The MST3K Thread

[Curt McGirt]

HOW HAVE I NEVER SEEN THAT?!

[Gonzo]

48 straight hours of MST3K?

Well, not like I have any other plans.

[Control]

Film #3 for a potential season 14 is PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE, which makes a lot of sense, though if they’re going classic badfilm, I’d have gone for THE GIANT CLAW.

Edited November 17, 2023 by Control

[Pete]

19 hours ago, Control said:

Film #3 for a potential season 14 is PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE, which makes a lot of sense, though if they’re going classic badfilm, I’d have gone for THE GIANT CLAW.

Honestly, they should've led with that. Sometimes going for the finisher early pays off.

[Gonzo]

The Turkey Day Marathon schedule has officially dropped.

Thursday, 23 November (all times Eastern because it's just easier that way)

• 9 AM: Bride of the Monster
• 11 AM: Pumaman (Surgically Enhanced)
• 1 PM: Escape 2000
• 3 PM: Beyond Atlantis
• 5 PM: The Beatniks
• 7 PM: Viking Woman and the Sea Serpent
• 9 PM: The Giant Gila Monster
• 11 PM: The Starfighters (Surgically Enhanced)

Friday, 24 November

• 1 AM: Munchie
• 3 AM: Master Ninja II
• 5 AM: Catalina Caper (Surgically Enhanced)
• 7 AM: Operation Kid Brother
• 9 AM: The Bubble
• 11 AM: Time Chasers
• 1 PM: Horror of Party Beach (Surgically Enhanced)
• 3 PM: Prince of Space
• 5 PM: Dr. Mordrid
• 7 PM: Girl in Gold Boots
• 9 PM: Stranded in Space
• 11 PM: Gorgo

Saturday, 25 November

• 1 AM: Santo in the Treasure of Dracula
• 3 AM: Santa Claus Conquers the Martians
• 5 AM: Santa Claus
• 7 AM: The Christmas Dragon

Looks solid, all in all.

[colonial]

Film #4 for Season 14 is Jesse Ventura's ABRAXAS.

[Control]

They also announced two more:

BALLISTICA

BATTLETRUCK

Additionally, they made some changes to the budget (basically giving up on shooting/having offices anywhere but LA) and lowered their goal to $4 million. They’re now at over $2 million, meaning that the Mega Turkey Day marathon needs to rake just under $2 million for season 14 to happen.

[Curt McGirt]

On 11/22/2023 at 4:40 PM, Gonzo said:

• 5 PM: Dr. Mordrid

So Full Moon is finally old enough to be MST3K'd? Have they not done anything by them before? 

[colonial]

5 hours ago, Curt McGirt said:

So Full Moon is finally old enough to be MST3K'd? Have they not done anything by them before? 

They did Laserblast, which was a pre-Full Moon pic from Charles Band, on the original series. Another pre-Full Moon from Band, The Day Time Ended, was part of the second Netflix season.

[Ace]

Season 14 crowdfunding has failed. They got 2.7 million in pledges, while recording 4 million to go ahead.

 

[Stefanie Sparkleface]

55 minutes ago, Ace said:

Season 14 crowdfunding has failed. They got 2.7 million in pledges, while recording 4 million to go ahead.

 

I wish I could say I was surprised, but crowdfunding always has diminishing returns. They really struggled with getting rewards out for season 13, and you absolutely can't do that if you're going to go with another round of crowdfunding.

It's a shame, because season 13 was quite good (Emily was a very welcome breath of fresh air to the show), but another season seemed like it was doomed from the start. I wonder if there might be value in switching to a Rifftrax model and ad-hoc performing instead of doing things like full seasons.

[jaedmc]

Do you think not running it on Kickstarter made a difference? I can't remember what platform they used last time. I honestly didn't know it was happening and didn't know where to find it until IGN ran a story on Friday.

[colonial]

The Season 13 campaign was on Kickstarter.

Honestly, it's the law of diminishing returns. MST3K is great but there doesn't seem to be a business plan from Joel outside of "donate money and we may give you stuff." At least with Rifftrax, they seem to have a solid business plan with weekly releases and other bonuses -- they only depend on fundraisers to do a Rifftrax Live for Fathom Events. To the viewer, Rifftrax thinks outside the box while MST3K is stuck in a box. Almost have to wonder if Joel regrets not considering Rifftrax's online model first.

As for the Season 14 fundraiser, the SAG strike didn't help matters since no one outside of Joel could actively campaign online (having Felicity and/or Patton might have helped). I also thought Joel's pitches sounded like he didn't care whether the campaign succeeded or failed.

Curious if Joel would consider doing live shows again to riff movies. 

[Stefanie Sparkleface]

50 minutes ago, jaedmc said:

Do you think not running it on Kickstarter made a difference? I can't remember what platform they used last time. I honestly didn't know it was happening and didn't know where to find it until IGN ran a story on Friday.

Possibly? It may have helped with a wider net, but there wasn't as much enthusiasm this go-round. From the strike limiting things to just Joel (as colonial mentioned) to the rewards issues from previous crowdfunding, I think there were issues. That said, this was... I think the third time they've tried to crowdfund? Maybe fourth? It's really hard to pull that off over and over again because the message sent is that you don't have a very strong business model. This is where the Rifftrax comparison comes into play again; their crowdfunding has been for a special event each year and they maintain a regularly running business year-round, whereas MST3K basically crowdfunds to keep the lights on and produce another season. If MST3K were producing shorts year-round and said "this crowdfunding is to ensure that we can produce six feature releases", I think you'd have a different scenario on your hands no matter where the hosting was. Of course, if it takes 12-18 months to get rewards out for a prior campaign, well... people remember feeling burned on these things.

[Brian Fowler]

Yeah I think it's just really really hard to ask for money upfront over and over.

If they could get it funded I think they would have a better chance selling the product later than they do crowd funding again. 

It's a shame for them they couldn't get Netflix to fund it for multiple years.

[Control]

Netflix falling through really messed things up. You have what is, by TV standards, an extremely cheap show with an intense fan base. You also have a show that seems made for streaming (that is, a 90 minute TV show isn’t really attractive to network TV).

Theyre going to give it another go next year. I’m curious if the timing, SAG strike, and non-Kickstarter were the problem, or a lack of interest.

I think many of the fans (even some of the haters of the new version) don’t really grasp that the show isn’t popular enough to survive except as a crowd-funded model. You want more episodes, you’re going to have to pay for them. TV is expensive—even cheaply made, shitty looking tv.