<\/p>\n
Peter David<\/strong>, Bob Greenberger<\/strong>, and Michael Jan Friedman<\/strong>\u00a0have been writing and performing Mystery Trekkie Theater 3000<\/em>, their\u00a0Mystery Science Theater 3000 Alive!<\/em>-style live-show featuring Star Trek<\/em> universe experiments\u00a0nearly\u00a0every year at the Shore Leave scienty fiction convention in Baltimore, Maryland\u00a0for neigh on 25 years.<\/p>\n The doors opened on their first performance, featuring the Star Trek<\/em> original series episode Turnabout Intruder<\/em>, the morning of Sunday, July 12th, 1992. Ever since, they’ve been wrangling their friends, an\u00a0innocent bystander or two, and usually a cameo from a celebrity, onto the stage. In the early days,\u00a0noted letterer of comic books\u00a0Bob Pinaha and scienty fiction\u00a0writer Brad Ferguson served time as the opening-skit mad-scientists who forced them to watch bad Star Trek<\/em> episodes. After a while Shore Leave regular T.A. Chafin came aboard and he’s been playing the mad scientist ever since.\u00a0Eventually, the Sunday evening slot came open and MTT3K turned into a\u00a0regular Sunday night thing that closed out the con.<\/p>\n MTT3K is arguably the first ever homage to Mystery Science Theater 3000<\/em>; beating Ryan K. Johnson’s fanvid by a few months. (Interestingly, both featured\u00a0experiments\u00a0from Star Trek<\/em>.) And, it was nearly the first ever live MST3K-style show! When MTT3K first started, MST3K\u00a0had been going on television for five years, and Mystery Science Theater 3000<\/em>\u00a0Alive!<\/em> was nearly not even yet a thing. But, two days before P, B, and Jan (and pals) performed their first live-version homage of MST3K, Best Brains (the folks that produced the original show) performed their own live version of MST3K in Minneapolis, Minnesota — at the first Conventioconexpofestarama, which shared a weekend with\u00a0Shore Leave.<\/p>\n Come this Sunday evening,\u00a0Peter David, Bob Greenberger, and Michael Jan Friedman will\u00a0have enjoyed a long and well-received run of\u00a0their\u00a0MST3K-inspired live-show, with what will be 24 total performances of Mystery\u00a0Trekkie Theater 3000<\/em>.\u00a0But, come this Sunday evening plus about an hour, Mystery Trekkie Theater 3000<\/em> will be no more. They’ve decided to retire the show.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Why would they do that? Why now? Quick! Someone email them a torrent of questions and compile their answers together\u00a0into what will then appear to be one long, leisurely conversation about a show the last 25 years have trained us to expect would never leave us!<\/p>\n Someone did.<\/p>\n Let’s “listen” in:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n BINDING POLYMER:\u00a0What inspired you to start doing a live Mystery Science Theater 3000-style show? Who brought it up first?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n PETER “PAD”\u00a0DAVID:<\/b> It was pretty much my idea. \u00a0It was a chance to do something every year with Mike and Bob, who are long time friends and collaborators.<\/p>\n BOB GREENBERGER:<\/strong> It’s Peter’s fault. He conceived of it to have some fun with two of his regular collaborators and friends. He was also seeking a way to ensure he’d be invited back year after year.<\/p>\n MICHAEL JAN FRIEDMAN:<\/strong>\u00a0It was Peter\u2019s idea. And since we were friends and had already collaborated on books, it seemed like a natural team-up.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n BP:<\/strong>\u00a0Why Shore Leave?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n <\/b>MJF:<\/strong>\u00a0It was the biggest forum where we were all likely to show up together. And as Peter will tell you, it was a way to ensure that we were always invited.<\/p>\n BG:<\/strong>\u00a0It was the one show of the year that we were all guaranteed to be at. Additionally, there was a cadre of performers under the umbrella name Cheap Treks that would mount musical parodies of whatever genre material was in vogue. Peter even wrote one and I appeared in another. When they chose to retire, we were asked to shift from a Sunday morning slot to the closing event, cementing our place in Shore Leave.<\/p>\n PAD:<\/strong>\u00a0In the old days, Shore Leave didn’t always invite me as a guest. \u00a0So I came up with MTT3K as an idea that would prove so popular they would have to invite me back year after year just to get the show. \u00a0I took pains to make it clear that we would never do it anywhere else, so Shore Leave would have an exclusive thing. \u00a0And believe me, we’ve been asked.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n BP:<\/strong>\u00a0Why Star Trek only?