$6.3 Million goal has been reached and FOURTEEN new episodes are coming!
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#BringBackMST3K Kickstarter Tracker
704 Replies to “#BringBackMST3K Kickstarter Tracker”Commenting at Satellite News
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Joel has been making sure to emphasize that the real goal is to get a full season of 12 episodes as that is what would be needed to prove to the networks and streaming services that there is enough of a fanbase to support bringing the series back long-term. If there is only enough support for three episodes those would probably be the last three.
My very unscientific statistical analysis makes me doubt that they make it to $5.5 million. I do have to say, Joel is doing this in a clever way though. The strength of any fundraising campaign is usually in the opening and then in the “down the stretch”. It’s usually hard to bump things up in the middle.
However, he already managed to do it once earlier this week with announcing Jonah Ray and also pushing the “let’s get it to $2 million” bar. There’s a good chance that a similar thing happens for Turkey day, trying to push people when they are happy and with their families to push some more funds. (The Turkey Day Pledge Drive.) Another boost could be seen occuring there.
I still think $5.5 million is going to be tough. I feel like $3.3 million (6 episodes) is a given and likely to happen by next Thursday, while $4.4 mil is going to become the stretch goal. I hope I am wrong and hitting $5.5 million is still possible, but I think it is still going to be a hard road to get there.
Nice to see an update like that on good old Satellite News!
Agreed. $5.5 million is more than even the Reading Rainbow Kickstarter made, and that was riding on the backers’ childhood nostalgia and desire of goodwill to help children read. I’m concerned a cult show about a guy and two robot puppets joking over B movies can really manage to beat RR’s record.
Shout would be dumb not to fund more episodes considering the Kickstarter is funding the development and fixed costs of getting it off the ground ($550k). That’s free money.
Is it really on Shout to fund more though? Joel makes it sound like this Kickstarter campaign is to get TV executives to fund more episodes, not to get Shout to back more MST3K.
I agree that it would be great for Shout to fund more, but they don’t produce original content and they’ve just spent an unknown amount of money untangling the rights issues to make all this possible. I think there’s a very good reason it’s on Kickstarter and not funded by them. Original programming (as Yahoo just learned) is really expensive and risky and a few hundred thousand or a million dollars is probably a lot for a niche distribution company to just kick in. Kickstarter also can be seen as “stealing” potential buyers because all those people who give at a certain range are getting at least some episodes for free. That’s an important part of the calculation as that money is already sunk in and Shout won’t see that on the back-end. So they’ll have to figure out how many additional people to the incredibly rabid fans giving money now will spend money in the future.
It’s tough. I just hope we get enough episodes (and they’re good) to get the attention of streaming companies. I think that’s the real goal here and the best fit for a modern MST3K anyway.
But what do I know, I just find the whole Kickstarter thing interesting.
The new MST3K seems to be targeting internet nerds and apparently they love Felicia Day. So presumably when she gets officially announced there will be a fairly big bump.
With that said, I think $5.5 million is too much, but they will likely make it to 9 episodes.
Call me an optimist, but I’ve got to think that the support the campaign has engendered already is making a few decision-makers sit up straight in their chairs. Even with the movie licensing rights getting hiked up over time, this isn’t an expensive series to produce.
I think another issue that could or should be highlighted was Joel’s answer in the Burning Questions section regarding any returning former cast or crew of the original MST3K. Joel answers,
“Right now, I don’t know who will agree to come back and work on the next season of MST3K… but if the Kickstarter is successful, everyone will be invited to take part.
Until yesterday, I wasn’t even sure this whole Kickstarter idea would work. I’ve reached out and spoken with some of the old cast and writers, but until I knew how much money we’d have to work with – and when we’d start writing and shooting – there was just no way to make the specific offers that I hope will bring many of them back.”
I assume the amount raised would be a consideration in this question. Surely the amount for a full season would be far more of an incentive for any former cast and crew to consider this new gig, as it would show there is promise for at least a season.
