|
 |
Wired: 1st CT Movie is “Brain of Blood”Wired Magazine, of all media outlets, has the scoop about the first Cinematic Titanic release.
The movie riffed will be 1972’s Brain of Blood. CT will be partnering with movie-download service EZTakes. The cast performed last night for Industrial Light & Magic staffers at George Lucas’ Presidio campus in San Francisco. Feeling left out? Don’t: A DVD of the invitation-only show will be sold as well, Wired says. UPDATE: Here’s a report from the live performance. FURTHER UPDATE: The initial release date of Dec. 10 has been pushed back. New post at CT. 49 Replies to “Wired: 1st CT Movie is “Brain of Blood””Commenting at Satellite News
We are determined to encourage thoughtful discussion, so please be respectful to others. We also provide an "Ignore" button ( Comments are closed. |
|
Satellite News is a fan site for the Mystery Science Theater 3000 television and Netflix series. It is an independent publication written and compiled by Chris Cornell (msampo@aol.com) and Brian Henry (erhardt4@aol.com). Satellite of Love, LLC does not maintain this web site, nor is it responsible for this site's content.
All content posted on Satellite News is copyright © 2024 by Chris Cornell and Brian Henry, except where otherwise noted. This Date in MSTory is written and compiled by Steve Finley, Chris Cornell and Brian Henry. Copyright © 2024 All rights reserved. Please do not reproduce This Date in MSTory items in any form without express written permission from the authors. Items of MST3K news may be duplicated or reposted, as long as Satellite News is cited as the source. The views and opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of Satellite of Love, LLC. No warranty is expressed or implied that the information given herein is completely accurate, and in fact this information can and will change at any time. So there. Mystery Science Theater 3000, its characters and situations are copyrights and trademarks of Satellite of Love, LLC. Banner image created by Larry Lee Moniz. |
|
) to help our users cope with "trolls" and other commenters whom they find annoying. Go to our
I have this on DVD part of the Blood Island Vacation box set…
This is not part of the Blood Island series with John Ashley & directed by Eddie Romero…
This is worse…much much worse…but still cheesy entertainment. This is worse than Manos…or is it ? :wink:
Good choice for cheese :) :twisted:
Personally i have been a little sick of Rifftrax considering now they really only care about going after movie that are popular. Instead of going after whats really really bad. Its nice to hear that Joel & the gang are going to stay ture to the concept of MST3k and that i dont have spead so much time to get the Rifftrax sync with the movie. I dont care what they say one the Rifftrax Site. Its still a pain. Its pretty much why like the Film Crew DVD better. Anyways that just my opinion.
Ture ‘thank god’….but its really the only way you can do a list movies. Its nice to have a little bit of everything…Film Crew kicks ass, as I am sure CT will too..
The Lucasfilm show was actually tonight, the 7th.
Here’s a report:
http://starwarsblog.wordpress.com/2007/12/07/report-from-cinematic-titanic/
The Film Crew and Rifftrax suck bad. Haven’t seen Cinematic Titanic yet though so I can’t say. Just let MST3K die in peace and stop with these lame, painfully unfunny, spin-offs.
I respectfully disagree that The Film Crew sucked.
The Film Crew kicks ass!
I wish they would make more. What the hell is holding them up?
I’ll take TFC over Rifftrax anyday.
As stated earlier, Rifftrax is a pain, and I’m a working man. (It seems to me I could live my life alot better than I think I am).
I just don’t have time to fart around trying to sync up audio with a movie that I have to go rent.
Besides, I also prefer bad & obscure movies to the popular fare offered up by them.
I want more Film Crew and I want it now!
Is anyone, Shout, Legend, Rhino, etc. listening?
Why should “MST3K die in peace”? Just because YOU don’t like the new riffing? If you think the current projects are “lame, painfully unfunny”, then DON’T BUY THEM. Why should YOU care if they are produced?
Meanwhile, the rest of us will enjoy funny new material from the same folks that made MST3K so great. I suppose because it’s not MST3K, the humor-writing ability of Joel, Mike, Kevin, Trace, et al, has suddenly ceased to exist?
…. some people’s kids….
