Well, we had more money and more time the first season than we did at TV 23.
Joel Hodgson

If you notice any of the press from when I was with the show, I would always deny it being the year 3000.
Joel Hodgson

But after that, I was extremely happy with the story and the look of the show at the beginning of season two - everything was working together. I felt like it was finished conceptually.
Joel Hodgson

Well, really the way worked was that I had probably built fifty robots before Mystery Science Theater, and I had sold them in a store in Minneapolis in a store called Props, which was kind of a high end gift shop.
Joel Hodgson

The first twenty shows at TV 23 were really a workshop.
Joel Hodgson

Besides, it doesn't make any sense to have these characters living in the year 3000 when all their points of reference are from the pop culture of the 80's and the 90's.
Joel Hodgson

Then we tried to come up with ideas for the sketches, and then, when we actually shot the movie, we really just sat down - never previewed the movie - we just really winged it.
Joel Hodgson

So the actual riffing came out of us just sitting there and doing it the way I think some people think we really did it, which is all spontaneously, and it really was.
Joel Hodgson