Deep 13

Deep 13 was the operation base for the "Mystery Science Theater 3000" experiment for many years, headed by Dr. Clayton Forrester.

Nature[]

Deep 13 was a subbasement of Gizmonic Institute and, according to former SOL janitor Joel Robinson, highly radioactive as a result of being close to the Institute's atomic pile.

Despite being miles below the surface of the Earth, Deep 13 was fully accessible, with delivery men, police officers and any manner of houseguests easily able to visit.

There was a neighboring facility named Deep 12 whose tenants once included two "foxy ladies"; the pair briefly visited Deep 13 but were put off by Forrester and TV's Frank's poor attempts at socializing, and the crew of The Satellite of Love only make things worse by attempting to introduce their new political sketch show, "Supercalafragalisticexpiala-wacky!", causing the two women to flee.

History[]

After initiating the "MST3K" experiments, Dr. Forrester and his associate, Dr. Laurence Erhardt, moved operations to Deep 13 to avoid detection from the higher-ups at the Institute. They had previously run into trouble over Project Morpheus from Old Leadbottom and, presumably, did not want any additional interference.

Some time after Dr. Erhardt's departure and the arrival of TV's Frank, the Mads began living in Deep 13 and, eventually, cut all ties to the Gizmonic Institute.

For a time, two Mole People, Gerry and Sylvia, also worked with Dr. Forrester and Frank.

When Dr. Forrester's funding was cut, he shut down Deep 13 to move back in with his mother.

The location of Deep 13 was, apparently, the eventual location of Deep Ape, as the original connections to The Satellite of Love were still intact.

Behind the scenes[]

The show never explained from whom Forrester was receiving funding. However, series creator Joel Hodgson (who also played Robinson), when pressed in an interview for the Satellite News, gave a plausible explanation: the Mads were selling the show to basic cable providers (effectively making it a show within a show), which had also been mentioned in Experiment #305. This storyline was bolstered by several "host segments" from the Season 1 through Season 8 that discussed the internal show's ratings. But as Hodgson cautioned in the interview, such storylines should be taken with a grain of salt, as recommended by the show's theme song: "Just repeat to yourself, 'It's just a show / I should really just relax.’”^[1]