I made a suggestion on the kickstarter that Joel seemed to like and I think would be better, to break up the stretch goals into single episodes instead of groups of 2(I’m looniverse, by the way)
Jonathan Patterson 2 days ago
This project is going to slow down for the next couple of weeks. That’s just the way most kickstarter projects, especially ones this long, go. We’re probably going to start seeing a lot of really frustrating days where the total barely moves; but, then the last few days will come along and the total will start climbing again. That’s when we’ll see just how far MST3K will go. Personally, I’m optimistic that we’ll hit the $5.5M mark.
looniverse 2 days ago
@JP
That’s why adding stretch goals for each episode would give little flurries of pledge inspiration! There would never be a true lull, we’d be getting our dopamine hit every 3 days or so as another stretch was met
$2.5 mil for 4 guaranteed episodes!
3.0 for 5 guaranteed episodes!
3.3 for 6 guaranteed episodes!
3.7 for 7 guaranteed episodes!
4.1 for 8 guaranteed episodes!
4.4 for 9 guaranteed episodes!
4.8 for 10 guaranteed episodes!
5.2 for 11 guaranteed episodes!
5.5 for 12 (or maybe thrown in a bonus to make it 13! to match seasons 1, 2, 9 and 10)
Creator Joel Hodgson 2 days ago
@looniverse: That’s a great suggestion. I’ll see if we can switch over and do that. There were some budget reasons it was easier to do in groups of three, but I’ll find out.
Finally a graph on this site! It’s about time. Sorry, occupational hazard. I’ve been a quality manager for 30 years now. I live for graphs. At some point I would have to add the other goals on here to see how close we are getting to the ultimate number. Thanks for the cool visual guys.
I’ve participated in a few Kickstarters and based on what I’m seeing, they’ll probably end up at around the $3.5-4 million range. Something really huge is going to have to happen to hit $5.5 million.
And am I the only one who thinks that Joel is seeming a little desperate? I’ve made my donation and will be thrilled if he can capture the MST spirit again, but the whole “MST3K will be gone FOREVER unless we get all the money!” bit seemed over the top to me. He seems more interested in getting picked up and lasting for another ten years than in making a good show, IMHO. The right people got it before, Joel. Do the best work you can and have faith that they will again…
I sometimes forget that the internet is nothing more than bitching man-babies. Even on Satellite News, I have to read through these losers and their pessimistic, negative, pointless commentary about the things I love. You people are skid marks.
“And am I the only one who thinks that Joel is seeming a little desperate?”
Desperate? It’s called show business you scumb bag, Joel has to hustle, that is half the name of the game.
You can’t have the show without the business, which leads me to my main point about chud people, like the ones on these comment threads, endlessly bull****ting about things they really know nothing about.
Do you think at the end of every Rifftrax when they beg the .01% of fans who pirated their riffs that that is desperate?
Constant updates, newsletters, tweets… the constant fight for exposure and relevance, is that all desperate?
No… it’s just the boring business side of things. Coincidentally every nerd online is an expert in business, and marketing, and kickstarters, and art.
Mystery Science Theater is coming back, in 30 days we are getting a Star Wars movie with Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, and Chewbacca, and shortly thereafter new episodes of the X-Files… these are amazing times. But a bunch of “nobody” nerd-scum have nothing better to do than to bitch about EVERYTHING ad nauseum.
Joel and Co. will reach the stretch goal, the new MST will be great, and you nerds will still be online bitching about how much you hate the new Bots’ voices, and why you think they won’t get picked up for a second season.
Zack, repeat to yourself, “This is just a show. I should really just relax.”
Zack’s a little high strung, I think.
Is “nerd” still an insult?
Also, I haven’t really been paying attention. Who have they cast as the new Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, and Chewbacca? I’m assuming Jonah Ray is now unavailable…
Speaking of which, Mark Hamill announced on Twitter he has donated to the kickstarter and provided a link for his followers.
We officially have The Force on our side.
Now that is a good idea. Release the names of celebs that have donated for another little “flurry.” And I need to hire skierpete to help me out with MY business analysis.
