$6.3 Million goal has been reached and FOURTEEN new episodes are coming!
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#BringBackMST3K Kickstarter Tracker
704 Replies to “#BringBackMST3K Kickstarter Tracker”Commenting at Satellite News
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@Thad
Yeah, that doesn’t surprise me. He loved his time with the show but he’s moved on which is what he has said before, little chance that stance has changed.
I love what he says in that interview about how puppets can get away with seeming quite intelligent to us one moment then just being complete idiots and “farting” the next, haha
Current KS total’s around $3.9M, and as of yesterday there’s $250K in Additional Rewards. That makes a total of $4.15M. That doesn’t include any Additional Rewards added since the last update.
So we’ve already passed the $4.07M challenge (meaning there will be a second T-shirt design) and there’s a good possibility of hitting $4.18M (the double-sided poster) by tomorrow morning. Hitting $4.29M by then is a tall order; Joel’s update would have to have something pretty exciting in it (and post pretty soon!).
We’ve got, what, 45 minutes before they start running tonight’s episodes? We’ll see if that gooses the pledges any.
I see a lot of talk about how if the total doesn’t get quite high enough, we won’t get the full amount of episodes that Joel was talking about, and we’ll have to settle with less episodes. I’m going to guess this sentiment will be rather unpopular around here, but perhaps since the fans have given Joel almost $4 million, let me say that again, the fans have GIVEN FOR FREE to Joel almost $4 MILLION, perhaps he can find a way to cover the rest, or use the income that starts rolling in from the earlier episodes to fund the last few?
Well, we’ll see. Maybe Shout will come up with enough money from sales to bridge the gap, and choose to do so. But they’ve already contributed quite a bit (keep in mind that, if all profits from the 6 free episode downloads at the $35 tier, and all the episode downloads in Additional Rewards, are going to fund new episodes, then Shout is effectively giving them away without taking its usual cut). Maybe they’ll extend the mst3k.com sales and continue to bring in more money after the Kickstarter ends, and make it to $5.5M before they start shooting. There are still plenty of things that can happen.
But, if we only get 9 episodes, that’s fine too. Remember that the idea is to produce a season, gauge fan interest and profitability, and then sell it to a network (whether that’s cable TV, Netflix, or whoever remains to be seen).
The advantage of taking money through the Kickstarter instead of from a network is that it gives total creative control to the people making the show, and we shouldn’t have to deal with any of the silly network interference that we got in the Sci-Fi era. Now, it’s quite possible that a provider will pick up the show for another season and will be similarly hands-off; I don’t think Netflix is likely to send too many script notes.
But we’ll see.
I think you’re right that there are potential funding sources beyond the end of the Kickstarter. Time will tell.
No update yet and I don’t even see a link indicating where to watch the streaming episodes and when. I took a stab in the dark and found that they’re running Blood Waters of Dr. Z on pluto.tv right now, but if this is going to get anybody’s attention and bring in any additional pledges, they’re going to have to advertise it a whole lot better than this.
Excellent points! Thanks for the post, it certainly gives me some things to think about, and brings up some things I wasn’t aware of.
Or apparently the double-feature isn’t the same thing as what’s running on Pluto, and it’s at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CB09ZefcMCw and doesn’t appear to have started yet. Yeesh, this is all so confusing.
Pluto TV has an online channel that has permission to air select MST3K episodes. As you’ve concluded, that’s NOT the marathon.
It’s started, by the way. First episode is “Pod People”.
Does anyone have a list of every episode that aired in the 2013, 2014, and 2015 marathons?
Wow! Big jump since the streaming episodes started; today’s up over $104K now, not including AR.
I don’t have 2013’s offhand. (I know Final Sacrifice was in there somewhere.) But 2014’s were:
Sinbad
Giant Spider Invasion
Lost Continent
Laserblast
Pod People
Pumaman
This year’s were:
Outlaw of Gor
Eegah
Gorgo
Teenagers from Outer Space
Danger! Death Ray
Santa Claus Conquers the Martians
2013 was 820-Space Mutiny 507-I Accuse my Parents 904-Werewolf 301-Cave Dwellers 910-Final Sacrifice 512-Mitchell
So last night was Pod People and Werewolf. Two great episodes of course, but feels a bit “been there”, however I guess they are still hoping to reel in new fans. I wonder if we are just going to see repeats from the 2013 and 2014 Turkey Days.
