I kind of missed the boat on this one (BIG SURPRISE!) but Trace, Joel, and Josh appeared on MSNBC last week, on long-time MSTie Keith Olbermann’s show. You can see it above and, yes, it’s about as charmingly Midwest-Awkward as you might expect. With exposure like this, I expect to see not just a ton more live shows, but I wouldn’t be surprised to hear of them heading into the studio sometime this year.

Not that I want to start a stupid Rifftrax vs. Cinematic Titanic discussion, but has Rifftrax ever received this level of promotion? Or is this the most mainstream exposure a Brains project has gotten since MST3K?

J. Elvis Weinstein just sat down for a chat with friend to all MSTies Ken Plume for what Josh describes as “a long, long time.” I haven’t listened to it yet, but I’m going to go ahead and say that it is probably “entertaining,” possibly “incredible,” and most likely not “ghetto fly.” Give a listen here.

You might recall the names Paul and Storm from the Tron Rifftrax entry, which they performed with Jonathan Coulton. You might recall it, and hopefully you do, as their names have resurfaced once again in MSTdom. See, it was Paul’s birthday recently, and Storm sought out recorded messages from their friends for a special video birthday present. Bill Corbett and Kevin Murphy, among others, answered the call.

Bill went for a somewhat more straightforward message than most of the other participants, and you can find him around the 7-minute mark. Kevin, on the other hand, decided to go any which way but straightforward, dusting off the United Servo Academy Men’s Chorus name (or in this case, the academy’s “Liturgical Ensemble”) and serenading Paul in (I believe) Latin. It’s at the end of the video, around the 13-minute mark, and well worth a listen.

The rest of the video is pretty funny and, assuming you like funny (you do), you would probably do well to watch it as well. If you’re as big of a fan of the United Servo Academy as I am, this is a really nice surprise.

Josh sent out an update on the current state of affairs at Cinematic Titanic Central today. In addition to dropping in a new tour stop in Massachusetts this April, he also announced a new DVD release. Like the previous DVD, this one is  comprised of live footage, this time of their assault on The Alien Factor. I wouldn’t be surprised to see one or two more live releases this year, since it’s a relatively easy way of releasing new, well-received content with minimal effort involved.

The DVD is set for release on February 23rd, which is… next Tuesday? Really? I hate the passage of time. As I said, the CT crew has also added an extra tour date. I’ve listed it below, along with what I believe is a complete list of their upcoming shows.

2/19 @ Royal Oak Music Theatre, Royal Oak, MI — 1st show: War of the Insects, 2nd show: Samson and the 7 Miracles of the World

2/20 @ Turner Hall, Milwaukee, WI – 1st show: sold out, 2nd show: Samson

4/15 @ The Calvin Theatre, Northampton, MA — Danger on Tiki Island (NEW DATE)

4/16 @ The McCarter Center, Princeton, NJ — Movie undecided; vote here!

4/17 @ The Nokia Theatre Times Square, New York City — Danger on Tiki Island

Wait, a New Jersey show? You’d think I’d be better at finding out about these things. I am not. Anyway, go see them live, if you can. As I’ve said before, it’ll be well worth the time, effort, and cash-moneys. It’s a fantastic experience.

Yep, you won’t find a more descriptive post title this side of the Internet, let me tell you what. I’m not really sure why posting this is at all relevant, but since when has being relevant ever been relevant? The Internet is for internetting!

(via TorgosPizza’s twitter)

The next Rifftrax commentary, out today, is Paranormal Activity. In other words, it is something I will never watch, because I’m a huge pussy when it comes to horror films. As such, I have selected a header image to encourage happy thoughts and not evil ghost-demon-monster thoughts. You’re welcome.

You can pick up the DVD here… IF YOU DARE!

Ugh. Hey. What’s up? Yeah, I’m still here. Had a hell of a time these past few months (which I’ll spare you the details of) but I’m hoping to slowly get back in the habit of updating Deep Ape. Needless to say, hopefully you’ve been reading Satellite News for all your MST3K needs in the interim. There’s certainly a good amount of news that I’ve missed while I was away.

