$6.3 Million goal has been reached and FOURTEEN new episodes are coming!
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#BringBackMST3K Kickstarter Tracker
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Well, I’m sure a lot (most?) fans of MST WANT the original cast to appear on the reboot episodes, but I think that is unlikely for a lot of reasons. First, they’re all busy doing their own projects. Second, they used to work for peanuts on the show, and are now making better money, so they feel they’re worth a lot more than Joel / Shout Factory could or would offer them.
Sadly, a lot of “stars” start out in small movies & TV shows which make them famous, and then many years later when it’s time for a reunion show or DVD bonus features, they pass on it because they’re too important (in their own minds. Now I’m not saying that’s the case here, but it could be a factor.
As to J Elvis saying he didn’t want to work ‘for” Joel, his turn in Cinematic Titanic was a case of him working “with” Joel as they all shared in the profits from that show. This MST reboot sounds like it’s owned by Shout Factory who is working closely with Joel, so anyone returning would be working “for” that entity and not “with” them.
I do hope that they get the entire $5.5 million, but things have slowed down a lot. They may only be able to make 6 episodes, and that may not be enough to continue.
Just my 2 cents…
I don’t disagree about any of that, but after seeing the latest video I’m okay with it.
I have been of the opinion since the first that I wasn’t going to like this (despite backing it — I DO like Joel) and this video with Felicia (whom I never particularly cared for) has convinced me I was wrong. This might be *really* good (I still worry about movie choices and writers but for now I’ll have faith).
Of course, now that I’m invested in this (in more ways than one) I’ll be disappointed when they don’t reach all their goals. Sigh. I have very little faith they can come up with enough money for more than six episodes (although I do think they will reach that). Still, six new episodes of this might be a lot of fun (and let’s hope that six episodes is enough to entice all the announced cast to appear — should be, since none of them have any other prominent gigs).
I think on Turkey Day I’m even going to up my pledge.
I’m expecting a nice bump from Turkey Day. 100,000 people tuned in last year, so even if a fraction contribute, we could see a surge. The projections at Kicktraq is currently at least 3.39M – 4.4M, so I’m hopeful we’ll at least see nine.
I, too, am not a big fan of Felicia Day, but liked the brief glimpse of her character and think she could work out well. And I like the idea of a *very* different Host/Mad relationship. “Big stack of flapjacks”, indeed…
Is there somewhere Kicktraq explains its math? At a glance I assume the high number takes the average per-day donation of the entire project to date while the low number takes the average over the past few days, but I’m not sure. Both of those make for pretty rough and unscientific estimates.
The Kicktraq “projection” feature is highly experimental, and even Kicktraq says somewhere that the results should be taken “with a grain of salt.” I wouldn’t let it discourage you.
That’s a silly way to characterize anyone who may not participate in this reboot.
Kicktraqs data is just based on the last few days as far as I can tell. Looks like the “high” uses the high of the last three days, and the “low” uses the low.
Basically – that data means nothing at all. I think what’s telling is how small the “surge” from Yesterday’s announcement was. Almost half the money earned so far was collected in the first two days. The first update with Jonah Day caused a surge of about $250K. Yesterday’s surge was only $140K and doesn’t seem to be carrying through much today.
I think the Turkey Day totals will be very telling. If they can’t get $500K out of Turkey Day, it will look to me like the Kickstarter is “pledged out”. I foresee them getting to the 9 Episode mark – but I think the push to $5.5 million might be too great a hill to climb. (Though they are at 24,000 contributors, and I guess I would be a bit depressed if there are less than 50,000 MST3K fans in the world willing to put up a few bucks to bring the show back.)
#107: I wouldn’t read too much into that, either. Remember that the pattern that most Kickstarter campaigns follow is a burst of activity at the beginning and another at the end, with a long slog in the middle. The fact that we’ve had a few “boomlets” along the way is a promising sign. Also, the news about the new cast was already out there before Joel formally made the announcement, so it wasn’t as big of a scoop as it might have been. As others have pointed out, even if it didn’t provide an initial burst, that doesn’t mean it won’t lead to a sustained increase in pledges.
It’s still early morning on the West coast, and we’re already up over $60K for the day, and we’re well within range to reach $2.75M (the midpoint to the $5.5M goal) by the start of Turkey Day (the midpoint of the campaign). I’m sure that Joel has a few more cards to play to keep the momentum going.
