MST3K, Rifftrax, and the rest

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Thad
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Re: MST3K, Rifftrax, & sundry

Postby Thad » Thu Feb 11, 2016 2:58 pm

I suspect that a lot of the problems in the early seasons were down to the show being really rushed and the performers not having their rhythm down yet, as well as having a limited library of movies to work with. There are great episodes in season 1 (or at least, so I hear; I'm not sure I've seen any of them), but the hits-to-misses ratio definitely improved over time. The people selecting the movies (which I guess was mostly Frank), the writers, and the riffers were all really on their game by at least season 4. (Maybe season 3, but a lot of those movies were do-overs from the KTMA era.)

They had their share of clunkers up to the end (Hamlet, looking in your direction), but Sci-Fi turned out to have a really good library with a lot of variety. There was some trepidation when people heard they were going to have to stick to movies Sci-Fi had the rights to, but instead we got a selection that was diverse as hell and not nearly as genre-focused as expected.

There are still a lot of episodes I haven't seen; I don't remember if I mentioned it or not, but I missed Merlin's Shop during its original run (since there was a rights snag and it wound up not airing until months after the final episode). I just saw it for the first time during one of the double-feature nights at the end of the Kickstarter, and man, that one is a classic. Two movies that are actually not that bad, but were clearly made years apart, and which are bizarrely Frankensteined together and then given a framing device that is a horrible mismatch for their target audience, which is then given another framing device which is flagrantly cribbed from The Princess Bride.

It's one of those movies that's definitely watchable, and where it's easy to see what happened and how it ended up such a mess: the director is competent, but he clearly ran out of money, and so he had to combine at least two (and possibly three) different movies into one.

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Re: MST3K, Rifftrax, & sundry

Postby Thad » Fri Feb 19, 2016 8:40 pm

AV Club has 11 questions with Baron Vaughn. He doesn't talk much about MST3K, but he's sharp, funny, and his answers are smart and well-thought-out. I am excited about him as Servo.

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Re: MST3K, Rifftrax, & sundry

Postby Thad » Sat Feb 20, 2016 3:28 pm


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Re: MST3K, Rifftrax, & sundry

Postby Thad » Mon Mar 07, 2016 7:36 pm

The 2016 Rifftrax Kickstarter is off and running.

They're trying to raise $225,000 (and they're nearly halfway there on day 1), with the intention of funding four live shows: a presentation of Time Chasers on May 5 (funds are also going to a new HD widescreen transfer of the film), an MST3K cast reunion on June 28 featuring Mike, Kevin, Bill, Mary Jo, Bridget, Trace, and Frank riffing shorts (and they've said every former and upcoming MST3K cast member is invited too, but those are the ones who have agreed so far), and two other as-yet-unannounced movies.

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Re: MST3K, Rifftrax, & sundry

Postby Thad » Fri Apr 01, 2016 10:01 pm


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Re: MST3K, Rifftrax, & sundry

Postby Thad » Thu Apr 07, 2016 9:33 pm

Thad wrote:I was planning on backing the Rifftrax Kickstarter but I'm not sure I will; they've passed their goal and the rewards aren't really a screamin' deal; the downloads they're offering cost about what they would if I just bought them a la carte off the Rifftrax site. (And if I bought them on sale and chose the SD versions of the live shows, it would actually cost less to buy them off the site.) Plus I'm already in for $13 a ticket if I go see the live shows; I understand that it's logistically impossible for them to offer tickets to the live shows as a Kickstarter, but it's hard for me to get behind funding the shows and then still having to buy tickets to go see them.


Okay so now if you donate to the Kickstarter at any level, even a buck, you get 11 shorts and 1 feature riff. The feature is an as-yet-unrevealed movie riffed by Bridget and Mary Jo; the Kickstarter says "it'll work with the new Rifftrax app", which suggests the movie's not included.

The shorts are as follows:

3,600 backers – Safety Woman: In Danger Out of Doors (UNLOCKED!)
3,700 backers – Love That Car! (UNLOCKED!)
3,800 backers – What is Nothing? (UNLOCKED!)
3,900 backers – Flying Saucer Mystery (UNLOCKED!)
4,000 backers – Life in the Suburbs (UNLOCKED!)
4,100 backers – Maintaining Classroom Discipline (UNLOCKED!)
4,200 backers – This is Hormel (UNLOCKED!)
4,300 backers – The Creeps Machine (UNLOCKED!)
4,400 backers – Danger: Keep Out (UNLOCKED!)
4,500 backers – Story-telling: Can You Tell it in Order? (UNLOCKED!)
4,600 backers – Setting Up a Room (UNLOCKED!)


