A work in constant progress (and occasional regress).
Alias:
Mike Nelson
Birthplace:
St. Charles, Illinois
Born:
October 11, 1964
Michael J. Nelson is the former host and writer of the Emmy-nominated, Peabody Award-winning Mystery Science Theater 3000. Since that time, he has appeared on numerous radio and TV shows, penned a regular column for TV Guide, and authored best-selling books for both HarperCollins and Abrams. His first book, Mike Nelson's Movie Megacheese, thrilled critics, including Richard Schickel of Time Magazine, who said of Mike, "He's more fun than a barrel of Val Kilmers... Smarter than a roomful of Patrick Swayzes... and almost as hilarious as Keanu Reeves." Mike's laugh-out-loud follow-up, Mind Over Matters, prompted Kirkus Reviews to enthuse, "From someplace called Minnesota comes a Nelson funnier than Ozzie, Ricky, Lord or Half," and even dared to compare him to another legendary writer, saying of his Serious Speech to Business People, "[It] could easily precede [Robert] Benchley's immortal Treasurer's Report." And Kirkus Reviews loved his novel, Death Rat!, saying, "Fast-paced, outrageous and funny, first-novelist Nelson's mockery of media mendacity is as biting as La Dolce Vita or Network--only funnier!" Nelson speaks all over the country, is a frequent guest on radio and television, and along with fellow former MST3K writers/performers Bill Corbett and Kevin Murphy operate a podcast called RiffTrax, which, in a similar vein to MST3K, targets more mainstream films.
Director:
2006 RiffTrax: Road House
2007 RiffTrax: The Star Wars Holiday Special
2016 RiffTrax Live: MST3K Reunion
2017 RiffTrax Live: Doctor Who – The Five Doctors
2024 GrimTrax
Executive Producer:
2006 RiffTrax: Road House
2007 RiffTrax: The Star Wars Holiday Special
2010 RiffTrax Live: House on Haunted Hill
2012 RiffTrax Live: "Manos" the Hands of Fate
2016 RiffTrax Live: MST3K Reunion
2017 RiffTrax Live: Doctor Who – The Five Doctors
2024 GrimTrax
Writer:
1996 Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie
2000 Mystery Science Theater 3000: Shorts, Volume 3
2006 RiffTrax: Road House
2007 RiffTrax: The Star Wars Holiday Special
2010 RiffTrax Live: House on Haunted Hill
2010 Rifftrax Live: Reefer Madness
2012 RiffTrax Live: "Manos" the Hands of Fate
2013 Rifftrax Live: Santa Claus Conquers the Martians
2013 Rifftrax Live: Starship Troopers
2015 RiffTrax Live: Santa Claus
2016 RiffTrax Live: MST3K Reunion
2017 RiffTrax Live: Doctor Who – The Five Doctors
2017 RiffTrax Live: Summer Shorts Beach Party
2022 Rifftrax Live: The Return of Swamp Thing
2023 RiffTrax Live: RAD
2024 GrimTrax
2024 RiffTrax Live: Point Break
2024 RiffTrax: Hell of the Living Dead
2024 RiffTrax: The Demons of Ludlow
Creator:
2006 RiffTrax
Director:
1989 Mystery Science Theater 3000
2006 RiffTrax
Writer:
1989 Mystery Science Theater 3000
2006 RiffTrax
Most data and links to images for the Movies section come from TheMovieDB (TMDB).
Additional data for Film Titles come from The Open Movie Database (OMDb).
At least one plug-in comes from IMDb.
Data are -- hey, it's a plural -- subject to the limitations of their sources. (For example, TMDB search results currently max out at 20.) I am limiting myself to free data sources for now. (No, a "free trial" is not free.)
While much of the above data are retrieved directly from outside APIs and other such sources, data from American Film Institute (AFI) and British Film Institute (BFI) were manually entered the old fashioned way into a MySQL database. Re BFI I took the following liberties:
Regarding profile removals and data corrections:
Filtering is applied here to film projects flagged as "adult" by TheMovieDB. Pending "popular demand" I am contemplating a login and profile system with preferences (such as whether to allow adult images to appear) and permissions (such as data entry).
Whereas the overall purpose of this website is to serve as a personal demo/portfolio/workshop of web and data skills, this Movies section is not meant to compete with or substitute for far more definitive movie websites.
Whether or not he still clings to an award which he won in 1986 as a film critic for his college's newspaper, Jeffrey Hartmann is not responsible for the texts of overviews and biographies supplied by external data sources.