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n BG:<\/strong>\u00a0Shore Leave started out as a Star Trek con in the early 1980s when they were largely the only game in town. When the original syndicated series boom came, followed by the explosion of basic cable offerings, I suppose we could have added other shows, but with five iterations of Trek, we never thought about it. Of course, Peter suggested we use the William Shatner pilot for Alexander the Great as a surprise and it remains one of the best received shows we did.<\/p>\n PAD:<\/strong><\/b>\u00a0Well, it IS called “Trekkie Theater.” \u00a0But we haven’t done only Star Trek. \u00a0One year in the opening sketch, Mike complained about how he was sick of trashing Star Trek, and the Mad Scientist suggested “Alexander,” which startled people because the Brad Pitt “Alexander” film was still in the theaters. And we started running this old black and white TV program, and the audience had zero idea why we were watching it…until Alexander came riding up, and it was a pre-Trek William Shatner. \u00a0The fans went nuts. \u00a0They were finally going to see something on Mystery Trekkie that they’d never seen before.<\/p>\n <\/b>MJF:<\/strong>\u00a0Trek is the best known of the sci fi screen products and it offers the most possibilities. Plus our attention spans don\u2019t go any longer than 45 minutes, so movies weren\u2019t an option.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n BP:<\/strong>\u00a0How did you guys meet?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n PAD:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/b>Bob I met through Howie Weinstein. \u00a0Bob was editing a magazine called “Comics Scene” and he hired me to write a story about the comic book direct sales market, which led to my becoming Marvel Comics’ assistant direct sales manager. \u00a0Mike I’m pretty sure I met at a convention.<\/p>\n BG:<\/strong>\u00a0Peter and I may have crossed paths at the old August Parties, but we were formally introduced when Howard Weinstein called me at Starlog Press to ask if I could assign an article to Peter, who just lost his job at Playboy Press. I called, he did a superb job, we struck up a friendship and have been watching one another’s backs ever since. During the 1980s, Dave Stern was the Star Trek editor at Pocket Books and he began hosting cocktail parties for all the local authors including me, since I was editing the comic for DC. That’s where we met Mike, who turned out to be a kindred spirit although he’s way too athletic for his own good.<\/p>\n MJF:<\/strong>\u00a0In thunder, lightning, and in rain. No, wait, that\u2019s someone else. I\u2019m pretty sure it was at one of Pocket Books\u2019 Christmas parties. I\u2019d been avoiding these guys for as long as possible and eventually my luck ran out.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n BP:\u00a0In a nut shell, what is Mystery Trekkie Theater 3000?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n PAD:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/b>It’s Mystery Science Theater but with Trek.<\/p>\n BG:<\/strong>\u00a0We lovingly skewer the weaker episodes from across the Star Trek franchise, pointing out story flaws, bad acting, bad scene continuity, and have developed a recurring set of responses that audiences have come to expect and even join in on (such as fart sounds every time someone sits down). We replicate the MST format complete with puppets, opening skit, mad scientist, and “Movie Sign!”.<\/p>\n MJF:<\/strong>\u00a0The end-product of six thousand years of Western civilization. Seriously…we sit behind a screen and mock an episode the way MST3K mocked sci fi movies.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n BP:<\/strong>\u00a0[From the not too distant future] What was the experiment? How did the show go?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n PAD:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/b>We’re actually bringing it full circle and doing the very first experiment we ever did: \u00a0“Turnabout Intruder,” the last episode of original Trek.<\/p>\n MJF:<\/strong>\u00a0It was the best performance of anyone, ever.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n BP: Will it be a second performance of the original script from 1992, or did you guys write all new stuff?<\/strong><\/p>\n PAD:<\/strong> We definitely no longer have the script from a quarter of a century ago. \u00a0I remembered a handful of lines, but we wound up doing it the way we always do it, from the beginning.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n BP:<\/strong>\u00a0You guys are already pretty well known to the Shore Leave crowd, but if you got to talking with an uninitiated stranger in an elevator, how any floors would it take to explain what you do for a living?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n PAD:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/b>I’m a writer, so less than a floor.<\/p>\n BG:<\/strong>\u00a0One floor: I’m a writer\/editor\/English teacher.<\/p>\n MJF:<\/strong>\u00a0One. I write science fiction and fantasy. Oh, and I teach. And I…okay, maybe two.