Supposedly Friday is Joel’s two favorite episodes: So I am picking “I Accuse My Parents” and “Final Sacrifice” as the two he’ll show on Friday. I’ve told my wife we are watching Friday – though I am not sure I will be following along the other days. They are unlikely to be selling me anything more. I went to the $300 level when Patton Oswalt signed on, and that is where I shall stay…that’s already more money than I should be putting up.
Kickstarter campaigns typically experience most of their activity the first few days, and then the last 72 hours. Everything since the initial tail off and now has been attempts to keep momentum going – Joel’s motivation for getting as close to $4.4mil by 8am PST this morning is counting on that natural scramble at the end, so if he basically gets it within $4.4-$4.5 before the 72 hour mark, past campaigns indicate its likely they’ll successfully hit the end goal.
Not sure if that will happen (in the scheme of things, its actually pretty close when you count the addons) so hopefully they will be amenable to making 10 or 11 episodes if they don’t quite make it to the funding for 12. They will hit the goal for 9 EASILY, likely within the next 24 hours.
I will take a moment to point out that there is a very good (not perfect – we’re working on that) MST3K wiki at http://mst3k.wikia.com. We have all sorts of info there, such as lists of the Turkey Day episodes…
@Thad re “challenge” hair-splitting.
Touche.
Or, as old timey radio programs taught me the meaning of touche is “you got me, pal.” I guess I’m the turkey in that challenge.
As far as the traditional MST3K season of 24 or 13 episodes, I think TV is moving beyond that. The first season of Twilight Zone had 39 episodes. The most popular sitcoms today still make about 24 episodes, but more are at 13. It’s Always Sunny and South Park do 10 episode seasons.
I think once we get past 4.4 million, the remaining stretch goals will be modified for each single episode, 10 eps at 4.76 million, and so on. It seems likely with a last week surge that we will get to that 10 episode level.
That should not feel like a failure. It’s essentially the new normal in TV production. In Seasons 3-6 we were blessed with quantity AND quality. Now, I’d be content if they nail down the QUALITY. Make 10 super strong episodes, rather than 20 middling episodes with 4 stand-outs.
That’s all I have to say about that.
Which is what I was getting at when I asked “Wait, what episodes aired in marathons the last couple years?” Starting to look like this may be a week of repeats.
Kind of a bummer.
There’s NO WAY that not making it to $5.5 million should feel like a failure. From the moment we passed $2.2 million less than a week in this campaign was a success. Whether we get to $4.6 mil or $4.9 mil or even $5.5 mil is hardly enough difference to matter. The fans I think have spoken enough to the tune of 32,000 fans and $4.0+ million. That’s not a HUGE base, but I am sure they can figure what % of people that watch the show would actually donate. There are plenty of platforms out there where a show with 200,000+ viewers is plenty – and the fact that the show is relatively inexpensive to produce. (Remember that even the cheapest hour long productions are spending $1 – $2 million PER EPISODE.)
I am well convinced we will get more than 9 or 10 new episodes. How long it’ll last who can say, but I am sure someone will take it forward.
I still feel like the end goal is going to be tough, but given that yesterday passed $122K and today’s already closing in on $30K and I just woke up (and that’s not including the Additional Rewards), it’s starting to feel achievable. I don’t know if we hit $4.4M before 8 AM, but I expect we’ll be there before midnight at this rate. $1M over the last 3 days feels like pie-in-the-sky stuff, but yesterday was a huge jump already and today’s likely to be bigger. An average $330K/day over 3 days isn’t impossible. And Joel’s got some dynamite guests lined up for Friday’s telethon.
I definitely think they should. Joel made a comment early on to the effect that groups of 3 were easier to budget; I’m not sure why that is but TV series do seem to fall into specific season sizes (6, 10, 13, 15, 22, 24, 26 all seem pretty common).
It certainly makes sense that 1/3 of the budget for 3 episodes should make 1 episode, but I guess you never know.
And it bears adding that whatever surplus they’ve got isn’t going to be apparent until all the pledges and rewards are broken down. Kickstarter takes a cut of Kickstarter pledges; the credit card companies take a cut of both Kickstarter pledges and Additional Rewards; physical goods come with a cost attached, while digital ones don’t. If you buy, say, a T-shirt, I don’t know how much of that $30 winds up going toward new episodes, how much goes to buying and printing the shirt, and how much goes to Paypal or whoever’s processing the payment. (Does the campaign get the same amount of money from a $30 T-shirt purchase on the Add-Ons site as the $50 reward level on Kickstarter? I don’t know, but if it does, then that would mean money going into the Add-Ons site is worth substantially more than money going toward the Kickstarter.) Joel supplied a breakdown way back in Update #2, but by necessity it’s a rough estimate.
