Sad tidings on this Turkey Day Eve: Netflix has cancelled Mystery Science Theater 3000 after just two seasons. Host/test subject Jonah Ray made the announcement himself with a Twitter thread and a funny/devastating video, thanking colleagues, creator Joel Hodgson, and the MSTies who’ve kept the show alive.
https://twitter.com/jonahray/status/1199464688104292352
https://twitter.com/jonahray/status/1199464693850488832
https://twitter.com/jonahray/status/1199464697734430720
Hodgson confirmed the news as well, in a newsletter to the backers of the original Kickstarter that revived the show.
As The AV Club notes, the news comes at an especially sad time for fans, since Turkey Day has been the occasion for many of the show’s milestones: from the show’s premiere in 1988, to Comedy Central and Shout! Factory’s marathons, to Netflix’s release dates for the revival.
The show has yet to be picked up anywhere else, but Ray did tag the official Shudder Twitter account in his thread, pitching a shared night with The Last Drive-In With Joe Bob Briggs. With 13 hours left before Thanksgiving, there’s still time for the streaming service to make it a good one for MSTies the nation over.
In the meantime, check out Tor.com writer Leah Schnelbach’s love letter to the series.
https://reactormag.com/2018/11/24/happy-thirtieth-birthday-to-mystery-science-theater-3000/
This is not unexpected, as Netflix dragged out the length of time between seasons then only gave us the 6 episode “The Gauntlet”, but to announce this just before Turkey Day seems deliberately cruel.
One hopes that between Joel pointing out this isn’t their first rodeo, Shudder’s steady and confident rise in producing content, and Jonah’s tagging of them is a sign that history will sort of repeat itself with the show moving over a genre-focussed streaming service (much like SyFy rescued the old show back in the day). Lord knows, there’s more than enough cheesy horror and monster movies out there for them to take on…
I read it was because they were disappointed people were not binge watching.
First of all, who binge watches episodes that long? And second, why the fuck do they care? Do they make more money if people watch it in two days vs. two months? Seems the opposite to me.