MISSING KTMA EPISODE INFORMATION
By Tom Noel and Jack Theakston


By tracing Joel's jumpsuit, t-shirt and hair length one can figure out
where all of the clips come from included on the scrapbook tape, K15 and K17.
The breakdown is as follows:

K00(pilot)- Light blue/green jumpsuit, blue/green shirt, long hair

K01 - Light blue/green jumpsuit, white shirt, long hair

K02 - Beige jumpsuit, blue/green shirt, long hair

K03 - Beige jumpsuit, white shirt, long hair

K04 - Beige jumpsuit, white shirt, short hair

Therefore, the opening for the pilot was simply a black screen saying MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATRE 3000 and another saying WITH JOEL HODGSON. This may also have been used for K01 through K03, but it's not likely, since Joel had discussed writing the theme in an interview on talkspot.com(April, 1999). The credits fade to Crow, Joel and Beeper, who explain the premise. The background appears blue/grey which is the natural color it was painted, but it appears red/orange in all the other KTMAs which is due to entirely different lighting. A primitive door sequence of various real-life objects such as a locker, office door, circuit breaker bring us through the satellite to the theater. Joel enters and is alone in the theater where his silhouette is seen over THE GREEN SLIME title and one riff is heard("that's not an asteroid. It's a battle station") on the sales tape. Also, there is a short clip on the sales tape of Joel, Crow, Beeper and Gypsum(who falls backwards), which must be from another host segment since Joel's appearance matches the description. Yet another host segment from a tape shown at the 1994 Conventio-Con which follows with Joel making a joke about the secrets of the universe being on 8-track.

The KTMA sales tape references THUNDERBIRDS TO THE RESCUE, which was a Jerry and Sylvia Anderson movie(who made the movies that were shown in episodes K01, K02, and K10), but there are no actual shots from episode K01 or K02.






K01- Invaders from the Deep includes Joel and Crow in the theater. This is the movie being watched in the KTMA opening. The host segments deal with Joel and things called vacuflowers(seen in K15), which are little flowers that grow on the ship and makes whoever smells them obsessed(also explained by Joel in the talkspot.com interview). Another segment with Joel and Gypsum with foam on her nose (also notice in that scene there is foam and vacuflowers on the desk and on Joel's hands). A third segment has Crow and Servo with clothespins on their noses. The video trickery in K17 shows Joel saying the guys at the station sent him a fax that the next film is INVADERS FROM THE DEEP. This episode was aired 11-24-88 at 6PM.






K02-Revenge of the Mysterians from Mars was shown 11-24-88 at 8PM. I don't know who did the theater segments. The Thanksgiving sketch about the Macy's Parade was from this episode as well as a short clip of Joel, Crow and Gypsum with gourds in her mouth (seen in K15).


















K03-Star Force: Fugitive Alien II was shown 11-27-88 at 6PM. During a sketch where Crow explains Thanksgiving both Crow and Joel call the other robot Gypsum. I believe the short clip from the KTMA opening with Joel using nun-clucks is from this episode. Tom, Joel and Crow all sit in the theater, as seen in a clip of it in the commercial in the Pitch Tape to The Comedy Channel that is also seen on the Scrapbook Tape.

Many changes were made for K04-Gamera vs. Barugon . The shots of Joel cleaning, the Robot Roll Call and the Demon Dogs were probably filmed between K02 and K03 because of his tan jumpsuit and white shirt, but all evidence points to the first three episodes were made in advance. The call-in phone line was most likely added during this episode since in K04 a caller says "it's 11-27 and I was just watching the show The Demon Dogs were
never used in the KTMA era except for the opening credits as explained in K20.

While searching for the videos to these, only these souces appear:

Ted Dean- A post from "Deux ex Machina's tape trading post":
From: T. Dean ()
Date: 16-Oct-97 (8:7:56 GMT)
Subj: K02 & K03

In a post I put out a few days back I was trying to reach Sam another bot builder. At one
time I was trying to trade bot parts for episodes. I mentioned that I had
part of K02 and K03 which not to many other people have. Since that post I have had 90 +
contacts about these 2 episodes. I have put this post out to answer the
same questions that keep coming up. The story I got from the person who I got them from is
this. When MST first aired on KTMA a guy set his VCR to record
some different shows while he was away on a holiday vacation. He programed the VCR wrong
and it managed to record K02,K03. He was un-impressed with
them and through time he re-recorded over some stuff with a home vido camera. He sent
the home movies to a brother in the Navy and it still had these MST
movies on it. They were a big hit aboard the ship and he made several copies for his
shipmates. Through time they made copies for their friends etc. etc. A
MSTy was one who got them and I got them through him. The quality sucks. These are 10++
generation. I am trying very hard to get better copies of these. I
am running down the trial of people who have them till I get to the best source. When and if I
get better copies I will offer them on my web sight and through the
exchange. I made copies for a few people and the quality is so bad I have stopped. You may
soon see others offer K02, K03 on this exchange. These are the
people I made copies for and I am telling you the quality will triple suck if you try to get yet
another copy from their tapes. I know that some want them no
matter what they look like so they can be part of the few. But I am telling you it is best wait
if you can hold it in. I will purchase a new video inhancer and try
again with these but I am telling you I would not keep my hopes up to high. For those of you
who have copies of K02, and K03, sorry about the quality but I
told you so. Thanks.

Email posted is invalid, phone search found the wrong Ted Deans.

Donald O'Conner- Ex-manager of KTMA TV-23 might have a copy of the pilot(it was sold to him).

Jim Mallon/Best Brains Inc.- The only people known to have tapes of the missing episodes, but unfortunately will not release them.

Joel Hodgson- MST3k's founding father seems to have more of an intrest in the KTMA days. If he has a copy, chances are, he might pass around a few to his friends.

KTMA employees may have copies as well, and any un-informed fans may have them, too.

If you have any information on the missing KTMA episodes, email Tom or Jack.

© 2001, Tom Noel/Jack Theakston.