He hasn't been seen much on TV since he was orbiting the Earth with a bunch of wise-guy robots, doomed to watching bad movies.

But Joel Hodgson, who made an art form of razzing movies on the cult-favorite TV series Mystery Science Theater 3000 for five of its seven seasons, will be back in January - and on network TV to boot.

He and his brother Jim Hodgson have been hired for the new Jimmy Kimmel late-night talk show, set to have its premiere on ABC after Nightline next month.

"I think my role is writer/producer," Hodgson says from Los Angeles. "We're going to be digital-effects directors doing live visual stuff for Jimmy."

It's kind of a cutting-edge job for a show that, alone among the late-night entertainment talk shows, will not be taped earlier.

But Hodgson is used to breaking ground, as Mystery Science Theater 3000 created a new audience for bad movies paired with scathing, sarcastic running commentary.

With Hodgson as marooned janitor Joel Robinson, watched by evil scientists to see how he responds to bad films run in their entirety, the show made its debut on a UHF station in Minnesota before it was picked up by Comedy Central, where it ran from 1989 to 1996. Since 1997, it has been running on the Sci Fi Channel, where it ends its long run next month.

Still, a lot of the episodes have been released on home video and DVD. And this season has seen the release of the first DVD boxed set, The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection (Rhino Home Video, 675 minutes, $59.95).

While a running commentary has long been a feature of films released on DVD, the Mystery Science Theater release is unusual in that its secondary audio track is available without commentary. That's in case there are viewers who want to see such titles as Bloodlust, Catalina Caper, The Creeping Terror and The Skydivers without the cutting jokes of Hodgson, Mike Nelson, who replaced him, and the array of jerry-built robots such as Crow and Tom Servo - all cracking wise.

The nonstop comic riffing had its origins, probably, in talking back to the TV set back at school, Hodgson says.

"I remember in college they had those common TV rooms where you had to sit in these uncomfortable chairs and watch TV. You'd get this audience zeroing in on some inane show, and people would be walking in making inane remarks and being funny. That was something that was always at work in the series."

But it's more than just the silhouettes of the heads talking back to the screen that makes Mystery Science Theater 3000 work. It's also the bargain-basement feel to the production, where the saga of the evil scientists and marooned TV watcher had the homegrown appeal of a local kiddie show.

"I remember watching Doctor Who and realizing what made it work was the consistent low-quality production all the way through. I realized that a low-budget TV show could work, as long as the production quality was consistently low," he says.

To drive home his point, he'd make his robots out of obviously found materials, from gumball machines to vacuum cleaners. "Found objects, found movies - it was clear that this was a junkyard we're going to play in," Hodgson says. "That was the thesis."

It didn't take long to find a cult audience, which followed the show to its various outlets.

"I'm astonished it had such a long run. It ran for 10 years. That's pretty cool," Hodgson says. "It looks like it's got quite a big library on VHS."

But he couldn't stay to be part of its full run.

"I had a really bad breakup with my partner and got frustrated with the whole thing," he says. "I didn't even watch the show anymore until the feature came out."

(MST3K: The Movie, released in 1996, will be shown at 1:05 p.m. today on the Starz! premium cable channel.)

By now, Hodgson says, "time has healed most of those wounds. I can watch and have fun."

And he's looking forward to what Kimmel's show has to offer. "I feel it's going to be pretty different," Hodgson says. "He's got this vision I feel is pretty provocative. He wants it to be absolutely live, and use as few pre-produced pieces as possible. That's going to be real challenging. But we're finding a way to add visual elements so it's live while it's happening and keep it as fresh as today."

After working with robots made of gumball machines, it ought to be a breeze.

Roger Catlin is television critic for the Hartford Courant, a Tribune Publishing newspaper.