COMEDY SERIES MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000
FOR WORLDWIDE HOME ENTERTAINMENT
AND DIGITAL DISTRIBUTION
LOS ANGELES, CA – Adding to its expansive library of comedic TV offerings, Shout! Factory secured the worldwide home entertainment and digital download rights to the long running American cult television comedy series Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K.) This announcement was made by Shout! Factory President Garson Foos.
Under the terms of the multi-year agreement, Shout! Factory will be the exclusive worldwide home entertainment and digital media distributor for Mystery Science Theater 3000 branded properties which include a vast library of original episodes that have never-been-available on DVD or for digital download.
“Mystery Science Theater 3000 is a true cult-classic series. Its high-camp rendition of B-movies to the small screen makes it one of the most memorable pop culture shows of our time,” said Garson Foos, President of Shout! Factory. “MST3K lines up perfectly with Shout! Factory brand. We’re thrilled to work with Jim to further the legend of MST3K on DVD and in the digital marketplace.”
“We are thrilled to be at Shout! Factory. It is a really a great fit for Mystery Science Theater 3000,” said Jim Mallon, President of Best Brains, Inc. and a producer/director/writer of MST3K. “Shout! Factory totally gets the world of MST3K and has shown great respect for Joel, Mike, the Mads and the quirky little bots. They have already issued us lockers. We look forward to great new releases ahead.”
—————-
Our source at Shout Factory says they are looking at the first release around mid-year and they have not made any decisions about whether they will be single releases or sets.
Volume 10.2 will be the final Rhino release.
Stay tuned for more, as we get it!
Say hello to the new boss, the same old boss.
(A lil’ joke because the original founder of Rhino went off to form Shout! Factory)
Personally I kind of like this turn of events, Rhino has been falling asleep at the switch and I suppose three different instances where they goofed on securing rights to movies (The Colossal Man, Women of the Prehistoric Planet, and Godzilla VS Megalon for those keeping score at home.) it’s no surprise that they lost the rights to MST3K to Shout! Factory.
I figure Shout! Will have a lot more to offer, I mean they took a gamble and made those Film Crew DVD’s (Which were all awesome)
I would hope that Shout will at least start releasing previously unreleased on DVD episodes for the first while before starting to offer episodes that have already been released.
I can’t wait until I can get my copy of the Giant Gilla Monster from Rhino though so I can forget about any of their impending releases and wait for the Shout! stuff.
Personally, I’m going to miss Rhino…but, if SHOUT!!! is planning on furthering the amount of episodes released on DVD then I’m all for it. Prehaps they can give Sandy Frank an offer he can’t refuse…
This is great news. Shout Factory has given some crazy DVD love to otherwise underappreciated classics. The Home Movies season sets and the Freaks and Geeks collection are wonderful in terms of packaging, presentation, and extras. I’m really looking forward to seeing what they can do for MST3K.
I hope Rhino doesn’t forget their promise to release Giant Gila as a single. I refuse to purchase volume 10.2. I hope Shout! doesn’t try to re-release any episodes that are already on Rhino. I agree with Wack’d let’s get those Sandy Frank titles for release
( Time of the Apes, Mighty Jack etc. ) asap!!!!!! I hope ( another one! ) that Shout! would release volumes instead of singles, 4 disks per volume and why not come out with 3 volumes a year and not 2. The rights issues are difficult though.
I tend to agree…this news could bode ill for the single disk Gila episode. There’s really no incentive for Rhino to cater to the MST3K crowd anymore.
Wow. Jim Mallon hasn’t made me this happy in years. I wonder how this effects any possible Film Crew ventures. Could be interesting.
Any word on how this will effect older MST releases? I’d still expect them to release Gila Monster, either way. Rhino knows damn well that we’ll buy it, which means more money for them. I just hope this doesn’t put older sets out of print anytime soon.
This could go either way in my opinion.
For one rhino has made a good deal of mistakes in the mst3k releases. But shouts also made a great deal of mistakes on there end too.
Ive kind of grown used to the whole 4 disc dvd releases. Anything else would just be kind of wierd.
Also is shout going to release episodes that rhino has already released?
And too what extent will rhino be working with shout?
only time will tell.
Well, according to that press release, er, article :
The series lasted 11 seasons and includes 198 episodes, all of which are ultimately bound for both DVD and digital distribution through Shout! Factory.
