In an update to his backers, Joel has revealed that – if the Kickstarter to #BringBackMST3K succeeds – he plans to invite Jonah Ray, comedian and co-host of the Nerdist podcast, to become the next host of “Mystery Science Theater 3000.”
Hodgson writes:
I can’t really tell you what kind of host Jonah is going to be, but I hope you’ll give him a chance to show you. And even if you’re familiar with Jonah’s career, remember: that doesn’t mean he’ll bring the same exact approach to MST3K. I think a lot of you may be surprised. Plus, like the previous members of our cast, I think Jonah has great instincts and a lot of range. He’s funny, he’s wicked smart, and like I said, his heart’s in the right place. He loves MST3K, he seems to understand what makes it so special, and most important, I know he takes the role seriously.
At the end of the day, he’s just another regular guy in a yellow jumpsuit – not so different from you and me. I’m excited to see what he can bring to the next hundred episodes of “Mystery Science Theater,” until it’s time to hand his jumpsuit over to someone else.
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If Joel gave his seal of approval for this guy,then we must respect that.I mean he chose Mike when he left the show..The reboot hasn’t even started yet and people are complaining already…As long as the reboot has the same spirit and same humor as the original then I’m in…I was kind of skeptical about Incognito Cinema Warriors at first,but I’m a fan of it and look forward to each new release…..Besides,has anyone seen the fan made versions of MST3K?
I feel like people are generally receptive. I’m excited!
Glad to see I’m not alone in getting that feeling, definitely a pajama boy thing going on with “project disappointment”.
Yes, and I thought Mystery Fandom Theater came the closest to nailing the spirit of the show. :-)
Okay, I’m going to say it…I’m enjoying the panicky and negative comments. I like that people already know how it’s going to turn out. Without the negative comments, all this would be too feely-goody. A healthy dose of doom and gloom is always welcomed. I luv it. No sarcasm here, either. I am having fun reading all the comments but enjoy the naysayers the best. And they might be right. Then again, the positivies might be right too. Or it could be somewhere in the middle, a boring, plodding mess.
Negativies and Positivies, keep lighting up the Comments board!!!!!! Wahhh-sahhhhhhhhh twadoooooohhhh!!!
You know that Joel was pretty much the “Internet Hipster Nerd” before there was an Internet, right? I mean, when he started MST3K he was pretty much doing the exact same thing that Day, Wheaton, et al were doing, leveraging his minor fame as a comedian into a quirky geeky indie series that did lots of nerdy humor. The only difference is that back then it was local UHF television instead of YouTube.
I think that people are really jumping the gun if they decide to hate the new series based on the casting announcements.
I knew I had seen Jonah Ray before!
Season 2, episode 11 of “Maron” (available on Netflix), he plays the record store owner. Really funny episode, too!
There’s always been a subset of fans who have a hard time accepting change. I guess I got into MST3K at just the right time, a year or so after Joel left and there was plenty of Joel reruns mixed in with the newer Mike eps so I never had a particular attachment to either host.
I’ve always been able to appreciate Joel’s observational style alongside Mike’s more…aggressive? approach and I’ve always viewed it as two sides of the same coin. No one can ever take those iterations of the show away from us, so I’m excited to see what happens next!
My god – your use of rational thought belongs no where near the internet. Take an extreme stance and shout about it a lot. IN CAPITALS!!!!
I keep thinking to myself “Anything they can do can’t possibly as flat and lifeless as much of season 1. Don’t get me wrong, Season 1 has a few highlights, but really there’s a lot of spaces where I just want episodes to end. I think off that bat it will be better than that. The host segments might take a little time to get used to, but there were SO many permutations of the Mads (Forrester/Ehrhart, Forrester/Frank, Forrester/Pearl, Pearl/Bobo/brain Buy in space, Pearl Bobo/Brain Guy in Castle Forrester) that I just don’t know that this will seem that out of place.
Oh – and as I type this we are $8,000 away from the first 3 episodes.
I don’t know who that is.
IT’S OFFICIAL!!! WE GOT MOVIE SIGN!!!!!!!!!!
We’ve got Movie Sign- just passed the $2 million mark.
I have no issue with Jonah Ray, bring on the rest of the new crew!
That is the current problem with Rifftrax, trying to appeal to hipster internet culture hivemind nerds.
I have never watched the Nerdist so I can’t comment on Ray’s abilities.
I don’t know who he is. But I have to admit, love him or hate him, that he fits the silhouette on the Kickstarter page PERFECTLY. You really have to hand it to Joel: that’s amazing; how did he KNOW!?
PS Yellow has two syllables, how well will that fit into the theme song…?
