Joel did an AMA on Reddit

Joel Hodgson recently did an Ask Me Anything session on Reddit, largely as promotion for the resurrection of MST3K. Though I would, of course, recommend reading the AMA for yourself, I thought I’d sift through it and highlight some of the most interesting parts.

• All the new films will be in widescreen. (“better-looking bad movies”)
• The new cast has already been chosen. In fact, the new host can be seen in the Kickstarter video. It’s unclear whether Crow and Servo’s new voices were in the video. Either way, we’ll meet the new cast soon.
• The reboot will probably be shot in Los Angeles.
• Joel broke down how the Kickstarter’s $2 million would be used. He used this handy dandy infographic to illustrate.
• He wants the new MST3K to last another 30 years.
• The reboot isn’t about an MST3K reunion, it’s about new episodes.
• The new Mad will be the “offspring” of Clayton Forrester.

All in all, a fairly informative session focusing more on the new than the old. Though, at one point, a Reddit user asked for an episode recommendation and Joel fired back with season nine’s The Final Sacrifice, which I thought was interesting.

Trace Beaulieu not participating in the reboot either

Not much to say about this one. Color me disappointed. This is beginning to look a lot like a fresh reboot of the show, both in front of and behind the camera, with Joel being the only returning staff member. I’m trying to remain hopeful, but a 100% fresh reboot isn’t really what I was hoping for.

Still no word from Frank, Kevin, Paul, Josh, or Mary Jo.

Rifftrax crew will not be a part of MST3K reboot

Mike Nelson and Bill Corbett recently took to Facebook and Twitter, respectively, to let fans know that they will not be participating in Joel Hodgson’s upcoming MST3K reboot. Basically, it sounds like they’re committed to Rifftrax, a project that is more their own than MST3K ever was, both financially and creatively; something which this exchange seems to further confirm. Which, you know, fair enough. Still, I can’t help but feel disappointed that they’ve already written off the possibility so quickly.

Kevin Murphy has yet to comment on the reboot, but one can assume he’s probably abstaining for similar reasons.

MST3K is coming back! (Like, for real)

Hey, everybody! Remember me? I sure do! I’m back, because Joel Hodgson is planning to bring back Mystery Science Theater 3000. MST3K.com now redirects to this Kickstarter page, where Joel is asking for a minimum of $2 million to get three new episodes up and running. The more money they receive, the more episodes they’ll produce, up to what seems to be a maximum of 12. Joel will shop the episodes around to TV and streaming platforms and, well, who knows what’ll happen?

As always, the Kickstarter comes with some perks for donators, including the usual stuff, like t-shirts, coffee mugs, and downloads of the new episodes. But, if you’ve got deep pockets, you can have your very own official Crow or Tom Servo for $8,000, or both for $10k. As I’m writing this, they’ve already secured over $500,000 for the project, with the full 31 days still to go. In other words, this is happening.

The only downside to this project, in my opinion, is that Joel is hoping to recast all the roles. New host, new bot voices, new Mads. The original cast is, of course, invited back to write and guest star, but this is looking to be, for all intents and purposes, a reboot. I trust Joel, but it’s hard not to be a tiny bit disappointed.

The Kickstarter has until December 12th to meet its goal.

Cinematic Titanic visits MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann

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?

Bill and Kevin celebrate Paul (of Paul and Storm)’s birthday

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.

MST3K: Volume XVII announced

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.

MST3K: Vol. XVI is out now

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.

Woot has Shout Factory’s MST3K DVDs cheap, today only

I just wanted to throw up a quick post to let you know that Woot.com has Shout Factory’s first three MST3K DVD box sets for sale today (and today only) as a set of three — for only $50 total. That’s right. Twelve episodes for the retail price of four! Billy Mays himself (God rest his soul) couldn’t give you a better deal.

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!

Hey. So, Comic-Con is happening…

Heh. Once again, it looks like I’m the slowpoke. I was preparing to type up some sort of Comic-Con post, and the good folks at Satellite News beat me to it, as usual. Instead of rehashing the specifics, I’ll just give you a general rundown of what MST3K-related shenanigans are going down this weekend, and then point you over to the Satellite News post for more details.

Friday, July 24th @ 2:30pm: Mike Salva’s Max The Hero animated short will be shown in room 26AB. The well-received short features the vocal talents of Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett. (Here’s my original post about the short.)

