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#BringBackMST3K Kickstarter Tracker

Bring Back MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 -- Kicktraq Mini

$6.3 Million goal has been reached and FOURTEEN new episodes are coming!

704 Replies to “#BringBackMST3K Kickstarter Tracker”

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  1. Ro-man says:

    A lot to think about here and on many of the other discussions around the MST3K revival (I can’t get into the term “reboot”)… some very insightful thoughts I’d not considered before — not to mention some disheartening cynicism.

    To echo some thoughts I’ve read many times, MST3K (Joel’s baby) has given me a lot of joy and laughter over the years, so I’m more than willing to put just a little money in to see if the planets can align once again. I agree that it was the whole package, a team of writers and performers and technicians who came together to make something really — yes, I’ll say it — magical.

    Can the magic be revived? All I can say is that I’m naive enough to trust Joel. The key, I think, is regardless if any of the original cast are involved (and I SO hope that some are), that he find folks who don’t want to just make a buck, but who GENUINELY love the show as much as I and many of you do, who will treat it with the same care, respect, and tenderness that we would. If he can, then regardless of how many more seasons we get, we’ll have something to be proud of.

    Then again, it IS just a show… ;)

       4 likes

  2. Droppo says:

    Mike “ex-genius” Kelley:
    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.

    While I have to admit I am on board 100% regardless, I actually love the idea of a clip. I’ve really enjoyed Jonah (who I really didn’t have an opinion about one way or the other prior) in the videos. I feel like his tone has been just right. Especially the “oh, I really miss those guys” at the end of the first one. I’d love to see Jonah and the new bots do some riffing to even further reassure folks that it’s still MST3K.

    Look, I unabashedly adore Joel, Mike, Trace, Frank, Kevin and Bill and will always support anything (particularly MST3K of riffing related) they ever do. That’s why I still think the single biggest thing Joel could do to assuage people’s concerns would be a video appearance by any of the alumni I listed above. Trace sounds like a definite no. But, man….if ANY of the other guys made so much as a cameo appearance in a KS video, I feel like contributions would skyrocket. I still say a super easy way to achieve it would be for Joel to agree to appear in a Rifftrax in exchange for a cameo from Mike (and hopefully, Bill and Kevin). But, the real money and draw would be for Mike to endorse/appear in the reboot. I say this as a fan that adores both Joel and Mike (and actually prefers Joel as host). It’s the best way to unite MSTies everywhere! Except for EricJ, of course.

       3 likes

  3. Droppo says:

    misANThropist: 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.

    OK, your credibility is officially toast. To equate Joel to Ringo is genuinely insulting. Beatles are my favorite band ever, MST3K is my favorite show ever. You have gone too far, sir.

    The only acceptable answer for which Beatle Joel most resembles? John. They both started the band. And they’re both brilliant.

       11 likes

  4. MikeK says:

    Droppo: OK, your credibility is officially toast.To equate Joel to Ringo is genuinely insulting.Beatles are my favorite band ever, MST3K is my favorite show ever.You have gone too far, sir.

    The only acceptable answer for which Beatle Joel most resembles?John.They both started the band.And they’re both brilliant.

    Well, Ringo is only one of the two that are still alive.

       0 likes

  5. misANThropist says:

    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.

    CT was the default result of Joel’s initial attempt to reboot MST3K. It seems plausible that they’d signed on to the project with that in mind, and the possibility of finally receiving residuals; a payoff for all the years they’d spent making MST viable. The sudden appearance of MST3K episodes on Rifftrax appears to be an attempt at some kind of appeasement.

       0 likes

  6. misANThropist says:

    MikeK: Well, Ringo is only one of the two that are still alive.

    Pete Best lives!

       4 likes

  7. EricJ says:

    misANThropist: CT was the default result of Joel’s initial attempt to reboot MST3K.It seems plausible that they’d signed on to the project with that in mind, and the possibility of finally receiving residuals; a payoff for all the years they’d spent making MST viable. The sudden appearance of MST3K episodes on Rifftrax appears to be an attempt at some kind of appeasement.

    I don’t know the whole ugly BTS story of whether Jim tried to “sink” Film Crew; all I, and the rest of us fans, got to see from the outside was that Film Crew came off as a short and very unsuccessful experiment in whether Shout could give “the RiffTrax guys” their old series back all by themselves and expect the same riffing–
    Not sure whether Film Crew happened because Shout had tried to get the original series, failed, and tried to make their own; all we know is, Shout acquired the original series very quickly after FC finished its test run, and CT went on tour, advertising, “From the original writers and creators of MST3K!”

