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Post by ashkenaz on Aug 14, 2006 12:27:20 GMT -5
A while back i talked to barbb (and actually to Jim Mallon) over the phone when i was ordering some sttuff and asked about those KTMA episodes. According to Barbb she said that the people who owned the station are the ones who own the rights to those episodes so in order to release them they would have to go through a lot of people to get the rights to the episodes alone THEN get the rights to the movies.
That could be why we didn't see any of them or even the host segments as extras.
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Post by doctorz on Aug 14, 2006 17:43:01 GMT -5
How about us lot taking out a few ads in Minneapolis newspapers to see if there are any TV collectors out there who might have the episodes on an old tape of something else? I think it's already been tried. A reward of over $500 was offered for 00-03 KTMA some years ago and there were no takers. That said, I too have had the fantasy of trying to find the missing eps. You would achieve instant status and be thrust into the pantheon of Best Brains if you could find fan tapes of those episodes and offer them to all us eager fantatics.
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Post by ds_36 on Aug 14, 2006 18:13:54 GMT -5
I think it's already been tried. A reward of over $500 was offered for 00-03 KTMA some years ago and there were no takers. You already told me about that the last time I was posting this crazy plan of mine That said, I too have had the fantasy of trying to find the missing eps. You would achieve instant status and be thrust into the pantheon of Best Brains if you could find fan tapes of those episodes and offer them to all us eager fantatics. That's my problem I have all these fantasies, honestly I don't even really like these very early episodes. I just want to find the missing ones just to find them, really. I don't know if I'd even bother watching them if I did manage to somehow get them.
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Post by ds_36 on Aug 14, 2006 18:14:10 GMT -5
...According to Barbb she said that the people who owned the station are the ones who own the rights to those episodes... So who owned the station back then? We've been going about this all wrong, instead of annoynig Jim Mallon, BBI, etc we should talk to the people who actually owned the station. Forgetting the actual rights issue, the episodes couldn't really be worth very much with how little budget they each got, and how little time was spent on each one.
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Post by ashkenaz on Aug 14, 2006 20:48:51 GMT -5
Jim does own the tapes of those episodes though.
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Post by ds_36 on Aug 14, 2006 21:25:13 GMT -5
Jim does own the tapes of those episodes though. If I understand what you wrote correctly, he may physically have the tapes, but he doesn't really own them. I'm guessing that if somehow the episodes leaked out he could wind up in a lot of trouble from the real owners of the episode. Meaning that we should be begging the owners of KTMA to somehow release the tapes to fans/on the internet, or even have a screening somewhere and not annoying the person who has a copy, but can't release them.
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Post by ashkenaz on Aug 14, 2006 21:41:04 GMT -5
Sorry, i misanterpreted what you said but yes you're right. I guess the same goes for all the KTMA episodes, i mean obviously we have the fan copies but getting them released should go toward the people who owed the KTMA station (the tapes could've gone to the people who bought the station as well).
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Post by ds_36 on Aug 14, 2006 22:45:56 GMT -5
I doubt if ownership went on anywhere. According to Wikipedia, when MST3K aired KTMA was owned by "KTMA-TV Acquisition Corp." I can just imagine trying to look that company up. Afterwards KTMA was bought by Lakeland Group Television (a Christian broadcaster), and finally by Sinclair Broadcast Group (a WB broadcaster). I doubt if either of those two companies would have interest in purchasing MST3K episodes.
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Post by torgoballz on Aug 15, 2006 11:49:54 GMT -5
I doubt if ownership went on anywhere. According to Wikipedia, when MST3K aired KTMA was owned by "KTMA-TV Acquisition Corp." I can just imagine trying to look that company up. Afterwards KTMA was bought by Lakeland Group Television (a Christina broadcaster), and finally by Sinclair Broadcast Group (a WB broadcaster). I doubt if either of those two companies would have interest in purchasing MST3K episodes. Since I'm fairly confident the KTMA Acquisition Corp. hasn't existed in a good decade or more, who would own the rights they held? Would it be Lakeland or Sinclair? Or somebody else? Edit: Here's the link to the Wiki entry for KTMA. The article specifically mentions a Donald O'Connor as being general manager for KTMA during that time. Perhaps he'd be a possible lead.
