Some observations:
* MST3K is mentioned only briefly in the first few minutes and there are no comments from any of the cast members. As several people have noted: while the mention was brief, it puts them ahead of Comedy Central, which dropped its ersatz “signature show” into the memory hole and didn’t mention it at all during a retrospective a few years ago.
* The narration makes it sound as if MST3K was there at the beginning of the channel, when in fact the network had been around for more than four years before MST3K was picked up. A little misleading.
* TV Guide’s Matt Roush (who, by the way, had some comments in “This is MST3K”) says something strange: He describes the show as “the perfect show to rescue because it wouldn’t have cost anybody very much money to just film that thing.” I’m not going to make too big a deal about that comment, because I don’t think Roush has a clue what the decision process was and he was just making stuff up that seemed to sound good in his head, but I think if I worked on the show I’d be a little offended. In any case, it’s interesting that in the end one of the chief complaints of the network bigwigs was how expensive the show had become.
* Looking at the special as a whole, the oddest thing to me was the way all performers and executives of all the shows spoke of cancellation as something that just sort of…happened. Like getting a cold or having a meteor hit your house. Nothing any human could do about it! Very odd, and frankly what it felt like to me was a long series of justifications for some very ham-handed programing decisions. Just my opinion.
Did you see it? What did you think?
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This “anniversary special” is anything but history. For one thing, how come no mention that it was the first home of the Doctor Who reboot, or that it was the home of the old episodes? That should tell you how much the show cared about looking back at the entire history of the channel. It was more of a showcase of its more successful shows, embarassing movies (and the nerve they have to be proud of how bad they are), and what they have now. Of course, they’d give 15 seconds to MST3K, and not realize it was a major reason to tune into SyFy,
SyFy…To be honest I never watch the channel anymore…it has become a dumping ground where budding CGI computer geeks hone their skills doing films that have dino, croc, octo or shark in the title. The fact that show got a luke warm tribute is hardly surprising…Disappointing? Yeah. The show deserved better.
Didn’t see it but you gotta admit they (SYFY) have made some great movies. I’m sure it didn’t cost anybody very much money to film those things. Sadly the worst movies on MST were far better than any of the garbage SYFI movies they’ve put out. Thanks for saving MST when you did for that I’m (we’re) grateful. Now shut up, dry up, and rot you talentless hacks.
Someone said something once about the right people getting it. Does that mean that at one point, some folks got it then later didn’t get it? I’m confused. Then again, it’s just a show. I should really just relax. Next up on SyFy – Cybercrock vs. TarantulOctomom 4: The Return of SuperRoboSnake!
I flipped by last night, but unfortunately I came in when they slammed into the speedbump that was Crossing Over with John Edwards. The last thing I remember seeing before disinterest drove me to dreamland was Matt Roush’s alibi about reality programming, If you have 24 hours to fill, you have to have reality shows!
I was flipping around and happened to catch when they were talking about Battlestar Galactica, one of the things SciFi did right. Since they became SyFy, they have deteriorated into basically the Kardashians with CGI. That channel would double their viewership if they only ran reruns of the good shows they used to have – MST3K, BSG, Eureka, Stargate, Doctor Who, Eureka, Babylon 5, Farscape, Twilight Zone, and real movies (even 50s B movies).
Is this turning into a “rip on SyFy” discussion topic?
Didn’t catch this. They do get some props for at least mentioning MST3K, although I gotta say that I’ve always found Matt Roush to be one of the most obnoxious people out there. Not so much in his writing, but whenever he’s on-screen, something about him drives me nuts. That aside, it doesn’t surprise me he was kinda clueless on MST3K; There’s no shortage of people like that out there.