    It was hard not to read a lot into that.

       0 likes

  8. Droppo says:

    EricJ: I don’t know the whole ugly BTS story of whether Jim tried to “sink” Film Crew; all I, and the rest of us fans, got to see from the outside was that Film Crew came off as a short and very unsuccessful experiment in whether Shout could give “the RiffTrax guys” their old series back all by themselves and expect the same riffing–
    Not sure whether Film Crew happened because Shout had tried to get the original series, failed, and tried to make their own; all we know is, Shout acquired the original series very quickly after FC finished its test run, and CT went on tour, advertising, “From the original writers and creators of MST3K!”

    It was hard not to read a lot into that.

    Except many MSTies love The Film Crew. But, please don’t let facts get in your way. It is sad whenever you say “we” or “us” to intimate that the majority of MST3K fans agree with you when it is plainly obvious WE do not.

       22 likes

  9. jaybird3rd says:

    Look, I can understand being skeptical. I’ve voiced some skepticism myself about whether a continuation of MST3K which reflects Millennial sensibilities can capture the magic of the original show. But it’s truly disconcerting to see the suspicion and the harsh criticism that has been directed at Joel in particular since the campaign started. I would think that if anyone has earned the right among MSTies to be given the benefit of the doubt, it would be Joel.

    To address a few specific points raised earlier (this is mostly in response to #41, but it includes issues raised elsewhere as well):

    The costs: Yes, the costs are high, but it’s very misleading to say that the original shows were shot in Minnesota “for about 15 dollars.” Joel actually addressed the costs in several highly detailed breakdowns, which the “TV producer wannabes” among the critics seem to have ignored. In particular, Joel says (and he should know) that even the original Minnesota shows cost $100K-$200K to produce. When you look at the increased costs of filming in California (which is where all the necessary talent is these days), combined with the higher licensing fees for the movies (now that content owners are much more sophisticated about monetizing them), and it isn’t surprising that the setup and production costs would run into the millions of dollars very quickly. Comparing the cost to other movie riffing projects isn’t fair, either, since most of the people working on those projects are also the co-creators, not hired employees (more on this distinction later).

    The original cast: I’d be delighted to see more of the original cast and crew of MST3K return. But let’s face it: the original run of MST3K ended a long time ago, and most of them have since moved on to other things, and/or simply don’t want to be perceived as living in the past (this is the impression that I get from Trace in particular).

    The critics have said that it’s disingenuous for Joel to compare this change to a new cast with the cast changes throughout the original show because “there was actually a LOT of continuity in the old show,” but they’re forgetting that there would be a lack of continuity even if Joel somehow succeeded in bringing the entire original cast together. They’re all older now, and inevitably, they’re in a different place in their lives than they were 15+ years ago. To assume that they would effortlessly slip back into the old groove seems to imply that they haven’t grown or haven’t learned anything in the intervening years, which isn’t very flattering. Remember, these are real human beings, not just the images frozen in time on DVD.

    I think the assertion that Joel forged ahead without contacting them at all, just because he knew they’d want more money than he was willing to pay them, is unwarranted conjecture. All that Joel has said on the matter is that the original cast would be “invited to participate if they want to,” so how does the fact that they later declined to participate make that statement look “foolish”? Why the assumption that there must be “bad blood” involved or that Joel somehow mistreated them? Go back to Mike’s “hired gun” statement on Facebook and try to see if from their perspective. Joel was the creator of the show, but the cast and crew were employees. Sure, they enjoyed their time on the show, they cared about the work, and they enjoyed working together, but that doesn’t contradict the fact that they wouldn’t feel the same degree of attachment and commitment to it that Joel would. I don’t know why this is so hard to understand.

    Along the same lines, I also don’t know why it’s so hard to understand why Mike and Kevin and Bill wouldn’t want to get involved with the new MST3K: Rifftrax is their baby in the same way that MST3K is Joel’s, and while they all may love both projects, it’s clear where their priorities are. There’s no need to assume that any “bad blood” is involved.