No worries, and sorry, I was probably ruder about it than I needed to be.
Yeah, there’s a pretty big difference between network TV and cable, too. 10 episodes is an increasingly respectable number for a cable TV season.
And of course an MST3K episode is twice as long as a typical drama episode, and four times as long as a typical sitcom episode.
Again, somebody asked Joel about that early on and he said he’d look into it but people on the production side were saying groups of 3 were the way to go. BUT I wouldn’t be surprised if that changed in the final days of the campaign. Splitting the last million into three tiers is probably a better motivator; people are likelier to pledge when there’s a goal that’s just out of reach than one that’s a long way off.
And of course response to the episodes they make (both critical and financial, but mostly financial) will be important in determining whether the show gets picked up — and, if so, how many episodes season 12 will be. But that’s getting way ahead of ourselves…
So – really negative tweet from @frankconiff today when asked about whether Joel would appear on his show with John Fugelsang
“His interest in being on our show is about the same as his interest in having MST3K cast be part of the reboot.”
OUCH!
This only a day after Trace said he was offered a significant amount to come back to the show but decided to decline.
I really thought that we would see some of the old cast come back along the way, but it looks like Joels lack of transparency up-front on the re-start has hurt those chances. It’s quite possible that those that *might* have come back were feeling wronged by the long-term lack of any compensation and then in addition to them not being asked in advance. I don’t know whether to feel like we should question Joel’s sincerity in asking folks to come back – I feel like doing that is wrong based on the occasional twitter comment. It does make me wonder at the “doing this all for the fans” way Joel is coming across during this whole time. There’s little doubt in my mind that Joel stands to make a good chunk of money if MST3K is revived, probably more than he ever made on the original show.
However – the creators of a show typically see more from a show lasting past its demise than the principle cast. Look at Seinfeld. You can’t argue with me that any of those main 3 (Alexander, Louis-Dreyfus,and Richards) have anything to gripe about. Yet when Seinfeld re-sold the syndication rights for like a billion dollars a few years ago, you heard grumblings about how those 3 principles didn’t see a dime of that. It’s just how it works. It’s not like Joel is rolling in dough from MST3K residuals. So, I never really understood the complaints from the former cast about this.
I guess while early on I wanted to see them come back, after 25 days of this I am just beyond that and am happy with the idea of a new cast/staff of writers giving me new stuff. I’m know others here get angered by this, though.
Yeah, the Frank and Trace tweets bummed me out. I was holding out hope for just one throwback episode with Joel, Trace, and Frank in their original roles. They could have used some kind of wormhole/bizarro logic to make it work, lol. Oh well.
It is sad when a show or movie makes someone a household name (or at least more known that they were before the film came out) and then when asked to do a cameo or interview about it, they turn their noses up, or act like they’re too good to do it. Happens way too often. It’s always sad to see a movie come out on DVD or bluray & they have a making of documentary & everyone comes back for it but the main star or stars.
Now I’m not saying this is true of the MST cast, but they act like they really sound like they hate the show now. I think Joel is extending an olive branch. Shout is letting Rifftrax release episodes for download so they make a few extra bucks now. Jim Mallon apparently didn’t do that when he owned the rights.
Joel, Frank & Trace returned to their roles when they released The Giant Gila Monster on DVD. That wasn’t too long ago, was it?
Perhaps there was a falling out over Cinematic Titanic.
Something tells me if the old cast were sleeping in a cardboard box on the side of the road they would be turning their back on that old “Cow town puppet show” they used to work on.
@skierpete: Frank actually said in that Wired story last year that the lack of profit participation never bothered him, but as far as I know he’s the only one who’s said that.
I’ve got pretty strong opinions about creators’ rights. I believe creators should receive profit participation in their projects (that could mean royalties, it could mean an occasional bonus; it could mean a lot of things, but it should be something). I think you’re right that the money Joel, Jim, and Shout have gotten from the show’s continued success hasn’t been huge, and if the other cast members had received a percentage of that it wouldn’t have come out to much money — but I also don’t think that matters. To me it’s a matter of principle. Which is why we should all applaud Rifftrax for sharing their MST3K profits with all the principals from the show: they don’t have to do that, and it probably doesn’t amount to very much money anyway, but it’s the right thing to do.
