Jim Mallon

Jim Mallon is best known from bringing the worlds of science fiction and comedy together in "Mystery Science Theater 3000." Mallon grew up in Rochester, Minnesota, and expressed an early interest in film and comedy. He attended the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he was a leader of the pseudo-political Pail and Shovel Party, notorious for their pranks, parties, and absurdist student government campaign. One of their pranks, in which they built a precise replica of the uppermost third of the Statue of Liberty on a frozen lake, gained national media attention. In 1986, Mallon made his feature-film directorial debut with "Blood Hook," leading him to his creative collaborators Kevin Murphy and Joel Hodgson. Together they created "Mystery Science Theater 3000." Mallon produced the show for all 11 years of its run, as well as writing and directing, and voicing the character Gypsy. Nominated for two Emmys, and the winner of a Peabody Award in 1993, Mallon directed the film adaptation of the show in 1996. His role in MST3K was not without controversy, however; Hodgson blames a creative falling-out with Mallon for his decision to leave the series halfway through its run.