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

Anybody else catch the reunion show? Went to the airing tonight w/fanatic friends, and while I enjoyed myself throughout (not a hardcore fan or anything), I'd swear my buds pissed themselves and were great at hiding the evidence.

http://www.avclub.com/article/mystery-science-theater-3000-announces-netflix-deb-240027

Neat, but I was really hoping that there would be an announcement that the previous episodes be put on Netflix as well. Now that would be fantastic.

I am somewhat skeptical of Harmon's ability to work under a head writer but i could be wrong. he just always seems drunk & full of ego

mchale is interesting. feels like theyre afraid of not being funny or current enough? idk

could be awesome, wtf do i know

yech worst news but u kinda saw it coming.

"oh here's a brilliant idea: what if the robots were ...... drunk!!!! and the episode was about ..... writing an episode of MST3K!"

simply genius, you've done it again, harmon.

Harmon seems like he would be able to riff funny stuff about bad movies. Thumbs up.

Backers update only but filming of the revival is now fully underway:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mst3k/bringbackmst3k/posts/1691343

And another backers only update -- 'Production on our new season is now completely finished!'

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mst3k/bringbackmst3k/posts/1713309

Looks like it's editing to go. Guess we'll be due to see it all sometime next year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14Mfmn7vN4g

One of my favorites, that one.

"Is he wearing a Braille jacket?"

Next set announced, due out in March:

602- INVASION U.S.A. (with short: A DATE WITH YOUR FAMILY)
605- COLOSSUS AND THE HEADHUNTERS
618- HIGH SCHOOL BIG SHOT (with short: OUT OF THIS WORLD)
1007- TRACK OF THE MOON BEAST

That's some prime trash there. "California laaaaaaady...."

Preorder bonus disc includes a slew of KTMA snippets, that'll be a fun bonus. (Maybe even some of the ones from the first couple of episodes, IE, the ones that nobody has a copy of at all?)

So here's what's left of the classic run that has never been formally released on DVD and/or digitally (a number of the older Rhino sets are still out of print for now, though Shout Factory has rereleased 1 through 4 with more to come and a few of the individual ones as well):

*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212 -- Godzilla vs. Megalon (brief DVD release, withdrawn)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*
309 – The Amazing Colossal Man (VHS release only)
311 – It Conquered the World

*Season 4*
416 – Fire Maidens of Outer Space
418 – Attack of the The Eye Creatures

*Season 5*
Complete

*Season 6*
601 – Girls Town
623 – The Amazing Transparent Man

*Season 7*
Complete

*Season 8*
807 – Terror from the Year 5000
809 – I Was a Teenage Werewolf

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

*Season 10*
1013 – Diabolik

Interesting fact: a clutch of these may not surface no matter what because the rights are specifically held by Susan Hart, an MST3K 'veteran' thanks to appearing in The Slime People. Hart, as this article details, ended up marrying Jim Nicholson, Samuel Arkoff's partner in American International Pictures. He died in 1973, Arkoff sold the company in 1979, and a slew of films made in their limited partnership in the 50s got split between Arkoff, Nicholson's daughters and Hart herself. I forget all the exact ones she has but It Conquered the World and I Was a Teenage Werewolf are among them and I think she has six all told, and so far, no budging. Setting aside Toho and the Godzilla films as their own thing to be worked out if ever, Hart may end up being an even bigger roadblock than Sandy Frank was supposed to be!

Separately, new update from Joel:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mst3k/bringbackmst3k/posts/1713665

Postproduction still happening, editing to be complete by the end of January, new season on Netflix "in the first half of 2017."

And Turkey Day Marathon via ShoutFactoryTV happening on Thursday as always, supposedly being the top six choices from an online voting thing earlier in the year via the Kickstarter, with a full list of 100 shared after the marathon ends. Joel cohosting with Jonah Ray:

https://youtu.be/BTZI6wd5pXc

Joel also added:

One more thing: even though I don't have a new episode of MST3K ready to share with you for Turkey Day, I still want you to have something special to look forward to.

So, if your Kickstarter rewards include any "bonus classic episodes of MST3K," save some room on Turkey Day for a bonus reward that I'll send on Friday to go with your leftovers. I've got a pretty special treat to share, which some of you have been waiting a long time for.

Stay tuned for that!

Plenty of rumors already flying, including the idea that it's a KTMA episode, which I find...unlikely. Guess we'll see.

I wonder how much a single boxset of the ENTIRE series would be if it existed and whether or not I would purchase it anyway. Probably definitely would.

The only formally released DVDs I've missed out on (Shout Factory rereleases aside) are Godzilla vs Megalon and the Radar Men From the Moon bonus disc from a few years back. I am rather thankful to have the rest -- just to be sure.

807 – Terror from the Year 5000

This has one of my favorite lines ever, which nobody else ever remembers: "Hey, it's one of those 'Fly, monkeys, fly!' monkeys!"

I don't have the space for them all right now, so I just rely on youtube. I know I'm certainly missing out on all the bonus content though...

Invasion USA really is a must-see as a glimpse into the period. A Date With Your Family too, and that one's all time, short-wise. High School Big Shot is dire iirc.