Right.
All of them.
Including the KTMA episodes.
Sure they will.
I’ll believe that when I see it.
Another article, with slightly different info
“The series lasted 11 seasons and includes 198 episodes, all of which are ultimately bound for both DVD and digital distribution through Shout! Factory.”
ALL? How do they plan on doing that? Blackmailing Sandy Frank?
[...] this certainly comes out of left field. Satellite News has announced that Rhino Records will no longer be producing anymore DVD releases of Mystery Science Theater [...]
last time i heard sandy frank no longer owns the rights to those films.
Shout Factory is a subsidiary of Rhino, so it’s really not that big of news, except that a new division of the same company (that was formed for special projects like this).
The whole thing with Jim “taking his ball and going home” was debunked by Kevin (likely the one on best terms with Jim) who said that the film crew thing was delayed because the exec at Rhino who was in charge of the Film Crew project left Rhino for a bit (putting the project in jeopardy) but came back when they decided to form Shout Factory.. so the project came back online, and we have our 4 Film Crew discs as proof.
It’s not as big of a conspiracy of people made it out to be… so everyone relax.
http://www.noth
Shout isn’t owned by Rhino, Sony distributes their DVDs.
They also didn’t make the Film Crew releases, Rhino did, Shout just picked them up when Jim Mallon got in the way. If anything, I think Mallon working with Shout might bode ill for more Film Crew releases.
I think we need a Shout Factory Poll..although Puma Man will win it, it would be nice if we got to see what fans would want, maybe there are new fans out there..
Talk about the end of an era…I will miss Rhino
Shout Factory also releases the Elvira double features and the prints on those just suck, check some reviews on their Elvira DVD discs. I really hope they give the time & care, or the MST3K world is going to be really pissed off to the point where we will saying bring back Rhino…
I look forward to what they will release first, but they better not release what we already own..maybe Rhino will let them know what they have out there..
majorjoe23 is right. Shout! Factory was started by three former Rhino executives but the two companies are not associated with each other.
Really surprising news for sure! I think it’s a good move for MST3k. ShoutFactory will kick Rhino’s ass in the extras, menus, and DVD cover department. Hopefully the Rhino sets won’t go immediately out of print either.
Read my likelihood list for an idea on what may or may not be coming from Shout:
http://www.mst3kinfo.com/ward_e/listlikely.html
or
http://forrestcrow.proboards47.com/index.cgi?board=mstchat&action=display&thread=1152828151&page=1
Hopefully Shout will be better at securing movie rights than Rhino…
I was going to see if I could start a “call-to-arms” to get Rhino to release “The Day the Earth Froze” (#422) and “Jack Frost” (#813) as a Russo-Finnish double-feature (my wife and I always watch the two back-to-back).
Anybody want to take it to Shout! Factory instead??
So…Sony is behind SHOUT FACTORY…? Does this mean we might see some of the Universal stuff from Season Eight on DVD?
I too will miss RHINO. They were a great little company that seemed to care about the fans. SHOUT FACTORY is terrific, though. Hopefully they will speed up the releases and make them more substantial. Double the number of episodes per set, and include all of the cool little bumpers with the infamous Penn Jillette voice overs…There’s SO MUCH that could be done with MST3K for DVD that Rhino failed to do.
This could be good!
Season sets!
I’m not sure Sony is really behind Shout, but they distribute their discs.
so…wait…sony and universal are related, right?
i wonder how this news is connected to yesterday’s big movie announcement…
I dont know who owns whom, all I care about it making sure all of us MST3K fans get good quality releases from the Shout Factory..otherwise..we will be the ones doing the “Shout”ing..
I have already emailed Shout Factory about MST3K & quality and Rhino about the single Gila Monster DVD.
I hope to not get the usual automated cut and paste response from Dr Rhino..well as a “Dr” he does a lot of cutting I suppose
I would get that Shout Factory would release things about the same as Rhino in terms of getting rights, but I could be way wrong and all those “extremely unlikely” releases from Travis will wind up out on DVD….you know Shout wants to debut with something groundbreaking, just like any Season premeire…maybe we could see Gamera or Puma Man or something from Universal.
I know that Shout Factory has liscenced some Unviersal owned TV shows for DVD release. If they could get them to do that, they may be able to get some of the Uni MSTed films.
