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Post by Mighty Jack on Jun 18, 2021 15:52:03 GMT -5
Bridget and Mary Jo's Sherlock Holmes films were all colorized, as was their "Beyond Christmas"
and my posts are in reaction to what Joel said in regards to older films. But to keep this from turning into the whispering game, Here's Joel's response (for those who didn't read it)
Actually, it was my decision not to include some of those “sans color” movies for the last few seasons, and I’m happy to explain why. To tell you the truth, when I watch stuff with my own kids – who are in high school – I’ve come to realize that kids that age don’t naturally find black and white movies all that inviting, at least at first blush. My kids enjoy some classic black and white movies like Hard Day’s Night, Dr. Strangelove, and the Marx Brothers… but those usually come with a bit of a pitch from me or their Mom.
So, I sometimes think that presenting a black and white movie may not be as engaging to newer viewers who are still getting used to MST3K. Of course, I’ve never been interested in “dumbing down” Mystery Science Theater 3000… but, I also really felt that part of the value of having the show on Netflix was to help a new generation discover the show, and feel like they could get on board and be part of our community.
Also, when MST3K had to compete with big, expensive Netflix productions like Stranger Things for attention, I thought it might help – at least at first – to include some movies that felt a little more “accessible” to audiences that didn’t know about our show yet.
And you know, I think – at least for the last few seasons – that it was a good decision, because a lot of new folks have joined our community. In fact, when we looked at all of the reports after our Kickstarter ended, we found out that about 47% of you weren’t backers during our first Kickstarter, back in 2015. And, even more encouraging, we’ve gotten a lot of messages from that group telling us that they did discover the show on Netflix, and have now worked backwards to watch most of the older episodes as well. So yeah, I think it was a helpful experiment for us. But now that we’re talking about it, I’m frankly relieved that so many of you also enjoy black and white films, because I truly love them. When we started making MST3K, we naturally included a lot of older movies – but it wasn’t because we specifically were trying to include black and white movies. (For one thing, older movies were more likely to be in the public domain, which made them easier to use.)
Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that there might still be a place for those older movies on Mystery Science Theater… and since I know a lot of you have been missing them, I’m pleased to confirm that we’ll be riffing at least one black and white movie in Season 13. I’m not ready to tell you which one just yet, but I will tell you it’s from 1961.
So yeah, even though we made a decision to riff more “accessible” movies for the last two seasons, I don’t want you to worry: we’re not just riffing newer movies.
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Post by zombiewhacker on Jun 19, 2021 2:58:04 GMT -5
Something else I've been wondering:
The original MST3K presented a wide variety of genre movies during its KTMA and Comedy Central runs -- action films, westerns, film noirs, disaster pics, exploitation flicks, motorcycle gang movies, and more. The Sci-Fi channel years squarely put an end to that, narrowing the show's focus to horror/fantasy/sci-fi almost exclusively for the remainder of the show's run.
The odd thing is that when the show returned on Netflix, where one might assume that Joel had a freer hand in what types of movies he could choose, the reboot instead picked up where the old show left off, leaning heavily on the Sci-Fi channel tried-and-true formula (with Avalanche being one of the few exceptions.)
My question, then, is whether Joel plans to return the show to its roots at some point, welcoming and riffing all types of genre films. I'm not really complaining here, mind you, merely thinking aloud -- many of my favorite MST3K eps in the past have been of the monster movie variety -- but it has been a noticeable shift in the show's focus nonetheless.