Maybe he’s the Omega Man, watching “Woodstock” in the abandoned theater? :)
I could see “Jonah Heston” being the same geek tribute as “Joel Robinson”.
There have been other I’ve Got a Bad Feeling About This’es on the geek-news sites, but most don’t seem to understand the root of the Joel vs. Jim settlements, or the desire to actually do something in the spirit of the original show.
And do not….EVER….compare a reboot of anything to the New Monkees unless you have seen an episode. (About all of which they shared in common with MST3K was a bitter fight over who had the rights to market the original.)
I saw one once, and I still don’t know what it was exactly that I saw, but it wasn’t Mickey, Davey and Peter. Even the Young Ones was more coherent. :-?
Wow, after reading all the nasty things people have said about Jonah Ray on other comment boards, I want Jonah to succeed that much more to prove all these people wrong. Never heard his podcast, never watched his show, but Joel has worked with this man and is friends with him and thinks he is worthy of the throne. I don’t care how “douchey” they say he comes off and how “hacky” they think his comedy is; Joel’s word is what matters to me. And when you hear him talk about the show on Twitter, you can tell he’s one of us, a fan of this show who will work hard to live up to its standards. The dude cried when they sewed the Gizmonic patch on his jumpsuit–how can you not have your heart warmed by that? All these people flaming him right out of the gate is totally against the MST3K spirit, and I’m relieved to see people here and on the Kickstarter cheering him on and giving him good thoughts.
Considering that Jonah also has two syllables, pretty well.
I don’t think they mentioned the color of Mike’s jumpsuit in his version of the theme song.
I kind of want my money back. I hope Crow and Servo tie him down and give him a good shave.
I don’t know Jonah Ray. Apparently a lot of people are angry about his selection.
I haven’t seen independent confirmation of Felicia Day, but I’ve seen her rumored pretty much from the moment the Kickstarter started.
Not only do I like Felicia Day, I also think there’s a practical consideration here: nobody knows more about starting a cult show on the Internet on a shoestring budget than she does. Those of you groaning about how she’s just an “Internet Celebrity” — well, she’s an Internet Celebrity because she launched a successful original cult TV series on the Internet, without any major studio support. Does that maybe sound like somebody you might want in your corner if you were trying to, say, relaunch a successful cult TV series on the Internet without any major studio support?
I don’t know why I’m surprised by all the negativity. This is the Internet; people are always going to be mad about something.
I think a bit of it is that people wanted the old group back together making episodes. I know a lot of people on here have stated they don’t want to see that but I think a lot of us deep down would love to see the old crew back together making episodes.
With that said I don’t really know Jonah and I’m not sure how much I will like the new episodes, I hope they can at least get several of the old crew back for writing just to help. I wonder if any of them have the musical skills like Mike and Kevin as those two were responsible for a lot of the songs on the original series. Again, I’ll wait and see how the episodes come out, maybe we can have another long run of MST3K.
To all the naysayers, need I remind you of the vitriol aimed at one Mike Nelson when he took over for Joel?
Quite simply, I trust Joel and his love for the show he created WAY more than I do your unfounded cynicism.
No matter how this guy is as a host, I’m glad the show is going to have real sets again.
I get the sense that a lot of folks ragging on Jonah as an Internet personality haven’t really seen much of his work. He’s a solid, in unspectacular, stand up comic (but look up his bit on playing truth or dare with Courtney Love–it’s amazing) and a fantastic host for The Meltdown. You get a pretty good sense of that from the Comedy Central show of the same name, but while watching The Meltdown in person and seeing the whole show and enjoying Jonah’s goofy charm, I actually thought, while watching, how he’d make a pretty good new-Joel (and this was back in June!)
I really think he’s perfect for this part.
Now that we’re certain the new MST3K will be funded, it raises an interesting question for Satellite News: will the episodes of the new show get their own entries in the Episode Guide, or will that remain limited to the original show?
Well, okay, but that was never gonna happen. (Not once Rifftrax got rolling, anyway.) People being mad at reality for not matching their fantasy are kinda lacking in perspective.
I’d love to see everybody from the old show come back and do the new show too. I’d also like a Ferrari and a date with Natalie Portman. Curse this Kickstarter for not giving me any of those things.
If not, don’t worry, I’m sure someone will be along to demonstrate any minute.
Someone I know who listens to the Nerdist says Jonah’s funny. So I’m becoming more confident about this now.
I’ve listened to Jonah Ray on various podcasts, like The Nerdist, and found him to be funny and geek-friendly. I think it’s a good choice! Of course it will take some getting used to, like when Trace left and Bill took over Crow, but I ended up loving the new Crow. BTW, to all the people freaking out, he will be ACTING! The host is a character. He will be saying lines and doing host segments written by himself and other people, it’s not really Jonah Ray. Like ‘Joel Robinson’ was an alter ego of the real Joel. I’m going to be optimistic and wait for the shows to come out before I judge them.