    As for J. Elvis Weinstein’s comment about “wanting to work with Joel, not for Joel”: that came from his “Life After MST3K” interview on one of the DVD sets, and he was speaking in the context of re-establishing a relationship with Joel and the others involved in Cinematic Titanic years after his falling out with them at the time he left MST3K. Here’s the actual quote: “Joel and Trace have become family again … Joel and I had years of uneasiness around each other, and we worked at it: when Joel moved back to Los Angeles, we took the time to not be uncomfortable around each other, and then continued our friendship from where it left off, and from much more of a place of equals. I don’t know if I ever would have worked for Joel ever again, but working with Joel has been good.” Hard to see any resentment toward Joel there, unless you’re determined to find it before you even look.

       13 likes

  10. Kenneth Morgan says:

    The impression I get is that Joel is one of the more well-liked people in comedy. Watching the behind-the-scenes segment for Joel’s X-Box project, one is struck by how many people wanted to participate simply because Joel asked them, or because they just wanted to work with him.

    Again, I don’t know the full story because its none of my business. But my impression is that, while the old cast may not want to sign on to the revival full- or part-time, they wish Joel well with the project.

       5 likes

  11. Prime Minister Jm. J Bullock says:

    Can we go back to the old tried and true Joel vs. Mike flame war? Because this new bitterness, to quote Crow in “Mole People,” this, this is no good.

       4 likes

  12. wedestroymyths says:

    jaybird3rd:
    Look, I can understand being skeptical.I’ve voiced some skepticism myself about whether a continuation of MST3K which reflects Millennial sensibilities can capture the magic of the original show.But it’s truly disconcerting to see the suspicion and the harsh criticism that has been directed at Joel in particular since the campaign started.

    I wish it was surprising, but anything pop culture that has a nerdy fan base (and I’m not using the term i a derogatory way–I’m a huge nerd) generally has an angry, overly-possessive segment of fans. At first, I wanted to try to convince folks to be optimistic, but then I realized that these are just the angry folks that every fan base has and that’s just the way it’s going to be.

       5 likes

  13. Dr. Z says:

    First let me apologize to any fellow MSTies of whom I may have offended.
    I am sorry. :-(
    I typed in a way that was not cool.

    Second everyone opinion is of value.
    Some might not see things the way you might, and that’s cool man.

    Last this internet space is cool where we can all meet up and talk about all things MST3K.
    Thank you.

       11 likes

  14. G R Robertson says:

    This reminds me of when Star Trek was relaunched as The Next Generation and a lot of skeletons came out the closet about money and contributions. Hopefully the hatchets are all buried and not in anyones head !!

       2 likes

  15. Dr. Z says:

    On a better note, anybody else get Vol. XXXIV a few weeks ago?
    Also I’ve been really enjoying the new menus. Anyone have any thoughts on that?

       3 likes

  16. G R Robertson says:

    You got 34 already? amazon list it as 1st Dec release which, for me, means that it flies to Europe then goes through customs, sits on a shelf somewhere and, if I’m lucky will arrive Christmas week.

       0 likes

  17. Dr. Z says:

    Oh I pre-ordered it from shout! Factory. And then sent it before the street date.

       1 likes

  18. Captain Cab says:

    Trace did not say he’ll “never be involved.” He tweeted to a fan who asked if he was going to be working on the reboot and said “Sorry, I’m not involved.” The fan then tweeted back “Not even a cameo as Dr. F?” To which he then replied further “Sorry. That’s not happening.” Still very affirmative but he didn’t use the word “never.”

       2 likes

  19. Gamera's guts says:

    Thanks to Zack Blaze, I am going to go ahead and retract my contribution to the Kickstarter. Zack buddy, you better increase your contribution to make up for the $300 you cost them, you scum bag.

    I am sick to death of these hyper aggressive internet man babies who act like everyone else is entitled for having opinions that are just ‘contribute as much as humanly possible and shut up about it, you entitled nerd’. It’s why I never gave to another Rifftrax KS after the first one (and never will) and it’s why I am not going to donate to this one now. Enjoy your three episodes, Zack.

       2 likes

  20. Captain Cab says:

    Trace’s latest responses, these are from yesterday:

    Timothy Tribbett,DVM
    ?@tntDVM

    “@TraceBeaulieu will you be involved in the possible MST3K reboot? Hope so!”

    Trace Beaulieu ?@TraceBeaulieu 21h21 hours ago

    “Sorry to disappoint but will not be involved.”

    “@TraceBeaulieu I respect your and any of the rest of the originals feelings, while hoping you’d consider a cameo. Maybe on “Turkey Day”?

