff, and build more expansive sets and robot puppets. They retained

15770-471: The new episodes include bumpers that would have wrapped around commercial breaks if shown on network television; Hodgson considered these breaks necessary as a "palate cleanser" as well as to support the narrative for Kinga attempting to commercialize on the MST3K brand. Behind the scenes, the lead writer was Elliott Kalan , former head writer for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and host of The Flop House ,

15936-428: The new human test subject Jonah Heston , along with Felicia Day and Patton Oswalt as "The Mads" and Baron Vaughn , Hampton Yount , and Rebecca Hanson voicing Tom Servo, Crow T. Robot, and Gypsy, respectively. Season 13 brought back this cast while integrating Emily Connor, played by Emily Marsh, and others from the live tours in this era. MST3K ' s original run did not garner high viewership numbers. However,

16102-469: The older page view display method or to aid the editing of data. In 2017, some alterations were made to this advanced view, and the setting was renamed "Reference view", again also able to be accessed ad-hoc by simply adding /reference to the end of the URL (e.g. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2358891/reference), with the former /combined URLs made to link to the newer /reference ones. Beginning in 2001,

16268-665: The original episode was split into two parts, each about 45 minutes long, excluding commercials. New skits opening and ending each episode included Mike Nelson portraying television host Jack Perkins , in a parody of Perkins' Biography series, in mock flattery of the MST3K episode being shown. Hodgson is credited for devising the show's concept. Prior to the show, Hodgson was an up-and-coming comedian from Minneapolis having moved to Los Angeles and made appearances on Late Night with David Letterman and Saturday Night Live . He had been invited by Brandon Tartikoff to be on an NBC sitcom co-starring Michael J. Fox , but Hodgson felt

16434-580: The original series, borrowing equally from the Joel and Mike eras; he noted there were about 30 episodes that he and fans universally agreed were the show's best, and expected to use these as templates as the basis of the new show. The new episodes include the Invention Exchange that had been part of the Joel era (and some of the Mike era) of the show. Additionally, while not required by the streaming format of Netflix,

16600-470: The original series. Comedian Jonah Ray plays Jonah Heston , the new host aboard the Satellite of Love, watching and riffing on the films. Hodgson had met Ray while recording an episode of The Nerdist Podcast , and felt he would be a good fit. The voices of Crow and Tom Servo are provided by comedians Hampton Yount and Baron Vaughn , respectively, both of whom Ray recommended to Hodgson. Hodgson felt it

16766-559: The original series. The campaign reached its base funding within a week of its launch. On the final day of the campaign, Hodgson and Shout! ran a streaming telethon which included appearances from the newly selected cast and crew, and various celebrities that supported the revival to help exceed the target funding levels for twelve episodes. The campaign ended on December 11, 2015, with total funding of $ 5,764,229 from 48,270 backers, with an additional $ 600,000 in backer add-ons, which allowed Hodgson to plan two more additional episodes, including

16932-436: The original show's theme song and composed the new show's theme and other musical arrangements; Beth "Beez" McKeever, who worked on the original show's props and designed costumes and props for the new show; Crist Ballas created hair and makeup design; and Paul Chaplin , one of the show's original writers to help write the new shows, along with contributions from Pehl and Corbett. Hodgson himself remained primarily off-camera as

17098-441: The others. Hodgson had met Day at the 2015 Salt Lake Comic Con , where she stated her love of MST3K to him. Hodgson had seen Day's performance in shows like The Guild and Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog , and felt she matched his idea for the character he had envisioned. Patton Oswalt plays Kinga's henchman, Max, or as his character prefers to be known, "TV's Son of TV's Frank"; Hodgson had already planned to invite Oswalt,

17264-410: The past year on the site, including stats, top contributors tally for the year (the top 300 users, currently; fewer in previous years), and a perspective on the site's progress and future. As an additional incentive for users, as of 2003 , users identified as one of the "top 100 contributors" of hard data received complimentary free access to IMDbPro for the following calendar year; for 2006 this

17430-402: The premiere on Thanksgiving was by happenstance, as the station felt the show was ready to go at that point, according to Hodgson. Initially, the show's response was unknown, until Mallon set up a phone line for viewers to call in. Response was so great that the initial run of 13 episodes was extended to 21, with the show running to May 1989. Hodgson and Mallon negotiated to secure the rights for