That said, since Frank’s previously said that he didn’t have any problem with his lack of profit participation, I don’t think that’s likely to be his reason for not coming back (though it could, of course, be other folks’). I think you’re probably right that Joel’s lack of communication with the old cast as he got the ball rolling on this is to blame; I think that from his perspective it was reasonable to wait to talk to the old group until he had funding firmly in place and an offer to make, but I can also understand how, from their perspective, he cut them out of the loop and has seemed much less interested in their participation than he has publicly presented himself to be. I’m not saying anybody’s right or wrong or the good guy or the bad guy here, just that different people have different perspectives.
MEANWHILE, there’s a new update, which says they’re extending the Red Zone goal through 10AM PST tomorrow. I think it’s got a good chance of happening. Joel’s update says Add-On Rewards were at $255K at the time of his posting, which puts us around $4.27 right now. Another $130K by tomorrow morning is definitely possible. We’re already at $50K for today, which means today has more momentum than yesterday did and is likely to clear yesterday’s total. Final-days hype and the streaming episodes seem to be helping the numbers. If today closes out around $150K (or $80K more than what we’ve currently got), then that means it has to pull in $50K by tomorrow at 10AM PST/1PM EST. I think the 10AM deadline is going to be close, but I also think it’s all but certain that we’ll hit $4.4M at some point tomorrow.
And, something to keep in mind: remember how I said we’d see on Tuesday how close my predictions were? Well, here we are on Tuesday, and all my predictions were low. Not one of my predictions showed us getting to $4.4M before the last two days of the campaign; my most optimistic estimate was that, by the end of tomorrow, we’d be at $4.24M. We’ve already passed that mark.
I’m still not going to put money on getting to $5.5M, but it’s starting to seem achievable, while $4.4M is basically guaranteed.
MEANWHILE, the Rifftrax reward that’s being added if we hit the Red Zone by tomorrow morning is a downloadable short (they haven’t said which one), for all backers. It’s not much, but it’s a nice addition.
Other new things: he’s shared the design of the Tom and Crow memory sticks, and there’s also going to be a documentary about the Kickstarter, which will be part of the Collector’s Box Set of season 11.
And one final tease:
I don’t think that’s a really accurate description. Here’s what Frank said last week:
He’s not saying the new show is going to be bad; he’s clearly saying just the opposite. If he’s not involved, it’s not because he “hates the show now”; it’s some other reason.
And here’s what Kevin said in that Diffuser interview I’ve linked a few times:
Kevin doesn’t “hate the show now” either; he’s very happy with what he did during those years, but they’re in the past and he’s doing something different now and he thinks it would be a mistake for him to go back and do the same thing he was doing back in the 1990’s.
Stars are in no way obligated to go back to a show they used to do. It’s not about hating it, or looking down on it, turning their noses up, thinking they’re too good for it, etc. — it’s just that they’re doing other stuff now.
Let me put it to you this way: what was your job in 1999, or 1996, or 1995? If someone asked you to go back and do that job again, would you do it? Would you do it if it meant you had to drop what you were currently working on and fly out to LA?
I’ll tell you right now, there are very few jobs I’ve done that, if my old boss called me up and asked me to come back, I would be willing to go back to. That’s not because I hated them or think I’m too good for them (well…okay, in a couple of cases it is), it’s just because I’m in a different place in my life and my career now.
Man, that negative tweet from Frank skierpete posted in # 368 is really disheartening. You can’t use the old line of “bad blood and a falling out is just impolite fan speculation” this time, because Frank kind of blew it wide open. People who have wished the reboot well: Mary Jo “My friend Joel is doing the MST3K reboot but I am not a part of it.” Josh has wished the reboot well many times, even recently said “It has my blessing,” said he’s not involved because he’s working on a couple of docs, Josh also semi-regularly retweets the reboot hashtag. Mike and Bill have said they’re simply not involved due to their work with RT, have wished the reboot well, Bill even stumped during the Turkey Day marathon, no comment from Kevin (unless someone can clarify). But so far Frank and Trace seem to be making it pretty clear from their ends at least they’re not happy with how the reboot has been handled. Makes you wonder what happened these last few years after they all seemed to gel so well on CT.