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n BP:<\/strong>\u00a0When you started doing MTT3K, had you heard of any other fans doing versions of MST3K?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n PAD:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/b>Nope. \u00a0Then again, it was before the rise of the Internet, so it’s possible that there were others\u00a0doing\u00a0it and we never found out.<\/p>\n BG:<\/strong>\u00a0Not me. I do want to note that even earlier than that, a fan named Lynne Stephens took ST:TMP and managed to reedit it, adding sound cues and TOS footage to shorten and enliven the turgid film.\u00a0 She showed it at a few cons in the very early 1980s and may be the first time I saw any one mock the original material.<\/p>\n MJF:<\/strong>\u00a0No. At least, I hadn\u2019t.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n BP:<\/strong>\u00a0Were you able to use Star Trek in your show because of your relationships with Star Trek and Paramount, or is it because Shore Leave has blanket permission from Paramount to show Star Trek during the show?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n PAD:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/b>I honestly have no idea. \u00a0Since we never sell any of our shows on DVD, there’s no copyright issues because no money is being made. \u00a0As long as no one is\u00a0profiteering off stuff, Paramount generally doesn’t care.<\/p>\n BG:<\/strong>\u00a0It’s parody, which is legally protected, and since we three (and Alan Chafin, our Mad Scientist) do not personally profit from the event, nor does Shore Leave charge a separate fee that can be construed to profit from it, Paramount and CBS Consumer Products ignore us.<\/p>\n MJF:<\/strong>\u00a0As one of my compadres has said, it\u2019s satire.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n BP:<\/strong>\u00a0Has anyone at Paramount contacted you to express an opinion (hopefully positive) about what you guys have been doing with their franchise?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n PAD:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/b>Nope.<\/p>\n BG:<\/strong>\u00a0Not that I can recall.<\/p>\n MJF:<\/strong>\u00a0I don\u2019t recall any such contact.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n BP:<\/strong>\u00a0You’ve had some Star Trek actors participate in your show (e.g. Takei, Picardo), but have any other actors expressed a desire to participate but it never came about?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n PAD:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/b>Never. \u00a0We always approach the actors and they’re happy to\u00a0participate.<\/p>\n BG:<\/strong>\u00a0None have sought us out, but we have been able to invite other guests to participate on an as-needed basis and once the actor agrees, Peter tweaks his opening skit script to accommodate them. In addition to Trek actors, we’ve also had Andrea Thompson and Kevin Sorbo among others to kindly play with us. They show up, do their lines and leave, making the fans, and us, very happy.<\/p>\n MJF:<\/strong>\u00a0No one in their right mind would offer to take part in our shenanigans. They generally have to be dragged in kicking and screaming.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n BP:<\/strong>\u00a0Over the history of performing MTT3K, what memory stands out in your mind the most?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n PAD:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/b>As I mentioned, probably “Alexander” because the audience was caught so flatfooted. \u00a0I doubt any of them even knew the show existed. \u00a0And the best moment was when the opening credits were running, and I said, “You gotta hand it to the mad scientist. \u00a0This could not possibly get any worse.” \u00a0And then it said, “Co-starring: \u00a0Adam West,” and we chorused, “It’s worse” as the audience howled.<\/p>\n BG:<\/strong>\u00a0Our skits got increasingly ambitious […] Riverborg and a stage full of red shirts doing “Red Shirt Riot” stand out as particularly strong ones. Robert Picardo’s surprise appearance was perhaps the best received cameo.<\/p>\n One year we were doing our final late night rehearsal and were making so much noise with laughter that the next door guest banged on our door. We opened it to find an irritated Ann Crispin who saw it was us, complained, sighed, and went back to bed.<\/p>\n MJF:<\/strong>\u00a0I get kicked in the nuts a lot. There, I said it. I mean a lot<\/b>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n BP:<\/strong>\u00a0Do you remember any jokes or skits that went over particularly well? Any that didn’t get the reaction you expected?