Sony and Universal are NOT related! Where did that come from??? NBC owns Universal and the SciFi Channel among others. Sony and BMG have merged. Shout! is an independent video company with a distribution deal through Sony, apparently. Universal distributed MST3K – The Movie and will be re-releasing a new anamorphic widescreen DVD in May. MST3K – the series – was on the SciFI Channel for it’s last three seasons and they had access to the Universal library at that point, but the show was still owned by Best Brains. The rights question always comes up with any of the films they featured on the show, and besides the Sandy Frank stuff, and the Toho stuff, and maybe even the Russian stuff, will Shout! be able to get a license for the Universal stuff?
All I know is, I was going to wait until the next 20% off sale before buying the last few sets I needed, but I think I may take the cautious stand of buying them now, just in case Rhino pulls them.
Anyone else intrigued by the prospect of downloadable MST3K episodes (assuming that’s what they mean by “digital marketplace”)?
I’s assume that’s what they mean.
If Rhino don’t release a Giant Gila Monster single disc I’d possibly hold off and wait to see if Shout! do. There’s a chance they’ll do some previously released stuff.
And for those wondering how Jim working with Shout! will effect the Film Crew, I doubt much since Bill effectively killed off any hope of new ones on the Rifftrax blog. Film Crew appears to be gone with Rifftrax in its place.
I just hope that Shout keeps in mind all of the episodes most of us have already purchased when they chose how to distribute the show. It would seriously suck if the fans will be forced into re-buying everything they already own just to get a few episodes they don’t have (10.2).
Hey Philip, I would actually get those Rhino sets as soon as you can. Your better off going to deepdiscount.com to get those the site is super cheap and you don’t have to wait for a sale ( I don’t work for them ). Shipping is super slow though. You don’t want to wait, they might pull the plug all together and give up selling all of their previous MST3K volumes. Eventually with anything the rights will expire at sometime, who knows? I was lucky enough to buy the original volume 10 in 11/06 at Best Buy 2 months after Rhino pulled it. I learned my lesson GET THEM AS SOON AS THEY COME OUT!
@frankstv: “I would actually get those Rhino sets as soon as you can. Your better off going to deepdiscount.com to get those the site is super cheap and you don’t have to wait for a sale ”
It’s actually the DeepDiscount sale I was talking about. (Left that detail out.) They have one every June and November. They’re still the lowest price right now, but that 20% adds up.
But, as I said, I don’t think I want to risk another Volume 10 disaster (I never got it), so I’ll probably buy the ones I need right away.
The Rhino-Shout Factory connection is that Garson Foos used to be one of the heads of Rhino back in the day and launched Shout! Factory after leaving Rhino about five years ago. My friend Mike used to work for them.
Rhino, release The Giant Gila Monster as a single disc… and a flight of angels sing thee to thy rest
@philip. Cool. The 20% does add up but you are taking a chance if you wait till June. Who knows whats going to happen from now until June. Im a real nerd when it comes to DVD quality and I would rather upgrade to Rhino/Shout from all of my fan copies
( DVD R-s ). It’s a tough decision.
Just got the following response from Dr. Rhino regarding the single disc release:
“Dear David,
A single disc of The Giant Gila Monster is scheduled for a 2/5/08 release, exclusively at http://www.rhino.com.
Dr. Rhino”
Dave
If I don’t see that single Gila disc on 2/5 I will put my leg up BIGTIME in protest!
Seriously, though, I do hope that changing companies means we will see some unlikely releases of MST3K episodes.
First off, I’d like to thank Rhino for what they’ve done to release the episodes they have. I hope they follow through with their promise to release Gila as a single episode. If not, I’ll have to buy 10.2. I’m just that much of a mystie, and Gila was one of the first episodes I saw, albeit in hour-long chunks. (We didn’t get Comedy Central until after MST jumped to Sci-Fi.) I’d also like to welcome Shout! (again) and wish it well in releasing as many as possible. I’m imagining that they made the statement on releasing all 198 episodes without looking at rights and personal grudges and the fact that they may not even have full episodes of all the KTMA shows. Nevertheless, I applaud their enthusiasm, and hope they will do what they can to release (hopefully, maybe!) all the Comedy Central/Sci Fi episodes that they possibly can.
Hopefully the Shout Factory will release many more episodes with a faster release schedule than Rhino. New episode releases from Rhino have been far apart on the calendar of late and a bit too slow for my taste.
