‘MST3K’ reboot lands ‘Daily Show’ alum as head writer

Tom Servo, Crow and the crew of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 reboot just got their Cyrano de Bergerac.

MST3K head Joel Hodgson announced on his Kickstarter page that Elliott Kalan has signed on to be head writer for the series. For those unfamiliar, the show features robots making fun of bad movies with titles like The Slime People and The Incredible Melting Man. Kalan is a multi-Emmy winner and most notably served as head writer for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

“This has literally been my dream job since I was an adolescent. Other kids were sneaking out of the house to go drink beer in the park. I was sneaking into the basement to watch the midnight MST3K rerun on Comedy Central,” Kalan said on the site.

MST3K was a cult favorite for years, running from 1988-99. It has since gone through different permutations with projects like RiffTrax and Cinematic Titanic. But last year Hodgson began a Kickstarter to bring back the series in a limited run. The campaign brought in more than $6 million and, in the process, also secured cameos from Mark Hamill, Joel McHale and Jerry Seinfeld in addition to landing Patton Oswalt as a regular cast member.

Hodgson has plans for 12 episodes when the show returns next year.

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