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

Msties are indeed the craziest of fans, in a good way.

yeah, the average donation is currently hovering around $190, which is pretty absurd.

I did like Jonah's comment a few minutes back: "Wow, look at all those pledges... PREEEEETTY NIIIIIIICE!"

Actually what's kinda fucking crazy is that they've since added almost another $50K. Allowing for late evening/early morning slowdown that still puts them in range to hitting $3.3 million conceivably as early as late tomorrow or the weekend? But we'll see how this shakes out, normally there's a big initial rush then a ticking along before a final rush.

First note from Joel from it all:

The last 24 hours have been so crazy that I don't know what to say. When we decided to come back and do another Kickstarter – and to do it after a year-long worldwide pandemic – we weren't really sure how things would go.

The last time we tried this, it took us almost a week to reach our first goal, and make three episodes... so I guess I figured if we could do that again, we'd be off to a really good start.

But yeah, as you might have noticed, things went a little faster this time...

And it goes from there. I hadn't remembered it had needed a week for the first goal last time out, I don't blame him for being surprised!

New update from Joel clarifies some further details and reconfirms the (kinda) obvious, that it's the returning cast from the last two seasons but also dropped a pretty heavy hint that Emily from the live shows last year will be involved too, a good thing.

Chugging along and about to hit halfway to the main final goal. New update with some details

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mst3k/makemoremst3k/posts/3158936

Meantime on tonight's Mads are Back stream (with Kevin Murphy as a guest), one of the questions the moderator passed along -- saying they were getting a lot of people asking -- was whether either of the Mads or Kevin were involved with this new effort. Kevin politely begged off and noted he had Rifftrax but let's just say it was PLENTY clear that Frank and Trace still feel some ill will over everything that happened, though they tried to keep it relatively smooth. (Trace, not entirely.)

Kickstarter still chugging along -- should reach the next overall goal of $3.3 million in a couple of days -- but in the meantime, enjoy an oral history of the movie

https://film.avclub.com/mystery-science-theater-3000-the-movie-the-oral-histo-1846694612

really good read, thanks for linking! confirmed a lot of what i've probably been carrying around since Usenet FAQ days, but with a lot more detail - and a few lighter notes leavening the familiar nightmare of interfering studio suits.

yeah that was great

Very much makes me want to finally get the Shout Factory Blu-ray edition of the movie, long overdue there. Still working off the original random DVD!

Friends on FB commented that they were very much like Jonah in being obsessed with the movie in particular when young. To quote one of them: "when my mom first married my stepdad he had a ton of figurines and stuff from comics and old sci fi movies and he had a set from This Island Earth and I was like YES OMG YES SCROTOR IS IN MY BASEMENT"

I was lucky enough to catch in a theater like Jonah; unlike Jonah it wasn't as random as all that because it ran for a week in the multiscreen theater across from UC Irvine where I was living/going to grad school at the time. That was a treat.

I remember it in the theater bc I think it was my first experience of being the only person in a theater.

in hindsight i feel very lucky to see it in a theater! my dad took me, and also in hindsight i realize how nice it was that he did - it was at a mall multiplex but one quite far from home, i'm sure the only place it played in the atlanta area. he wasn't into the show (he basically "got" it but never sat down and watched it) but he knew how much i loved it.

ha, thats sweet. my dad loved the show, he probably wanted to come with me, i wonder why i went alone - probably just didnt want to wait for him, like a self-absorbed teenage jerk. he probably still hasnt seen it, i should gift him the blu ray.

Meantime, the Mads have shared their riff on Sonny Bono's warning to the youth about the demon weed, as done the other week. It's absolutely great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXbe9BuLRes

Updates from Kickstarter about various things (more on the Gizmoplex apps, how things are going etc.) plus Joel saying livestreams will be returning over the next couple of weeks, starting with:

SAVE THE DATE: Join us on MONDAY, APRIL 26, at 5pm PT / 8pm ET, for our first big #MakeMoreMST3K Livestream!

Apparently a big video announcement tomorrow, probably mentioning Emily joining the cast but we'll see. Anyway: they're about $80,000 to go until $3.3 million and 6 new episodes so far.

And here's that update with the video news and etc

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mst3k/makemoremst3k/posts/3168008

In sum, this is all pretty good! Emily and her bots were great in the live shows and all so bring it, might as well go full multiverse.