As for Rifftrax – sure it’s a bit of a pain, but getting a bellylaugh-full helping of the next-funniest-thing to MST3K for $3+rental is my kind of “pain”. I also find it a pain to mix and burn my own meld of the rental with the RiffTrax MP3 so I can watch it again and again, perfectly synched, but sometimes good things require a bit more work. To each their own, but I find them hilarious enough to make the effort. And I also think the current popular fare is already bad enough to be riffed – it doesn’t have to be obscure to be bad.
Ummm. So this will be available on DVD? If this is a download-only deal, it’s going to be awhile before I bother with it, if ever.
Oh, I see, I guess… I should have actually clicked on the link. Sorry!
Did anyone save the pic of the Time Tube on the email club poll thing they just sent? I forgot to and you cant go back to it to see it.
I’m glad to get professional riffing — it doesn’t matter if it comes from Rifftrax, MST3k, Film Crew or CT.
Each project is unique and wonderful. Just like MST, some are funnier than others.
As for Rifftrax being too complicated… that I just don’t understand. I have to agree that some good things require a tetch more effort than others. My only problem with Rifftrax is that they’re too prolific. It’s tough to keep up with the new ones.
Just my 2 cents.
According to the new post over on CT.com the first episode is going to be delayed so they can make some last minute changes and additions. So I guess the Dec 10th release date is being pushed back now. Hopefully it isn’t pushed back too far, I can’t wait to see this.
“Personally i have been a little sick of Rifftrax considering now they really only care about going after movie that are popular. Instead of going after whats really really bad.”
Gee, I didn’t realize that titles like “Glitter” and “The Star Wars Holiday Special” were ever popular. Are there people who have an undying love for them?
“Its nice to hear that Joel & the gang are going to stay ture to the concept of MST3k”
I still don’t believe that Joel & The Gang would be doing Cinematic Titanic if Rifftrax had failed to be a successful post-MST3K riffing project. Rifftrax doesn’t have to stay true to the concept of MST3K simply because Rifftrax isn’t MST3K. It isn’t limited to only certain types of movies like the show was.
“I just don’t have time to fart around trying to sync up audio with a movie that I have to go rent.”
I don’t understand why people are still complaining about the sync issue. I would think that the Rifftrax Player would have solved this problem for most people. Heck, you don’t even have to go rent movies anymore with stuff like Netflix around.
“Besides, I also prefer bad & obscure movies to the popular fare offered up by them. The Film Crew kicks ass! I wish they would make more. What the hell is holding them up?”
The problem with bad & obscure movies is that they’re…well…bad & obscure. Someone has to go to the trouble of finding them and getting the rights to them if they aren’t widely available. The Film Crew wants to avoid the movie copyright nightmares all together by going after B&O films in the public domain, but that still means they have to go through a whole bunch of movies to see how many of them have enough riff opportunities for the majority of the film. I’m sure that if the TFC DVDs do well enough Shout will want them to do more, but I’m not sure how they’ll try to juggle that and Rifftrax at the same time. After all, the TFC titles were in the can before Rifftrax started.
Personally I don’t think The Film Crew will or should continue if Rifftrax and Cinematic Titanic continue. I think it’s a good thing if each of these ex-MST camps is doing different kinds of riffing so they’re not stepping on eachother. Imagine if they both did the same movie!
Actually, having both camps do the same movie would be pretty interesting to me… Imagine being able to directly compare the two styles of writing – a “Riff-off”, if you will.
Hey Sampo, ready for a new round of “Mike vs Joel” debates?!??? LOL
I wouldn’t mind if they did the same movie because it’s still two very different writing teams. I would say that if The Joel Team sticks to getting rights and The Mike Team stays public domain they probably won’t cross paths too much. It’s not impossible though, especially since Joel doesn’t seem to be very interested in keeping in touch with our friends Rifftrax.
“I don’t have a Netflix account” and “I don’t like watching movies on my computer” are, I think, both valid complaints. And if you can make either one, then RT is a measurably more expensive or inconvenient prospect than just buying or renting something else. Maybe not by much, and probably not so much that msties shouldn’t at least give it a chance. I’ll admit, the one or two I’ve sampled didn’t impress me enough to get over the hump of not having Netflix.