Anyway, I don’t watch SyFy, and I haven’t in years. The channel is a mere shadow of it’s former self. Back in the late-90’s (when it was actually the “Sci-Fi Channel”, not this “SyFy” nonsense), man, there were so many good things on that station. Besides MST3K, they ran lots of great old sci-fi and horror flicks and TV shows. I still remember their Godzilla marathons with fondness. And once, they even did a week (?) long tribute to Ray Harryhausen films, which was of course terrific.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but that really all started to disappear with the change in management that eventually laid waste to MST3K. Even in the early-2000’s, when MST3K was still being rerun on Saturday mornings, the contrast between it and everything else they were running was a little jarring. It was like MST3K exemplified everything that made the channel so much fun in the first place, but there was nothing else really like that on the schedule, IMO.
(I’m not saying the network is completely worthless. I was never a fan of Battlestar Galactica, Dr. Who, etc., but SyFy did or does air some good, even acclaimed, stuff, but personally, the channel does nothing for me nowadays.)
I remember (mainly from some commercials on my old tapes) when they had SciFi World for a while. A day of the Incredible Hulk, or Wonder Woman, etc. I didn’t typically get to stay home all day to watch, but I did call in sick once when I saw there was a day-long marathon of Gemini Man. Sadly, it wasn’t nearly as fun riffing it with my pal (who’d also called in sick) as Riding with Death, but still a good time, you turkeys! It sure seems like repeating some of those old favorite shows from time to time would draw in viewers. Nowadays, the only time I hit up SciFi is on a holiday when I think I might catch some old Twilight Zone episodes.
I caught the blurb they did on MST. Kind of a strange presentation. I think it happens only 4 minutes into the show. I have to agree with Sampo’s comment about how odd the comments about cancellation seemed. A couple times they talked about it just being part of the evolution of the show. Well, yeah, I get that pretty much every show will end up getting cancelled, but Sci Fi seemed to do it so frequently when the shows were still very popular.
#4 Cabbage Patch Elvis said: “Next up on SyFy – Cybercrock…”
Wow, I totally misread that, making it a much, MUCH different movie in the process…
“Wow, I totally misread that, making it a much, MUCH different movie in the process… ”
I believe you’re thinking of a movie that will be running on PlyBoy Network.
Sci-Fi or “Syfy” as its known now has been dead to me ever sense they 86ed Farscape, that for me was the final nail in the coffin, didn’t take them long to remove the only reason I had left to watch that channel.
I would have tuned out the day after they ended MST3K reruns if not for Farscape. Very sad, that used to be one of my go to channels right next to History, BBC, Science, and AMC.
“a chalk outline of Santa, that’s the last thing a cop wants to see”
Didn’t see this show but I have to say regarding SciFi, the Twilight Zone New Years marathon is awesome and we look forward to it every year. So in spite of dumping MST, this is one thing they are currently doing right.
And I guess I am thankful that they took on MST in the first place since it provided us with 3 more seasons that we wouldn’t have gotten otherwise (and a few of the very best episodes IMHO).
At least sci-fi (or whatever it is now) acknowledged Mst3k. I seem to remember a similar anniversary special on Comedy Central several years ago not even mentioning the program which once carried that network. Does anyone else remeber this, or was I dreaming?
Sci-Fi, A&E, TLC, E!, MTV, VH1, History, Bravo… what other channels from my youth abandoned their programming niche for cheap reality shows and lowbrow original content?
#11 Max Keller: Please tell me “PlyBoy” (without the “a”) was intentional? :-)
I don’t think you’re dreaming, Raindog, I seem to recall that as well, but Google is not forthcoming with the details.
I love Mike’s intro on Revenge of the Creature, where he attempts to re-pronounce the channel’s re-spelling. Opus, I totally agree. I think it started when the Discovery Channel started running American Chopper (because that’s science… somehow). TLC might as well change its name to the “Learn About Why You Shouldn’t Live in a Double-Wide Channel,” because that’s all it’s been teaching me. I’d love to see a reboot of MST on See-Fee that trades exclusively in Dinocrocofrappacinio-whatever movies produced there – THEN it would be a cheap show to produce! And the movies pretty much all suck, so it’s a gold mine!
