Season One of Mystery Science Theater 3000 premiered on November 19, 1989 on The Comedy Channel, a brand-new channel at the time created by HBO. With 24 hours to fill each day, HBO was looking for fresh new comedy and were interested in bringing Mystery Science Theater 3000 to their network. The show staff quit their jobs at KTMA to form a new company, Best Brains Inc. Their only demand was that production of the show remain in Minnesota so that they would retain adequate creative control. HBO agreed to the stipulation and the show debuted in the fall of 1989.
With the added budget of a cable show, Mystery Science Theater 3000's production values increased dramatically. Best Brains built new colorful sets and an underground lair for the evil mad scientists. The show also switched over to writing the jokes during the theater segments instead of using improv. This lead to much funnier theater segments and a general improvement in the quality of the show. Josh Weinstein, who played Dr. Erhardt and provided the voice of Tom Servo, did not approve of this change and left the show at the send of Season One. Kevin Murphy would take over as Tom Servo in the subsequent seasons.
Episodes
| # |
#
|
Title
|
|
|
Airdate
|
|
|
|
| 22 |
1
|
The Crawling Eye
|
|
|
November 19, 1989
|
|
|
|
| 23 |
2
|
The Robot vs. the Aztec Mummy
|
|
|
December 5, 1989
|
|
|
|
| 24 |
3
|
Mad Monster
|
|
|
December 12, 1989
|
|
|
|
| 25 |
4
|
Women of the Prehistoric Planet
|
|
|
February 20, 1990
|
|
|
|
| 26 |
5
|
The Corpse Vanishes
|
|
|
December 19, 1989
|
|
|
|
| 27 |
6
|
The Crawling Hand
|
|
|
December 26, 1989
|
|
|
|
| 28 |
7
|
Robot Monster
|
|
|
January 2, 1990
|
|
|
|
| 29 |
8
|
The Slime People
|
|
|
January 9, 1990
|
|
|
|
| 30 |
9
|
Project Moonbase
|
|
|
January 16, 1990
|
|
|
|
| 31 |
10
|
Robot Holocaust
|
|
|
January 23, 1990
|
|
|
|
| 32 |
11
|
Moon Zero Two
|
|
|
January 30, 1990
|
|
|
|
| 33 |
12
|
Untamed Youth
|
|
|
February 6, 1990
|
|
|
|
| 34 |
13
|
The Black Scorpion
|
|
|
February 13, 1990
|
|
|
|
