Timeline / Mystery Science Theater 3000

• 1989 or earlier:
  • Janitor and inventor Joel Robinson is shot into space in the Satellite of Love by Dr. Clayton Forrester and Dr. Lawrence Erhardt, his employers at Gizmonic Institute. They begin forcing him to watch bad movies to monitor the effect on his mind.
  • Joel builds Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo, and possibly Cambot, Gypsy, and Magic Voice as well.
  • Dr. Forrester and Dr. Erhardt retreat from Gizmonic Institute to live in one of its sub-basements, Deep 13.
• 1990:
  • Dr. Erhardt vanishes and goes on a journey of self-discovery, and Dr. Forrester hires TV's Frank to replace him. Unrelatedly, Tom Servo's voice changes.
• 1993:
  • Joel escapes the Satellite of Love, and is replaced as a test subject by temp-worker Mike Nelson.
• 1995:
  • TV's Frank ascends to Second-Banana Heaven.
• 1996:
  • Clayton's mother, Pearl Forrester, moves into Deep 13 with him.
  • Funding for experimentation on Mike and the 'Bots is terminated, and the Satellite of Love is released from its orbit around the Earth and drifts off into space.
  • Mike, Crow, Tom Servo, Gypsy, Cambot, and Magic Voice become beings of pure consciousness when the Satellite of Love reaches the end of the universe. Crow quickly gets bored of being pure consciousness and returns to the Satellite of Love.
  • Clayton is visited by a giant videocassette of the Worst Movie Ever Made, and turned into an infant. Pearl swears to raise him right this time.
• 1998:
  • Pearl smothers Clayton to death with a pillow.
• Sometime before 2525:
  • Due to mass interbreeding, Earth becomes a planet where ape evolves from man.
  • Crow wins a race of microscopic robotic organisms known as Nanites at a county fair.
  • Pearl is placed in cryostasis.
  • Crow's voice changes.
  • TV's Frank leaves Second-Banana Heaven and becomes a Soultaker.
• 2525:
  • Mike, Tom Servo, Gypsy, Cambot, and Magic Voice return to their corporal forms and return to the Satellite of Love, in orbit around Earth, against their will and without knowledge of how.
  • The experiment resumes thanks to the inhabitants of "Deep Ape", most prominently Pearl Forrester, recently returned from cryostasis, and an apeman named Professor Bobo.
  • Earth is destroyed by a hydrogen bomb thanks to a cult that worships it (with a little help from Mike), leaving the inhabitants of the Satellite of Love as the only survivors. Pearl and Bobo also survive and chase them across the universe in a spaceship VW bus called the Widowmaker.
  • Gypsy's voice changes.
  • The SOL crew, Pearl, and Bobo are captured by a race of aliens called the Observers. The Nanites blow up the Observers' planet, and one of the Observers ("Brain Guy") joins Pearl and Bobo in the Widowmaker.
  • Pearl, Bobo, and Brain Guy take up residence on a Camping Planet. It eventually comes under attack. Mike constructs a baking soda bomb to take out the attackers, and it works—but also blows up the Camping Planet. The SOL and Widowmaker crews both survive.
  • The SOL and the Widowmaker are sucked into a wormhole.
• 0064:
  • The SOL and the Widowmaker arrive on the other side of the wormhole, in orbit around Earth during Roman Times.
  • Pearl and Brain Guy are mistaken for gods by the Romans, but get arrested after Bobo blows their cover. They ultimately escape back to the Widowmaker and nothing explodes this time—though Bobo does burn down Rome.
  • The SOL and the Widowmaker are sucked back into the wormhole.
• 1985:
  • Using a time machine made by the Nanites, Crow appears to talk with a young Mike and convince him to stop being a temp-worker so that he won't get shot into space. This leads to Mike's death and his cruel brother Eddie being trapped on the SOL instead, so Crow returns to tell his past self to abort the plan and let Mike continue temping, restoring his future to normal.
• 1998:
  • The SOL and the Widowmaker exit the wormhole and come out in orbit around modern-day Earth. Pearl, Bobo, and Brain Guy move out of the Widowmaker and into Castle Forrester, where they begin their plans to rule the world.
• 1999:
  • Joel briefly returns to the Satellite of Love to prevent it from self-destructing.
  • Pearl joins the Institute of Mad Science so she can obtain the credentials needed to become a true world-conquering mad scientist.
  • The controls of the Satellite of Love are irreparably damaged, causing it to return to Earth in a spectacular crash-landing. Mike and the 'Bots survive unharmed.
  • Pearl accepts a job as dictator of Qatar. Bobo accepts a job as a zoo specimen. Brain Guy accepts a job as an omniscient intelligence for a quadrant of space.
  • Gypsy founds her own company, ConGypsCo.
  • Mike, Crow, Tom Servo, and Cambot move into an apartment in Wisconsin.
• Sometime before 2017:
  • The Satellite of Love is rebuilt. Crow, Tom Servo, Gypsy and Cambot return to the Satellite of Love.
  • Crow and Tom Servo's voices change.
• 2017:
  • Gizmonic Institute pilot Jonah Heston is lured into a trap at Moon 13 by Dr. Forrester's daughter Kinga Forrester and her assistant "TV's Son of TV's Frank" Max, and subsequently placed on the Satellite of Love as the new test subject.
  • Jonah changes Gypsy's voice and builds M. Waverly and Growler.
  • Kinga briefly attempts to marry Jonah as a ratings stunt. The wedding is ruined when Max, in a fit of jealousy, has Jonah eaten by a giant robot lizard. Jonah survives no worse for wear.
  • Dr. Erhardt returns from his decades-long absence seeking Kinga's help in fulfilling Dr. Forrester's final wishes.
  • Jonah outsmarts Kinga by locking her and Max in Moon 13 and forcing them to watch their own bad movies nonstop. He and the 'Bots return to Earth in Kinga's spaceship.
• Sometime before 2022
  • Gypsy has her name changed to GPC.
• 2022:
  • Kinga and Max destroy Moon 13 to escape and build the Kingadome and Moon 1 as their new base of operations. Jonah and the 'Bots are returned to captivity on the Satellite of Love to resume the experiment, which is now operated through Kinga's new Gizmoplex streaming format.
  • Gizmonic technician Emily Conner is tricked by Kinga into building a secondary site for the experiment, the Simulator of Love, and is trapped inside with animatronic (and differently-voiced) copies of the 'Bots as the new second test subject.
  • Emily upgrades the Simulator's GPC into GPC-2.
  • An aged Joel Robinson from the year 3000 is brought back through time, SOL and all, to 2022 and made to take part in Kinga's experiment.
  • Jonah, Emily, and Joel combine their ingenuity to break free of Kinga's control and escape through time to the year 1991.