Comedian Patton Oswalt has agreed to take on the role of Dr. Forrester’s evil henchman. The character will either be a son or clone of TV’s Frank.
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Patton Oswalt Tapped as Evil Henchman
101 Replies to “Patton Oswalt Tapped as Evil Henchman”Commenting at Satellite News
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Nice job on those of you who guessed correctly. I’m really stoked about this latest announcement, as I’ve been a fan of Patton since I bought his album Werewolves and Lollipops around 10 years ago.
Holy cow – I am SUCH a huge fan of Patton’s, probably since his brilliant work in Ratatouille. (I actually liked him on King of Queens before that, but the show was sort of *meh*.) I basically watch TV shows because he appears in them. I started watching Justified when he started playing in it. (Turns out the show was amazing to boot.) I started watching The Goldbergs because he does the voiceover on that. (Turns out that shows pretty funny too.)
So basically, I follow Patton around whenever he shows up. Amazing that he is going to be in a show like this. He almost seems too big for a show like this…I worry it might take me out of the “reality” of the show with him on it, but if he is going to be writing for the show – wow I am so stoked. (This also may have just gotten me to bump up my donation from $100 to the signed poster level, which I think is $300 – I am trying to resist – but resistance might be futile.)
Edit: Never mind – I upped it to $300. I can always change my mind – only so many posters left.
Perfect choice! I’ve been a little hesitant about the project so far, but this pushed me over the top. (Although I did pledge my $85 just to get the credit…)
Why hesitant? Just not sure about the Bots. I think the new guys are talented…but why not create new bots instead of re-casting Tom and Crow? And yes, I know they were both re-cast before. But it was risky then, and it’s arguably riskier now. Better to give the whole cast the chance to build their own, fresh characters.
The current challenge is to reach $3.3 million by midnight tonight. It’s past $3.2 million now. Now is a great time to up your donation just a little more.
Hopefully this will give the Kickstarter a good bump. Joel also teased some surprises for next week, so we will see how far it goes.
The announcement is like an hour old and I’ve already seen fifty comments about how this is just further evidence that the new show is being made for “nerds” or “internet nerds” or “geek culture” and what a travesty of human justice that is.
This argument is already old, and the show hasn’t even been filmed yet.
I, on the other hand, can’t wait for the first new movie sign! Bring it on!
I love Patton, and more than anything this gives me confidence in the writing. If he can devote the time to it , I would even make Patton the head writer, as I think he would perfectly bridge the sensibilities of the original staff and the new hires. Bring on Frank,Trace and Dana Gould and this could be beyond wonderful.
According to Patton himself, he wants to be known as “TV’s Son of TV’s Frank”
If he’ll actually have a NAME, we have yet to hear.
Patton is the funniest person breathing oxygen on earth. This is very good news. All hail the new Frank.
And the old show somehow WASN”T made for nerds?
Wow. That’s a big “get” for the new show. It is a testament to how great and how beloved Joel and his little puppet show truly is that Patton Oswalt and Felicia Day are both on board so readily. This is going to be great!
Funny thing is, Patton’s mainstream. I mean, King of Queens wasn’t exactly an obscure show for a niche audience.
He IS popular in Nerd Culture (whatever that is), but he’s also one of the most popular standup comics of the past decade, starred in a Disney movie, and is the closest thing to a big star ever to work on MST3K. (I wouldn’t quite classify him as a big star, but he’s a pretty well-known guy.)
There’s already been a huge jump in pledges since the announcement (today’s donations totaled around $10,000 this morning and now they’re closing in on $30,000). Oswalt brings in a lot of fans and I think it’s safe to adjust our expectations upward.
Predictions:
1. It’ll pass $3.3M tonight. (It’s about $75K away from that number now.)
2. In fact, I’m going to go a little bolder than that and predict that it pulls in more money today than the day Jonah was announced as host. I’m a little less sure about this guess; we’ll see tomorrow if I was right or wrong.
