Some of my fondest memories of my childhood involve staying up late with my father and playing Space Invaders on our Atari 2600. For some reason, Dad loved that game. We figured out the cheat where if you held down the reset button while you powered up the console, the game would give you double missiles. But when we weren’t playing Space Invaders, we were usually watching really bad movies on late-night television. As we sat there, we’d mock the shows we were watching and die laughing. To us, alone, late at night, it was hilarious. Years later, when I first saw “Mystery Science Theater 3000,” I knew immediately what was going on. The show captured the mood of our experience exactly, along with a goofy sci-fi premise. The show was both legitimately hilarious, no matter what time of day you watched it, and about ten times more clever than expected. Random, often obscure, pop-culture references were peppered throughout. It was immediately familiar and yet unlike anything I had seen before. I loved it.

So when I recently had the chance to interview the creators of MST3000, who have revived their shtick for a project called Cinematic Titanic, which will be released in individual episodes on DVD and direct downloads, I jumped at the chance.

The interview was conducted via email and phone with Joel Hodgson (Joel), Trace Beaulieu (Crow), Kevin Murphy (Tom Servo), Frank Conniff (TV’s Frank), Mary Jo Pehl (various voice roles, including Pearl Forrester) and J. Elvis Weinstein (the original Tom Servo).

How does it feel to know that you all are responsible for prolonging the memory of “Manos: The Hands of Fate” (see, e.g., 214,000 Google hits and numerous “worst of” lists, including this recent one for the Worst Villains of All Time)?

Trace Beaulieu: I’m very happy and deeply sorry.

Frank Conniff: Anything I could do to help ring Manos to the world makes me feel very proud.

Mary Jo Pehl: It’s very gratifying, thank you. If I’m known for anything, let this be it. Let this be on my tombstone.

Do people consider you experts in the field of bad movies? Does this sort of thing tend to dominate conversations with strangers at parties?

Joel Hodgson: I guess so, but there are so many people that know so much more. I think that I know more than the average person, but I don’t consider myself an expert. I just like them. I’m the kind of person that I know if I really spent much time studying that I think I might lose my interest in it.

Trace Beaulieu: I stay at home and watch bad movies. I don’t go to parties.

Kevin Murphy: I think we’re more experts at making fun of bad movies. Uwe Boll is the reigning expert of true movie badness.

Who is the most interesting person you’ve met because of MST3000?

Joel Hodgson: The guy that I think is interesting that I’m certain I wouldn’t have met without doing Mystery Science Theater is a guy named Bob Burns. Bob Burns has the largest collection of science fiction and horror memorabilia and actual artifacts from the films. It’s kind of like going to Mecca when you go to his house.

J. Elvis Weinstein: Trace and I had lunch with Ray Manzarek from the Doors once, that was both cool and based solely on his MST fandom.

Kevin Murphy: Wow, let’s see: Ray Bradbury, Kurt Vonnegut, Richard Corliss, Cristiane Amanpour, the actor Graham Greene, Rob Rosenbaum, Joe Montegna, Barry Levinson, to name a few.

You started MST3000 twenty years ago, before blogs, YouTube or Wikipedia, before the web had really even taken off. Would today’s pop-culture landscape make it easier or harder to do a show like MST3000?

Joel Hodgson: One thing that’s different is that we’re much more accurate in our riffs. Like we were riffing on a movie and using a reference from “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” and we got the song wrong, but now, it’s just so easy to go, “Well, what are the lyrics to ‘Bless Your Beautiful Hide?’” and we’ll just go to the internet and quote them exactly.

J. Elvis Weinstein: It’s never been a better time for artist-owned entertainment. The internet levels the playing field to some extent in terms of distribution and publicity. Sure, you’re competing with a jillion other things, but people are also searching more actively to find entertainment.

Frank Conniff: As far as Cinematic Titanic goes, the ability to produce an independent show and then have a way to distribute independently it is all thanks to the Internet. MST3K I think would be a harder sell in the current cable TV landscape. It seems that cable executives were much more open to off-beat comedy programing back then.

