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Weekend Discussion Thread: What Channel Should the Reboot Be On?Jennifer asks:
Then Brandon asked:
Well, is ShoutFactoryTV too obvious? What do you think? 86 Replies to “Weekend Discussion Thread: What Channel Should the Reboot Be On?”Commenting at Satellite News
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I don’t know where a reboot would fit, but I don’t think this revival should be on any subscription service. An over-the-air/cable channel like Me-TV or a basic cable channel is the best answer. If online, it should be free-to-view.
The reason so many people on here are talking about TV not being likely is because of changes that took place around 2004 or so. That seems to be when stations made the switch from sci-fi programs, at least the ones of the adventures-in-space variety, to the more cheap and therefore “safer” reality programs. Firefly was gone after less than a year, the last Star Trek series was about to go, and Farscape was cancelled before it could wrap everything in a fifth and final season. Battlestar Galactica seems to have been kind of a freak accident as to when that show came out. For the most part sci-fi isn’t made today like it once was, and MST3K is going to be in a similar boat in regards to getting on a TV station.
Of course, I would LOVE for that all to change. Because goodness, haven’t we all had enough of stuff like Dance Moms?
TCM has shown a surprisingly large number of MS3Ked (and CT/RIfftraxed) movies. Partly because they show a lot of public domain movies, but also because of the TCM underground.
El Rey would be perhaps the best choice (since they show bad movies as part of their mission statement), or since the new audience seems to be hipsters, IFC or MTV.
You’ve got the date near about right, but not the motivations:
The “gentrification” of TV–the total expunging of all reruns and movies, and any vintage content that’s not original programming owned by the corporate parent company–started when we had the “Upstart networks” of UPN and WB taking over the UHF stations.
Originally, most UHFs were little mom-and-pop independent stations that were there just to show the local sports teams (like WPIX-11 in NYC for the Yankees, WOR-9 New Jersey for the Mets, or WGN Chicago for the Cubs) and needed something to show for the other hundred-and-fifty hours every week. Since VHS didn’t exist yet, studios got their movie revenue from selling packages to stations–like all those movies that KTMA Minnesota happened to have lying around–and blocks of reruns to fill up the wee hours. Local network-channel VHF affiliates that didn’t turn off their broadcast till 3am needed something to show after Johnny Carson, and bought up those blocks of old B/W movies to show on the Late Late Movie, when they could get local advertisers and nobody was watching anyway.
And then Fox decided they wanted their part-time network, and showed Joan Rivers every weekend on a few commissioned stations. Paramount decided they wanted their own network too, for “exclusive” airings of Cheers, Star Trek:TNG and Paramount movies, and then Warner joined in. By the time Pax and MeTV got in, there were no independent stations left, and if you wanted movies and reruns to show, you had to declare your loyalty to one studio faction or the other, and let them take over. (Of course, after UPN went under and merged, that left a lot of stations now with nothing to show, since all the movies were locked up by the studios, and all they had left were endless blocks of the Seinfeld and King of Queens reruns they’d been stuck with before they became ronin. But, by that point, didn’t matter anyway, since MLB, NFL, ESPN and Fox Sports had bought up all the home-city team sports rights and sold them in expensive cable-only packages, so it wasn’t like the UHFs were missing out on their local duty.
Meanwhile, ABC decided they wanted late-night programming, and filled in the hours after Jimmy Kimmel and Nightline with all-night ABC News–CBS followed with more serious real all-night news, and NBC, on the pulse of the headlines, gave their affiliates…all-night Poker and Conan O’Brien reruns. Okay, then later news. Whew–Now those poor local network affiliates didn’t have to worry ANYMORE about what they’d have to show after midnight!
Nowadays, you couldn’t even start an independent station or network of movies or reruns going if you tried. Somebody always has an idea, but finds they can’t get the material from the source, and ends up having to make their own shows about rednecks-in-trucks, since that’s all they can afford to make on a cable budget and “The Trailer-Park Family You Voyeuristically Love To Hate!”, since that rakes in the loyalty-merchandising.
(Oh, and let’s leave the “Only chicks watch networks broadcast TV anymore” argument for another time, otherwise it’ll open all those old wounds about Agent Carter.)
No, we’re too hetero for MTV or any of the Viacom channels nowadays…Maybe if Jonah took his shirt off once in a while, they’d be interested.