Another thing to remember: THE “LOST” KTMA SHOWS!!! Who would have thought before this campaign that we’d ever get to see those at all? Now, we have a chance to get not just third-generation fan copies, but official copies directly from Joel! Those shows are so earth-shatteringly important that any self-respecting MSTie should be crawling over broken glass to liberate them from the vault!
Assuming we reach $2.75M today (which seems likely), all it will take is another $550K before the end of Turkey Day. Let’s make it happen, shall we?
Not discouraged; just a curious math nerd.
That doesn’t track; the slope of the high looks like it’s less than yesterday’s slope.
I think it’s too early in the day to make that call; it’s already over $60K and it’s only 9:30 AM on the west coast.
I think even the $4.4M goal is going to be tough to get to. Difficult, but possible.
I agree that Turkey Day is going to be important, but I think you may be overstating its importance. It’s pretty typical for Kickstarters to pick back up in their last two days; part of that is the Remind Me feature. There are people who haven’t pledged yet but clicked that Remind Me Later link; they’ll get their reminders in the last couple of days of the campaign, and some of them will contribute then.
There’s still one more casting announcement coming, too, which is one more potential point for donations to spike, depending who it is.
Which would be a major disappointment. Having watched various KTMA episodes via youtube, I am content to view the KTMA era Gamera as test runs for the much improved Season 3 versions. Same goes for Fugitive Alien/Time of the Apes/Mighty Jack.
The main draw of KTMA is to get the movies that were NOT redone later. So my KTMA episode list starts with “Phase IV” and ends with “Legend of Dinosaurs”. “The Last Chase” and “The Million Eyes of Sumuru” are favorites of mine, and those are ones I want to see Joel release.
…but finally getting to see “Invaders from the Deep” and “Revenge of the Mysterons” would be nice, as well. 8-)
That’s a fair criticism, but those may be the only episodes they can guarantee at this point. And if Shout’s already got the rights to the season 3 versions, then the KTMA versions of those same movies might not cost them anything extra to license.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they started with the cheapest options to gauge interest to see if they could make a case for releasing the rest. On the other hand, the earliest episodes that aren’t already available in the wild are probably inherently going to be the ones that generate the most demand.
It’ll be interesting to see where they go with this. Obviously they must have been discussing this before the Kickstarter, so it’s probably a matter of when rather than if.
I don’t think Shout has the rights to Gamera anymore. That set is out of print.
For what it’s worth, I think Sandy franks crew did the dubbing of the humanoid woman movie too. Could that also be considered? What do you think sirs?
I wasn’t sure about the reboot but after seeing the video with Crow and Servo’s new voices and Jonah and Felicia, I’m in and just donated. I think Crow’s voice fits well and Servo’s could be really good if he just puts a little more “umph” into it but hopefully that will come with more practice. Hopefully they will get a boost on Turkey Day and we’ll get all 12 eps.
I would like to see them do some 1950s monster movies. I wonder if like Rifftrax and CT, they’ll scrape the bottom of the barrel since they don’t also have to be somewhat fit for TV.
(applauds) Good point! I’d be content for them to start with that and “Cosmic Princess” (which is just a couple of episodes of Space:1999)…but “the Last Chase” is still my top prize.
Shout’s current catalog of films offer a riffing goldmine:
Reptilicus
Angry Red Planet
Attack of the Crab Monsters
Die Monster Die!
The Beast of Hallow Mountain
The Neanderthal Man
The Man from Planet X
Beyond the Time Barrier
The Time Travelers
The Snake Woman
The Bat People
R.O.T.O.R. (I know Rifftrax did this one, but it’s worth the revisit)
That right there would be an amazing 12-episode season of MST3K, and that’s without Shout needing to buy any additional movie rights. I mean, I don’t know all the legalities surrounding putting a movie on a MST3K, but they do already have the rights in some capacity. Also, this is sticking pretty close to the sci-fi genre. They also have the rights to lots of Westerns and teen angst movies, which could also be perfect for MST3K.
Basically, I’m really excited for the new MST3K.