As for personal favorites, I’d love a 4-disc set of the Robert Lippert movies featured in Season Two, some of the best, most hilarious episodes ever: Rocketship X-M, Jungle Goddess, Lost Continent, and King Dinosaur.
Now, maybe I should consider auctioning off my DVD copy of MST3K The Movie while it still goes for a lot of money before it’s re-released.
I don’t like this repeated mention of “digital distribution”. I want to be able to OWN episodes, not download them. If they release something online in some manner, it had better also be released on dvd. Not the one without the other, absolutely not.
I don’t get all this love for Puma Man. How about Samsom vs. the Vampire Women or Warrior of the Lost World? They were far far better.
I’m one person who didn’t purchase Volume 10, so I won’t threaten Rhino over the status of the Gila Monster single. I hope Shout does release singles. I like the packaging for the volumes, but I tend to ignore episodes that don’t have a horror/sci-fi/fantasy theme of some kind. I’d just as soon not bother with stuff like Catalina Caper that are still idiotic and forgettable with any amount of riffing attached and don’t even have a rubber monster to laugh at.
Why Rhino get the chomp?
I have a few questions. Does this mean that Rhino will recall their collections, that are in stores now, or will Shout re-release them at hopefully a lower cost? Also, which movie in Collection 9 caused it to be recalled? About the movie being re-released, I’m so glad. It will give new MSTies the chance to see a true classic. I own the original Image DVD, which I picked up for $10 at a Gamestop a couple years ago. I’m still going to pick up the new one coming out.
Hi-Keeba
“I don’t like this repeated mention of “digital distribution”. I want to be able to OWN episodes, not download them. If they release something online in some manner, it had better also be released on dvd. Not the one without the other, absolutely not.”
Future hater.
I have to agree with the comment above about wanting DVD releases, not downloads. The Cinematic Titanic poll of customers showed that 4 out of 5 people still prefer to buy a complete DVD, so I hope Shout Factory gets the point too and gives us what we want. To quote a joke made on MST3K during Design For Dreaming, “Just because it’s futuristic doesn’t mean it’s practical”. When are these companies going to realize that most customers don’t want downloads, they still want to buy a finished product? They should stop pushing what they think we want and give us what we actually want.
As for episodes, I also do not get the love by some people of the Puma Man episode, although it’s always fun to see a great actor like Donald Pleasance in such a terrible film. It’s an average episode and doesn’t begin to compare to classics like Lost Continent, First Spaceship on Venus, Rocketship X-M, Gamera, Robot Monster which inpsired catch phrases and gags that would remain icons of the show for years to come. Even somewhat later greats like Magic Voyage of Sinbad, Danger Death Ray, Quest of the Delta Knights, Horror of Party Beach, Warrior of the Lost World, Day The Earth Froze and especially the terrific Outlaw (of Gor) would be much better choices for earlier rather than later release than Puma Man.
Is he talking about Thepu Maman?
Dear Shout: Please show…
203 : Jungle Goddess
311 : It Conquered the World
314 : Mighty Jack
1005 : Blood Waters of Doctor Z
(& maybe something from KTMA. Come on, MST3K, you can’t escape your past …)
A poster at CT states that he’s received and e-mail from Dr. Rhino:
“A single disc of The Giant Gila Monster is scheduled for a 2/5/08 release”
In my opinion, the only episodes that wouldn’t break my heart if they were never released would be the KTMA episodes, all of season one, and a handful of seasons two-three stuff-particularly Jungle Goddess, King Dinosaur, First Spaceship On Venus… the quality just isn’t that high. I certainly demand a release of Final Sacrifice, though. Its one of my top three favorite episodes.
And by the way, I love the future- so long as its my version of it
AS long as they DONT do season releases It should be okay.
All I want is for the entire “Mr. B Natural” segment to be released on DVD, **including** the post-film debate. Pretty please???
Pretty nice news and although unexpected… Good job, Jim!
Although I was sorta bummed when they stopped puttin out the VHS, I was REALLY bummed when they quit puttin out single disks. Sure, you might get more for you money that way but it’s still too much moola for me. I dont own a single boxed set and probly never will. 
So if Shout goes the route of boxes, the prospect of download versions sounds very appealing to me. That all depends on the actual formats of course so hopefully we would have choices. Personally, I’d be happy with a 700 meg Xvid but I would even settle for a small file sized FLV if it was slightly lower quality and cheaper, but that’s probly way too wishful thinking. 
