Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, September 15, 1994                   TAG: 9409190016
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By JEFF BAENEN ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: EDEN PRAIRIE, MINN.                                LENGTH: Medium

`MST' HASN'T MISSED A BEAT WITH NEW HOST

Hercules, Gamera the Flying Turtle, teen-age stranglers and grasshoppers the size of a Mack truck are all grist for the MST mill, which operates out of a nondescript building in a suburban industrial park.

Joel Hodgson, a comedian and toy maker, created the innovative show, which debuted on a Twin Cities UHF station in 1988. The premise had Hodgson and his robot pals stranded in the Satellite of Love, forced by mad scientists to watch cheesy movies.

Hodgson, the bird-like Crow and gumball-headed Tom Servo retaliated by subjecting movies like ``Viking Women and the Sea Serpent'' and ``Godzilla vs. Megalon'' to nonstop heckling.

MST3K (as fans know it) achieved a nationwide audience on cable's Comedy Central; then, last October, during the show's fifth season, Hodgson left. He planned to return as a writer and director but instead severed ties with the show's production company, Best Brains Inc.

Hodgson was out of the country and unavailable for comment. Since leaving the show he has moved to Los Angeles and was a consultant for the short-lived ``Paula Poundstone Show.'' His manager said Hodgson has developed a proposed TV sketch show called ``The X Box'' that's being pitched to studios.

Hodgson, 34, was replaced as host by Michael J. Nelson, the show's chief writer. Some fans decried the change, but Nelson, after 29 episodes in a green jumpsuit, believes he's accepted.

``Anything short of being pilloried is a good reaction, as far as I'm concerned,'' he said.

Onscreen, the blond, spiky-haired Nelson, 29, is as low-key as the droopy-eyed Hodgson. It's no act for Nelson, an actor who had appeared in ``MST3K'' bit parts.

``I would say I'm even lower energy than the character that is onscreen,'' he said. ``I don't sit and go, `I have to get into character now. OK, I'm in character. Don't talk to me.' ''

Producer Jim Mallon said MST3K writers, who churn out about 700 quips per episode, practice a sweet form of satire - gentle, but with an edge.

``They're fun people to hang around. They're by and large positive in their outlook,'' Mallon said.

Best Brains is looking at developing two new shows - one that would recycle historic footage and a comedy like ``Northern Exposure'' but ``more ambitious,'' Mallon said.

``I sort of feel like we're surfing on a wave, and so far the wave seems to be holding in there,'' he said.

MST3K also is still winning critical plaudits. The show won a Peabody Award this year and was nominated for the CableACE and Emmy awards. With more than 120 shows taped, the show grows in popularity.

Its fan club boasts nearly 50,000 members. New two-hour shows air at 7 p.m. Saturdays, repeating at 10 a.m. Sunday. Repeats (some Hodgson, some Nelson) air weekdays at midnight and in ``The Mystery Science Theater Hour'' at 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.

Some 2,200 of the hardest-core fans gather in the Twin Cities on Friday and Saturday for the first national MST3K ``ConventioCon ExpoFest-A-Rama'' to listen to B-movie celebrities, meet the show's cast and compete in a costume ball.

Trace Beaulieu, who plays the mad scientist Dr. Clayton Forrester and is the voice behind Crow, was asked how an MST3K convention might differ from a Star Trek fan gathering:

``Fewer Klingons,'' Trace said.