And no, they don’t only care about popular stuff, but that’s the direction they seem to be headed. Consider that in their last ten titles they’ve got five of the top 30 grossing films of all time. They have only three titles that are unpopular and one of those has Star Wars in the title and a legion of fanboys wetting themselves because of this release.
And don’t even get me started on the fact that almost half of the titles don’t suck.
I wonder if it will sound too busy with five people riffing. I have never heard that many on one movie…
Fans don’t need to have Netflix to enjoy Rifftrax. I was simply pointing out that Netflix was an alternative option for people who either don’t want to buy every Rifftrax title or drive to a rental store.
They don’t have to watch Rifftrax on their computer either. I was just pointing out that the Rifftrax Player syncs up the movie so the viewer doesn’t have to. Nobody I know thinks it’s that much trouble, but some people don’t want to be bothered with pressing a few buttons when they want to sit back and relax. The Player is just a labor saving option for customers. Some of the more current computers allow you to hook up the computer’s audio/video display to your TV, so that’s another option.
I personally don’t have Netflix, nor do I watch them on my computer. I burn the Rifftrax MP3s to a data CD and play it on my MP3 compatible boombox while the DVD plays on my old TV. Yes, there’s a bit of effort involved, but there’s some amount of effort required for everything. There’s quite a bit of effort involved in being a fan of a show that aired on two (at the time) hard to get channels. Of course, now that most people have these channels the show doesn’t air on TV at all. :roll: I think it’s still worth it though.
Rifftrax is headed in whatever direction allows them to keep movie riffing a profitable little enterprise. If riffing certain types of movies leads to more people checking it out and keeping the site alive, all the better. I have considered that “in their last ten titles they’ve got five of the top 30 grossing films of all time.” I don’t have a problem with it. In fact, that just makes it all the more likely I’ll be able to find it.
I’m not sure what criteria is used to find what is popular or not. If a movie does well in the theater, does that mean it’s not riffable? For that matter, does a movie have to suck for The Film Crew to make fun of it and have it be funny? The “suck” factor of most movies is debatable at best. Even many movies that appeared on MST3K have their supporters. Personally I really liked Spider-Man when it came out in theaters. My friends and I still had a great time hearing them riff it and since I already had it on DVD it cost me next to nothing. Plus it’s nice to see them riffing on material that isn’t hard to watch by itself.
I’m just happy to see this project being done, and since they are making DVD’s for them they will have my support.
I really enjoyed the four “Film Crew” DVD’s and the earlier DVD’s that had Mike Nelson commentary. I DO NOT however, enjoy Rifftrax. I’m the type of person who wants to sit down and relax in front of my TV and insert a DVD to enjoy. I don’t feel like having to download a commentary track and have it sync up with the movie, or sit in front of a computer monitor to watch it. Besides, like the earlier posted mentioned, Rifftrax is making fun of popular movies (with only a few of them actually being bad).
Making fun of movies only works when the movies are bad. I’m very happy to see that CT realizes this and are going the same route that MST3K had taken.
If CT continues to make DVD’s available to buy, I’ll stay with them till the end. The “Film Crew” is probably dead since Rifftrax is doing so (vomits a bit in mouth) well. Oh well for those guys I guess. I hope their trendy movies do well for them. Instead, I’ll watch some really bad movies with CT and laugh at the jokes. :D
Ok, people are really lazy and don’t want to look at computers. I get that. I still don’t get this:
“Rifftrax is making fun of popular movies (with only a few of them actually being bad). Making fun of movies only works when the movies are bad.”
According to who exactly? Why does a movie have to be obscure for riffing to be funny? Is there a pre-determined number of flaws that have to be met before the film is deemed acceptable for riffing purposes? Are people just getting offended because they put certain “popular” movies on pedestals and The Film Crew isn’t treating them like high art? Dont’ get me wrong I’m happy for the team at Cinematic Titanic too, I just think they’re a little late to the party.
“The ‘Film Crew’ is probably dead since Rifftrax is doing so (vomits a bit in mouth) well.”
Vomits a bit in mouth? Over Rifftrax? Jeez. At least they got the ball rolling and proved to Joel that there was still a market for something he abandoned nearly 15 years ago. If Shout does really well with the Film Crew DVDs, I’m sure that the guys will try to continue it.