3. We’re going to see a bump in pledges that continues at least for the next few days. Pledges may drop again after that, but I think even at their lowest they’ll hover around the $30K range.
(Also, the guy who was saying a week or two ago that Joel recast the show because he was looking for people who would work for cheap should really reassess that theory at this point. I expect that both Day and Oswalt will be taking a pay cut to do the show, but that still doesn’t mean they’re working for cheap, and they are not people Joel would have asked if he were looking for people to work for cheap.)
This is such exciting news! Anyone who doubts Patton Oswalt’s qualifications needs to see the filibuster scene from Parks and Rec. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDUrw7j0UA4
Patton Oswalt. Sigh. *searches eBay for dot matrix printer to make a banner*
Yeah, I guess I’m in the minority on this one. So Comedy Central’s advertisement of a “Fake Frank” turns out to be prophetic. I’m still on board, but less so.
I like Patton Oswalt’s comedy okay, but his Twitter account is downright embarrassing. His constant tweets about the supposed “Evil SJWs” ruining comedy just make me wince. How long until he and Felicia Day clash terribly?
boooooooo
booooooooooooooo
I suspect this is a subject we probably want to steer clear of, or the comments section could get ugly. My view is that MST3K has had a lot of people on it who held a lot of different political views; I agree with some of them and not with others, but I don’t think any of them really brought those views to work with them. Whether you agree more with Mike’s politics or Frank’s, I think they’re both really funny guys.
-urns!
-urns!!!
At least it’s not Wil Wheaton. But it represents everything wrong with the reboot.
Joel keeps hiring professional funny people who are a long-times fans of MST3K to write and perform on the new show. What is he thinking?
But he can’t star in MST3K! He’s too busy starring in Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD!….except now that I think about it, I don’t recall seeing him this season so far…
I dunno… Frank-but-not-Frank? TV’s Son of TV’s Frank?
I won’t be convinced until I hear his “Eyuk-eyahh!” (sp?)
This is actually the most exciting addition since the announcement of the Kickstarter, since I had and continue to have no real knowledge of the rest of the cast. However, Patton is a known quantity to me. He is also a huge fan of the show. Also didn’t he do some promos back in the day for the Play MSTie For Me rotation on Comedy Central?
I remember seeing him pop in at a Cinematic Titanic show in Milwaukee just because he was also performing in Milwaukee that night. He just wanted to say hi, talk about how much he was a fan of MST, and meet the group. A nice fanboy moment, especially since we were torn about seeing either CT or Patton that night, chose CT, and were pleasantly surprised seeing Patton.
His act is very reference heavy and he is truly a fan of cinema too as his most recent book attests. Perhaps he could act in the old Frank behind the scenes job of screening possible experiments. I still don’t feel great about this reboot, but with this announcement about Patton today I feel better about it.
What’s funny is though a huge Patton Oswalt fan who will follow him anywhere – he almost feels a little too “big” for the show. (Not that he’s a big star, my wife watches The Goldbergs with me, and seen him on AOS but still can’t remember his name.) Him and Day are to me similar level “geek chic” castings. However as I said before, I will follow Patton Oswalt ANYWHERE because in my book he is never not great!
The one bit that this “works” for – realizing that these “big” stars are playing the Mads – the Mads typically get about 5 minutes of screen time per episode…maybe. Felicia and Patton could well shoot their entire parts for a 6-12 episode season in 2-3 days time. This would be harder to do with a longer season – but for a short season they could really come in for a shorter period of time, pull in a good paycheck for very short time of work.
The host and bot actors on the other hand are in the other 85 minutes of the episode – it’s a lot different commitment from a shooting perspective. (In the case of the original series, other than Frank and Mary Jo, the rest of the cast that was in Deep 13 was also on the SOL and in the theater.) It should also be pointed that while he mentioned Patton as a “guest writer” he probably won’t be there for the entire process of 6-12 episodes. I’m assuming here that Felecia and Patton are not going to be staff writers on the show, while Jonah, Hampton and Baron are going to be on the writing staff.