17596-481: The production booth via a microphone. Laraine's mother was never actually named nor completely seen during any of the episodes, but sometimes communicated by pounding on the walls or playing musical tunes (presumably with an instrument or a sound device in the booth and transmitted through the theater's sound system). The supporting characters, five in all, were split roughly along gender lines, with three men and two women. The women included Doris (Kathryn Rossetter),

17762-413: The production of three episodes, with stretch goals with additional funding for 12 total episodes. The Kickstarter effort was led by Ivan Askwith, a consultant who also had worked on the Veronica Mars and Reading Rainbow Kickstarter campaigns. Hodgson estimated each episode would take $ 250,000 to make, in addition to five-figure movie licensing rights, in contrast to $ 100,000 per episode needed for

17928-426: The profits from the series. In addition, other cameos on the new episodes include Neil Patrick Harris , Jerry Seinfeld , and Mark Hamill as P. T. Mindslap. Weinstein initially stated that he had no interest in returning to the show, but eventually reprised his role as Dr. Laurence Erhardt in the second season of the Netflix revival. Hodgson aimed to follow in the pattern of what made for fan-favorite episodes from

18094-405: The regular entry about that person, with a regular entry automatically created for each résumé subscriber who does not already have one. As of 2012, Resume Services was included as part of an IMDbPro subscription and is no longer offered as a separate subscription service. Volunteers who contribute content to the database technically retain copyright on their contributions, but the compilation of

18260-460: The rest of the series run. The series starred Laraine Newman of Saturday Night Live fame, whose main character, Laraine the usherette, wore an old-fashioned maroon ushers uniform and ran the Ritz with such strict organization as to assign every patron a seat despite the theater's constant near-empty attendance. Laraine ensured that each movie started exactly on time as scheduled, cuing her mother in

18426-660: The revival, reprising their roles as Pearl, Brain Guy, and Professor Bobo, respectively. Hodgson opened up to the show any of the other cast members to make cameo appearances or aid in the creative process. However, Nelson and Beaulieu stated that they would not be involved with the MST3K revival; Nelson said, "The brand does not belong to me, and I make and have made (almost) zero dollars off it since it stopped production in 1999." Conniff noted on his Twitter that Shout! Factory would be "cutting [the former cast members] in, financially at least" on

18592-430: The riffing of films, including The Film Crew , RiffTrax , and Cinematic Titanic . MST3K also brought to light several older movies that had fallen into obscurity or had received little or no public attention when originally released. Many of these films were subsequently identified as among the worst movies ever made , most notably Manos: The Hands of Fate . While the cast of MST3K changed throughout its history,

18758-411: The robots, Beeper's design was not working well, and tried a quick modification by replacing its head with a toy gumball machine top, creating the basis of Tom Servo. Mallon met with KTMA station manager Donald O'Conner the next month and managed to get signed up for thirteen episodes. Show production was generally done on a 24-hour cycle, starting with Mallon offering a few films from KTMA's library for

18924-436: The rotating effect as opposed to a flat 2D image, and though they had envisioned a more detailed prop, with the letters being the tops of buildings on this moon, they had no time or budget for a project of that complexity and went with what they had. Musical numbers would also be used as part of the host segments, which Hodgson said came out naturally from the riffing process; they would find themselves at times singing along with

19090-410: The same name by Lou Reed . Crow T. Robot was inspired by the song "Crow" from Jim Carroll 's Catholic Boy , while Rocket Number 9's name was inspired by the original name of Sun Ra 's album Interstellar Low Ways . The theater shots, the primary component of an episode, are taped in "Shadowrama". The "seats" were a black-painted foam core board sitting behind the seat (towards the camera) for

19256-634: The same throughout the series' run. Episodes are approximately 90 minutes in running time (excluding commercial breaks) and begin with a short introductory segment in which the human host and the 'bots interact with the Mads before being sent the movie. During Joel Hodgson and Jonah Ray's tenures as hosts (and for a brief period at the start of the Mike Nelson era), the hosts and the Mads engage in an "invention exchange" in which they each show off their latest inventions. Sirens and flashing lights ("Movie Sign") then signal

19422-547: The series halfway through Season Five due to his dislike of being on camera and his disagreements with producer Mallon over creative control of the program. Hodgson also stated that Mallon's insistence on producing a feature film version of the show led to his departure, giving up his rights on the MST3K property to Mallon. Hodgson later told an interviewer: "If I had the presence of mind to try and work it out, I would rather have stayed. 'Cause I didn't want to go, it just seemed like I needed to." Though they held casting calls for