Zack, while I agree with some of your points, there’s no need to be so rude to your fellow MSTies. People are free to share their opinions, even negative ones. I know we’ve spent the last 16 years waxing nostalgic about MST3K, and so the idea of talking about it as a current event feels odd. But that’s what it is, and debate about its merits can and should pop up from time to time. Joel has taken a very proactive role in this revival, and so it’s only natural he take the brunt of any criticism people have about it. Again, that may seem strange when this site has essentially been exclusively about MST3K nostalgia, and Joel a godlike figure in the community, but this is a BIG thing that affects us all. This show, more than most, is fan-driven, and we have as much ownership of this franchise as the creator himself. And considering he’s asking the fans to fund the project, that invites even more of a critical eye.
In the end, some will love it, some will hate it, and in another 16 years, whatever debates we had will seem quaint, just like the debates of yesteryear. Right now though, just be happy we have anything to debate at all.
Why does the graph say 2 weeks to go? When I go to the Kickstarter website it says 20 days.
Am I correct in thinking Joel is going to offer new and bigger incentives as we get closer?
I was thinking an autographed set of MOD KTMA episodes would be a great incentive. (Does Shoutfactory! own those now?)
If we don’t reach the 5.5 mil goal, certainly we could start another Kickstarter after the first 3 eps are made. Fans can see what the new set will look like, what the new host and mads bring to the table, and be will willing to fund more to keep it going. I’m guessing the cost of creating the set will come out of the initial funding, then after that its just getting the rights to movies and paying for the talent.
It kinda hard comitt when you have seen the product. I feel now that we are going some episode some people are going see how those episode are. Then wait to please more cash. When rifftracks does it kickstarters it does ask for as much cash, the rewards are bit better and everyone knows what they will be seing or getting. Plus they do it live helps. So giving more cash for it is easier.
Quick update: be sure to add an additional 15K to the total! Someone picked the BIGGEST tier of 25,000 bucks!!!! Kickstarter only allows tiers of up to $10,000, so the remaining 15K will be donated at a later time. So right now, are closer to a total of $2,428,000!
WOOOO!!!!!!!!
Not sure, but the analytic actually come from Kicktraq, which is a different web site than Kickstarter proper.
I was just wondering this morning if anything like this existed and I found the tracking page. Cool!
I’m thinking it’s because 20 days is 2 weeks, 6 days, and KickTraq is rounding the time down to fit into the chart.
It is when it’s attached to a picture of Bill Gates. :chic:
It’s when it gets misused with the proper Millennial tech-compliment “geek” that the definitions get thrown out of context.
I was pleasantly surprised by the sizable bump in donations after the Jonah Ray announcement, but I’m not sure the Thanksgiving marathon (telethon?) will be able to equal that.
The vast majority of hardcore fans who will tune in probably have already donated, plus I feel like holidays would be as slow for donations as weekends. I think they’ll make it past $3.3M, but that’s it.
Isn’t everyone here an internet nerd? Wasn’t the MST3K discussion group like one of the first big things on the early web? I’m puzzled and befuddled (befuzzled) why anyone would use the words nerd and internet in a derogatory manner in reference to this show when it’s almost always had those things at its roots.
The answering machine at KTMA was the first MST3K discussion group, essentially, and here all of us are all these years later still going at it. That’s kind of amazing. We should all stop and think about that for a moment. Having never had a major studio or a big budget or any celebrity involvement (other than Leonard Maltin) to back it up, we the viewers (and the cast and Rhino and Shout) have kept the memory of this show alive. Because it’s worth being that passionate about.
I don’t get the cynicism about “internet hipsters” and “internet nerds” that I’ve seen on this site and in every comments thread I’ve read about this subject everywhere else. No one’s seen even one millisecond of footage of this new show, but there are dozens of Space-Mutiny-floor-waxer-fulls of supposed fans who somehow know it’s going to be made for “internet nerds” and what a terrible shame that will be.
Perhaps anyone who is angry or cynical or whatever about the show doing what it’s always done (appeal to smart, funny people who enjoy things of good quality), with a new cast and in an evolving medium (these are things we should be *excited* about), really aren’t the “right people” to enjoy the thing they’re supposedly here to…defend.
It’s befuzzling.