First Kickstarter livestream in half an hour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hugO9coWrw0

So that was really entertaining! They did a very smart thing and have it just be Joel and the Emily 'crew' from the live show chatting away for a bit, plus Matt, one of their producer/writers, as the coordinator along with an off-screen Ivan. They weren't in character, it was just a fun extended chat and it made for a good way to really introduce all the new performers for anyone who didn't have a chance to see the tour. They told some stories and answered some questions from social media via Matt, then they screened that supermarket short they did for the charity drive in fall in combination with them watching/providing comments, answered a few more questions and then screened what is apparently Emily's all time favorite episode, Hobgoblins. Which it turned out Joel had never seen! So they were watching with us via their webcams again and chiming in and it was kinda great, felt like a classic hang where you get a bunch of people together to watch an episode and some folks have seen it and some folks haven't and everyone's just reacting. Because it was Hobgoblins they all got into a few tangents about the puppets along the way and how they figured they were operated and filmed, and it turned out Joel knew the guy who made the puppets, has known him for years! Tried to get a hold of him on the phone, he says he's going to reach out and maybe they'll have him on the next livestream. Which will be either Thursday or Friday and will be Quest for the Delta Knights -- with Mary Jo as a guest! That'll be good.

Update that they've got a slew of livestreams set up for the next week and they're all potentially pretty great. Last night they did Untamed Youth and the theme as such among the attendees was All the Servos, minus Kevin Murphy. Baron got in some especially pointed lines, and there were definitely moments -- which J. Elvis apologized for out of the gate -- that did not age well at ALL but it was good they noted that upfront. Can watch it here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OOK8IZhXWU

Meantime tonight is Quest for the Delta Knights as noted earlier. Here's the full schedule for the next week so far:

https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/assets/033/332/856/4ae1d9f080fcd871c9c11908e2223dea_original.png?ixlib=rb-2.1.0&w=680&fit=max&v=1619727222&auto=format&frame=1&lossless=true&s=76edef10e3fc6ca9fb4b09a718440c01

They also dropped a slew of new add-on awards and things, including a very indulgent but why not 'Ultimate' digital collection of 120 of the original episodes (plus a separate add-on option if you got the earlier version of this back in 2015).

unrelated, but i just rewatched Radar Secret Service the other night and there was a moment when the repetition flipped over in my brain, and from then on every riff mentioning "radar" just had me in complete stitches. what a weird, stupid, dull movie - great find by BBI.

Yeah that's a long time favorite of mine. The extended Goodfellas riff at the end is amazing.

so there's a youtuber with "broadcast editions" of mst3k - like with the comedy central commercial breaks not edited out. i'm currently watching a 1993 Secret Agent Super Dragon and it''s blowing my mind how impossibly dated and distant everything in the commercials seems, culturally, verus the show still seeming so so fresh and smart and funny to me (much of the time). just saw a bar soap ad where the conceit was, someone at a doctor's office is typing out a prescription for you to use this soap. and it's all closeup shots of typewriter keys. the world of ubiquitous everyday *typewriters* seems as alien and as kinda charming as anything from the 50s or the 70s did back when these episodes were new. and the station ads for standup shows are just complete dead air to me. not one thing even feeling like the way a "joke" would be *formed* today.

whereas mst3k, while unquestionably and beautifully of its time also, works for me. maybe some of the lesser skits fall short of the mark. and definitely, the gentle editing pace and "just set the camera in place and hit 'record'' style of filming do not feel contemporary. but i still experience their back-then outreness and hipness, like the residual glow i pick up watching The Talking Heads or something.

Thanks for the tip! Just watched the Turkey Day version of Mitchell!. So many Air Force ads...

and the station ads for standup shows are just complete dead air to me. not one thing even feeling like the way a "joke" would be *formed* today.

curious if you could provide an example

ummm i'd have to dig back thru the youtube, not sure at what point i encountered the ad that pushed the thought over the top. some promo for some "this funny guy hosts a show of other people's standup" show? this whole viewing experience is already a little hazy in my mind tbh.

No worries guess I just wanted to know more about the effect you described! An obsolete joke form or delivery...