One such piece of news is the announcement of yet another volume of MST3K DVDs. Man, Shout Factory is really pumping these out, aren’t they? Good on them.  This 17th(!) set is pretty darn decent, with a reasonable selection of episodes and a surprisingly excellent load of extra content. Here’s the rundown of the set’s contents, as listed in the press release:

EPISODES

• 0101 The Crawling Eye
• The Beatniks
• The Final Sacrifice
• The Blood Waters of Dr. Z

BONUS CONTENT

• special Crawling Eye introduction with Joel Hodgson
• Mystery Science Theater Hour wrap segments for The Beatniks
• The Main Event: Crow vs. Crow at Dragon*Con ’09 (with Trace and Bill)
• an interview with Final Sacrifice‘s Bruce J. Mitchell (Rowsdower!)
• Blood Waters of Dr. Z photo gallery
• original theatrical trailers
• And, allegedly, “more.”

Now, that’s a nice selection of extras. And we finally get both the first (non-KTMA) episode of the series and fan favorite Final Sacrifice officially released on DVD. The set is scheduled for release on March 16th, 2010, and can be pre-ordered here.

Hey, guess what came out today? Mystery Science Theater came out today. Specifically, the sixteenth volume of four-DVD box sets, released by Shout Factory. The set includes episodes Night of the Blood Beast, The Corpse Vanishes, Santa Claus, and Warrior of the Lost World. There are also a few substantial movie-related extras included and, if you act fast, a small Tom Servo figurine to accompany Shout Factory’s previous Crow figurine. All in all, a pretty solid set.

Once again, if you plan on picking this up from Amazon, I would ask that you use this link to help support this site, or more to the point, support me. One of the reasons for my absence has been a slew of ridiculous health problems. Currently, I’m barely functional and on painkillers, though I should hopefully be up and running before Christmas. So, if you prefer Amazon for your Christmas shopping, please head there via this link, if you’d be so kind. Thank you.

Well, Comic-Con 2009 is officially over, and what a great time it was! There’s something very special about seeing so many geeks in one place, and this year was no exception. The convention hall was filled to the brim with various nerd treasures, from comic books to elaborate figurines, and even Star Trek perfume!

But of course, the real draw for me  (and Deep Ape!) were the various Rifftrax events that were going on over the weekend. Click past the break to read about it!

On Friday afternoon, Mike, Kevin, and Bill did a limited signing that required the fans to participate in a lottery for a ticket to the event. It wasn’t terribly complicated — we simply gathered at 10:30AM near the booth and pulled tickets out of a bag. If the ticket had a ladybug stamp on it, you were good to go. If you didn’t, you could get back in line and try again. Thankfully, there were about 250 tickets allotted and not much competition present, so on my third try I was “ladybugged” and ready for the afternoon!

Later that day, we were in line again waiting for the signing to begin. It’s always cool to hang out and connect with other fans, and this year was particularly great for me. Anyone who read my recap of last year’s Rifftrax Live show would have seen a picture of me getting my hair felt up by “Torgo” in front of the Balboa Theater. This Torgo was back again this year, but with an extra surprise: He was handing out business cards this year that offered his various “services” — and my picture was on his card! Suffice it to say, I was very flattered and got a real kick out of it!

Finally, the riffers arrived, along with Bridget Jones-Nelson and the Nelsons’ sons. The guys were amicable, as always, and very enthusiastic to meet everybody. I had all three of them sign a Rifftrax Twilight poster, and I also had Kevin sign his book, A Year at the Movies, (about which he complimented me for my good taste) and Mike signed his book, Mind Over Matters.  Despite the fact that I had the pleasure of meeting them all last year, I’m still blown away by  how amazing they all are. The guys are so down-to-earth, and you really get the sense that they’re just regular guys that you could hang out with in real life. What was particularly amusing was that Adam West was signing autographs in the booth right next to theirs, and his line was nowhere near as long as ours. Take that, Batman!

Later that evening, we had the Rifftrax panel and a live riffing of a short to look forward to. Since this year didn’t have quite the grandeur that last year’s 20th anniversary panel had, it wasn’t as much of a challenge to get into the room. Whereas last year the panel was preceded by an Adult Swim and Robot Chicken panel, as well as a Dr. Horrible panel afterward, this year didn’t have any particularly epic panels for us to compete with for time. In fact, I think the following panel was showing Sci-Fi — I’m sorry, SyFy — original TV-movies. We arrived about an hour-and-a-half before the event was set to start, and that was good enough to get into the preceding panel and find a reasonably good seat for the Rifftrax panel.

