Mystery Science Theater 3000

Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3k) is the brainchild of standup comedian Joel Hodgson. The premise is that some mad scientists have stranded one of their employees, Joel Robinson, on the orbiting "Satellite of Love" (SOL) in order to do experiments on him. Their experiments? They subject him and his robot pals, Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo, to really bad movies in order to study their reactions. The crew of the SOL responds by making fun of the movies in order to stave off insanity. Joel eventually escaped back to Earth and he was replaced by a temp worked named Mike Nelson. The show first aired on local access cable channel KTMA, then Comedy Central (and its predecessor The Comedy Channel) and finally on The Sci-Fi Channel.