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Post by BoB3K on Jun 21, 2021 11:22:26 GMT -5
The original MST3K presented a wide variety of genre movies during its KTMA and Comedy Central runs -- action films, westerns, film noirs, disaster pics, exploitation flicks, motorcycle gang movies, and more. The Sci-Fi channel years squarely put an end to that, narrowing the show's focus to horror/fantasy/sci-fi almost exclusively for the remainder of the show's run. Ya know, it feels that way, but I'm not sure it's as prevalent as it feels. There is a much larger set to choose from if you are looking at seasons 0-7 compared to 8-10, so naturally there will be more of each kind of movie. My mst3kdb.com page has a filter on it and I have 'tagged' the movies with genres. Filtering on SciFi / Horror / Fantasy gives this: 0-7: 68 / 151 - 45% (83 not) 8-9: 37 / 48 - 77% (11 not) So there you have it, definitely more, but still, almost half of all of them where genre even in the pre SciFi seasons, and when you get to SciFi, they still managed to slip in 1 in 4 as not. It does make sense though, "genre" movies are just plain easier to riff, and are often more fun to watch when bad because there is more going on than just the acting and plot. It's tough to decide what genre is sometimes. One of my favorite genre's for riffing are Spy movies. Are those scifi or just action adventure with some dad gadgets?
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Post by dudehitscar on Jun 21, 2021 13:47:55 GMT -5
Something else I've been wondering: The original MST3K presented a wide variety of genre movies during its KTMA and Comedy Central runs -- action films, westerns, film noirs, disaster pics, exploitation flicks, motorcycle gang movies, and more. The Sci-Fi channel years squarely put an end to that, narrowing the show's focus to horror/fantasy/sci-fi almost exclusively for the remainder of the show's run. The odd thing is that when the show returned on Netflix, where one might assume that Joel had a freer hand in what types of movies he could choose, the reboot instead picked up where the old show left off, leaning heavily on the Sci-Fi channel tried-and-true formula (with Avalanche being one of the few exceptions.) My question, then, is whether Joel plans to return the show to its roots at some point, welcoming and riffing all types of genre films. I'm not really complaining here, mind you, merely thinking aloud -- many of my favorite MST3K eps in the past have been of the monster movie variety -- but it has been a noticeable shift in the show's focus nonetheless. I wish they would lean more heavily on the sci-fi channel formula.. where are all the horror films? Overall though I think they did a good job on movie type variety.
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Post by timmy on Jun 24, 2021 9:43:28 GMT -5
i just thought of this for the last movie of the season: Manos Return: they can have all three groups riff it (in parts) and in last movie segment, we can have them all together in the theater.
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Post by kracker on Jun 24, 2021 10:15:41 GMT -5
ugh well think we found a sure-fire way to get me to not renew my subscription.
that's right up there with 'how about they riff Cats'
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Post by slainmonkey on Jun 24, 2021 13:12:14 GMT -5
I mean Cats is a recent mainstream movie that has delusions of artistic vision. While on the one hand it is a movie that seems very riffable, it would feel really out of place on MST3K…..that and I doubt they’d be able to obtain permission from the holders of the copyrights to mock it!
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Post by dudehitscar on Jun 25, 2021 1:50:31 GMT -5
I mean Cats is a recent mainstream movie that has delusions of artistic vision. While on the one hand it is a movie that seems very riffable, it would feel really out of place on MST3K…..that and I doubt they’d be able to obtain permission from the holders of the copyrights to mock it! the problem with cats is that it's a 'sung through' musical. that can be exhausting to watch on it's own when it's done bad and I think it would prove really challenging to riff. Given the likely high cost for the rights to riff it it's probably not a wise experiment.. but I support the show pushing itself into other genres like this.
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Post by slainmonkey on Jun 25, 2021 4:27:49 GMT -5
I mean Cats is a recent mainstream movie that has delusions of artistic vision. While on the one hand it is a movie that seems very riffable, it would feel really out of place on MST3K…..that and I doubt they’d be able to obtain permission from the holders of the copyrights to mock it! the problem with cats is that it's a 'sung through' musical. that can be exhausting to watch on it's own when it's done bad and I think it would prove really challenging to riff. Given the likely high cost for the rights to riff it it's probably not a wise experiment.. but I support the show pushing itself into other genres like this. I mean, there’s lots of problems with Cats, it’s just not going to happen!
