Mystery Science Theater 3000 Reboot Kickstarter

Kickstarter - Bring Back MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000

It seems that Joel Hodgson is trying to get the show restarted after all these years. The team just made their (first) two million dollar goal, so at least three new episodes are basically confirmed at this point. I'll be interested to see if they get enough donations to actually make a whole season.

After that? Who knows. They could try to go the "Rifftrax" route and just sell individual episodes online, or they could try and sell the idea to an internet distributor like Netflix, Amazon, or Hulu. I doubt they'll be able to actually get back on TV, in any eventuality.

I'm a little peeved that Mike Nelson and the later, SciFi Channel era, crew aren't more involved, as I always preferred them. However, they seem to be giving the project their support at Rifftrax all the same.

Frankly, it's probably for the best that they start over with a fresh new face anyway. If Mike and the robots were still trapped in space even after all these years, that'd just be flat out depressing. :lol:

MST3k is the best. Long live Crow.

I'm shocked why they cancelled it in the first place. MST3K had such a cult following.

Not sure how I feel about the new host they've chosen. My first impression is that he seems like kind of a stereotypically hostile and sarcastic hipster type, without a ton of obvious charm or charisma.

I could be wrong, however. I guess we'll just have to wait and see. :shrug:

PoS said:

I'm shocked why they cancelled it in the first place. MST3K had such a cult following.

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True. Rifftrax has been making crazy amounts of money for roughly a decade now as well.

The show might not be the best fit for traditional cable programming, but its certainly got a dedicated following and market appeal.

Gathomas88 said:

Not sure how I feel about the new host they've chosen. My first impression is that he seems like kind of a stereotypically hostile and sarcastic hipster type, without a ton of obvious charm or charisma.

I could be wrong, however. I guess we'll just have to wait and see. :shrug:

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Joel=Nerdy, Dennis Miller type comedy
Mike=More blue collar, Ron White/Mike Judge type comedy

Fiddytree said:

Joel=Nerdy, Dennis Miller type comedy
Mike=More blue collar, Ron White/Mike Judge type comedy

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Mike always had the broader appeal for that exact reason, truth be told.

This new guy seems to be aiming more for the "edgy millennial" vibe from what I've seen.

Gathomas88 said:

Mike always had the broader appeal for that exact reason, truth be told.

This new guy seems to be aiming more for the "edgy millennial" vibe from what I've seen.

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I haven't tapped into the guy's backstory, but I am presuming that Joel has a decent amount of creative control here. That's why I think that while some things will be more geared toward folks that can barely recall VHS tapes, the branding of comedy should be relatively similar to folks that like Joel, which is great. I already have Mike and the guys and hope that Joel can really nail down a reboot of his product.

PoS said:

I'm shocked why they cancelled it in the first place. MST3K had such a cult following.

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Because it requires large amounts of airtime plus had copyright issues. It requires buying rights, using public domain material, and some videos they used they couldn't locate copyright holders.

So for those two reasons it was a nightmare to produce.

The reason rifftrax is a better model is because you can sell your own commentary as you dang well please and of you just happen to have a copy of the movie they're commenting on and play both at the same time...

Four days left to go on the kickstarter. They're well past the 6 episode funding minimum of 3.3 million dollars, and currently sitting at 3.896 million. There are over 32,200 people backing the project so far.

It's going to be close, but they may very well might hit the 9 episode 4.4 million dollar goal before the end.

Can they extend the deadline by another couple of days if they get close but don't quite make it?

PoS said:

I'm shocked why they cancelled it in the first place. MST3K had such a cult following.

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I don't think I'm "cultish", but I really enjoyed it. Glad it's coming back. I'm American, but mostly British in ancestry. Heeeeyyyy. Maybe I am cultish after all. You tricked me.

Awesome. Been a fan since I was a kid and my kids love to watch it, too - fav thing to do on the weekends.

Since it's Christmas I'll toss in a bit to the funding pot.

Aunt Spiker said:

Awesome. Been a fan since I was a kid and my kids love to watch it, too - fav thing to do on the weekends.

Since it's Christmas I'll toss in a bit to the funding pot.

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Yeah. I used to watch re-runs on SciFi Channel with my dad as a kid.

I tossed in around $25 myself. Just a drop in the proverbial bucket, ultimately, but every little bit helps.

Well'p, the kickstarter just ended.

With more than 48,000 backers, $5,764,229 raised on Kickstarter itself (out of an original $5,500,000 goal), and an additional $600,000 raised from other sources, totaling out to $6,364,229, MST3K is now, officially, the most profitable crowdfunded television or movie oriented entertainment project ever (beating out the Veronica Mars movie).

Looks like we're getting a full season of 12 episodes, a holiday special, and a bonus 14th episode. Woohoo! :mrgreen:

Gathomas88 said:

Well'p, the kickstarter just ended.

With more than 48,000 backers, $5,764,229 raised on Kickstarter itself (out of an original $5,500,000 goal), and an additional $600,000 raised from other sources, totaling out to $6,364,229, MST3K is now, officially, the most profitable crowdfunded television or movie oriented entertainment project ever (beating out the Veronica Mars movie).

Looks like we're getting a full season of 12 episodes, a holiday special, and a bonus 14th episode. Woohoo! :mrgreen:

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Croooowwwww!