1. Joel Hodgson is best known for creating Mystery Science Theater 3000 and starring in it; he played the character Joel Robinson.
30 Facts About Joel Hodgson
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From 2007 to 2013, Hodgson was part of the "movie riffing" project Cinematic Titanic with several of his fellow MST3K alumni, performing live and producing content for DVDs and direct download.
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Joel Hodgson has been the creative lead for media at Cannae, a technology firm in Doylestown, Pennsylvania north of Philadelphia.
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Joel Hodgson was born on February 20,1960, in Stevens Point, Wisconsin and lived with his family in Green Bay and Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin west of Milwaukee.
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Joel Hodgson grew up with an evangelical Christian upbringing and later claimed that the various shows his church would put on had a profound influence on his desire to become an entertainer.
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Joel Hodgson began performing as a magician and ventriloquist in seventh grade.
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Joel Hodgson performed for local events in Green Bay, and attended Ashwaubenon High School in Ashwaubenon, Wisconsin, a village next to Green Bay.
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Joel Hodgson cites a Theatre of the Absurd class at Bethel taught by Dr David Horn for helping him crystallize the meaning of his comedy.
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Joel Hodgson won the Campus Comedy Contest in 1981 and the first annual Twin Cities Comedy Invitational in 1982.
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Joel Hodgson made four other appearances on the show and four on Saturday Night Live as a guest act.
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Joel Hodgson was a featured performer on HBO's "Eighth Annual Young Comedians Special", hosted by John Candy.
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Joel Hodgson worked at the Comedy Store while traveling for stand-up performances in San Jose, California, San Francisco, Detroit, Kansas City, and Minneapolis.
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Joel Hodgson left stand-up in 1985, citing the need for a creative sabbatical, and moved back to Minneapolis.
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Joel Hodgson was considered for the role of Woody Boyd in Cheers.
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Joel Hodgson met Jim Mallon in 1987, and Mallon became production manager at the St Paul UHF station KTMA Channel 23 in 1988.
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Joel Hodgson was the first choice to portray "Philo" in the "Weird Al" Yankovic film UHF, but at the time of the filming in 1988, he had begun the production of a new form of television program for KTMA.
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Joel Hodgson starred as the show's long-suffering but inventive protagonist, Joel Robinson, who in the backstory is responsible for creating his own robot companions.
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Joel Hodgson cites the 1972 film Silent Running as an influence for the premise of the show.
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The other show, created and written by Joel Hodgson, was the short-lived Higgins Boys and Gruber, a sketch comedy program that starred Steve Higgins, David Anthony Higgins and Dave Allen.
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In contemporary interviews, Joel Hodgson stated he was uncomfortable with acting and being in front of the camera.
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Joel Hodgson's departure allowed the show to continue and gave him the opportunity to focus on his preferred creation and production work rather than on performing, which he did only reluctantly.
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Joel Hodgson later made a surprise guest appearance in the season premiere for the final season of MST3K.
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In 1999, Joel Hodgson played a recurring role as a disco-loving clothing store salesman and DJ on the television show Freaks and Geeks.
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Joel Hodgson was featured as the cover story in the November 1996 issue of Genii magazine.
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Joel Hodgson reunited with Jerry Seinfeld as a guest on his web show, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.
26.
On October 30,2007, Hodgson announced he was starting a new show with the same "riffing on bad movies" premise as MST3K called Cinematic Titanic, together with former MST3K cast and crew members Trace Beaulieu, J Elvis Weinstein, Frank Conniff and Mary Jo Pehl.
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On November 10,2015, Joel Hodgson launched a Kickstarter campaign to bring back MST3K for another season.
28.
The project was released on Netflix as Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Return in April, 2017, and stars comedian Jonah Ray as Jonah Heston, alongside original co-star robots Tom Servo, Crow, and Gypsy, much like when Joel Hodgson hosted the show himself.
29.
Joel Hodgson himself makes an appearance on this series as "Ardy," although he is hidden under a HAZMAT suit in this character.
30.
The first episode of the season in which Joel Hodgson reprises his role as Robinson is the season's sixth, featuring the 2019 film Demon Squad.