Realizations - MST3K and the Rolling Stones

I just realized that to many fans, Mike Nelson is the Ronnie Wood of "Mystery Science Theater 3000." He was an easy yet controversial replacement to a much beloved member of a popular group, and though he was part of the group longer than any of his "better" counterparts, he is still seen as the lesser.

But to examine the analogy a little further, and to the side (you really gotta want it with my analogies), MST3K and the Rolling Stones have a weird parallel in their careers, and one that proves Nelson may in fact be the Mick Taylor of the show.

Starting with the original lineup of Joel Hodgson, Trace Beaulieu, and Kevin Murphy, this would be considered "The Brian Jones" period, one of popularity and prosperity. Then Joel left the show and was replaced by Mike. If the show had suffered, then the Ronnie Wood analogy would hold up. But during Mike's run as host, some of their funniest material came about. This includes the theatrical movie as well as the transition to the Sci-Fi channel, making this period the "Sticky Fingers" portion of Best Brains, Inc.

Obviously this isn't remotely scientific (or even Mystery Scientific) and if you really wanted to get down to it, the period where Mary Jo Pehl acted as antagonist was probably the post-1977 Wood years for the show, but she'd already worked on the show for so long (120 episodes!) that it doesn't exactly work. Neither does calling replacement Crow T. Robot the Ronnie, since he was only part of 48 episodes and -- while no Trace -- found his spot and did good work. Perhaps there is no true Ronnie Wood to MST3K, and we'll all just have to wonder the planet aimlessly knowing that ours is a world without rules. Chaos Planet I call it.