Rifftrax Looks At An MST3K Live Show

Way back in 2017, Mystery Science Theater 3000 had a live tour and featured two movies. One was an old favorite, Eegah. The other was yet another European movie that tries to profit from the super hero fad.

Some are familiar with Rifftrax offerings like Superargo and Supersonic Man, and MST's showing of Puma Man. Then we have a new addition from Rifftrax called Argoman. It's about a British guy who has super powers but uses them to get chicks and steal stuff that he hopes no one will miss. You know, like the Mona Lisa.
Not exactly defending truth, justice and the European way.
The cut of his costume is also a bit too suggestive.
Anyway, this was part of MST3K's live tour to plug its return on Netflix. This clip is from its stop in Atlanta, where they do a fashion show of robes.

So, what IS this movie?

Well, what if Austin Powers had super powers but wasn't so...average-looking (as English guys go)?
He apparently has tele-kinesis that helps him pick up chicks, literally. He also has cameras at the places where his other girlfriends are. It's that pervy. 
Oh, and he loses his powers for six hours after he has sex.

Meanwhile, some woman named Jenabell, Queen of the World, steals a crown then decides to rob a bank in France...and give people the cash to ruin the economy, sort of. She's really after a large diamond that will also ruin the economy and threaten the world. 

Naturally, they confront each other and it quickly becomes a live version of Penthouse Forum. It doesn't slow down her plans for conquest. She wants to show Su-maru how it should be done, like recruiting  several important figures to do her bidding.

Still, Argoman, aka Super Hugh Hefner, defeats Jenabell but is also accused of stealing the same crown Jenabell took. Let's just say he may or may not return it.

It's too bad it wasn't part of the Gauntlet or Season 13, but maybe it worked better as a live show than on Netflix.

Now it's riff time:

The movie takes a jaunt around London.
Sure it's old and wet but at least it's also very brown.

Argoman wastes his telekinetic powers to grab a hovercraft pilot
Watch out for Pumaman

He enjoys a kiss with the sexy pilot
You taste like Jim Leyland

Jenabell gets the big diamond
I'll be almost as powerful as Taylor Swift

Argoman "fights"
He makes Adam West look like Donnie Yen.

There's also riffs on Carmen San Diego, Mr. Bean, Hunger Games, Godzilla, and Johnny Quest. 
It's available at rifftrax.com.

X Games This Ain't! It's Kickstarter Time in Rifftrax

 

While Mystery Science Theater fans wait for news of a 14th season...and their swag from the Kickstarter campaign...Rifftrax has been busy.

Its annual Kickstarter campaign is underway, and this time it's taking on another fad movie. 
It's the 1986 movie, RAD, which ain't. It's about a BMX rider who has to choose between a major competition and preparing for college.
The decision takes seconds.
However, he has to deal with some sneaky guys who keep changing the rules so that their BMX guy gets all the glory.
Any resemblance between this and, say, "No Defeat, No Surrender" is unavoidable. 

The movie features gymnast Bart Conner because he clearly couldn't cut it in Gymkata, Lori Laughlin before Full House and the Big House, Talia Shire as the "go to college" mom, and Ray Walston.

So, should MST3K be worried?
No. Season 14 is coming, in the same way as Rifftrax. 
Will this be funded in record time? Of course. 
UPDATE:  Hit 250K in about eight hours.

The link to the campaign is here, and it'll do as well as last year's Return of Swamp Thing, if not better. 
The real excitement is what stretch goals will be coming through the end of March.  We shall see.

Rifftrax Live Returns With Hobgoblins Redux

 

After being kept off theaters last year due to the COVID pandemic (except for a Halloween special)
Rifftrax Live returned this past week by taking another look at the Rick Sloane travesty, Hobgoblins. 

It was an MST3K favorite way back in the '90s, and the crew of Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett took a big chance seeing it again. This time, they didn't try to run away twice. At least there's that.
MST fans know Joel Hodgson took a look at the original episode on YouTube. His reaction to the movie was very interesting, and, to be honest, better than this second look.

Fans may have been hoping to hear some of the original riffs, but this was all new. Some may have been repeating some of the original riffs, though. This second look didn't have as much zing as the original, maybe because Mike and the bots couldn't believe how bad this movie was the first time.

As with all Rifftrax features, the movie was uncut, but it dragged a bit. At least the Club Scum section was complete, and was even sleazier. That worked just fine.
Still, the re-riff didn't work as well as the original. That was expressed by a lot of fans on Facebook.