After watching yesterday’s video, I have to say that I’m slightly more optimistic about this than I was before. Maybe it’s because I want to fantasize that I’m the one Felicia calls a tall stack of pancakes*, but it’s looking like it might be a lot of fun to watch her interact with Jonah and the Bots. I’m still not entirely sold (and it seems a little disingenuous for Joel to keep playing the “all the original Brains will be invited to participate” card when most of them have already said no), but everybody involved seems to genuinely love MST and I’m certainly willing to keep an open mind. Let’s see what they do.
As for funding, it looks like they’ll hit $2.75 million easily enough, but $500,000+ more by the end of Thursday? It’s not impossible, but right now it seems like a stretch…
*More of a French toast man myself.
Why is the assumption that it’ll be the lost episodes if the funding push is met? “The oldest episodes of MST3K” would be KTMA episodes and Shout has the rights to them, but nothing indicates that they would be the first three episodes. People that are reading it that way are doing so because that’s what they want, and not because it was implied. I just think those people are setting themselves up for disappointment.
Are those episodes really lost, or did the KTMA crew just not want them to be seen again?
Now, I’m not too familiar with how kickstarts work. Say Joel is indeed talking about the fabled KTMA episodes that lack fan copies. Would they be made available to purchase for everyone? Gifted to all backers of a certain amount? And is it only backers before the deadline, or just in general? I’d really appreciate some clarity on this matter.
If there is a buck to be made, the KTMA episodes will come out with or without Kickstarter. That’s a fact.
There’s no standard process or procedure in a Kickstarter. Someone just puts one up and people donate money (or not).
So basically it’s entirely up to Joel’s whim. Give them to backers, make them free on youtube, sell them. Who knows? It’s up to him.
Hell, he could pocket all the money and go to Acapulco or something. On a few occasions there have been attorney generals of a state have gone after a fraudulent Kickstarter, but only a handful. And there are many more that just failed, not out of fraud, just because of incompetence. Or the creator comes down with a mysterious illness.
Some people here are just determined to see everything about this campaign in the most negative possible light, eh?
When Joel says “the oldest episodes,” it doesn’t take much reading between the lines to conclude that “oldest” means “the episodes that were made first,” which is what the “lost” episodes (K01 through K03) happen to be. Joel also said that these episodes were something that “a lot of you have been asking for,” which would rule out K04 and later because we already have them (albeit as fan copies of varying degrees of quality).
The reason the first three episodes are “lost” is because they were never re-broadcast by KTMA after their original airings in 1988. K04 and later were re-aired and recorded by fans in 1989, which is why we have them today, but nobody at the time thought to tape the 1988 shows (or, if they did, those tapes never surfaced).
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. “Cosmic Princess” is my favorite episode. (So sue me!)
That being said, I highly doubt they can get it, given the fact that they won’t even release the original version (of the film, not the two episodes) outside of Europe.
“Humanoid Woman” is a much greater likelihood and it’s my second favorite KTMA (and right up there overall). I’d still *love* that. (Finally got the original, uncut Russian 2-part version. It’s actually pretty good, give or take a few awful “special” effects.)
Well, as others have noted, MST3K did R-rated movies but generally edited them to make them PG or PG-13. Joel’s said that the new show will still be family-friendly, so I expect much the same.
Yeah, and if Joel’s prepared to offer them, that means they’ve already been cleared by Shout. I don’t see Shout paying for the rights and preparing the episodes for release and then not releasing them.
I think it’s probably safe to assume that even if they don’t make the $3.3M goal by Thursday, those episodes will still get released eventually — we just might have to wait awhile, and pay for them separately.
“Cosmic Princess” is a fun episode. I’m pretty sure it’s the first of the KTMA shows I saw, and it’s not a bad choice for someone starting out with that season.
The licensing situation for the movies in K01 through K03 seems to be more favorable that we always thought it would be, because as it happens, Shout Factory reportedly has all the necessary distribution rights. They’ve got “Stingray”, they’ve got “Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons”, they’re already distributing the Season 3 versions of the “Fugitive Alien” movies, and now they own MST3K. Maybe the stars are finally aligned just right to set those first three episodes free!
@#124: You mentioned the original uncut version of “Humanoid Woman” (or “To the Stars by Hard Ways,” I believe it was originally called). I’m assuming that this is the extended and restored edition. Where did you get it, and is it in English or subtitled? I’ve been curious to check it out myself: even after it was put through the Sandy Frank sausage machine, one can tell from watching K11 that there’s an interesting movie there.
