(Scene begins with a smartwatch screen and a finger as it taps the screen, and the 1994 American Gladiators plays as the scene cuts to a hand tapping an app on his phone as it opens a portal, and it cuts to James and the characters he’s played until it cut to his face and the credit of “James Faraci” is shown as it cuts to “The Last Of The Americans’” current iteration then slides away to different images of Paulo Fonseca, Brenda Fonseca, Rebecca Yaun, Nick Yaun and Doug Yaun and the characters they’ve played until it cut to their faces and the credits of “Paulo and Brenda Fonseca & Doug Yaun, Rebecca and Nick Yaun” is shown as it then slides away to different images of Andrew Beach Eric Kurtzke, Renee Miller and Olivia Horvath and the credits of “Andrew Beach, Eric Kurtzke, Renee Miller, Olivia Horvath” is shown as the 0:00-0:21 mark of the theme song plays. Everything becomes a swirl of Reds, Whites, and Blues as the credits “Produced by First Choice Productions” “Executive Producers: James Faraci, Paulo Fonseca, Brenda Fonseca, Rebecca Yaun, Nick Yaun, Eric Kurtzke, Renee Miller, Andrew Beach & Olivia Horvath” “Editing by Eric Kurtzke and James Faraci” “Written and Directed by James Faraci” are shown as the 0:21-0:26 mark of the theme song plays. We then see an image of James as he jumps through the portal and lands with half of his team on his right. The other half on his left is on a black background, and the title “THE LAST OF THE AMERICANS” is shown Lazer etched into Titanium as the last six seconds of the American Gladiators 1994 theme song plays. Cut to James in his office.)
TLOTA:
I’m James Faraci The Last Of The Americans, and the views I’m about to express are that of my own and some of yours. In 1999, many people thought that once the MST3K episode “Diabolik” aired, that was the end of the line for the crew aboard the Sattelite of Love! (Cut to clips of MST3K “Diabolik” as James does a voiceover)
TLOTA (V.O.):
And to be perfectly honest, it ended on the right notes. Mike was going home after Pearl Forrester had done everything she could to torment them. He took Tom and Crow to his little neck of the woods and did what they were doing while on the Sattelite but now in their own home. While GYPC decided to make a few bucks on the Internet Boom then. (Cut to the current era of MST3K as James does a voiceover)
TLOTA (V.O.):
Cut to 2010, Joel Hodgson had just reacquired the rights to MST3K ownership and decided to bring the show back. Working with “Shout Factory,” who had kept the MST3K brand alive since obtaining the rights to distribute the episodes they could legally share on the home market and the burgeoning streaming service market began plans to revive the brand and by 2015 had successfully crowdfunded the series for a new season, found a new home with Netflix and had gotten a new line up in the cast including Jonah Ray to play Jonah Heston, Hampton Yount to be the third performer for Crow T. Robot, Baron Vaughn to be Tom Servo’s third performer, Patton Oswald as TV’s Max, son of TV’s Frank and Felicia Day as Kinga Forrester along with returning bit player Mary Jo Pehl to stop by as Pearl Forrester and by 2017 The Sattelite Of Love had returned as Netflix aired the new MST3K series and I loved it. There was a mix of the old style of how to riff a movie and a newer style that allowed more funny moments in the host segments and on the riffs. But by 2019, after two successful seasons, Netflix gave the series the ax. However, Joel was unwilling to let go; he went back to crowdfunding and successfully created his own streaming service, “The Gizmoplex,” to help Joel fund the following season after getting the ax from Netflix. This new season would bring Jonah back as well as bring in occasional road tour hostess Emily Marsh as Emily Connor, and Joel Hodgson came back for two whole episodes as Joel Robinson and a co-host of the final episode (For now) as the latest crowdfunding failed to meet its goal. And with the future of the series now in question, again, we can be sure of one thing: no one will be forgetting MST3K anytime soon, and with The Gizmoplex still running, we’ve got enough MST3K for a hundred dozen Turkey Day Marathons
The Top Ten best episodes (so far) of the current run of MST3K
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