“This only a day after Trace said he was offered a significant amount to come back to the show but decided to decline.”
Wow. :/
I’ve said it before, but I think it’s worth repeating: some of the original cast may be sore right now over the reboot and the way it’s being handled, but we should remember that this is their problem and not ours, and it needn’t cast a shadow over our enthusiasm for the new MST3K. As Thad says in #371, it’s very likely that there are no “good guys” or “bad guys” here, just people with different perspectives and expectations.
These negative tweets mostly seem to come in response to repeated questions from fans about the reboot and the original cast’s involvement in it, so perhaps the best thing that we (collectively) can do is to stop rubbing salt in the wounds, and to allow whatever issues there may be to work themselves out in time. Instead, let the enthusiasm for the new show build on itself, and generate the pledges that Joel needs to get the new show off the ground in a big way, without injecting negativity over issues that aren’t any of our business and that we have no control over anyway.
“This only a day after Trace said he was offered a significant amount to come back to the show but decided to decline.”
Where is this? Did he say this over his twitter account or in an interview?
I believe he said it in a radio interview.
Exactly! And that’s the reason why, even if all of the MST3K alumni somehow agreed to get back together again, and even if they went back to Eden Prairie again and got their old production space back and hired the old crew and bought back the original props and set pieces and equipment that were sold off in 1999, and put it all back together again so that everything tangible about the show could be exactly the same as it was … it still wouldn’t be the same show we remember, because it’s a different time and the people involved are in a different place in their lives, too. So those who use the old “it’s gotta be just what I remember or I don’t want it!” or “it’s gotta be the same crew again or it can’t be good!” excuses for not supporting the new MST3K are being unreasonable, because they are expecting the impossible.
Frank was very complimentary of the revival’s “new TV’s Frank” in an earlier tweet. And, as has been pointed out, we can’t dictate how others will react. Frank’s perspective on how much interest Joel has in the original cast doesn’t necessarily reflect Joel’s actual interest, merely his point of view. I agree that people should stop asking them about it and see where it all goes.
Agree with what others said above: Could people please, PLEASE, stop tweeting Trace and Frank asking about MST3K and Joel? Let them all work it out behind the scenes. Geez, the problems with this stupid internet age that we live in…
And Captain Cab, Frank said in a thread here on MST3Kinfo.com just last week: “I’m certain the new MST3K crew is going to kick ass, all Mysties should be excited about it, but please don’t think that means that older people are not of any use anymore.”
So add Frank into the category of “wishing them well” alongside Josh, Mary Jo, etc.
I love Frank.
That is all.
At least you’re frank about it
Who ever does come back, it will end up being the right combination of talent. That’s just how this stuff works out. And besides, most past alumnus is clearly busy with their own projects (Rifftrax, SiriusXM radio, an entirely different puppet show funded by Kickstarter…). It’s not easy to work 3 or 4 jobs!
If the relaunch lasts long enough, who knows what cameos could happen down the line.
@FrankConniff His interest in being on our show is about the same as his interest in having MST3K cast be part of the reboot.
https://twitter.com/FrankConniff/status/674281047379550214
So, where are all the experts who claimed we would get at best 6 episodes, but probably only 3?
Since there will 100 PERCENT FOR SURE be 9 new episodes minimum, I would like to know …
Where are all the “I am an expert fanboy on everything Kickstarter because I’ve been involved in so many pledge drives before” jackasses?
Those who made me vomit so early on?
Yeah. I stand by my earlier comments that we shouldn’t infer anything that people haven’t stated explicitly, but…that’s pretty unambiguous, all right; Trace and Frank are unhappy, and I’m sorry to hear that.
Even then, Trace has said “Wish them well” and, as noted elsewhere in the conversation, Frank praised the new cast and said people should be excited. Whatever personal disagreements they may have, they’re being pretty magnanimous about the show itself.
True, but I’d add that it’s okay if you feel that way, too. I’m still excited about the new show, but I’m disappointed and a little sad to hear that there are disagreements and hard feelings. I hope that someday they’ll all get worked out.
I’d sure like to see the full quote in context too, but it doesn’t look like it’s online. Hopefully someone will provide a link if/when it becomes available.
I don’t think there’s any need for the “I told you so” game. Lots of people made predictions that turned out to be inaccurate, myself included; I’m delighted my numbers were low.