The plot, such as it is:  four furry monsters who are Gremlin knockoffs, wreak havoc on the life of a security guard and his friends. It features terrible dancing, frantic punk music, and a guy who is not Rambo and never will be. The riffs included comments on Murder, She Wrote, old Hollywood, Mean Girls, and Joy Division (the band is described as being like that band, but less joy). 

It was preceded by a Coronet film about life in a medieval town, mostly about a serf being supervised with a guy in a weird green hat. One of the comments include a guy who looks like Mike Ditka.

It was still great to see the guys back on stage after a dreary year. Hopefully, their next movie, Amityville 4, will go better in a couple of months. Seeing Patty Duke trying to fight an demonic floor lamp might be better than a dopey blonde pretending to fight a hairy puppet.

Gamera or Gammera? Rifftrax Takes On The Turtle

It's amazing that Rifftrax snagged this Americanized version of the first Gamera movie, which was a major highlight of MST3K's third season. However, Shout Factory can't sell that episode because Toho and Sandy Frank won't let them. For the record, the Gamera set can be bought at Amazon, for a price slightly less steeper than a MST Live Tour ticket that includes a picture with Joel.

Rifftrax's riffing isn't nearly as dark as the MST version and neither is the movie. Gammera, with an extra "m", cuts out a lot of the original to fit in several scenes with American military trying to figure out how to handle the big turtle. Fans also notice some scenes were re-cut to fit in a scene where the United Nations is trying to find a solution.
However, a couple of scenes that inspired some good riffs are out. We lose the American general who looks like Curly from the Three Stooges, and the "news stud" from New York..

The "Gammera" movie reminds me of "Gigantis", an English version of Godzilla's second movie which was re-edited so that people thought it was a different monster.

Again, the Rifftrax take on "Gammera" is lighter than the MST version but it also throws in a couple of obscure movie riffs and a well-known one.

For example, when Gammera breaks through the ice after a plane crashes, Mike Nelson is annoyed and says "Another Infinity Stone?"

Then they get into gear when Gammera meets Toshio/Kenny

Rifftrax:  Hey, kid, you know of any all-night terrariums where a guy can get his shell rubbed?
MST3K:  Those kids at school, they tease you, Kenny, because they never tasted Hell.

Then there's the scene where Gammera is on his back. They think he's lost...until he turns on his jets that help him fly.

MST3K:  Check it out, it's the Batmobile
Rifftrax:  He's activating his hemorrhoids!

There's also riffs on Mitch McConnell, Jewel, D-Day, United Airlines, and a Tom Hanks movie that people didn't like.

Gammera is available at the Rifftrax website.

Rifftrax Takes On Samurai Cop, or "When Jennifer Met Mumbles Ape"

A while ago, I reviewed Rifftrax's take on Death Promise, which I thought was the worst martial arts movie ever made.
Then I saw Samurai Cop. 
Clearly I was wrong, but I had no idea how really bad Robert Z'Dar is as Yamashita, a big bulky henchman to some Yakusa guys. I will give him credit for coming up with an interesting way to get rid of a witness by hiding in a hamper pushed by a Christina Hendricks impersonator. For the most part, he looks menacing and shoots anyone who doesn't kill the main hero

Definitely not better is Matt Hatton as Joe Marshall, a San Diego police officer allegedly trained in the martial arts in Japan. It's safe to say we don't see a lot of that skill.

We do see him try to battle Japanese gangsters and flirt well enough to be considered a ladies' man--but only by himself. He also has an African-American partner, which means they were hoping to get the Lethal Weapon crowd. Still, Joe can be described like this (thanks to Bill Corbett):  "He's like a Disney's Tarzan who was badly airbrushed on the side of a van  and came to life." Personally, I'd say he's got less personality than all of Johnny Longtorso's individual parts.

The movie, if you could call it that, is mainly chases, shootouts and confrontations that make no sense. The head Yakusa guy's Japanese accent isn't too convincing, either. At least there's a strange Costa Rican guy as comic relief.
The most far-fetched part is Joe wooing away Yakusa Guy's blonde girlfriend Jennifer. It results in a sex scene even more disturbing than Joe Don Baker trying to be sensual in Mitchell.
By the way, there was a lot of racy stuff cut out from this release, including a rape scene. That's a wise idea, especially for MST fans who know about what had to be cut out of Sidehackers.

The movie ends with the big battle between Yamashita and Joe, supposedly trying to kill each other with big swords, but it's mostly fists and weird faces. It's even worse than the Death Promise finale, including the dumb explanation for the final twist.
I got this because the Nerdist included this in a list of "8 WTF-Worthy Films" that includes Death Bed (about a bed that eats people), Gymkata (which is a common riff by MST3K), Greasy Strangler and Death Spa (not about a spa that eats people).