Yeah, to be fair I may have oversold that slightly, the problems really might be more with content than form. but judge for yourself in this clip - the commercial breaks start at 3:00, 19:00, 33:00, 43:15, 55:40, 1:08:45, 1:20:30, 1:33:30, 1:44:30... maybe some others i missed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QS4mCeJd7uM

like, the various product ads just feel cheesy and hokey, which is fine, they're 30 years old (though at the time i'm sure some of the advertisers involved thought they were doing quirky, fresh things). the "totally nuts about Payday" song has a kind of cool, hyper-clean sound on the vocal overdubs. but the ads for Comedy Central stuff are .......... not funny. i admit that most of them, i can tell what's supposed to be funny, but time has rendered their constructions awkward and labored-feeling. probably why i reached for the ILX-ism of the horribly formed "joke." just how clunky it feels, and this is a network ostensibly specializing in humor.

Whereas, say, the "jazz combo" host segment skit, while it kinda falls flat in its own way, has a kind of aggressively surreal "we don't care if most people don't get this" quality that would not feel out of place on Eric Andre or something. and the best riffs have this freshness of timing that, while all scripted, genuinely feels like a flash of improv insight, right there on the spot.

so either culturally, humor has moved closer to where MST was in 1993, or... my sense of humor was very much shaped by MST in 1993.

You can't escape your youth. If you will.

Anyway: Kickstarter passed $4.4 mil so we're getting at least nine episodes and one of them with Joel. Just under three days to go (wraps up Friday night at 8 pm Pacific Time) but given the expected but still good to see pretty active count it's looking like the final goal is on.

Meantime the first two movies they'll be doing have been announced:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4219706/

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107979/

should hit the $5.5 million in the next hour or so, Telethon going to be a fun celebration stream

Yeah something'll be up -- the announced stretch goal was $5.8 million to top the amount last time and they'll blow by that even before the telethon starts, so Joel announced this:

Wow! I'm Stunned and Humbled that we just passed our goal of making 12 new MST3Ks and the Gizmoplex! Thank you Team MST3K -- New final goals are coming in the next backer update! Whew!https://t.co/K6eMtyHCD7

— Joel Hodgson (@JoelGHodgson) May 7, 2021

Meantime Bill's doing something pretty cool!

On June 1st I’ll be talking to my friend and musical hero @kristinhersh of Throwing Muses and 50FOOTWAVE about her new book. Can’t wait! Info below. https://t.co/QiODxg6Ssu

— Bill Corbett (@BillCorbett) May 7, 2021

And over in MadsWorld, this is happening, which...well, I'll defer to Eric. Last year, as you can see upthread, Frank specifically said he figured Mike can change his ways. Hm.

This coming Tuesday, May 11, 8pm, @TraceBeaulieu and I perform our next live streaming @MST3K-style show, a riff of T-BIRD GANG. And our special Q&A guest is very special indeed - Michael J. Nelson! $10, a portion benefits @FINfoodMN. https://t.co/WSsxWIJ4ht

— Frank Conniff (@FrankConniff) May 6, 2021

(The podcast that Mike was on there for a while did keep going and complained about cancel culture and the like, posting weekly until January 3 of this year. Ever so mysteriously, they've apparently only had two random episodes since. I wonder what happened shortly after the third.)

New last update from the Kickstarter

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mst3k/makemoremst3k/posts/3183050

Rest well Neil, you were a Kid Brother

http://www.mst3kinfo.com/?p=30558

Also last night's Mads are Back with Mike was, well, a treat? Which yeah, given everything, I almost hate to say it. But they -- probably unavoidably, really -- steered WAY clear of both any mention of the Kickstarter and Mike's not-so-good past achievements in favor of general memories and random discussions about various things like favorite Bond movies and the like. (If anything all the MST stories would have been great on the Kickstarter livestreams if everyone was on speaking terms, which, well, no -- and there was one part when Mike was talking about the auctioning off of everything at the end of the original series run which combined with Trace's comments makes it again clear that if there's one thing that unites all the veterans, it's that everybody probably has it out for Jim Mallon still.)

The film itself was a great piece of late 50s trash, T-Bird Gang, very Daddy-O/The Beatniks in feel, and Frank and Trace did a real number on it -- very entertaining, one of their best yet. Vic Tayback was in it briefly and a big supporting role was, of all people, Coleman Francis! Playing a gruff but actually sympathetic and personable cop? Plus a fuller head of hair? I was kinda amazed seeing he could actually act a bit. Next up is another random thing from the era, The Lost Missile, starring Robert Loggia!

