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

I'm constantly perplexed by MSTies' coolness toward that episode.

Teenagers from Outer Space is 4th up today.

Oh, perfect. What an amazing episode. (It's Thanksgiving lunch here it turns out so I've had to miss this and Gorgo.)

I have to stop now for dinner. Hoping for a few more Sci-Fi eps for you all.

Yes, _Danger! Death Ray!_ is next. Finished the meal and cleaning here so I'm just going to happily enjoy this and whatever the final one is.

was skyping with VegemiteMum for a while a missed most of teenagers. i've never seen this one

I am William Burroughs ... I am William Burroughs ... I am William Burroughs ... I'm Rose Kennedy.

I quoted this from memory w/out seeing that scene today... but do you know it is a parody of contestants identifying themselves on the quiz show "To Tell the Truth"? (apparently it's being revived next year, but the classic period was 1956-78)

Yup, I remember seeing episodes when I was small.

And _Santa Claus Conquers the Martians_ to see us out. Only appropriate.

hooray! i havent seen this one either

Kickstarter about to hit $3 million; $300,000 out from six new episodes.

"Maynard Ferguson playing a ballad there."

Okay given the final new skit there -- I would trust MST to make fun of cutesy ukulele filksongs, not to fucking rely on one.

During the final kickstarter spot that closed out the marathon, Joel mentioned anyone from the original show run has been welcomed back to either contribute or make cameos. Presumably Mike got the invitation and begged off?

I have a feeling that's a bit of cover.

I haven't invested a whole lot of time or energy investigating, but do Joel and Mike have a beef?

Mike launched Rifftrax and has been doing it for nearly a decade, so pretty understandable he would continue to devote his energy there.

But, I mean, just a cameo.

Racket Girls is a sloggggg imho, one of those where the sheer dull repetitiousness of the movie ultimately defies riffing. All the wrestling scenes are basically rock climbing, and there's nothing else about the movie to keep it going.

Gorgo is all right. We howled at the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald riffs early on, can't remember a lot of other stuff about it. Teenagers From Outer Space is pretty classic iirc.

I'm kind of fond of Racket Girls. That may be partly due to Eric's enthusiasm for it itt

I remember thinking the Coleman Francis movies were too painfully dull to get through, but eventually warmed to them and they're all three among my favorites. The Gamera movies, otoh.

Racket Girls is a seriously great episode. A double bill of that and The Sinister Urge is some weird high camp all around.

Even in MST3K, diva worship reigns supreme.

those casts are divas, huh?

Was mostly just referring to Gloria from Sinister Urge.

The intense dullness, or blankness perhaps, of the Coleman Francis movies is daunting, yes... I dunno, there's something so idiosyncratic and strange about them that they remain compelling. "Quirky" isn't the right word, but they're distinct. Amazingly, each one kind of finds its own way toward spectacular awfulness while still sharing a fundamental Francis-ism. The long rambling episodic narrative of Red Zone Cuba, the non-narrative of Sky-Divers, the essentially dialogue-free Beast of Yucca Flats... it's a hell of a body of work, one of MST's great discoveries.

As individual a voice as Ed Wood's, no question.

Ah, coffee - a Coleman Francis motif.

A new update:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mst3k/bringbackmst3k/posts/1430238

"Patton Oswalt has agreed to join MST3K as the Forrester's newest Evil Henchman... TV's Son of TV's Frank!"

...uh.

That's pretty surprising.

is it really, though?

Well... I just didn't think that well known of a person would have filled that role.

I hope that Joel is able to dial back some of the cynicism I'm sure Patton might push in the writer's room when they're pitching riffs.

did Oswalt's movie-fanatic memoir spend much time on poverty-row productions?

Patton feels like the most natural feel in the world for this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDUrw7j0UA4

all the feels

remember when he was nominated for an oscar? that was weird

cool this and felicia are good news.

I'm sure it is for some.

Anyway they've gone over $3.3 million so six episodes now planned.

Meanwhile, separately:

http://www.themadsareback.com/

Huh! Is it weird that I'm kinda more intrigued by the idea of seeing a live show by those two than by any of the existing variants?

Nope. Frank's become a very funny (lefty) political stand-up, and he's very good with an audience.

Okay, looking now to the archive -- Shout Factory's announced the next set:

315- Teenage Caveman
405- Being from Another Planet
524- 12 To The Moon
703- Deathstalker and the Warriors from Hell

Aside from Teenage Caveman being a slog with great comments and skits, this is a killer set -- I've wanted the last two on DVD for the longest time, and Being From Another Planet is just goddamn ridiculous. Be interesting to see what documentaries appear with this one; I've always wanted to know more about what the hell was behind 12 to the Moon.