The DuMont network. They could use a hit show.
Tangentially related, back in 2004 or so I used to spend time sending emails to various TV networks, either national or in the NY/NJ region, imploring them to bring back Mystery Science Theater 3000. I think for a lot of them I usually insulted the programming they already had on.
Somehow, they weren’t convinced of MST3K’s greatness by a 14 year old kid calling them stupid.
As long as I can get the DVD’s I don’t care.
Just gonna relax until it all unfolds.
Color me naive but a post primetime Saturday night on PBS would provide availability to everyone everywhere all the time, Dr Neutron.
Back in the day I used to watch MST3K religiously on CC/SciFi, and taped each new episode, carefully cutting out the commercials whenever possible. But a lot has changed since then. Now I rarely watch anything except DVDs, on a TV that doesn’t have a cable connection. The only working TV we have with cable is used primarily by my wife, who likes to watch old movies on TCM, or occasionally whatever non-vile program/movie is on some other channel.
So no matter what channel they put the new show on, I likely would never see it. And I have no interest in watching anything longer than a typical Youtube clip online — I spend too much time on the computer as it is.
I’ll just have to wait until I can get them DVDs.
I second El Rey. For starters, they already have broadcast rights to a ton of cheesy movies, so they could probably facilitate riffing fodder in a cost-saving manner. I think. Robert Rodriguez seems like the last person imaginable who’d tamper with their creative freedom, too. Other than censoring some extreme violence/profanity/nudity (and then, only before 9 PM), there’s unlikely to be any problem with standards and practices. Besides, other than The Movie, the show’s content was consistently in the PG-range. I can’t imagine that changing now. They have very little in the way of original programming, and often run day-long movie marathons (yesterday was an all Dolph Lundgren day, I kid you not!), so there’s unlikely to be anything that would preempt new MST3K episodes. The channel’s fairly obscure… but so is the show! Match made in heaven. And it isn’t like they haven’t taken risks on similar cult stuff. They’re airing Red VS Blue, recut as a Saturday morning cartoon. The only thing that’s problematic is that not all providers (including my own, DirecTV) offer it in HD. But then again, since so many episodes exist in VHS quality anyway, it’ll still look pretty good, comparatively speaking.
I can’t think of a more perfect home for MST3K than on Netflix. It could definitely be one of their signature comedy series, a revived legacy series at that, that’s about making fun of cheesy movies. There’s hardly a better fit for the series than on Netflix.
Plus unlike a traditional network, they might be more inclined to order multiple seasons of the show which gives the cast and crew much more security when it comes to producing the show. I could handle a rough 9-12 episode 11th season if it means Netflix picks up two more 13 episode seasons. Baring being a ratings blockbuster, most network series don’t get that kind of security.
Network TV is dying. Get a exclusive deal with Netflix and DVD/Blu-Ray sales, that’s what I say would be best.
Networks are the past. Streaming is the future. Even my parents have decided to become cable cutters. I just can’t imagine turning in at a set time anymore. I work nights so it’s much more convenient to watch on my schedule.
Saturday afternoon on Me-TV.
I vote for Netflix. That’s where I rediscovered MST3K & where I think the most people can discover it.
Good one!
No network. Hulu, Netflix, Veemo, something like that. I want to watch it when I want to watch it, with as few commercial signs as possible
No TV networks – it’s not 1995. Streaming only.
I can’t cut cable because it’s tied to my Economy Internet–yep, I’m a captive of those bandit Comcast brigands–but when I recently moved, I found my cord was cut for me:
The new cable jack is on the opposite side of the room from the TV, there’s no convenient way of rearranging the furniture, and no possible way to connect without tripping over a mile-long cable across the living room and doorways.
So, I watch only streaming and Blu-ray. Of course, that was what I was doing anyway for the last five years, and usually forgot what channel was the local ABC affiliate once a year when I had to watch the Oscars. I didn’t even know NBC had done The Wiz Live until it showed up on Hulu.
(Not to mention, of course, I don’t watch network TV anymore because I’m a guy.)
I’m a cord-cutter, so I won’t be watching it (or anything else) on cable TV. I think it’d look great on Amazon or Netflix, and I’m not so averse to Hulu now that they’ve added a no-commercial option. (If I wanted to pay money to watch commercials, I’d still have cable.)
