Hard to believe that I've been running this site for 20 years! And what a fun ride it's been. MJs started off as a lark, a single page of reviews jotted on free space provided by WebTV. Later -when I noticed old MST3K sites disappearing- I thought I should do my part to keep the fires burning for this amazing show. So I expanded the reviews to give each episode its own page.
After 2 years I moved to Geocities and gave the place a complete makeover - with trivia, quotes, riff explanations, awards (grades), and more.
The following is a trip down memory lane.
* March 2002 Mighty Jack's is born and open to public viewing on WebTV. The first write-ups were just a paragraph long, with no episode images - the only pictures were provided by WebTV (I remember a TV with static). The background was a starfield. Eventually, I added the title screencap from the Mighty Jack episode to act as a banner.
The first-ever review was likely The Brain That Wouldn't Die. And you know what? That original paragraph remains in the review to this day. I added notes, but never expanded or dug deeper in analyzing the riffing. I probably should do that, but there's a charm in knowing that something from the original MJs survives. So it's slight but sweet. (and if you're longing for a fuller breakdown of the movie and quips, David's written a stellar piece at his Blog).
* In 2004 I change the banner to the TV with slideshow images - around that time I decided to expand the site and moved to Geocities. I thought I had a permanent home until they stopped website hosting on October 26, 2009
* From Nov 2009 to August 2014 Yahoo hosted the site, free for a spell, then they started charging. I stayed until a price increase. Here's how that page looked in 2011.
* sometime around Oct 2010 I changed the banner to the current one with Glenn Manning. Funny that Glenn has become the blog's spokesperson rather than a character from Mighty Jack - it's an inconsistency, but I'm okay with that.
Mighty Jack was my first forum name, I liked the sound of it, and at least on that forum (from the sci-fi channel), the episode was not well-loved. So I adopted it, kept it when I started the website. And sure, logically the blog should be renamed something amazing or colossal, but I started as MJ and I'm sticking with MJ.
* Aug 9, 2014, I make the move to Google Blogger and then retire. Briefly adding to the KTMA page on May 24, 2018 - go away again, not to return until May 2021 to do massive updates.
Here are a few images from the past.
The Cheese-O-Rama clickable banner, circa 2006 (I was not a master banner maker, but I did my best)
Remember the old Giant Spider's page? It had a little Volkswagon next to the title logo, and the Packers color scheme. There was a small Packers pennant Easter egg (if you clicked on it, you'd hear a sound clip of the guys saying "PACKERS! WOO HOO!"). Other Easter Eggs included "Time for go to bed" when you clicked on Tors head. And Clay saying "I'm a naughty, naughty boy!" when you pressed the small clipboard image on the "This Island Earth" page.
My first MST was either The Amazing Colossal Man or The Movie: This Island Earth, the first review I mentioned up top. My final MST3K episode was The Human Duplicators. And what a bittersweet moment, it was a great way to end the journey, but, it was the end, there would never be another MST episode to discover (or so I thought).
After that write up I figured I was done - aside from some dibs and dabs - book reviews, lists, and such, that was the end of it.
Then in 2006, this happened...
It began with several humorous commentary tracks Mike did for Legend films starting in 2004, which blossomed into Rifftrax. Then came the Film Crew and Cinematic Titanic in 2007. In 2015 the Mads reunited and went on tour, and eventually, there came a new era of MST3K... Riffing was thriving and MJs was busy as a bee again.
Over the decade's new websites sprung to life, and were so thorough with the trivia and annotations, that they made MJs obsolete in many ways. But it's still here, somehow, someway, Mighty Jack's survived several moves, and a years-long retirement, and hung in there long enough to celebrate a 20th anniversary. Who'd a thunk it?
And to all the readers, and all the friends I made on the forums, thank you - for joining me on the journey - thank you, for the contributions you made, and thank you, for celebrating this with me. You're the best, and very much appreciated.
20 Most Read MST3K Reviews since 2014
1. Jack Frost 1.441
2. Final Sacrifice - 1.428
3. Violent Years 1.409
4. Invasion of the Neptune Men 1.345
5. Quest of the Delta Knights 1.330
6. Werewolf 1.305
7. The Pumaman 1.297
8. Zombie Nightmare 1.272
10. Space Mutiny 1.267
11. Overdrawn at the Memory Bank 1.250
12. The Screaming Skull 1.249
13. Creeping Terror 1.248
14. Code Name: Diamondhead 1.229
15. Pod People 1.219
16. Incredibly Strange Creatures 1.217
17. Time Chasers 1.207
18. The Thing That Couldn't Die 1.197
19. Girl in Gold Boots 1.195
20. The Touch of Satan 1.194
What about Manos? It's at 998, Mitchell? 874, Hobgoblins? 1.139, which is just behind I Accuse My Parents 1.191, The She-Creature 1.167, and Track of the Moon Beast, Mighty Jack & Cave Dwellers, all tied with 1.164 at this posting.