When the room went dark and the audience quieted, we were treated to an absolutely brilliant montage featuring some of the boys’ greatest riffs from their movies. Anyone sitting in the room that hadn’t heard of Rifftrax before was sure to become a fan as they watched Jaws break through a boat and hear Mike yell “Oh yeah!” like the Kool-Aid man, or heard the trio sing “Yakety Sax” as Edward Cullen ran Bella up a hill with his super speed. Credit must be given to the amazing Rifftrax employee Erik (aka Torgospizza) for putting it together, because it was his pitch-perfect editing combined with their hysterical riffs that had the audience amped up for Mike, Kevin, and Bill. As soon as they walked on stage, they were greeted with a standing ovation.

Once they sat down, they got right to the live short, which was the epically funny Shake Hands With Danger.  There were a few tweaks in the jokes, but for the most part it was the same brilliant performance that can be seen on the Rifftrax Shorts, Vol. 1 DVD. It’s been said time and time again, but watching a funny riff alone pales in comparison to watching it in a room filled with eager fans. Everyone was laughing and having a great time, and the feeling was truly infectious. Things really went into high gear once the more horrific injuries started showing up in the film. People laughed as one inept worker crumpled to the ground with shrapnel in his chest, and they all screamed when another ground off some of his fingers. But the best reaction by far was when the audience watched a worker contemplate greasing up a connection with his hand, rather than using a tool. I swear, you could feel the entire room start to squirm with nervous energy, because after the previous violence they had witnessed, everyone knew this was going to be good. And horrible. But mostly funny as hell. So, when a vicious bee attack ultimately left this poor doofus without a hand, well, the audience went nuts. Thankfully, we had Mike, Kevin, and Bill to aid us through the entire process! A great time was had by all.

Usually, after presenting a piece, most panels open up a Q&A with the fans, but this was not the case for the riffers. Instead, they wanted our help deciding what their next movie should be. Each person who went up to the microphone had 30 seconds to pitch a suggestion to the boys, with moderator Veronica Belmont keeping time. Really good suggestions would mean a Legend Films DVD as a prize. There were a variety of films suggested. One fan encouraged them to do Speed Racer, which in turn prompted Mike to say, “Sir, with all due respect, go to Hell.” Another suggested The Duchess with Kiera Knightly, which got an inordinate amount of laughter from Kevin and Mike — explained when Bill sheepishly responded, “A good friend of mine wrote that script!” One of the best pitches was for a film called Stalking Santa, which was supposedly about a man trying to prove that Santa Claus existed, and it was narrated by William Shatner. Kevin really seemed to perk up at that, so I suspect he’ll be watching that film at some point regardless! Watchmen was also suggested, but Mike seemed very concerned about having to riff “the blue dangly,” as he put it. Ultimately, after a strong pitch and a very visceral reaction from Veronica, the winner was Dragon Wars, a crappy sci-fi film from 2007, and perfect fodder for the boys.

None of them had seen the film, so at the second signing on Saturday afternoon they expressed a mixture of excitement and trepidation regarding the film. Mike asked worriedly if it was long, while Kevin wanted to know if it had excessive nudity in it — simply because that stuff is so difficult to riff. I think they’ll have a good time with it, and we’re sure to get an excellent Rifftrax out of the deal. It will definitely be one that I pick up!

Well, that’s it for the Rifftrax events, and I’m very glad that I went to Comic-Con to see them. For me, getting to see these guys perform live, and getting to chat with them for even a brief moment, is definitely worth the travel time and expense. I got to go shopping, make new friends, and see some grade-A riffing. What more could a girl want? I can’t get enough of these guys, and judging by the people I met that weekend, I’m not alone in that! So thank you, Mike, Kevin, and Bill, for hanging out with us and making us laugh. We fans really appreciate it when you make yourselves available to us, and this weekend was no exception. I definitely look forward to seeing what Rifftrax has in store for the future, and I can’t wait for the Plan 9 show in theaters around the country on August 20th. But one thing is for sure: As long as Rifftrax has a booth at Comic-Con, I will definitely be there. It’s just too good of a time to pass up!

Make sure you pick them up quickly. Woot operates on a first-come, first-serve basis, offering up a great deal on a different product every day. Once they sell out, the sale is over and, either way, these DVDs will definitely be gone by midnight tonight, at the latest. So if you’re going to buy, buy now!