MST Marathon on Sci-Fi

[StreetDreamer83]

I was thinking about this earlier in the day. There was an all-day marathon way back when on Sci-Fi toward the end of the show's run. I can't remember the specific date or reason for the marathon but five or six episodes ran during the day. I'm sure I wasn't the only one who watched it back then.

[Torgo]

Sci-Fi used to run all-day marathons of all of their shows during the weekdays. Star Trek, The X-Files, Sliders, Farscape...even less popular ones that only had about 13 episodes. I imagine it was a practice they had to build up fanbases of particular shows.

MST was definitely one of them. I remember catching their all day marathons more than once. I also remember the first time I saw Pumaman was during one of these.

[Ford Prefect]

SCI-FI had exclusive rights to air MST3K for seven years. During those first three years, fans were treated to two marathons.

Sci-Fi Channel's Thanksgiving Marathon (informally known as Turkey Day '97) is the only Thanksgiving marathon of Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes run on the network. It aired from 7:30 AM on November 27th to 4:00 AM on November 28th.

In addition to not being officially named "Turkey Day" like the Comedy Central marathons, the marathon also lacked special promos and bumpers. Seven episodes, plus The Making of Mystery Science Theater 3000 were shown, along with a break for a Star Wars double feature. Note that the marathon included two Susan Hart films which Shout Factory has never been able to officially distribute. The network also aired the episodes in order, which is something they rarely did considering they forced a serialized plot onto the series.

Schedule
7:30 AM The Making of Mystery Science Theater 3000
8:00 AM 801 Revenge of the Creature
10:00 AM 807 Terror from the Year 5000
12:00 PM 808 The She Creature
2:00 PM 809 I Was a Teenage Werewolf
4:00 PM 810 The Giant Spider Invasion
6:00 PM Break for Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi
12:00 AM 811 Parts: The Clonus Horror
2:00 AM 812 The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies

A few months after the final new episode aired, MSTies found out the network would be airing a fan favorite "Chain Reaction" marathon. Fans were polled to decide the five episodes, which aired starting at 9 AM on 12/27/99. It was a little surprising to learn that the network had already lost the rights to eight episodes, including two from season 10. The final poll results were:

5 9:00 AM 816 Prince of Space
4 11:00 AM 903 Puma Man
3 1:00 PM 817 Horror of Party Beach
2 3:00 PM 815 Agent for h.a.r.m.
1 5:00 PM 812 Incredibly Strange Creatures...

It's interesting to note that the network never aired more than five episodes consecutively. Perhaps they felt ten hours of cheesy movies were more than enough for the average viewer. Also, both marathons ended with Incredibly Strange Creatures. I guess that movie is sort of like playing certain songs at the end of a party to get people to leave.

[StreetDreamer83]

Thanks!