Joel Hodgson

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Joel Hodgson on Mystery Science Theater 3000

John Joel Hodgson^[1] (born February 20, 1960 in Stevens Point, Wisconsin) is an American writer, comedian and television actor. He is best known for creating Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) and starring in it as the character Joel Robinson.

Starting as a stage manager for Ashwaubenon High School, his professional career progressed as a stand-up comedian and magician. He performed several minutes of his prop-based act on a November 12, 1983, airing of Saturday Night Live, hosted by Teri Garr. An infamous prop during the performance was a time bomb. During the act, Joel would announce that he only had three minutes to perform. He would then reveal the time bomb, and proclaim that "we ALL have three minutes." The prop department thought they could make a better time bomb than the one Joel had, which was used in the show. They gave Joel the prop as a gift, but Mr. Hodgson decided that he liked his own bomb better, and left the NBC prop in his hotel room. When he arrived in Minneapolis, he was greeted by the FBI. It appears that a cleaning lady found the bomb, thought it was real, and three floors had to be evacuated. The next day, New York Daily News headline announced that "SNL Comedian Bombs In New York".

Combining his gift for designing toys and other gizmos, Joel built three robot puppets and created his famous MST3K series in 1988. It originally aired on KTMA, a UHF station in Minnesota, and it then became one of the first two shows to be picked up by the Comedy Channel, the forerunner of Comedy Central. The other show, also created and written by Hodgson, was the shortlived Higgins Boys and Gruber, a sketch comedy program that primarily involved three guys sitting around and talking in between clips of Clutch Cargo and Supercar.

Hodgson surprised many fans when he left MST3K just as it became popular in 1993. In contemporary interviews, Joel said he was uncomfortable with acting and being in front of the camera, citing that as the reason he quit the show just as he and MST3K began to gain popularity.^{[citation needed]} During an 1999 interview with the Onion AV Club, Hodgson added that he and producer Jim Mallon had been fighting over creative control of MST3K. His departure allowed the show to continue and gave him the opportunity to focus more on his preferred creation and production work than on performing, which he did only reluctantly.^[2] Hodgson reportedly chose MST3K head writer Michael J. Nelson to be his replacement as host because he felt that Nelson was a natural leader, a gifted comedian (as well as a musician, handling most of the show's musical numbers), and, additionally, he thought Nelson looked good standing next to the show's puppets.^{[citation needed]} Hodgson later made a surprise guest appearance in the season premiere for the final season of MST3K ("Soultaker", episode 1001).

After MST3K, Hodgson formed Visual Story Tools with his brother Jim. They created a live pilot episode for an interactive sketch comedy program called The TV Wheel for HBO, which Joel produced and hosted.^[3] It aired only once (on Comedy Central, after the last new Comedy Central episode of MST3K) and the show was never picked up as a series. Joel's VST work has been primarily behind the camera, building gadgets and writing scripts.

Joel Hodgson's other post-MST3K projects and contributions include Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves, You Don't Know Jack, Jimmy Kimmel Live, and Everything You Need to Know. He also played a recurring role as a disco-loving clothing store owner and DJ on the short-lived series Freaks and Geeks.

[edit] Trivia

Joel was the first choice to portray Philo in the film UHF,^[4] but at the time of the filming (summer '88), he was involved in the production of the KTMA season of MST3K.