“boo-hoo, it takes an extra 5 minutes to download an mp3 – that’s time i could be spending online complaining about how bad mst3k got when it moved to sci-fi. THEN i have to synch it at the beginning of the movie? AND the film was readily available at my local video store because more than 20 people have previously heard of this film? it doesn’t matter how bad ‘transformers’ or ‘independence day’ actually were, it’s completely revolting to even think that people viewed this film in theaters & bought the DVD en masse! and now mike (shudder) is riffing on it? why, he hasn’t even touched the “terror of tiny town” yet!! SACRELIGE!! oh, this sounds impossible… i know! i’ll just spend more time online complianing about how awful it is to even THINK about setting this up. i bet it only has 193 riffs about obscure pop culture anyway, instead of joel’s BRILLIANT amount of 316 obscure references per episode. speaking of joel, i’m sure he would have figured out a way to do this better…”
jesus, this scene reeks of small world elitism. and laziness. lots and lots of laziness… rifftrax has done 7 films that aren’t so horrible:
– harry potter
– spider man
– raiders of the lost ark
– casino royale
– fellowship of the rings
– the matrix
– x-men
that’s 7 out of over 50. the rest are awful. really, really awful. and popular? are road house, over the top, eragon, battlefield earth, glitter, aeon flux, reign of fire, firewall, the island of dr. moreau, crossroads, or the wicker man remake really all that popular? and for the rest, where is there a rule written stating that they can’t they take the piss out of some really deserving popular films?
don’t get me wrong, i loved it when mst3k would dig up a gem like pod people, manos, melting man, santa claus or the final sacrifice, and will definitely be checking out CT when it is released, but you guys need to calm down. it’s not a competition and you don’t get bragging rights for liking “the better riff-delivery system” – they’re simply jokes made at the expense of bad movies, popular or not.
Relax cheepnis. I was just stating my opinion, as everyone else is. I just saw Cinematic Titanic and was actually a delight, mostly because it was the original MST cast and not the crew that just would not let it die like it should have after season 7. BrainGuy and BoBo are the stupidest characters, but Pearl actually made me chuckle a few times. Bill Corbett’s voice is just plain annoying and should not have voiced Crow. No problems with Mike though. Kevin Murphy voicing Tom Servo (which is the only thing he can do well) and Mike were the only reason to continue watching MST3K during the sci-fi channel era. Thank your god that only had to last 3 years.
I can’t help but notice that they keep saying Cinematic Titanic stars the original cast of MST3K, which is a nice way to advertise but I still think it’s slightly misleading. Frank and Mary Jo weren’t part of the original cast. Heck, Mary Jo wasn’t a regular player on-screen till after Frank left and (gasp) she stayed during the “dreaded” SCI-FI Era. Jim was part of the original cast, but nobody likes Jim so he doesn’t count. Mike and Kevin were there from the beginning too, but they don’t count because they aren’t in the same social circle.
Sorry, sometimes it just bothers me that everyone has split up into these teams.
Jim was not part of the original cast. The original cast (on KTMA) was Joel (as Joel), Trace (as Crow and, eventually, Dr. F) and Josh (as Servo, Gypsy and, eventually, Larry).
Jim took over Gypsy with Season 1.
Kevin worked on the show from the start, but did not join the cast until season 2 (the show’s third season).
Mike was *not* there at the beginning, he joined to “do some typing” when they jumped to cable with Season 1. He became head writer, I believe, in Season 2.
Of course all three did guest shots in small parts before they joined the cast proper, but Cinematic Titanic *does* feature the entire original cast of MST3K.
You know, I never thought I’d see the day when we’d have too MUCH “MST3K”-like materials to bitch and complain about.
We had absolutely NOTHING for several years, and now, we have a glut of material (most of it really good) to choose from.
And that’s the point. Now we get to CHOOSE. I like Rifftrax. I don’t like all the choices they’ve made, but then again, I don’t have to purchase what I don’t want.
I’ve enjoyed The Film Crew. Again, not everything was a gem, but they were just getting their feet wet again when they made them (and I purchased them to support the possibilities for FUTURE and better offerings).