Of course Shout should make up the difference. They can afford to put out garbage like “Cockneys Vs. Zombies” on blu-ray, they can put up the rest of the dough for the full season. Hell, if they riffed “Cockneys Vs. Zombies” on MST3K, then someone would actually see it. (Seriously, Shout has the rights for so many bad movies old and new, I’m sure transferring the rights over for riffing purposes would be pretty cheap.)
hey, zack was cruel, but true – i gotta give him that. if you’ve ever lived off of your own work (or at least been lucky enough to have a -real- and not a ‘rip-off’ work-from-home job ever, for at least a couple years), you might not know what it’s like to do “the hustle.” (hears disco in my head now, “do the hustle!”)
there’s gonna be a certain temperament that just isn’t realistic in seeing how tough pulling some things off are, and doing stuff like this is, to paraphrase “unzipping your fly,” a little like hercules sitting down on a bar-stool. (“NOOO STAND BACK UP, STAND UP, AAWWWHHH!”)
never ever ever -ever- had to float a high-falutin’ project to the world, and ask for help/money? never know the feeling, and never know what it’s like to be on the other end of that “mass-suggestions/criticism” chain.
not that there’s not ever some little bit of golden/silvery bit of information in the dirt; just understand that in the advert/marketing industry, it’s great if you get one out of 500, maybe more like one out of a thousand suggestions as having soemthing worthy/worthwhile to consider.
so, i’m just backing it up a lil’ bit with some hard marketing factoids – the chances that -YOUR- thoughts and ideas are all-important… don’t necessary make it so. just saying – it’s a matter of statistics! to paraphrase the mst favorite sensei-masters “firesign theater,” sometimes, “everything you -think- you know about running a business is wrong!”
so, let those doing so, do so… they don’t have any time or room to change their current plans. first week of january’ll be here soon enough!
I’m a proud backer to mst Kickstarter campaign an hope we raise enough for a full 12. My thoughts are that we will reach our top goal. Any nay sayer MSTies should buck up an drop at least $10 or shut up an go home. Because if you think we can’t reach our goal then you haven’t given to the cause. I say this if you haven’t dropped $10 bucks then you are not a MSTie, and should get off this site. Rude? Maybe but sometimes the truth hurts!
I sometimes forget that the internet is full of bitching man-babies. Just can’t believe it that I have to come to this site and read you cynical dweebs insulting everything, so hang on, I’m gonna make a lengthy post full of me insulting everything. 8-)
Oh god. Yeah, I’ve already dispensed hundreds into DVD boxsets… I’m not going to get off the site because I’m not forking over 10 bucks to a Kickstarter to reboot a show that I’m not pining for more of that’ll star a host I already don’t like. This isn’t the first “true MSTie” comment I’ve seen here. Can we just cut the nonsense and leave it as “someone who enjoys the show”?
Ah yes, the critically panned “Cockneys Vs. Zombies”… only it wasn’t. Are Shout! even in the business of producing content? Their current catalogue doesn’t suggest that they have millions to sink into funding television.
Hey, I’ve backed this and I’m still VERY skeptical I’ll ever like it (because I’m pretty sure it will appeal to millenials and those are my grandkids).
But like most here, I’m pretty convinced they won’t make the full 5 million. I really don’t think they’ll even get close. As the asute here have noted, they will need a HUGE bump somewhere — both T-Day and Felicia will get a bit of a surge, but they need some sort of defining event.
I know exactly what it should be. All they really need do is get the five of them together (Joel and the cast) and do some sort of short — heck, if Rifftrax can knock them out as quickly as they can, those five (along with whatever writers Joel might have in mind) could put together five minutes of SOMETHING (using even movie clips, which are free, or some PD horrible little short). Show folks EXACTLY what they are paying their money for.
You can’t tell me THAT wouldn’t generate enough buzz everywhere to bring in at least another mil. There isn’t much of a downside to it, assuming they are confident in their own skills (which I think these folks are). I also have to think, as bright as Joel is, that this has to have occurred to him (although when I read the above and note that Joel didn’t think of adding stretch rewards I’m a little more concerned that perhaps he isn’t as savvy as I thought).
I really believe that’s about the only thing that could bump this up. Otherwise, I guess I’ll be happy we’re getting 3 or 6 shows we wouldn’t have gotten otherwise.
