Mystery Science Theater 3000: C/D, S/D.

But wasn't Mike balder than Joel? I'm confused. No matter. I'm balder than both, and I agree with David.

I think that my slight preference for Joel has something to do with a sense that the guy's a bit . . . off, where Mike is merely charming and funny.

But yes, Mike has the angst in there somewhere. He just tempers it very beautifully -- thus his legendary turn as Morrissey.

To add to the book recommendations -- Mike N.'s general essay book Mind Over Matters is another fine read (the TV essay alone is some kinda genius, the mock 19th century novel even more so), while I very much liked Kevin Murphy's A Year at the Movies. Chris Piuma mentioned he felt it was fairly Joe Queenan-like and therefore not as distinct as it could be, but I think it was handled very well and worked as both microstudy of the moviegoing experience and general reflection. Certainly any of the ILF/film-going hounds on this board should consider reading/borrowing a copy, at least. Then there's Mike's new novel Death Rat, which I really need to order next month...

And praise to all the other castmembers doing things and the continual rolling out of more DVDs, though apparently Rhino says they've exhausted what they have the rights to right now and are looking into securing more, hopefully...

"Bad touch."
"Does this mean I like guys now?"
"I feel ill."
"Spanking time!"

http://www.mst3kinfo.com/satnews/catalog/Basement.htm
http://www.mst3kinfo.com/daddyo/images/mrb5.JPG

Keep in mind that the fidelity on these files is sometimes suprisingly good considering the size, and sometimes fairly bad, but even the worst files usually have more than enough detail for a person to get what's going on.

I'm hoping the DVD is a Santa Claus vs. The Martians/Santa Claus double fun pak. It is going to come out late 2003, after all.

Later I may want to say something about MST3K in light of Mark's venting on Zappa, but right now I want to go to Central Park and maybe the Malevich exhibit before it starts raining (again).

goooch....goooch....

This show got me through middle school.

(current space on home PC C-Drive abt 700meg, it are old and small)

"Santa Claus, you're coming with us!"
"You're coming to town."

Because I'm not funny. And neither are you.

Fave all time moment ever, from any episode -- this snippet from Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, delivered and timed JUST RIGHT:

MARTIAN: "What soft, and round, and you put it on the end of a stick --"

SERVO: "An elf?"

MARTIAN: "-- and green?"

SERVO: "Oh, a DEAD elf."

Chris Fujiwara (sounding a little prim), here.

Gamera Vs. Guiron is one of my most underrated favorites, with the Gamera song, Cornjob and the Zabriske Point ref. The "Hello/Thank You" scene with the mothers is my #1 funniest MST3K moment.

We both idly comment on stupidity of movie showing and the commentary from Joel + robots. Go back to reading book/half-watching.

15 minutes later - 'actually, this isn't that bad'

10 minutes later - we have both decided this is the best show ever created

I salute you!

I am still in fact missing Gamera Vs. Guiron, though happily I've seen it a number of times -- that along with Gamera Vs. Gaos, It Conquered the World and four season six entries are now the only things I'm missing from season two on...

Yeah pretty much our crew at Megaphonic (ie friend Chris's network that started with their It's Just A Show overview podcast of the whole series) have long concluded that Joel being an ideas guy but not a business sort showed more and more over the past ten years.

The Mads Are Back episodes were a fantastic run -- I can see why they wanted to take a break but four years of delving into public domain trash that all would have been prime stuff for the classic run of the show was a sweet balm, and boy did I appreciate them starting that up as a response to lockdown.

also loved the guests and the glimpses into their lives (and cat sightings) in The Mads

Yeah that turned out to be a fun little feature, and a lot of those Q&As were treats.

Kate I can't believe I'm asking the ilxor notorious (lovingly) for huge posts to elaborate but here we are

Not speaking for Kate but the Mike and the Rifftrax crew have built a successful business based on movie riffing for 20 years now. Also, they have been using Kickstarter for 15 of those years and have always come through with the premiums and followed through on the promised project. The Rifftrax humor also solidly consistently delivers because they keep the writing team small with longtime trusted young writers (although Conor et al are probably in their 40s now).
Joel by contrast bungled the crowdfunding for nu-MST and the new episodes were VERY uneven.

