It’s a very good interview, with lots of new information.
Among other things, I believe it is the first time he has addressed the death of his daughter (an open secret among many MSTies) and its effect on MST3K.
One other note: I know there are some MSTies who are not fans of Jim. I am going to ask all the commenters to maintain a civil tone in the comments here. If not, we will close comments. I would also direct you to the YouTube page, where you can go nuts in the comments, as far as we are concerned.
) to help our users cope with "trolls" and other commenters whom they find annoying. Go to our
what happen to his daughter (and when is it in the interview).
edit, found it (its why he left in season 8)
he now does this:
http://www.birchcounseling.com/our-counselorst/#/jim2/
Thanks for hooking us up Jim’s interview. I appreciated his connection with “our kind of movies” stemming from childhood late night television, an experience which I share.
I wouldn’t wish the personal tragedy Jim has been through on anyone.
No matter what happened with the creative differences and issues of residuals among the MST3K cast, Jim Mallon will always be the definitive Gypsy.
Is it just me, or does the host sound slightly…. I dunno… “stern”. Especially when bringing up the fact that Wade Williams was upset at MST3K. He almost sounds like he’s trying to corner Jim or something.
I feel bad about what happened to his daughter, and honestly its affect it had on Jim during the Sci-Fi era really puts a negative light on Mike Nelson, who once complained about Jim “not showing up to work” during the last few seasons.
Not that I don’t believe you, but I’d like to see a citation for that.
Dang, now I gotta hunt around for it (this was from some years back).
Jim Mallon is to MST3K what Fred Freiberger was for Star Trek fans. A convenient off-camera person to whom fans could place all of the blame for anything that didn’t pan out on the show.In retrospect, He deserves credit for his contributions, notwithstanding the disputes he would later have with Joel, Trace and others. Yes, and those two “Crow & Tom” cartoons were pretty bad. The fans need to just relax and appreciate the things that he did that we Did like.
It’s interesting that the moment the show started to seriously decline for me was when Jim left as Gypsy. 814 is my favorite of the Sci-Fi era, but starting with 815, while the hosts segments are good for the most part, the tone in the riffing shifts. I’ve never put two and two together before, but that must be the cause of the writing shift. Jim must have been contributing something that I really liked, because once he stopped, it took until season 9 for the show to get back to full steam.
(I know, I know, I’m in the tiny minority on late season 8)
People can say whatever they want, but considering the staff/voice/host/station changes the show underwent during the course of its original 10-season run, it’s amazing to me how the show remained so consistently good.
I mean, just look at what’s happened to oh, say, ‘The Simpsons’ over the past 20 years >__>
Well, The Simpsons remained great through 10 years, that’s for sure. But I do think that’s (mostly) true of MST3K as well. (Rifftrax is a whole other matter).
But it’s a good point because I do think the “new” MST3K is a lot like The Simpsons nowadays — flashes of brilliance while overall mediocre and probably not worth continuing except as a nostalgia piece. But we had a good 10 year run.
Oh, opinions. They vary so.
For me, it was an excellent 7 year run, then altered into something I never cared much for, then brought back for a killer season 11.
YMMV, and most likely will.
There are indeed many who find “The Simpsons” still great. As you said, opinions (and, of course, the interweb allows everyone to voice his or hers).
I was talking MST3K
Oh, I know, I just meant just as some people think “The Simpsons” is still great, some folks think the new season of MST3K is. As you pointed out, opinions.