Comedian Patton Oswalt has agreed to take on the role of Dr. Forrester’s evil henchman. The character will either be a son or clone of TV’s Frank.
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Patton Oswalt Tapped as Evil Henchman
101 Replies to “Patton Oswalt Tapped as Evil Henchman”Commenting at Satellite News
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I still wish the best for the show, but reading former cast comments on Twitter make me feel like maybe Joel could have handled things better. Now I feel kind of icky.
Okay, how’d I do?
And then some. $3.38M at the time of this writing.
Nope; it was about $43K shy of the day Jonah was announced. However, it exceeded Turkey Day and is now the fifth-highest day of the campaign.
Obviously this still remains to be seen. However, the early-morning numbers for 12/1 are already looking solid; it’s around $8,000 now. As a point of contrast, this morning, prior to the announcement of Oswalt’s casting, it was at about $10,000, and that was some 13 hours later in the day.
Of course, while Kicktraq uses east-coast time, it’s only 9:30 PM on the west coast (and only 7:30 PM in Hawaii, for whatever that’s worth), so the numbers we’re getting now are still coming in on the evening of the Oswalt announcement. The 12/1 numbers are bound to be buoyed up by that; I think Wednesday’s numbers are probably going to be more interesting if we’re trying to spot a trend.
Jonah’s announcement was exciting enough in its own right, but I think the big bump we saw on Monday the 16th was also due to suppressed campaign activity over the previous weekend because of the Paris attacks. Joel suspended his announcements for a while, and pledge levels were generally subdued on the 14th and 15th, but they bounced back in a big way by the 16th.
As hard as it is to remember now, we actually started Monday the 30th with something like a ~$2.9K deficit: some party pooper pulled a $4K pledge late on Sunday, and we’d already had another large drop earlier that day. We were able to recover in a few hours despite the usually slow weekend numbers, but after the Patton Oswalt announcement, the campaign was bringing in more money in a few hours than in the entire previous weekend!
Same. It’s a sinking feeling to see Trace, who did as much for the show as anyone, feel left out in all of this.
Given Joel’s recent comments about his own apparently tenuous involvement with this reboot/revival/continuation/whatever, I’m not terribly sure how much responsibility he ever had for lining up the new talent or inviting the original Twin Cities crew to participate. I’d prefer to think that he had stronger lines of communication with people he had been working alongside since the early 80s. The scrambling to assure fans that the original cast had been “invited” to participate made it seem as if he was caught as flatfooted as anyone else outside the loop. If not, that’s a shame.
*PURE CONJECTURE*
Yes! This is awesome news indeed. I was hoping the entire time Patton Oswalt would be involved at some point, he’s top notch and obviously a huge fan. I’m sure he’ll contribute some great riffs in the writing room too.
Congratulations, Patton Oswalt!
Another brilliant move by Joel.
For what it’s worth (which is exactly nothing), I’m excited for the new cast and I’m on board with Joel’s decision to go with new people as a sort of MST3K:TNG. There was room enough in the world for both Cinematic Titanic and RiffTrax, and I’m sure there will be enough for this, too.
I am saddened to see that Trace and Frank seem to have been left out of the loop on a lot of this. It would have been a nice touch if Joel or Patton could have reached out to Frank before the announcement yesterday, but that didn’t happen for whatever reason. On the other hand, Mary Jo and J. Elvis were pretty happy with the news, so I don’t know what to make of it all. Maybe Trace and Frank told Joel a while back that they were considering continuing the Cinematic Titanic-like live shows, so Joel didn’t feel the need to keep them informed? Or maybe there’s a way we can blame this on Jim Mallon? You know what, I like that idea the best — blame anything bad on him. :devil:
I missed it. It seems like he’s really in charge of this, so what makes his involvement tenuous?
I think the thing to keep in mind is that Joel can’t make any kind of real offer until the Kickstarter is over, because he doesn’t know what the budget will be and he doesn’t know what he can afford to pay people. So he can’t go to Trace and Frank directly right now and say, “I want you on board under these terms which are very generous because you’re my good friends,” because right now the money is only Pretend Internet Money. I think that may be the source of any disconnect.
I also think that people are overestimating the disconnect. I read Frank and Trace’s Twitter feed and they both seemed to be saying the same thing: They really want Frank to come back for the new series. (The “You are not alone” seemed to refer to someone who said they wanted Frank back.) Ultimately, these guys are professionals who have worked with Joel for decades now. And Joel and Trace are both Minnesotan, so they’ll probably just smother their hurt feelings under a blanket of passive-aggressive behavior for decades anyway. :)
Strange to see Patton called an “internet celeb” in the same breath as Felicia Day and Jonah Ray.