On top of an MST3K version of ROTOR, what I really want is a DVD release with a documentary explaining what the hell went on behind the scenes of that mess.
The video was made before everyone said they weren’t involved. All the videos were probably filmed on the same day. Jonah is dubbed on this one to make it up to date.
If Joel makes the KTMA eps an Add-on he’ll probably not have much trouble hitting the next Turkey Day goal.
No, I’m trying to be realistic and NOT infer things that were never said due to hype. How is any portion of what I said the most negative light? I’m not against the lost episodes being revealed; I’m trying to ascertain if there any real hope for this actually happening, or if it is one fan’s theory that has been conflated due to the intense desire of those that pass it along.
Exactly. You are reading between the lines. It’s no different that reading Trace’s twitter post saying he wouldn’t be involved in the reboot, and then stating in the forum that there is a personal blood feud between Joel and Trace. A lot of people are asking for official copies of K04 and later, since they have never been officially released. KTMA episodes are the oldest episodes. If Joel said “the oldest of the oldest episodes”, there would be some actual merit to this theory.
He’s right. The latest video is clearly dubbed if you try to listen for the specific information that Jonah gives. If you watch it on YouTube, listen to how subtly Jonah’s voice changes from 1:39 (“But so far, it’s working a little TOO well”), to 1:42 (“We’ve already raised over $2 million dollars, and we still have 18 days to go”), and back at 1:46 (“And how do we know that…”).
In light of how all those videos had to have been shot ahead of time at the same time, I wouldn’t think that Joel was being disingenuous when he invited the rest of the MST3K cast into the fold, as Farmland suggested.
It is the original version, not the “restored” edition which had new special effects (though they didn’t replace the robots or anything). It’s this one:
http://www.russiandvd.com/store/product.asp?sku=55617&genreid=&genresubid=
And I got it from ebay. There are English subtitles.
My “Log Book” episode guide entry is here:
http://www.thelogbook.com/logbook/mystery-science-theater-3000/experiment-k11-humanoid-woman/
Good catch. BathTub made the point about the recording probably being older over in the other thread, but I didn’t catch the dubbing on Jonah’s voice.
That explains a lot; yes, it looks awkward for Joel to say everybody’s invited after (almost) everybody’s already said no, but they hadn’t said no yet when he made the video.
I’m sure by ‘oldest episodes’, he means Season 1 Special Edition, which will replace Josh’s voice with Kevin’s, add digital dinosaurs & other robots milling around in the back & foreground, and Crow will have no longer shot first. Also, a random ‘No!’ (perhaps Cave Dwellers style?) will be added in here & there in every episode.
I noticed this as well.
I think it’s all being taken way too seriously anyways. I’ve stated before, it was always unlikely much of the cast would come back. It’s not like Joel / Shout! / some big studio is going to back up a big dump truck of money to convince these guys to come back. I think it is wrong for anyone to take Joel’s offers to the old crew as being disingenuous. I am sure he had a hand in making sure the sales of MST3K episodes through Rifftrax lead to profit for ALL the old cast. (Probably not much profit, but still.)
Something interesting to think about what transpired over the last 20 years…when Joel left the show,(and please correct me if I am wrong) it seems like it was a case of he didn’t like the direction the show was going (the focus on the movie being the primary issue) and decided rather than to fight about it or be unhappy, he would just leave. In the intervening years, it seems pretty clear that something happened to cause him to regret that choice, and for better or worse, it feels like he’s spent part of the last 10 years to bring this back, first by forming CT, and now over the last TWO years working to return to MST3K. Whatever the reason it is unlikely that it is 100% altruistic – in all likelyhood he has more to gain financially by the return of MST3K than anyone – but I think there is NO reason at all to think Joel is doing this out of malice or spite or whatever you may want to call it.
Now that I got here, I don’t really know where I was going with that paragraph…maybe I was saying that we should really just relax.
I don’t get how Joel’s invitation of the original cast could possibly be considered “disingenuous.” All he said was that they would be invited to come back. They were invited to come back, and most of them (so far) have said no. How does that make the original offer “disingenuous”??? If he’d said “yeah, the old cast is coming back, no problem, send in your money”, that would have been disingenuous. But he didn’t, so it wasn’t.
