Slashdot Mirror
MST3K Is Kickstarting Back To Life
New submitter kevin lyda writes: The creator of MST3K wants to bring it back. Anywhere from just three episodes up to a full season. Joel is also including options to make it DRM-free. Wired reports: "Hodgson officially launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund new episodes of the series. The initial goal of $2 million would fund only three episodes, but if the campaign does well enough, the project could make as many as 12 episodes (that maximum order would require $5.5 million). The rewards run the gamut from the typical t-shirt all the way up to fans contributing riffs to the episodes or hosting live installments of the show. But the real fun begins if MST3K finds an angel investor willing to splash some serious cash: 'Finally, if we raise $1 BILLION—stay with me on this one—we’re going to adopt a real live teenage boy and "Truman Show" him into believing he is the Pumaman!'"
Get syfy, spike, others to pick it up!
Miles O'Keefe.
MST3K was totally unfunny. I hope the Kickstarter goal isn't met and MST3K doesn't come back at all. I'd gladly donate to bring the new series of Red Dwarf to American TV, though. That show actually was hilarious.
That seems extremely expensive at $660,000 per episode/movie (approx).
I wonder how much of that is licensing with the owners of the films? I would have to guess quite a bit.
The Kickstarter doesn't seem to detail this. I will be donating though.
BlameBillCosby.com
Surely this fundraising is paying for the film? Why would there be any question about DRM?
I don't understand Kickstarters :/.
Please correct me if i am wrong but wasn't this thing all about some silhouette of a robot and another thing yaking it up with forced comedy commentary on old movies running in the background? Why does it cost on the high-end of tv production of $1 million per episode (or $5.5m for a full season) ? Good luck.
Without the writers, I doubt it will be the same. Unless I see evidence that they put their differences aside and work together, I won't be involved.
Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
It would have been good to see the acronym expanded at least once in TFS...
My first program:
Hell Segmentation fault
Cinematic Titanic which also has the people from MST3K that don't hate him. As a huge fan, this sounds fishy.
There's also the much MUCH more prolific and IMO funnier Rifftrax. The timing is interesting considering that RIfftrax just started bringing back old MST3K episodes every Monday with a new intro video by Mike Nelson. I backed one of the Rifftrax Kickstarter's and I don't regret it (I even have an mp3 I made of Kevin Murphy saying my name from one of the reward tiers.
I don't really know what caused the rift between Joel and Mike/Kevin but it seems clear that there is one. Personally, while he has his moments, I don't think Joel is as funny.
the licensing rights for the movies?
It's about 360k per episode after initial ramp-up. Apparently 1M to get going. They mention an issue with rights, so I assume that's part of the 1M. They say "cleared up," with regard to rights, but that might not mean "cleared up and PAID FOR."
I also assume that like any show, gathering a bunch of people in a writer's room costs salaries, leasing space, blah blah. It's expensive to open doors on anything. That first new camera costs a lot of money.
High end TV production costs *way* more than 1M/episode. That wouldn't even crack half the salaries on NCIS. (Harmon 525k, Weatherly and the rest of the main cast get 250k/ea)
I hope this succeeds, but honestly I like Mike Nelson more than Joel. I'd be more inclined to help kickstart one from Mike.
I really like what Mike, Kevin, and Bill have going on with Rifftrax.com. One just needs to beware that some riffs are done by people other than them, and imho aren't nearly as entertaining.
MST3k typically had 24 episodes a season, and part of the shtick of the series was that it was a relatively cheap production with a small crew licensing movies that cost almost nothing to show.
I get that we're motivating folks to gather together later in their career than before, and 'competing' with other opportunities they have - but if you're going to start up the engine, seems a bit of a shame to pre-plan to shut production down after 12 episodes.
Heck, given the nature of the series, you should really be mixing crowdfunding sources a little. Yes, the Kickstarter is important - but you should connect your stretchgoals to Patreon income also, and permit a couple extra options.
1) After the "pre-funded" Kickstarter episodes, let Patreon income build up funds for future episodes - while still keeping a nice mid-season break and even cast shifts as needed for quality of life.
2) Let the show grow as you go - keep your megacheap ethos/comedy style - but if you find a nice line of comedy, you want to do a special on, let it get a sub-fund and decide how it can fit into the schedule. 100,000 patreon fans contributing 1-10 bucks can get you more than enough when you've already got the set and many other things. That, and likely chances to get secondary income streams.
3) You know you're VERY likely not going to get a really good deal with a cable channel. Don't let the shiny prize of a commercial-pushing income source let you shortchange your audience on things like DRM. Do it for you too - make a show you'd like to make first, compromise where it matters least as you can, and the audience can do more than the promises of any executive. Let us circulate the '.mkv's.
4) Stay cheap, the audience will help. Don't do silly things like commission CGI movies of fantastical comedy scenes as part of your budget. Ask the audience to help, and we will make the stupidest, most hilarious things for you. Use that - USE IT!
Ryan Fenton
Just in the last few months, Fantasic Four and Pixels.
Basically, Shout Factory, the people who are doing the DVDs, bought all the shows rights from Jim Mallon/Best Brains, " including all brand assets and global intellectual property."
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
Just go to any movie with at least three black females in the audience.
That was a quick $100.
The only thing worse than a Democrat is a Republican.
The Phantom Menace
Attack of the clones
revenge of the sith
I've watched about 7 episodes and only found one to be funny. The show concept is great but the critics were meh. If they bring in some big guns maybe then I'll consider supporting a comeback.
meh. look at the cast needed, fx budget needed and just look at the synopsis for mst3k and ST:TNG and it really starts to seem QUITE unreasonable.
but then again, americans seem to think that everything should give a 100k year salary and showbusiness double that.
basically, at 660k, they would be running a higher budget per episode THAN THE FUCKING MOVIES THEY'RE RIFFING TO. for example zombie nightmare had an adjusted for 1987 to 2015 inflation budget of 382,499.18 dollars.
and no, they didn't show it on tv where I'm from so I don't really care. probably would have more value if it was nostalgic, but, mst3k is still known largely for being a show made like it is made due to having to come up with a show that had as little expenses as possible, so comparing it to something like TNG is really fucking unfair.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Why wouldn't Netflix hire him to create this?
Oh, yeah; they also have a lot of these shitty movies in their catalog to placate the rights-holders that also own good movies.
Was it really deemed to be funny by a large percentage of the population? I watched it a couple of times and thought it puerile, trite and quite unfunny. I also don't know anybody who really liked it - at best, they tolerated it. What was the population segment that it appeals to?
Ah yes, those were the days. I fondly remember staying up with my friend on Friday nights and watching cheesy movies on broadcast TV -- because that was all we had way back then.
Watching a funny guy snark about a movie he is forced to watch was funny because back then we were all in the same boat. It was that or the test pattern.
Watching a funny guy snark about a movie ONLY he is forced to watch isn't as funny because -- why would you do that? What's the point again? What else is on?
I think that's the idea. New MST3k, original movies. (Making the movies is easy as they're required to be cheap and badly written and acted; writing jokes/riffs should be easier too!)
Everyone else is doing it:
Netflix
Amazon
Crackle
Hulu
Yahoo!
Xbox Entertainment Studios
Because most of the characters die off the first episode.
Hookers and coke?