Every time I see a post from one of you hysterical freaks DEMANDING that I contribute or”get off this site” it stiffens my resolve to have NOTHING to do with this effort. I like the show.A lot. I have every DVD set and every episode off the internet. I have the Moore creations porcalin statues. I have built my own Servo. I have a hard drive bursting with Rifftrax. I was nor a fan of CT,and that was Joel’s baby. I’ll wait and see what they produce and if by some miracle I like it I’ll contribute to the next one,if any. If it never goes beyond the 3 episodes I simply don’t care,the skits are hit or miss,the invention exchange is garbage and the silhouettes are distracting. Rifftrax’s output is plenty for my needs,almost more than I can watch.I don’t really need a paltry 12 episodes of MST3K-TNG. On the other hand it may be awesome,in which case I’ll send all you man babies a heartfelt thank you note.
#Edgy
Certainly i don’t care one way or the other whether any one of you in particular contribute, but the weird braggadocio of people on both sides is kind of weird. In the last couple of weeks i’ve definitely seen a side of MST fandom i had either ignored or been too late for before. Still i always think of this as a nostalgia site and i should have expected more resistance or disinterest from people more anxious for KTMA episodes than CT succeeding.
Not sure how the projections from Kicktracker work but it looks like it’s topping out (at least temporarily) soon, and if you look at the daily sign-ups it’s something to be concerned about. I can only hope the bumps from Thanksgiving and Mad announcements help.
I have to say, I genuinely don’t understand how any MSTie wouldn’t at least pay $10 to support Joel and see what he’s able to produce.
That’s not the truth, it’s an opinion.
Here’s an example of the truth: you do not get to decide who is and is not a MSTie, or who should and should not be on this site.
Here’s another example of the truth: nobody is obligated to contribute to this or any other Kickstarter. People have the right to decide what to do with their own money.
Your use of the phrase “man babies” would be more effective if you didn’t put it at the end of a full-blown temper tantrum.
Well, no, it probably still wouldn’t.
Yeah, I guess what’s most surprising is that I’m so surprised. This is the Internet; of COURSE people are going to rant and rave and call each other names and either love or hate a thing that hasn’t actually been made yet. Don’t know what made me think MST3K fandom was any different.
Yeah, I think the $5.5M goal is a real longshot. $3.3M might still be attainable, though.
You’re right about Turkey Day and the cast announcements as points where donations could spike again. I think the last day is another one; Kickstarters often get more attention right before they close.
Speaking for myself, I haven’t pledged yet but I plan to in the next couple of days.
is it really that hard to understand? It’s a completely different cast, completely different set of writers, completely different culture (instead of Midwest, it’s Hollywood and internet celebrity culture).
Yeah, Joel is involved. But we really don’t know the extent of his involvement. He’s not going to host. Is he going to write?
There was an article that made a comparison to the New Monkees. Was that probably overly harsh? Yet it’s hard not to see the similarities. But even then they weren’t asking the old fans of the show to finance a new show aimed at a completely different audience
I wholeheartedly concur. I have been a fan of this show since the tail end of the first season. What I cannot understand or fathom is all of this Joel worship because it seems to come at the expense of all the others that worked on the show. Yep, Joel had the idea and built the original robots. But without Jim, Kevin, Trace, and Josh right there at the ground floor, the show wouldn’t have worked. Think of all the unique voices that got together and formed a bright shining light that couldn’t and didn’t sustain itself: Mike, Mary Jo, Paul, Frank, Bill, all the technical people behind the scenes. It just wasn’t Joel. He planted the seeds, but he wasn’t the only one tending the garden.
That’s why I cannot believe that Joel wouldn’t have contacted original members of the show before going ahead with this Kickstarter. If I’m right, the only ones that haven’t piped up yay or nay are Frank, Kevin, and Paul. I have a feeling the odds are the best that Frank would be involved as a Kickstarter midway boost, but that still isn’t a writing staff. The whole “well, we wanted to see if we’d get funding before asking these guys to participate” story smells. I think that Joel knew that these guys, if they wanted to be a part of the show, would want a bigger piece of the funding pie since they made nothing off of it originally. So hire cheaper, unknown quantities and press on because at least they’ve got Joel on board and there’s the puppets!