Most of the episodes I have besides of course taped on VHS and Rhino VHS are digital anyways. Either on hard drive or burned AVI files on CD. Hell, I even have more VCD episodes (Season 7) than I do DVDs. I dont think I’ll be missing Rhino that much so I welcome the change. I say Bring the Digital! We shall see but I think Jim’s made another wise decision. 
Quality-wise, my hopes are high because the FILM CREW dvds were really nicely made, with good extras. MST deserves all that, so I hope SHOUT! will rise to that level again.
PS–Personally I’d prefer single discs to the jumbled multi-era sets Rhino was doing. (In a dreamworld I’d have full season sets but I don’t guess that could EVER happen…)
Oh and I dont think the people who prefer physical to digital should have anything to worry about considering they are in the majority. DVDs are always gonna be the money maker. But me, I just think it’s cool to have a choice. Especially when it comes down to that stuff that leaves your wallet. The name of it escapes me at the moment but it’s usually green.
But maybe some are worried about the prospect of Shout getting rights to certain movies only for digital media. In that case I could see why some would be worried but then again, if there’s a couple episodes that they cant get released on DVD but can only secure them for a digital download… I cant really see too much of a downside to that. That would be an episode we wouldnt get on DVD ANYWAYS. So for instance if they had a downloadable version of Fugitive Alien available, that’s better than NO version of Fugitive Alien. Right?
I’m going to have to agree that single episode releases would be better than box sets. From a rights perspective, if the whole Volume 10 box set was any indication it’s better to pull one DVD off the market than a box set of four DVD’s because you goofed on obtaining the rights to the movie.
On the other hand, I would hope they could get more episodes if they do the whole box set thing. I mean wouldn’t it make the most sense if you were to try to get the rights of as many movies that were released by the same company all at once and release them in a box set?
On the note of re releasing episode that Rhino has already done, we probably won’t have to worry about that just yet, Rhino probably still has the rights to distribute the episodes they’ve already released for a little while yet.
They’ll probably be allowed to sell their releases until their stock runs out.
digital hope that part don’t suck. Although I love Puma Man and have just watched it for the prolly 30th time I wouldn’t pull for one episode but rather all of them. If they say that they will do it then lets see what they can do. Although I could see it taking a long time to secure every single rights for the episodes I hope I won’t be a head in a jar in the very distant future still waiting for all the episodes and my dsl to be hooked up.
Pasty, Pasty, Beefy, Pasty!
Re: 48; Jungle Goddess/KTMA & “quality” when it comes down to MST3K, unless the quality is really bad, MST3K can overcome it. It’s just that good.
It’s funny that people are wishing for single eps to be released instead of box sets when the episodes are quite a bit cheaper when they put them in box sets. I can see a LOT of bitching if they put out 4 single eps at say $16 each, vs. 4 for $40 like Rhino’s sets go for. It’s kind of nice getting 4 eps now for the same price that you could have bought 2 at in the days of the VHS and single DVD releases.
Though a good compromise would be to still put out box sets to keep the costs down, but allow people to download individual eps for a cheaper price than they could sell a individual ep at in stores.
Reactions:
Jason Davis is correct: Sandy Frank no longer has control over those titles. But that doesn’t mean they’ll be easier to get.
Thanks, David Chapple for breaking some news! That’s the first time I ‘ve seen that 2/5 release date.
Crow@biteme.com: I don’t think the Rhino titles will be withdrawn. I think they will continue to sell them. Which means I don’t think the old sets will be released by Shout Factory. Nobody at Rhino has ever told us which episode in Vol. 9 caused it to be withdrawn, but “Women of the Prehistoric Planet” is seen by knowledgable people as the culprit.
Oh, and for those who are mentioning “season sets”–that is not going to happen, a) because lining up all the rights would be a Herculean feat, and b) the final product would cost more than my last vacation.
I’ve been waiting for this news announcement since SHOUT! Factory’s wonderful SCTV, Freaks and Geeks, and Film Crew DVDs. Rhino was great but Shout! Factory will usher MST3K into the next decade. With the potential for digital downloads, season boxsets, remixed audio and other goodies, fans will clamor for SHOUT! Factory MST3K, a match made in heaven.
