Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Rifftrax

[Tor Lugosi]

Has anyone bothered with their SW sequel trilogy riff tracks? I've only watched Solo with their riffs and thought it was okay, though nothing special. In general I find their mainstream stuff to be hit-and-miss, although 'The Happening' is one of my Rifftrax favorites.

 

[Dr. Geronimo]

Has anyone bothered with their SW sequel trilogy riff tracks? I've only watched Solo with their riffs and thought it was okay, though nothing special. In general I find their mainstream stuff to be hit-and-miss, although 'The Happening' is one of my Rifftrax favorites.

I've only seen EP. 3 and I remember enjoying it, but it was years ago so it could have just been my autistic self.

Small note but neither EP. 1 or 2 have the full crew since they were done really early in rifftrax's life. 2 and 5 both guest star Chad Vader if you want to know how dated they are.

 

[Tor Lugosi]

I actually did watch their prequel stuff. The only thing I remember from them is that episode 3 (I think it was that one, anyway) had that Darth Vader LARPer dude alongside Mike, Kevin, and Bill but only said like five things throughout the entire film.

 

[Stab You in the Back]

I found the sequel trilogy so painfully dull and frustrating that I couldn't make it through episodes 8 & 9 even with the Rifftrax. The prequels have a goofy charm that lend themselves to riffing, but the sequels are just corporatized mush.

 

[XYZpdq]

watching the rt of Kill and Kill Again, another shit kung fu / action movie
they do well with shit kung fu / action movies
edit instead of doubleposting
Son Of Sinbad, 1955 movie with Vincent Price as Omar Khayyam, basically a mid-east-ish adventure type movie focusing on Sinbad's son (also named Sinbad) with almost a Road To vibe to things
fun episode

 

[XYZpdq]

Hey sirs, this week my invention exchange is a doublepostomatic
watching Teenage Cavemen and they got a letter from a fan who said he was a stunt guy in Hollywood
turns out he was in a fuckton of stuff and would end up appearing on the show a little while later with his work as the stunt ninja standin for Lee Van Cleef in Master Ninja. I don't think they recognized it was him but they even had a host segment bit with a Lee paper doll that turned into the much skinnier stunt guy
That must have been a hell of a ride for that guy from "I like the show and will write them" to "oh shit that's my letter" to "oh shit that's me"
Been watching a bit actively than usual, mostly YouTube uploads of the shout factory releasees
I can see where people bitch about the glitches but it's still a major change from the old dap releases

 

[Someone in a Tree]

Hey sirs, this week my invention exchange is a doublepostomatic
watching Teenage Cavemen and they got a letter from a fan who said he was a stunt guy in Hollywood
turns out he was in a fuckton of stuff and would end up appearing on the show a little while later with his work as the stunt ninja standin for Lee Van Cleef in Master Ninja. I don't think they recognized it was him but they even had a host segment bit with a Lee paper doll that turned into the much skinnier stunt guy
That must have been a hell of a ride for that guy from "I like the show and will write them" to "oh shit that's my letter" to "oh shit that's me"
Been watching a bit actively than usual, mostly YouTube uploads of the shout factory releasees
I can see where people bitch about the glitches but it's still a major change from the old dap releases

Every couple of years, I think about viewing the entire national series (I don’t have the patience for KTMA), but that first season is still pretty rough to get through. There are some episodes that I genuinely find to be entertaining (Women of the Prehistoric Planet and Robot Holocaust), but they definitely found their footing during the second season and were knocking it out of the park with season three.

 

[XYZpdq]

Every couple of years, I think about viewing the entire national series (I don’t have the patience for KTMA), but that first season is still pretty rough to get through. There are some episodes that I genuinely find to be entertaining (Women of the Prehistoric Planet and Robot Holocaust), but they definitely found their footing during the second season and were knocking it out of the park with season three.

Some of the ktmas are surprisingly on point, especially when they have a movie that works well, but yeah they're much more the early style of "some guys watching a movie" rather than the famous comedy show.

 

[Pokemonquistador2]

Some of the ktmas are surprisingly on point, especially when they have a movie that works well, but yeah they're much more the early style of "some guys watching a movie" rather than the famous comedy show.

It was novel enough then, though. Like having a bunch of built-in friends to watch a movie with. The only problem was that they had to work with whatever films were in the KTMA library. Some films, like the Gamera and Sandy Frank films, were perfect for riffing, but others were just made for TV dramas about boring shit. They did feature some good/obscure sci fi like Phase IV and Humanoid Woman (which was a really weird Russian Sci Fi movie that no one in the West would probably know of, had it not been featured on MST3K.)

 

[XYZpdq]

It was novel enough then, though. Like having a bunch of built-in friends to watch a movie with. The only problem was that they had to work with whatever films were in the KTMA library. Some films, like the Gamera and Sandy Frank films, were perfect for riffing, but others were just made for TV dramas about boring shit. They did feature some good/obscure sci fi like Phase IV and Humanoid Woman (which was a really weird Russian Sci Fi movie that no one in the West would probably know of, had it not been featured on MST3K.)

