Biography for
Joel Hodgson More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

20 February 1960, Stevens Point, Wisconsin, USA

Birth Name

Joel Gordon Hodgson

Nickname

The Gizmocrat

Height

5' 10" (1.78 m)

Mini Biography

Born in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, Joel Hodgson is best known as a stand-up comedian and creator of the cult favorite "Mystery Science Theater 3000" (1988). Hodgson is also a toy designer, prop builder, sculptor, writer and producer. He currently resides in Los Angeles where he continues writing and performing.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Lisa D. Jenkins

Trivia

Inventor of "Gizmonics Institute."

When he decided to leave "Mystery Science Theater 3000" (1988), he chose the show's head writer, Michael J. Nelson, to replace him as the show's host based on his natural leadership skills, his skills in music and the fact that he looked good with the puppets.

When the "Mystery Science Theater 3000" (1988) theatrical film was being made, the studio wanted him to come back and do the film as a kind of origin story for the show, but he declined. Similarly, when he did a guest appearance on MST3K in the episode "Soultaker" he declined to do the running gag commentary because he hadn't taken part in writing it, much to the disappointment of fans who wanted to have him and second host Michael J. Nelson do a gag commentary together.

Some fans of "Mystery Science Theater 3000" (1988)thought his character was a stoner because of his sleepy eyed demeanor. In truth, it was a holdover from the pilot, which he was exhausted while filming because he hadn't slept for four days.

Many of the inventions featured in the MST3K ("Mystery Science Theater 3000" (1988)) Invention Exchange were props that he had personally built and used in his stand up comedy routines. When he left, the exchange was quickly discontinued since the inventions were usually of his devising.

During the first season of MST3K ("Mystery Science Theater 3000" (1988)), he went by his real name as the show's host. In the second season, he started using the surname 'Robinson'.

Wears glasses, but did not wear them during the host segments of Mystery Scinece Theater 3000 (1988). However, he did wear his glasses during the commentary segments, as can be seen when his silhouette is caught at a profile angle, the outline of his glasses becomes visible.

Friend of Jerry Seinfeld & co-writer of Seinfeld's "Stand Up Confidential" video.

Personal Quotes

"By day, I'm a clever comic magician, by night...Agent J."

"Being an oddity doesn't bother me, as long as I'm a thought provoking one."

"Sometimes I go into my own little world...but that's okay, they know me there."

[Talking about Michael J. Nelson, who replaced him as the host of "Mystery Science Theater 3000" (1988)]: "You have to admit, the man looks great standing next to puppets."

Mystery Science Theater still sells. I still get a royalty from it.

If you take a deal in Hollywood now, you pretty much have to take notes. If we went to someone for the money to make six or eight or 12 shows, they would go "Okay, but we really have some strong opinions on how you need to do it." And "Mystery Science Theater" was really rare in that the Comedy Channel [which was later redubbed Comedy Central] was so busy getting a network going that they really didn't give us notes. After being in Hollywood for ten years, I said to myself, "This is really screwing me up. Right or wrong, I'm kind of used to doing these autonomous shows. 'Mystery Science Theater' was an autonomous show, so maybe we should just do that again." The only way to do that was to just pay for it ourselves.

Where Are They Now

(January 2003) Working on The Jimmy Kimmel Show

(March 2006) Supervising Producer of "Everything You Need to Know"

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