Another prediction that turned out to be wrong: no, the double-features aren’t all episodes from the last few Turkey Days; tonight was Wild World of Batwoman and Catalina Caper. Looks like there are still some surprises after all.
Other thoughts at the moment: it’s getting late (10:30ish on the east coast) and, while today’s had a good showing (approaching $100K so far), I don’t think it’s going to be enough to get us to the Red Zone by 10AM PST, unless there’s been a lot more money in the Add-Ons than I suspect, or if there are some big west-coast donations still yet to come in in the next 15 hours. Both of which are possible.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Joel fudged it a little bit if we were at, say, $4.38M at the deadline and still counted it if we got to $4.4M shortly after. Which is very possible; I still think it’s a veritable certainty that we’ll hit the Red Zone tomorrow.
$5.5M is still a longshot, but I’m more inclined to believe it now than I was a couple of days ago. The last few days’ worth of pledges have certainly exceeded my expectations.
I’m thinking we end up between $4.8 and $5.0 when all is said and done, which is pretty impressive when you think about it. I still wonder if they would go to 10 or 11 episodes if it gets into that range. (I could easily see them breaking it down by $350K by the end.
$17,000 just dropped off…
Actually, pretty sure that was $25k. It was at $4,095,000 or so when it happened. Hopefully someone will pick up that $25k slot that opened up before the deadline tomorrow…
Wow, yeah, just saw that. That’s unfortunate. (Unless, I guess, some high-dollar donor decided to cut out the middleman and give the money to Joel directly? It’s what I’d do if I had that kind of dough to contribute, since that would mean all the money goes straight to the show with no Kickstarter/Paypal overhead. Not saying that’s what happened, though; just that I hope it’s something like that.)
Still pretty likely to hit $4.4M tomorrow, though. Too bad to see a big donation drop off like that, but it happens.
Yeah, that $25K loss hurt, but we’re already within $2.7K of being back in the black. I increased my pledge to help fill the gap, and we’ve attracted a surprising number of new backers for such a late hour. I’m sure the repeat of tonight’s Double Feature helped to bring in more people.
In any case, we should be back where we were within the next hour; my only concern is whether the loss slowed us down enough to put the next goal ($4.4M by 10:00AM PST) out of reach. Hopefully another generous MSTie will pick up the Executive Producer slot that was vacated.
Frank and Trace do appear to be the only two people that feel a bit put off. And until post #368 I would have said it was only Trace.
The disconnect here sure seems to be Joel’s lack of communication. Okay he can’t make an offer until Kickstarter is over and budgets are set. That seems perfectly plausible. But I still don’t think it excuses his (apparent) lack of direct contact. The easy thing to do in order to avoid misunderstanding is to contact everyone BEFORE the Kickstarter is announced. All he had to do is say I’m intending to put this out there. I can’t offer anything yet but intend to once I know what kind of budget I have to work with.
All I’m saying here is the classic cast shouldn’t be getting their news through Kickstarter updates. That’s fine for fans but not cool for former comrades in arms. We aren’t talking about that many phones calls here. He should have taken the time to make them. A heads up to those people would have been a good courtesy and likely would have avoided the perceived ruffled feathers.
So – I wanted to comment on last night’s movies after deriding the choices for the first night as being a little too safe. I have to say I really like where Joel went last night – going with “comedies”.
I put that in quotes because his first choice – Wild World of Batwoman was not an obvious choice but it was an interesting one. That’s one F&%&ed-up movie, and calling it a “comedy” may have been the intention but really it is so completely not funny I can’t believe it. Actually I don’t know that it’s a great movie to bring in new fans, but it certainly is one that probably a lot of people haven’t seen. It’s also interesting that it is not released in any of the collections, though it has been released as a single from Shout Factory.
The second choice “Catalina Caper” was I think absolutely brilliant. Even though it was a very early episode (204) it’s actually a strong episode from that season, an entertaining enough movie, even though again the “comedy” isn’t all that funny, and has some great sketches. One maybe a lot of casual fans (are there casual fans of this show??) haven’t seen since it’s been out of print for a while except for the recent Volume 1 re-issue. (I noticed on the chat comments on Youtube a lot of people were saying “What is this movie?” so I don’t think a lot of people recognized it.)
Anyways, just saying I generally liked the choices last night and it makes me look forward to what Joel’s going put up tonight and tomorrow. (Can I suggest a Tor Johnson double feature of “Bride of the Monster” and “Beast of Yucca Flats”.)