Hats off to Rifftrax and the MST episode profit-sharing they are doing with the cast, even though the pie slices must be pretty thin to go around to that many deserving people. But I still think it is incredibly insulting and presumptuous that Joel would press on without them. Now, if Joel had approached everyone before going ahead with this crowdfunding and everyone had told him, “Hey thanks, but no thanks and good luck”, then that would be a different story entirely obviously. But that is not what this is sounding like. Perhaps Joel thought others would come running once the announcement was made, but the flurry of those saying that they weren’t doing anything with the new show was quite fast and furious and made Joel’s cameos and original cast participating statements sound foolish.
Then again I remember Josh saying in some podcast when Cinematic Titanic was done that he didn’t want to be Joel’s employee and that he wanted to work with Joel, not for him or something to that effect. He also said he wasn’t the only one in the group with those thoughts. So I think that is rather telling in the background of that unit and why they called it quits. Again, is this an instance where Joel just treated the other four like hired guns and their voices didn’t ultimately shape Cinematic Titanic? Perhaps some of that bad blood still exists and goes a long way in explaining why these guys aren’t jumping on board with Joel on the new MST.
I saw the price breakdown per episode and that smells too. It just doesn’t make any sense. The original show was made in Minnesota for about 15 dollars. Now I realize that it is 2015 but it’ll cost over 2 million for three episodes, you’re hiring nobodies to write (so far), nobodies to star (so far), and no one from the original group? Movie rights cannot be horribly expensive considering the amount of cheapjack DVDs and blu-rays that are currently on the market for the genres that MST should be focusing on. Plus the MST cult should make it profitable for your licensed movie, so why not? I guess I look at something like Incognito Cinema Warriors and see what they’re doing for 15 dollars in the middle of Kansas City. The show is smart and looks amazing. Why can’t a new MST compete on that level at least? I suppose nostaligia is expensive.
The bottom line for the Joel acolytes that they just don’t want to bring up and will spend the livelong day trying to justify is that Joel abandoned the show in the middle of the fifth season. He walked. And yet no one left with him at the exact same time. Hm. The unjustifiably hated Jim Mallon continued to produce the show that you all love. He managed to quide it through a movie that failed at the box office, an episode guide, a shrunken 7th season, cancellation, getting on SciFi, and lasting through 1999 with new episodes. Yet Jim gets nothing but crap, while Joel gets a free pass? That makes no sense. The show’s creator left. He wasn’t fired, he wasn’t let go, he left. Perhaps he thought the show would crash and burn and couldn’t believe that it lasted that long without him. But the show not only survived, it flourished. Yeah, he showed up for the token guest shot in Soultaker, but I was more excited to see Frank, because well…Frank.
I view this reboot as a huge middle finger to those that helped to mold the show by the creator that abandoned the show midway through a season. I think the entire “well, that’s great you helped us get over $2 million, but really that wasn’t THE goal” line is complete garbage. This reboot will close out at just over maybe 3.5 million and that’ll be it. If only Joel had some old hands on deck for this enterprise, but instead he’s playing on nostalgia for funding through a small cult audience. Just seeing a Tom Servo or a Crow puppet is supposed to make me squeal with delight? Without Trace or Josh or Bill, it just will alienate the older core fans and there won’t be enough new shows to build an audience to make it worthwhile.
At least there’s the new Shout Factory box set coming out soon. I can afford to be nostalgic there.
I thought Joel’s analogy of making the show like Doctor Who was pretty apt. I’m not a huge Who fan, but I watched it pretty heavily back in the Tom Baker days and I still watch it every now and then. My ~25 year old son was a huge Who fan for a while and a friend’s 12 year old daughter is big time into it. I’m glad the show is still going on even if “my” doctor is no longer around.
I’m perfectly happy with MST3K adopting that model even if it turns out the end product isn’t as appealing to me as the old version, and I’m glad to back it.
While I agree with the sentiment that I wish everyone would take a risk and donate a little to give this a chance, I would NEVER EVER agree with the notion that if you don’t donate you are “not a fan”. I have been involved with other things and been called “not a real fan” because of my stance, and how each person shows is fandom is completely different and there is no “right” way to do it.
