James Joseph Mallon (born March 19, 1956) is an American television and film producer and writer, most notable for being executive producer of the

Peabody Award The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Peabody, honor the most powerful, enlightening, and invigorating stories in television, radio, and ...

-winning series ''

Mystery Science Theater 3000 ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (abbreviated as ''MST3K'') is an American science fiction comedy film review television series created by Joel Hodgson. The show premiered on KTMA-TV (now WUCW) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on November 24, 1988. ...

(MST3K)''. He is also president of the series' original production company, Best Brains, Inc., directed more than 75 episodes of ''MST3K'', and played the role of

Gypsy The Romani (also spelled Romany or Rromani , ), colloquially known as the Roma, are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, traditionally nomadic itinerants. They live in Europe and Anatolia, and have diaspora populations located worldwide, with sign ...

from the first season until the middle of the eighth season.

Early career and education

A native of

Rochester, Minnesota Rochester is a city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Olmsted County. Located on rolling bluffs on the Zumbro River's south fork in Southeast Minnesota, the city is the home and birthplace of the renowned Mayo Clinic. Acco ...

, Mallon began producing television and comedy movies while still in high school, and continued while attending the

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an educational institution, institution of higher education, higher (or Tertiary education, tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. Universities ty ...

. Mallon also produced and directed programs for

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

and

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

affiliates

WISC-TV WISC-TV (channel 3) is a television station in Madison, Wisconsin, United States, affiliated with CBS and MyNetworkTV. It is the flagship television property of locally based Morgan Murphy Media, which has owned the station since its inception. ...

and WHA-TV in

Madison Madison may refer to: People * Madison (name), a given name and a surname * James Madison (1751–1836), fourth president of the United States Place names * Madison, Wisconsin, the state capital of Wisconsin and the largest city known by this ...

and made his feature film debut in 1987 with '' Blood Hook'', distributed worldwide by Troma, Inc.

''Mystery Science Theater 3000''

In 1986, Mallon became the production manager of a new independent UHF television station,

KTMA WUCW (channel 23) is a television station licensed to Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, serving the Twin Cities area as an affiliate of The CW. Owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, the station maintains studios in the Pence Building on 8th S ...

, in

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

. There Mallon hired future ''MST3K'' cohort, Kevin Murphy. In 1988, Mallon met series creator

Joel Hodgson Joel Hodgson (born February 20, 1960) is an American writer, comedian and television actor. He is best known for creating ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (''MST3K'') and starring in it as the character Joel Robinson. In 2007, ''MST3K'' was liste ...

and ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' was born. As ''MST3K'' began to gain national attention, Mallon and Hodgson began to disagree on the future of the series. Hodgson said in a 1999 interview with ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...

'' that the reason he left the series was due to creative infighting between him and Mallon, presumably over the possibility of a movie based on the series. As a result, Mallon ended up with majority ownership of the program. Mallon later directed '' Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie'', released by Gramercy Pictures on April 19, 1996. Due primarily to poor marketing, the film was a box office bomb. Hodgson regained control of the ''MST3K'' property before a 2017 relaunch on

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

. Mallon is credited as an original producer in the revival's end credits through both seasons.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mallon, Jim 1956 births Living people American puppeteers American television writers People from Rochester, Minnesota University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni Screenwriters from Minnesota Television producers from Minnesota