I'm still unsure what the actual overall consensus is on the nu-MST3k, I just knew how I felt about it (again uncomfortable with the joke pacing and cartoony delivery, also not a fan of the set design, but enjoyed some of it overall despite that)

^^^i think that is the consensus. for my part, though I got less excited about each successive season due to (what i felt was) the extremely uneven quality. didn’t give a shit about the attempt to create some sort pf storyline or “lore” around it (still have no idea what the boneheads were supposed to be but don’t care enough to know*). Liked the humans in front of the camera though, they did their best.

*questionable decision to have accused sex pest Har Mar Superstar in there. My brother joked the makeup was for him to hide from his victims.

yeah the scope of it was just way too big, a "more of everything" ethos that crept into both the production and the writing/delivery itself. i understand how that can be a temptation on the creator side, especially for a restless idea guy like Joel, to come up with new ways to make it fresh and challenging to produce. but none of it made the show any funnier.

they hit upon the perfect show & perfect format & have a very dedicated fanbase that is happy to have more of exactly that, forever. just have three people riffing a movie with brief cheap-looking sketch interludes and have the writing be really sharp. there is no need for that to cost millions & millions of dollars per episode.

Part of that, I want to say, was filming in LA with a more professional setup for the Netflix stretch -- a union shoot too, I gather. I bring this up because season 13 was filmed in post-COVID/lockdown circumstances obviously, and I believe out of Philadelphia, where Joel is now, and along the way it was mentioned it was a NON-union shoot. Which is unfortunate. (This current setup, I don't know, but my sense is -- especially if they keep it to the four episodes -- everyone will be paid appropriately; certainly that's been mentioned more than once. This also said, a friend noted that in ways this almost seems less like a Kickstarter and almost more like preorders?)

Kickstarter 1.8 million with more than 30 days to go

announcement today that Trace will be the art director for all new episodes

second film, looks more fun than any of the modern SW films tbh and I dig the alien face makeup & stop motion

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQ07FcOFNGo

Anyway the Kickstarter closed earlier this week, $2.6 million. They announced the third episode earlier but the fourth one will be a surprise until it's released.

But meantime! Some separate amazing news!

So the first MST3K revival Kickstarter a decade back offered up as a bonus two of the three missing episodes from the very first version of the show on local Twin Cities TV prior to going nationwide on cable. (Literally the first two episodes; tapes from the fourth episode forward captured the rest of the season.) Those first two episode tapes apparently turned up during a scrounge of the archives when Jim Mallon sold things to Joel and Shout Factory, but there was no indication the third one was around. And then out of NOWHERE -- on Bluesky, Jodie Troutman shared the news that surfaced on Reddit an hour back that a tape of that episode, possibly even an official one like the first two, had turned up in a garage sale. The buyer digitized it and now we have it. Amazing!

https://www.reddit.com/r/MST3K/comments/1rz1w3a/found_at_last/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_Z4hnagGLE

ned, i knew you'd beat me to it :)

It's just the way.

did I ever write here about a college friend I had who introduced me to mystery science theater 3000? He actually had taped the very first episode ever—he was avoiding Thanksgiving with his parents, and a friend of his had a metal band that was on a “battle of the bands” on a public access channel and he was flipping around and managed to catch the very first ever Mystery Science Theatre 3000 episode nearly at the beginning, was intrigued by it and started taping it immediately, but he flipped between that and the battle of the bands and a few years later he showed it to me and it’s just hilarious how he flips between his friend’s band and history in the making.

Hahah okay that's amazing.

So the first MST3K revival Kickstarter a decade back offered up as a bonus two of the three missing episodes from the very first version of the show on local Twin Cities TV prior to going nationwide on cable. (Literally the first two episodes; tapes from the fourth episode forward captured the rest of the season.) Those first two episode tapes apparently turned up during a scrounge of the archives when Jim Mallon sold things to Joel and Shout Factory, but there was no indication the third one was around. And then out of NOWHERE -- on Bluesky, Jodie Troutman shared the news that surfaced on Reddit an hour back that a tape of that episode, possibly even an official one like the first two, had turned up in a garage sale. The buyer digitized it and now we have it. Amazing!

Amazing indeed! And boy does this make me nostalgic for the days before constant, incessant riffing, which is one of many reasons I find nu-MST unwatchable. I mean I randomly clicked in the middle of this video and there was what appeared to be at least 30 seconds of no riffing at all. Back then, every joke had to count!

Also you can download this directly from the Internet Archive now:

https://archive.org/details/0003-star-force