Now, on to the riffs:

Joe shows up with his partner
I show up to work with a Cher wig and a  baseball cap and you say nothing?

Fujiyama (the boss) yells at Yamashita, "If he's a samurai, who the Hell are you?"
A question that Z'Dar got a lot

A typical fight
I think they made these punching sound effects by slapping a leather couch with a wet ham

Peggy, one of the cops, tries to get another cop named Preacher to have sex with her. He declines
Ah, my wedding night (let's say this time Mike doesn't say it).

There's also riffs on Michael Bay, Comcast, Rock and Roll Nightmare, Safety Woman and The Bachelor.

Samurai Cop is available, along with slightly less inept martial arts movies, at rifftrax.com

National Geographic Channel Gets Totally Riffed Off

Rifftrax is well-known for putting bad movies in their place, but it's also pretty good at mocking those shorts about animals that kids saw at thousands of elementary schools years ago. That's now we learned about Moose Baby, Gregory the skunk from Little Lost Scent, Prickly the Porcupine, Wing, Claw and Fang, assorted farm animals and those poor bear cubs that was captured by some jerk named Ross.

So, for April Fool's Day, Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett and Kevin Murphy decided to riff on clips from several National Geographic Channel shows that are now on NatGeo Wild. That way, Rifftrax can claim it pulled a prank on that channel behind its back.

The first hour, "Killer Shrimp and Friends", featured clips from Bad@$$ Animals and Honey Badgers. It featured the Mantis Shrimp, which apparently is from Krypton nd is praised by animal "experts". When they're called "real ball-busters", Kevin asks "they specifically target testicles"? They also ask what is so special about Dr. Carin Bondar, aka "Biologist with a Twist". They wonder if that means she's a ghost, or not a nerdy grad student. Here's a sample:



There's also a piece on the honey badger that risks being stung many times to get honey.

Bill: Why couldn't I have been born a dandelion badger instead?
Kevin: Winnie the Pooh went the same way.

There was also a story about a cocker spaniel that had a dangerous addiction...eating thongs. One question: why no Sisqo (not Coolio, thanks, Eric) jokes? We also found out that Koalas may be cuddly, but their lifestyle would rival really lazy college students.

The second hour, "Demon Bat", was from the show Man vs. Monster with really pretentious guy Richard Terry, or as Kevin calls him "not so much of an explorer as he's a guy who quit his job as a line cook at Chili's and bought a camera." Anyway, he's in Mexico looking for a "monster bat" that's been attacking villagers. They're mocking the trailer to this episode, but you get the idea.



The funniest part is when Terry talks to a villager who claims a bat attacked her, but it was too fast for her to see.
Mike came to the most logical conclusion: " The Flash has become a vampire."

Finally, there's "Guy and a Goose", which is a mix of features from Alpha Dogs, Swamp Men and Unusual Animal Friends.
It starts with the unusual relationship with a guy from L.A. and a goose named Maria, and how it led to the goose being in a video by OK Go Then two guys in the swamp learn how to capture an alligator. It involves having to put tape over its eyes, which Mike thinks he should have done before going to a screening of After Earth. Finally, a guy tries to sell an unusual cadaver dog... a cocker spaniel that doesn't eat underwear. What's more, its name is Bullwinkle, and that inspires this line: "Hey Rocky, watch me pull a cadaver out of a hat". The dog trainers are skeptical, but the spaniel gets a tough test...



Mocking cable TV shows is quite different from mocking bad movies or even Congressional hearings, although that would be overdue. The Rifftrax crew did a great job riffing on some of the more bizarre segments from the NatGeo channel. It planned to start selling digital downloads on April 4th, but the popularity convinced the gang to sell it much sooner. The shows go for $4.99 apiece, a good price for 45 minutes of comedy.

The specials will also be shown again on NatGeo April 8th, and available anytime on demand at most cable outlets. It would have been great if the Rifftrax gang  plugged their website at rifftrax.com, and the next live show on July 10th, where Sharknado gets the business. After all, if we're getting ads for the next Transformers movie, why not?

At Last: Rifftrax vs. Sharknado, This Summer!

It's been nearly 15 years that SyFy, when it was called the Sci-Fi Channel, cancelled Mystery Science Theater 3000. Maybe the channel was afraid Mike, Tom Servo and Crow would eventually riff on some of its original movies, starting with Mr, Stitch. From that moment, many fans hoped that one day, Mike and the bots would get their revenge.
That day will come July 10th.