Friday, July 24th @ 3pm: Immediately following that, Mike, Bill, and Kevin will be in Sails Pavilion AA8 signing autographs. There’s something about there being a “line ticket drawing” at 10:30am, so you may have to do that first. On Saturday, July 25th at 12pm, there will be a second autograph session in Sails Pavilion AA6. Both sessions will last a couple of hours.

Friday, July 24th @ 7:15pm: It’s a Rifftrax Live show! The usual trio of riffers will be mocking an unnamed short in-person, in Ballroom 6D/E. Presumably, there will also be a Q&A session of some kind, as The Internet’s Veronica Belmont is listed as hosting the panel.

Sunday, July 26th @ 10:30am: You can catch the sole official Comic-Con appearance by a Cinematic Titanic crew member by attending this live performance of The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd podcast, in room 8. TV’s/DVD’s Frank Conniff will be performing one of the show’s characters, as he’s done before.

And throughout the weekend, Rifftrax/Legend Films will be at booth #3251 in the Exhibit Hall. They’ll be peddling plenty of merchandise, and you may even see Mike, Bill, or Kevin lingering around like the unemployed bums they are. Furthermore, if any of this information is still relevant to you, you’re probably at Comic-Con right now and I’m jealous and I hate you.

(Image taken from Amanda Palmer’s Twitter.)

Deep Reviewing: Cinematic Titanic, live in Philly!

I had a brief, 30-second conversation with MST3K creator Joel Hodgson. I had a brief conversation with Joel Hodgson. I talked with Joel Hodgson. I came into contact with Joel Hodgson. Joel… Hodgson.

On June 13th, my 26th birthday, I traveled to the city of Philadelphia to see the Cinematic Titanic crew do a live riffing of Danger on Tiki Island. Let me go ahead and spoil the article for you: It was amazing and you need to go see them live. Seriously. Now. Sell the kids, break out the rollerblades, do whatever it takes to get to a live show. Rifftrax, Cinematic Titanic, it doesn’t matter — the Brains and their work were meant to be experienced live. Click past the break for the full report.

(Please note: Due to my lack of a working camera, the header image came from Katy Beaulieu’s cell phone, hence the low quality. [That’s a comment on cell phone cameras, not Katy’s abilities as a photographer.] In case you can’t tell, that’s Trace on the left and me on the right. I look awful, but I photoshopped in a close approximation of how I felt at the time.)

Another monotonous post, plus MST3K XV reminder

The announcement of my return may have been a little premature. Anyway, I’m going to try to keep up with things as much as I can. Which is probably not very much, but I’ll at least finally fire off that Cinematic Titanic Live report from last month. I may try to focus less on news and more on reviews and articles, now. As you probably know, Satellite News is always your best bet for the latest in MST3K-related news.

Also, just a quick reminder that the absolutely fantastic new MST3K DVD set, Volume XV, was released recently. It contains three of the series’ most amazing episodes (The Girl in Lover’s Lane, Zombie Nightmare, and Racket Girls — plus season one’s weak The Robot vs. The Aztec Mummy) as well as some good extras. If you’d be kind enough to pick it up via this link, my (almost literally) penniless self would appreciate it. Thanks.

Happy Birthday, Bill Corbett!

Today is Bill Corbett’s 89th* birthday! Looks good for his age, doesn’t he? Why not shoot him a birthday tweet on Twitter and tell him that you don’t hate Crow’s new voice? Deep Ape salutes you, sir.

* Give or take 40 years.

New content, merchandise coming to MST3K.com

According to Satellite News, the official Mystery Science Theater 3000 website will be getting a little bit of new content, as well as a few sweet items for the store. In the not-too-faraway future, an “MST3K Genesis” section will be debuting, which will include videos, images, and “memoirs” from the first two seasons of the show (that is, KTMA and season one).

As for the merchandise, the shop will be getting another amazing t-shirt, the design from which can be seen at the top of this post. (It’s a reference to a host segment from episode 612, The Starfighters.) You’ll also be able to pick up a cool set of four mini-posters (which you can see by visiting the Satellite News article), and a probably-overpriced copy of the forthcoming Volume XV DVD set.

MST3K Volume 15 now up for pre-order

Shout Factory’s next DVD set is up for pre-order on Amazon. It’s out on July 7th.

Yep. I really don’t have anything else to say about that. Other than, please do me a favor and use the above link, if you’re interested in using Amazon. It will give me a dollar, with which I will go buy an ice cream cone and be happy.