MST3K with the hat out again

[convulsivespace]

Well, they're disappointed because it was strongly suggested that the previous round of funding would be the last and future projects would be self-sustaining.

Yeah and (not surprisingly) that didn't end up working. Now people can voluntarily contribute if they want more content from them. Nobody is being forced to donate and nobody who is donating and getting cheated.

[Alberon]

I'm not angry, myself. I'm not going to donate, but if the fundraiser succeeds then great.

I do feel that trying to eke out more MST3K is a mistake. Netflix didn't work (though they usually cancel everything by the second season), the Gizmoplex failed and now the crowdfunded every season plan is tanking.

Time to leave it and try something else. There are models that can work.

[Catalogue Trousers]

Watching the fundraiser dying on its arse. It's not managing $100k a day at the moment.

Joel's announced the first movie will be Battle Beyond the Stars. The first MST3K film I saw at the cinema first and as Star Wars/Seven Samurai knockoffs go it's a fun film.

Yeah. Reminiscent of how the MST3K movie was based around This Island Earth, which, like Battle, is a genuinely enjoyable film without taking the piss.

[Alberon]

Morbidly fascinated with this dying crowdfunder. I think it's taken five days to add another $100k.

Anyway, in Joel's latest update they've announced this watch along on the Gizmoplex, twitch and youtube.



Woo.

Also there's a new crowdfunding reward a snip at only $10,000.

Next: we've added a new reward – as a PRESENTING SPONSOR , your business or family name will be credited as sponsoring an episode AND short in the new season, plus a video call with Joel and an in-person set visit, and more! Check out all the details here.

Finally, as some of you are no doubt aware, the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strikes have posed a challenge for us in promoting this campaign for season 14. Striking members of SAG are prohibited from promoting struck work, which means our cast cannot post about the fundraiser.  Unfortunately, this represents literally millions of views we can't rely on to spread the word until the strike is over. Obviously this has been a big part of our efforts during the last two campaigns, and we can feel the effects.

This means we need YOUR help more than ever to let people know this campaign is happening! Please follow @mst3k on Instagram and X , and you can also find us on Facebook and TikTok , and share our posts as much as you can.

The desperation seems to be setting in and there's only 17 days to go.

[Sonny_Jim]

Why did they start a fundraiser in the middle of a strike?

[Alberon]

It ends at Thanksgiving and the 'Turkey Day' episode marathons has long been a thing with MST3K.

In the past the show rebroadcast some episodes with all new linking sketches.

So that's the thought process, but still a dumb thing to start with the strike in full swing.

[Alberon]

Actually, it looks this morning as if the strike might be over. Still probably too late for this crowdfunder.

[Rev+]

Yeah and (not surprisingly) that didn't end up working. Now people can voluntarily contribute if they want more content from them. Nobody is being forced to donate and nobody who is donating and getting cheated.

Absolutely, but I'm not sure what anyone can expect this time.  There's not even an assurance that any of the more recent cast or writers will be back.  It feels like it'll be another total reboot.

I don't know if Joel just got so burned after the Netflix cancellation that he's unwilling to have another conversation with a conventional broadcaster, but what's annoying about this is how well positioned he was to do so.  The fans funded two series, so that's your pitch for getting a channel to pick it up and fund it going forward.  You've proven there's an audience in a very concrete way.  The time to scrabble is over, let's make some deals.

[Famous Mortimer]

I don't know if Joel just got so burned after the Netflix cancellation that he's unwilling to have another conversation with a conventional broadcaster, but what's annoying about this is how well positioned he was to do so.  The fans funded two series, so that's your pitch for getting a channel to pick it up and fund it going forward.  You've proven there's an audience in a very concrete way.  The time to scrabble is over, let's make some deals.

I agree, but this has been going for how long? and has a little over 8000 backers. If that's the size of their hardcore fanbase now, then I perhaps understand why Netflix decided to get out of the MST3K game. I wonder how many new fans the rebooted show made? I'm also curious about whether Joel didn't want to go back to the handmade / cheaper original style, and insisted on new episodes being X dollars to produce, which put broadcasters off.

Another way of looking at it is...if a network or a streaming provider wanted to get into the "people riffing over the top of movies" business, they could have done at any point in the last 23 years. They could have hired Trace and Frank, or the Rifftrax team, or even Joel and what remained of the MST3K writers (before he bought the rights back). Perhaps we just need to be happy we got as much as we did? I don't know.

[Alberon]

The problem the show has as a commercial product is you need the licence for the underlying movie as well.

When the Sci-fi channel in the UK first started showing MST3K (season 8 I think it was) they couldn't show three or four of them as they didn't have the rights to the films.

[kngen]

Not sure if this is common knowledge, but on Roku (in America at least), there's a free 24-hour channel dedicated to MST3K. Thought there must be a catch when I stumbled upon it last night, but no, it's a thing - and I sat down with my dinner to watch A Touch of Satan last night. Think they might only be showing the commercially available ones (as it seems to be tied in with Shout Factory/Rhino) - still, better than nothing.

[Famous Mortimer]

If you have the Pluto.TV app for your Roku, there's dedicated MST3K and Rifftrax channels available.

[Famous Mortimer]

Jumped up a touch after the end of the strike, but it's still only 38% funded with 5 days to go.

[Alberon]

They announced what the third movie of the season could be, (which is the only indication so far they know this has failed).

Plan 9 From Outer Space. One of the few films that can't be improved upon with riffing, and a really desperate move from Joel. Wonder what he's going to do when the clock runs out?

[Famous Mortimer]

They announced what the third movie of the season could be, (which is the only indication so far they know this has failed).