Patton Oswalt has been in show biz/comedy since MST3K was on Comedy Central. He’s popular in certain Internet circles, but so is MST3K.
Young Patton Oswalt doing Comedy Central Commercial (including bit for MST3k):
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2k738x
I saw The Mads (in Denver) the week the news broke about the reboot. (They were awesome, of course.) After the question and answer session there is no doubt in my mind that there are hard feelings. I don’t blame them. Though not upset by this reboot, what I really want is to see more riffing by the original MST3K alumni. I hope they can work with Mike @ RiffTrax (along the lines of the current Mary Jo & Brigit shorts).
This issue of bad feelings among the MST3K alumni keeps cropping up, and frankly, I’m not sure what Joel can do (or could have done) to prevent that. If you look at Frank’s Twitter feed, for example, he speaks in terms of the old cast “being sent to the glue factory.” Now, I think there’s too much psychologizing and “reading between the lines” going on right now among MSTies, so I’m reluctant to infer anything from statements like Frank’s, but in this case it isn’t hard to see what the root of the problem might be.
Everybody who was involved with MST3K knew all along that Joel’s concept for the new show was to build it around young, up-and-coming talent, so there was not any element of “surprise” about that. But, as I’m sure everybody here already knows, it would be an ego-bruising thing for anyone to be passed over in favor of younger talent, especially when it comes to filling the roles that you originally made famous. Most people who grew up with MST3K are in an age bracket now where we’ve also had to contend with that issue in our own way, so I’m sure those feelings are ones we can all relate to.
But as understandable as those feelings are, and as much as I love the original cast and what they contributed to MST3K … I think Joel happens to be right about MST3K needing to make a fresh start. Read his comments about why he decided to go with a new cast, and it should be obvious to anyone that he’s thought carefully about all of this, even to the point of deciding that he himself shouldn’t be in front of the camera in the new show. If he were determined to make himself the center of attention and deliberately exclude everyone else, as some are accusing him of doing, he would have cast himself as the host. He didn’t. Instead, he came to the hard realization that the old crew aren’t the right ones for the job anymore. I credit him for having the honesty and the self-awareness to include himself in that assessment as well, even though I’m sure it was an ego-bruising realization for him, too.
So no, I’m not surprised that the old cast has reacted to that decision with hurt feelings. That only proves they’re human. But they’re also adults and professionals, and I’m sure those issues will work themselves out in time. It’s nothing we need to concern ourselves about, it isn’t really any of our business in the first place, and it needn’t detract from our enthusiasm for the new MST3K.
The MST3K reboot may be great. The MST3K alumni ARE great at what they do. How does it makes sense to entirely reboot the show without them? Clearly, Joel has reached this conclusion. I just don’t follow his reasoning. However, I will be following and giving full support to the alumni when possible. Joel is the one who started MST3K, but I don’t think he is sole reason the show went on to be my most favorite thing ever. It was a group effort.
Let me anticipate a few common responses that I keep seeing, because I think they completely miss the point of how we should be looking at this:
“But Joel is being so disingenuous! He said he’d invite the old cast onto the new show, but they say they were never asked!”
Well, yeah … Joel can’t even make firm offers to the new cast until he knows exactly what kind of show he’ll be creating, and that can’t happen until after the fundraising is over. Joel’s claim that he will invite the old cast to participate (that is, after the campaign is over and after the show is up and running) doesn’t mean that he’s being “disingenuous” for not having done it yet.
“But to just go ahead with the new show without even inviting the old crew, or even talking to them about the casting … !”
As I said before, he wasn’t in a position before to invite them. As I also said before, the idea all along was to go with a new cast, and Joel hasn’t kept that a secret, so nobody should have been surprised about that.
As for not getting the old cast’s creative input, advice on the casting, and so forth … remember that Joel is the creator of the show, and as much as we appreciate the contributions that the others made, let’s not lose sight of the fact that they were employees, and that they naturally wouldn’t have the same level of commitment or investment in it that Joel does. Remember also that Joel has spent years thinking carefully about all of the elements that made the original MST3K work, and that includes the elements that the others brought to the table. So, in a sense, they’re still a part of the show, even though they’re not personally involved in it, because the new cast and crew are building upon what they created and achieved.