I had heard of the ‘big anniversary show’ and flipped into it about 20 minutes in (yes, it was that important to me) and decided to watch for lack of anything better on (again, that important to me)…
It was mildly entertaining, but I too, was struck by the attitude that the presentation took about the many cancellations. The only one they seemed to exhibit any regret over was Farscape, and that regret was noted by clips of fans and an interview snippet from production members.
While capable of slavishly lauding themselves, SYFY apparently cannot see their failures as faults, but (as noted by others here) something that just seems to mysteriously happen to this great, Venerated-By-Time network.
I was waiting for some of the pro wrestlers to show up, as SYFY has devoted so much of their ‘devoted-to- science fiction’ air time to them, but I guess they were busy elsewhere… perhaps reading/writing science fiction (hey–there must be SOME reason they are on the ‘SYFY’ channel)…
…Or mayhap, they were off Fighting-The-Good Fight, battling Vampire Women somewhere.
(One can only hope)
Wouldn’t it have been great to see the 20th anniversary special be… well, special? And honest?
“It was clear to us here at the Sci-Fi channel, or whatever the heck it is we’re calling ourselves — heck, I’m just the announcer and I can’t possibly pronounce the spelling you always see at the bottom of your screen but just look at it there and make up whatever you want — that we really don’t know what the hell we’re doing. So for a few years we had this show that apparently was a comedy show — it WAS a comedy show, right? I mean, I can’t really tell if we are supposed to do comedy or what. Wasn’t that Octojaws things versus Snooky a comedy? I’m not sure anymore — I’m not even sure why they hired me, Penn Jillette, to do the narration, but they heard I used to work on television and, hey, the good folks here at the Science Channel or something are willing to give ANYONE a chance, as long as it doesn’t cost much and has something with space and stuff in it. Or Jaws. Or horror. Or perhaps psychics — I dunno, the one we hired told us to change our name and and cancel a lot of popular shows like Eureka and put HIS show on 24 hours a day and we here at the Snuffy Network would be successful. I don’t really know and I don’t really care — just like everyone else here at Shlock Channel I’m so stoned most of the time I’m not even sure I’m on the air. What? This isn’t the air anymore, it’s something called cable? Where’s that quiet guy who’s my keeper?! I need my drugs!!”
Doesn’t surprise me that MST3K barely got mentioned. SyFy (ugh! I hate typing that!) just doesn’t give a damn anymore.
The Sci-Fi channel (I refuse to type their current spelling) has always been jerks to MST3K, and the fact they got any mention at all, even a few sentences, surprises me.
They should have realized from day one what a cash cow they had and the show should have gone for more seasons!! But then, that’s why I don’t go to the channel anymore, any show I was interested in, Sci-Fi would mess it up in some way and I would leave in disgust!
I’ve avoided it like the plague.
I’m kind of on the “outs” with Syfy these days; first they cancel MST3K, then they cut the crap out of classic shows like The Twilight Zone, and then they start producing really, really crappy TV movies. The last straw was WWF.
I’d rather watch Lifetime…….well, maybe not.
When they cancelled it way back in 99′. I was glad I taped most of it because I had a feeling that it would not be on for too long. I saw that SFC (Significant Fleeting Crap) or what ever clever term they use to call themselves these days. They really didn’t care to pay tribute to it. I wonder if the Trekkies on the SFC are still offended by the good nature ribbing that was doled out from the show? I figure there is no sense of humor to be found any more on this channel. What a shame for them! I felt that when the show was picked up by them back in 97′. This was at last the best place for it. Comedy Central, wow did they ever say good bye to it! I was glad that I had quite the experience with finally seeing it! Both on TV and in person when Kevin Murphy and Jim Mallon came through my area and I was able to see them. At least the show lives on through DVD, on the Internet and through the spin offs, Cinematic Titanic, Film Crew and Rifftrax and the live Rifftrax shows! Keep Circulating The Tapes!
