It's a Turkey Day miracle

November 24, 2017 8:27 AM

Mystery Science Theater 3000 creator Joel Hodgson has announced that Netflix is renewing the show for a Season 12. Stories on Satellite News, Tor, AV Club.
posted by Chrysostom (64 comments total)

We've got movie sign!
posted by Fizz at 8:33 AM on November 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

How do they eat or breathe? Science facts?
posted by Nanukthedog at 8:44 AM on November 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

👌🏻 It stinks!
posted by ovenmitt at 8:45 AM on November 24, 2017 [13 favorites]

Yes!!!
posted by Secretariat at 8:46 AM on November 24, 2017

"We gather together
To watch cheesy movies
On Comedy Central
On Thanksgiving Day..."
posted by Joey Michaels at 8:49 AM on November 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

Anything that keeps Jonah Ray working is all right by me.
posted by elsietheeel at 8:53 AM on November 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

Oh this is great! My 17 year old and I have been having so much fun watching these together!
posted by Biblio at 9:00 AM on November 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

As I was kind of complaining on the Kickstarter, and I see others are too, it's a shame this won't be legally available outside of the US, Canada, the UK and Australia. I backed the Kickstarter (with quite a lot), so I can download the season 11 episodes, but I couldn't recommend them to friends here because they're not on Netflix in other countries, and now it looks like I won't be able to watch season 12 legally at all. Which kind of sucks.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 9:24 AM on November 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

I hope they do some shorts this season.
posted by Chrysostom at 9:26 AM on November 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

I've been a fan since the early 90's, and I gotta say, I was pretty underwhelmed by the new season.
Nothing against any of the participants, I guess this is just a combination of Things Were Better Back Then and Grumpy Old Man Get Off My Porch.
posted by Major Matt Mason Dixon at 9:33 AM on November 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

I liked the new season a lot -- and honestly, I feel it worked better than any of the Rifftrax I've tried to watch. Glad they're continuing with the reboot.
posted by flatluigi at 9:52 AM on November 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

Absolute no-brainer for Netflix and long overdue.
posted by delfin at 10:00 AM on November 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

Licensing and broadcast rights being what they are, I'm surprised anyone outside of the US gets to legally see these episodes at all. Yeah it sucks for most of the rest of the world that their worldwide reach is limited, but every ep involves not only licensing their own show but the rebroadcast rights of whatever they're riffing on.
posted by thecjm at 10:12 AM on November 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

The euro monster flick they kicked off season 11 with was just boring. Same with the similar euro monster flick with the frozen monster part? Maybe 3rd episode? Just boring movies.

Cry Wilderness was awesome, and I loved Avalanche for the sheer zaniness of Rock Hudson and Mia Farrow and the fashions. Wish they'd do more like that, cheesy 70s stuff. There were some great old monster movies, but a LOT of the sci-fi/horror stuff they churned out in the 50s and 60s was just plain dull, too much dialog (because dialog in a fake laboratory is cheap).

I'll probably get flamed, but the new Servo voice is just not fun to listen to. They need a different voice actor. No one will live up to classic Servo, but FFS, at least give the voice some personality, some musicality.
posted by jeff-o-matic at 10:19 AM on November 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

My feeling on the Season 11 is that it started a little rough, but got pretty good. Which, not coincidentally, is what seemed to happen every time they've started fresh - Season 1, when Joel left, when they moved to Sci-Fi. I think Season 12 will be even better.
posted by Chrysostom at 10:22 AM on November 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

I'll probably get flamed, but the new Servo voice is just not fun to listen to. They need a different voice actor.

So you're saying, I HATE TOM SERVO'S NEW VOICE, eh?
posted by Chrysostom at 10:25 AM on November 24, 2017 [14 favorites]

I'll probably get flamed, but the new Servo voice is just not fun to listen to. They need a different voice actor.

I'm friendly with Bill Corbett and years ago asked him if he had ever been to the Jumping the Shark website and he just gave me the longest, weariest look.