“But the original cast was like Coke Classic: it’s the formula that you just can’t improve on! We’ve never even heard of these new people, so what makes them think they can step into these roles?”
To be honest, nobody (or hardly anybody) had ever heard of the original crew before their involvement with MST3K, either. I’ve never believed that the only people who could possibly do movie riffing right are those people who just happened to be in Joel’s circles in Minneapolis in the mid-1980s. The new cast have obviously been heavily influenced by the original MST3K and have studied it closely and made it a part of their own approaches and sensibilities, so I don’t think there’s any rational reason to fear what they’ll do with it.
“But you don’t understand … I grew up with this show! I want it just the way it was!”
One: it wouldn’t be “just the way it was” even if everybody returned and stepped back into their old roles, because those people are older now and in a different place in their lives, and that would inevitably influence their future work. To insist that it wouldn’t is to imply that they haven’t grown or changed or learned anything in the years since MST3K ended, which isn’t as flattering a statement as most people seem to think it is.
Two: if you like the original show, you can still have it! Nothing the new MST3K is doing will change the fact that you can play your DVDs and watch the old shows any time you like. If you don’t like what they’re doing with the new show, that’s your right, but don’t claim that it “sucks” because it isn’t setting out to achieve the impossible.
“What, are you saying that I can’t have an opinion???”
Of course not. Just don’t be a jerk. Don’t make disparaging comments or unfounded accusations toward Joel or the new cast and crew, either. If you can’t stand those hip Internet kids with their hula hoops and their loud rock music, that’s your right, but recognize that it’s your problem and not theirs.
I’m pretty sure that I addressed all of that in #64 (see above). Nobody is saying that the original cast are not fantastically talented people (they are!) or that they don’t have a lot more to give (they do!). But that doesn’t change the fact that the new show needs a new cast with new ideas in order to be successful in a different era and a different media climate. Joel laid out all the reasons why he came to this conclusion in the interviews that he’s done. I think they’re good ones, and at this point, I think he’s thinking more clearly and objectively about the matter than others might be.
An insightful comment along these lines from John Skeel on Kickstarter:
And adding to all jaybird3rd’s said, as I’ve pointed out elsewhere, there’s a simple question of logistics at work here. All the old cast members are living in different places and working on their own projects. Mike and Kevin were pretty clear in a Diffuser interview last year that they had no intention of going back to MST3K if it started back up. Josh said that he’s working on two documentaries. I don’t know what Trace and Frank said at the Q&A David is talking about, but I’m pretty sure neither one of them lives in California.
Those of the old cast who are willing and able to participate in the new show should absolutely be given the opportunity to do so, and be allowed a fair wage to do it. But the only former cast member who I haven’t seen give a flat “no” when asked if he’d do it is Frank.
I feel that MST3K alumni creative input on the show is suffering historical revisionism & is completely undervalued by Joel as well as many on this board. I guess I just don’t believe that without Trace, Josh, Frank, Kevin, Mike, Mary Jo, Brigit and Bill the show would have been what it is. These people including Joel have created the best thing ever. It’s hard to see how 1/9 of this equation is enough artistic connection to the past tradition. Again, the reboot may be really good. Or, it may be another Battlestar Galactica 1980.
Of course the show wouldn’t have been what it was without all of their input. I’m not aware that anybody has ever claimed otherwise. The question is, after the entire creative output of the original MST3K has been closely studied, and after a new cast has been chosen — all of whom have assimilated the original show and are committed (with Joel’s guidance) to preserving its spirit while taking it in new directions — what is there for the original cast to do? Give advice about how to “do MST3K right?” We already know what they would do, because we can look at the old shows for examples. So what, specifically, about the new show would be made better by getting them personally involved with it at this point? There must be an answer, since certain people seem to think that this issue is important enough to boycott the new show.
I think Patton, Jonah and Felicia are all going to be great in the reboot, but I must comment on what jaybird3rd considers an “insightful” comment: “Imagine for a moment that, yeah, ALL the old cast came back. It would actually feel tired, done, and lame. All you would hear in that case would be: ‘Oh look at these old guys trying to make this thing come back.’
Rifftrax, Cinematic Titanic, and The Mads may be a bunch of old people, but we have all been entertaining the hell out of people all over the country. Yes, horror of horrors, some of us are in our fifties, but what that actually means is that we’re experienced and at the hight of our creative powers. This kind of agist attitude on the part of jaybird3rd is the bane of the entertainment industry and it should not ever be condoned.
