MST3K Revival/Reboot

There's a "pledge drive" for the new season. Netflix ordered the new season, so there's no make it or break it, they say they just want to give fans the ability to be involved. They are however being very vague on what the money they collect is being used for. I've seen "keep MST 3 K's future healthy", and I've seen "help fully realize Joel's vision for season 12."

So like, the first one sounds like it's bankrolling the ventures outside the episodes, like the live shows and the comics, but the second sounds like "Joel was disappointed in the budget Netflix gave them."

That or there wasn’t a lot left after the movies.

I still want to see them tackle No Holds Barred.

Do the celebrity cameos cost them anything? Or are the celebs just showing up for funsies?

I think a lot of the celebrity cameos were high-tier Kickstarter rewards.

Update: the proceeds from the season 12 pledge drive are for closing the budget gap between what Netflix paid them and the cost of production, because these days international licensing is an assumed part of the expected revenues to the point that it's expected to help recoup the cost. Only because of the way MST works, international licensing is pretty much impossible, and the drive needs to bring in at least $600k for season 12 to break even.

However, they've also made arrangements for the DVD and Blu-ray sets bought through the drive to be region-free. They're still only sold out of the US, but they'll play in any player around the world they might be imported to.

Well that's one hell of a Bonus Feature Failure. "give us more and we'll have an awkward scene where we stop everything to let a celebrity deign to grace us with their presence!"

The only one I actually remember was Seinfeld and that was because it was so mind-numbingly bad.

Whaaa???? The celebrity cameos were some of the best parts!

I mean, not like "random fan pays us a lot and we have the money to go hire X celebrity". Like, "fan who has this much money because they are a celebrity pays us a lot and we write a cameo scene for them".

Jerry should've just played himself, or the sitcom version of himself. That would've probably been great.

But honestly, if they could get just one returning guest star — P.T. Mindslap, no contest.

5 episodes from the next season have been revealed:

http://bbfc.co.uk/search/releases/MYSTERY%2BSCIENCE%2BTHEATRE%2B3000

Ooof. Those runtimes.

Doing Atlantic Rim also feels deeply off-spec for the series, as does going in so heavily on the 80s.

EDIT: Thinking about it, Atlantic Rim isn't the closest to the modern day they ever got. Robot Holocaust was from 1986 and they did an episode on it in 1989. Makes doing a 2013 film in 2018 look like nothing.

Edited by Wackd on Oct 13th 2018 at 11:45:48 AM

Putting recent movies on the table makes me wonder if The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra would be an option. Though since they're spoofing old B-movies by playing it painfully straight, perhaps not. It's pretty much made to be riffed, and it looks like a popular suggestion Rifftrax is avoiding.

"Made to be riffed" is a thing the show came down on hard last season. Asylum fits handily into the common MST3K wheelhouse of "exists to make a quick buck."

Lost Skeleton of Cadavra is already hilarious without riffing. Not sure that would work.

They also did Merlin's House of Magical Wonders (1996) in 1999. Cave Dwellers had a 1990 copyright and that aired in the 1991 season IIRC.

Cave Dwellers was 1984, actually.

How many more films do they have to reveal?

Edited by Beatman1 on Oct 14th 2018 at 7:26:51 AM

Mac and Me is kind of odd as it's one of the few films MST 3 K has done that's relatively well-known (the only other ones that would qualify would be Marooned (space travelers) and possibly the Godzilla films).

We're only getting six episodes this season as part of a concerted effort to make the show more "binge-friendly". So only one episode's gone unrevealed.

I guess I’ll need to wait for Season 3 to see if the can finangle No Holds Barred.

Can't believe no one's mentioned Future War. Released in 1997, riffed in 1999.

Edited by Larkmarn on Oct 15th 2018 at 1:08:57 PM

Also (Arizona) Werewolf, released in 1996, Riffed in 1998. It and Future War were the two most recent works the original MST 3 K did in terms of year of release vs year of riffing

Also, I'm pretty sure that Netflix has a digital distribution deal with the Asylum (most of their films are on netflix), which means it's likely the easiest company to license films from. If there's a season 3 we just might get more "gems" from that company.

Even if they don't specifically have a deal, for the Asylum this is basically a win-win scenario. If the movie's actually So Bad, It's Good, it might get people to check out their other stuff (Especially since they've made some non-Mockbuster products). If I were them, I'd offer my movies to MST 3 K because it's a pure win. For a company whose business model is "Grandma will confuse our movie in the discount box for the one the grandson mentioned once and buy it for him", getting someone actually going "watch this, it's hilarious" is a boon.

That said wish they had picked the Asylum's Sherlock Holmes. Of all their mockbusters, that one's easily the "Best".

Edited by Ghilz on Oct 15th 2018 at 8:53:08 AM

I still hope that they eventually riff on an animated film, it would be something different for them to riff on (they've already done plenty of kids/family films like Santa vs the Martians, Cry Wilderness, Mac and Me, etc, so an animated film would be the next logical step).