I’m NOT enjoying the new MST3K.com. I still go there every week to see if things are getting better (haven’t checked today’s toon yet, so I can’t comment on that at the moment). I did get a new logo t-shirt (just for the sake of having one). I’m hoping to see better material on the site. If it doesn’t improve (IMHO), then I won’t go back.
But that’s the beauty of CHOICE.
Nobody is forcing ANYONE to buy anything. If you don’t Rifftrax, DON’T BUY IT. If you don’t like The Film Crew, DON’T BUY IT. If you don’t like stuff on MST3K.com, DON’T GO THERE.
The same goes for Cinematic Titanic. If it’s good, I’ll get more. If it’s “okay”, I’ll come back again to see if it’s improved.
Just be grateful that you FINALLY have a $h!tload of material to choose from. And we’ll have another choice as well “in the not too distant future” with Joel’s project.
Life is good again. Suck in that fresh mstie air…
As for the two main issues against Rifftrax:
1) I just don’t like paying for digital downloads. I don’t buy .mp3s from iTunes, I won’t buy Rifftrax. I also don’t like that Rifftrax has led to things like Legend Films releasing “Missile to the Moon” by itself and selling the commentary separately, when just a couple of years ago, it would have been included.
2) I just don’t find comedic commentaries as funny when they are on popular films. It’s not because I don’t think they can be made fun of, it’s that it’s ground that has been tread over and over again. I haven’t heard the Star Wars or LOTR Rifftrax (of course), but I’m going to bet they make fun of Jar Jar Binks and Frodo’s prettiness and big, staring eyes. It’s just not fertile ground for riffing, it’s been trodden too often. They aren’t going to do something as wildly “out there” as ‘Wizard People, Dear Reader’, so I can’t see it being worth the effort.
Ok, I know that Jim wasn’t Gypsy at KTMA. I just choose not to count KTMA since the people who worked on them have said that those shouldn’t be considered canon. I also know that Kevin didn’t voice Tom till Season Two and Mike didn’t join the writing staff till after KTMA. I just don’t like how they seem to be ignoring the former co-workers who aren’t involved in the project. So yes, Cinematic Titanic *does* feature the entire (three) original cast of MST3K…and Frank…and Mary Jo.
“I just don’t like paying for digital downloads. I don’t buy .mp3s from iTunes, I won’t buy Rifftrax. I also don’t like that Rifftrax has led to things like Legend Films releasing “Missile to the Moon” by itself and selling the commentary separately, when just a couple of years ago, it would have been included.”
Actually I don’t buy MP3s from iTunes either. I prefer to just transfer the music from my CDs on my MP3 player. Rifftrax are worth the effort though. Also, the “Missle to the Moon” problem shouldn’t be a continuing thing. Fred Willard specifically wanted to riff that particular film, but Legend had already released the DVD. Maybe it will be on there when it gets another printing. Till then, the Rifftrax on Demand service has it synced with the movie and that can be turned into a DVD.
“1) I just don’t like paying for digital downloads.”
Like Cinematic Titanic? What is it about being digital that makes it not worth paying for?
“What is it about being digital that makes it not worth paying for?”
On another thread Philip Frey said, “I like a product I can get my hands on.” Cinematic Titanic should be available as a DVD you can order as well as a digital download, so I’m pretty sure he’ll be going the DVD route. While I like the idea of buying a DVD too, I’ll get the MP3s if they are the only option. Besides, sometimes I think it’s nice to buy a bit of entertainment that’s cheap and have it in a few minutes instead of waiting for a DVD in the mail. One still has the option of getting ones hands on a DVD of the riffed movie.
Rifftrax really isn’t that hard to do. I put them on my ipod and then you just hit play when he tells you tell you to. The only thing that’s a pain is you can’t pause and restart both of them very easily if you’re doing it that way.
I don’t mind if they do popular movies if that’s what the market is dictating but generally if they do ones that are pretty good like Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory I’m a lot less interested in hearing them. But Troll 2, Over The Top, Glitter? As long as they keep making ones like those I’m happy. Mike is super funny and they really are worth the download. The Star Wars Holiday Special one was absolutely brilliant.
Thankyou ‘fumez’
couldn’t have said it better myself (more accurately: couldn’t be bothered typing so much!)