I agree with Mark that single discs end up costing more– and taking up a lot more storage space! Come on, SANTA CLAUS, PUMA MAN and one of my favorites, SAN FRANCISCO INTERATIONAL.
Count me in favor of continuing the box sets vs. single disks. If they start singles, I won’t buy them all and be selective when I do…
Sampo,
Thank you for answering my questions. I would rather see single discs as well, because, I picked up Vol.11 just for Tormented. The others were great like all the films, but Tormented was the main reason I bought the set. Seeing fellow MSTes writing which episodes they would like to see in box sets, gave me an idea. Why not have a box set entitled “Beginnings and Ends”. It would have “The Crawling Eye”, “LaserBlast”, “Revenge of the Creature”, and “Danger: Diabolik”. It would represent the first and last episodes or the Comedy Central, and Sci-Fi eras, and give new MSTes a little bit of history of the show.
Hi-Keeba
I’d like to sincerely thank Rhino for the 57 episodes (including “Giant Gila Monster”) they’ve released on DVD. Best of luck, Rhino!
I was pretty stunned when I heard the news, but now I’m mostly excited.
The only season sets I’d love to see released are season zero and season seven. Otherwise, I’m *violently* opposed the idea of S!F releasing complete seasons. I have everything Rhino has released and that would be an unacceptable waste of money.
I’m hoping S!F will set up an online episode poll since I wasn’t able to vote in any of Rhino’s.
And are 5-episode boxed sets too much to ask for?
Because one of my dream sets is:
“Humanoid Woman”
“The Day the Earth Froze”
“The Magic Voyage of Sinbad”
“The Sword and the Dragon”
“Jack Frost”
@Sampo: “Jason Davis is correct: Sandy Frank no longer has control over those titles. But that doesn’t mean they’ll be easier to get.”
As I have said elsewhere, the main problem is that just because Sandy Frank no longer has the rights to, say, ‘Gamera tai daiakuju Giron’ doesn’t mean he’s lost control over his edit of the film, as used on the show.
This means that whoever Daiei licenses the movie to would have to do their own dub rather than just releasing Frank’s. (Just as Frank did instead of simply re-releasing the pre-existing ‘Attack of the Monsters’.)
So Frank may not be able to clear the use of ‘Gamera vs. Guiron’, but he still may be able to block a release of episode #312.
Brian Leonard: “All I want is for the entire “Mr. B Natural” segment to be released on DVD, **including** the post-film debate. Pretty please???”
I’ve also been annoyed that they don’t include the after-short skits. I’m tempted to re-author those disks with them included.
As for the single disk vs. 4-disk sets, just think of the sets as buy-3-get-1-free. That’s about what the price works out to.
Single disc issues would be awful. Rhino’s four disc sets worked fine, so I’d expect that to continue based simply on there being no need to come up with a violently new marketing scheme just because its a new company. Occam’s razor, people.
It won’t ever ever EVER happen, but it would be rather neat to have perhaps severely limited full season gift sets- like what you see over the holidays with various full series television show sets (Stargate, Buffy, West Wing, & Friends come to mind. Then leave shortly thereafter).
One bad thing. I like Shout Factory, but they took out bits from the Elvira shows without explanation. Many people have been upset about this.
Philip Frey aka Rhindle the Red,
Sandy Frank/King Features, as far as I know, would have no control over their versions of the Gamera films (note: Gamera vs. Barugon, Gamera vs. Gaos, and I believe Gamera vs. Guiron all used International dubs not SF produced ones). Those versions would then become the property of Kadokawa and Tsuburaya Productions respectively once the rights reverted. ShoutFactory would have to go to Neptune Media (who according to Kadokawa have the US rights to the original Gamera series) and Tsuburaya Productions (For the re-edited TV series). They might end up contacting SF just to check, but there isn’t much he can do even if he did have a problem with it (ex: Ray Dennis Steckler and The Incredibly Strange Creatures… ).
One of the members here said – As for personal favorites, I’d love a 4-disc set of the Robert Lippert movies featured in Season Two, some of the best, most hilarious episodes ever: Rocketship X-M, Jungle Goddess, Lost Continent, and King Dinosaur.”
I would also love a set like this. I have all 4 on one 8 hour VHS, sometimes when I had a cold, Id stay home , play this all day long, but the tape is starting to get a little washed up…
I also got an email from Dr Rhino that we can get the Giant Gila Monster from rhino.com on 2/5…I wonder how much it will be…
Shout Factory will either present new opportunities for us who want titles that seem out of reach, or basically more of the same from a different company, basically only getting PD titles like Rocket Attack USA or well Giant Gila Monster..