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Post by Megalon on Jun 25, 2021 13:03:37 GMT -5
the problem with cats is that it's a 'sung through' musical. that can be exhausting to watch on it's own when it's done bad and I think it would prove really challenging to riff. Given the likely high cost for the rights to riff it it's probably not a wise experiment.. but I support the show pushing itself into other genres like this. I mean, there’s lots of problems with Cats, it’s just not going to happen! You couldn't pay me to watch Cats, riffed or unriffed. Leave the blockbuster Hollywood movies to RiffTrax. They're not the right fit for MST3k, IMO.
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Post by kracker on Jun 26, 2021 5:22:15 GMT -5
I mean, 'Cats' is just such a basic bitch idea, its low-hanging fruit, a pinata dangled in everyone's faces last year, yet people don't think the idea of riffing Cats has crossed anyone's minds. Kind of like the idea of 'they should riff Manos Returns, cos its Manos. Manos funny'.
in terms of the movie itself, problem with Cats isnt that its a bad movie, its that its a notoriously bad musical that was only successful because it was something everyone's kids wanted to go see and any big movie version of it is going to be laughable. The filmmakers didnt have any delusion of artistic vision; that was honestly the best one could possibly do with such silly source material and everyone involved knew what this going to be and what they were getting into.
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Post by pufncraft on Jun 26, 2021 8:19:23 GMT -5
I watched Creature from the Haunted Sea the other night. I'm not sure if it would work as an episode as it mostly plays as a comedy. A bad comedy but a comedy nonetheless. I did have a good chuckle when they re-used music from Little Shop of Horrors at the very beginning. Oh Roger.
I still think The Mask in 3D would be a more interesting choice for the B&W film from 1961 that Joel was talking about. Then again, he might surprise us and use a film that's not sci-fi or horror.
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Post by slainmonkey on Jun 26, 2021 23:21:39 GMT -5
I mean, 'Cats' is just such a basic bitch idea, its low-hanging fruit, a pinata dangled in everyone's faces last year, yet people don't think the idea of riffing Cats has crossed anyone's minds. Kind of like the idea of 'they should riff Manos Returns, cos its Manos. Manos funny'. in terms of the movie itself, problem with Cats isnt that its a bad movie, its that its a notoriously bad musical that was only successful because it was something everyone's kids wanted to go see and any big movie version of it is going to be laughable. The filmmakers didnt have any delusion of artistic vision; that was honestly the best one could possibly do with such silly source material and everyone involved knew what this going to be and what they were getting into. Another issue with Cats is that much of the humour that can be drawn from it comes from the fact it’s so uncanny valley. Jokes about that would quickly grow tiresome in the MST3k format. If anything Cats would be better suited being mocked in a short sketch format, because in movie riffs to would wear out it’s welcome. Either way we all know it’s not going to happen anyway, it’s the essentially the same as when people who claim that MST3K should riff Star Trek the Motion Picture…..it’s essentially off limits!
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Post by kracker on Jul 2, 2021 15:29:11 GMT -5
For some reason, they didnt say anything about this in the last update but they just announced that the MST3KLive tour is back this fall rather than next year. Don't know if that's supposed to effect their schedule and getting the Gizmoplex and new shows started towards the year's end, but that's the kind of thing that would be covered in their progress update.
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Post by Diet Kolos on Aug 6, 2021 13:34:21 GMT -5
Per the latest update, they may have lost the rights to the Holiday episode, and are working on the backup. Also, the Live Tour crew is going to shoot their live action bits in Pennsylvania in October, but they'll shoot the Holiday Special at a later date.
So it does sound like Turkey Day is the most likely premiere for the first new episode.
13 episodes, 1 per month, would take them through December 2022. But if I recall correctly the Holiday Special was Halloween-themed, so it'd probably be third-to-last released in Oct '22, one would think.
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