    Trace Beaulieu ?@TraceBeaulieu 20h20 hours ago

    “That ship has sailed.”

    So guess he might as well have said “never” even though he didn’t. :/ I don’t think Trace has even at least wished Joel and the reboot well like Josh did.

       2 likes

  21. jaybird3rd says:

    “Hyper-aggressive internet man babies”??? Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!

    How many people here actually believe that #69 really posted a $300 pledge to the Kickstarter campaign in the first place? Let’s all watch the total to see if it suddenly drops by $300, shall we? My guess is that it won’t.

       5 likes

  22. Droppo says:

    Captain Cab:
    Trace’s latest responses, these are from yesterday:

    Timothy Tribbett,DVM
    ?@tntDVM

    “@TraceBeaulieu will you be involved in the possible MST3K reboot? Hope so!”

    Trace Beaulieu ?@TraceBeaulieu 21h21 hours ago

    “Sorry to disappoint but will not be involved.”

    “@TraceBeaulieu I respect your and any of the rest of the originals feelings, while hoping you’d consider a cameo. Maybe on “Turkey Day”?

    Trace Beaulieu ?@TraceBeaulieu 20h20 hours ago

    “That ship has sailed.”

    So guess he might as well have said “never” even though he didn’t.I don’t think Trace has even at least wished Joel and the reboot well like Josh did.

    Trace did wish them well. He tweeted, literally, “wish them well.”

       3 likes

  23. Captain Cab says:

    Wow, lots of anger in here these days…..

    Droppo: Trace did wish them well.He tweeted, literally, “wish them well.”

    Ah, my bad, didn’t see that one.

       2 likes

  24. Thad says:

    Otto, you make a lot of points; I agree with some and not with others. I’ll try and be brief in my responses:

    Otto Von Cheesebiscuit: 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 fair. MST3K was definitely a group show, and it’s reasonable to say that just because Joel’s in doesn’t mean it’ll have the same level of quality.

    That said, I think you’re mischaracterizing people saying they trust Joel’s choices as “worship”; nor do I think it inherently dismisses the rest of the cast and crew. Indeed, the overwhelming mood here seems to be that people wish the original team COULD be involved, but that they’ll accept it if they’re not.

    I think you’re being dismissive of Joel more than anyone else is being dismissive of the rest of the team.

    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 don’t think it smells at all; I think it’s perfectly reasonable to wait until you have something to offer before you actually offer it.

    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!

    Well, I still haven’t seen the Felicia Day rumor confirmed by any primary sources, but I’m pretty sure she costs more than Trace Beaulieu or Mary Jo Pehl. If her casting is confirmed, I think you’re going to have to adjust your theory that Joel is cheaping out to stiff the old cast.

    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.

    Yeah, I think that’s a fair criticism.

    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.

    [citation needed]

    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.

    No, it wasn’t; as he said in that same update, the budget per episode for the original series was $100,000-$200,000.

    Maybe not in the KTMA era, but, well, you don’t want this to look like the KTMA era, do you? And even if it did, they’d still have to pay for movie rights (which they didn’t at KTMA).

    There are a lot of moving parts in a budget: they’ve got to rent a studio, pay for equipment, pay parts and labor for building the sets, props, puppets, etc., and pay the cast and writers, and the crew (lighting, sound, cameras, etc.). It seems a little disingenuous for you to claim Joel is cheaping out by hiring people who will work for cheap and then turn right around and express skepticism that it costs so much to make an episode.

    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.

    Sure they can. First of all, movies you see on “cheapjack DVD’s” are right out, because the new show is going to be HD. That means, for starters, they need a film that’s got a viewable HD edition available.

    Plus the MST cult should make it profitable for your licensed movie, so why not?

    I agree, but I’m not a movie producer or studio executive. While we’ve seen filmmakers who were very friendly to MST3K — Rick Sloane, for example — there are a lot of people who aren’t.

    And even if people are amenable to licensing their movies on MST3K, there’s a simple issue of supply and demand at work here. They’re going to charge as much as they can get away with charging, because that’s how free markets work.

    I don’t know what it costs to get the rights to modify and rerelease a movie, but would it really be that surprising if it were six figures, even for a crappy one?

    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 think Jim Mallon gets a pretty unfairly bad rap too, but I don’t think the proper way to balance that is by giving Joel the same kind of unjustified hate that Jim so often gets.