It's hard to replace an existing voice.
posted by maxsparber at 10:33 AM on November 24, 2017 [11 favorites]

It would be brilliant if Netflix subjects some of their crappier original content to riffing. An episode of Iron Fist would work.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 10:42 AM on November 24, 2017 [10 favorites]

I've been on the whole very satisfied with the new season. Some episodes I've only watched once (the Christmas episode, both Troy McClure episodes) and some I have lost count (Beast from Hollow Mountain, Starcrash, Avalanche). And though I know they inserted some minutiae just to get people curious for a new season, I'd love to finally find out what the heck Gypsy is ferrying back and forth each episode.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 11:03 AM on November 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

I'll probably get flamed, but the new Servo voice is just not fun to listen to. They need a different voice actor.

I think that this was one of my main issues with the new season - I could NOT tell Jonah from Servo from Crow. It was just one big mish-mash of similar sounding voices trying to talk over each other.
Okay, back to the front porch I go.
posted by Major Matt Mason Dixon at 11:09 AM on November 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

Oof. Steer clear of My Brother My Brother and Me.
posted by maxsparber at 11:14 AM on November 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

Griffin's voice I can distinguish, Travis and Justin less so.
posted by axiom at 11:31 AM on November 24, 2017

Chrysostom: So you're saying, I HATE TOM SERVO'S NEW VOICE, eh?

I never should have gotten rid of my dot matrix printer.
posted by dr_dank at 11:55 AM on November 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

So what I'm hearing is that season 12 is going to be hosted by Griffin McElroy with Justin McElroy as Crow and Travis McElroy as Servo?

Do they need a new Podcast called "The McElroy Brothers are going to be in MST3K?"
posted by deadaluspark at 11:56 AM on November 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

I didn't love the new season at first, but it grew on me after a while. The Marxist Christmas movie, and Carnival Magic were inspired choices.
posted by codacorolla at 12:33 PM on November 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Yeah, licensing and broadcast rights need to be negotiated worldwide (or for the relevant territories), but I've been somewhat involved in that particular business for a while, and it's not like it's going to be all that expensive to just get a package for the whole world, or at least very extensive territories, for the kind of stuff they're riffing on. Old AIP movies, obscure Korean monster movies from the 60s, and also-ran US adventure movies from the 80s that no one even remembers, these things aren't generally making any money right now, and the rights owners will be happy for the interest. Someone with Netflix' pockets could even buy the whole thing with rights in perpetuity for not that much cash, especially if they make package deals.

Now, figuring out who owns the rights for different territories and such, that might be a bit more work, although most of these things are small enough that the rights were probably never split up that much, or at least have now returned to the original owners.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 12:41 PM on November 24, 2017

Season 2 of the original MST3K was the first "real" season. Maybe Season 2 of the new season will also have an increase in quality.

I liked this season, but I don't rewatch more than a few episodes.
posted by wittgenstein at 12:48 PM on November 24, 2017

I doubt that Netflix will miss an opportunity/revenue stream to eventually sell the rights to Seasons 11 & 12 to somebody in other counties. Yes, this should be an employment opportunity for International Copyright Attorneys - Netflix can afford them. Or maybe we should just all learn how to say "Keep circulating the tapes" in French/Japanese/Russian.

I spent yesterday splitting my time between the MST3K Turkey Day and DesertBus (which raised $650K, the first time it DIDN'T exceed the previous year's total, but not bad anyway) and I actually missed the live announcement; but I was glad to see when viewing it later that Ms. Day and Mr. Ray were officially part of it... although considering Jonah's character in the last-episode cliffhanger, isn't his future in doubt? Sigh, spoilers...
posted by oneswellfoop at 12:51 PM on November 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

I'd love to finally find out what the heck Gypsy is ferrying back and forth each episode.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 11:03 AM on November 24 [+] [!]
Apparently it's "the payload" (of jokes, one assumes).
considering Jonah's character in the last-episode cliffhanger, isn't his future in doubt?
This! I just watched the final episode and have so many damn feels and no one to nerd out to about it and FanFare is all about the movie itself and graaarrr...
posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 12:57 PM on November 24, 2017

I think FanFare threads are what you make of them. Say what you want there, you may still get some responses!
posted by Chrysostom at 1:25 PM on November 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

I hope they pick worse movies, next time.
posted by Wallace Shawn at 1:36 PM on November 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Let's be real, the modern version of "keep circulating the tapes" is "keep circulating the torrent links" for all the people who can't legally watch it (which was the original purpose of circulating the tapes as well, to get to new fans, and allow those who didn't have a cable package to be introduced and maybe buy some merchandise or at least just enjoy the show, if nothing else.).

While Netflix absolutely should be paying copyright attorneys to attempt to get these going worldwide, torrenting/streaming from third party sites is what is currently filling the void for the rest of the world, or hell, even just people with old computers. I watch legally on Netflix regularly, but I have a crummy old laptop I drag around with me that just chokes on trying to stream Netflix, but runs a 720p torrented rip just fine. The only reason I sought out a pirated version was just so I could watch it on the device I wanted to watch it on, which was not capable of Netflix streaming, but very capable of playing a local file.

So, shit on me for saying it but...

Keep circulating the torrents.

(Well, until Comcast blocks bit-torrent anyway.)
posted by deadaluspark at 1:49 PM on November 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

I remember watching my first MST3K pretty far back in the day... 1995 or so..? My sister and her boyfriend at the time showed me "The Cave Dwellers" episode and I sang out "Ator!" for weeks afterward, laughing at the mental image of the actor hang-gliding. I think we also watched "Pod People."

I had a SUPER long hiatus from the show basically after that. I don't think I saw another MST3K all the way through until the recent Netflix double-bill (meaning the new show, plus the older episodes Netflix has). I LOVED "Starcrash," "Wizards of the Lost Kingdom" and "Carnival Magic" from the new season. Especially "Starcrash," which has to be one of the funniest things I've ever seen, even setting aside the riffs. "Space Mutiny" is my other absolute funniest MST3K, so I obviously love cheesy 70s/80s sci-fi films.
posted by Slothrop at 1:52 PM on November 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

I literally only had access to MST3K via friends who kept circulating the tapes until college when I started pirating episodes. There was a local UHF television station who would somehow, sometimes air parts of episodes late at night, but it was never full episodes, probably in an attempt to not get nailed for over-the-air TV piracy. Those aired really randomly, so I only ever caught it once or twice.

I remember feeling like I was participating in something strange and outside society, almost certainly illegal, because it felt so surreal and strange and different than anything on television.
posted by deadaluspark at 1:57 PM on November 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

also-ran US adventure movies from the 80s that no one even remembers

I remember them. Every single one. I am comfortable with that shame.
posted by Ashwagandha at 2:10 PM on November 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

> I hope they pick worse movies, next time.
> posted by Wallace Shawn at 4:36 PM on November 24

Inconceivable.
posted by ardgedee at 2:55 PM on November 24, 2017 [13 favorites]

Meanwhile, Rifftrax is coming to the new D.rip (formerly Drip.fm, for record labels and musicians).
posted by filthy light thief at 3:37 PM on November 24, 2017

Hooray!
posted by drezdn at 3:38 PM on November 24, 2017

I was a kickstarter backer for the new season and was not expecting much. But it has been great. Even the wife is enjoying it. Now have high hopes for v2.2! The The Land that Time Forgot and Wizards of the Lost Kingdom were great. "May I temp you with some Robitussin?"
posted by batou_ at 4:23 PM on November 24, 2017

I see so much love for Wizards of the Lost Kingdom that I'm shocked there isn't more love for Wizards of the Lost Kingdom II.

This is how I choose to remember David Carradine.
posted by deadaluspark at 5:13 PM on November 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

Keep circulating the torrents.

Then we fall back to circulating the tapes! Just maybe LTO instead of VHS?
posted by -1 at 6:15 PM on November 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

I still don't understand why the Mike Nelson cast wasn't hired to do this.
posted by Brocktoon at 6:21 PM on November 24, 2017

I still don't understand why the Mike Nelson cast wasn't hired to do this.

Because Mike Nelson & Co. didn't create MST3K. It was always Joel's baby.

Mike Nelson instead built his own business and brand from the ground up with a silly one-man riff of Road House in 2006, long after MST3K had been off the air.

He created Rifftrax and found a way to make it profitable by just providing the audio of the riffs and tasking watchers with finding their own copies of the movies they riffed, and then slowly began adding former cast members as business partners and riffers (Bill Corbett, Kevin Murphy, Mary Jo Pehl). Now that they've been around for a decade and are profitable, they were able to afford to start licensing and streaming movies with the riffs, which I think is a pretty big deal.

The original cast still had a lot of sore memories of not exactly getting paid residuals for re-runs of the old shows, which initially lead to a lot of animosity about this reboot. (I remember some particularly snarky tweets from J. Elvis Weinstein when this was first announced.)

Also, Mike Nelson still loves his history, even though he now has his own business and brand, which is why he hosted the Rifftrax MST3K Reunion, which included Joel and Jonah, as well as a majority of former cast members.

I mean, it basically comes down to Mike had moved on and you couldn't get him to go back to working the old way no matter how much you wanted him to because he is his own boss and he loves it. I can't blame him one bit, why walk away from a good thing?
posted by deadaluspark at 6:31 PM on November 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

I still don't understand why the Mike Nelson cast wasn't hired to do this.

Also, there's a pretty big schism in the fan base over Joel vs. Mike and if you're trying to crowdfund, you don't want to fan those flames. You want to get as many people as possible on board by creating a new cast, not picking a old one. Give everyone the same sense of trepidation going in.

I'm a KTMA-era fan and I never warmed to the expanded Mike cast, though I eventually liked Mike a bit better. My least favorite parts of the new series are the expanded cast bloat.
posted by crush at 6:40 PM on November 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

I can't recall who it was (JHarris, maybe?) who said that Mike seemed like he wanted to be the best damned blue-collar Joe who got marooned on a spaceship and forced to mock terrible movies alongside robots he could be, while Joel gave the impression of a guy who rolled out of bed every day, smoked up, and went into his amazing job playing with puppets. Both totally valid, just different vibes.
posted by Pope Guilty at 7:30 PM on November 24, 2017 [13 favorites]

The original cast still had a lot of sore memories of not exactly getting paid residuals for re-runs of the old shows

A lot of that was due to Jim Mallon, I seem to remember, who is now completely out of the picture regarding show ownership. I think things have calmed down a lot, especially since cast is now getting paid again for classic episodes. After all, Shout Factory is selling RiffTrax now, and they even got Kevin in to do a promo for RiffTrax during Turkey Day. Mary Jo, Kevin and Bill had bits in at least (counting) four episodes of Season 11, and Bill and Mary Jo helped write on Starcrash!

Also, there's a pretty big schism in the fan base over Joel vs. Mike

I think there *was* one but that is ancient history now. People who are still holding onto that are seriously depriving themselves. The writing staff is still like 90% the same during the Joel and Mike eras, and both periods have amazing episodes.

I don't think I was the one who made the comment about Mike vs. Joel, but I remember it too. Maybe it was ob1quixote?

What's everyone's favorite episodes of Season 11? Mine are Cry Wilderness, The Beast of Hollow Mountain, Wizards of the Lost Kingdom and Carnival Magic.
posted by JHarris at 7:44 PM on November 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

My favorite in Yongary. Their shock and horror towards the end gets me every time.

I really like this season overall with the best part for me being trying to guess what jokes were written by Elliot Kalan of Flophouse podcast fame. I was lucky enough to see the live show and there were some very clear favorites of his in it.
posted by humans are superior! at 8:04 PM on November 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Well we rented a truck.
posted by Stonestock Relentless at 8:23 PM on November 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

When the kid and Yongary started dancing, I had to put down the bong.

I'd say for me it's pretty much Yongary, Wizards of the Lost Kingdom, and Wizards of the Lost Kingdom II. There were other good ones, too, but those were the ones that had me rolling all the way through.
posted by deadaluspark at 9:14 PM on November 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

I figured if the news would drop at any point, it would be during the Turkey Day Marathon. I was a bit sad that it hadn't happened by the time I had to leave to go to dinner with friends, but super-excited to return to the news.

Cry Wilderness and Starcrash were instant classic episodes for me, can't wait to see what they do this season. Hopefully they give Gypsy more to do this next season, as Rebecca Hanson is delightful. (Her story about joining the show is also a fairy tale of sorts, love it.)
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 9:21 PM on November 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

That's one of the things I like about MST3K, is that it basically seems to be a show by a bunch of nice people. I think that's sort of one thing that does help people latch onto it? Because not only is it funnier than anything, but you kinda root for them too? Sort of the Weird Al thing of combining immense talent and kindness.
posted by Rev. Syung Myung Me at 11:01 PM on November 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

And though I know they inserted some minutiae just to get people curious for a new season, I'd love to finally find out what the heck Gypsy is ferrying back and forth each episode.

I'm pretty sure that's either the movie or the recorded riffing. Kinga's "liquid television" technology, and all.
posted by tobascodagama at 6:20 AM on November 25, 2017

My favorite in Yongary.

CAPSULE!
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 7:07 AM on November 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

Seconded that the Rebecca Hanson story fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit linked above is so sweet. It really made my day. This is at least half of the reason I love the returned MST3K- I know Jonah Ray is a massive fan too, I remember at some point hearing him talk about how he just could not believe he was getting to do this (and that was when he thought he was just going to write for the show!) I love that the people who are making it are people living their dreams.
posted by Secretariat at 10:06 AM on November 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

I have to say that it was really pretty awesome getting to hear the surprise announcement at the end of the marathon with the rest of Metafilter MST3K Club, because none of us really wanted to leave so we were keeping the stream on. And then, lo! It's been so much fun to watch the show with the rest of you nerds over the past couple of years (and if you aren't doing that yet, you should join us on Thursdays!)
posted by ilana at 11:17 AM on November 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

They could hire both Joel and Mike.
posted by Brocktoon at 8:56 AM on November 26, 2017

Joel not only already works on the Netflix reboot but actually led it (he'd been trying to bring it back since at least 2010). Mike, by all accounts I've seen, has no real interest in returning to the show and would rather keep doing his own thing.
posted by flatluigi at 9:46 AM on November 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Well, I'll show up several days late and more than a dollar short to say that I think Baron Vaughn does a great job as Tom Servo. He's funny and versatile, not to mention the only POC cast member.
posted by zeusianfog at 2:22 PM on November 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

It's always hard to follow in someone's footsteps, especially when that person is Kevin Murphy, who remains the person who's played a character the longest on the show. To many people, his Tom Servo is the definitive version. I think Baron Vaughn's done a good job of starting out with him, and given time will make the character his own. I think he just needs to loosen up a little.
posted by JHarris at 3:58 PM on November 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

I was fine with his characterization, I think he might want to try and deepen his Servo voice a bit, to help distinguish it from Crow. Trace and Bill sounded more different from Kevin, so it wasn't an issue so much.
posted by Chrysostom at 5:02 PM on November 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

That Rebecca Hanson story is great, thank you for linking it!
posted by LobsterMitten at 7:31 PM on November 27, 2017

So I'm rewatching it again starting now and I feel the need to add that anything that keeps Har Mar Superstar working is ALSO all right by me.

And I don't think anyone's voices are similar, but I'm not the best person to assess this because identifying voices is my superpower. And my idea of a good time.
posted by elsietheeel at 8:07 PM on November 29, 2017

Please only use your powers for good.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:28 PM on November 29, 2017 [2 favorites]

Well that's no fun.
posted by elsietheeel at 9:34 PM on November 29, 2017 [1 favorite]