So the actual riffing came out of us just sitting there and doing it the way I think some people think we really did it, which is all spontaneously, and it really was.

Mystery Science Theater is really a postmodern show, it's really derived of many influences.

The first twenty shows at TV 23 were really a workshop.

Beanie and Cecil was the first cartoon I remember watching and I think there are analogies.

So the actual riffing came out of us just sitting there and doing it the way I think some people think we really did it, which is all spontaneously, and it really was.

Eventually I got asked to be in a Michael J. Fox sitcom called High School U.S.A. I didn’t think it was funny and said no. They doubled the money, and that kind of offended me. I realized, oh, that’s right, my opinion means nothing in Hollywood. I’d seen other people compromise, and I felt that once you gave up on what you wanted to do, you couldn’t go back. It was selling out. So I decided to go back to Minneapolis.

Gypsy was the name my brother gave a pet turtle he had. I always thought it was so peculiar.