Plan 9 From Outer Space. One of the few films that can't be improved upon with riffing, and a really desperate move from Joel. Wonder what he's going to do when the clock runs out?

It's also been riffed at least three times. Mike Nelson did a solo version for a DVD release, and there's been full-cast Rifftrax versions, both as a normal riff and a live one, which presumably has different stuff. Not sure there's an enormous amount more juice to be squeezed out of it.

[Alberon]

The kickstarter has hit 50% of the lowest goal with three days to go, but it's done this by dropping the bar from $4.8m to $4.0m.

Our original budget goal reflected our desire to take a specific approach to producing the show. But, as it has become clear to us that enough support isn't there right now, we've had a series of hard conversations and examined where we could cut every possible corner from the budget, while still being able to make a version of the show that you – and we – would find satisfying and entertaining.

We've reached a number of compromises that we'd hoped to avoid, but, if pushed to make a decision, we would rather make than abandon the show's future altogether.

There are two changes, in particular, that I want to outline for you:

First, while I had hoped to produce the entire season where I and the staff at Alternaversal live, in Pennsylvania, one of our producers has calculated that we can save a significant amount by shooting the show in Los Angeles, where most of our cast is based, and where there is a much larger (and more competitive) pool of creative talent to work with. Most assume that shooting in LA would be more expensive...but it turns out, that it's less .

You all know how involved I like to be in the small details of costumes, props, etc, so I hope you understand that this is a significant compromise in how I'd hoped to make the show. I will still work with all of those teams remotely, but it will be a different experience than if we were able to do a lot of this work locally, as we did during the last 3 seasons.

But – I trust that our production designers are so good, and we'll find such good vendors to work with on the west coast, that I'm confident we can handle this approach.

Second, while our team at Alternaversal / Gizmonic Arts has benefited enormously from the chance to have a physical office space and workshop, and to be able to work together in person over the last few seasons, we recognize that if production is happening on the west coast, we can save a significant additional amount by giving up our offices and workshop, and having our entire team work remotely.
If we make these two changes, along with a few smaller ones, we are able to trim almost $800,000 from the budget, bringing the total cost of 6 episodes down to $4 million – a goal that might still be a challenge difficult to reach, but is far closer than $4.8m.

I don't think that's going to do it.

[Alberon]

Crowdfunder ended with $2,715,304 of the $4m target.

Wonder if that's it or they'll try again.

[Bad Ambassador]

Sorry for the bump, but the most recent season of MST3K - which had previously been paywalled on its own streaming platform - has been added to YouTube, at least temporarily, as a single long video. No idea if this is permanent or they're just trying to drum up attention.

[mippy]

I've never got the appeal of this - always seemed like it would be more fun to watch a bad film with your own friends and do the "riffing" yourselves. Did you have to see it at the right age or something?

[Ruben Remus]

I've never got the appeal of this - always seemed like it would be more fun to watch a bad film with your own friends and do the "riffing" yourselves. Did you have to see it at the right age or something?

Well, in its heyday at least the riffs were the product of a team of very funny comedy writers who spent a lot of time working on and refining the scripts and trying to pack the show with as many jokes as possible. Watching a bad film socially with friends is great but it's just a different thing that you get a different kind of kick from, isn't it. I mean just hanging around with my friends and chatting might be more fun than watching a sitcom about some friends who hang around and chat but I don't think one of them neees to replace the other.

As for having to be the right age, dunno. I first watched it when I was 19 I think. I suspect that I still would have taken to it if I'd encountered it either a decade earlier or later but who knows really.

[Lemming]

I've never got the appeal of this - always seemed like it would be more fun to watch a bad film with your own friends and do the "riffing" yourselves. Did you have to see it at the right age or something?

I liked it when I was younger because, as pitiful as it sounds, it emulated the experience of watching a movie with friends for people who didn't have friends to watch movies with. I think the appeal is analagous to that of livestreamers nowadays. The sketches between the film were also great, both because the characters are funny and because they'd sometimes find very creative ways to take the piss out of the film in over-the-top ways.

The other appeal is that it acts as a showcase for movies that are just amusingly shit on their own, and the riffing becomes an added bonus that'll give you a few extra laughs on top of the ones you're already getting from the movie itself.

[Alberon]

The more recent MST3Ks from the Netflix revival onwards have been okay, but not the absolute best. Hodgson's older show Cinematic Titanic (made in the years between the old MST3K and the new) proved to be a little gem though, especially in the shows recorded in front of a live audience.

[JesusAndYourBush]

I've never got the appeal of this - always seemed like it would be more fun to watch a bad film with your own friends and do the "riffing" yourselves. Did you have to see it at the right age or something?

Me neither.  I just watched a minute of that video.  What garbage!
I'm sure I've asked before and had it explained, but it beats me why it costs so much to put that silhouette across the bottom of the picture and talk shite over it.

[Sonny_Jim]

especially in the shows recorded in front of a live audience.

Yeah definitely wished I had dipped my toe into Cinematic Titanic earlier because some of them are great.  Always great to see J Elvis Weinstein all grown up and being funny.

beats me why it costs so much to put that silhouette across the bottom of the picture and talk shite over it.

IIRC it's the cost of buying the rights of the movie in perpetuity so they don't have legal issues when selling episodes to streaming platforms etc.

[Ruben Remus]

A decent chunk of the show also consists of linking sketches that feature sets, props, costumes, puppets etc. so obviously you need a crew and resources to do all that as well as paying the performers, writers and other production staff along with the above-mentioned licensing fees.