We've got movie sign? - MST3K Kickstarts Netflix series

Trace is out entirely, too, it seems. Nothing from Kevin Murphey on Twitter, but it looks like Bill Corbett’s out, too. Frank Conniff and Mary Jo Pehl are currently mum, as well. Fingers crossed for at least some cameos down the line.

I’m still not entirely certain if backers below the $100 level will be able to watch the new eps for “free” (even if DRM or, say, a subscription to Netflix/Hulu/etc. is needed). I can’t find it addressed in the EW interview, Kickstarter itself, or even in the reddit AMA.

There are too few details right now, for my liking. I might chip in 10 just as a thanks for making the stuff that made up my childhood. But, the fact that this is seed money for shopping to a big network seems like a misuse of crowdfunding.

Mike always struck me as a stand up guy. This just reaffirms that for me.

I prefer Joel’s delivery and timing, but I like Mike’s writing more than Joel’s. I do wish they’d work together again. With frank of course.

…I can do without Pearl though.

Looking pretty good so far. I just checked in time for the counter to tick over to $800k, and it looks like most of the high-value incentives are gone already.

I’m simply in. Look, it’s Kickstarter. It’s a place for helping to back something you believe in and hoping it fulfills its potential. Who knows if any studios will want a new MST3K. Maybe all I’ll get for my money is three new episodes… maybe not even that! They could bungle the casting or the writing and the episodes will just be so-so. I’ll feel maudlin about the classic cast, and the less-classic cast. But, hey, Joel Hodgson has earned my goodwill. I want to see him doing something creatively. And the chances that this was ever going to happen always seemed so slim. So, yeah. That’s why I’m in for a few ten dollars.

(No, I am not applying the same logic to Star Citizen; that thing is so goddamned f-ed. :) )

This is at $1.2mil at the moment, so looking good. Joel, please don’t take everything good and rip our heart out!

It’s pretty clear from the Kickstarter page that this is just Joel getting together money to do a project himself. If, for instance, Trace Beaulieu, Frank Conniff, Mike Nelson, or Kevin Murphy were involved, do people really think it wouldn’t be mentioned in the pitch? I’m not talking about you guys in the thread, but why would anyone ask Mike if he’s involved when his name isn’t mentioned in the pitch? Did they think he was secretly involved? Sheesh.

That’s a big part of it for me. Sometimes you see a familiar celebrity age and you’re all, like, eww. But I see how Joel has aged and I have even more affection for the guy. Hmm, maybe it’s because he’s aging pretty much in parallel with me.

You are a terrible person.

You are not a terrible person.

You also are not a terrible person.

Thank heaven for small favors. The less Mary Jo Pehl, the better. Am I a terrible person for saying that?

-Tom, Team Joel

You team Joel people know that Mike was writing Joel and the robot’s dialogue right?

Low bar, but I’ll take it!

And yet, I found I liked Cinematic Titanic better than Rifftrax. Go figure.

You know that an actor isn’t just a guy who reads words right?

-Tom

I just don’t get Rifftrax. Why do I want to listen to people talk over good, or even just decent, movies? That’s cool that some people like it, and I’m glad for their success, but man do they miss the point of Mystery Science Theatre 3000.

-Tom

I don’t get riffing on good movies either, really, but Rifftrax has done riffs of plenty of awful movies they’d never have been able to get rights to do as MST3K productions. Like Battlefield Earth, Batman & Robin, the Twilight movies, etc.

I’ve heard Rifftrax on both good and bad movies, and like MST3K, they truly get funnier as the movies get worse. Their riff of Megaforce had me almost passing out, I was laughing so hard. Their riff of The Dark Knight, in turn, was kinda meh.

That depends on the actor. Mst3k was a major collaboration of all the writers and actors, to single out Joel or Mike does everyone a disservice.

But it mainly does a disservice to Mike. Which is ok because he’s not as awesome as Joel.

Joel was first. I guess I’m like a baby duck. He’s my guy. Daddy Joel.

This. I agree with Tom and Brian that RiffTrax over a good (or even halfway decent) movie completely misses the point. But over a terrible-yet-inexplicably-successful movie like “Twilight”, it can be genius. And there are a distressingly large number of those.

I found the one for the first of the new Star Treks to be good because they helped me to see some of the movie’s stupider elements more thoroughly. It’s not Twilight bad, but it had more than a few soft spots where mockery could get a good grip.

The Twilight Rifftrax series was pretty awesome. I also appreciate that Rifftrax does live movie nights that gets broadcast into theaters. I saw the 90’s Godzilla movie Rifftrax live at my local theater chain, and it was freaking hilarious. I also really love their “shorts” segments riffing over old instructional school movies.

Personally, while I do like Joel for a lot of reasons, (heck, Eegah is one of my favorites) there is something special about Mike’s weird dopey and gullible midwest charm that hits home for me. But, people do need to remember, Mike and Joel and the bots weren’t doing it live, the skits and the movie lines were cooked up over many viewings and included every writer’s input. One of the things I love so much about MST3K is how much of an awesome collaboration that the whole process was.

I do miss the satellite of love segments, and Rifftrax really doesn’t have any semblance of character. So, a completely new reboot of the show would be cool, but I worry that it will be missing the certain spark that was built under the lowest budgets, with a large crew of collaborative writers.

I think the best case scenario for this kickstarter is for it to do well, get picked up by a cable network, and hire on the old crew as writers/creators to direct a newer cast.

The Joel-helmed MST3k will always have a place in my heart.

When I was much younger, we were driving down to St Louis to visit my Grandma for Thanksgiving. This predated cell phones, so we were essentially isolated from the world until we got there. We pulled up in front of Grandma’s house and my aunt came running out to the car, looking panicked. She told us that my grandmother had a heart attack a few hours ago and was in the hospital. We all rushed over to the hospital and spent the next 36 hours in the hospital waiting room, worried sick, getting occasional updates from the doctors.

Eventually, they came out and told us that Grandma was awake but weak. They wouldn’t allow kids in to the ICU so my aunt dropped us off at Grandma’s house and went back to the hospital. I was worried sick and more stressed out than I had ever been in my life. I started flipping around the TV, hoping to find something to take my mind off of things. Stumbled on “Turkey Day”, the all-day MST3k marathon. I had never heard of MST3k before and was totally baffled at first. Spent the next 6 hours laughing my head off. My mom came back at that point and had obviously been crying. I said “Mom, you have to see this show I found” and sat her down on the couch. It took a bit, but eventually she eventually relaxed and started laughing along as well. We spent the entire rest of the day watching Turkey Day and just not thinking about anything.

That got us through that tough day and helped make Thanksgiving a lot better than it had any right to be.

I think that day alone is worth a $100 kickstart