Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) is an American television comedy series created by Joel Hodgson and originally produced by Best Brains, Inc. The show premiered on KTMA (now WUCW) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on November 24, 1988. The next year, in 1989, the show began its national run on The Comedy Channel, running for two seasons. It continued for five more seasons on Comedy Central following The Comedy Channel's merger with Ha!: TV Comedy Network. It was cancelled in 1996, but the following year was picked up by The Sci-Fi Channel and aired for three more seasons there until another cancellation in August 1999 (although repeats continued until 2004). A sixty-episode syndication package titled The Mystery Science Theater Hour was produced in 1995.[1]
In 2015, Hodgson led a crowdfunded revival of the series with 14 episodes in its eleventh season which was released on Netflix.[2] As of December 16, 2022,[update] 230 episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000 have been released, concluding the thirteenth season. A feature film, titled Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie, was also released on April 19, 1996.
Episodes are listed in production number order, not production order or air date order.