I’m the least gifted computerphile going and yet I still manage to sort out rifftrax because theyre well worth the effort.
To me its like MAD magazine, if you hate the film then you wanna see people rip on it, and if you like the film, well, it’s still fun to hear people rip on it, so long as it’s funny.
And rifftrax is very very funny.
I’ve never really understood the Joel vs Mike thing, I’ve always preferred Mike as host of MST3K and his writing skills have been proven countless times (even before he took over as host) But I wouldn’t use that as an excuse to denegrate Joel. To me, arguing about all this just smacks of too much time on your hands, just grab the stuff you like and be happy.
The only reason I’m chipping (on company time) in just in case say, Mike and the guys happen to read all the negativity and feel bad!
Go Mike and co! And forever burn in hell, Sci-Fi channel.
tata
P.S. more filmcrew would be ace too, damned funny stuff.
Just to hammer home my original point on RT doing good and/or popular movies, I was commenting on the trend towards doing more of them. I don’t begrudge them doing popular movies. Though a steady diet of the popcorn variety of popular movies, riffed or otherwise, sort of leaves me cold. I don’t begrudge them doing a few good movies over their run. What bothers me is that as a result of increasingly going after popular movies, they are doing more good movies now than they were doing at their start, to the point where they could soon be going after nothing but good movies and bad bockblusters which tend to be bad in a much more bland way than classic mst fare.
I don’t think it will ever get to the point where they do certain types of movies exclusively and not others. Aside from customer demand, they really are free to riff whatever they feel like as long as they’re confident the customer can find the movie. Just be sure to buy Rifftrax for the type of films you actually want to see them doing. That way they’ll be encouraged to do more. Then you can go to Suggest-A-Trax and tell them specific ones you want them to do, provided that they aren’t out-of-print or VHS-only titles. I honestly don’t care what DVDs they go after as long as it’s funny.
“So yes, Cinematic Titanic *does* feature the entire (three) original cast of MST3K…and Frank…and Mary Jo.”
Which is all Joel ever said in the first place. The exact quote from the first post is “It’s going to be powered by the original cast of MST3K! Trace Beaulieu, J. Elvis Weinstein and yours truly, along with some friends who came along later to make the show great: the beloved Frank Conniff and the scathingly brilliant Mary Jo Pehl.” So, pretty much a dead-on accurate statement and not “slightly misleading” at all. I don’t want to sound like I’m being pedantic or anything. But your post really sounded to me like a knock on CT, as if they were trying to put one over on people when, in fact, they’re just stating simple truths.
And Joel himself, I believe, has said that the KTMA season was his favorite (or at least that he was quite fond of it), so I don’t know about that “shouldn’t be considered canon” bit. I know Jim Mallon likes to ignore it and due to the way they did the show, they can’t consider them for DVD, but I’ve never heard any of the other principles who were there denegrate the KTMA season to any great degree.
As for buying digital downloads, sure I’ve done it. I don’t want to make it sound like I *never* do, but it’s usually under special circumstances, like when I joined audible.com for the hours and hours of “Doctor Who” I was able to get for $20 compared to the enormous cost of getting the CDs from England. And, yes, if something is worth it and is *only* available digitally, I will do it. But in order to enjoy Rifftrax properly, there’s a significant amount of work *I* have to put into it and I still don’t own something I can get my hands on. Even in the case of CT, the digital download will be of the whole product, not just an audio track. I’d be able to watch it straight-up. (But, as was noted, I’ll be buying the DVD.) Heck, Matt Howarth is one of my favorite comic-book creators and I haven’t bought anything of his in years because he primarily distributes digitally now. (That fits his psyche, I guess, but not mine.) I want something solid for my money. Something I can hold. Something I can put on my shelf. It’s the collector in me.
And this whole debate has made me glad I missed the classic “Joel vs. Mike” wars. This is bad enough…
Having Joel and Mike on the scene at the same time is ideal for someone like me who likes to wander through MST history and watch episodes from both runs in no particular order. I feel like watching Joel movies sometimes and Mike movies sometimes… so the fact that they’ve both got new projects out is just incredible. It’s a golden age for riffing, not some battle between the two eras… well, that’s how I look at it at least.