Nine months ago,  SyFy aired the cheesiest movie ever made on cable: Sharknado, where Los Angeles is attacked by a water spout filled with sharks. Our only hopes to survive: Tara Reid and Ian Zierling.
Of course, this is even dumber than Mega Python vs. Gateriod, and that doesn't include having Debbie Gibson and Tiffany in the movie.
So what happens? Sharknado gets popular, very popular. Granted, it could be because people wanted to mock it with extreme prejudice. Then, two weeks after it aired on SyFy, it was shown at 200 Regal Theaters in midnight showings which just about sold out. Yes, people paid money for this. Were there people who heckled the movie in the theater, too?

Well, this summer, the Rifftrax gang will have its chance. It'll have a live show where they target Sharknado July 10th, three weeks before the sequel escapes to SyFy. Expect a lot of American Pie and 90210 jokes in this production, and maybe some Wizard of Oz jokes. If you bought the Wizard of Oz riff, you notice they ask during the twister scene "where are the sharks". This may have been a hint that the movie had been in their cross hairs for some time. Maybe they're curious how it holds up against Birdemic, where people use coat hangers to battle attacking video game birds.

Edited to add: Conor Lastowka, one of the Rifftrax writers, has an explanation on why it's taking on Sharknado, although some are worried it's like shooting sharks in a barrel: it's just like a summer blockbuster, only with 98% less budget and star power--and it came from TV. Anyway, here's his Tumblr post that will say it better than anyone.

Fathom Events will have this at hundreds of theaters nationwide and Canada. It will be shown again on July 15th, but tickets will be on sale starting May 2nd.

Meanwhile, Rifftrax will spend April Fools Day riffing on nature shows for the National Geographic channel betwen 8 and 11 PM East and West, with another go-around between 11 PM and 2 AM.

MST3K Goes Retro This Summer...But Not Everywhere

OK, so what is Retro TV?
It's like Antenna TV or MeTV, digital subcarrier channels also found on cable TV that air old movies and reruns of classic TV shows. You know, what your local independent TV stations used to air before relying on infomercials, court shows and talk shows that shouldn't exist.
These channels are the homes of former TV rerun staples like Bewitched, All in the Family, MASH, Gilligan's Island, I Love Lucy and Perry Mason. 

So what is the Satellite of Love doing there?
Satellite News broke the story that Retro TV will air 26 episodes from the series, and it includes a few from the Comedy Channel and Sci-Fi Channel days. Many fans were stunned that this had happened at all. Many of us would give out eye teeth, and our eyes, to see the Satellite of Love fly again, and not have to rely on Hulu or Amazon TV.

The show will start on Retro TV in July, and here's what's coming:

103- The Mad Monster
105- The Corpse Vanishes

This means two episodes from the J. Elvis Weinstein years

211- First Spaceship On Venus

Only one from season two? It was just biker movies, cheap dinosaur movies, and "The Phantom Creeps", but they should have been included. Also, early TV's Frank!

320- The Unearthly
323- The Castle of Fu Manchu
402- The Giant Gila Monster
409- The Indestructible Man
412- Hercules And The Captive Women
419- The Rebel Set
424- Manos: The Hands of Fate

The fact that Manos is included (but not Bride of the Monster, which means we won't see part one of "Hired") makes this first batch very attractive. 

507- I Accuse My Parents
511- Gunslinger
517- Beginning of the End
518- The Atomic Brain

Yep, it won't include the big change from Joel to Mike. We'll just have to rely on the new opening to explain why Joel's gone. 

610- The Violent Years
616- Racket Girls
619- Red Zone Cuba
701- Night Of The Blood Beast

Decent episodes from season six, and we get the non-Turkey Day version of how Pearl Forrester moves in with Dr. Forrester. 

812- The Incredibly Strange Creatures…
820- Space Mutiny
821- Time Chasers
822- Overdrawn at the Memory Bank
908- The Touch of Satan
1002- Girl in Gold Boots
1003- Merlin’s Shop of Mystical Wonders
1009- Hamlet

A good sample of Sci-Fi shows, especially with "Incredibly Strange Creatures", "Space Mutiny" and "Time Chasers", but there's a shortage of season nine stuff. Why not include "Pumaman" and "Final Sacrifice"? 

The mix of shows is still good, 12 with Joel and 14 with Mike. It's interesting that Retro preferred to get the full shows, rather than the "MST Hour" versions from Comedy Central from the mid 90s. Actually, that version had really good shows from the Joel era. 