Kevin Murphy: To make a network show as inherently crazy as MST would be a really tough nut.

Have you had anyone tell you that MST3000 was an influence to them, or impacted what they are doing?

Joel Hodgson: That happens to me about every couple of months. It’s very weird. A professional will come up to me and says, “Oh, I became a writer because I liked Mystery Science Theater” or “I got into TV because I saw what you guys were doing.” When we first started I was kind of discouraged that we didn’t hear that, but now later, I guess I get it a lot. And it’s really great. I love it. It makes my day.

Trace Beaulieu: Yes, that happens whenever we get to interact with our fans. I think the most memorable for me was when I met John Cleese. It was a dinner and another fellow leaned over to me and said that MST had changed his life. I think I had just said the same think to Cleese.

I can’t believe it’s been so long since MST3000 began. How would you describe the general demographic of the show’s fans?

Trace Beaulieu: Our fans are little kids, parents, teachers scientists, astronauts, musicians, dogs, cats. I don’t think we do well with birds or fish.

J. Elvis Weinstein: From the beginning as a local show, we had fans from 7-70, which after 20 years would now make them the “27-dead” demo.

Mary Jo Pehl: Smart and individualistic.
Kevin Murphy: In general, B-plus students with a serious wise-ass streak.

If licensing wasn’t an issue, what movies from the last twenty years would you love to riff on?

Frank Conniff: I’m sure there are other movies that I’m not thinking of right now, but the one that comes immediately to mind is Starship Troopers.

Mary Jo Pehl: Waterworld, Into the Wild, and the list goes on!

Kevin Murphy: Well, come to Rifftrax and see us riff on the movies 300, Star Trek V, a Beowulf, a pair of Spidermen and one entire Cloverfield.

J. Elvis Weinstein: Life is Beautiful.

Tell me a little bit about Cinematic Titanic. How is it different from
MST3000? Will it take a different tone?

Mary Jo Pehl: One of the biggest differences, obviously, is that there are five of us, all of who are riffing, and we’re delivering riffs as ourselves, not as characters.

J. Elvis Weinstein: We’re also all 20 years more experienced as writers since the beginning of MST, hopefully that shines through a little.

Explain a little bit about the way Cinematic Titanic will be marketed and sold. Why did you opt for this approach?

Trace Beaulieu: We will sell DVD’s on the Internet and offer the movies for download to burn. We thought about making one gigantic DVD but then opted to make many smaller ones instead.

J. Elvis Weinstein: We have all worked in show business long enough to know the virtues of working for ourselves.

Frank Conniff: We opted for this approach because the Internet and all the merging technology is giving us the opportunity to make a product independent of the entertainment conglomerates, and that is irresistible.

Bonus question: What’s the name of one thing from pop-culture you’re currently into at the moment?

Joel Hodgson: I’m a big fan of “The Daily Show.” I think that’s great. And the “Colbert Report.” I think that’s been just amazing to watch for the last couple of years.

J. Elvis Weinstein: “Top Chef. As a lover of food and a liker of cooking, it’s the one reality show I can feel a stake (or steak) in.

Frank Conniff: I think the original British version of “The Office” is just about as great as any TV comedy show that’s ever been made and Ricky Gervais and his writing partner Steven Merchant are the greatest comedy talents to come down the pike in a long time.

Mary Jo Pehl: “Rock of Love” and “Frisky Dingo.”

Kevin Murphy: Gnarls Barkley played very loud in a convertible.

The Cinematic Titanic crew is occasionally touring the country doing film festivals—such as this Saturday’s appearance at the 38th Annual USA Film Festival in Dallas where they will perform a live movie riff at the Angelika Theater. Cinematic Titanic episodes can be ordered or downloaded through the official website. Watch the trailer for the first episode, “The Oozing Skull” right here: