Cheesy movies return

September 25, 2018 11:04 AM

Mystery Science Theater 3000 returns to the air with its twelfth season, dropping on Netflix on Turkey Day.
posted by Chrysostom (36 comments total)

👌

It stinks!
posted by hobgadling at 11:19 AM on September 25, 2018 [18 favorites]

I was worried that it would die after just the one series, so I am super happy about this.
posted by Vortisaur at 11:24 AM on September 25, 2018

BUT JONAH DIED, THOUGH

(Obligatory "repeat to yourself 'it's just a show, I should really just relax'". But he still died.)
posted by tobascodagama at 11:30 AM on September 25, 2018 [5 favorites]

(No he didn't. Check out that red space-suited figure clambering across the SOL in the finale credits!)

The show was officially renewed for Season 12 last Thanksgiving (they snuck it in at the very very end of the Turkey Day marathon), so we've known it would be back again for a while, but having a solid date and time beyond "late 2018" is nice.

I'm a member of a couple of MST3K fan groups on Facebook, and have witnessed a considerable amount of fan-angst over Netflix not renewing the show right away after Season 11 hit back in April 2017. I think this new arrangement (6 episodes/season) will make it so we can get new episodes with a shorter turnaround, and maybe Turkey Day will be a new yearly tradition for Netflix/MST3K.
posted by Strange Interlude at 11:43 AM on September 25, 2018 [1 favorite]

I'll save my Fan Angst for the Second Crowdfunding Campaign. That just seemed excessive to me, and Joel's justification, combined with the six episode season left me feeling rather cold.

I'm still going to watch the heck out of Season 12, mind, and probably going to love it. I'm just a little grumpy about the pre-production aspect is all.
posted by SansPoint at 12:06 PM on September 25, 2018 [1 favorite]

Eh, it didn't bother me, it's not like I have to participate in it.
posted by Chrysostom at 12:09 PM on September 25, 2018 [1 favorite]

Huzzah!

It took me forever to start watching the new episodes, because I was weirded out with all of the celebrities involved, but my fears were misplaced. They managed to capture the heart of the origiinal show, but with much better production values.

Will be looking forward to Season 12, and keeping my fingers crossed that none of the movies are as unpleasant as Carnival Magic was (the riffing efforts were heroic, but the movie was so weird and gross that I’m never gonna watch that one again.)
posted by creepygirl at 12:10 PM on September 25, 2018 [4 favorites]

MST3K FanFare page. For the cheese. For the laughter. *emotional gulp* For the Boys.
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 12:28 PM on September 25, 2018 [1 favorite]

It took me forever to start watching the new episodes, because I was weirded out with all of the celebrities involved,

Samesies. However, when the song rolled for the first time, so did a tear. Apparently the show was a bigger part of my heart than I was expecting.
posted by lumpenprole at 12:33 PM on September 25, 2018

I'm not high, but my dog is and I am!
posted by Schnellville at 12:38 PM on September 25, 2018 [4 favorites]

I'll save my Fan Angst for the Second Crowdfunding Campaign. That just seemed excessive to me...

I had assumed the crowdfunding thing happened before they got signed on by Netflix, but are you saying there was another one after that?
posted by Atom Eyes at 1:00 PM on September 25, 2018

Yay, Turkey Day is my birthday this year, so Happy Birthday to me!
posted by cottoncandybeard at 1:01 PM on September 25, 2018

if you don't have a vat with a bunch of spare Jonahs in it percolating in the back of your headquarters, just in case something goes wrong with your experiment or you need to add a new control group, what kind of mad scientist ARE you anyway
posted by delfin at 1:18 PM on September 25, 2018 [6 favorites]

Yeah, there was a Season 12 crowdfunding, too.
posted by Chrysostom at 1:21 PM on September 25, 2018

Atom Eyes: Yeah. There was a Season 12 crowdfunding campaign and I did not grok the reason for it at all. It didn't feel necessarily like a Cash Grab, but it didn't feel necessary, either.
posted by SansPoint at 1:25 PM on September 25, 2018 [1 favorite]

Well, look at that: 'breach hull, all die.' Even had it underlined.
posted by allkindsoftime at 1:44 PM on September 25, 2018 [4 favorites]

It was less of a crowdfunding campaign and more of a "pledge drive", ostensibly to make up budget overruns for the new season, since Netflix (who doesn't own the show outright) only pays for a portion of the production budget with the rest being funded by merchandise, etc. Apparently, they went slightly over budget this year due in part to unexpected price jumps for international film licensing, and the pledge drive was how they made up that shortfall.

TBH, I don't think it was all that well explained either, but on the other hand I trust that Joel and the production staff aren't out there blowing the pledge money on exotic vacations and rare coins and such. So I was happy to take the opportunity to preorder a Blu-ray set, and I'm excited as hell to see the touring show when it comes through my town next month.
posted by Strange Interlude at 1:49 PM on September 25, 2018 [6 favorites]

Sing it with me now:

We gather together
To watch cheesy movies
At Comedy Central
On Thanksgiving Day...

It’s Mystery Science (breath)
Theater 3000
It’s thirty straight hours
And it’s called Turkey Daaaaaaaaaaay
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 1:55 PM on September 25, 2018 [7 favorites]

I supported Season 11, and boy do I have regrets.
I should have just lit that $100 on fire and watched it burn.
It's a Very Old Man thing to say/do, but I'll stick with my Joel/Mike episodes and pretend that there are only 10 seasons.
posted by Major Matt Mason Dixon at 1:57 PM on September 25, 2018 [3 favorites]

Strange Interlude: If they'd explained it like that, I'd be less grumpy. Like I said, it didn't feel necessarily like a Cash Grab, but the justification behind it seemed rather weak, especially combined with the six episode season.
posted by SansPoint at 2:07 PM on September 25, 2018

Well this really squares my shoulders.
posted by East14thTaco at 2:11 PM on September 25, 2018 [2 favorites]

on the other hand I trust that Joel and the production staff aren't out there blowing the pledge money on exotic vacations

Are you kidding? Check Jonah Ray's Instagram, he's in Hawaii like all the time!

(This is a joke, he's actually from Hawaii and still has family there AFAIK.)
posted by tobascodagama at 2:25 PM on September 25, 2018 [5 favorites]

dropping on Netflix on Turkey Day.

In the not too distant future...
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 3:46 PM on September 25, 2018 [1 favorite]

Joel is great, but I’ve been bugged by the weird stuff over the years, like how he didn’t invite a bunch of the old cast back. The whole Rufftrax/Cinematic Titanic divide. And the crowdsourcing campaigns.

I actually liked the new season, but a lot about it - like the celebrities, the professional effects - felt really different in tone. I’m not really complaining, because everyone involved was great and seemed to have a blast. But it feels like a different enterprise than when it was weird people in the Midwest. It’s like seeing your mom’s basement recreated on a soundstage with better furniture and lighting.

But I also read that Joel had always intended for it to be this long-running thing with multiple hosts, or something like that, so who knows.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 6:02 PM on September 25, 2018 [2 favorites]

Yeah, the slickness of the new season just didn’t work for me. At all.
posted by Don.Kinsayder at 7:43 PM on September 25, 2018

It’s like seeing your mom’s basement recreated on a soundstage with better furniture and lighting.

"We're looking down on Wayne's basement. Only...that's not Wayne's basement. Isn't that weird?"
posted by Chrysostom at 9:37 PM on September 25, 2018 [6 favorites]

Joel is great, but I’ve been bugged by the weird stuff over the years, like how he didn’t invite a bunch of the old cast back. The whole Rufftrax/Cinematic Titanic divide.

I feel like the intra-cast rivalry thing is fairly overblown. When Mike started Rifftrax, it was with Joel's direct blessing, and vice versa for CT. The two projects each played to their respective members' strengths, with Rifftrax being more of a writing/recording exercise and CT being geared more towards live performance. And it seemed like both groups kind of staked out their own space within movie riffing, Rifftrax doing more mainstream films and focusing on MP3s, whereas CT did more B-pictures and focused on selling DVDs. And I highly doubt that there would have ever been an all-inclusive MST3K/Rifftrax reunion show (as there was a couple of years ago) if actual bad blood existed.

