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New MST3K Kickstarter Campaign

Started by Alberon, April 07, 2021, 10:54:47 PM

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Alberon

Joel Hodgson has returned to kickstarter to fund more MST3K.

Here's the goals for new episodes and their 'online virtual theatre' The Gizmoplex.



Last time they funded it and then released it through Netflix, though the streaming service were never willing to pay enough to fully fund the show on its own. This time it seems they're more committed to staying independent. They've said the cast from the Netflix era will be back, but whether it would be all of them, guest bits, or what no one is saying yet. Jonah Heston is in the kickstarter launch video, though.

MakeMoreMST3K.com

So far the kickstarter has been live for a few hours and they're already halfway to the initial three episode goal.

Lemming

Whoaa, shit, look at that backer count shoot up in real-time.

The Jonah series were by and large a lot of fun. If they can continue at the same level of quality - and their self-distribution idea doesn't turn into a massive trainwreck - then this can only be great news.

up_the_hampipe

I've never been able to really get in to MST3K, despite being fond of the concept. It feels too gimmicky with the space theme and the robots, but I don't think I've really given it a chance. There are a lot of episodes and different eras of the show, so I don't know where to start. Are there any great episodes that are worth trying?

Kankurette

Quote from: up_the_hampipe on April 08, 2021, 02:19:18 AM
I've never been able to really get in to MST3K, despite being fond of the concept. It feels too gimmicky with the space theme and the robots, but I don't think I've really given it a chance. There are a lot of episodes and different eras of the show, so I don't know where to start. Are there any great episodes that are worth trying?
Manos the Hands of Fate, Mitchell, Space Mutiny and The Girl With Gold Boots are among my faves.

Lemming

Quote from: up_the_hampipe on April 08, 2021, 02:19:18 AM
I've never been able to really get in to MST3K, despite being fond of the concept. It feels too gimmicky with the space theme and the robots, but I don't think I've really given it a chance. There are a lot of episodes and different eras of the show, so I don't know where to start. Are there any great episodes that are worth trying?

Try these:

Time of the Apes
Space Mutiny
Pumaman
Final Justice

colacentral

Quote from: up_the_hampipe on April 08, 2021, 02:19:18 AM
I've never been able to really get in to MST3K, despite being fond of the concept. It feels too gimmicky with the space theme and the robots, but I don't think I've really given it a chance. There are a lot of episodes and different eras of the show, so I don't know where to start. Are there any great episodes that are worth trying?

Red Zone Cuba - black and white film from 1966 depicting the Bay of Pigs as being carried out by five guys. Very slow and boring film, but hilarious to me, an underrated classic. Great bad theme tune to the film too ("Night Train to Mundo Fine").

The Incredible Melting Man - 1977 horror film about an astronaut exposed to radiation who then begins to melt and kill people.

It Conquered the World - black and white 50's sci-fi directed by Roger Corman. A cult classic film and entertaining in it's own right, with one of the all-time greatest bad movie monsters, which I won't spoil by describing. I mainly love this episode for the very serious monologue delivered by Peter Graves in the last few minutes, and the way that MST3K makes fun of it after the film has ended (and into the end credits of the episode).

Blood Waters of Dr. Z - Also known as Zaat, just a weird, grimey 70's film about a scientist who turns himself into a monster because of his desire to be a fish.

It's honestly really, really hard to pick out episodes to start someone off as each episode can be so different depending on the film they've got to work with, and a lot of enjoyment could depend on what type of film you prefer. Each season is also very different in its humour.

dr_christian_troy

If you ever want to tuck into the series, here's a couple of free 24 hour live streams:

Pluto TV channel[nb]There's a lot of odd channels on Pluto, but then you also have a Rifftrax and a Tonight Show with Johnny Carson channel, so it's not all bad.[/nb]

Twitch channel

jofo

Quote from: Lemming on April 08, 2021, 03:18:44 AM
Try these:

Time of the Apes
Space Mutiny
Pumaman
Final Justice


Start with Pumaman, fast forword through all the skits and just enjoy that fucking stupid film. If you dont love it then MST3K is not for you my friend.