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n PAD:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/b>RiverBorg went over pretty well. \u00a0“Star Trek Boulevard” in which we riffed “Sunset Boulevard” and climaxed with our Mad Scientist, T.A. Chafin, having a heart attack on stage. \u00a0We ran to him and I shouted, “Is\u00a0there a Doctor in the house?!” Several people actually started to stand up and then Bob Picardo stepped out and said, “What is the nature of your medical emergency?” I also loved “Fairy Home Companion” in which we recreated “Prairie Home Companion” with Bob, Mike and I wearing fairy wings. \u00a0What didn’t go over? \u00a0We were the backup singers for George Takei, and unfortunately George was\u00a0horribly off key, so it was kind of\u00a0awful. \u00a0Unfortunately that’s one of the few opening sketches on Youtube.<\/p>\n BG:<\/strong>\u00a0We would individually watch the episode then meet some time in June to compare notes, rewatching the episode. Often things occurred to us during the group watch that were unanticipated and made it into the final script, which I would type on my laptop. Over time, it got eerie how often we came up with the same gag, perhaps worded differently. We’d practice timing the jokes with the time code and refine accordingly. Usually, on Saturday night, after the con’s Masquerade, we’d sit in a hotel room and do a final run through where jokes were refined or added.<\/p>\n What always surprised me was that some of the things that made us laugh the loudest, literally fall off our chairs funny, went over poorly with the crowd while throw aways we had went over far better.<\/p>\n MJF:<\/strong>\u00a0I thought our rendition of Sunset Boulevard went over especially well. We pre-produced a video of me floating face down in the hotel pool and then I wore the same clothes to the live skit, so it was particularly convincing.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n BP:\u00a0Any particularly special memories of any of the celebrity guest stars who participated? Did anyone give you more than you could have hoped for?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n PAD:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/b>Andrea Thompson did a fantastic job. \u00a0She played a reporter and she wound up flirting with Chafin. \u00a0She smiled at him and said, “You’ve been looking up naked pictures of me on the Internet, haven’t you.” \u00a0He grinned and nodded and she wound up seducing him away on stage. \u00a0To this day he says that was his favorite sketch.<\/p>\n The one who went over the top in expectations. \u00a0Corin Nemec joined us when we did “Fairie Home\u00a0Companion” in which we riffed on the famous radio show. \u00a0Corin played the lead role in one part of the sketch in which he was hard-boiled detective investigating a case. \u00a0His dramatic reading was absolutely terrific. \u00a0Then the sketch climaxed with Katie Greenberger and me singing a take off of “Cotton Eyed Joe” called “Rotten Old Q.” \u00a0We had a bunch of dancers on the stage (including a Mugato) and Corin, unscripted, came bounding out on stage and started swaying to and fro right behind me. \u00a0I spotted him out of the corner of my eye and started swaying in counter to his movements, and the audience loved it.<\/p>\n Actually the Mugato was a set up for one of my favorite Mystery Trekkie moments. \u00a0We were doing “Private Little War” and I kept referring to the creature as a Gumato. \u00a0Bob and Mike corrected me with growing frustration, but I kept insisting it was a Gumato. \u00a0When the final credits rolled, Mike said, “See? \u00a0See? \u00a0Right there, in the credits. \u00a0Janos Prohaska as…the Gumato?!?” \u00a0<\/i>I smugly said, “Told you.” \u00a0The audience went nuts, because sure enough, the credits had been getting the creature’s name wrong for forty years and apparently no one had noticed. \u00a0But I’d spotted it somehow when reviewing the episode and knew I could\u00a0have a ton of fun with that. \u00a0That was the second best audience reaction we ever got. \u00a0The best was when we were watching an episode of Enterprise <\/i>and the theme song started. \u00a0I said, “I hate this theme song. \u00a0Could we get another one, please?” \u00a0And it cut to Eric Cartman singing “Come Sail Away.” \u00a0The audience was in hysterics because it actually fit quite well to the visuals.<\/p>\n MJF:<\/strong>\u00a0Are we talking during the skit…or after hours?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n BP:<\/strong>\u00a0Are there any Star Trek episodes you were itching to use as an experiment, but now won’t get to because this is MTT3K’s last year?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n PAD:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/b>Nah. \u00a0If there was a show we were itching to do, we did it.<\/p>\n BG:<\/strong>\u00a0One of the reasons we considered ending things before realizing it was the 25th anniversary and a good time to call it a career was multifaceted. One, with Mike’s teaching schedule and my move to Maryland, getting us together was getting problematic in addition to a sense we had skewered the shows most deserving.<\/p>\n MJF:<\/strong>\u00a0No, I think in 25 years we covered everything we wanted to cover, and then some.