Mystery Science Theater 3000: C/D, S/D.

Detail from that WSJ story worth noting:

Ownership of “MST3K” (and the right to produce new episodes) belonged to Jim Mallon, the executive producer who originally launched the show in the Twin Cities. Decades later, “Jim was very happy living in Minneapolis and going to his mailbox every few months and getting a nice check from us. What more did he need?” Mr. Emmer said. “But we wanted the freedom to expand this very underutilized asset.”

In partnership with Mr. Hodgson, who left the show in 1993, Shout bought “MST3K” for an amount in the seven figures, a deal that took about six years to negotiate. Next came the Kickstarter campaign, intended to not only raise cash for a new season, but also to get fans personally invested in its success.

“Is there a lot of trust for an entertainment company in L.A.? Not really,” said senior vice president of business affairs David McIntosh. “It would be a nightmare scenario if the fans turned on us.”

Also, massive new post from Joel on the Kickstarter page

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mst3k/bringbackmst3k/posts/1859562

only MST3K event i went to was a Dragoncon thing where a couple people from the show introduced a new DVD and hundreds of us all sat in a conference room barely able to see a screen at the back of the room as it played a DVD. i ducked out after 15 minutes cos it was a huge waste of time but it was standing room only. pretty sure they have nothing to worry about.

is this "nightmare scenario" no more crowdfunding your Netflix series

I see that as more fear that they would fuck up the end result BADLY.

"i assume there will be DVDs eventually...

― Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), "

I wouldn't assume that, but maybe

I answered this already! There are going to be DVDs and Blu-rays.

Just finished Reptilicus. What a great bad movie! I laughed a lot. Loved the intro, skits were mixed. Riffs generally solid, but too frequent -- they try to riff on every single line whether they have a joke or not. Rifftrax has this problem too.

Huh, I'd have to disagree re riffs on this point -- definitely some busy parts but there were other stretches, especially near the beginning, where I thought they were too quiet!

My son and I laughed pretty much straight through the entire episode.

i hate this so much

Still need to watch the new one

Lots of good times watching the old one in the 90s

yes this show will always be classic. i recall watching this with cereal in the morning before school.

i am very happy for their crowdsourcing success and new series rebirth, they deserve it. they had the tape thing going, and they were doing this geeky culture obsession years before youtubers were even born.

very happy to hear that the letters to the crew are still in!

Based solely on Reptilicus, S11 seems on par with the Sci-Fi years, albeit never reaching any of the heights of those seasons. Noticed Joel was one of the writers on this episode, and not sure if he's there throughout.

Way funnier than I expected: pretty great!

I even liked the monster song

i watched reptilicus a couple years ago. it is kind of an amazing, bizarre, wonderful film even w/o any riffing.

It was pretty great. And the sweating!!

they should have cut the ikea jokes. wrong kingdom guys.

halfway thru 'cry wilderness' and i gotta say...it's good!

the ep/riffs, not the movie, the movie is garbage

Watching the 2nd ep, the rhythms have matched up to the originals to a degree my obsessive ass is ok with

Agree

And I say this as a fan who did tape-trading thru Usenet my freshman year in 94/95

Why does Netflix in my country not have this ;_;

Ep 3 Avalanche is a treat

"every country
has a monster
they're afraid of
in their nation"

absolutely delightful

ep 5 is a sloggggggggg

I napped through parts of ep 2, that movie was rough

see I liked ep2! the movie sucked but the riffs were good, ep5 is a worse movie with less-good riffs

Yeah it was mostly the movie that made me nap not the show itsellf

1/2 way thru ep 5.

new people order:

Day
Oswalt
Ray (is kind of a non-entity so far. i'm not sure what the shooting/showing order is so maybe he grows into it)

Host segments are pretty spot on in terms of attitude; could do w/o celebrity cameos (N.P. Harris was good because he's talented but too fan service-y imo. OG cast etc is cool if they want to do it)

new servo voice seems like a weird/bad/lazy choice. not close to Murphy; reminds me alot of the KTMA/Weinstein Servo, which is not a compliment. Kevin Murphy was just that good I guess. also between jonah/crow/servo it's kinda hard to differentiate between their voices, but that might just take some time to figure out on my end.

agree that the riffs are a little TOO timed/on time and it makes it feel like they've seen the movie before. also sometimes I think they try and cram a wordy riff in where it really doesn't want to fit but ymmv.

like that the bots are more articulated/muppetish. like new gypsy and the direction they've given her

that said I am totally satisfied with my new MST experience! all the movies have been pretty watchable except for cry wilderness which was fun by drifts way hard into the late sci-fi movies where they are completely inscrutable.