Again, some people here just seem determined to hate the new series. No matter what Joel says or does, they’d find something to complain about. Seriously, do you people even like MST3K???
On another note – if people haven’t linked to the vulture interview posted elsewhere – Joel confirms in it that the cast will be involved in the writing process for the show. This is probably not a surprise and I thought this would be the case, but this is the first time I’ve seen him state it categorically.
I have the un mstied vhs rip version ‘humanoid woman’ the original un cut Cherez Ternii on PAL dvd, and the restored 20th anniversary on PAL dvd. the restored version showed up on ebay magicly. i had found the others around. neither disc have subtitles- however veoh.com had a subtitled, original version a few years back. i was able to get that. cityofvoltz at gmail dot com if you have any questions.
I think Farmland’s point is that if Joel made that video after most of the former cast members said they’re not involved, then it’s misleading. Farmland’s not the only person to make that observation; Captain Cab said something similar back on page 2, and I agreed with him over in the Felicia Day thread.
However, as BathTub and others have noted, Joel most likely made that video before the old cast members said they didn’t intend to be involved. So it still might seem awkward, but Joel’s clearly not trying to mislead anybody.
While there are certainly people who are complaining about every little thing regarding the new show, I think you may be painting with too broad a brush here. Farmland’s post did express some criticism of the beginning of the video, but he also said that overall the video made him a little more optimistic about the future of the show.
Somebody made a point to me awhile back, and I think it’s a very fair one: those of us who are looking forward to the new series should bear in mind that there are two categories of people who aren’t, not just one. Yes, there are some people who are, as you say, complaining about every announcement and announcing preemptively that the show will suck. I don’t have a lot of patience for those guys.
But there are also people who are skeptical for reasons that I think are totally rational — without most of the original cast and crew, this show will, by its very nature, be different from the old show. MST3K is about more than Tom, Crow, and a human host sitting on the Satellite of Love making fun of bad movies; it was very much a product of the writing team, which stayed mostly consistent through its run.
I’m excited about the new show, but it’s okay for other people not to be. Some of them make pretty fair points, and I don’t think it’s right to suggest they’re Not Real Fans just because they’re not onboard yet with the new series.
And, not for nothin’, there are two categories of people who are in favor of the new series, too. The folks who shout down and insult anyone who is less than 110% enthusiastic about the Kickstarter and the new show are just as obnoxious as the ones who keep declaring it’s going to be terrible and referencing The New Monkees.
Why is my last comment (#129) still awaiting moderation when all these comments written after it are showing up?
Has it got links in it?
It seems to me, Kicktraq not withstanding, that they have three remaining “bumps” available to them. Turkey Day tomorrow, which should be a big one and which I’m hoping will see them pass the 3.3 million mark (sadly, I think I’m tapped out on donations, a friend and I went in together for the $200 level). Then the announcement of the new henchperson, which will probably be a very small bump unless they genuinely did go out and get someone with their own following like Patton Oswalt who can get a little cross-fandom appeal. And finally the last 48-72 hours, which are always a very big bump for a Kickstarter because everyone who was on the fence or waiting until the last minute throws their money into the pot.
(And when people like me who are “tapped out on donations” decide it’s worth eating ramen for a month or two in order to see that stretch goal. I know myself too well.)
With that in mind, I’d say that the 4.4 is probably reasonable, and the 5.5 is possible but unlikely. However, it may be that with 4.4 million banked Joel can secure financing for those last three episodes through the sale to the prospective content host (Hulu, Netflix, Vimeo, CBS All Access, Comedy Central, NBC–hey, they’re pretty desperate for a hit over there) and we’ll get the full season after all. Which would be awesome, because that video with all the actors got me pretty enthused. I mean, if that’s where they’re at as a baseline, throw it together promotional video level, I think we could be in for a treat once they actually sit down with a writing staff and some good-bad movies.
@Thad (#139) – your points are very fair, there are definitely levels of skepticism as well as favortism.
And many of the skeptics viewpoints are also fair, certainly the most valid being “it won’t be the same”, because even though I stand on the positive, I wholeheartedly believe it won’t be same – simply because it CAN’T be the same.
But the assumption I find faulty here is that a comedy show written around sketches and bad movies can’t possibly be as sharp and funny as the original just because it isn’t being written by Mike/Trace/Frank/MJ/Kevin/Bill/Paul/Bridget. Without those voices – it can’t possibly work. I can’t disagree more vehemently to this. It is completely possible that it can.
