‘Mystery Science Theater 3000’ Stars Pay Their Respects to the Star They Brutally Mocked
Actor Joe Don Baker has reportedly passed away at the age of 89. And while fans will no doubt remember him for his work in films like Walking Tall, Fletch and Martin Scorsese’s remake of Cape Fear, for others, the role he’ll always be most closely associated with is Mitchell. From the movie Mitchell. Was that his first or last name? We may never know.
The 1975 flick was a piece of forgettable low-budget schlock about a schlubby police detective whose disregard for the rules is equaled by his love of terrible sport jackets.
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There would be no reason for anyone who wasn’t a projectionist for a scuzzy movie theater in 1975 to remember Mitchell, if not for the fact that it was the subject of a very memorable episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000. In Season Six of the beloved sci-comedy show, host Joel Hodgson and his two robot sidekicks relentlessly roasted the movie, which proved to be so unwatchably terrible that, at one point, Tom Servo just started screaming at the screen.
As we’ve mentioned before, some of the jokes about Baker’s performance were pretty harsh, and there were long-running rumors that he had threatened to beat up the cast, as a result, actually proclaiming that he wanted them “dead.” Although MST3K’s Mike Nelson later downplayed that story, suggesting that Baker may have just made a bad joke after being constantly pestered about the episode by reporters.
Even after these perceived physical threats, the Satellite of Love gang still opted to riff on another Joe Don Baker movie, Final Justice, in the show’s 10th season.
Following the news of Baker’s passing, some members of the MST3K family offered tributes to the man who may or may not have threatened to murder them for referring to him as “Meatloaf: Texas Ranger,” including TV’s Frank, aka Frank Conniff:
And RiffTrax, the commentary track company started by Mystery Science Theater alumni, similarly offered a tribute to Baker:
A lot of fans responded to this post by stating that they will watch Mitchell tonight in Baker’s honor, which, to be honest, is probably the last thing he would want.