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.
Just to clarify, Frank: I would never claim that “older people are not of any use anymore,” and I certainly wouldn’t say it about any of you who were involved with MST3K. I tried to make that clear in my earlier remarks, so I apologize if I wasn’t clear enough.
What I found “insightful” about the comment from Kickstarter was the emphasis on the value of a new cast in generating interest among executives and others in the industry. Picking and choosing from up-and-coming talent who can bring their own fan communities to the show will make it all the more appealing to potential buyers, and I’m sure this was a factor in the casting decisions.
It’s like Howard Hawks casting Ricky Nelson in “Rio Bravo”: he knew that it would generate buzz and bring in box office dollars from the younger crowd, but that doesn’t mean that he didn’t believe John Wayne could still hold his own.
Jaybird3rd – Yes, Howard Hawks believed John Wayne could hold his own, which is why HE CAST HIM IN THE MOVIE!!!
At the risk of stretching this analogy, all I’ll say in response to that is the following: Wayne was 51 years old when he made “Rio Bravo,” but he was at the top of his game and he knew it, and some of his best work was still ahead of him. If Hawks had decided to cast someone else in that movie, somehow I don’t think Wayne would have (or should have) taken it personally.
Glad to see Frank is reading this and is giving the new cast the benefit of the doubt. :-D
Oh, dear god.
Putting aside for a moment the degree to which the original cast should be involved: making a character the son of Frank without so much as asking Conniff if he was cool with was an terribly unfair thing for Joel to do. Conniff and TV’s Frank are inextricable from each other in a way no other characters sans the hosts are, and Conniff has the right to his own legacy. If he decided a character was the son of Mike without asking–or if Mike was relaunching the show and created a Son of Joel–there would likely be an outcry, and with good reason.
To say nothing of the fact that Hodgson’s mantra since the beginning has been “young, fresh talent” and he replaced Conniff with a man only ten years his junior.
What a coincidence. That was my reaction to what you wrote in #55.
This may sound harsh but no he doesn’t. Would it have been nice and courteous of Joel to ask, sure. But he and Shout can do what they want with those characters. It just seems Joel really dropped the ball on communication in this whole thing. Saying that the original cast was going to be asked to be involved and then keeping them in the dark at every turn.
Also, this whole Trace v Joel thing that is brewing has a real Shatner v Takei vibe.
Frank, you are fantastic. Thank you so much for commenting and for the classy well wishes for the new cast.
I am an unapologetic fanboy when it comes to you. TV’s Frank is my favorite MST3K character and you are by far my favorite writer on Twitter.
I am excited about the reboot because I love the premise and I love Joel. But, there is zero question in my mind: any version of MST3K would benefit immensely from your presence. I remember like it was yesterday how depressed I was when I heard you were leaving after Season 6.
You are hilarious and brilliant. I can’t wait to see The Mads and I sincerely hope you end up involved in the new MST3K in some way – a cameo, writing, etc. Regardless, I will always support you and your career b/c you’ve provided me with countless hours of joy.
Oh Lord, I hope not. That’s some real venom, from what I can see.
How about “Harrison Ford vs. George Lucas”? Whether or not to kill off Han Solo, and Ford’s resentment to Star Wars for launching his career…but in the end he comes back for the thrilling new project we’ll be talking about for decades. :-D
@Frank Conniff – Not to sound pandering or anything (at which point I immediately sound pandering) but I think I speak for most fans that are supporting the new show in that we would really love to see some of you folks from the original cast become involved in some ways – whether its writing or appearing – or in the best of worlds both. Many of us watched Rifftrax and Cinematic Titanic as well as your (and the other Cast Members) work before and after that, and know you can still be funny as hell. But, I hope the show can find a balance of the old and the new. If it was just the original cast, I think it would have a HARDER time with comparing it to the old show – because no matter how hard it tried – it WOULDN’T be the old show.
That said – I’m really rooting for things to work out, and for Joel to be able to bring you and some of the others back for at least writing duties – following your careers post-MST3K, I have I can really hear your (and MJ and Trace..etc) voice in the writing of the show. Certain jokes just scream to me “That had to be one of Frank’s”. I definitely would like to hear that some more. I am a bit sad that it doesn’t seem like he talked to any of you BEFORE the kickstarter, but we all hope he will once it’s all done.
OK – Pandering achievement unlocked. Back to the regular scheduled internet smackdowns.
