The Chronic Rift Roundtable: The 20th Anniversary of Mystery Science Theater 3000

"In the not too distanct future way down in Deep Thirteen,
Doctor Forrester and TV's Frank were hatching an evil scheme."

For ten seasons, Joel, Mike, and the bots were tortured with the worst Hollywood had to offer, much to the delight of the viewing audience. Now, twenty years later, the show is a cult classic with DVDs being released and the tapes still being circulated. Keith and Andrea host this Roundtable discussion with Cinefantastique's Dan Persons and Frank Conniff, TV's Frank. Plus, Jay Smith tells us why zombies are "My Guilty Pleasure".

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Frank Conniff, was best known to MST3K viewers as TV's Frank, but also participated behind the scenes as a writer and as the primary movie selector for many years. His character of TV's Frank joined Dr. Clayton Forrester at Gizmonics Institute in Episode 201 (Rocketship XM) and left the show at the end of season 6, when Torgo appeared to take Frank to "second banana" heaven. Since leaving MST3K, Frank Conniff has gone on to a variety of writing, producing, and acting projects on shows like Sabrina the Teenage Witchand Invader Zim. His current projects include Cartoon Dump, a monthly comedy/music revue, and Cinematic Titanic, a show that riffs on bad movies, along with other MST3K alums Joel Hodgson, Trace Beaulieu, J. Elvis Weinstein, and Mary Jo Pehl.

 

In his twenty plus years as writer and film journalist, Dan Persons has interviewed the likes of Paul Verhoeven, Wes Craven, Stuart Gordon, Satoshi Kon and John Kricfalusi; published the well-received novella, "A Game of the Apocalypse", in The Ultimate Silver Surfer, edited by The Chronic Rift's own Keith R.A. Decandido; and been an occasional, and somewhat peculiar, guest on the public access incarnation of the Rift. He presently is the host of Mighty Movies Temple of Bad, Mighty Movie Podcast, and The Cinefantastique Podcast when he isn't haunting the dining room of his local Popeye's.