ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, April 19, 1996 TAG: 9604190071
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: MINNEAPOLIS
SOURCE: JEFF BAENEN ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
You won't have to worry about talking back to the screen during ``Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie.'' The film does it for you.
The cult TV show makes the leap to the big screen this month with its first movie, a lampooning of the 1954 science-fiction epic ``This Island Earth.'' It opens today in 25 cities.
Usually, the cast of ``Mystery Science Theater 3000'' has only bottom-of-the-barrel flicks such as ``Monster a Go Go'' and ``Zombie Nightmare'' to skewer. On television, cast members watch cheesy movies and ridicule the rubber-suited monsters and pie-plate flying saucers.
Head writer and show host Michael J. Nelson relished the opportunity to mock a movie with good production values.
``To see, for one, a movie that's in focus and uses more than one light - and it wasn't a work light from Montgomery Ward - that in itself is great,'' Nelson said.
``But you can still see the wires every now and then,'' added Kevin Murphy, the puppeteer who works Nelson's little robot buddy, Tom Servo.
Together with Crow T. Robot, Nelson and Tom Servo suffer through the cinematic stinkers as part of a mad scientist's experiment. Their wisecracks and riffs on popular culture turn movie junk into comedic gems.
Now, fans who bemoaned Comedy Central's recent decision not to order new episodes of the Peabody Award-winning show have a chance to see their heroes larger than life.
While Universal's ``This Island Earth'' is considered a classic, Murphy said the tale of aliens kidnapping Earth scientists to help defend their planet hasn't aged well.
``You've got a hero who does nothing heroic. You've got a white, high-foreheaded alien who nobody knows he's an alien,'' Murphy said.
The movie version of ``Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (known as ``MST3K'' to fans) isn't for fans only, Nelson said.
``We were pretty conscious that this had to be something that had to be self-contained,'' he said. ``Any explanation that it needs is there, and hopefully humorously done.''
Gramercy Pictures is releasing the movie in 25 cities on Friday.
But the future of the TV show, which started on a Twin Cities UHF station in 1988, remains in doubt. Comedy Central, the all-comedy cable network, has decided not to renew ``MST3K,'' but will continue showing reruns through this year. The last episode, ``Laserblast,'' will air at 5 p.m. EDT on Saturday, May 18.
However, Comedy Central has freed the show's producers, Eden Prairie-based Best Brains Inc., to negotiate a new contract this year with another network. The producers have been talking with the Sci-Fi Channel.
Nelson hopes the show finds a new home.
``Because we like making it, darn it. We'll truck it to your home, free of charge, if we can't get it on TV.''
In the meantime, fans can get their fix with a new episode-by-episode guide, published by Bantam Books, or plan to attend the show's second national convention on Labor Day in Minneapolis.
And if there is a new season, Nelson has an idea for a new character.
``I've toyed with adding a new robot ... that is welcomed aboard and is actually very nice and does well but then at the end of the show is cannibalized, is ripped apart,'' he said.
``I can't prove that the 'bots did it,'' Nelson added. ``It would be like a `Who shot J.R.?' kind of thing.''
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP Puppeteers for '``Mystery Science Theater 3000"by CNB(from left) Jim Mallon, Trace Beaulieu and Kevin Murphy are making a
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