So what will this mean for MSTies?
First off, they'll actually have to look for Retro TV. Here's where you can check to see if it's broadcast in your area. Long-time fans will get a chance to see shows they haven't seen in a while, or show their children and grandchildren (hey, why not?) what they used to watch at midnight some weekend.
However, some of those kids may point out they can see the shows on YouTube, Hulu or Amazon Video on their computers. So why see it on a really obscure cable channel?
Simple. The only way to really appreciate the genius of Cable TV's Greatest Contribution To Mankind Before The Sopranos is to see it on a cathode ray TV, on a Saturday night, eating junk food, and even updating the riffs Tom Servo, Crow and Joel/Mike are lobbying at the lame movie. Sure, you can cheat and get the shows on Hulu or Amazon Video beamed into the 50-inch flat screen, but it's best to enjoy the MST experience just like our elders did 20 years ago.
Still, if all you have is a flat screen, fine. Just watch it on Retro TV if your cable outlet has it.

This has been some week for MSTies. Next Tuesday, Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett will sit and mock National Geographic shows. It's the first time since appearing on ESPN's Cheap Seats, starring a couple of guys who riff on televised sports. Wonder where they picked up that habit?

We're Off To Riff The Wizard, The Riffable Wizard of Oz

How could you, Rifftrax?
Why have you become insane with power, and decided to target a movie that is practically a third of all the riffs you have ever delivered on MST3K? Do you think nothing is sacred?

Come to think of it, everyone has teed off on this movie in one way or another. SyFy made its own "variation" with Tin Man a few years back, South Park had its version which ended with Saddam Hussein captured, Saturday Night Live mocked this movie at least twice, and Mad Magazine had a version called "The Guru of Ours" about a fake Timothy Leary-type in 1969. Just recently, NBC unveiled plans for its own variation of Oz, but make it more like Game of Thrones.

So what can Rifftrax to this classic movie from the greatest year of movies ever, 1939?
For one thing, it inspired probably one of my best tweets: "They'll riff you, my pretty, and your little dog, too...and all of us, really"--Wicked Witch of the West after hearing about @Rifftrax". Let's just say Rifftrax liked it.

I also had to do my own Photoshop bit, as you see above. If you remember the MST3K movie, it had its own version of the scene where Dorothy thinks she sees Auntie Em in the crystal ball, and it was really the Wicked Witch mocking her. You might say this was the next level.

So, here's a sample:



The mp3 is now available, and it's safe to say they used both barrels on this movie. For one thing, they kept listing some urban legends about the Munchkins, and expressed deep bias against Kansas.

Update: hey, another clip, but it's more of a random mix of clips.




Here's some of the other riffs they threw at this movie:

Dorothy sings "Over the Rainbow":

Kevin:  It's really adorable until you realize she's freshly covered in pig excrement

The tornado arrives:

Bill:  Well, Toto, you knew this day would come. Time to sacrifice you to the storm gods.

"I'll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too"

Mike:  Toto immediately starts planning his revenge piddle

The Scarecrow complaining on how crows aren't scared by him

Kevin:  I've never been able to stop the Batman, either.

Dorothy finds the Tin Man

Mike:  David Blaine's final, lethal stunt

They reach the Emerald City

Bill:  Welcome to Cirque du Soliel World Headquarters

The Cowardly Lion is afraid to meet the Wizard

Kevin:  I don't even like Fred Savage (Google "Fred Savage" and "The Wizard" to get joke)

One of the flying monkeys grabs Toto

Kevin:  Hey, look at me with the dog, I'm Paris Hilton

There's also riffs based on Zero Dark 30, the Kansas City Royals, Nick Nolte (again), a certain spaced-out short, Hugh Hefner, a certain rock band that has a connection with this movie, a really obscure Marvel comics character, two Disney films, and someone from Kate Hudson's family (if you see the second sample, you know which one). There's also a riff connected with Wicked and Oz, the Great and Powerful, too.

It's a very funny riff on a classic film, and may make you starting thinking things about the movie you never had before...and that even after the Oz prequel from last year.

If the Wicked Witch of the West did know about this, she'd probably Netflix the film through her HD Crystal Ball, then hear the riffs  through her iPod, and wonder why Rifftrax didn't target the other Oz movie with James Franco. After all, fair's fair.

UPDATE:  Apparently they're branching out to sound versions of MST3K host segments. Mike Nelson has two Rifftrax home segments in a SoundCloud page. There's an interview of the Munchkin Who Hung Himself just after the Tin Man joined Dorothy and Scarecrow on the road to Oz, which never happened, and Elmira Gulch, the Wicked Witch of Kansas takes on another evil movie character.

