On September 29, 1990,
The Sidehackers was featured on
Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) in episode #202. It includes one of the few occasions
Cambot actually interacts with the experiment other than simply filming it; in this case, the bot places an
ESPN-like score graphic during the movie's racing sequences. The episode was released on DVD by
Rhino Entertainment as part of the third volume of the
Mystery Science Theater 3000 DVD box sets. The four-disc collection was later reissued by
Shout Factory in September 2016.
Edits The MST3K writers were initially unaware of the film's darker content when they selected it for the show, only having watched the entirety of the film during the writing process. They were horrified to discover the scene in which Rommel's girlfriend Rita is raped and killed, juxtaposed with shots of Luke and Lois' children playfully roughhousing. This scene, and the discovery of Rita's nearly nude body, were removed from the episode. To make up for the missing plot elements, the character of
Crow interposes, "For those of you playing along at home, Rita is dead." According to the series'
head writer (and future host)
Michael J. Nelson, "We were all traumatized, the scene got cut, and from that day forward, movies were watched in their entirety (for such potentially offensive content) before they were selected." ==Soundtrack==