I agree with what you say. Frank seems to me to have gotten ruffled by the Patton Oswalt announcement as TV’s Son of TV’s Frank. Before that he seemed pretty magnanimous, but when that came out he tweeted (and this isn’t an exact quote) about how he was the last to know about it.
I get the feeling from Trace’s recent radio comments and some of Joel’s comments that only recently did Joel start reaching out to people, and it may well be that this DID rub them the wrong way. As I said, it’s hard to subscribe motives to the various folks involved, but I wonder if after some time there will be a point where guys like Frank and Trace who are cool on the idea will warm up to it for at least a cameo or help write an episode or something.
When reading yesterday’s update where Joel explicitly made statements like “another BIG update coming this afternoon”, did anyone else think, as I did, “Nope. No way he follows through on that.”? Because every time he has hinted at more information forthcoming at a certain time, he hasn’t delivered. This time he promised, another update would be happening in the afternoon. I’m sure it’s coming today, but why even bother throwing something like that out there if you don’t know that you’re going to do it? It’s a small thing, and it doesn’t change that I’m very excited for all that’s happening and have a decent amount of cash in for it, but I just find it perturbing on a personal level when someone makes a statement like “I will get back to you at x time.”….and then does not even come close, repeat scenario multiple times. It wears on my trust strings.
So we’re now at least at $4.38M (could be more depending on what the add-on numbers since yesterday have been). I’m thinking even if we don’t quite hit another $20K in the next hour forty-five, he’s still going to count it as close enough.
Agreed on all points. This is probably the most balanced and well rounded take on the dust up between Joel, Frank and Trace.
We’re so close to 4.4 million! I just got a couple extra add-ons to try and help push us over the top. If there’s been at least 9k in add-ons since Joel’s last update then the goal has been reached!
Trace and Frank don’t have to respond to any questions they don’t want to on Twitter. How are their answers which they have chosen to give of their own accord the fans’ fault? Are the fans who asked the questions supposed to apologize to folks in here that Trace and Frank have given some responses regarding their lack of involvement which aren’t fun to hear? Any way you cut it, Frank’s words quoted above clearly indicate that while Joel says everyone is welcome back, Frank does not feel that way currently. Yes, Frank has been very gracious of the new cast and has wished the reboot well and so has Trace, that’s not the point. Obviously Trace and Frank have been very magnanimous and supportive of the new cast. That’s a different subject. What did Frank say how he feels regarding the *old cast* being reached out to? Let’s read it again:
““His interest in being on our show is about the same as his interest in having MST3K cast be part of the reboot.”
Also, someone on the MST3K Discussuion forum (what happened to the “MST3K Review” front page? That site had somne great interviews and content) posted the source for Trace’s comments on turning down an offer to return:
“For those interested, Trace Beaulieu did an interview tonight with Radio of Horror. It was about an hour long and covered a variety of topics, but at one point he was asked about the reboot. He said that he received a “very nice offer” to appear on the show, but that he turned it down. He did not elaborate on why he turned down Joel/Shout’s offer. He was then asked about the new cast, and he said that there are some folks who think that he wishes ill will, but he said that is not the case, and that he wishes the new cast all the best. He talked a little about Felicia Day and mentioned that he liked Jonah Heston. He sounded very polite, the interviewers moved on, and the reboot was not brought up again.”
Any way you cut it, it’s still speculation.
Do we know for certain that Joel is not interested in being on their show? How do we know what Frank “feels” based on a disembodied text? Just because people perceive something a certain way doesn’t make it so.
“He asked his disciples, saying unto them, Whom do men say that I am? And they answered, John the Baptist: but some say, Elias; and others, One of the prophets. And he saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?”
It’s dangerous to put words into other people’s mouth.
I neither disagree nor agree. I will let your speculation run wild.
I don’t think they’re anybody’s fault, but I do think it’s annoying to have to sift through thousands of tweets about a subject you’re not interested in talking about, and that’s bound to add to whatever frustration they’re feeling. I think “Leave ’em alone, guys; they’ve said what they wanna say and they’re tired of being asked the same questions” is a reasonable sentiment — but I don’t think it’s going to convince a lot of people either, unfortunately.
Thanks so much for the summary and the information; it clarifies things a little bit. Hopefully eventually it’ll appear online, or at least someone will partially transcribe it, but this is the best information I’ve seen about that interview so far.