Today is a hallowed day in the halls of geekdom. For on this day, twenty years ago, the first two episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000 aired on Minneapolis station KTMA. It would last for another eleven seasons.

Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K to the fans) is a show about a guy (Joel and then later Mike) who was shot into space because his bosses didn’t like him. They would then beam to him cheesy movies (the worst they could find), making him watch them while they monitored his mind. To deal with the loneliness and boredom of space, Joel created some robot friends, Tom Servo, Crow T. Robot and Gypsy. Gypsy controls the higher functions of the ship while Tom and Crow hang out with Joel (and then later Mike) and watch the crappy movies sent to them by the mad scientists.

Lucky for us, we get to watch.

I first discovered MST3K in 1991, during one of the shows “Turkey Day Marathons.” One of my first episodes was Teenagers from Outer Space. I remember sitting in Todd Fogel’s living room during breaks at band practice (for some reason we were practicing on Thanksgiving Day, not sure why) and we’d watch MST3K. I immediately “got it.”

I mean, who hasn’t sat through a crappy movie and yelled riffs back at the screen? How can you not? It just seemed so natural. But with the wacky storyline of a guy being shot into space and forced to do it, well, it just won me over with its surrealism.

The riffs hurled at the screen by the denizens of the Satellite of Love (the name of the ship where Joel/Mike and the bots were sequestered) weren’t low-brow dick and fart jokes. Largely they were references to pop culture, poetry, politics, sports, literature, theater and 70’s TV. What was strange is that I got most of them.

Of course, nobody got all of them. “Stop her! She’s got Mike’s keyboard!” was a riff said by Joel (when Mike was just a behind-the-scenes writer) about the girl who stole Mike’s keyboard.” (Anyone remember which episode this was?) And an almost dizzying amount ofreferences to “Killdozer.”

However, it was this down-home, folksy feeling the show gave us. It wasn’t some Hollywood-produced studio show. It was made in the suburbs of Minneapolis. Many of the jokes reflected the mid-west and were lost on pretty much anyone not familiar with the place (hamdingers? Manards?).

What I love most about MST3K was that it was like hanging out with friends. When you put on an episode, you’re never alone. There’s Joel and the bots riffing along with you. Sure, MST is best watched with a room full of fans, but the show also gets you through those lonely winter nights.

Here is a show that rewards your intelligence, that doesn’t talk down to you, that can mix a Robert Frost joke with a fart joke and make you laugh at both. This is a show that stands up to multiple viewings (I’ve seen some episodes countless times). There had never been anything like it before and there’s not likely to be anything (of any value) like it again.

I could never understand why some folks didn’t like the show. Sure, the humor was a little high-brow, but there was enough low-brow to keep even a child interested (my kid, Michael, started watching it before he was 10). In the early seasons, they would read viewer mail, much of it from kids or research scientists. How could you not love this?

My life has been changed and vastly enriched by the very existence of the “cow town puppet show.” Honestly, I can’t really picture what my life would be like without it. How did I live before coming to MST3K? And why would I ever want to live a life where MST3K didn’t at least enter my thoughts (and usually my TV) on a day to day basis?

So here’s to you, Mystery Science Theater 3000! Thank you for teaching us to laugh at love again!

Thank you and may god bless!

So sit back and enjoy a wonderful montage from Teenagers from Outer Space…