Meanwhile, an iRiffer named Ronin Fox had his own version of The Wizard of Oz. Here's his take in two videos:





It's also for sale, and people are starting to compare them both.

Rifftrax vs. Starship Troopers, Part 2

In a perfect world, Rifftrax fans would be paying $14.95 for the VOD of Rifftrax Live taking on the cheesiest sci-fi war movie ever, Starship Troopers.

However, Sony Pictures didn't see it that way in this imperfect world. So, the mp3 was just released, which means people have to go get the Starship Troopers DVD, and have the Rifftrax Live experience at home.

The mp3 is virtually the same as the live riff  last August. My review of the original live show is here, including the riffs. There may be some additions here and there, or maybe some riffs I missed the first time around.
So, here's some extra highlights:

The heroes are at a high school prom, just before they go to war:

This is like The Deerhunter with perky kids.

A PSA asks "Are you psychic?"

Ricky Gervais, Hindu God

The notorious shower scene, where you get a good look at Dina Meyer's breasts, but....

Don't show (Jake) Busey's little busey

Johnny Rico is whipped for a fatal accident during training

My name is Douche Douche-tay (a reference to Roots)

The soldiers are surrounded by a lot of bugs. We see Lt. Jean Rasczak (Michael Ironside), who has one arm, in the middle of it all

The Hell with this. I'm gonna drum for Def Leppard

The finale, where Neil Patrick Harris approaches the "Brain Bug":

Really, bug? A whole movie about going to White Castle? 

The riffs also take on Captain Kangaroo, American Apparel ads, Caddyshack, Albert Knobbs, Scanners, Katy Perry and Double Dare. I also learned two things about Denise Richards, who plays Carmen: she has the most blank face I have ever seen, and when she wears her hair in a bun, she'd be Justin Bieber's identical twin.
Also, here's a link to a new trailer to the Starship Troopers riff

I'm looking forward to an updated riff of Night of the Living Dead in theaters on the 24th, which is six days before Mike Nelson's 20th anniversary of his first MST3K episode as host. While Rifftrax has released a great mix of pre-riffed cheesy movies, it should go back to its bread and butter: skinning disappointing recent movies alive. It should be mocking Star Trek: Into Darkness, Oblivion and obviously The Lone Ranger by now. Let's hope their day of reckoning will arrive.

MST3K, The Home Game: How It Changed The World

Satellite News, the go-to website for fans of MST3K, recently had a post about an upcoming conference that will discuss the cultural impact of the TV show.
That's right: a bunch of scholars will talk about how some guy and two robots mocking movies changed the world as we know it.

It's run by the Southwest/American Popular Culture and American Culture Association, and will take place next February in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The official title is "Mystery Science Theater and the Culture of Riffing", although it will take up other topics, too. The guy in charge is Rob Weiner of the Texas Tech University Library. He compiled a book of essays called In the Peanut Gallery with Mystery Science Theater 3000: Essays on Film, Fandom, Technology and the Culture of Riffing.
And people thought earning a degree on studying Buffy the Vampire Slayer was unusual.

One of the proposed subjects in this conference is "MST3K, the Home Game". This aired twice on SyFy (when it was the Sci-Fi Channel) on January 25th 1997. Roger Corman's "The Day The World Ended" was shown, and people could send in their riffs through IRC's, or Internet Relay Chat rooms, that the network set up. They even had a commercial to show how it worked:



Those who circulated the tapes, or were smart to tape it when it aired (like me), have copies of both versions. It was available on YouTube, but not any more. People interacted with the movie by pretending to be Mike, Servo or Crow, then got to read their riffs on TV. It was quite a treat for those who were probably adding their own riffs while watching MST3K, or any bad movie.
For the most part, the riffs in the "home game" came about ten seconds after the action. If they syched up better with the movie, it would have been funnier. Then again, this was 1997 technology, a long way from Twitter. The fact that SyFy did this at all was still a big deal. It mixed TV watching with internet chat rooms. That's not too far off from watching Conan or Breaking Bad with your TV and iPad for a "second screen experience".
Nowadays, we tweet while watching TV, and some of those tweets are shown on TV, even during news shows on CNN or MSNBC. You can easily say "MST3K: The Home Game" made this possible.