19588-432: The series having a definitive start, middle, and end. Other changes included Rob Schrab coming on as co-director, and actress Deanna Rooney, Ray's wife, playing Dr. Donna St. Phibes, a "B-movie monster conservationist" who works with the Mads. Former cast member Weinstein returned to reprise his role as Dr. Erhardt. Hodgson had been trying to also bring back both Beaulieu and Conniff for this season, but could not work out

19754-425: The show back through other means, though he did criticize Netflix for forcing an embargo that kept him from providing updates to his fans on the progress on the show until they were ready to announce details. On April 7, 2021, Hodgson launched a second Kickstarter campaign to continue production of more MST3K episodes. Given the difficulties with Netflix, Hodgson envisioned a sustainable production approach based on

19920-512: The show for themselves, creating Best Brains , Inc., agreeing to split ownership of the idea equally. During this time a fan club was set up and the show held its first live show at Scott Hansen's Comedy Gallery in Minneapolis, to a crowd of over 600. Despite the show's success, the station's overall declining fortunes forced it to file for bankruptcy reorganization in July 1989. At the same time, HBO

20086-464: The show on the network. Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie was produced during the later half of the Comedy Central era and had a very limited theatrical release in 1996 through Universal Pictures and Gramercy Pictures . It featured Mike and the bots subjected to the film This Island Earth by Dr. Forrester. Though well received by critics and fans, the film was a financial disappointment due to its limited distribution. The cable network

20252-602: The show remained relatively unchanged from the Comedy Central period. Before Season Eight commenced filming, Beaulieu opted to leave the show, feeling that anything creative that would be produced by Best Brains would belong to Mallon, and wanted to have more creative ownership himself. To replace Dr. Forrester, two new sidekicks to Pearl were introduced: Professor Bobo (Murphy) and the Observer , a.k.a. "Brain Guy" (Corbett). In addition, Corbett took over Crow's voice and puppetry and Best Brains staffer Patrick Brantseg took over Gypsy in

20418-422: The show to lose its original appeal. Another campaign to save the show was mounted, including several MST3K fans taking contributions for a full-page ad in the trade publication Daily Variety magazine, but unlike the first effort, this campaign was unsuccessful. The season 10 finale, Danger: Diabolik , premiered on August 8, 1999, during which, in the show's narrative, Pearl Forrester accidentally sent

20584-411: The show wanted to see a story arc and had more demands on how the show should be produced. Conflict between Best Brains and the network executives would eventually lead to the show's second cancellation. Peter Keepnews, writing for The New York Times , noted that the frequent cast changes, as well as the poorer selection of films that he felt were more boring than bizarre in their execution, had caused

20750-533: The show was only implied, leaving it up to the audience to decide whether or not he could physically speak (although he did laugh on occasion), or if his condition was simply a language barrier written into the script. Prior to merging with the Seven Up Company in May 1986, Dr Pepper brand development conceived The Canned Film Festival as means to reach a target audience of consumers between ages 12 and 24 by promoting

20916-409: The show's popularity spread through online word-of-mouth by its fans known as "MSTies" or "Mysties" (who would remind others to "Keep circulating the tapes"), frequent repeats, syndication, and home media offerings produced by Rhino Entertainment . Currently, this popularity continues through Shout! Studios , who along with Hodgson, now own the rights to the show and supported the revived series. MST3K

21082-523: The show's theme song would lead to establishing elements for the show's ongoing premise, with Hodgson now portraying himself as the character Joel Robinson. Mystery Science Theater 3000 premiered on KTMA at 6:00 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, November 24, 1988, with its first episode, Invaders from the Deep , followed by a second episode, Revenge of the Mysterons from Mars at 8:00 p.m. The choice of running

21248-416: The show. In one specific case, the second-season episode with the 1969 film The Sidehackers , they had only skimmed the first part of the movie before making the decision to use it, and only later discovered that it contained a scene where a female character is brutally raped and murdered . They decided to stay committed to the film, but cut out the offending scene and had to explain the sudden absence of

21414-417: The show. The two seasons made for Netflix will remain on the service. Ray stated in an April 2020 interview that "Joel's got some ideas in the pipeline, and it's pretty exciting, what he's working on", and expected further news later in the year. Hodgson had praised Netflix for helping to bring new fans to MST3K and said that his production company Alternaversal Productions was still looking for ways to bring

