The Hosts
Joel Robinson
Joel the creator, Joel the inventor, Joel the magnificent, Joel the
omnipresent. Joel made this whole MST3K thing possible. If it weren't for him, we would of never
been introduced to this strange world.. Joel (the character)hosted the show from it's first days
at local station KTMA to mid way through the fifth season. Joel Hodgeson played Joel Robinson,
the ever present man of few words... Okay, he did say quite a bit, but when he said it, it seemed
so simple you would be left wondering why you hadn't thought of it.
Joel could best be described as having a kind of strange half-asleep charm.. He always appeared to
be on the brink of sleep, yet talked like he could never be more awake.. You getting this? Yes?
Then explain it to me, because the man was a mystery.. Okay, that's a little over board, but he
was an enigma..
Joel was also an inventor.. After he left, the traditional 'invention exchange' fell apart, with
out him, it was useless. Joel Hodgeson (not the character) was a successful comedian who had
appeared on Saturday Night Live and Late Night with David Letterman when he decided to form the
show in the ancient days of 1988 at the very small and not very popular UHF station KTMA. It was
an instant hit and it eventually got the show on the fledgling Comedy Channel (not Ha!) that
eventually became the juggernaut known as Comedy Central.
When Joel announced that he would leave in 1994, people thought that the show would of died off,
it could of, if Joel had not been replaced by Mike..
Mike Nelson
Mike replaced Joel mid-way through the fifth season, he had big shoes to fill and he filled them
quite nicely. Michael J Nelson is played by Michael J Nelson, go figure. Before replacing Joel,
Mike was the head writer for the series and played most of the guests
on the show..
Mike's first appearance as Mike was on Joel's last episode (512 Mitchell) with him as a temp
worker auditing the mads.. After Joel escaped, the mads (as explained in the theme) bonked him
on the noggin and shot him into space. He was up there for a few years when suddenly and
unexpectedly, Dr Forrester had his funding cut and let the satellite loose torwards the edge
of the universe.. There, Mike and the bots were turned into pure energy and it all looked done.
Many, many years later, Mike was zapped back to the ship and was forced to watch bad movies again.
This time, by a race of apes led by Mrs Forrester, Dr Forrester's mother. Eventually, he blew
that planet up, and two of the billions of apes survived. (One went back in time and with the
help of one of Mike's relatives, started the whole ape mess) Then they met the Observers,
eventually, Mike blew them up too.. And that's how he got his reputation as
"Mike Nelson: Destroyer of Worlds"
Mike's character was more of a big brother to the bots, (as opposed to Joel's fatherly attitude)
encouraging the mischief, but knowing when it gets out of hand.. Mike is the glue that keeps the
show together, with out him, it would probably fall apart.
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