Rolf Lundgren

I've got a lot of love for MST3K but feel a bit sad when it's come to this. Just feel there's a better use of everyone's time and money rather than trying to do the same thing but the audience is clearly there so whaddaiknow.

Agree about not bothering to watch the skits when you first get into MST3K. Straight for the film is the way to go.

Blumf

Quote from: Rolf Lundgren on April 08, 2021, 06:48:00 PM
Agree about not bothering to watch the skits when you first get into MST3K. Straight for the film is the way to go.

In which case, maybe try out MST3K : The Movie first, which is shorter than the usual episodes and mainly focuses on the film. Although its riffing on a decent film, This Island Earth, rather than the usual B-movie schlock.

Alberon

Well, it took just a day to hit the lowest goal of $2m.

Attila

Back in the day, I belonged to the MST3K Info club; I still have a bunch of the newsletters (including the hand-drawn merchandising adverts). Some mad, silly stuff there.

Kankurette

Quote from: jofo on April 08, 2021, 01:59:42 PM

Start with Pumaman, fast forword through all the skits and just enjoy that fucking stupid film. If you dont love it then MST3K is not for you my friend.
The bits where he flies are the best bits IMO.

Rev+

Do NOT start with Manos.  It's a favourite episode for good reason but definitely not one you want to start with.  Pumaman all the way.

I can't quite wrap my head around this new Kickstarter effort.  The idea of a streaming platform and producing new episodes for it is fine, but where will we be a year down the line?  Cap in hand on Kickstarter again to produce more content?  It seems like they'll be charging a monthly subscription to watch one show, which surely can't work.  If they flood the channel with other dodgy B-movies and stuff then fine, but this would have to be public domain stuff that the viewers could get elsewhere.  Happy for it to come back for a year in this form, but dunno if it's the long-term proposition Joel thinks it is.

Alberon

Looking at some of the Kickstarter bonuses there will be a subscription, but I think the plan is to do more with the 'Gizmoplex' along the lines of live events and probably old episodes.

Going back to Kickstarter repeatedly is not a sustainable model so in the long term subscriptions have to be able to carry it. There's talk of DVD and Blu-Ray releases of the new episodes and, obviously, digital downloads, but I'd assume it's going to exclusive to the new service for a time at least.

dr_christian_troy

The recommended PUMA MAN is popping up on the free Twitch stream next (after The Sword And The Dragon, currently playing). If anyone fancies hanging out and chatting, I'm @GrimWord - come say hello.

https://www.twitch.tv/mst3k

JesusAndYourBush


Lemming

There's the cost of the sets, the puppets, buying the rights to the films, paying the actors (Felicia Day and Patton Oswalt in particular probably cost a bit), hiring people to make the new service and the promised "apps" for it...

That said, yeah, it does seem very steep, especially considering that the sets and props will be presumably intentionally built on the cheap because that's always been the show's look. Even accounting for the fact they might want to license some slightly more costly films for this one, I can't see how the total comes up to $5.5 million.

Alberon

This is exactly the figure the original Kickstarter several years back aimed to raise. To be honest, $5.5 for twelve feature length episodes plus twelve shorts seems quite reasonable.

Rev+

Over halfway with over a week to go, so pretty much where they were at this point last time around.  Although Kickstarters do tend to have a big push right in the last few days, I've got a feeling that they might not quite make it to the full goal this time (particularly if the rumour that they only did so last time because Jerry Seinfeld got his bank card out is true).  Hopefully the new model is properly sustainable, and it won't matter that much long-term, seeing as they have enough to get off the ground.

The amount they're looking for seems reasonable enough to me too, as this bollocks is expensive.  I assume the film rights will be more costly, even with ropey old flicks, because they'll probably be looking to buy them outright this time around.

As an aside, I've just found out that Bill Corbett has only co-written one major motion picture.  Bricks will be shat.

Alberon

The latest update has a comparison between this kickstarter and the first one.



So they've taken different routes, but they've just reached the same level at the same time. Doesn't look great for hitting the full target to be honest. The big news since the last time this thread was updated is there's a second host who will have her own Crow and Tom.

QuoteThis season, Emily Marsh – the newest host of MST3K LIVE – will join Jonah Ray to take turns hosting new episodes.

