Last episode before they knew they were cancelled?

[Udvarnoky]

I've noticed that when discussing Season 10 episodes, fans like to speculate on the impact the show's cancellation had on the writing. The Brains knowing that the end was nigh has been eagerly used to explain perceived quality declines/inclines in the season, or of a sense of leaving it all on the field. Some have even cited specific jokes (like the masturbation line in Dr. Z.) as evidence of an "eff it" attitude.

This line of thinking has always struck me as suspect, because the timeline suggests the Brains did not have much notice. In the ACEG for Future War, Mary Jo writes "When we wrote this last fall, we had no way of knowing that the Sci Fi Channel wouldn't renew MST3K come March. We quipped away in blissful naivete. We wrapped production on April 9..."

So they shot episode 1004 in the fall of '98 and shot episode 1013 at the beginning of April '99. They were cancelled in March. That makes it pretty clear that most of the season would have been in the can by the time they got axed. If you look at the copyright dates at the end of the episodes, it takes until Hamlet (1009) for the year to change from 1998 to 1999. Anybody know specifically which episode was the last they made in "blissful naivete"?

[Diet Kolos]

I think they knew they were effectively cancelled between when they were renewed for season 10, but weren't given an order for the back 9 of Season 9. So probably early 1998. Probably around 908 or so.

[Udvarnoky]

I think they saw the writing on the wall to a degree, but I'm talking about at what point did they know they didn't have a contract. It would have been one of the last few Season 10 episodes.

[kmorgan]

Of course, they were cancelled twice. Once by The First Network Which Shall Remain Nameless, and then by The Second Network Which Shall Remain Nameless. Was there a difference between the two instances?

[Udvarnoky]

I'm bumping this because I realized there's another metric at our disposal: the Institute for Mad Science subplot. Apparently this brief running gag in Season 10 was the result of a network chaperone resurrecting the idea that the show needed a story arc to produce better numbers. The Brains, perhaps recognizing that this was an asinine "note" from someone trying to justify their job, responded in the most half-hearted way possible, and of course the IMS storyline dropped off altogether pretty quickly...after 1007, I think.  Which tells me the pink slip probably was not received before that point.

I wonder if the network stooge who imposed this idea is the same "fella" Mike complains about here.