MST3K, Rifftrax, and the rest

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Thad
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Re: MST3K, Rifftrax, & sundry

Postby Thad » Sun Nov 22, 2015 1:27 pm

And Part 4 marks the end, I think; it's mostly a response to all the people I see saying they hope the old cast and writers contribute to the new show that they probably shouldn't get their hopes up.

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Re: MST3K, Rifftrax, & sundry

Postby Thad » Mon Nov 23, 2015 2:42 pm

Joel's latest update: Felicia Day confirmed as Kinga Forrester, as well as Hampton Yount as Crow and Baron Vaughn as Servo. Kinga will have a sidekick like the previous Mads did; that'll be the next casting announcement.

Also, another short-term goal and bonus reward: if the KS gets to $2.75M in the next 3 days, he'll add 3 more classic episodes to the $35 tier. Sure looks like $35 is the place to be. And he hints that if they make it to $3.3M by the end of the Turkey Day Marathon, they'll finally release some of the KTMA episodes officially. He says there are more reward packages to come, too.

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Re: MST3K, Rifftrax, & sundry

Postby Thad » Mon Nov 23, 2015 5:47 pm




Frank becomes the first former cast member to give a response that's not a flat "No."

I still don't think we should get our hopes up, but it would be nice.

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Re: MST3K, Rifftrax, & sundry

Postby Thad » Mon Nov 23, 2015 7:49 pm

And the latest MST3K episode on Rifftrax is Night of the Blood Beast.

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Re: MST3K, Rifftrax, & sundry

Postby Thad » Tue Nov 24, 2015 1:55 pm

starwars.com interviews Joel.

It's starwars.com, so, as you might expect, there's a heavy Star Wars bent to it. But there are some interesting tidbits about the new show, too; Joel talks a bit about the process of some of the new robots he's creating, and also suggests that they'll probably shorten the opening host segments and get J&tB into the theater quicker. He also adds that yes, that video yesterday where Tom hovered is a sign of things to come, and the puppets are going to have more mobility inside the theater.

(Joel was always more visual than Mike, so it's fitting that at this point we're looking at a Joel MST3K with more visual tricks than ever and a Mike Rifftrax with no visual component at all.)

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Re: MST3K, Rifftrax, & sundry

Postby Thad » Wed Nov 25, 2015 12:07 am

KS is up to $2.74M so it's safe to say the "6 old episodes + 1 new one" reward at the $35 tier is happening.

Making $3.3M by Thursday is a taller order, but possible: last year the Turkey Day marathon had 100,000 viewers; I expect this year to do better than that, and some of those are bound to be people who haven't pledged yet.

Course, even if they don't get to $3.3M by Thursday, if those KTMA episodes are coming, they're coming. Joel wouldn't make the offer if Shout hadn't already cleared them for release, and it's not like they'd spend the money on the rights and getting them ready to distribute and then not release them. If they don't get released as part of the Kickstarter, I have a feeling they'll be released later on down the line.

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Re: MST3K, Rifftrax, & sundry

Postby Mothra » Wed Nov 25, 2015 12:56 pm

Ugh, had no time as of recent, but Thad I read through your 6-part post and you hit it pretty square on the head. I hadn't been following Mike/Bill/Kevin's comments on the new project, so that's enlightening. It's weird that Kevin is phrasing it like, "we don't want to do the new show because it will be sad and terrible."

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Re: MST3K, Rifftrax, & sundry

Postby Thad » Wed Nov 25, 2015 1:34 pm

Well, first thing to remember is that interview is a year and a half old. I expect Kevin would probably be a little bit more diplomatic if he talked about it today, now that it's actually happening (which, as far as I know, he's the only former cast member who hasn't said anything about it at all).

My read was that he was really saying what would be sad would be if all the old cast members got up there in their old costumes, 17 years later, and tried to pick up where they left off. While yeah, he commented on Fake Ginger, it's hard for me to think the second guy who played Tom Servo would really have much of a problem with the idea of new guys manning the puppets.

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Re: MST3K, Rifftrax, & sundry

Postby Thad » Wed Nov 25, 2015 9:39 pm

There are more/better links for the Turkey Day stream on mst3k.com. And yes, it will be on YouTube.

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Re: MST3K, Rifftrax, & sundry

Postby Thad » Thu Nov 26, 2015 1:13 am

Latest update. Most notably, they've added a new digital-only $85 tier. You don't get any of the physical goods, but you get the entire set of new episodes.

Now, it's probably safe to assume at this point that the Kickstarter will make its $3.3M goal and six episodes will be produced. If we also assume that the new episodes will be priced at $10 like the old episodes, this means the difference between one episode ($35) and 6 episodes ($85) is $50. In other words, it's a wash; you spend the same money for 6 episodes now as you would if you donated at the $35 tier and then bought the other 5 after release. (Actually, there's a difference of a dollar, since the $35 tier is actually $36 with shipping for the postcard. You don't get the postcard at the $85 level.)

Now, if the Kickstarter makes it to $4.4M (which is possible, but a pretty tall order) then there will be 9 episodes, and the $85 level becomes a pretty good deal.