21580-560: The site was filtered in China . In 2016, The IMDb Studio at Sundance was launched, a talk show that is presented on IMDb and YouTube . In April 2017, IMDb celebrated its 25th anniversary. As of that year, Needham was still managing IMDb from its main office in Bristol in the Castlemead office tower. In January 2019, IMDb launched an ad-supported streaming service called Freedive. This

21746-512: The site's data has been provided by these volunteers. Registered users with a proven track record are able to add and make corrections to cast lists, credits, and some other data points. However, the addition and removal of images, and alterations to titles, cast and crew names, character names, and plot summaries are subject to an approval process; this usually takes between 24 and 72 hours. On October 2, 2007, character filmographies were added. Character entries are created from character listings in

21912-482: The site, via an IMDb employee announcement on their Sprinklr forums. As of December 2022 , the numbers of podcast series stood at 24,778, with podcast episodes at 3,076,386. Annually, IMDb STARmeter Awards are presented to industry professionals in various categories. Professionals who have appeared in its annual "top 10 lists" are considered for this award. "IMDb determines its definitive top 10 lists using data from IMDbPro STARmeter rankings, which are based on

22078-412: The soft drink as a novel and unconventional refreshment that stood out against the larger cola rivals of the time. David Millheiser, manager of brand development for Dr Pepper at the time, hoped to attract a young audience who would view the featured films as "wonderfully bad". However, the effort was short-lived, as the series lasted for only one season in the summer of 1986. Although plans were made for

22244-429: The source for minor script material. As the story maintains during the opening sequence of each episode, the most successful of Laraine's business ventures to rejuvenate the Ritz was, by far, the screening of strange and unusual films that resulted in the series' namesake. Laraine, together with her mother who ran the projector booth, succeeded in attracting several new customers who became regular characters throughout

22410-584: The specified language. Originally, IMDb's English language sites displayed titles according to their original country-of-origin language, however, in 2010 IMDb began allowing individual users in the UK and US to choose primary title display by either the original-language titles, or the US or UK release title (normally, in English). On October 21, 2021, the site added the ability to add podcasts (both as series and episodes) as titles to

22576-474: The structure remained so that information received on a single film was divided among multiple section managers, the sections being defined and determined by categories of film personnel and the individual filmographies contained therein. Over the next few years, the database was run on a network of mirrors across the world with donated bandwidth. In 1996 IMDb was incorporated in the United Kingdom, becoming

22742-410: The style of Devo , The Replacements , and The Rivieras (particularly their cover of the song " California Sun ") and sung by Hodgson. Initial shows used foam letters to make the show's title, but they later created the spinning-moon logo out of a 2-foot (0.6m) diameter fiberglass ball, covered with foam insulation and the lettering cut from additional foam pieces. Hodgson felt they needed a logo with

22908-421: The success of crowdfunding for entertainment projects. However, Hodgson needed to reacquire the rights to the series, at that point still held by Mallon and Best Brains. By 2013, Hodgson was working closely with Shout! Factory , the distribution company handling the home media releases of MST3K , and completed negotiations with Mallon to buy the rights for MST3K for a seven-figure sum by August 2015, enabling

23074-421: The support of fans and backers who wanted more episodes but without having to worry about the financial support of a broadcast or cable network. In this project, Hodgson set out to produce more episodes and the creation of "The Gizmoplex", an online platform designed to showcase these new episodes as well as reruns of past episodes and live events, presented as another experiment by the Mads. Hodgson said that while

23240-410: The test subject insane. In an attempt to keep his sanity, Joel built sentient robots ("the bots") from parts aboard the Satellite of Love , and they subsequently remained aboard with Joel's successors as test subjects. The Bots include Tom Servo , Crow T. Robot , GPC (formerly Gypsy) who is in charge of satellite operations, and Cambot , the silent recorder of the experiments. Crow and Servo join

23406-455: The theater segments, since they then only needed to act out their parts. The 'bots were controlled by multiple puppeteers both in the theater and in skits; Yount and Vaughn used radio-controlled equipment to move the 'bots' mouths, while members from The Jim Henson Company helped with manipulating the bodies, allowing them to achieve effects they could not do in the series' original run such as having Crow appear to walk on his own. All skits for

23572-400: The theater, and Rocket Number Nine to show footage outside of the Satellite of Love. The show's theme song, the "Love Theme from Mystery Science Theater 3000", was written by Hodgson and Weinstein, which helped to cement some of the broader narrative elements of the show, such as the Mads and Joel being part of an experiment. The song was composed by Charlie Erickson with help from Hodgson in

