In case you're not familiar with the show that was Mystery Science Theater 3000, here's a quick rundown: a man and his two robotic pals are trapped in space and forced to watch terrible movies. They keep their sanity by riffing over each film. It ran from 1988 to 1999 on two different networks and was absolutely amazing.

And now, it's coming back. Show creator Joel Hodgson's Kickstarter campaign to revive the show (which just concluded) brought in over $5.7 million dollars worth of donations. There will be 14 new episodes, including a holiday special. There will also be a brand new cast, with Jonah Ray as the hapless man trapped in space, Hampton Yount and Baron Vaughn as the 'bots, and Felicia Day and Patton Oswalt as the mad scientists. The writing staff is a mix of old and new, with a few guests possibly thrown in on occasion.

I'm super excited about this, in case it wasn't obvious. MST3K was one of the shows that made my childhood. Yeah, the new one definitely won't be the same, but to see it come back is still a thrill. It'll be interesting to see what the new writers add to the equation.

Does anyone else have an opinion on this? I'm curious in part because it could be argued that MST3K informed quite a bit of the PPC. We may not be doing straight up MSTies most of the time, but the old pattern is still there.

Also, the official MST3K YouTube channel is here if you want a sampling of what the original show was about.