    That said, as other people have pointed out, Joel is hardly the only guy who’s complained about Jim; it’s just that the other cast members who have complained about him have mostly focused on their lack of profit-sharing since the show ended.

    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.

    You just jumped right from “he’s going to raise $3.5 million” to “he’s alienating the core fans” in the span of four sentences. How can it be both?

    Over 22,000 people have contributed so far. Of those, nearly 10,000 have contributed $100 or more. That’s not what alienating core fans looks like. Core fans are turning out in droves and pledging generously.

    And the thing that keeps getting lost in this conversation is, it’s not actually up to Joel whether any of the old cast or writers return. Mike and Kevin said pretty clearly in a Diffuser interview a year and a half ago that they had no interest in coming back; they sure didn’t make it sound like it was about money, just that they’ve moved on. Josh is working on two documentaries. Trace, Frank, and Mary Jo all live outside of California, and the geographic distance between the performers is what everybody cited as the reason Cinematic Titanic split up. It is entirely possible that there is no offer Joel can make that will bring the old cast back, and that’s okay; they are not obligated to come back, and that doesn’t make him the bad guy.

    At least there’s the new Shout Factory box set coming out soon.I can afford to be nostalgic there.

    $35 to the Kickstarter will get you 3 old episodes alongside one new one. I think that’s a pretty good deal.

    Then again, they haven’t announced which three episodes they are yet, so if you’re worried you might already own them, I can see holding off.

    Mike “ex-genius” Kelley:
    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.

    I haven’t seen him use the word “never”, but when someone asked if he’d be willing to come back for a Dr. F cameo, he responded, “Sorry, that won’t be happening.”

    (Looks like Captain Cab already covered this, but I wrote most of this post last night before the site went down.)

    Thing is, I think people tend to read way too much into every little remark, and Twitter, by its nature, encourages short comments that don’t explain things and are open to misinterpretation. There are a lot of reasons Trace might be closing the door to participation; as I said, it could be a matter of logistics, or just plain not being interested in doing it again.

    I’ve worked some jobs in the past where I have some happy memories but would not be willing to go back if I were asked. And they’re not even out-of-state. That doesn’t mean I’m angry at my old boss.

    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.

    I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw Jonah and the Bots in the host segments coming up on Thursday. Don’t know if they want to announce the new Mad yet, though. If it is Felicia Day like everybody’s saying, that might be something Joel wants to keep in his back pocket until the last few days of the campaign, for a final push.

    Dr. Z:
    First let me apologize to any fellow MSTies of whom I may have offended. I am sorry.
    I typed in a way that was not cool.

    Second everyone opinion is of value.Some might not see things the way you might, and that’s cool man.

    Last this internet space is cool where we can all meet up and talk about all things MST3K.Thank you.

    Thanks, Dr. Z; it takes a big man to admit when he’s wrong. You’re okay in my book.

    Gamera’s guts:
    Thanks to Zack Blaze, I am going to go ahead and retract my contribution to the Kickstarter. Zack buddy, you better increase your contribution to make up for the $300 you cost them, you scum bag.

    I am sick to death of these hyper aggressive internet man babies who act like everyone else is entitled for having opinions that are just ‘contribute as much as humanly possible and shut up about it, you entitled nerd’. It’s why I never gave to another Rifftrax KS after the first one (and never will) and it’s why I am not going to donate to this one now. Enjoy your three episodes, Zack.

    Well, dude, I don’t have any evidence that you ever made or withdrew a $300 contribution beyond your say-so, but if you really withdrew it because one guy on the Internet said something rude, I think that says more about you than it does about him.

    There’s nothing wrong with having second thoughts about a contribution that size and deciding that’s more than you can comfortably spend on a project like this; I’m sure not in a place where I could afford $300 for this or any other Kickstarter. But blaming it on one obnoxious poster in an Internet comments section makes it sound like you were looking for a reason. (Say, there are people being obnoxious who are against the Kickstarter; I don’t see anyone saying they’re going to contribute $300 just to spite them.) And if you really are the sort of person to giveth and taketh away that kind of money on that little provocation, well, that seems pretty petty to me.

    Which isn’t to defend Zack Blaze, who I agree was being kind of a jerk. But there are Zack Blazes all over this here Internet. That’s sure not going to stop me from making a contribution. I can’t afford $300, but I’ll put in what I can.