I met Jonah Ray back in 2000 while he was a student(I think) at U of H and I was stationed at Schofield Barracks. We were both in bands that were part of Honolulu’s rock/punk/whatever scene at the time. He was my favorite drummer in town. He hosted a radio show that broadcasted live shows of bands from said scene, and asked if I enjoyed being a haole during our band’s time on the show. MST never came up – in hindsight, it’s too bad. I had dozens of tapes at the time…
We still have mutual friends, and everyone is happy for him, including me – but I’m unimpressed with everything but the profitability of his Nerdist, stand up, and tv work. Frankly, I’m partial to the post-boomer sensibilities of the original crew. I have my doubts those sensibilities will survive this new cast and writer’s room. But that’s what MST was for me – an attachment to the world of my parents and older peers that I vaguely knew and wanted to better understand. I still get a reasonable amount of that from Mike/Kevin/Bill. I’ll pay, and I’ll watch, and I’ll show my kids in the hope it will continue to sustain their interest in the main body of Joel/Mike’s work – but the leftie in me just wanted everybody to get a little piece of the pie from the old days. That group of people was special, and it doesn’t feel right to me without them.
But I’m taking my oldest daughter to see Santa & The Ice Cream Bunny at the Belcourt, so I’ve got that going for me.
Well, I’ve never seen a podcast in my life, nor have I ever heard of this guy. But if he’s good enough for Joel, that’s good enough for me.
“Open the podcast door, Hal! I want to do some pod racing with the pod people!”
…Yeeeessss???
(In answer to your question, no, you have no need to remind me.)
Although that was back in the first S5 when all we knew was that he was filling in as playing the character of That Nice Amiable Chuckleheaded Minimum-Wage Chap Who Got Sent to the Satellite Instead. (Maybe he can do substitute Invention Exchanges too!)
Which, although we can be excused for our naivety, was like thinking Andy Kaufman could play funny lovable immigrants, or that Adam Sandler could play a nice cheery family man in James L. Brooks comedies….
Personally never had a issue when Mike Nelson took over from Joel but just worried more about who will be writing for the show. I fear the references are going to suck without the old team.
I just realized why Jonah’s jumpsuit is to be yellow.
Joel was red, Mike was blue, and Jonah is yellow…… red, blue, and yellow are the three primary colors.
What the heck are you talking about? Bizarre post, even for you.
Well, y’see, I didn’t quite follow your post, it sounded like you were saying “Aw, c’mon, let’s not be judgmental–After all, remember when we thought Mike taking over was a bad thing?”
When was it NOT A BAD THING?? That was way back when we thought, don’t worry, it’ll turn out okay.
(Which is why we have to be careful this time, and make sure Joel picked someone who actually understands the principle of comedy, as opposed to snide self-indulgence. I’m……….pretty good so far on Jonah, but I’ll have to hear more of his off-show material.
After all, we didn’t think Mike would be so bad at first–“Look how well he plays the CHARACTER!”)
I love how EricJ writes “we” in his posts like his spiteful thoughts are indicative of MSTies at large.
“…And then WE strut like Yul Brynner in ‘The Kind And I’!”
Okay, while I strongly disagree with your premise and the fact that the show ran for 5 more seasons with Mike undermines your argument, I at least can follow what you were trying to say. Mike is beloved. I prefer Joel, always have….but, I love Mike too as clearly do most MSTies.
It seems pretty clear now that the Kickstarter money is needed to meet the costs of the LA talent involved. “Cow-town puppet show” this ain’t.
I don’t know about that. If you look at the money breakdown, the per-episode budge is very modest. It’s less than the per-episode budget of the 70’s version of Battlestar Galactica, and that’s just the raw numbers, without even considering inflation.
Are the Mads going to return?
Podcasts have to be seen to be believed. My god, they’re full of stars!
Maybe “we” refers to the Mads in his head?
Will new bots be added? Same premise?
Look, this whole thing was busted when Jeff Gerstmann wasn’t tapped for this role.
…I’m kidding! (Mostly!)
I’m very happy to trust Joel on the casting.
I don’t get it. You act like $250,000 per episode is this MASSIVE amount of money. That also includes the rights to the movies, which will actually probably cost more than back in the day. What do you think this “LA Talent” is going to be making per episode. $5000 at most? Yeah, big money. Clearly Jonah Ray is just looking at this as a massive payday so he can buy an island next to Johnny Depp and RDJ.