Very dire but there's a weird/tragic backstory to it -- the lead guy, Tom Pittman, was apparently this up-and-comer in Hollywood (not that his performance really suggests it; can't exactly call him the new James Dean). But then:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Pittman

On October 31, 1958, Pittman was driving home after a Halloween party when he ran his Porsche Spyder off the road at a sharp curve in the Hollywood Hills. After he failed to return home, his father filed a missing persons report. On November 19, Los Angeles police officer, Roy Kerton, retraced the roads Pittman's father said his son liked to drive and found the wreckage at the bottom of a 150-foot ravine. Pittman's car had crashed through the guard rail, landed at the bottom of the ravine where it remained out of sight.

The film itself was released after he was dead.

This contemporary story offers more -- including inevitable Dean comparisons:

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1298&dat=19581120&id=2uZLAAAAIBAJ&sjid=-4sDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7140,3871947

Interesting bit here in a review of Sally Kellerman's autobio from a couple of years back:

https://classictvhistory.wordpress.com/tag/tom-pittman/

Television actors Robert Sampson and Luana Anders are major characters in the early chapters, as is Tom Pittman, a promising leading man who did a ton of TV guest shots in the year or two before his body was found at the bottom of a Hollywood canyon in 1958. Kellerman’s account of Pittman’s death, and of her role and that of small-part actor Robert Bice (who played square-jawed cops in tons of TV episodes prior to his own early demise) in its aftermath, are so startling that I’m surprised a major publication hasn’t taken up the subject for further investigation.

http://www.tompittmanduo.com/bio.htm

Long may his identical twin thrive.

Anyway, new interview with Joel and Jonah:

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/herocomplex/la-et-st-mystery-science-theatre-3000-returns-20161123-story.html

Interesting bit:

Hodgson: The thing that it really reminded me of, and I hadn't thought about this in so long, is how much work it is to be the host on “MST3K.” You're working with two inanimate objects, two robots. You have to do a lot of acting and emoting, not just for you, but for them too. It's a really big job when you think about all the props, and all the stuff that has to happen and Jonah did a really good job just getting in there. There's a lot of physicality to it.

Ray: Our schedule was so tight that we just sprinted into doing the shoots. The show is so relaxed, but the actual process of doing it— my legs were getting sore from how many times I had to freak out because of the movie sign. One thing that was so great was when Joel would come on in between the movie segments. I remember he said, ”When you come onto screen, just blast onto the screen. Burst on like you're in a rock and roll performance." I was also learning how to work props, how to do sleight-of-hand magic on the spot.

Hodgson: If you look at “MST3K,” especially on the “Satellite of Love” set, it's one shot, and we don't cut away. It's really like a live show... There's all these things that people don't know about when you have that gig. It's not easy. I guess I never really thought about it until I had to look at what Jonah had to do, and go through that with him again. I realized how many feelings I had about it that were kind of unresolved. Nobody knows how hard this is except for this guy and Mike.

I was actually just thinking about that yesterday when I was watching Cave Dwellers and Joel was doing that foley bit. He messes up some lines and they just keep going cause it's got so many props and is relatively long.

Yeah, in general the high number of fuckups contributes a lot to the show's charm, and the fact that they obviously didn't want to constantly reshoot 15-minute chunks of the movie meant that there's a great loose roughness to the riffing itself. Never feels painfully over-rehearsed.

joel fucking up his lines was like 50% of his appeal

for sure!

Okay the marathon is live:

https://youtu.be/JphKSOuaov0

First one: Pumaman!

Meantime the opening bit with Joel and Jonah was...hokey. Which I shouldn't be surprised by, but.

Kneel!

I told you my name is TONY

Everything about this film is such a botch, it's amazing. And the lead guy, dear god. It almost is funnier/worse now after almost two decades of modern superhero movies.

Ah, Pod People. I will never tire of you.

Aw mannnnn sorry to be missing this, esp. Pod People, which at one point I thought I'd burned out on but has now aged perfectly into an old, familiar friend. Even the really minor riffs are gems: ''Ahhh, gimme that, I'll show you how to use a prop phone!'' ''What Trumpy's done is good!'' ''Meanwhile, in YET ANOTHER movie...'' etc.

So many lines still make me laugh. It's easily one of the best from the more languorously paced years.

If you're not in the right mood, its slowness can totally defeat you... though things like the ''McCloud!'' gag start to really build around the dull emptiness of the film itself and become deeply deeply hilarious.

''... and after that, we'll be hearing from Bay Area artist Belmondo...''

"and I will be the one to hold Larry Csonka down, kiss him so soft . . ."

i never get tired of the larry csonka jokes in final sacrifice

i love how the henchmen all have slightly different black tank tops

and the hermit who sounds like Doctor Teeth

My my my my Mitchell.

Okay so Manos has to be number one, any guesses on number two? I'm kinda stumped.

Gamera?

f.s.v.o. Gamera

Good guess!

Anyway, Mitchell.

"Cross to fireplace."

"I usually take mine with a Ding Dong in it but ok"

(We've been having dinner and soon dessert here since around noonish so I'm only catching this as catch can but I do appreciate episodes where I can drop in any time and it's hilarious.)

Mitchell!

Ha, Space Mutiny makes so much sense at number two. Framing stuff is totally convoluted as a standalone but the movie itself and the number they do on it is top notch.

SANTA

And of course Manos. I've got 'Debbie''s book on order and I can't wait to read it.