Now, it might not be…it might be terrible…but what if it isn’t?
Isn’t that worth the chance? New episodes won’t make the old episodes go away. They’ll still exist.
Another example: I’m a huge Genesis fan. Both of the Peter Gabriel and most of the Phil Collins eras. At one point in the ’90s Phil Collins “left” the band and the remaining two guys put out a Genesis album with a third lead singer called “Calling All Stations”. I think Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford are immensely talented, so I bought that CD. The album is wholly 100% terrible. I listened to it maybe a handful of times, and I quite honestly can’t tell you if I still even have it. But it doesn’t change the fact that I still listen to all the old stuff and love it.
Not as big a fan of INXS, but they did something similar when Micheal Hutchence died – in fact they used a reality show to get a new lead singer. The album that came out of that – SWITCH – I love…probably better that the last 2 or 3 INXS albums that came out with Hutchence. Glad they did it, glad I bought it.
I guess what I’m saying to those both kinds of negative people: you may doubt all you want, but keep a little hope alive. They’re not taking away the old MST3K, it’ll still be there. Why not be try cautious optimism? It looks like Joel is trying to give us a 21st century MST3K that we can enjoy.
Think about it, won’t you?
To me the biggest risk is having something that is called MST3K but clearly not MST3K. They can have a whole new cast and have many of the old cast/crew helping with the riffs and writing of the show to help keep the feel of the MST3K or can be completely a new show that is trying to be MST3K but just isn’t. People are pessimistic because it’s basically Joel and some internet comics and nothing else. There is a lot of nostalgia that people don’t want to be pissed on by something inferior. I can understand seeing how MST3K is my single favorite TV show and literally one of the things I really enjoy most in my life.
I’m still hoping that even without on screen cameo’s and a reunion show that they could still get the cast to contribute songs, skits, and riffs. There is no telling what the new episodes will be like and I hope they are great but as much as I like Joel and I believe he will try to do the right thing. However the original show was much more than just what Joel brought to the show. I agree that the new episodes won’t alter the original show in any way but I really do hope for an MST3K revival I just don’t want it be MST3K in name and not in soul.
I think the reason this is being met with a certain degree of…oh, let’s call it “incredulity”…is that it’s not like “Internet comics” are somehow different from real comedians. Today’s comedians are on YouTube and Twitter because that’s where the audiences are. If the Internet was around when Joel and Trace and Frank and Mike and Kevin (and and and…) then they probably would have been working those venues, just like Vaughn and Yount and Ray are all doing stand-up in comedy clubs in addition to their online stuff.
The fundamental fact is, the original MST3K crew was chosen not because they were some sort of perfect cream of the crop of the newly-discovered science of “movie riffing”, but because they were funny people that Joel happened to know when he was looking for talent to staff his new television show. Trace, Mike, Kevin, et al were not mega-comedy superstars when they came onto MST3K; Mike was bartending at TGIFriday’s to make ends meet between gigs. The obscure “Internet comics” Joel is going to are basically the Mike, Trace and Frank of 2015, funny guys who caught Joel’s eye when he saw their acts.
I get that people want the old gang back. I’d love that too; that’s why this isn’t going to stop me from buying Rifftrax, seeing Frank and Mary Jo live, and other things I’ve done in the past. But people need to stop acting like it’s impossible for anyone other than the original cast to make jokes about bad movies. Because really, people other than the original cast can be funny too.
@#145: In addition to what you’ve said, I would add that, even if they somehow DID manage to get all the original cast and crew back into their old roles, and even if they went back to Eden Prairie and got their old production space back along with all the old gear and props … it would still be different from the show we remember. Because the people are different. As I’ve said before, they’re not the moving images frozen in time on your DVD: they’re all older now and in a different place in their lives, and that would inevitably influence the work they do even if everything else about the new MST3K were to remain the same. That’s not to say that they’re no longer creative or talented people–they are–but they’re human beings who grow and change and whose needs and aspirations are not what they were fifteen years ago, which is why I’m not disappointed that they aren’t jumping back into their old roles.