I am a little worried about their quality
I do hope we will get some quick answers as to how they will distribute them Volumes, singles,double discs..
This is a great time to be a fan due to the unknown possibilities
Just dont let us down
Boy it’s been interesting being a MISTIE during the past 12 months. I love chatting with you guys! Here’s my alltime new box set :
306 – Time of the Apes
310 – Fugitive Alien
318 – Fugitive Alien 2
501 – Warrior of the Lost World
Not to leave Mike out.
My alltime Mike boxset set :
516 – Alien from LA
519 – Outlaw
813 – Jack Frost
910 – Final Sacrifice
@ Travis:
The dub in question isn’t the only thing that Frank would have added (if he did). He also added the new titles that are specifically referenced by Joel and the Bots. Just because Frank lost the rights to the underlying material doesn’t mean he loses the rights to the derived work created from that material (the “Sandy Frank edit”.)
For instance, Universal owns “Revenge of the Creature”. They licensed it to Best Brains to make Episode 801. Once the license was up, Universal can stop Best Brains from distributing episode 801, but that doesn’t mean Universal can distribute it without Best Brains.
So, while Neptune Media may have distribution rights to ‘Gamera tai daiakuju Giron’ using whatever dub, they still won’t *necessarily* have the right to release (or clear for release) the “Sandy Frank edit”.
Of course, we don’t know the inner workings of Sandy Frank’s contracts. He may, indeed, have lost all rights, even to his own edit. Without specific knowledge of the contracts, we cannot be sure.
@ Philip R. Frey (aka Rhindle the Red)
The Universal example doesn’t work because Universal owns Revenge of the Creature and didn’t have to license it from a foreign company.
But you are right that we can’t be sure without seeing the original contract. Neptune Media licensed the Gamera titles initially from Hearst/King Features… so it’s possible SF was just hired to produce the U.S. versions. Neptune Media released Gamera vs. Zigra on VHS using the SF dub (they opted for the original AIP dub for Guiron and the original NTA version of Gamera ). We’ll see what happens and if Shout Factory tries to obtain any of them.
[...] at you, Sandy Frank.) It’s unclear whether this will change with Shout! Factory’s just-announced acquisition of the series. I have my [...]
Oh Boy!
I just want to see more releases per year. I don’t care if they are single DVDs or sets.
I loved The Film Crew and will be sad to see it end.
Every time I watch CT The Oozing Skull, it gets better. Can’t wait for more CT.
I would also buy season boxed sets of MST3K, but I doubt they can pull that off.
I also want more Joel era MST3K. The Lippert set would be an example of a boxed set I’d like to have. I have had problems with what Rhino has thrown together, but I’m glad for what they have provided so far, and I’ll buy the Giant Gila Monster when it comes out.
If shout is listening (which I doubt) Id like to see a box set of
312 Gamera vs Guiron
620 Danger death ray
910 Final sacrifice
912 Screaming skull.
@Travis: “The Universal example doesn’t work because Universal owns Revenge of the Creature and didn’t have to license it from a foreign company.”
You’ve got it backwards. In my example using Universal, I am comparing Universal to Daiei and Sandy Frank to MST3K. In both cases the original owner (Universal / Daiei) retains full rights, but the licensor (Sandy Frank / MST3K) retains a certain level of control over the derived work.
So Universal can’t license, say, Sony to release MST3K episode 801 without an agreement with Best Brains. And (again, depending on the contracts), Daiei (or whoever they have licensed) may not be able to clear the use of the “Sandy Frank” edit of the Gamera films without permission from Sandy Frank.
Yes, season sets!
I have to say I have mixed feelings about this. I think that Rhino has, overall, improved their releases over the years. They’ve gone from VHS releases with limited video quality, basic packaging format and no extras to DVDs with a sharp picture, colorful contents and extra features that give an additional insight to particular shows. I know there have been snags, between rights issues and “The Dead Talk Back” disc that everyone seemed to have a universally similar problem with. I was shocked to hear this news, I had no idea any kind of deal like this was in the works. I’m an open-minded person, and I’m intrigued with what Shout! will do with their newly-acquired powers of MST3K distribution. Whether its singles or a four-disc box set, it doesn’t matter to me as long as they release them alittle more often than Rhino did. They’d be crazy to release episodes already covered by Rhino: even if the resolution is higher, and they have more special features, who’d buy them? Shout! would stand to gain much more by either taking the poll of what fans would like to see next released, or even episodes many fans have never seen (KTMA or Season 1). If they fail to even approximate what Rhino accomplished, Hell hath no fury like MSTies scorned!!