       6 likes

  25. darthservo says:

    Does anyone know how much Rifftrax grosses for one of it’s Fathom live events?

       0 likes

  26. Cheapskate Crow says:

    I am skeptical about this but will contribute something at the end depending on how many episodes look likely to be produced. IMO even in its original incarnation MST in season 10 was a shadow of what it was in seasons 3-5. I trust Joel’s vision but an all new cast is going to be weird. Also the world has changed a lot since MST was on, everyone snarks about everything now and the entire concept isn’t new like it used to be.

    I think Joel is laying it on maybe a bit thick that if the kickstarter doesn’t make it to 12 episodes (which I don’t think will happen at this rate) that this is the end. If the new episodes are good and get good word of mouth, he could still sell a lot of episodes online and get picked up by Amazon or Netflix based on that. Netflix in particular has produced new seasons of canceled comedies like Arrested Development and Trailer Park Boys so I think that is Joel’s best bet to continue the show.

       0 likes

  27. jaybird3rd says:

    HUGE update this afternoon from Joel!

    First of all, he formally announced Felicia Day, Hampton Yount, and Baron Vaughn as the remainder of the principal cast, as well as a yet-unnamed evil henchman. Second, he set new short-term fundraising goals and added more free episodes to sweeten the pot.

    But the biggest news for me as a hardcore MSTie: THE LOST KTMA SHOWS MAY ACTUALLY SEE THE LIGHT!!! I suggested that as a “nuclear option” in the comment thread on Kickstarter, but the thought that it might actually happen may just make my head explode!

       9 likes

  28. jack says:

    jaybird3rd:
    HUGE update this afternoon from Joel!

    First of all, he formally announced Felicia Day, Hampton Yount, and Baron Vaughn as the remainder of the principal cast, as well as a yet-unnamed evil henchman.Second, he set new short-term fundraising goals and added more free episodes to sweeten the pot.

    But the biggest news for me as a hardcore MSTie: THE LOST KTMA SHOWS MAY ACTUALLY SEE THE LIGHT!!!I suggested that as a “nuclear option” in the comment thread on Kickstarter, but the thought that it might actually happen may just make my head explode!

    I just upped my pledge $100 in hopes of making this happen. I may go up some more if it gets close.

       7 likes

  29. Johnny's nonchalance says:

    From Joel’s update:

    Then, if we can reach $3.3M – our second goal – before the Turkey Day ’15 Marathon ends, we’ve got a much bigger bonus reward for you… and it’s something that a lot of you have been asking for!

    I don’t want to get ahead of myself, so I’ll tell you about that challenge in another update this week. Hardcore MSTies, I’ll just give you a little hint: if you help us make the newest episodes of MST3K, you might just get to see the oldest episodes of MST3K.

       7 likes

  30. WeatherServo9 says:

    #76 – Interesting about the KTMA news, which he just kind of snuck (or sneaked, if you prefer) in there. I didn’t even see it the first time I scanned the email.

       0 likes

  31. Prime Minister Jm J. Bullock says:

    Get to know your new Tom Servo:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJ6CDOeS3yY

    Jonah’s on an older episode of this show, too.

       1 likes

  32. Franklyn Hart says:

    !!!!

    I love KTMA!

    !!!!

    (Please, please, pretty please…)

       3 likes

  33. Droppo says:

    This was my favorite KS video yet! Loved Felicia – thought she absolutely nailed it. Jonah too. Love his playfulness with Crow…this just feels like MST3K. I’m so psyched.

       6 likes

  34. skierpete says:

    Whoa – If they were to release the KTMA episodes at a certain price level…but I am not sure how they could do this…wouldn’t they need the movie rights? I guess I would think it would mostly be releasing the skits portion of the episodes.

    What’s funny is while I was a fan of this show from way back in the day – I had about 150 episodes on VHS from “circulating the tapes” – it was only in the last 2.5 years that I started watching it again and collecting the DVDs. If this had popped up 3 years ago I am not sure I would’ve cared.

    Now I am totaling excited for this. And I am with Joel. I really hope this is not just 3 or 6 or 9 episodes. I hope it’s mutliple seasons. Very excited.

       4 likes

  35. Thad says:

    Great update; thanks jaybird3rd for bringing it to my attention. I’m a fan of Felicia Day and I think she’ll do great; I’ve wanted to see her play a villain since Dr. Horrible’s Singalong Blog, and her brief appearance in the video did not disappoint me. I’m not familiar with Yount or Vaughn (or Ray, for that matter) but I think they’ve done a good job so far; it’s always tough to adjust to a new cast but I think this is off to a great start.