Is there bad blood between the Nu-MST3k crew and the others? All I know is that Frank said once (on Twitter?) that he and Trace weren't asked to participate in nu-MST3k and left it at that (I know Mary Jo and Bill Corbett made cameos).

It's a long story discussed upthread from the time of the 2015 revival. Basically while everyone's pretty much anti-Mallon as noted (though now that he's sold the show some years back it's probably more of a residual grudge), for a long time there seemed to be two 'camps' for lack of a better word, the Rifftrax and the Cinematic Titanic crew. But while the latter probably came together precisely because they saw how well the former group was doing, they got along well enough doing their own things, appeared at the Comic-Con panel years back that's on one of the DVDs, various groups of people met up at other conventions etc. However, there's been enough said at this point that it was clear that Joel initially tried to envision nu-MST3K as a return for original folks like Trace, Frank etc. from Cinematic Titanic -- Rifftrax was happy being themselves I gather -- but then it turned into Joel doing his Next Generation thing, shortly after the collapse of Cinematic Titanic, and I'm sure it's all related. And THAT is what really caused a split. J. Elvis was a bit grumpy about it for a while, but as you noted Mary Jo and Bill (and Kevin!) did their cameos. And J. Elvis and Bill and Joel reunited for the benefit shorts last year, and there's a bit of a guess that they could be the crew for the new Joel episodes coming up. But Trace and Frank have been VERY clear that they had major problems with Joel as a result, and various comments on the old Movie Sign With the Mads podcast as well as Twitter, not to mention last month's Mads are Back livestream, just reinforce that. They did do the MInneapolis MST3K reunion hosted by Rifftrax but you could sense the off vibes a bit.

It's notable, in turn, that if you remove Joel from the equation, everyone else gets along. So for instance Rifftrax had done various events with Trace/Frank, Bridget/Mary Jo, etc. at times, including Sketchfest a couple of years ago. Meantime, at Sketchfest last year, they literally had just about everybody from the old crews together for a massive riff-off, plus Jonah! Meanwhile, Joel was doing the live tour with the new Emily crew in turn. And this time around it's notable that Bill was happily part of the Kickstarter via a livestream turn, as was Mary Jo, while Kevin and Mike did their Frank and Trace appearances. In conclusion -- tangled as fuck. And this is all just the surface level stuff that's public, who knows what else is going on.

If you have a bunch of people who feel like they have sweat equity but one guy who has the actual equity then these things happen

Andy Kindler said that J. Elvis is going to be in one episodrr Ed of the next season

One-Episode Ed, the new superhero

Speaking of Jonah, in 2019 I saw him on the Washington stop of a live tour that included a movie riff of an early 90s vanity production called “Get Even” (or as the title card called it “Geteven”). It was fantastic, he’s a born riffer.

Meantime, the actress who played two roles (as twin sisters) in Deathstalker and the Warriors from Hell, has taken an odd path in life. (She’s been a GOP sort for at least a couple of decades now.)

.⁦@JonathanTamari⁩ on the Toomey seat >

The next person who seems likely to enter the race is Carla Sands, Trump’s former amb to Denmark, who, according to Republicans who have met with her, has privately touted her ability to win his endorsement. https://t.co/YPvrvrxG1P

— Jonathan Martin (@jmartNYT) May 15, 2021

warriors from hell indeed

Imagining an Alt-Timeline wherein Torgo lived and became governor of Texas.

Torgo theme blaring from lifted pickup trucks

“We have nothing to fear... because the master likes you. Nothing will happen to you. He likes you.”

So here’s an artifact. Lately a YouTube user has been putting up MST3K ‘broadcast’ episodes, with the now-thoroughly ancient commercials of their time included. Amusing enough but what I hadn’t realized is that this person has included episodes from the original local TV run on KTMA 23 from Minneapolis in 1988-89. Meaning it’s all *local* ads. Some of them are standard enough promos for other programming or legal firm commercials, but some of them are very very of their time and place specifically. The sound in this episode is choppy and as with most of the earliest ones the riffs are much less plentiful and polished but if you scroll for the ads alone you’ll be amazed. (Amusingly, this was a repeat episode -- they talk about Christmas and New Year's but this tape was done on a March rebroadcast.)

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

There's a number of others up as well.

woah, the "broadcast version" treasures keep on coming! i just watched City on Fire in non-MSTed form (which, yeccccchhh), maybe i'll throw that one soon!