Eh….
My wish list:
All those old single disks to be re-packaged in 4-packs.
The Beginning of the End to be re-leased like The Movie was.
The Final Sacrifice! The only MST3K I saw on TV…And I want it on disk! Need to see again! Classic!
More Film Crew and CT (CT isn’t shout factory but I don’t care) . It took several years for the MST crew to get experienced enough to be real good at riffing, and then they got canceled. Keep ‘em coming I say!
I would like it if, prehaps, they could have season sets and prehaps only release the host segments for the episodes where they can’t have the actual film. It would suck (especially if you’re new to the show and wanted to see an episode in its entirty), but in my opinion it would be better than nothing.
As for KTMA era episodes, I would like to see them only [i]because[/i] people keep say they’re so bad. Okay–so it was early, they were still catching the drift of things, but these guys are geniuses! And, given the fact that the only people who would buy them are the people who had already fallen in love with the show, I feel that the fans are more likely to expect it not to be the best. I’ve found a couple of episodes on YouTube that had crummy picture quality but, because they were funny, I didn’t mind that much (and hey, anyone ever hear of digital remastering? It’s all the rage!)
I would love to see the first release include Quest of the Delta Knights or The Final Sacrifice.
Shout seems really into the show, which is nice to hear. I hope to see some high quality releases and faster releases as well.
Everything is still speculation as far as what the Shout Factory will do…
I guess there will be no Volume 13..
I could see them doing some double features, but at the same time, I can envision them basically being told the 4 issue collections was a winning formula & do keep doing them..who knows
I would love to see these on DVD right off the bat
Crawling Eye
Rocketship XM
Jungle Goddess
Lost Continent
King Dinosaur
Samson vs the Vampire Women
Laserblast
Soultaker
Multi sets. Please Shout!
Also, will Rhino releases suddenly go OOP? How long do fan have to buy them before that happens?
Call me broke and worried about this turn of events.
[...] * Shout Factory takes over MST3K distribution from Rhino. [...]
As Sampo explained and Shout Factory’s Brian Ward reiterates, no season sets due primarily to cost.
However, unless I’m reading far to into it, sets appear to be on the horizon compared to single releases! Read below
http://www.shoutfactory.com/community/570/thread.aspx
“You will never see season volumes of the series, I’m afraid. That is, unless there’s someone with REALLY DEEP pockets that just want to do it without the hopes of receiving a profit. The films came from multiple studios and copyright owners and no one company can afford to license every single movie ever addressed by the MST3K gang in a single season. That, sadly, includes us.
But we are ironing out some awesome plans for the upcoming first set and will start officially working on it very soon. I promise you MST3K fans that you will NOT be disappointed.” – Brian Ward
I’m glad they’re sticking to sets, and am not surprised in the least that they won’t be doing season sets (even if they could afford the rights, some major studios wouldn’t want to license their movies to another company period).
Man, that is great news! I’m a fan that will buy these season sets with a huge smile on my face. Well, as long as they don’t throw in some already released ones among new ones just to get us to rebuy what we already have. But Shout! wouldn’t do that. Right?
I’m a fan of the entier series. I’d like to see this following set or eps released someday:
1) Agent For HARM
2) Riding With Death
3) Horror Of Party Beach
4) Werewolf
5) The Space Children
When you guys see any news on the Gila Monster single disc release please post it.
Now that I think about this, maybe Shout! could release sets and singles. This way we could avoid double-dipping for some of us, and newcomers to purchasing MST3K can get whatever is released whenever.
“I don’t get all this love for Puma Man…”
He flies standing up…wearing slacks. Even if there were no riffing at all, this would still be one of the funniest episodes.
For a company named “Shout!”, they have been very quiet since the announcement of being the MST3K distributor. Still waiting for a release date, episode(s) released, and approximate price. Word of advice: don’t be like Rhino and take so long between releases. Keep your customers in touch!