‘MST3K’ Creator Joel Hodgson Talks ‘Turkey Day Marathon,’ Reveals ‘Great White Whale’ Movie (Exclusive)

Mystery Science Theater 3000 has screened dozens and dozens of movies over the past three decades, but there are still some cult classic films that have “evaded” them. Recently, PopCulture.com had a chance to speak with MST3K creator Joel Hodgson, ahead of the show’s 48-Hour Mega Turkey Day Marathon Telethon. During our conversation, he revealed that there are is one “Great White Whale” movie he wants on the show but has never been able to get, and another that they had but lost.

The first film he noted was The Green Slime (1968), which has never been part of a proper MST3K episode but was used “in a proof of concept tape” that was made to help show what the series would be, ahead of its formal premiere. “Mostly what I was interested in is showing, production-wise, how we’d go from the theater and back and forth, the doorway, all those moments. That, to me, was the thing that was the most unusual about MST, and if people could follow that, they’d understand the rest of it.” Hodgson said. “So within that, at the local TV station, the movie that I really wanted to use… was The Green Slime, which is one of the great schlocky science fiction movies that was ever made.”

“I remember that as a kid, and I remember finding it and just going, ‘We have to do The Green Slime.’ And it has evaded me every single time,” Hodsgon continued. He then went on to explain that the reason they haven’t been able to get the movie is “mostly because Toei” — the company who owns the film — “doesn’t really like what we do and doesn’t really like the premise.” Hodgson isn’t salty about the situation, however, saying he understands “it’s their prerogative” not to agree to let the film be on MST3K. 

“They’re their properties. So we would never want to do it with people who don’t want us to do it with them,” Hodgson explained. He then recalled, “I think we were able to release through a unique licensing situation, we were able to release a  Gamera movie last season…And so those are hard, but Toei does not want us to do Green Slime, and that’s my Moby Dick.”

In addition to never locking down The Green Slime, Hodgson noted that the 1990 Canadian film The Final Sacrifice “fell out of our library” after they were able to include in in the show as Experiment #910 in the late ’90s. “That was a movie that was just a loved mystery science theater… a really great movie to start with,” he said. “These movies, at the end of the day, they’re usually kind of adorable in their own way, and this movie is one of those movies.” He then clarified, “The filmmaker doesn’t want to use the MST version, doesn’t want to license it, and that’s their prerogative too. I would never want to make them do something they didn’t want to do, but that’s the great white whale of the ones that are out of the library that people love.”

While they won’t have The Green Slime or The Final Sacrifice, MST3K fans can still look forward to an epic annual Turkey Day marathon this year, which kicks off at 9 am ET on Thursday, Nov. 23rd — Thanksgiving Day — and concludes Saturday, Nov. 25th at 9 am ET, in tandem with the conclusion of the MST3K Season 14 crowdfunding campaign. “It’s to put focus also on our fund drive for season 14, “Hodgson told us. “And so we just felt like it would go naturally. “

“We had so many curve balls thrown our way this season with the writer’s strike and the Screen Actors Guild strike. It was really tough to get,” he paused, then continued, “We’ve been intermittently having to push it back over the last six months because of these things going on. So we’re really grateful we were able to finally get the word out and get going on it, but it was a staggering movement to get it launched because of the curve balls we got throughout the last six months basically.” The marathon will be available to watch on a wide variety of platforms. For a complete list, please visit MST3KTurkeyDay.com!