Yahoo’s player is lousy, so I wouldn’t want it to end up there. (I watched one of the Turkey Day episodes there, and it locked up and made me reload the page about every 8 minutes.) Which probably isn’t something I have to worry about; they’ve lost so much money on original programming I don’t see them continuing that experiment.
A small broadcast station like MeTV would be a good fit, but wouldn’t come with much of an audience.
CW has, surprisingly, turned into the best station for genre shows. I think it’s a longshot but it would fit in pretty well with their other programming. Even if it’s not based on a comic book.
“We’ll be back to tonight’s ‘Mystery Science Theater 3000’ in just a moment. But, first, I’m sure you want to keep good TV like this program, ‘Midsomer Murders’ and ‘American Experience’ on the air. We can’t rely on corporate donations alone…”
(One hour later…)
“…and you’ll get this attractive tote bag for a pledge of $35, and our signature mug for a pledge of $50. We depend on your support to bring you these fine programs. And we’ll rejoin ‘Mystery Science Theater 3000’ in just a moment, but we still need you to call and make a pledge…”
A&E
Y’know, one more episode block of Dog the Bounty Hunter, and I’d practically welcome Jack Perkins back again.
(Not to mention Lovejoy, and Peter Graves on BIOGRAPHY!)
If I had to guess/select an option, guess I’d go with IFC (what the hell happened to Maron’s show?! my daughter is really, really waiting for its return, ha)
We’ve been big IFC fans for many yrs, and even though they were ultimately forced to commercialize, they’re the lone holdout among Bravo, and Sundance, in terms of refusing to CENSOR material on behalf of the companies advertising with them (weak willed sell-outs!)
I agree. I think it’s a perfect fit. Plus, I don’t want it to be “streaming only”. I think a network would introduce it to more people. And as for those “streaming only” whiners. There is such a thing as “on demand”, so you can still see it whenever you want.
Netflix is the best choice, they have already resurrected other canceled shows like Trailer Park Boys, Arrested Development, Longmire and others. I will suggest HBO as an outside shot since they like critically acclaimed shows that might not get great ratings. MST probably won’t swear and have enough sex scenes for them though.
I think the new MST would do better to stay off TV networks completely, Netflix and other streaming services are the future for niche TV. MST is never going to get great ratings and I would hate to see it subject to that.
YouTube. I ditched Netflix ages ago because they stopped showing decent movies, and have subscribed to more YouTube channels than I can watch in my old tv viewing days.
Am I the only one who thinks it would be really sad if MST3K ended up on some streaming service?
Where they can cancel it like the show Longmire and then it can get picked-up by Netflix.
Yes! Just like the days on the Sci-Fi Channel.
I’ve hoped for USA for a while now. They show support for most of their new shows, letting them go for years instead of episodes. There is a dedicated online presence to many of their shows, like Monk and Psych, and the network seems to like quirky shows. Plus they have a bit of pedigree for weird shows in the past. Their web site supports online viewing, though it hasn’t always been perfect.
Would Sundance even have time among its full schedule of Law & Order reruns?
You’re the only one who thinks it would be sad for MST3K, while the rest of us think it was sad for the current state of cable that it HAD to go there. :(
Networks won’t work obviously because A) They’re networks and B) TV execs STILL rely on the insanely outdated and pathetically unreliable Nielsen format. Anything but Yahoo screen which has poor performance and is largely incompatible with a lot of devices and no to Hulu which interrupts many times with ads even when you pay for it (they even run ads in between credit rolls which is beyond asinine) which ya know, kinda defeats the purpose of paying for Hulu since you’d THINK one of the most obvious perks of paying for a streaming service would be not having to see ads anymore. My number one pick is Netflix, there’s no ads, the top brass is already hugely supportive of reboots and revived series like Arrested Development and oh hey, Netflix works on everything.
Also, no cable network please. You couldn’t pay me to own cable these days when it’s almost as heavily infected with the reality TV plague as standard broadcast.
El Rey or FXX.
It’s so cool seeing how many people have heard of El Rey in a non-wrasslin part of the onlines.
My guess, since Joel is apparently good friends with Jerry Seinfeld (the person most people think is the anonymous 100K donor during the telethon’s final moments), and Seinfeld still seems to have a relationship with Sony, I’m guessing Sony’s Crackle app/website.