Now, don't worry: Jonah will still be trapped on the Satellite of Love with Tom, Crow and GPC, who will still be voiced by Baron, Hampton and Rebecca.

But this time around, Kinga and Max have even bigger plans for global domination, and they involve having more than one test subject riffing movies, each from a different location.

Emily will be trapped in a new location with her own Tom, Crow and GPC, who will be voiced by their MST3K LIVE actors: Conor McGiffin, Nate Begle, and Yvonne Freese!

Joel has committed to hosting one episode if they get to the nine episode target and two episodes if they get to twelve.

Now they're almost into the final week we'll see how far they get.

Rev+

Yeah, but don't forget the Bill Corbett thing.  I mean fucking hell.

Lemming

A new host is potentially exciting, but if they only end up making 6 - 9 episodes (not all of which will even feature the new host), it's going to be very tough to develop a distinctive voice/tone for the character that separates her from Jonah. Especially given that it'll presumably be the same writing staff writing for both hosts. Same for the new robots.

Speaking of which, I love how intentionally shit and cheap the new robots look in the thumbnail on the kickstarter page. Gets the original style down perfect.

Sonny_Jim

WRT to finding their voice/tone, I couldn't stand Kinga when I first watched the revival series, ended up skipping through the host segments.  Don't mind her now, but fuck me can't stand the new theme.  It's like the theme tune to Enterprise, it's just too 'pop', if that makes sense.  It lacks the garageband feel of the old one.

After a while the robot voices all kinda merge together in my head, so I don't really mind who does the voices.  I do really miss Trace's Crow, though.  The way he played it as slightly dumb kid was great, like when a tiger or lion would come on the screen and he'd go 'Kitty!'.


dr_christian_troy

Quote from: Sonny_Jim on April 30, 2021, 09:33:28 AM
After a while the robot voices all kinda merge together in my head, so I don't really mind who does the voices.  I do really miss Trace's Crow, though.  The way he played it as slightly dumb kid was great, like when a tiger or lion would come on the screen and he'd go 'Kitty!'.

I find the new Crow to be constantly angry, whiny and almost sinister - I much prefer Trace's take for sure.

typeforty

Quote from: Rev+ on April 30, 2021, 12:55:36 AM
Yeah, but don't forget the Bill Corbett thing.  I mean fucking hell.

The Bill Corbett thing..?

Famous Mortimer

Quote from: Rev+ on April 29, 2021, 07:40:45 PM
Hopefully the new model is properly sustainable, and it won't matter that much long-term, seeing as they have enough to get off the ground.
They made a huge fuss the last time about that model being sustainable, and it wasn't. I presume they'll keep doing this until Joel has enough to retire on.

I wish the early Rifftrax model had done better, when Mike got a celeb guest in to do commentary with him on one of their favourite cheesy movies. Joel McHale and Fred Willard both did it around 2007-8 and were very good.

Rev+

Quote from: Sonny_Jim on April 30, 2021, 09:33:28 AM
WRT to finding their voice/tone, I couldn't stand Kinga when I first watched the revival series, ended up skipping through the host segments.  Don't mind her now, but fuck me can't stand the new theme.  It's like the theme tune to Enterprise, it's just too 'pop', if that makes sense.  It lacks the garageband feel of the old one.

Given recent revelations about Har Mar Superstar I'd imagine there'll be a new version for this run.

Quote from: typeforty
The Bill Corbett thing..?

Just referring to my shocking discovery of yesterday that he's only co-written one major feature film, which is
Spoiler alert
forum favourite 'Meet Dave'.
[close]

Alberon

There's about two days left of the Kickstarter. As it currently stands it's raised $4.6m of the $5.5m ultimate goal which means a total of nine new episodes will be made. $800K might seem a lot to manage in 50 hours, but Joel has said they're still ahead of the curve of the original kickstarter.



Though the original Kickstarter curve did go nearly vertical in the last few hours.

Two movies have been announced Robot Wars from 1993 and Demon Squad from 2019.

Sonny_Jim

Also doesn't that mean Joel does an episode?  Love a bit of Sleepy Joel, the show seemed a bit more innocent then.