Details

Release year: 1996

Storyline

Mike Nelson and his robot companions watch and give their comments about This Island Earth (1955).

Top credits

Directors

Jim Mallon

Writers

Cast

Trace Beaulieu — Dr. Clayton Forrester, Crow T. Robot
Michael J. Nelson — Mike Nelson
Jim Mallon — Gypsy
Kevin Murphy — Tom Servo

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Did you know

• The makers of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (1988) were so annoyed by their experiences having to work with a major studio on this film that they later parodied the experience on the TV series. In The Incredible Melting Man (1996), the host segments are about Crow's screenplay being purchased by a studio then ruined by the executives (Dr. Forrester and Mother Forrester) as they vainly try to shoot it and screen it for audiences. Series writer and star Mary Jo Pehl would later call the episode an "exercise in healing."

• At 73 minutes, the film is shorter than every episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (1988), which typically ran for 90 minutes.

• When Universal originally released the movie, they thought a limited release in a select group of "college towns" (where they believed Mystery Science Theater 3000 (1988) was most appreciated) over a longer period of time would lead to a box office bonanza, and keep it from having to compete with the early summer blockbusters like Twister (1996) and Mission: Impossible (1996). Very few of the show's fans were aware the movie had been released, and it languished in relative obscurity throughout the spring and early summer. It was the first, and last, time Universal attempted such a plan.