23738-421: The theater, and a new doorway countdown sequence between the host and theater segments was shot. The puppeteers worked personalities into their robots: Crow (Beaulieu) was considered a robotic Groucho Marx , Tom Servo (Weinstein) as a "smarmy AM radio DJ", and Gypsy (Mallon) modeled after Mallon's mother who had a "heart of gold" but would become disoriented when confronted with a difficult task. The development of

23904-416: The theater. During Hodgson's period on the show, the final sketch aboard the Satellite often included reading of fan mail from the "MST3K Info Club". Fan mail readings decreased during Mike Nelson's tenure as host and were dropped entirely once the show moved onto the Sci-Fi Channel. The final sketch of an episode typically ends with the Mads, with the lead Mad asking their lackey to "push the button" to end

24070-509: The then-nascent cable TV market, and aired at more suitable hours for its intended audience. The following is an episode list for The Canned Film Festival . 13 episodes were produced, and due to the nationally syndicated nature of the program, exact air dates for local television broadcasts are not precisely known. Generally, the program aired on the weekends during the late night time slot on both independent stations and network affiliates from June through September 1986. The list below

24236-419: The time required for processing submitted data or text before it is displayed, IMDb is different from user-contributed projects like Discogs , or OpenStreetMap , or Misplaced Pages, in that contributors cannot add, delete, or modify the data or text on impulse, and the manipulation of data is controlled by IMDb technology and salaried staff. IMDb has been subject to deliberate additions of false information; in 2012

24402-406: The transmission and transitioning to the credit sequence. After the credits, a humorous short clip from the featured film (or the accompanying short on occasion) is replayed as a "stinger" to end the episode. In November 1993, a limited selection of episodes were repackaged into an hour-long show titled Mystery Science Theater Hour , meant to be better suited for off-network syndication . In these,

24568-475: The vast majority of our more than 250 million monthly users worldwide". Others have mentioned its susceptibility to trolling and disagreeable behavior. Needham also mentioned in a post some months earlier that the boards received less income from ads, and that their members only made up a very small part of the website's visitors. The boards were costly to run due to the system's age and dated design, which did not make business sense. The decision to remove

24734-446: The writers to select from. Riffing in these episodes was ad-libbed during taping using notes made during preliminary viewings of the selected film. Episodes from this era are noted for their low number of riffs - in some instances 15 minutes of the movie could be shown before the cast made any comments. The show had some slight alterations from the pilot — the set was lit differently, the robots (now Crow, Servo and Gypsy) joined Joel in

24900-480: The year. Salma Hayek received the inaugural award. In 2011, in the case of Hoang v. Amazon.com, Inc. , IMDb was sued by an anonymous actress for at least US$ 1,075,000 because the movie website publicly disclosed her age (40, at the time) without her consent. The actress claimed that revealing her age could cause her to lose acting opportunities. Judge Marsha J. Pechman , a US district judge in Seattle, dismissed

25066-562: The years following the series in both movies and television. The Canned Film Festival's genre-based similarity to Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) did not stop with the show format. Following its 1988 debut, MST3K featured many of the same films as the Canned Film Festival did two years earlier in 1986. While this coincidence might suggest that the Canned Film Festival was a source of inspiration for MST3K s creator, Joel Hodgson , such assertions would be false. In fact, Hodgson states that his vision for MST3K actually came from

25232-404: Was able to provide a wider library of films for Best Brains to riff from. To ensure that they would be able to produce a funny episode, at least one member of the staff would watch the suggested films completely, generally assuring that the movie would be prime for jokes throughout. Conniff stated that he often would have to watch around twenty films in their entirety before selecting one to use for

25398-472: Was an unconstitutional content-based restriction that violated the First Amendment. IMDb had long maintained that it would keep all valid information, but changed that policy related to birth names in 2019, instead removing birth names that are not widely and publicly known, of persons who no longer use their birth names. This was done in response to pressure from LGBTQ groups against the publication of

25564-471: Was announced and launched at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival by Barnaby Dorfman . It provides a variety of services including film production and box office details, a company directory, and the ability of subscribers to add personal information pages. From 1996 onwards, an annual newsletter email (archived on the website) has been sent from Col Needham to contributors on the first day of each calendar year. The annual newsletter lists various information about

25730-438: Was born. At the time, it was known as the "rec.arts.movies movie database". The database had been expanded to include additional categories of filmmakers and other demographic material as well as trivia, biographies, and plot summaries. The movie ratings had been properly integrated with the list data, and a centralized email interface for querying the database had been created by Alan Jay. Later, on August 5, 1993, it moved onto