My biggest laugh from Cry Wilderness was when the actors walked past a very tame fox, which didn't need a great riff... neither the movie nor the riffing were on the level of The Final Sacrifice, but it was enjoyable.

I agree with Jonah being a non-entity, but at least I don't want to punch the smirk off his face. I wouldn't mind if they swapped out hosts every season.

how far are you in the run?

Only two in! I don't binge-watch stuff I like.

Just watched the first ep. I liked it. <3 Day, of course.

@pareene
North Korea has just revealed its stockpile of MST3K reboot episodes with the real Mads

Reptilicus is such a classic. Fun fact: Dirch Passer was such a star back then, that a working title for the film was 'Dirch and the Dragon'

Weird that the movie ditches him halfway through, then. Patton's intro of the movie as starring Dirch Passer and...? was the first thing I laughed at.

The episode itself was pretty funny. I agree with the sentiment that they seem to be anticipating the riffs a bit too much--a few times I swear their jokes come in ahead of what they're riffing on. There is a bit of dead air here and there, undoubtedly the result of Reptilicus being a pretty boring film for something about a giant lizard attacking Copenhagen. The non-movie segments were whatever--but as I've said before, I never really cared much about anything but the riffing.

I'm halfway through the first ep and not hating it. Several things that aren't working all that well seem like the kind of thing they can find their groove with, given time. Particularly the timing of some riffs (agreed about crammed-in verbiage and slightly-ahead-of-schedule delivery, both of which suggest yet-unsettled nerves to me), and the general personality of the skits which so far are meh. Surprised they'd go immediately for a 'song' skit rather than something that helps establish the vibe between new guy and the robots.

Also agreed that the voices are too samey. New Servo is no Kevin Murphy but then, nobody is. Nobody seems to have a talent for impressions/voices the way that Trace (and also Mike and in his way Joel) did, but that's something that it doesn't make sense to really judge this quickly. Mostly I'm just glad that the stuff I was really bracing myself for them to get wrong or too-slick hasn't exactly felt that way. This could actually end up being... good!

from what i can tell, at 5 eps in, the joke pacing slows down

Oh, it seems the American version cuts out the best scene with Dirch :( Here it is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifEI7OlkQH8

i was ready to cringe @ the monster rap and it's still only an OK bit but they got me back w/

"And by that I mean Jiufeng and Peng, giant Chinese birds, and one of them turns into a fish."

Nu Servo has a Phil Hartman/Zap Brannigan kind of voice which suits his character. I can't always distinguish between him and Jonah yet. (sidenote, i always thought kevin murphy as servo was too influenced by dennis miller's style of passing off obscure references as jokes. no idea if it was really murphy or one of the other writers.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4MugHxp2CI

i guess it depends, as ever, on whether you know the obscure refs or not...

"Get Courtney Love!"

I think it was Rosenbaum who pointed out the "Flemish painting" line in The Movie as an example of a dumb miller-esque line used as filler.

yes: final paragraph of http://www.jonathanrosenbaum.net/1996/04/no-joke/

OK I was trying not to be cynical during the development, but the first episode was just an exhausting onslaught of riffs. It really needed to breath better. Certain riffs would have been better if they weren't sandwiched between 5-6 others in a relentless burst. The delivery was a little too try-hard as well. It's not like they didn't let you breathe but there were way too many portions I found overwhelming.

I like the verse in Monster rap when they rhyme Luxembourg with itself x 5, it makes me laugh

The Time Travelers turned out to be a decent (if dated) movie. I liked how it used magic tricks instead of special effects. The riffs didn't work for me in the competently made sections. Its skits were the best yet.

That's one of my least favorite things Rosenbaum ever wrote. (Though I do agree The Movie is no great shakes.)