2014 began with fans still stunned from the
announcement and quick demise of Cinematic Titanic. After all CT had
been a hit in person and on DVD. Fans felt a little uneasy about what
might happen next and if after all these years were things beginning to
wind down? Not likely. It was a little comforting to see MST3K
mentioned once again as an answer on Jeopardy on 1/9/14.
It wouldn't be long before MST alums began showing up everywhere. On 1/19 Mary Jo was a guest riffer at the Alamo Drafthouse in San Antonio, TX when they riffed the movie Twilight: New Moon. Then on 2/4 J Elvis appeared at the Acme Comedy Co. in Minneapolis, MN performing stand up with Chris Bliss. Josh took the time to let us know that the reason he was unable to perform at some of the Cinematic Titanic appearances toward the end of 2013 was due to having to deal with a cancerous kidney, which was now removed and mended.
Joel continued touring with his Riffing
Myself show, appearing at the Brava Theater during Sketchfest in San
Francisco on 2/7 followed on 2/8 by another show at the Tower Theatre in
Sacramento, CA. That same day Trace presented his Silly Rhymes at the
Negative Space Art Gallery in Cleveland, OH where he was joined by
illustrator Len Peralta.
The RiffTrax gang got in on the action when the live tweeted riffs over
the Academy Awards presentation, where the selfie craze reached a new
low (or high).
The new class of inductees into the Horror Host Hall of Fame was
announced on 3/7 with Joel, Trace and Josh, the original cast of MST3K,
being among the honorees. They would actually be inducted as part of
the 2015 class. (Included below is the 2014 ballot.)
Trace and Frank began making regular appearances together as “The
Mads.” They were invited to attend the 14th Sci Fi Festival in London.
They started a Kickstarter to help fund the trip, where they raised 3092
pounds to their goal of 2800 pounds.
MST3K DVD set XXIX was released 3/25/14. The episodes included Untamed
Youth (112), Hercules and the Captive Women (412), The Thing That
Couldn't Die (805) and The Pumaman (903). Extras are interviews of
Mamie Van Doren and Walter G. Alton, Jr. (Pumaman himself) plus the
unMSTied Pumaman, Joel discussing Riffing Myself, the Posters of MST3K
(a gallery of images by Steve Vance), The Movie That Couldn't Die
documentary, new Joel intros and movie trailers.
Also on 3/25 Luken Communications announced they had the right to 26
episodes of MST3K (covering seasons 1 through 10) that would start
airing on RetroTV.
During the end of March 2014 stories began to arise about a special evening of programming on TV featuring the RiffTrax team. The fact that it was on the National Geographic Channel made some people wonder if it was a hoax. When it came out that the date was going to be 4/1 everyone began to assume it was just an April Fools’ joke. To the delight of fans it was no joke. Nat Geo and RiffTrax had made arrangements for Mike, Kevin and Bill to riff three hours worth of prime time shows. The day started with the guys on Reddit AMA talking about the evening’s festivities. The shows skewered were Bad @$$ Animals (Killer Shrimp 'n Friends), Man vs. Monster (Demon Bat) and Unlikely Animal Friends (A Guy and a Goose).
Wired on-line posted a feature called MST3K - The Definitive Oral History of a Masterpiece on 4/22. In it Joel mentioned that he is trying to start a new on-line version of MST, but had nothing definitive to report yet. Besides being a very good article the item also featured some very cool photos of Joel and the bots.
Trace and Frank made their appearance at Sci-Fi London on 4/25 and 4/26. The first night was an on stage tribute with host Bunny Galore. The second night was a now traditional MST all-nighter at the Stratford Picturehouse.
Also on 4/26 Kevin performed in a live episode of the Thrilling Adventure Hour in Chicago at DePaul University's Merle Reskin Theatre.
The DVD of the RiffTrax Live version Manos: The Hands of Fate was released on 5/6. The event had used the newly restored version of Manos in all of its HD glory. Then on 5/8 Kevin performed the part of “Voice” in the Tex Murphy Adventure Game Tesla Effect, a full motion video game.
5/11/14 saw the delayed release of the beginning of the animated web series called The Begun of Tigtone featuring Bill Corbett as the voice of the Ghost Wizard.
On 5/13 RiffTrax began a Kickstarter to see if there was interest in paying up to see the 1998 Matthew Broderick version of Godzilla get riffed on the live on the big screen. They announced that it would take $100,000 to get the rights. That amount was quickly reached so on 5/29 a stretch goal was added to also riff the SciFi big monster movie Anaconda if $250,000 could be attained. By the time the pledging was complete they had reached $255,000.