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Post by ds_36 on Aug 15, 2006 14:44:02 GMT -5
Well if you go into the FCC links at the bottom of the Wiki page it does actually tell you about the ownership of the station. The thing is, they only have the current ownership listed. So would the FCC have required the UHF KTMA to be registered with them? If so I'm sure it's possible to get the ownership info from them, and then lookup and contact the owner directly.
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Post by XerxesTheCat on Aug 15, 2006 15:42:31 GMT -5
I thought Jim and Kevin were co-owners of KTMA. Whatthe?
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Post by ds_36 on Aug 15, 2006 22:38:22 GMT -5
I never heard anything about Jim and Kevin co-owning the station, and based on other things I've read I don't think that sounds very likely. Really, I'm guessing with it being an independent channel and everything figuring out exactly who had the rights and where they've gone now would be a pretty complicated thing to do. Espically considering some weird company named "KTMA Acquisition Corp." apparently owned the episodes at that time.
Maybe there really is no other owner, and Jim was just using that as an excuse as to why the episodes weren't released.
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Post by Arizona Warwilf on Aug 20, 2006 3:51:06 GMT -5
Speculation is fun, innit?
So, say someone was able to determine the person who, today, owns the rights to the KTMA episodes and then was able to locate and contact that person. What're the chances they actually have the episodes in a hard copy sense? There'd still be a big hurdle in getting the rights owner in contact with Jim Mallon and thereafter convincing both of them that these things are worthy of actually being licensed for release. I think it'd be really really tough to convince anyone but us Mysties that it'd be worth lifting a finger for them. Do y'all suppose Jim actually still has the tapes? Do you think he's the nostalgic type or the out (to the dumpster) with the old type?
Geez, sorry to be all doom and gloom . . . Don't get me wrong. I would probably wet 'em if those eps were obtained somehow. I know the eps are what they are, and I like them for what they are. But what really gets me dreaming about that "second lightning strike" is my great love of complete sets (I have all of Led Zeppelin's albums on LP, CD, and Cassette. This is thrilling to me. Go figure). But somehow the "find the rights owner" idea doesn't seem hopeful. But, hell, if you're a go getter on a phone and this hasn't been tried, do it! Go for it!
My favorite daydream on this subject is that Jim Mallon will decide that they've been burning a whole in his shelf for too long and he just knows those wacky little Mysties would go gaga if they got out somehow. So, secretly, anonymously, silently, he digitizes them and posts them on ancientasstvshows.com and just waits for someone to discover them. Then, inevitably a fan finds them and no one, no rights holders of movies, no rights holders of KTMA shows, no one really notices except the Mysties . . . who are bouncing around on their buttockses.
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Post by ds_36 on Aug 20, 2006 16:01:00 GMT -5
What're the chances they actually have the episodes in a hard copy sense? High, there were KTMA clips released on compilation tapes (I don't know what where...I don't follow that much). But people generally like to hang on to their own work, so even if he doesn't have a copy I'm sure someone would. And, if during airing a copyright was presented on screen, I believe that the copyright holder is required to keep it for the duration of the copyright.
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Post by Arizona Warwilf on Aug 21, 2006 8:45:59 GMT -5
Right . . . high there . . . ?
I've been in the mindset that it's been determined that Jim Mallon is the only possessor of K00-K03 on the entire planet. But I guess that behooves (God, I hate that word; I thought I'd never use that word, damn) me to ask this question: do we actually know for a fact that Jim Mallon has the KTMA master tapes?
Again, don't get me wrong. I'm not high, I'm just making conversation and perhaps trying to help work out kinks in a theory.
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