MST3K, Comedy Central, and the Peabody Award

[Mod City]

I did a search for any old threads along this line but I couldn't find any. The search feature on these boards is terrible.

I was watching Trey Parker and Matt Stone on the The Daily Show the other night and got to thinking about the fact that both TDS and South Park both won Peabody Awards, a rather coveted award, for Comedy Central. It got me wondering, along with MST3K, which other CC shows have taken home a Peabody.

Wasting time at work got me this list. It's not long:

• Mystery Science Theater 3000
• Dr. Katz
• South Park
• The Daily Show
• The Colbert Report

If there are any I missed, please let me know.

South Park, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are clearly the heavy hitters in this group. They've brought a ton of attention and praise to the network. Mystery Science Theater is the eldest statesman of this group, winning back in 1993. For me, the only oddball is Dr. Katz, which I always hated, but was always told I was wrong about. It's been a while, maybe it deserves a second chance.

For some reason compiling this list really got me ticked off at Comedy Central all over again. I still remember MST3K not getting so much as a mention during their 13th (?) anniversary special. It seems like everyone over there has a very short memory.

They're coming up on their 20th anniversary in April. Is there any doubt they'll fail to mention at least one of their five Peabody winners?

[frankenforcer]

Comedy central seems to like to leave MST as something they hope will go away and not be remembered. They will hold up South Park (whihc brought them a ton of money and recognition) The Daily SHow, Gained popularity and critical acceptance when Stewart took it in the more political direction (they don't ever refer to the years with Craig... ever.) and of course The Colbert Report which is their true Satirical centerpiece. But MST, is, was, and will continue to be a show that was brilliant but a cult hit. Never smashed the Main Stream (thank god) and CC will look at them like they look at the other early year shows, experiments that embarrass them.

Of course I am always a little hateful to CC for never recognizing the genius of this groundbreaking show.


Sorry.... old wounds for an old MSTie. Everytime I think I'm out... they... well you know the rest.

[Torgo]

Never saw Dr. Katz. I think I saw snippets but I probably never would have remembered it if it wasn't mentioned here. The others are good company for MST.

I think the primary reason why Comedy Central prefers to leave MST in the past is because MST came when they were still a pretty young network. Something that always stuck with me was on the 20AE set Kevin mentions that MST was canceled the same year South Park premiered, which he follows up by mentioning that they probably didn't feel it fit in with the network they had molded themselves. South Park, the Daily Show, and the Colbert Report are still running, with the former two being on the air since the late 90s, which is probably why they would favor them above that cheap puppet show with the angry fans that kept calling to complain about voices over the end credits way back when.

I think the same thing happened with the Sci-Fi Channel. Sci-Fi was very young when it brought MST on. Then it just kind of blanked it out and shoved the same 10 reruns of the show in an early morning weekend slot until they couldn't fathom repeating them anymore (I'm sure everyone who was taping the show had already seen those episodes five hundred times). They're current identity is also a lot different than the one they had then, as they used to embrace classic science fiction and fantasy, but now prefer to show programing that....well....let's just say it isn't.

MST was lucky enough to last 10 seasons on these two channels back when they were brand new, had two hours to kill in their schedule, and were more than happy that the show had it's cult following to bring ratings into that two hours. I don't think they embrace the legacy like we do. It was just a show they used to air as far as they're concerned. Is that a slap in the face? Maybe, but they don't cater directly to us anymore. I'm pretty sure they don't feel they owe us anything, let alone a small mention on an anniversary special. I don't have any problem with that, personally. I'm just thankful that the legacy lives on through us.

[frankenforcer]

that's very elegant and very well said. Me? Don't ask... I'm Bitter. and yes early Cable Tv was a wonderfully experimental time, now it's just all the same programming and not a single one of the Channels that were started to cater to a particular crowd does so anymore, except Comedy Central.

But still... I would like for CC to at least acknoledge a show that helped keep them afloat and brought in fans, (never saw any numbers but i have to believe MST had to be a top rated program on their channel) until South Park made them stable.

[notundercovercop32]

The most likely reason why they don't mention MST is because they don't own the show and don't want to give free publicity to show they don't own.

[Mod City]

I hear what you're saying, Torgo, but there's still a part of me that thinks it deserves a mention. I'm not saying a 10-minute restrospective, etc., but a simple mention to acknowledge what was one of their most, if not most, heralded programs in the days when they were running Lancelot Link reruns and Jon Stewart was co-host of Short Attention Span Theater. It received mentions in Time before people even knew what the heck Comedy Central was. Pretending they never existed doesn't make it so.

I'm not saying they owe them their life or anything, but CC could at least acknowledge that there was a time before South Park was on the air. I honestly don't know if CC is even planning anything for the anniversary, so it might be moot anyway

[brandonakaxerxes]

Jon Stewart does an occasional shout out to MST3K on The Daily Show every couple years or so, which I'm sure must make Doug Herzog, or whoever's in charge now go, "WTF?"

Comedy Central had an old timeline on their site a few years ago that did acknowledge MST3K briefly. However it was for 1993 only, and CC wrote it as, "MST3K wins Comedy Central its first Peabody Award". Yeah...

It's probably best that Comedy Central doesn't mention MST3K anymore. If they ever did, they'd just try to find a way to degrade the show.

Mar 17, 2011 15:11:53 GMT -5 notundercovercop32 said:

The most likely reason why they don't mention MST is because they don't own the show and don't want to give free publicity to show they don't own.

That's pretty much the reason NBC treated "Scrubs" the way they did.