So yeah I guess I'm in for at least a buck.

(As it happens I've got $4 left on my last unemployment deposit that I can't pull out of the ATM because it is not a multiple of 20, and I was planning on just waiting to put $4 to a Humble Bundle sometime anyway. Guess I can put a buck toward Rifftrax and $3 to a Humble Bundle sometime.)

Also I guess pledging at the $1 level gives you access to buy tickets to the upcoming shows early. Which is good. I was surprised to go to the rerun of the Room show a couple of months ago and find that it was almost completely sold out -- and that was for a rerun.

(As it turns out the house wasn't actually full; I guess some people must have bought tickets online and then not shown up. We wound up sitting upfront and crickin' our necks for nothin'.)

Also: If you're a backer of the MST3K revival you probably already got the E-Mail, but Joel says if you backed the MST3K revival and you back the Zappa documentary, you can get extras.

1. Every MST3K backer who gives $5 or more will also get an special Zappa/MST3K bonus reward with your Kickstarter rewards!

2. Any MST3K backer who gives $10 or more will be entered to win some big MST3K rewards, including DINNER WITH OUR CAST or an MST3K SET VISIT!

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Re: MST3K, Rifftrax, & sundry

Postby Thad » Fri Apr 08, 2016 10:19 pm

Oh, here's the list of the new stretch goals that went up yesterday (all of which have been met now):

Bridget & Mary Jo are recording their first-ever feature-length commentary track for the sci-fi thriller GRAVITY! And if we get 7,000 backers, EVERY SINGLE BACKER will get it … for FREE! (And of course it’ll work with our new RiffTrax app!)

If we get to 7,500 backers, you’ll unlock a Blu-ray option for the MST3K REUNION show! That means backers at $100 and above who are getting the physical media version of the show will now be able to choose between the two.

If we can get to 8,000 backers, we’ll write and record a commentary track for Episode 1 of Marvel and Netflix’s DAREDEVIL! And ALL BACKERS get it for FREE!

If we can reach 8,500 backers, it will unlock a DVD of the TIME CHASERS show, and backers at the $125 level will get it for FREE!

If we can hit 9,000 backers we’ll do a riff of the first episode of the #1 hit show on television, THE WALKING DEAD - and ALL BACKERS will get it for FREE!

If we reach 9,500 backers we’ll record a commentary for JURASSIC WORLD and - you guessed it - ALL BACKERS get it for FREE!

Finally - if we reach 10,000 backers - we’ll celebrate by doing something we’ve wanted to do for a long time: a brand new, three-riffer commentary on the title that began our catalog at RiffTrax back when it was just Mike by himself, the cheesy 1980s classic ROAD HOUSE! And yes, we will give it away FOR FREE to all 10,000 of you.

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Re: MST3K, Rifftrax, & sundry

Postby Thad » Sat Apr 16, 2016 1:40 pm

Joel's latest update (backers only):

First of all, if you donated to the campaign your Rifftrax rewards are available now. They consist of Measuring Man, Manos, and the live riff of Plan 9. They appear to be non-transferable, which is too bad because I already got two of them from the Humble Bundle last year, and the other one is on Hulu. Ah well.

Joel also says that Shout wound up arranging international rights for all 14 of the movies they wanted for their upcoming season, and they're close to announcing a deal with a network (he doesn't specify cable TV or online).

He hasn't announced the classic bonus episodes yet, but he has announced that all six of them will be episodes that were previously unavailable. So if you're like me and you've been holding off on buying classic episodes on Rifftrax because you were worried about double-dipping, you don't have to worry about that after all.

He also teases an "extra surprise" from "the old Best Brains archives". That could be any number of things, from KTMA episodes to footage that was only shown at conventions.

Then there's some pretty cool making-of stuff down at the bottom featuring a potential new robot tentatively named Mr. Waverly.

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Re: MST3K, Rifftrax, & sundry

Postby Thad » Sun May 22, 2016 1:11 pm

Head writer for new MST3K is Elliott Kalan, former head writer of The Daily Show and currently making fun of bad movies on The Flop House.

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Re: MST3K, Rifftrax, & sundry

Postby Thad » Sun Jul 24, 2016 12:29 am

The new series will be on Netflix. Corbett and Pehl will be on the writing staff, and both of them plus Murphy will be reprising their roles as the Mads at some point.

This is from AV Club, because apparently Joel and co are having trouble with the wifi to update the official site and Twitter feed.