Joel kicked off his summer long series of Riffing Myself shows across the country on 5/30-6/1 at Indy Pop Con, Indianapolis, IN. Over the next few months he would also appear at Monster Bash, Mars, PA 6/20-22, Albuquerque Comic Expo 6/27-29, CONjure, Orlando, FL 8/1-3. Wizard World Chicago 8/22-24 and Dragon Con, Atlanta, GA 8/29-31. (The following three pictures are all from Monster Bash.)
Maine Media Workshops + College, a non-profit, non-traditional school that provides experiential education for students of all skill levels in film, photography, writing, multimedia and design, announces that Joel will teach a class on 6/11/14 called "Late Night Comedy Writing." Topics include variety content, monolog, running bits, sketches and short comic vignettes.
Frank posted his latest “Podhouse 90” production on 6/17 “Dracula Has Risen in the Polls” featuring Trace Beaulieu and J. Elvis Weinstein, along with Eddie Pepitone, Julie Klausner, Dana Gould, Laraine Newman, Emily Maya Mills, Joe Keyes, Demorge Brown, Rachel Lichtman, Olana DiGirolamo and Mark Thompson.
On 6/26 Bill appeared at Nerd Night Productions event at The Secret Society in Portland, OR. Also appearing were the Doubleclicks, Molly Lewis, Shane Torres and Anthony Lopez.
For the first time since the end of the series
run on the SciFi Channel on 1/31/2004 MST3K appeared on broadcast TV
when RetroTV began airing episodes on 7/5/14.
Sharknado was riffed live by the RiffTrax team on 7/10 at the State
Theater in Minneapolis, MN. As seen below even Beez McKeever was
excited by the event. Just a couple days later on 7/12 Joel attended
the annual Blobfest at the Colonial Theater in Phoenixville, PA.
MST3K DVD Set XXX came out on 7/29. This sets episodes include The
Black Scorpion (113), Outlaw (519), The Projected Man (901) and It Lives
By Night (1010). Extras include a bunch of documentaries, Stinger Of
Death: Making The Black Scorpion, Writer Of Gor: The Novels Of John
Norman, Director Of Gor: On Set With John "Bud" Cardos, Producer Of Gor:
Adventures With Harry Alan Towers and Shock To The System: Creating The
Projected Man. There was also an extended trailer for the music video
The Frank.
RiffTrax premiered a new opening sequence on 8/13. The new theme song
was written and performed by Jonathan Coulton and the animation was
created by Harry Partridge.
The first of the Kickstarter funded RiffTrax
Live movies, Godzilla, was presented 8/14 from the Belcourt Theater in
Nashville. There were even some cute little lizards handed out to
attendees to the live show.
On 8/15 Scott Bateman started a Kickstarter to fund his pseudo
documentary You, Your Brain, & You with a small part by Kevin
Murphy. It failed to reach its goal however.
Just a few days later on 8/18 we learned that Nicki Minaj is apparently
a MSTie as seen in tribute during video for her "song" Anaconda.
Although the tribute is not necessarily appropriate for audiences of all
ages.
Joel, Trace and Frank were at Dragon Con in Atlanta, GA from 8/29-9/1.
Events included MST3K Night II: Ye Medieval Boogaloo, where Daniel
Griffith presented some exclusive footage, celebrity improv session,
Gonzo Quiz Shows, comedy writing classes and trivia contests related to
MST3K. One of the perks of being a world famous comedian that is known
for his work with puppets is that you get to meet nice people like
Katarina Law of Starz channel’s Spartacus fame. Also, DVD copies of The
Frank first became available from Trace and Frank while at Dragon Con.
Trace and Frank attended Scare-a-Con at the Turning Stone Resort and
Casino in Verona, NY on 9/12. Next Bill's somewhat delayed Super
Powered Revenge Christmas graphic novel illustrated by Len Peralta was
released on 9/15. Also, Shout! Factory joined with Vimeo to present 80
MST episodes available on line.
Jim Mallon participated in the Our Funny University event at University
of Wisconsin – Madison on 9/19. The event discussed the long history of
comedy in the area including Jim’s involvement in the Pail and Shovel
Party’s leadership of the University’s student government back in the
late 1970’s.
