In 1988, KTMA, a low budget UHF station in Minneapolis, needed some content to fill in their schedule. A local comedian named Joel Hodgson got in touch with his idea to create a TV show making fun of bad movies.
and thus was born Mystery Science Theater 3000.
The concept of the show was simple: take, say, a horror host like the Crypt Keeper. then instead of him just introducing what you watched... watch it WITH you, making jokes and comments, an idea known as Riffing.