Oh yeah, I genuinely enjoy most of them. I got on board the MST train early into their first national season so I'm fine with that approach.
Gamera and Gamera vs Baragon are probably the weakest of the the KTMAs for me, and even that at least has the time they referenced the SAVE THE EARTH song from Godzilla vs the Smog Monster. I was surprised when Revenge of the Mysterons From Mars got released how much they had their shit together even on the second episode as long as they had all three in the theater at once.
I like how the crap TV dramas like City On Fire and SST Deathflight gave them a chance to work with disaster-type content, which they didn't really do until waaaaaaaaaay later with Avalanche in the revival of the series. Superdome was mostly dull.

 

[Sir Wesley Tailpipe]

Every couple of years, I think about viewing the entire national series (I don’t have the patience for KTMA), but that first season is still pretty rough to get through. There are some episodes that I genuinely find to be entertaining (Women of the Prehistoric Planet and Robot Holocaust), but they definitely found their footing during the second season and were knocking it out of the park with season three.

Was it the second or third season when Mike joined the writing team? It honestly seems like the show never would have found success if it hadn’t been for him.

 

[Tor Lugosi]

Was it the second or third season when Mike joined the writing team? It honestly seems like the show never would have found success if it hadn’t been for him.

He was a writer for season one, even working on the first episode. I don't think he became the head writer until the next season, though.

And, yeah, season one is pretty rough. I think they were still partly ad-libbing during that first season, with the move towards fully scripted riffing apparently being one of the reasons why Josh Weinstein left.

 

[RumblyTumbly]

Writing the riffs instead of ad-libbing was actually a great move because it helped them to develop fantastic timing that perfectly synced with the movie they were watching.

 

[Someone in a Tree]

He was a writer for season one, even working on the first episode. I don't think he became the head writer until the next season, though.

And, yeah, season one is pretty rough. I think they were still partly ad-libbing during that first season, with the move towards fully scripted riffing apparently being one of the reasons why Josh Weinstein left.

According to Joel Hodgson, the riffs in season one were fully scripted, but they were nervous about how many they could put in, worrying that they would distract the viewer from the movie and therefore ruining the context of some of the more plot focused riffs. And though Weinstein wasn’t a big fan of having to watch the movies over and over again (as per the writing process), the real reason he left is that Jim Mallon used his youth as an excuse to stiff him financially. When the Comedy Channel deal was made and Best Brains was founded, Hodgson and Mallon both had 45% ownership over the show, with Trace Beaulieu and Kevin Murphy each having 5%, meaning that Weinstein was the only founding member of MST3K who had no ownership stake. Apparently this was because Weinstein was not legally able to participate since he was only 17. But it also turned out that he was getting paid less than the secretary that was hired. When he confronted Jim Mallon about it, he was essentially told he should just be grateful that he was along for the ride.

 

[Sir Wesley Tailpipe]

According to Joel Hodgson, the riffs in season one were fully scripted, but they were nervous about how many they could put in, worrying that they would distract the viewer from the movie and therefore ruining the context of some of the more plot focused riffs. And though Weinstein wasn’t a big fan of having to watch the movies over and over again (as per the writing process), the real reason he left is that Jim Mallon used his youth as an excuse to stiff him financially. When the Comedy Channel deal was made and Best Brains was founded, Hodgson and Mallon both had 45% ownership over the show, with Trace Beaulieu and Kevin Murphy each having 5%, meaning that Weinstein was the only founding member of MST3K who had no ownership stake. Apparently this was because Weinstein was not legally able to participate since he was only 17. But it also turned out that he was getting paid less than the secretary that was hired. When he confronted Jim Mallon about it, he was essentially told he should just be grateful that he was along for the ride.

Mallon is a piece of shit. It was a bullshit lawsuit that he filed that killed The Film Crew, because he claimed that he owned the format of riffing over a movie.

 

[XYZpdq]

Mallon is a piece of shit. It was a bullshit lawsuit that he filed that killed The Film Crew, because he claimed that he owned the format of riffing over a movie.

I thought that was Mallon leaning on Rhino that they had a choice between MST or Film Crew. Which is still a dick move.
And honestly Film Crew kinda fucking sucked.

 

[Someone in a Tree]

Mallon is a piece of shit. It was a bullshit lawsuit that he filed that killed The Film Crew, because he claimed that he owned the format of riffing over a movie.

There was no lawsuit. He just told Rhino that he would pull back the MST3K license and shop it to another distributor should they release a rival riffing series. Obviously he was very difficult to work with and I think Kevin Murphy might be the only major player from the original series that hasn’t publicly spoken ill of him.

 

[Sir Wesley Tailpipe]

There was no lawsuit. He just told Rhino that he would pull back the MST3K license and shop it to another distributor should they release a rival riffing series. Obviously he was very difficult to work with and I think Kevin Murphy might be the only major player from the original series that hasn’t publicly spoken ill of him.

Kevin has come very close at times to saying something, but he stops himself. He seems to be too mild-mannered to want to air things publicly and start trouble.

 

[XYZpdq]

There was no lawsuit. He just told Rhino that he would pull back the MST3K license and shop it to another distributor should they release a rival riffing series. Obviously he was very difficult to work with and I think Kevin Murphy might be the only major player from the original series that hasn’t publicly spoken ill of him.

iirc Murphy was more a guy who happened to work at KTMA who joined the gang rather than part of the Trace/Joel/Josh team, too

 

[Someone in a Tree]

iirc Murphy was more a guy who happened to work at KTMA who joined the gang rather than part of the Trace/Joel/Josh team, too

Yeah, in some interviews, Joel makes it sound like he was surprised that Kevin was talented beyond operational stuff he did at KTMA.