The Mandela Effect is when a large group of people share a common memory of something that differs from what is generally accepted to be fact.
When I was a kid back in the 90s I absolutely loved the show Mystery Science Theater 3000 and wasted away numerous Saturdays watching it on the SciFi Channel. Thing is, I also have a distinct memory of watching reruns of an older version of the show entitled Mystery Science Theater 2000, that was released before they renamed it 3000. I can still see the intro in my head. While I'm certain I had seen the show numerous times, it wasn't aired as often as MST3k and as I recall, when it was on TV it was always very late at night.
I was reminded of it recently and wanted to see what I could find about it online. Upon doing a search I was shocked to discover that apparently it never existed. I refuse to believe that. I can clearly hear the intro and see the title screen vividly in my head. I am certain this was a real show that I had seen on a number of occasions. I even remember seeing individual episodes for sale on VHS format at Media Play back in the 90s! What makes this even stranger is that when searching for Mystery Science Theater 2000, you'll find links to forum threads discussing the show and fellow bewildered viewers who remember this show just like me. Seems many people remember it. Anybody here?
It was named 3000 in response to the amount of people putting 2000 in the title of their films. They were being ironic about it. Source
You may be confusing this with the hygiene product Lever 2000. It's a very common mistake.
While it has always been "Mystery Science Theater 3000" for me, I am now remembering an argument I had back in 1991 or 1992 with the friend of a former college roommate when I mentioned that I had recorded all 24 hours of the first Turkey Day on VHS. He insisted that it was "Mystery Science Theater 2000". It was really important to him that is was 2000 rather than 3000, though I had always seen and heard it as 3000. I try to imagine "two" instead of "three" being sung in the introductory theme song, but it fails to ring any bells with me.
It was always 3000, ever since it started in 1988. The show never aired on USA in the 80s, it started on independent broadcast UHF channel KTMA in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area.
There were similar themed shows making fun of bad (cheap) old movies on USA and on various other independent networks and super-stations like TBS and WGN, but MST3K's SoL premise and viewer silhouettes with Joel and the Robots riffing during the movie were original.
Maybe its a running joke to the people who mess with reality "MST3k"= Mistake
A Youtube comment under a parody video for "Mystery Science Theater 2000" says:
"4tuneagent, 4 years ago: This is cool...The original Mystery Science Theater 2000 aired in the late 1980's on USA network, I believe, which later became MST 3000."
I haven't been able to find it either. I remember MST 2000.