CNN and other news agencies reported just prior to HORROR-WOOD's publication that the cult cable movie-mangling puppet show, Mystery Science Theater 3000, has been canceled by the Sci-Fi Channel.

According to CNN: "Producers of the cult TV show announced...that the Sci-Fi Channel has decided not to order any new programs and the next season will be the show's last."

After blasting off from an obscure upper Midwestern UHF TV station, landing and then being forced off Comedy Central, and finding a temporary berth at the Sci-Fi Channel, the "Satellite Of Love," where so many bad flicks were shish-kabobbed by first Joel, then Mike, and the 'bots, has finally crashed. The show was characterized by irreverent humor, a flippant attitude (bite me!), and tacky sets and cheesy effects that only added to its charm.

For a decade, human hosts Joel Hodgson and then Michael J. Nelson plopped down in a theater with robots Crow and Tom Servo (and, once, Gypsy) in a dogbone-shaped space ship and talked back to a screen that was oft filled with images from such groaners as Manos: The Hands Of Fate and The Giant Spider Invasion.

It was a great original concept...filmgoers have been muttering snide comments whilst watching bad movies since images first flickered on screens.  Mystery Science Theater 3000 (or MST3K) took that annoying habit, added skits with wisecracking puppet "robots," mixed in topical humor, and produced an instant cult TV classic, gaining legions of rabid fans (MSTies) worldwide.

For horror and monster fans, MST3K spotlighted some quite obscure so-bad-they're-fun-to-watch fight flicks (Manos, etc.), and trashed other, not so obscure scary movies that deserved trashing (The Eye Creatures, etc.).  In this manner, the show could be enjoyed even by film genre fans.

However, the departure of creator and first host Hodgson and other original players caused a shift in emphasis.  For various reasons, the flicks chosen for trashing weren't so laughably awful, and a few of them, such as Revenge Of The Creature and Gorgo, were minor genre classics--not deserving of the show's barbs. Worse, when MST3K made it to the big screen--Mystery Science Theater 3000, The Movie--the film-in-the-film slashed by the satirical scalpels was a classic science fiction film respected by critics and fans: This Island, Earth.

In addition, the "Joel years" at MST3K were marked by an engaging playfulness, a focus on actually examining the bad films to some extent, and a sweet sort of camaraderie between Joel and the 'bots versus the resident mad scientist, Dr. Clayton Forrester (name taken from the hero of 1953's War Of The Worlds), and his assistant, TV's Frank.  Under Mike Nelson (the show's long-standing head writer), the humor grew more and more mean-spirited, the films were often ignored in the skits, the 'bots openly scorned Mike, and the storyline involving a new arch-enemy, Forrester's manic mother, Pearl, never really jelled. The "Satellite Of Love" was seemingly wandering in concept as well as through space.

The last batch of episodes ordered by the Sci-Fi Channel only numbered 13--around half of the usual number of shows per season--a fateful potent, indeed.

The Sci-Fi Channel isn't commenting as yet, but it's no secret that MST3K wasn't a financial bonanza for the cable firm.  But the series won a Peabody Award, earned two Emmy and over a dozen CableAce Award nominations, and boasts a fan club second only, perhaps, to the "Trekkies" (Star Trek fans).   But that wasn't enough for the suits at the Sci-Fi Channel.

It's a shame.  Its stumbles aside, MST3K was one of the freshest--and funniest--original cable programs around and it at least provided an outlet for some of the obscure cult horror and monster films to be seen by audiences.   Unless an alternative such as the B-Movie Channel materializes, such films will likely only be available to view via home video.   Speaking of which, some of MST3K's best episodes are available on video through Rhino Video, and there are hopes more classic MST3K episodes will be offered in the near future.

So, hail and farewell, MST3K!  And to the Sci-Fi Channel, a final bite me! 

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