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Re: MST3K, Rifftrax, & sundry

Postby Mothra » Sun Jul 24, 2016 1:02 am

Fuck yes.

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Re: MST3K, Rifftrax, & sundry

Postby Thad » Sun Jul 24, 2016 1:59 pm



Highlights:

Invention exchange is back.

Servo will sing.

Movies will come from the '60's, '70's, '80's, and one from the '90's.

Joel says the show will likely debut early next year.

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Re: MST3K, Rifftrax, & sundry

Postby Thad » Sun Jul 24, 2016 5:28 pm

Crappy cell video of the first twelve minutes of the Comic-Con panel:


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Re: MST3K, Rifftrax, & sundry

Postby Thad » Wed Jul 27, 2016 12:25 am

Volume 37 episodes announced:

420- THE HUMAN DUPLICATORS
705- ESCAPE 2000
817- HORROR OF PARTY BEACH
819- INVASION OF THE NEPTUNE MEN


Horror of Party Beach was my first episode, and still a favorite.

Commenters note that now all but 18 episodes (not including KTMA) have been released on DVD. Of course, that includes some (like Godzilla vs. Megalon, and they just lost the rights to Soultaker so you might want to grab vol 14 while Amazon's still got a few left in stock) that are no longer available.

The Likelihood For Shout Factory Release List has the goods, as always; user notundercovercop32 notes that the 18 still-unreleased episodes break down as follows:

5 Paramount
5 Susan Hart
1 Godzilla/Toho
1 Rocketship XM/Wade Williams
1 Quest of the Delta Knights
5 Public Domain-ish films

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Re: MST3K, Rifftrax, & sundry

Postby Mothra » Wed Jul 27, 2016 8:19 am

I'll always remember Neptune Men as being the ep that almost actually broke them.

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Re: MST3K, Rifftrax, & sundry

Postby Thad » Wed Jul 27, 2016 11:10 am

Course, it looks like we're about to hit peak MST3K. There are 6 movies left that seem like likely releases (all of them Mike episodes), and then we can probably expect to see some sets that include episodes that have been released in ones and twos, or which have shown up on streaming services but never been released on discs, but they can't get many more sets out. The 5 Paramount movies are a possibility when the rights revert in 4 years, and...well, it's ghoulish to note that Susan Hart is 75 and will die eventually, but it's a fact. (Not sure how old Wade Williams is as I can't find a bio on him -- he's not Wade Williams the actor, he's a different guy -- but he's probably at least 70 too.)

We could finally see some complete season sets at this point, because seasons 5 and 7 are now entirely available. (All of season 1's been released too, but The Crawling Hand is no longer available.)

I think what's likelier, though, is single-disc releases of the episodes that are already out on sets. Especially the ones from sets that are no longer available and can't be reissued because they've lost the rights to some but not all of the episodes (again, see set 14; they just lost Soultaker but still have the rights to the other three).

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Re: MST3K, Rifftrax, & sundry

Postby Thad » Tue Sep 27, 2016 11:54 am

Latest update on New MST3K is that they've finished shooting all the theater segments and started shooting the host segments.

Wonder if there's still a chance of premiering on Turkey Day?

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Re: MST3K, Rifftrax, & sundry

Postby Thad » Fri Oct 21, 2016 1:17 am

Production on season 11 has wrapped. Still editing to do. He's implying pretty strongly that we won't be seeing any new episodes on Turkey Day.

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Re: MST3K, Rifftrax, & sundry

Postby Thad » Tue Oct 25, 2016 12:55 am

Rifftrax Mobile Bundle

It's mostly just-the-jokes riffs (Batman: Tunnel of Terror, Night of the Living Dead and Shake Hands with Danger at the middle, and The Wizard at the top tier being the exceptions; for the rest you'll need to supply the movie yourself). Also, Mr. B Natural is currently free if you provide a valid E-Mail address.

It's a good set; I figure I'll at least put in at the $1 tier. Maybe the middle tier. But probably not the top tier since I already have two out of the three movies at that level. Then again, the top tier is currently only $1.12 more than the middle tier, and the Episode 7 riff by itself goes for more than that anyway, even if I've already got the other two.

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Re: MST3K, Rifftrax, & sundry

Postby IGNORE ME » Tue Oct 25, 2016 2:41 am

The best part is I only have to feel silly for having bought two of the $1 riffs! Oh wait it's only 1 and you can give the code to someone else.

Hey anyone want a code for a RiffTrax of Episode 4 that you can also get with a bunch of other shit for a dollar right now?

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