    That’s just one man’s opinion, of course; some folks will agree with me and others won’t. And most of the commenters here are doing a great job of disagreeing without calling one another names; I hope the folks who have engaged in namecalling will reconsider. We’re all fans here, and I think we’ve got a lot more in common than not.

    Anyhow, got my check today and I went ahead and pledged at the $35 level. Looking forward to my 3 classic episodes, and hoping we hit the $2.75M goal and that gets upped to six — if it does, that’s a pretty great deal.

       2 likes

  36. skierpete says:

    One other thing:

    SO has anyone watched the kickstarter video showing all the characters? (Update #8)

    Interesting that Felicia Day is already playing in character as Kinga Forrester (Kinga – that’ll take some getting used to) – Then she Chides Joel for the “slapdash” Kickstarter campaign, and Joel makes the comment “I should have never sold the shows rights to a fictional character”.

    Also – while Jonah has a “Gizmonics” Jump Suit on. Kinga’s costume has a MST3K patch on it.

    It makes me wonder if this is all a hint at the direction of the plot of the show…is Kinga staging new episodes not as a scientific experiment but instead as a money-making scheme. Could be a rather meta direction to take it, but of course the show was always very self aware of it’s own silliness. (Understand this is all conjecture on my part.)

       5 likes

  37. wedestroymyths says:

    skierpete:
    Whoa – If they were to release the KTMA episodes at a certain price level…but I am not sure how they could do this…wouldn’t they need the movie rights?I guess I would think it would mostly be releasing the skits portion of the episodes.

    What’s funny is while I was a fan of this show from way back in the day – I had about 150 episodes on VHS from “circulating the tapes” – it was only in the last 2.5 years that I started watching it again and collecting the DVDs. If this had popped up 3 years ago I am not sure I would’ve cared.

    Now I am totaling excited for this. And I am with Joel. I really hope this is not just 3 or 6 or 9 episodes. I hope it’s mutliple seasons. Very excited.

    Someone over on the MST reddit page pointed out that Shout has the rights, in some form, to all three of the movies used in the first KTMA episodes. So, it at least seems plausible/possible that they’ve already negotiated for the MST versions, or easily could.

       4 likes

  38. Captain Cab says:

    Fun update video, the new cast seem to be synching up nicely already, Yount really nails Crow’s voice. Baron needs a bit more time with Tom though, but he seems to have Tom’s unbridled enthusiasm down so far which is the biggest part of Tom’s character. Felicia is GREAT so far, but these lines…..

    “Where are those little money making robots??”

    Joel: “That’s what I get for selling the rights to an evil genius.”

    Ehhhh, I just didn’t find this funny, feel flat. I hate to play the skeptic card but I’m kind of bummed that they have apparently gone with a “bad-guy business scheme” concept for the reboot where Jonah and the ‘bots are basically just indentured, put upon employees because Joel sold the rights to Kinga in some cheesy self referencing narrative (obviously Joel’s line about selling the rights is a meta dig at Jim). I was really hoping they would still be castaways or as I have said before, a semi dark “Last Man on Earth” concept where they are stuck in a futuristic theater in a nowhere land that the Mads feed the movies into, that would have been interesting.

       1 likes

  39. Captain Cab says:

    “Feels flat” I meant, obviously. Nothing like a typo to give you a bad feel.

    Also, no offense to Joel, but rolling out the video footage of the old cast and insisting “everyone is invited to participate” just feels awkward at this point with almost everyone already firmly saying they’re not involved.

       1 likes

  40. Thad says:

    (Whoop, think I’m gonna go move my post to the new thread.)

       0 likes

  41. GornCaptain says:

    It was clearly said in one episode the Mads sold the results of their experiments to cable tv. It was always a “bad guy business scheme” of sorts.

       9 likes

  42. Into The Void says:

    Dr. Z: Vol. XXXIV

    YES!!! …ha, well, I’ll be ordering next weekend. I’m currently 2 sets behind, although I transferred numerous old vhs from recording from Comedy Channel/Sci-Fi back in the ’90s, so I’ve already got most of the episodes Shout is releasing …however, they don’t look as good, are commercialized, and don’t include the extras-obviously-so I’ve been collecting the Rhino and Shout sets.