I don’t have anything against the crew at Cinematic Titanic. I’m glad they’re finally riffing movies again and I’ll eventually get around to buying “Brain of Blood”. I just think they’re a little late to the party that’s all.
I don’t remember reading anywhere that Joel thought KTMA was his favorite season. However, I’m sure he has a nostalgic feeling about the days when he was making those episodes with Trace and Josh. Everything they were doing was fresh and since it wasn’t being shown nationally, Joel probably didn’t feel as much pressure as he might have in the later seasons.
Joel has said that he considered the KTMA series to be like a 40 hour long pilot for the national series and that it didn’t really come together till Season Two. After the show went on “hiatus”, they edited together a sales tape for the Comedy Channel that would help convince them to pick up the series. It had what they considered to be the best of the KTMA material. He decided that he wanted the new episodes to be as good as the sales tape, which lead to the shows being more scripted. I’m fairly confident that nearly everyone on the BBI staff (aside from maybe Josh) agree that the early KTMA material isn’t that great compared to the national series though. The coverage of the KTMA era in The Amazing Colossal Episode Guide says a lot for example.
When I say that the KTMA series “isn’t considered canon,” I’m not talking about it in terms of quality. I mean that the episodes made for the national series both ignore and contradict the events that took place in the KTMA episodes. The rules of the show are slightly different too. When they found out they were going national, the crew decided to restart everything for a national audience and not try to make a literal continuation of the episodes they’d done for a local audience.
I’m wondering if the dvd’s that the CT site are selling will be manufactured or computer dupes. I get the impression from the Wired article that you just get the disc and have to download the cover art. This sucks for me as I have no current internet service at home so I’d have to rely on understanding friends to download anything. I know that a lot of people seem to think that downloading entertainment is the wave of the future but like many, many others I’d prefer to actual have a physical product. Computers crash. Hard drives goof up. Homemade cd’s and dvd’s can (eventually) degrade or scratch. I prefer not to spend money on something that I can accidentally lose by hitting a wrong button. I’ve never been into Rifftrax because it requires me to do too much- download the track… rent the movie (or buy it!)… I love the Film Crew and hope they put out more dvd’s soon. I also hope Cinematic Titanic has a change of heart and finds an outlet to sell REAL dvd’s because if they do, I’m THERE. If they don’t, The Film Crew will continue to be the only MST related project that gets my money.
Well said Steve Vil, :cool:
As for this comment:
“You know, I never thought I’d see the day when we’d have too MUCH “MST3K”-like materials to bitch and complain about.”
That’s the thing…it’s like MST3K, but it isn’t MST3K. If they had two robots and a human making fun of the movies and still had the segments in the beginning/middle/end, then how many of us would complain? Sure, some would still complain, but not many.
Even with the Film Crew, and now CT…I still want MST3K (but will never happen). The Film Crew was close since the voices matched what most fans of MST3K (the Mike years) were used to, plus it had separate segments and the movies were BAD! Not sure how CT is going to be set up (Segments? Plot as to why they are doing commentary tracks for movies, etc.), so I’ll have to wait and see.
Everything that we have (and will soon have) is just a different style of MST3K, but it isn’t MST3K. Sure the same people are in two different groups…but there is no way that any project right now can be considered MST3K, and that is a shame in my book.
Steve – the download service has been announced as eztakes, so the hard copies will probably be sold by their sister site dvd wagon. So, you don’t get the fancy packaging, it will be the less durable DVD-R, you can’t shop around (or offline), but accidental deletion and the other issues associated with downloads shouldn’t be an issue.
I was kinda bugged too by WIRED’s touting the ORIGINAL, like the original original cast was so great. Every episode i’ve seen where it’s Josh as opposed to Kevin as Servo it felt like they weren’t firing on all three cylinders.
Devastation Bob,
I think it comes down to whom you prefer, Joel or Mike. Personally for me, as long as the episode was funny it didn’t matter who was doing the riffing. There are just as many funny Joel episodes as there are funny Mike episodes (as there are mediocre ones…) and I’m excited to see Joel, Trace, Frank and Mary Jo especially working on a new riffing project. I just think that with the success that Film Crew have had, they’re selling themselves a bit short by not putting the dvd’s in stores.