It’s going to be really weird having news trickle out over the next 12 months about the process for making this series. Here’s hoping they will be very open with the fans. (But should be secretive about the actual movies.)
couldn’t be more perfect. very happy with the choice, Patton is a hoot.
Earlier this year I watched his concert DVD “No Reason to Complain”. I complained. … well, because it was too short.
This is great news, the more big names they get the more people want to donate!! Check out my contribution to the shows fanart pile, https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1979377354/mystery-science-theatre-3000-big-trouble-in-deep-1
That’s funny. He used to work for a Fury. Now he’ll work for a Mad.
Interestingly, my one and only exposure to Patton Oswalt is a stand-up bit about the film “Death Bed: The Bed that Eats” which I mentioned on a recent WDT. It’s funny, but a much too salty for my >> ahem << mature sensibilities. Still, it definitely bumps into the movie-riffing genre.
Maybe not the guy I'd have picked, but I'm not judging this venture until I see some output.
I don’t know, I would think Felicia Day would love to work a way to say “Shut up, Wesley!” in context.
They have now reached the 6 episode mark and met the Thanksgiving weekend challenge of $3.3 million!
Oh my gosh, THIS IS REALLY HAPPENING!!!!!!!
Patton Oswalt? One of my favorite comedians? YES PLEASE!!!!
Happy to donate to the best Kickstarter in human history.
And now, to celebrate the 3.3MM with a ham’erger sammich and some French fried potatoes, while watching Mr. B Natural prance around a music sheet.
Ahhh, life is good.
Sigh… I knew it was only a matter of time before Joel tried to sexy things up.
After watching the filibuster scene from above, I’m most impressed at the extras who were able to keep from cracking up behind him!
What astonishes me is the suggestion Doctor Forrester and TV’s Frank mated and produced offspring.
Patton’s no stranger to MST3K. He hosted the 20th anniversary reunion in 2008.
I remember one funny moment when Jim Mallon was discussing the difficulties of working Gypsy, and Patton asked if there were ever times where he’d come home, and his wife would want to “get intimate”, and he’d have to say, “I can’t honey. I’ve been riding’ Gypsy all day long!”
I’m still insisting Doctor Forrester continued to date the Resusci-Annie from ‘Teenagers From Outer Space’. As for Frank, he and Pearl certainly got along great OH NO WHY DID I SAY THAT NOW I CAN’T UNSEE IT IN MY HEAD
I’ve never quite understood the appeal of Patton — don’t dislike him but when he’s been in things I like (“Parks and Rec”, “Justified”, “Shield”) he was nothing more than adequate. But clearly I don’t understand his appeal, and he is the darling of many.
So the best news is that it did indeed bring out a lot of pledge money and that’s a win-win situation. I didn’t up my pledge (yet) as I’m was waiting to see if they needed my money to get over the top. So for now I’ll wait and see what other rewards (if any) might be available before I decide to spend any more.
And as for me saying we’d seen enough of TV’s Frank — I just mean there was plenty of the shtick out there and nowhere new for it to go. I was more excited to think of him as a writer. So this is fine — he will bring a new dynamic and I’m really all for that in those short Mads scenes we will have.
Very happy about the announcement of casting Patton Oswalt, just as I’ve been very happy about all the casting announcements to date.
I’m interested to see the comedic teamwork of Felicia Day and Oswalt.
Can’t wait!
patton oswalt does nothing but give us white guys an even worse reputation than we already have. this is so gross.
I’d love an ep where we get to see some bickering between TV’s Son of TV’s Frank and TV’s Frank.
I like the idea of him being a clone far better
I still can’t get over the notion of Dr. F and Frank having kids…. >__>
Have you actually SEEN any of his stand-up? It sounds like not at all. I’ve got no problem with people not liking him, he’s certainly not for everyone, but to say that just doesn’t make any sense to me.
Excellent news, and…$3.3 million! So at least 6 episodes!
