The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Amazing Colossal Episode Guide by the MST3K writers & performers

I was a fan of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 TV show back in the '90s - my town didn't have Comedy Central when it was on that channel, but I saw it a couple of times at my in-laws house (only people who know my family will see how very, very odd it was that I watched MST3K only at my in-laws in Haledon) and then got more obsessive for the last three years when it ran on the (then) Sci-Fi Channel.

I had this book at the time - I might even have bugged a publishing contact to send me a copy for free, and possibly (I hope not) even pretended that I was interested in it professionally for the SFBC. (It could have been vaguely plausible, since I think we did at least one of the Nitpicker's Guide books by Phil Farrand, which I could probably spin a line of bullshit as being similar to the gestalt of MST3K.)

There's been a lot of water under the bridge since then - the show was revived almost twenty years later for two Netflix seasons (which I've seen most of) and then one Kickstarted pandemic-era season (which I own but haven't watched any of), and the final cast of the show has regrouped as Rifftrax and done about a thousand movies, including a series of annual live events (which I've taken my two kids to pretty consistently for a decade). There were quirkier offshoots, too, in The Film Crew and Cinematic Titanic, which I've seen less of.

The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Amazing Colossal Episode Guide is a 1996 production, coming right as the team was creating the shortened Season 7 - their last for Comedy Central - and prepping their one and only theatrical movie for release. It is deeply out of print: I got this copy for slightly more than I wanted to pay, and it came with a noticeably rolled spine (which I've been attempting to coax back into shape by leaving it under one of those gigantic bug-crushing DC Comics omnibuses).

I read this again because I've been watching random old MST3K episodes with my kids: we do a "Movie Night" on Wednesdays, and I'm mostly alternating MST3K and "real" movies (like Beverly Hills Cop and The Big Lebowski and the like - originally, all three of us were going to suggest movies and go in a rotation, but it's all fallen to me as The Dad, so, by gum!, I am going to indulge myself). So I'm thinking about the series, and when I think about things, I want to read books - it's just how I'm wired.

This book was written by the main cast/writers - the two were basically the same - of the time: Trace Beaulieu, Paul Chaplin, Jim Mallon, Kevin Murphy, Michael J. Nelson, and Mary Jo Pehl. It has thumbnail descriptions of the plot of each episode's movie (and short, where applicable), descriptions of that episode's host segments, and reflections by an initial-credited member of the team listed above. There's also some front matter - a jokey/silly/odd intro piece by each of the above and a quick history of how the show came to be, plus a list of "characters" as of Season 7. Back matter includes explanations of what are credited as the 50 most obscure jokes on the show, slightly jokey bios of the writers, a FAQ, and a description of the first (of two) conventions the show put on during its life.

This was a basically comprehensive view of MST3K, from the creators, as of when it was created. It's less comprehensive now, obviously, due to the passage of time, but it's still fairly definitive as far as it goes. If you like the show, you'll have to seek out a copy of this, and probably pay more than you want for it, but it's a quintessential big-fan thing, and does not disappoint on that level.