MST3K (TMO)

The Making of Mystery Science Theater 3000 - Far better than the previous documentary on the show. For one, we actually spend most of the time looking behind-the-scenes, instead of watching a magician throw popcorn in his mouth. We get good looks at the puppeteer pit, behind the theater seats and in the writers' room, plus glimpses of the prop room and the exteriors of the sets. Everyone from Mike to Beez gets an interview (Jim is strangely absent). As an added meta-layer, Mike and bots riff on much of the proceedings. Though I wish it were a longer, this is pretty much the best there is when it comes to MST3K documentaries.

I was impressed that the Comedy Central era was touched upon. You might think that Sci-Fi would shy away from even acknowledging a rival cable network. I suppose they had little to fear. Comedy Central wasn't re-running MST3K anymore, so there wasn't a danger of viewers switching over to watch the classic episodes after being reminded of them here. There wasn't much said about the Comedy Central era, really. There are brief mentions of both Joel and Trace's departures. There are some shots from CC host segments. A handful of the theater clips were also from old episodes, including the iconic shot of the titular creature from 101. This is good. You could hardly take a MST documentary seriously if it were focusing only on the first 14 episodes of the 8th season.

"It's a big, meaty, sort of roast of a face." (7/10)

sf p. Anthony Caleca & Jude Gerard Prest (15 Aug 1997)