Long-time Slashdot reader destinyland writes: Mystery Science Theatre 3000 will be coming back in 2022 with thirteen new episodes, plus 12 additional shorts and 12 monthly live events. “And this time, we’re doing it without a network,” explains the web page for their successful comeback campaign on Kickstarter. “Season 13 will be released exclusively in MST3K’s new online virtual theatre, THE GIZMOPLEX.”
36,581 backers pledged $6,519,019 to fund their own dedicated MST3K venue online, and most contributors to their 2021 Kickstarter campaign received 2022 passes to the online theatre as a thank-you. Now through December, fans who want to buy or gift a 2022 pass can get them discounted to $95. (Normally’ll they cost $120.)
Starting on March 4, 2022, assorted MST3K zanies and their puppet robots will be watching (and heckling) 12 carefully-chosen weird movies, including one 1970 Gamera movie that they haven’t gotten to yet, a 1968 Italian movie about a professional wrestler called The Batwoman, and Jack Palance’s 1979 film, HG Wells’ The Shape of Things to Come. And series creator Joel Hodgson will return when they all watch the 2014 movie The Christmas Dragon. The Den of Geek site has all the details on the 13 movies (gleaned from last week’s traditional “Turkey Day marathon” of fan-favorite episodes — this year broadcast on YouTube, Twitch, and various web pages and streaming apps).
But in addition there’s also a live touring show that will take them all across America. Next week fans can catch shows in the midwestern U.S. — specifically Youngstown Ohio, Nashville Indiana, Madison Wisconsin, and Chicago — before the crew moves on to Salt Lake City, Reno, and Seattle. Then it’s on to California — San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego — and then dozens of other major cities in the U.S. (Portland! Denver! Austin! Atlanta! Durham! Worcester! New York City!)
“We know that many of you are understandably concerned about COVID and the Delta variant. We are too,” explains a special announcement on the tour’s web site, promising the tour “will adhere to the same standards as touring Broadway shows in effect at the time of your performance… [E]very theater on the tour will have its own policies.”
In 2008 the show’s creator Joel Hodgson answered questions from Slashdot readers.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.