By the way, nobody seems to mention that Bridget isn’t working with the Film Crew. She was a big part of MST and I thought she was pretty funny.
Bridget is an occasional guest on Rifftrax. She’s done a commentary with Mike for the first two episodes of “Gray’s Anatomy” and another one for the Nick Cage movie “Next”.
“So, you don’t get the fancy packaging, it will be the less durable DVD-R…”
Well, that throws just about everything I said on its ear. Without a true product (meaning a factory pressed DVD), I might as well do the download and make the DVDs myself. It’ll all come down to price, I guess.
Count me as one who thinks going this route is a bad idea. Prince learned years ago that making the customer handle the packaging is not a good idea. (With the ‘Crystal Ball’ release.)
I want a real product. Since this is the first major project from Joel in years, I’ll buy one format or another just to see it, but, gosh, I hope it’ll be the proper thing.
As a longtime MST fan (started watching and recording from season 3 on)
I have supported any projects done by ex MST crews, Rifftrax is awesome due to the fact that it is unique in its on way, and we can get new material from Mike and the ex bots, Thefilmcrew is also great (where are more movies from shout)
Anyway as a devoted fan I will support CT from the start to end. We have to understand that it will not be MST3k, but it will be as close to it that us true fans can get a hold of.
I think its perfect that Joel and the gang is doing a different project than Mike! There is not debate in my mind, because who wins I ask
The true fans due! Life after MST left the Air was bad for us, and now we at least have new material to look forward to and hopefully lots of it.
We need to Support them and show them that trekkies have nothing on MST3k Fanbase, by purchasing CT, RIfftrax, etc.
Also get the word out to friends, and the net about these projects. Just my input.
If anyone is interested I just got ahold of a way to get KTMA FUll episodes 4-10 in a few minutes.
My last thought is Did Anyone at all like the char of Pearl Forrester, man, what were they thinking!
Mary Jo is talented in many ways (and funny as crap in Glitter Rifftrax), and contributed to the show in all forms, but I could hardly watch the skits when she was in them (still did though)
Drew
On the topic of Rifftrax doing good movie thing. This might be me. But i think Rifftrax is more for cynical people who just hate almost anything hollywood. Sure they have done some really bad ones. Mainly :
Star Wars Holliday Special
Road House
Cross Roads
Cocktail
The Island of Doctor Moreau
Battlefield Earth
Troll 2
Glitter
And that about it. Keep in mind i havent seen them all. But for most of the rest rank somewhere between mediocre to good and as mediocre as something like the fantastic four or daredevil is. It dosnt compare in badness as something like Manos, Escape 2000, Zombie Nightmare, Space Mutiny, Final Scarifice, . Which i have watched a hundred times and have found them to be more funny then most of the Rifftrax’s. So for me the worst the movie the better. Which is why ill probably like CT. Plus i just dont see the value of listening to commentary to movies you like. If all they are going to do is tell you that it sucks.
“My last thought is Did Anyone at all like the char of Pearl Forrester”
Um, I did.
I thought Pearl was really funny. You mean to tell me you didn’t laugh at “When Loving Lovers Love”? I sort of felt sorry for Mary Jo because lots of MSTies were very mean about Pearl and I think that’s why she dropped out of a few episodes. I liked her interaction with Dr. Forrester (Claydon? Claydon? Claydon? Claydon? Claydon? Where can you be? Claydon? Claydon? Claydon…) more than her interaction with Brain Guy and Bobo but generally speaking I liked all the periferal charactors on the show.
“I liked her interaction with Dr. Forrester…more than her interaction with Brain Guy and Bobo”
And I’m the exact opposite. I thought Pearl was the most annoying thing ever when she was opposite Dr. F. She completed the cycle, begun with the loss of Joel, of turning Dr. F. from a truly evil (if goofy) mad scientist into an utter buffoon. (Sure, there were buffoonish moments before, but usually left to Frank.) I mean, you spend years building a character just to turn him into a whining mamma’s boy? Bad karma.
But once Clayton was out of the picture, I felt she came into her own. She was able to play it big like Dr. F., but with her own, unique, womanly twist on the “Mad Scientist” genre. I *much* prefer her during the Sci-Fi years.