"We've Got Movie Sign!" - MST3K Remembered

Yesterday I was reading a post on Daily Kos about the "L'Affaire de Colbert" which mentioned both Bill Hicks and Joel Hodgson, two comedians whom I've always loved. As a result, I found myself searching into the wee hours for references to Mystery Science Theater 3000; the cheesy, ground-breaking, low-budget show that found itself bouncing from Comedy Central to the Sci-Fi Channel in the mid-90's. MST3K was the brainchild of Hodgson, an adorable, sleepy-eyed magician and inventor who took the art of film criticism to a whole new level. He took it to outer space. As one who tuned in faithfully week after week to see the silhouettes of Joel, Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo cracking wise against an ever-changing backdrop of some of the worst sci-fi films and 50's instructional shorts ever made, I sometimes long for the MST "treatment" while watching some present-day piece o' crap. I never had an opportunity to meet Joel, but I did meet everyone else who worked on the show at the last MST Conventio-Con in Minneapolis in 1996 (the only time I've EVER attended something bordering on a sci-fi convention, hand to god!). By then, claiming "artistic burnout", Joel had moved on and would be replaced by Mike Nelson. Great guy-but he's no Joel. I'm sure he's had to carry that burden for most of his career. Mike was a good replacement; very funny, but Joel was way cute AND funny. Here's a link to a site I found with clips of some memorable examples of the genius of Joel.