Graphic: Gizmonic Arts/Shout Studios
For those who like their turkey on the table and on the tube, Mystery Science Theater 3000 has your Thanksgiving viewing figured out. The series all about riffing on cheesy movies will launch its first “Mega Turkey Day Marathon Telethon,” this year, and the event doubles as a booster for a crowdfunding effort—something it’s had great success with in the past—for MST3K season 14.
Turkey jokes aside, Thanksgiving holds a special place in the heart of MST3K fans since the show actually premiered on Thanksgiving 1988 and has held (non-telethon) Thanksgiving marathons in the past. For 2023, there will be 24 episodes picked by the series’ writers, according to a press release, and the line-up represents “their absolute favorite classic episodes, the ones that set them on the path of writing for the world’s only Peabody Award-winning movie-riffing TV series featuring plastic robots.” Some of the titles include Roger Corman’s 1957 The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent, the “surgically enhanced” (aka visually upgraded) version of the 1980 Italian superhero movie The Pumaman, and a trio of Christmas picks including 2014’s The Christmas Dragon, which was featured on MST3K’s 13th season.
You can stream the special on Shout TV, the MST3K Channel, and MST3K’s Gizmoplex. It kicks off at 9 a.m. ET on Thursday, November 23, and ends Saturday, November 25 at 9 a.m. ET, which will also mark the conclusion of the crowdfunding campaign. MST3K aims to raise at least $4.8 million to fund season 14; the push launched earlier this fall is at $1.5 million as of this writing (as a reminder, its 2021 campaign raised a jaw-dropping $6.5 million to produce season 13). Fans can contribute by visiting Showmaker.MST3K.com. For more details on where to stream the Mega Turkey Day Marathon Telethon, visit Shout TV’s dedicated site at MST3KTurkeyDay.com.