Also, we don't know for sure that the new episodes will be priced at $10 on release. They could charge a premium for the new stuff on the theory that it'll have a higher demand than the old stuff, or they could charge less for the new stuff (at least temporarily) to make it more enticing. But I'm going to assume $10 until we hear otherwise.

Also, if they make $3.3M tomorrow, at the $85 tier you'll get your name (or a name of your choosing) in the credits. Given that over 10,000 people have contributed at $85 or more, it is unlikely that anyone but you will ever see your name.

And in the general comments Joel said this:

If the KTMA episodes ARE what I was talking about in the last update -- and I'm not saying they were, but IF they were... I just want to make sure we've confirmed that we have actual, working copies of whatever we're promising before we promise anything we can't deliver. We're working out a last few details, but I'm optimistic! More news on that soon.


It sounds like the rights aren't a problem but they may not have actually successfully transferred the episodes from the old tapes yet.

Lastly, there's going to be a sale on mst3k.com tomorrow and Friday where you can buy episodes for 50% off (or get all 87 available episodes for $150, or an autographed copy of the Turkey Day DVD set for $100); proceeds go to fundraising for the new show (though Joel's not sure if he can add it to Kickstarter's counter). He says more stuff will be available in the store next week but hasn't said what.

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Re: MST3K, Rifftrax, & sundry

Postby Thad » Thu Nov 26, 2015 1:14 pm

EDIT: Stream's gone so I removed the embed.

They're still running the marathon at Pluto and you can watch individual episodes at Yahoo if you have the patience to deal with their awful, awful player. (I watched Teenagers from Outer Space and had to reload the page about every 8 minutes.)

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Re: MST3K, Rifftrax, & sundry

Postby Mothra » Sun Nov 29, 2015 8:19 am

Watched Pumaman instead of Santa Claus vs the Martians on Turkey Day, and nothing made me laugh quite like Crow's bacon dip jingle:


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Re: MST3K, Rifftrax, & sundry

Postby Thad » Sun Nov 29, 2015 3:33 pm

If you missed the new interstitials for this year's Turkey Day, they're up on a YouTube list.

Most of them aren't very good, but here are the highlights:




All in all, going to New York and shooting segments at Kickstarter HQ feels like a pretty big misfire. I was expecting something more like last year's host segments, and for him to take the opportunity to do some more material with the new cast; I wonder if they were unavailable.

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Re: MST3K, Rifftrax, & sundry

Postby Mothra » Sun Nov 29, 2015 3:43 pm

Yeah it was pretty lame. The entire thing was start-to-finish an ad for the Kickstarter.

Here's hoping next year's better.

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Re: MST3K, Rifftrax, & sundry

Postby Thad » Sun Nov 29, 2015 4:58 pm

My problem isn't that it was an ad for the Kickstarter, it's that it wasn't a very good one.

"You know what would get people excited about new episodes of MST3K? A bunch of videos of people who work at Kickstarter!"

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Re: MST3K, Rifftrax, & sundry

Postby Mothra » Sun Nov 29, 2015 5:16 pm

Mmm, instead of jokes, they hawked the Kickstarter.

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Re: MST3K, Rifftrax, & sundry

Postby Thad » Mon Nov 30, 2015 12:09 pm

Right.

Like I say, I think the best thing they could have done to get people excited about the Kickstarter would have been more sketches with the new cast. I've seen a lot of positive response to the video introducing Felicia Day (and it coincides with a modest but noticeable bump in donations); I think seeing more of that would do a lot more to convince people to pledge than the Kickstarter tour.

But again, maybe there was a scheduling issue. Or just a pay issue; presumably the cast isn't being paid for the Kickstarter videos, and knocking out a few promos in an afternoon is different from actually presenting a series of sketches, even small ones.

Or none of the above. It could be that the cast was available and Joel just thought this was a better idea for some reason.

Or it could be that he was in New York anyway for some other reason. Who knows?

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Re: MST3K, Rifftrax, & sundry

Postby Thad » Mon Nov 30, 2015 2:45 pm

Patton Oswalt is TV's Son of TV's Frank.

Welp, THAT'S going to drive up the pledges. Bet it makes it to $3.3M tonight.

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Re: MST3K, Rifftrax, & sundry

Postby Büge » Mon Nov 30, 2015 3:49 pm

It's already 3.22...
Image

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Re: MST3K, Rifftrax, & sundry

Postby Thad » Mon Nov 30, 2015 3:57 pm

Yeah, but it wouldn't have made it to 3.3 (today) without the Patton announcement; the last 3 days have clocked in at $70K, $34K, and $46K according to Kicktraq. (The $34K number doesn't accurately reflect the amount pledged that day, though; a multi-thousand-dollar pledge was withdrawn that morning.)

That said, the amount that had come in today before the Oswalt announcement was around $10,000 and it's gone up to $30,000 since, in less than 90 minutes. I think the other $75K is going to happen (and I'm even willing to predict that it will surpass the day Jonah Ray was announced, though I'm less sure about that guess).

EDIT: In the few minutes since I posted that Kicktraq has refreshed its numbers and it's at $55K.

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