All these budding cable channels in the 90’s were assumed into the host networks to be part of the “Brand” That would cause a dumbing-down effect from the execs down to programming. MST3K was GOOD! That’s why it lasted as long as it did. Most shows wear out their welcome after four or five seasons.
I don’t even have cable any more because I can’t stand the channels I used to love watching.
Let us all celebrate the advent of DVD’s
MST3K at one time was on every day of the week at Comedy Central (CC) so it was amazing that they now appear to have expunged it from their official history. I did see the CC retrospective show a few years ago and I was amazed that MST3K didn’t get discussed at all. MST3K literally was their signature show and one of few with a loyal fan base for years. CC used to include MST3K in every themed programming day (e.g., the “go ape” day featured Time Of The Apes along with lots of other ape-themed comedy shows and movies), show it late at night every week night and every afternoon, run it for 30 hours on Turkey Day and have repeat showings of the new episodes on weekends. It’s startling that they no longer wish to even acknowledge its existence.
However, besides the fact that they did treat the show with reverence at its peak and run it constantly I’ll give Comedy Central one other thing and that is that they are still a COMEDY channel after all these years. SyFy no longer focuses on science fiction. The past few years they’ve diluted their programming with so much unrelated junk like pro wrestling it’s terrible. And the History Channel no longer shows history, The Learning Channel as it was once known hasn’t shown anything that would teach anyone anything useful in about ten years, the Science Channel has started diluting their programming with non-science shows and even National Geographic is deviating from their longstanding educational mission with some fairly weak excuses for documentary educational programming lately.
I didn’t see the SyFy (Sci-Fi Channel) retrospective show because I sadly watch the channel so little these days that I was completely unaware of it till seeing this article here on Satellite News. About the only time I watch SyFy is for the occasional Twilight Zone episode. I remember waiting patiently the night Sci-Fi went on the air just to see what a channel launch looked like, their first program was Star Wars. They had tons of fun old cheesy movies and TV series as their staple programming and some of it wasn’t very good the first time around much less in reruns, but it least it was science fiction of sorts. I don’t know what they are doing now. Except for their own terrible made for TV movies and the occasional Twilight Zone marathons they don’t show hardly any science fiction at all any longer.
Nevertheless, it’s good to hear they did at least mention MST3K in the SyFy retrospective and like most MSTies I’m grateful that they provided three seasons of new episodes of our favorite show.
I miss the original Sci-Fi channel. The shows were quirky, fun and better than a slap on the belly with a wet trout any day!
Mission Genesis.
I wasn’t around the show the during the sci-fi channel years, and I didn’t see Matt Rouch’s comments, but I’m not offended if he’s saying that putting MST3K on the air makes sense for a network because it’s cheap, the inexpensiveness of the show was definitely a factor in the Comedy Channel picking it up, that’s just a fact (how you get on TV doesn’t matter as much as what you do once you get there). Also, I haven’t had a meeting at Comedy Central in years, but I’d be willing to bet that there are executives there who have never even heard of MST3K. I’m just glad that when we were on the network, the people who were there at the time gave us almost complete creative freedom, which I understand wasn’t quite the case at the sci-fi channel. That creative freedom was a beautiful thing and we were all new to TV, so I don’t think we quite appreciated how rare it was and how ideal a situation we were in. These days, I never watch SyFy, but I will say this: any network that airs “Crossing Over with John Edwards” should be ashamed of themselves.
Originally, I was pretty angry at SciFi for ditching MST after doing nothing whatsoever to promote the show after season 8… until the final episode, that is, at which point they pulled out all the stops. We MSTies did have our time in the wilderness as they spent several years showing re-runs of a show that supposedly had performed so poorly for them. The cast wrote books, started and abandoned a websites, etc.
