SEASON TEN THE LAST FOR MST3K
Here's the official announcement from BBI:
February 24, 1999
Mystery Science Theater 3000 to shoot final episode.
Satellite of Love to come home after 10 years!
After producing its 10th season of episodes, Best Brains, Inc., of Eden Prairie, Minnesota will close the curtain
on its Peabody Award winning series, Mystery Science Theater 3000, as the Sci-Fi Channel will not be ordering any
new programs.
"Ten years is a great run for any series. We've had a tremendous ride and it's time for Mike Nelson and
the 'Bots to come down to Earth," Executive Producer and Best Brain's President Jim Mallon said today.
"We'd like to thank our families, friends and our tremendous fans for all of their support over the years.
We'd also like to thank the Sci-Fi Channel for a great run which brought us to our 10th year."
Best Brains is currently in production of the final 13 shows of its tenth season. The program features a marooned
astronaut (Mike Nelson) and two robotic companions who are forced to watch and comment on the terrible movies.
MST3K was started by Joel Hodgson and Mallon on Minneapolis UHF station KTMA in 1988. The series came to network
cable in 1989 and over 200 episodes have been made. In its ten years the series garnered a Peabody Award, two Emmy
Nominations, and over a dozen Cable Ace Award nominations.
The final season promises to be its best featuring a reunion show with series alumni Hodgson and Frank Conniff,
and a host of wonderfully bad films, including a 1960's German production of Shakespeare's Hamlet.
MST3K episodes are available through Rhino Home Videos.
We here at the Satellite News just want to thank all the employees of Best Brains, Inc., past
and present, for eleven wonderful, hilarious years, and wish them all the best in their future endevors.
Want to do something about it? Check our SAVE MST3K page for an FAQ about
what fans have been doing to try to save the show.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT THE CANCELLATION
Q: How long will reruns of the show continue to run on Sci-Fi Channel?
A: Sci-Fi's contract with BBI allows it to show episodes until mid-2001. It's unclear if reruns will
continue until then, but we've been told that reruns will continue well into 2000.
Q: What about the "other projects" that had been discussed by Best Brains in the past?
A: They have apparently been abandoned.
Q: I've seen reports from Minneapolis-area MSTies saying that the studio is being closed down. Will we still
be able to contact the Info Club?
A: BBI has indeed moved to new offices. The new phone number for Info Club inquiries is 612-577-3723.
The new fax number is 612-577-3724. The Hopkins, MN, post office box will still be the snail mail address to write
to the Info Club and the Barbbb@aol.com email address will also
continue to exist.
Q: Will there be a farewell convention?
A: If you mean an official BBI-run con, the answer is no. Cons are very expensive to mount. BBI
simply does not have the funds, and we think we can safely surmise that Sci-Fi isn't about to pony up the dough.
Q: What's going to happen to the MST3K area on the Sci-Fi Channel's
Dominion web site?
A: We suspect it will go away about the same time that reruns leave the channel. What will become of the content
is unclear. Stay tuned.
Q: What about the "Caption This"
feature on the Dominion site?
A: We surmise that it will remain, perhaps stripped of its MST3K-related graphics.
Q: What about Satellite News? Is this site going away?
A: Heck, no! We are an independent operation. We can assure you that we *will* be around for the foreseeable
future, and that you will be able to depend on us for a long time to come!
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