25896-574: Was built around the fictional town of Limekirk, Texas, where the local Ritz theater was undergoing economic and cultural decline due to lack of a customer base. The owner and sole usherette, Laraine (Laraine Newman), took extreme measures to attract moviegoers by adding laundry facilities to the lobby and stocking a large collection of unusual confections . With the exception of popcorn and Dr. Pepper , these confections were completely fictional, with names like "Butter Lumps", "Chocolate Covered Lug Nuts", and "Diet-Free Nutra-Cal Bars", and were occasionally

26062-458: Was created to transition from host segments to the theater segments, which Hodgson took inspiration from the Mickey Mouse Club , noting that the commonality to the title credits of Get Smart were coincidental. In devising this sequence, this also led to Beaulieu creating the dogbone-like shape of the Satellite of Love with additional inspiration taken from the bone-to-ship transition in

26228-424: Was important for Ray to have his say on who would play these parts, since it would help Ray be comfortable in the role. Felicia Day plays Kinga Forrester, Clayton Forrester's daughter and one of the new Mads in charge of the experiments, now operating out of a moon base known as "Moon 13". Day had been one of the last to be cast, as Hodgson had scripted out the concept for Forrester's daughter while casting Ray and

26394-500: Was increased to the top 150 contributors, and for 2010 to the top 250. In 2008, IMDb launched their first official foreign-language version with IMDb.de, in German. Also in 2008, IMDb acquired two other companies: Withoutabox and Box Office Mojo . The website was originally Perl -based, but IMDb no longer discloses what software it uses for reasons of security, apart from mentioning The Apache Software Foundation . In 2010,

26560-524: Was listed as one of Time magazine's "100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME" in 2007, and TV Guide has noted MST3K as one of the top cult television shows. The show won a Peabody Award in 1993, was also nominated for two Emmy Awards in 1994 and 1995, and for the CableACE Award from 1992 to 1997. The show was considered highly influential, contributing towards the practice of social television , and former cast members launched similar projects based on

26726-417: Was looking to build a stable of shows for their upcoming Comedy Channel cable network. HBO approached Best Brains and requested a sample of their material. Hodgson and Mallon provided a seven-minute demo reel, which led to the network greenlighting MST3K as one of the first two shows picked up by the new network. According to Art Bell, one of the creators of the Comedy Channel, MST3K ' s arrival helped

26892-401: Was minimal post-editing once taping was completed. Weinstein left the show after the first Comedy Channel season, reportedly in disagreement with Hodgson about moving toward using scripted rather than ad-libbed jokes. Murphy replaced him as the voice of Tom Servo, portraying the 'bot as a cultured individual, while Dr. Erhardt was replaced with TV's Frank (Conniff). Hodgson decided to leave

27058-419: Was narrowed down to about twenty movies as of February 2016, with the rights obtained for about half of them, while Shout! Factory was working to secure worldwide distribution rights for the others. Hodgson noted that the films were more recent than those used on the original series, with "maybe one" from the 1950s/1960s, but did not want to reveal what these films were until the episodes were broadcast as to have

27224-632: Was picked up by The Sci-Fi Channel and aired for three more seasons until another cancellation in August 1999. A 60-episode syndication package titled The Mystery Science Theater Hour was produced in 1993 and broadcast on Comedy Central and syndicated to TV stations in 1995. In 2015, Hodgson led a crowdfunded revival of the series with 14 episodes in its eleventh season, first released on Netflix on April 14, 2017, with another six-episode season following on November 22, 2018. A second successful crowdfunding effort in 2021 produced 13 additional episodes shown on

27390-416: Was the basis of MST3K , a show to comment humorously on movies and that would also allow him to showcase his own prop comedy -style humor. Hodgson referred to these jokes as "riffs", based both on the idea of musical riffs as well as the idea of comedy riffs, a term he attributes to The Simpsons ' s writer Dana Gould . In terms of movie selection, Hodgson had recalled that his college roommate had

27556-412: Was the company's second attempt at a streaming service; it launched a similar service in 2008. In June 2019, Freedive was rebranded as IMDb TV. In April 2022, the service was rebranded again as Amazon Freevee. In 2006, IMDb introduced its "Résumé Subscription Service", where an actor or crew member can post their résumé and upload photos for a yearly fee. IMDb résumé pages are kept on a sub-page of

#201798