Welcome, Frank. I got a chance to meet you briefly at a Cinematic Titanic show in Mesa and told you that most of my Netflix queue was made up of movies you’d recommended on your blog. I forgot to even mention that I once dressed up as you for Halloween. Suffice it to say you’ve brought me a lot of joy and a lot of laughs over the years, and I’ve learned a thing or two about movies both good and bad.
You make a good point about ageism in the entertainment industry; it’s a rotten thing and it costs a lot of talented people a lot of opportunities.
While I’m looking forward to the new MST3K, you, Trace, and the rest will be missed (and, like skier_pete, I sure hope the stars align and you wind up participating after all (I also share his fear that I’m going to come off as pandering, but I’m willing to risk it)). If you two ever come to the Phoenix area, I’ll look forward to seeing your show.
I just want them to use some of them kickstarter bucks to give a ton of money to Frank and Trace. This is a dream team of talent they’ve assembled for the reboot… but darnit. I really hope some of the original people involved other than Joel.
I know Frank’s hair probably isn’t copyrighted, but if I made the rules Frank would be getting checks for the weird photoshop of his hair onto Patton Oswalt’s head. Patton Frank Oswalt is like a weird dream. A funny dream. But weird.
I am unapologetic about my blatant pandering! Quite simply, Joel, Mike, Trace, Kevin, Bill and Frank are The Beatles to me. If I had the chance to post something that John Lennon or George Harrison would read, it would be every bit as sappy as my note to Frank. What can I say? To me, Nummy Muffin Coocol Butter is every bit as brilliant as Eleanor Rigby in its own way.
While I am supporting the kickstarter, don’t think of it as me playing favorites. I am looking forward to the revival, but will happily support rifftrax, or any other MST3K alum project. If any alum feels slighted by the kickstarter or the revival I can only say that I do appreciate your contribution and will support you as well.
I’m at the very extremes of excitement for the new MST3k. Picturing Patton Oswalt as a TV’s Frank-type-henchman just cracks me up.
I can see Kinga being Dr. Forrester’s daughter (and Pearl’s granddaughter). Patton Oswald…gotta be cloned from TV’s Frank’s extra head that was put into storage by Pearl.
It is kind of amazing when you think about it: we’re in arguably the Golden Age of MST3K fandom. We have Rifftrax, The Mads AND a new MST3K on the horizon. That’s more MST3K-related content than I ever dreamed we’d be getting in 2015!
I think we’ve been in a golden age ever since Rifftrax and Cinematic Titanic were happening concurrently. But a MST3K revival takes things to a new level.
Just in case I’ve ever been anything less than clear: I would love it if the old cast came back and worked on the new series. I don’t think it’ll happen in a lot of cases (Mike, Kevin and Bill are obviously very happy with Rifftrax and I wouldn’t want to see that go away) but I would be thrilled to see everyone involved who can be and wants to be. (And Frank seems to be dropping hints that the answer to both those questions are “yes!”)
I just feel that 1) Joel isn’t being mean or disingenuous by not inviting them now–he’s said all along that he needs to know what kind of offer he can make before he makes it, but that he will be asking everyone to participate, and I take him at his word until I hear otherwise. I sincerely hope any classic cast member who’s upset would keep that in mind, and I think most of them are (and again, I think most of them are doing other things anyway). And 2) everyone should give the new cast a chance. The old cast wasn’t a bunch of comedy legends when the original series started–they were funny up-and-comers who got a chance and impressed us. I think that we should let these funny up-and-comers do the same.
@70 What about Paul? I consider him on the same list as those 9.
From today’s Kickstarter update from Joel:
Finally: I’ve started reaching out to all of the original cast to make formal offers. I can’t share specifics, but Shout Factory has been working with me to figure out how we can make it work for everyone.
Before you ask, I don’t know who will decide to come back and who won’t. Some of them are busy with other projects, and a few of them have said they just don’t feel like getting involved right now. Whatever they decide, I will respect their decision… but I’m hopeful that some of them will come back and join us. And if it doesn’t happen now, maybe they’ll come back in the future. The door will always be open.
Yeah, I hope he gets asked too. Or even Colleen Henjum. Don’t think she was as involved as him, but having any writer from the original would reassure me.
I hope Frank comes back and Patton talks to him like Obi Wan’s ghost.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSz4MkB6aF4
See? Patton and MST3K go way back…
Hilarious bit from Oswalt …I hear a little of the late, great social critic/stand up comic, Bill Hicks, in this…
KFC part 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_EYIujmORs