Commenters on mst3kinfo.com point out that this means that Corman (as opposed to Arkoff/AIP productions, I gather) has finally been 'cracked' in terms of licensing, and we might start to see a whole lot of titles finally start to emerge. Here's what's remaining, via another mst3kinfo commenter -- and I admit I can't believe we've come to the point where there's just a little over two years to go, if they keep to the schedule of three box sets of four episodes a year, and can lock down the remaining rights, to a point where every episode bar the KTMAs will have seen a formal DVD at one point or another. (I half suspect the final hardest nuts to crack will be the two Godzilla movies.) That said a slew of the Rhino releases are out of print so I'm just glad I have those all already. There's a hell of a lot of good episodes that still haven't seen a formal release:

*Season 1*
Complete

*Season 2*
201 – Rocketship X-M
212 -- Godzilla vs. Megalon (brief DVD release, withdrawn)
213 – Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster

*Season 3*
305 – Stranded in Space
309 – The Amazing Colossal Man (VHS release only)
311 – It Conquered the World

*Season 4*
403 – City Limits
416 – Fire Maidens of Outer Space
418 – Attack of the The Eye Creatures
420 – The Human Duplicators

*Season 5*
Complete

*Season 6*
601 – Girls Town
602 – Invasion USA
605 – Colossus and the Headhunters
618 – High School Big Shot
623 – The Amazing Transparent Man

*Season 7*
704 – The Incredible Melting Man
705 – Escape 2000

*Season 8*
807 – Terror from the Year 5000
809 – I Was a Teenage Werewolf
814 – Riding with Death
817 – The Horror of Party Beach
819 – Invasion of the Neptune Men

*Season 9*
905 – The Deadly Bees
906 – The Space Children
913 – Quest of the Delta Knights

*Season 10*
1007 – Track of the Moon Beast
1013 – Diabolik

Turns out, BTW, the reason why Corman may have finally caved was due to this. Hadn't heard about it before!

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/roger-corman-lawsuit-blames-citco-784033

mst3kinfo commenter said:

He invested $73 million invested in a hedge fund run by corrupt fund manager. Only $13 million had been recovered, at least from last I heard. He may have lost as much as $55 million! Reports also say he’s looking to sell his whole Concorde-New Horizons film library.

love Frank... maybe i shd come to SF for Sketchfest

jeez Roger, you're almost 90, liquidate.

Also, I was thinking about this earlier and another mst3kinfo commenter put it into clearer terms:

Interesting to note that the new Kickstarter season would release to DVD/blu-ray around 2017 – the same time that the original series DVD releases would be hitting a wall. Perhaps Shout and Joel timed the new season with this in mind? They can’t make any more new volumes, so they will rely on a new series, releases of Rhino volumes, and (fingers crossed) KTMA volumes.

I do think there IS something to this, not necessarily an overriding factor, but at least a contributing one.

I forgot I'd even seen Teenage Caveman as the title conjures up something so, so different from what you get. You can only imagine how ripped off you would have felt at the drive-in. Vaughan was 28 but could pass for 40 and there's just nothing very teenagerish about it at all except for the stock "rebellion against the old ways" crap. Just a chore of a movie though I'm sure I enjoyed it fine as an MST.

Agreed, amazing that it's down to so few films left! I remember when they started coming out at all and it just seemed ridiculous, like one of those really really long anime shows getting adapted and there seemed no point in buying volume 1 since the odds of volume 123 ever coming out seemed slim to none. And yet here we are. A bunch of the "unreleased" ones are still heavy-hitters though - Incredible Melting Man, Escape 2000, fuckin' Human Duplicators (top ten episode for me).

Has there ever been discussion about releasing any of the KTMA stuff, even just say, one set of hand-picked ones for "fans only"? Or is it the case that those episodes don't even exist in archival form? I've been stymied trying to watch any of them by the whole nth-generation-VHS-copy-ported-to-youtube factor.

Well there was a bit of a rumor going around per one of Joel's Kickstarter comments about 'the EARLIEST MST3K episodes' or something like that as a bonus reward. Seeing as Season 1 is fully licensed by Shout Factory, it could just mean digital downloads of that, but perhaps something more? I honestly can't see it -- Joel has spoken before about how he looks pretty dimly on the episodes as very much them experimenting with the form, often very lackadaisically -- and it would mean a huge new amount of rights questions -- I think KTMA's estate (as such) has them rather than an incorporated Best Brains. But maybe it's the skit footage? In any event, given how there are a load of great/weird movies they did for that protoseason, plus the first three that have never surfaced in full, one can dream...

In any event, torrents are floating around of the full KTMA season as we have it, and I just used those.

https://i.gyazo.com/9e355b634c36cf2e96805facc5ce9c1c.png

T.B. on Facebook and twitter still seems a little ambivalent and not 100% onboard with nu-mst3k and tbh i think some of the casting feels a bit on the nose, like they're aiming for avclubbers more than trying to recapture the spirit of the original show.