The special also had features on a new set, and new episodes that were about to premiere a week later. The home game was only a taste of the new era to come. It may have also convinced some people that they could make their own versions of MST3K, if they only had a couple of robots or stuffed toys. Somehow, this led to iRiffs, Josh Way and Incognito Cinema Warriors XP. That, of course, is a good thing. Someone has to maintain the new tradition of severe movie criticism, usually as you're watching the movie. Again, "MST3K: The Home Game" made this possible.

SyFy's decision to have the home game was a sign that they wanted to have MST3K on its lineup after Comedy Central let it go because it had South Park, and didn't need funny bots anymore. It's too bad they didn't try it again as the technology improved. Maybe they could have had viewers riff on all of This Island Earth.

The conference is expected to discuss other MST3K subjects like comparing Mike and Joel (which nearly broke the internet around the Holidays 20 years ago), who was the best evil sidekick, and how riffing can be connected to Frank Zappa ("is that a Sears Poncho?"), Shakespeare and Monty Python. There's even a proposal to see how riffing affects spy movies, Christmas movies (maybe including Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny and that annoying Talking Christmas Tree), Hercules movies, and just movies that were forgotten for good reason. Despite all these subjects, a panel on MST3K: The Home Game should be on the agenda. It gave viewers a chance to mock a bad movie, see their comments on TV, and decide they can make their own version for mass consumption or something cool to download on YouTube.
And, in a way, it would also lead to seeing viewers' comments being shown on certain TV shows, thanks to today's social media.
Too bad we can't have a new version of MST3K: The Home Game today...with the target being Sharknado. Then again, we still have Rifftrax.

This Movie MST3K, The Whole Story On Blu-Ray

As many Rifftrax fans await the encore of the live riffing of Starship Troopers next week in theaters, and Night of the Living Dead just before Halloween, many of them have picked up the new blu-ray release of Mystery Science Theater 3000, the Movie. It's not only a new and improved version of the 1996 movie, but it also includes extras that reveal why the movie didn't do as well as it should have...and studio meddling is a main reason why.

I remember seeing it at a theater in Eureka in 1996  just after watching the show on Comedy Central. The crowd was small, but it was a good movie...and strangely short. I got a copy by taping it off Starz during one of its "free preview" weekends.

The premise, of course, is evil mad scientist Clayton Forrester (Trace Beaulieu) ready to show the movie to poor lab rat Mike Nelson and his two bots Tom Servo (Kevin Murphy) and Crow (Beaulieu), figuring the movie's so bad they'll be driven insane. For some reason, Clayton went overboard on the "crazy". Maybe he was missing TV's Frank, who left Deep 13 just before this experiment started.  Safe to say, the "victims" shake it off easily.

The new edition includes a "featurette" that's a combination of the trailer and interviews with the cast. There's

even a couple of scenes that never made it in the final version.  Then, Ballyhoo presents the real story of the very hard road the production had to travel just to get to the screen, or 26 of them (according to Box Office Mojo). It features interviews with Mike, Trace and Kevin, along with producer/director Jim Mallon, aka Gypsy. We find out some new facts about pre-production, such as another studio was interested and it almost became a musical.
Making the show for the movies is quite different than making it for Comedy Central. For one thing, Universal tried to control the choice of the film (like only using its titles), and what kind of jokes they could tell. That's why the weird alien was called Leona Helmsley instead of Bootsy Collins. They also kept insisting on cutting the film under 90 minutes, even asking for a scene they later decided they didn't need. That's why the movie is 74 minutes, much shorter than a typical MST episode without ads (not to mention This Island Earth, which lost 13 minutes being MSTied).

There's also focus groups, whose odd opinions also affected production. The pain they inflicted was recreated in the host segments from The Incredible Melting Man, where "Earth vs. Soup" got the real Hollywood treatment.

A third featurette looks at the making of This Island Earth, and how Universal had hoped it would give them a bit more prestige after the release of Forbidden Planet and The War of the Worlds. We also learn people connected with that movie are not happy with what the MST crew did to it.

Then there are the deleted scenes. I had seen them on video footage of the 1996 ConventioCon, but the ones in the blu-ray version are much better. Ballyhoo said Universal didn't have the original masters of those scenes, but what they found are still in good shape. The storm shelter scene is classic, and those suits at Universal should have risked a 91-minute comedy and kept it. There was also a different ending that actually would have been better, especially when you see Crow finding a chainsaw in Servo's room. The extended scenes have slightly different riffs compared to the original.