Meanwhile many of the former members of Cinematic Titanic were making
appearances over the next few months. On 9/6 Joel appeared on a panel
and hosted a costume contest at Baltimore Comic Con, then on 9/27 at
RetroCon at The Greater Philadelphia Expo Center Joel signed autographs
and did Q and A for fans. Frank was part of the Nerd stand-up comedy
event hosted by Kevin Maher, at The Way Station, Brooklyn, NY. On 10/18
Josh was at the Hollywood Improv in the “Andy Kindler and Friends”
show. Trace and Frank introduced a screening of the movie “The Creep
Behind the Camera,” which is about the making of “The Creeping
Terror.” More info here. TCL Chinese 6 Theatres, Hollywood on 10/19.
Finally on 10/24 Joel performed his Riffing Myself show at Chiller
Theater Expo Parsippany, NJ.
On 10/1/14 the Annotated MSTie Site joined
with Shout! Factory to make episodes available on You Tube. Mitchell
(512) was the first made available.
We learned on 10/14 that Trace and Joel had joined the cast of a Sci-Fi
based series called Other Space being developed for Yahoo by Freaks and
Geeks friend Paul Feig.
As Halloween approached RiffTrax presented their riff of It’s The Great
Pumpkin, Charlie Brown on 10/15.
Then on 10/30 the stretch goal acquired RiffTrax Live! presentation of
Anaconda was performed at the Carolina Theatre in Durham, NC (while the
Belcourt was being renovated). The fan reaction to this riff was
thunderous approval. It is still considered by many fans to be the best
live riff.
On 11/25 MST3K DVD set XXXI hit the shelves. It was no coincidence that
this set came out just a few days before Thanksgiving in an
appropriately holiday oriented tin box and featured some very special
Turkey Day based extras. The episodes included were Jungle Goddess
(203), The Painted Hills (510), The Screaming Skull (912) and Squirm
(1012). Extras included new and exclusive Turkey Day introductions by
Joel, and documentaries Inside The Turkey Day Marathon, This Film May
Kill You: Making The Screaming Skull and another called Gumby and
Clokey. The set also featured Bumper To Bumper: Turkey Day Through the
Years and an interview of Don Scardino who starred in Squirm.
Fans were treated to a very special Turkey Day marathon on 11/27/14.
First off the event was hosted by Joel and was sponsored ob Shout!
Factory. It was available to view via live streaming on both You Tube
and Shout’s own channel. Joel was joined by Crow and Tom and this year
they were voiced by Trace and Josh respectively. The six episodes
featured were Magic Voyage of Sinbad, Giant Spider Invasion, Lost
Continent, Laserblast, Pod People and The Pumaman. There was also lots
of Turkey Day history including documentary Undercooked &
Overstuffed with Joel, Trace and Frank. Kevin even made a prerecorded
advertising the upcoming RiffTrax Live showing of Santa Claus. Joel
even shared some very cool photos of himself while a student at Bethel
College in St Paul, MN back in about 1981. He is seen in the photo
below setting up to take a picture for a stop motion animation project
he was doing.
Two interesting media items surfaced in early
December 2014. First, a Bill tweet was used by Stephen Colbert on the
Colbert Report relating to the lightsaber controversy caused by the
release of the Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer. Next, out of
nowhere legendary R&B/ funk musician and producer Nile Rodgers
posted that he is a fan of MST3K.
If it’s December it must be time for our next RiffTrax Live! Sure
enough on 12/4 the gang presented the K Gordon Murray Mexican production
Santa Claus. Instead of using the same print used for MST3K episode 521
this time it was in its complete director's cut version, with more
scenes with Merlin and, of course, Hercules. The show was back at the
Belcourt Theater in Nashville. The short At Your Fingertips: Sugar and
Spice was also shown.
RiffTrax had a few more offerings before the end of the year. On 12/16
there was a Nat Geo Channel Takeover. The three more riffed this time
were Man vs. Monster: Mekong Flesh Eater, Animals Behaving Badly and
Brazilian Bigfoot. It was good to hear that Man vs. Monster host
Richard Terry is not only a good sport, but also a RiffTrax fan.
Finally on 12/27 RiffTrax listed their worst movies of 2014 with the
remake of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles taking the crown.
The Simpsons episode Bart’s New Friend debuted
on Fox on 1/11/15. In the show Homer and Bart go on a ride at Itchy and
Scratchy Land called Soarin’ Over Springfield. We can see that a few
silhouettes very similar to those MST3K are seen also enjoying the ride.
A new book called The Comic Galaxy of Mystery Science Theater 3000:
Twelve Classic Episodes and the Movies They Lampoon” by Chris Morgan was
released on 1/13.
In mid-January 2015 Frank joined John Fugelsang on his Tell Me Everything podcast on Sirius XM. Over the next few years this allowed Frank to meet many famous personalities from all across the media and entertainment industry. Below are just a few examples, including accordionist Al Yankovic, my girlfriend Carol Alt, balladeer David Crosby and dancer Chubby Checker.
