Anyone else grow up on the Satellite of Love?
I’ve been feeling nostalgic lately and wanted to see how many of you started your MST3K journey as kids.
I was born in November of 1980. I started with Season 2, which premiered in September 1990, I was just a couple of months shy of 10 years old when I joined the crew.
Growing up on isolated farmland in rural Kentucky (we had a house built in my Grandparents’ farm), there wasn't exactly a neighborhood to go out and play in. I saw my friends at school mostly, but weekends could get pretty lonely. Then I found MST3K, and Joel and the bots completely captured my imagination.
Every Sunday became a ritual. I’d sit cross-legged right in front of our only TV—one of those massive, heavy CRT sets encased in a giant wooden frame smelling of lemon Pledge, that was basically half-entertainment, half-furniture. I’d have a bowl of Lucky Charms and my pencil box ready. My dad used to bring home used dot-matrix printer paper from his job at GE, and I would spend the entire episode drawing on the blank side of it.
I’d watch in wonder, laugh along, eat my cereal, and blissfully daydream about being up in space with my friends. I drew endless pictures of us in pencil and crayon.
Joel and the bots truly became my companions, and I literally grew up with them. To this day, the show is still my ultimate comfort watch.
Did anyone else have a similar ritual growing up? Who was your first host, and how did you find the show?