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n BP:<\/strong>\u00a0Were there any episodes you thought needed to be an experiment, but for whatever reason they just didn’t lend themselves to riffing?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n PAD:<\/strong><\/b>\u00a0“Omega Glory.” \u00a0I was geared up to go after that one, but we watched it and frankly it just didn’t lend itself to parody.<\/p>\n MJF:<\/strong>\u00a0Occasionally some episodes didn\u2019t work out as well as others. Hard to say why.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n BP:<\/strong>\u00a0What was it about Alexander the Great that made it the only non Star Trek experiment you did?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n PAD:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/b>It was an incredibly young Shatner, the audience didn’t know about it, and it lent itself to great moments. \u00a0I remember one point where Alexander’s men were in battle and they had their shields up as archers fired on them. \u00a0And in a Scott’s brogue, I said, “The shields\u00a0canna take much more of this!”<\/p>\n MJF:<\/strong>\u00a0It had the audience baffled at first…till the rider\u2019s horse wheeled and we saw that it was Shatner. Adam West, Joseph Cotton, John Cassavetes…it was a fascinating artifact that few fans had ever seen before. Our contribution was just icing on the cake.<\/p>\n BG:<\/strong>\u00a0William Shatner and Adam West. ‘Nuff said.<\/p>\n BP:<\/strong>\u00a0The announcement on the Shore Leave website suggests that you guys have decided to stop doing MTT3K because Mystery Science Theater 3000 was returning. Is that true?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n PAD:<\/strong><\/b>\u00a0Not really. \u00a0With Bob moving down to Maryland, it became more a matter of logistics than anything else.<\/p>\n <\/b>MJF:<\/strong>\u00a0It\u2019s a combination of things. We never wanted to outstay our welcome, so we\u2019re not. Also, with Bob down in Maryland, the logistics were getting insane. This year we actually had to meet in a neutral state for our rehearsal.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n BP:<\/strong>\u00a0What sort of reaction have you been getting since announcing that your show was ending?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n PAD:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/b>So far? \u00a0None. \u00a0I figure I’ll get reactions at the\u00a0convention though.<\/p>\n BG:<\/strong>\u00a0A lot of surprise and disappointment and complaints from friends and family they had to learn about it from the website.<\/p>\n MJF:<\/strong>\u00a0None so far. I imagine we\u2019ll get some at the con.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n BP:<\/strong>\u00a0What did you think of the new season of MST3K? Favorite new episode?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n PAD:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/b>I’m loving it so far. \u00a0I’ve seen the first five episodes so I don’t have a\u00a0single favorite yet.<\/p>\n BG:<\/strong>\u00a0Here’s my dirty secret: I have never seen an episode of MST3K, old or new. Ironically, I will finally pop my cherry with the live performance in Washington D.C. that evening.<\/p>\n MJF:<\/strong>\u00a0Um…I…actually…haven\u2019t seen it yet…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n BP:<\/strong>\u00a0Has it always just been you three watching the experiment during the show? Were you ever able to wrangle a celebrity into watching with you?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n PAD:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/b>Never happened, because the celebrities are always off at their\u00a0autographing.<\/p>\n BG:<\/strong>\u00a0When we settled on rehearsing at Peter’s house, his wife Kathleen always joined in as did Peter’s daughter Ariel and then their daughter Caroline. When my son was ill, the two kindly [travelled up to] Connecticut where we did the rehearsal in Robbie’s hospital room. He got to make some suggestions we used. Alan Chafin would join us for the final run through and would also make suggestions.<\/p>\n MJF:<\/strong>\u00a0One time I couldn\u2019t make the con and Keith DeCandido sat in for me. But never a celebrity.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n BP:<\/strong>\u00a0Are you three the only writers for MTT3K? Were there any guest writers or stray lines friends or family threw at you that you used because they were too good to pass up?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n PAD:<\/strong><\/b>\u00a0T.A. Chafin has contributed ideas, as have my wife and daughter, Kathleen and Caroline.<\/p>\n BG:<\/strong>\u00a0We’ve never had guest writers although, when circumstances demanded Mike or I miss out [on the show], we were able to recruit Pocket Books editor John Ordover and Keith DeCandido to fill in for us.<\/p>\n