I wasn’t able to stay angry though. There hasn’t been a better time to be a MSTie than now, as far as I’m concerned. We’re up to our eyeballs in quality riffing, both live and on DVD. And the original show seems to be more respected than ever. http://my.spill.com/profiles/blogs/remote-viewing-episode-38
I didn’t watch the special. I have a question, though: when they mentioned MST3K’s cancellation, they did mention Bonnie Hammer’s “I’m going to kill that #$%+#@$% puppet show,” comment?
@29: well said, Frank.
–
I didn’t see this special, I don’t have cable. Doesn’t sound like I’m missing much…
There used to be a show on Sci-Fi I liked, called Trailer Park, where they would show old sci-fi movie trailers with a brief history or commentary; the show was hosted Tom Davis, ran until 2000..
This discussion has definitely heightened my interest in seeing the SyFy 20th anniversary retrospective show at least in part to get an idea what it’s like. It is being rerun this week and I’ve already set my DVR to pick it up.
Thanks Snowdog @ 30.
That SPILL review of Vol. XXV was really cool. The next time I have two hours to kill I’ll listen to the entire show.
Oh, and @ 29: Hi Frank.
Even if it had to only last for 3 more seasons, I do wish that the Sci-Fi Channel ordered a full 22 shows for seasons 9 and 10.
@ MikeK #35
The sting of miss opportunities caused by short-sighted thinking burns ever so acutely.
I figured they were only going to do something brief about MST3K but that clip from the show they used was horrible quality. Looked like something they got off YouTube or something. Eh, better to acknowledge that it was something they had while they were still looking for their voice than pretending it never happened. As for the rest of it, it was pretty decent- got worse as it went on though, as can be expected, but they covered a lot for two hours.
Remember that SciFi channel bumper where the guy stepped off his elevator into a vast, white nothingness? Turns out that’s where SyFy’s been getting their programming inspiration for the last few years.
I wonder if Busta Rhymes is still there, floating weightlessly…
You know what this thread makes me think?
We really need a Science Fiction Channel!
The whole thing was such a corporate kiss job that it was almost riff worthy itself.
All of the behind the scenes intrigue that many stars, writers and producers have talked about for years was conspicuously absent.
All their errors were treated like just normal working conditions for a cable network.
Like I said, Riff worthy unto itself.
#17
Thank you Stacia. I googled “Comedy Central’s anniversary” too and got nothing!
I remember the day after that show aired coming to this site and expecting outrage!
And found nothing.
Was I supposed to capitalize “googled”?
I’m so old.
I’m glad this subject allowed a lot of you to slam wrestling and “WWF” (which it hasn’t been called since the early 2000s) so vehemently. Although to be fair, wrestling isn’t SYFY, or sci-fi, or fi-sci.
The SYFY channel is still usually in the top 10-20 in all of cable television per week, largely helped by the rasslin. The only show I ever watch on that channel is Black Out with Urkel. That’s a fun show.
I missed the first six minutes, so I missed the MST3K appearance. Truth be told, it wasn’t as annoying as Fox’s recent Anniversary Special (which was marred in Vegas by our Fox affiliate losing the HD feed, which is something they’ve regularly had issues with for years). But, that’s like saying that waterboarding is worse than watching Manos unriffed.
For one, I was done with Roush for life after he defended reality programming *and* the name change. For someone who has spent time rooting for niche shows, he really angered me with his comments in favor of wrestling and reality shows on Siffy.
It’s too bad the special didn’t mention the old “Animation Station” block, so I could have at least raged about the network’s long-standing practice of editing the crap out of classic TV, which was never more insane than it was when their reruns of The Transformers (which eventually became quite limited in scope thanks to the then-concurrent Generation 2 re-edit airing in syndication), where the edits saw lines from different characters being merged with amazing frequency.
# 10 Don’t be too surprised if SYFY does make a movie about what you misread.
The promo will say “IT’LL BLOW YOUR———-MIND!”
