Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) is an American television comedy series created by Joel Hodgson and originally produced by Best Brains, Inc. The show premiered on KTMA (now WUCW) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on November 24, 1988. The next year, in 1989, the show began its national run on The Comedy Channel, running for two seasons. It continued for five more seasons on Comedy Central following The Comedy Channel's merger with Ha!: TV Comedy Network. It was cancelled in 1996, but the following year was picked up by The Sci-Fi Channel and aired for three more seasons there until another cancellation in August 1999 (although repeats continued until 2004). A sixty-episode syndication package titled The Mystery Science Theater Hour was produced in 1995.The Mystery Science Theater Hour-TV.com
In 2015, Hodgson led a crowdfunded revival of the series with 14 episodes in its eleventh season which was released on Netflix. A feature film, titled Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie, was also released on April 19, 1996.
In 2026, it was announced that Joel Hodgson had sold Mystery Science Theater 3000 to Radial Entertainment. Later that year, four new episodes, dubbed MST3K: The RiffTrax Experiments, and starring the show's Sci-Fi Channel-era cast, were announced and began to see release with a theatrical screening of the first episode in September 2026.
Series overview
Episodes Episodes are listed in production number order, not production order or air date order. The episode title is next, and if the original film title is different from the episode title, it follows in parentheses. If the episode features any shorts, they are listed below. In the third column is the film's initial release year, a color/black & white notation, the production company (if known), and the country of origin. The last column shows the initial air date of the episode. Below this is a brief synopsis of the featured movie and shorts, with major cast, character, and production changes noted in italic.
KTMA-TV (Season 0) (1988–89)
Season 1 (1989–90)
Season 2 (1990–91)
Season 3 (1991–92)
Season 4 (1992–93)
Season 5 (1993–94)
Season 6 (1994–95)
Season 7 (1995–96)
Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie (1996)
Season 8 (1997)
Season 9 (1998)
Season 10 (1999)
Season 11 (2017) The fan-funded eleventh season of the series is listed by Netflix as Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Return.
Season 12 (2018) The twelfth season, consisting of six episodes, was released on Netflix on November 22, 2018. The season is presented as Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Gauntlet.
Season 13 (2022) Season 13 consisted of thirteen episodes with the backing from a Kickstarter campaign. One of the selected films, The Million Eyes of Sumuru had previously been used by the show during its original KTMA season (albeit in an edited-for-content version). Episodes rolled out monthly throughout 2022, starting on March 4, culminating in The Christmas Dragon as a Christmas special and season finale. Santo, Robot Wars, and Beyond Atlantis were shown in pre-release form as tests of the Gizmoplex to backers on the dates shown below, then were shown in their full form from May 6 to May 8, 2022.
Season 14 (2026) This season, dubbed MST3K: The RiffTrax Experiments, stars the show's Sci-Fi Channel-era cast, along with the return of Dr. Forrester and TV's Frank from the show's Comedy Central-era.
The first episode, Sting of Death, was presented in theaters through Fathom Entertainment on September 9 and 13, 2026. The third episode will be released early as an exclusive for subscribers of the RiffTrax "Best Friends" service.
See also List of Mystery Science Theater 3000 home video releases The Film Crew RiffTrax Cinematic Titanic
Notes 1. Episode 104 was both the last episode of Season 1 to be produced and to air. Despite this, it was given the lower production number. 2. Due to issues with the movie rights, Episode 1003 debuted a month after the series finale first aired.
References
External links Episode list for "Mystery Science Theater 3000" on Internet Movie Database Episode list for "Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Return" on Internet Movie Database Episode list for "Mystery Science Theater 3000: The RiffTrax Experiments" on Internet Movie Database