On 1/27 it was announced that some public
television stations would soon begin airing a few episodes of MST3K.
Programmers got four episodes of MST3K in what APT hopes would become
The Best of MST3K on PTV. Broadcasters also received digital rights for
streaming online. It was a little disappointing to hear that the
episodes, which originally ran from 94-97 minutes, would be edited to 88
minutes to conform to public TV schedules.
2/3 saw the release of Songs In The Key of B Movies by Mary Jo. The
collection of parodies of B movie theme songs was funded by a
Kickstarter launched back on 11/6/13 (originally referred to as Awesome
Music for Awful Movies). Music and lyrics of each selection are by
Michael Warren for songs honoring Time Chasers, Space Mutiny, Manos,
Mitchell and California Lady from Track of the Moon Beast. Below are
two different versions of the cover art. Another perk for supporters
was Mary Jo's own Tater Tot Hot Dish Recipe.
Shout! Factory TV premiere on 2/5 with 32 streaming MST3K episodes plus
all of the Film Crew movies available on desktop or mobile browser and
through the Shout!Factory TV app on Roku. Then on 2/6 Joel taught a
workshop on movie riffing on at The College of Communication and
Creative Arts at Rowan University, in Glassboro, NJ. Live performances
by the class were on 2/7. Next on 2/11-14 the Southwest Popular
American Cultural Association held its annual conference in Albuquerque,
NM, and one of the topics was “Mystery Science Theater and the Culture
of Riffing.”
A new video called Clean PC was released on 2/19 starring Mary Jo and
her husband Ron DeGroot. The video was produced by Stag Comedy.com.
On 2/19 RiffTrax kicked off an ambitious Kickstarter campaign known as
"The Crappening" to fund four shows to be presented throughout 2015.
The $75,000 goal was met in one day. The four shows were: “The Room”
(May 6); “Sharknado 2” (July 9); “Miami Connection” (Oct. 1); and “Santa
Claus and the Ice Cream Bunny” (Dec. 3).
Yet another Kickstarter was announced on 3/9. Trace was involved with a
campaign for a comedy web series called Vermin by The Puppet Forge and
Fearless Comedy Productions. The campaign fell just short by funding
$24,132 of the requested $30,000.
It seems appropriate that the first confirmed PBS Station to show the
paired down episodes of MST3K is TPT, Twin Cities Public Television
beginning on 3/12/15.
Joel appeared at WizardWorld in Raleigh, NC on 3/14 then on March 20-22
at HorrorHound Weekend Chiller at the Sharonville Convention Center,
Cincinnati, OH. He would also be a part of Nerds and Music: A Night
with Joel Hodgson, Pat Rothfuss, and Paul & Storm in Seattle, WA on
3/27.
Meanwhile on 3/24 MST DVD set XXXII came out with episodes Space
Travelers (401), Hercules (502), Radar Secret Service (520) and San
Francisco International (614). Extras included new Introductions by
Frank Coniff and documentaries Barnum of Baltimore: The Early Films of
Joesph E. Levine, Marooned: A Forgotten Odyssey, A Brief History of
Satellite News and MST-UK with Trace and Frank along with the usual
theatrical trailers and mini posters.
An unusual item surfaced on 3/30. Frank helped out as a writer for a
proof-of-concept video for something called Electric TV created by Mike
Upchurch and Chris Fairbanks. The idea was to show that a completely
new character could be inserted digitally into an existing print of a
movie, in this case the Tom Cruise movie Cocktail. In the example below
a character was added behind the bar between Cruise and Bryan Brown.
Trace and Frank appeared at the American
Atheists’ 2015 National Convention in Memphis 4/2-5 riffing on the movie
God's Not Dead. Then on 4/12 Trace showed up at the Irish American
Heritage Center, Chicago, IL for the 45th anniversary celebration of the
radio show “Those Were the Days.”
4/15/15 saw the release of Other Space on Yahoo! All eight, 30-minute
episodes in the “first” season were made available at once. In the
series Joel played Zalian Fletcher, a pothead hippie engineer perhaps a
bit reminiscent of how people saw him back in the earliest days of
MST3K. Trace provided the voice for ART a wise cracking robot
stowaway. Early response was not entirely positive, but mostly from
those that had not taken the time to watch the entire series. Some
points seen as confusing or unnecessary actual were pivotal to future
plot points. Over time more and more reviews presented much more
positive responses.