    Thanks for bringing attention to the new set …frankly, I don’t bother following all of the bluster and back n forth arguing over the impending new version.

       4 likes

  43. bad wolf says:

    Captain Cab:
    (obviously Joel’s line about selling the rights is a meta dig at Jim).

    Let me just quote Thad from a little further up the chain:

    Thad:
    Thing is, I think people tend to read way too much into every little remark, and Twitter, by its nature, encourages short comments that don’t explain things and are open to misinterpretation.

       2 likes

  44. H says:

    skierpete:
    Whoa – If they were to release the KTMA episodes at a certain price level…but I am not sure how they could do this…wouldn’t they need the movie rights?I guess I would think it would mostly be releasing the skits portion of the episodes.

    They have the rights to the Sandy Frank library (Gamera, Fugitive Alien, etc.) so they could probably release those episodes.

       0 likes

  45. EricJ: I don’t know the whole ugly BTS story of whether Jim tried to “sink” Film Crew; all I, and the rest of us fans, got to see from the outside was that Film Crew came off as a short and very unsuccessful experiment in whether Shout could give “the RiffTrax guys” their old series back all by themselves and expect the same riffing–
    Not sure whether Film Crew happened because Shout had tried to get the original series, failed, and tried to make their own; all we know is, Shout acquired the original series very quickly after FC finished its test run, and CT went on tour, advertising, “From the original writers and creators of MST3K!”

    It was hard not to read a lot into that.

    Not sure if you will see this, but The Film Crew was originally done *before* Rifftrax and for Rhino. Word is, Jim didn’t like *Rhino* making “another MST3K” and got it killed. That’s why “Mr. Rhino” is dubbed with “Mr. Honcho” in all the episodes. It was *after* that failure that Mike started Rifftrax with Legend Films. By the time the “Film Crew” material was available, so was Rifftrax, making it seem that they were contemporaneous, when the Film Crew was, in fact, older.

       5 likes

  46. Jason says:

    The Film Crew episodes were originally set up with Rhino Home Video, which had the MST3K distribution rights. The story (veracity unconfirmed) goes that Mallon did not like the competition, and gave Rhino an ultimatum: pass on the project or he’d end their arrangement to release MST3K episodes. The Film Crew was effectively cancelled and the sets destroyed, though the four episodes they produced before ice water was thrown on the whole enterprise were eventually released after the fact, by Shout! (which key folks behind Rhino formed). The released version had every reference to “Bob Rhino” redubbed, with the character being renamed “Bob Honcho.” The voice of Honcho, by the way, was the recently deceased Mike Dodge.

    Some may remember that The Film Crew had a few other projects. They did a pilot for a radio show on NPR that didn’t end up getting made despite being apparently being well-received internally. (On the now defunct Film Crew web site, an excerpt sketch was released that was hilarious.) The group was nonetheless invited to contribute a handful of brief bits on NPR. They also did some intros for Starz/Encore and provided a supplemental feature for a Legend Films colorized release of some Three Stooges shorts. This may have sealed Mike’s intro with Legend Films, and led him to do some solo commentary tracks before Rifftrax was branded and Kevin and Bill eventually rejoined him. Nowadays I believe the fellas own some well-deserved stake in the Rifftrax brand. It’s easy to see after all that why they wouldn’t want to go back to the “gig” that would be MST3K.

    The more you know!

       9 likes

  47. Jameson Pester says:

    I want this show with this cast.

       2 likes

  48. Thad says:

    Jason:
    Nowadays I believe the fellas own some well-deserved stake in the Rifftrax brand.

    Wikipedia claims that Mike, Bill, Kevin, and CEO David G Martin own Rifftrax, having bought it out from Legend Films back in ‘012. But it’s also got a “[citation needed]” right next to that information, so if anybody’s got some independent verification they can link to that’d be great.

       0 likes

  49. wedestroymyths says:

    So, out of curiosity, will any of the strong against-the-new-mst folks pony up dough if Joel offers the first three, never in circulation KTMA episodes as a reward?

    Not trying to stir anything up, but I’m genuinely curious if the principle of not pledging the Kickstarter outweighs the possibility of getting to see content that, decades ago, most of us accepted we’d never see.

       3 likes

  50. Be Right There says:

    Threw in my two cents (or rather, $35) today. Looking forward to seeing Felicia Day as the Mad, and the revival in general!

       0 likes

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