WRT members of the old cast not being fully clued in on the reboot or the Kickstarter, my sense is that had a lot more to do with Shout Factory's ownership of the property (and a necessary level of secrecy around their plans) than with Joel specifically excluding anyone. Kevin, Mary Jo, and Bill all came back for cameos as the old Mads, and Frank and Trace both appear to be on good terms with the new cast and crew. On top of it all, Joel and the Shout Factory deal is the whole reason why the original cast are finally being paid royalties for the older shows now (which was markedly not the case between 2000-2015), and why you can buy MST3K episodes through the Rifftrax website.
posted by Strange Interlude at 10:19 PM on September 25, 2018 [11 favorites]

Additionally, we're never going to know all the inner workings of what went down over the years. For a long time, it seemed like Josh left because of creative conflicts, now it appears he was also pissed about not being paid the same. There's probably a lot of things like that, and it's probably fruitless to be speculating.

FWIW, I've seen Trace and Frank a few times live. Basically, when asked about the new show, they just say they aren't involved, and move to the next question.
posted by Chrysostom at 10:30 PM on September 25, 2018 [1 favorite]

This is among the Netflix offerings we don't get in Sweden. I'm guessing it's to do with film rights? Can other EU markets get this on Netflix?
posted by St. Oops at 2:40 AM on September 26, 2018

While glad that S12 arrives in time for the tryptophanic engorgement, might I plug Frank and Trace's amazing live show The Mads? Goodness they are hilarious and wonderful. See them near you, or I'll commence with the DEEP HURTING.
posted by sydnius at 4:45 AM on September 26, 2018 [2 favorites]

I really think there's little or no animosity between former MST staff, with the possible exception of Jim Mallon, who sat on the rights and refused to pay royalties for so long. (I base this on what Joel said near the beginning of the documentary on disk 8 of the Kickstarter collection of Season 11.) At this point, I think it's like, each of the show's cast has mostly moved on, and they have to earn a living in their own ways. Mike, Kevin and Bill, with the sometimes addition of Mary Jo and Bridget, have RiffTrax; Frank and Trace have The Mads; and Joel and Paul and Beez McKeever have New MST. The fact that MJ, Kevin and Bill cameo in several new MST episodes, and the Rifftrax site promotes new MST, could be seen as an indication of this.

And they've each carved out their own little niches too. New MST is the continuation of the old show, done in an upgraded, but still old-show-like, kind of way; The Mads perform exclusively live and through their podcast; and Rifftrax does both older and newer movies with their sync systems, and also sell riffs made by other people.

Anyway, I wouldn't doubt that Season 12 brings in more cameos from the extended MST universe, in addition to outside its weird little universe. S11 they managed to get Jerry Seinfeld and Mark Hamill! Opening bets on who they'll get for the six episodes of season 12, we have Weird Al at three-to-one odds....
posted by JHarris at 4:46 PM on September 26, 2018 [6 favorites]

Alright, cool cameos I'm hoping for: Julia Louis Dreyfus, Patrick Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Bill Mumy, Margot Robbie, Terry Crews, and the entire cast of The Good Place. Finding characters in the MST3Kverse for these folks should be easier than riffing an episode of My Mother the Car...
posted by oneswellfoop at 8:23 PM on September 27, 2018 [2 favorites]

Honestly, I just want to see if Elliott Kalan gets to play another creepy/weird character that he immediately turns into his Twitter avatar.
posted by Strange Interlude at 6:46 AM on September 28, 2018 [1 favorite]

I really didn't care for the guest star cameos, but that's just me.
posted by Chrysostom at 9:34 AM on September 28, 2018

I feel like the celebrity cameos were mostly a selling point for the Kickstarter, basically a combination of Joel calling in old favors from his standup days (as in the case of Seinfeld) or famous people who were huge MSTies back in the day (NPH and Mark Hamill) begging to be included in the new season. My sense is that it's going to calm down a bit for S12, but who knows.
posted by Strange Interlude at 11:27 AM on September 28, 2018 [2 favorites]

"We're looking down on Wayne's basement. Only...that's not Wayne's basement. Isn't that weird?"

Yessssss that's exactly what came to my mind too!

Yeah, the celebrity cameos were weird and stilted, but it is kind of fun knowing that some of them did it just because they, the celebrities, were fans of the show back in the day.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 10:57 PM on September 28, 2018 [1 favorite]