Bonnie Hammer, blegh! She’s like the Lorraine Williams of television.
Sci-Fi, what happened?! You used to be amazing! I remember when people on the message boards were constantly dumping on their “Sci-Fi World” programming block (I actually recorded one of their “Kolchak: the Night Stalker” marathons from those days; still got the tape). If only we knew how crappier it would become in about 10 years.
I didn’t see the special, but I’ll try to catch it when it runs again.
Okay, admittedly, this is just a tangent off topic, but I want to offer a perspective on the nature of ‘SYFY’….one that gives all posters here and this forum itself a ‘pat-on-the-back’.
For years, Sci-Fi, or SYFY, has had a message board quite similar to this one. Topics chosen by the board administrators, then posters comment…A very basic board, with no dedicated registration; ergo anyone could post in under any name they chose–including another poster`s chosen name.
This led to snarky, cowardly attacks wherein posters with a grudge against another would post in under that poster`s name with something embarrassing or inflammatory (with the idea that others would read it and attribute the sentiment to that poster, therby creating animosity towards the person they had the grudge against. In a topic on ‘Firefly’, they would post in as someone they had a grudge against and say “Firefly was crap”, etc.. Imagine the response of posting in here with something along the lines of; “MST was stupid and the worst thing ever”)
This went on for quite some time, with no response from the administration.
Finally–after the situation had devolved into a barrage of non-stop attacks–the powers-that-be at SYFY (or ‘BLASTR’ as the forum is known) decided that instead of addressing the flaws in their board that permit the attacks, just removed General Useage and limited the board to users of Facebook or Twitter, etc….Using their dedicated log-in as the defacto log-in for SYFY`s board.
Overnight (literally) this took the comment count on Sci-Fi news items from 50-100 average down to 5-15 average….because ONLY the Facebook & Twitter crowd can now post comments.
It should be noted that most of the users now excluded were in fact, NOT the people who were posting merely to make attacks on others, but were just regular people out to express themselves in a sane and intelligent manner.
They got rid of the snarky cowards…but they also got rid of most of the GOOD posters in the process!
Instead of addressing the issue to the benefit of all by enacting some form of registration, SYFY took ‘the easy out’..at the expense of the very people they supposedly care sooo much about.
My Point here being…
Have y`all ever noticed the level of overall intelligence and maturity we get here?
I post here infrequently, but this forum is a solid testimony to the quality not only of MST…But of THE FANS of MST.
To you who have read all this:
As one fan to another: I appreciate you !
I remember the early days of the Sci-Fi channel. I really enjoyed it then. Still remember seeing classic Doctor Who, followed by Zombies of the Stratosphere (starring a certain Leonard Nimoy before he donned the blue uniform). I was also a big fan of the occasional 24 hour Godzilla marathons. It was hard not to stay up & watch them all.
Didn’t watch the special. I don’t watch any TV anymore, but I can’t knock Sci-Fi/SyFy for at least acknowledging MST3K existed on their channel at one point in time. Its more than the show will ever get from Comedy Central.
If what I’ve read is correct its odd that they apparently had some historical inaccuracies about a series they were directly involved in, but its just television. It doesn’t matter to me.
I love MST3K, of course, and I think the Sci-Fi Channel years were some of the funniest of the show’s run, but…
It occurs to me that the acquisition of MST3K was itself a programming decision that went against the idea of “nothing but science fiction.” Before season eight began, I seem to recall the channel making an effort to justify the inclusion of MST3K in its schedule, most notably the initial plan to riff on nothing but sci-fi movies (and increasingly broadening what could qualify as “sci-fi” in the riffed movies until they willingly let that restriction go with “Girl in Gold Boots”).
The difference between MST3K and the channel’s current programming decisions is one of quality, but it isn’t reasonable to complain that SyFy doesn’t do science fiction well anymore while simultaneously wishing that they hadn’t canceled MST3K.