Meanwhile on Twitter, Trace and Frank seem a bit miffed at Joel.
I think Trace more so that Frank.
Joel has stated that anyone from the classic MST3K is welcome to come back (he even said it in one of the update videos), but based on some things Trace has said (or rather NOT said), Joel has said no such thing, and has kept everyone out of the loop over the show’s new direction.
I’m hoping this new series doesn’t start some kind of rift between all of the old Brains, because that would seriously taint the reputation of the new shows.
Not that i’m taking sides, but Trace and Frank, and anyone else aren’t really in any position to be complaining about what Joel does and doesn’t do. They were asked to be involved, they said they weren’t interested, so Joel moved on to other alternatives, casting new people. If Trace and Frank are upset over this, they kind of have themselves to blame.
I don’t think that’s the case. Joel has been talking about restarting with a new cast for quite some time (before and *during* Cinematic Titanic). He’s been very clear on that almost every time it comes up. I can’t imagine that they didn’t know what he was planning and trying to do. Trace and Frank are now formalizing their partnership with “The Mads Are Back” (www.themadsareback.com), so presumably they will be too busy to participate, even if they wanted to. Did they *want* to come back as full cast members, but Joel declined? Are they *really* just too busy? Were there fistfights on the set of “Other Space”? How the heck do I know?
I’m just going to wait until the show is actually going into production. When everything is settled and people really know what’s happening, when, where…you know…the details, *then* we’ll see if no one wants to come back. And if they don’t? There’s always season 12…
Personally, I’m trying to avoid all the drama talk. We’re approaching $200K for the day (!!!), and to maintain that momentum, it’s important to maintain the optimism, too. The next goal is closer than $3.3M was to $2M, but if we’re to have a chance to reach it (and $5.5M after that), it’s going to take dedication and hard work through every day we have left. Any other issues there may be will sort themselves out in time, and really aren’t any of our business anyway.
I’ve no feelings either way on him. We’ll see when we see.
Anyway, Joel on twitter today mentioned that he’ll be announcing Gypsy’s new voice by the end of the week!
I’ve gone through their recent tweets and I’m not seeing it. Trace has repeatedly said he’s not involved and his most recent tweet on the subject is, in response to someone saying, “Feeling real weird about the disconnect between mst3k alums and the new show. I wish @FrankConniff et. al. were at least involved somehow,” saying “You are not alone.”
That could be read any number of ways. First of all, he’s clearly not alone, because lots of people have expressed that same sentiment (and Trace is dealing with tweets from them all the live-long day).
Second, even if he means he feels the same way (which he, pointedly, does not actually say), there are any number of reasons why he would wish he were involved but still chose not to be. Being located at the other end of the country is a big one. Remember, that’s the stated reason why Cinematic Titanic disbanded.
Frank, on the other hand, acknowledged that he didn’t have any knowledge in advance about Patton’s casting, and made a joke about the old cast being sent to the glue factory. I’m not reading any bitterness into that; I just see him cracking a joke.
I mean, who knows, there could be some bitterness at work here. But I think this is just one of those things where people try to minutely parse tweets to fit a narrative.
Let me know if I’ve missed any tweets that make a clearer case that the Mads are, well, mad. But that’s not my read.
I really don’t think that’s an accurate read of what Joel said back in update 2.
Here’s what he said about talking to the old cast:
And here’s what he said about introducing the new cast:
and
It sure sounds like (1) Joel floated the idea of bringing the show back but wasn’t able to make any concrete offers (and we already know he had mentioned bringing the show back; he’s been talking about it for about two years now) and (2) he always intended to have a new cast, even if he wants the old group involved in some way. I don’t think that translates to “he asked them and they said no” at all.
I was very to read this news today. I guess the others will be okay, but it feels right to me that Patton Oswalt is playing TV’s Son of TV’s Frank.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen any of his other roles, but his voice work in Ratatouille is enough to convince me that he’s suitable for the job.