However, I do disagree with @dave saying “Rifftrax is the same thing”. I’ve been watching Rifftrax stuff for a while, and while I think Rifftrax is great for riffing, it is not the same thing at MST3K. Honestly, this won’t be the same MST3K either. (Though I would argue easily that this show changed more than just about any other television show over a 10 year period.) I also think having Cinematic Titantic AND Rifftrax was better than having Rifftrax alone, and would want BOTH MSTK:TNG and Rifftrax to survive and thrive for many years to come.
In fact – for those fans that are refusing to donate – I really HOPE that even if you don’t want to put up money up front, that you take a chance when the show starts being produced and actually WATCH the show, and if you genuinely like what you see – support it at THAT point. The fact is, this will always be a niche show, and it will always need all the support it can get.
(In an unrelated note – someone mentioned SHOUT factory’s crappy movie library, and that certainly would be a great way to obtain movie rights – though my guess is just because they have the rights to produce DVDs doesn’t mean that they can use it for an MST3K episode.
That’s A LOT of conjecture and reading into things there, Otto Von Cheesebiscuit.
I’m surprised how many people seem to be losing sight of the fact that we could end up with More Garth. Not to mention, More Reba…
Otto:
I’d like to think the best of Joel and would be thrilled if this new MST turns out to be good, but you have some really valid points. My problem with the “we changed cast members before, so we can do it again!” claim is that there was actually a LOT of continuity in the old show. Mike was the head writer throughout its’ entire network run and spent years doing supporting roles before he took over as host. Trace lasted for seven seasons (eight if you count KTMA), Frank for five, and Kevin actually stuck around from the very beginning to the very end. Mary Jo and Bill worked as writers and were able to add their voices to the show before they took over their roles. Sure, there was change, but it happened gradually with a very solid base underneath it. Given that any of the original Brains’ involvement with the new one is a question mark right now, what Joel is doing is sort of seems like Paul McCartney hiring a new backing band and calling it the Beatles. It could still turn out well, but it has a pretty high hill to climb in my mind.
Guess we’ll see…
Joel is hardly the only cast member to voice displeasure with Jim Mallon. He has been roundly criticized. Mike, Joel, Trace, Bill and Mary Jo have all spoken out against him. You are the only one I’ve heard defending Jim and quite honestly, I’d tend to trust Joel, Mike, Trace, Bill and Mary Jo more given that they were there. Also, I highly doubt that Frank, Trace, Mary Jo and Josh would have worked on CT if they felt Joel had been the one in the wrong and had bailed.
Now, total conjecture: I do believe there’s some tension about the reboot. Trace has said he’ll never be involved and that seems unlikely to have come from nowhere. But, I don’t think it’s fair to assume the worst and blame Joel. Also, I’m getting really turned off by people second guessing Joel’s math. When did you guys become tv producers with that kind of expertise? I don’t think it’s odd to question one’s fandom if they jump to conclusions that Joel is lying. That actually genuinely bothers me.
Trace’s attitude is particularly disconcerting, assuming the statement “(he said) he’ll never be involved” is accurate. Never is a word seldom used in show business (as Sean Connery found to his dismay). If Trace were a huge star I could understand, but flatly turning down even a guest shot sounds like bad blood indeed.
As I said multiple times, I’m pretty sure I won’t like this new show but that’s okay — I backed it anyway because… well, Joel has given me a lot of laughter and just like I’ve bought CT and Rifftrax stuff far beyond the point where it wasn’t that funny anymore, I think it’s okay to give them some of my dollars in return.
But reading all the negativity here makes me more convinced than ever they need to do a sample video — that would lay to rest a ton of doubt in everyone’s mind (or worst case scenerio confirm what some suspect). They know they are doing at least three episodes, so the cast had better be locked up by now. Spend the next two weeks doing a five minute clip and let us see what they would actually do. If it’s great, another million or two might be very doable.
Okay the upvoting patterns are also surprising. But do enjoy the way people say “Hollywood” as if it’s “New York City?!?” from those old salsa commercials.
Actually, this is rather like Ringo setting up a Kickstarter to “test the waters” to see whether or not there’s legit fan support for a Beatles reunion, except two members are dead, Paul says he wants nothing to do with it, and Ringo has stated he’ll only be on board in an advisory capacity in order to make sure the new members capture “the magic”. Oh, and the new lead singer is Chad Kroeger.