So, those who are saying “I just can’t get behind this new show because, even though I trust Joel and have nothing against the new cast, it just won’t be the same without the original cast and crew” are kind of missing the point. It wouldn’t be the same even with the old cast and crew, so the fact that the new show will be different is inevitable, no matter who is involved. To demand otherwise is to demand the impossible. Joel seems to have a more realistic view, judging from his remarks in the interviews he’s given about why a “reunion show” wouldn’t work.
Sure, I have doubts about whether I will simply like and continue to watch the rebooted show in the future. Considering that a new show hasnt been made yet and I haven’t seen one yet, I’ll make that decision when I see it.
Well said. In a nutshell, I’m a “glass half full” kinda guy. “Glass half empty” guys irritate me. Find a little hope in your hearts, somewhere, that maybe this’ll be worth tuning into for at least 10 minutes…
I’m not saying that internet comics aren’t real comedians, my point is that besides Joel there isn’t anyone else involved at this point that made MST3K great. Also no the original MST3K cast aren’t the only people that riff shows but certainly MST3K was the best at it. My point is that if it’s going to be MST3K it has to have the soul and feel the original series had. Otherwise it’s just like the other 9,000 shows in the internet that have tried to duplicate MST3K’s success.
I’ve watched a lot of the other series on the internet that are inspired by MST3K and there is a lot of great comedy out there so it this version of MST3K comes off like it’s just another one of those shows then I will be disappointed. And as far as Joel having the eye for all the talent it seems that the other cast had a heavy hand in all the other people brought into the show and not Joel at least from all the interviews I’ve read.
People don’t have to stop acting like anything. Other people are as entitled to their own opinion as you are your own. I know several people that I’ve talked to about the MST3K kickstarter and when asked who all was doing it and me answering just Joel at this point everyone’s response to me at this point is “oh, I don’t really want to see that”. It’s just the way it is.
As to the point that even if they got all back together and made new shows it wouldn’t be the same, I don’t know how you can prove it one way or the other. Rifftrax has pretty much the feel of the riffing in later MST3k minus the skits. I think they could probably get together and make new episodes and it would be pretty much the same as old episodes.
I digress, I still hope that the new MST3K is successful and goes on to last a long time. I have $300 dollars in the kickstarter so it’s not like I don’t want it to be successful.
Oh and if we were all half glass full guys the world would be an awfully boring place.
And here’s a thing I’d say even to the people who aren’t interested in the new show: $35 for 6 classic episodes is a great deal. I think even the skeptics have a good reason to contribute to the Kickstarter — except, I suppose, the ones who already have most or all the DVD sets and probably already have most or all of the 6 (as yet unspecified) classic episodes. And, this being mst3kinfo.com, there are probably more than a few guys who match that description here, but I’m sure there are some who don’t, too.
And I’m sorry, but I find the whole “you’re pissing on my nostalgia”/”you’re committing an atrocious act of violence against my childhood” perspective to be both baffling and spectacularly immature. As Skierpete says, the new series won’t do a thing to the old series; as James Cain famously said: “People tell me, don’t you care what they’ve done to your book? I tell them, they haven’t done anything to my book. It’s right there on the shelf.”
I’m a child of the ’80’s. I’ve seen remakes of Thundercats, Transformers, He-Man, GI Joe, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. (Something most TMNT fanboys don’t bring up is that the cartoon series they’re so fond of is itself an adaptation that’s entirely different from the previous version it’s based on.) I like some, I don’t like others. Sometimes you get Beast Wars, and sometimes you get Revenge of the Fallen. Either way, what difference does it make? The old series is still there, unchanged, right there on the shelf.
I’m not one of those people who got angry when teenage girls got into Doctor Who because they thought Matt Smith was dreamy. Let them enjoy it in their way, and I’ll continue to enjoy it in mine. (It doesn’t hurt that I liked Matt Smith just fine, but even if I didn’t, there are still decades of old Who for me to choose from.)
From your perspective, what’s the worst thing that can happen here? It seems to me that the worst thing that can happen is that there’s a new show that has the same name and some of the same characters as a show you used to like, and you don’t like the new one. Okay. So what? Why is that something to view with a sense of fear or dread? How, exactly, is that going to piss on your nostalgia? They haven’t done anything to the old show. It’s right there on the shelf.
(And seriously, do you think it could possibly be as bad as what TMNT and Transformers fans have had to deal with?)