MST3K The Movie may not have been bigger and better than the typical Comedy Central episode, but it was a bridge to its second life on the Sci-Fi Channel. It might have had better luck it if was made like a regular episode with a bigger budget, and Universal just butted out and took whatever was given to them.
It's also more fondly remembered than Barb Wire, the movie that Gramercy decided to support because it had Pamela Anderson and her...eh...barbs. That movie made nearly three point eight million dollars in 1300 screens. Compare than to a million dollars in only 26 screens for MST3K. It also came in handy as a go-to movie for Cinemax and Starz for a while.

Shout Factory made a lot of MSTies happy with a fantastic blu-ray release that gives the movie the respect it deserves.  Copies are likely to be seen during stops of the Cinematic Titanic farewell tour.

Maybe someday, the Rifftrax crew will take on This Island Earth, the complete version. Then again, riffing on Barb Wire may be an even better idea. To keep Mike, Kevin and Bill Corbett from being distracted by Pam's...er...barbs, the Gorilla Grams can always block the screen again.

Did Rifftrax Overpromise A Bit In Kickstarter Campaign? Not Really

Like about 4300 people, I was looking forward to having my own digital copy of the Rifftrax gang taking Starship Troopers apart after they have their live show next week.

Then, I got this message:

Unfortunately, we’ve been unable to secure the rights from Sony to provide a digital version of the live show. The rights are completely different for theatrical and digital release, and even though we were able to work out an agreement with the theatrical division, it’s just not possible for a digital version.

Fortunately, they had a plan "B" in case they couldn't get the digital rights. Still, I did notice many people were disappointed they would not get the digital download they had expected. One person said he had lost his trust in Mike and Rifftrax because he didn't get the digital rights. Others said they wanted the download because they wouldn't be able to see it live. For the most part, especially the day after, people understood what happened, and gladly accepted an alternate package.

Did Rifftrax promise a little too much in its Kickstarter campaign?

They did the best they could, trying to pull off something they never tried before.
It just wanted to take what it does to alleged movies (Manos, Birdemic, Jack the Giant Killer, and Reefer Madness, to name a few) to the next level, and found out it's much tougher than expected. This was still a good first try, and we hope Rifftrax can get bigger movies in the future.

Mike Nelson was upfront about how this big move to get a more mainstream movie for a Rifftrax Live event was a gamble at best. They wanted to riff on Twilight, which inspired fans to raise the 55 thousand dollars needed in record time. They wound up pledging nearly 265 thousand dollars, which could have been enough for Mike, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett to give Bella and Edward the business.
Not quite for Lionsgate and Summit Entertainment, though, which is why Rifftrax had a list of alternate targets, uh, movies. It eventually got the rights to Starship Troopers, a sci-fi bug movie so cheesy it's practically asking for it. More than 70 percent donated 20 dollars or more to get a digital download of a fully-riffed Casper van Dien, Denise Richards, and really big bugs.
In a Kickstarter update just before Memorial Day, and I emphasize certain words in this update, Mike admitted that while he got the theatrical rights, getting digital rights may be a different bug to hunt:

In the interest of full disclosure, we want to let you know that while we are thrilled to be doing Starship Troopers, working with a big studio is more complicated than how we usually do things on our own. For instance, negotiating the rights to riff a movie live in a theater is not the same as negotiating for the digital distribution rights of said live show. They are two different departments and what works for one may not work for another. We know that the digital download of the live show was one of our most popular rewards choices and are going to do everything in our power to be able to deliver the reward. But we have not secured these rights as of yet, and there’s a chance that Sony may not let us do this. Hopefully it won’t be an issue. If for any reason we’re unable to deliver the digital download, we will of course offer up what we hope is a reward that is more than a fair substitute. You will be kept in the loop as this develops, and we may even run ideas by you if we’re forced to choose a new reward.

Since that was the case, Mike and his minions have offered (and about time) the Rifftrax Live version of Manos, Hands of Fate. This is great because it's a version that's more complete than the classic MST3K version (I reviewed it for this blog). They will also provide a riff of ST, plus five bucks from Rifftrax.com. Depending on the donation, others will get an extra mp3 for any movie they want. So, it's a good peace offering.

So, don't be too mad at Mike Nelson and his Rifftrax minions. It's not as easy as making an mp3 riff on The Avengers while no one's looking. Getting something like Starship Troopers for Rifftrax Live  is an accomplishment in itself, and a reward for those who contributed to the Kickstarter campaign.

Let's hope that our dreams of Twilight getting eclipsed by Rifftrax Live will happen eventually. Until then, we'll have to do it the old-fashioned way: getting the DVDs and mp3 riffs, and pretend we're at the local Cinemark Suburban 14.