The End 6: Bringing Back MST3K

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.

       

       

RiffTrax appeared at the Tribeca Film Festival in lower Manhattan, NY, riffing on The Room, three full weeks before it was done live for everyone else nationwide.

   

The actual RiffTrax Live! of The Room would be broadcast on 5/6 from the Belcourt Theater in Nashville.  Director/ producer/star Tommy Wiseau was a good sport about the riffing and seemed to appreciate the publicity.  Among other rewards, special t-shirts were provided to Kickstarter supporters.

           

Another fun appearance by the RiffTrax guys was 6/9 on Comedy Central's @Midnight hosted by Chris Hardwick.  Unofficially it was reported that their appearance had some of the best ratings for the show.

   

We hadn’t been hearing from J. Elvis Weinstein much lately, but his documentary Michael Des Barres: Who Do You Want Me To Be? about the life of rock star/actor’s life debuted at DocFest in San Francisco at the Roxy Theater on 6/11.  The on 6/12, on the RiffTrax Presents label, Bridget and Mary Jo began releasing a series of shorts with Life In The Suburbs.

   

On 6/23 the next collection of RiffTrax short subjects came out.  Called Short Assemble! it bore a cover image somewhat reminiscent of the Avengers



One other item from June 2015 was seen when a book was released called Geek Knits by Joan of Dark (aka Toni Carr).  Of the 30 projects inside some were designed by celebrities such as Adam Savage, René Auberjonois and John Carpenter and one had a fairly strong tie to MST3K.  A cute little “alien pet” apparently created by the bots.

       

An announcement was released on 7/4 that the writers from RiffTrax had provided some written commentary to Peanuts comic strips included in The Complete Peanuts 1995-1996 (Vol 23).

   

7/9/15 saw the next installment of The Crappening with the RiffTrax Live version of Sharknado 2, once again at the Belcourt Theater.  Some fans found it fun to look for all the cameo appearances in the movie.  Others found it annoying as Hell.

           

Pluto TV launched an all MST3K channel streaming 24/7 on 7/14.

   

MST DVD set XXXIII was released on 7/28 featuring the episodes Daddy-O (307), Earth vs. the Spider (313), Teen-age Crime Wave (522) and Agent For H.A.R.M. (815).  Once again there was a wealth of extras including the documentaries Beatnick Blues: Investigating Daddy-O, This Movie Has Legs: Looking Back At Earth Vs. The Spider, Film It Again, Sam: The Katzman Chronicles, Tommy Cook: From Jungle Boy To Teenage Jungle and Tommy Cook: From Jungle Boy To Teenage Jungle.  There were also some MST3K Hour bumpers, theatrical trailers and four more mini posters.



As the summer wore on things were happening that made MSTies wonder what may be in the works.  The MST3K.com store had a going out of business sale and was empty by early August.  RiffTrax was becoming available through other means than just their own website (e.g., KL Studio Classics advertised for The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant on DVD/BLU with RiffTrax commentary).  In October we would learn that Cinematic Titanic was selling off all of their DVD stock then locking the doors.  No one knew at the time how much we should be concerned about all this.  Not all of it sounded good for us MSTies.



One bright spot came on 8/27 when Banu Gibson, the widow of Buzz Podewell (who had passed away 3/29/2013), was kind enough to share two “Mr. B Natural” promo shots with us.  Buzz Podewell was indeed “Buzz” along side Betty Luster as Mr B.  The man in the plaid sport jacket is director Phil Patton.  The other man may be writer Marvin David.

   

On 9/1 Shout! Factory reissued MST3K DVD Volume 1 with new extras.  The set was originally released by Rhino in November 2002 and included episodes Catalina Caper (204), The Creeping Terror (606), Bloodlust (607) and The Skydivers (609).  Extras included The Crown Jewels featurette, The Creeping Terror trailer, extended trailer for The Creep Behind The Camera, The Creep Behind The Camera Q&A with Frank Conniff and Trace Beaulieu at Screamfest 2014 and Theatrical Trailers For Catalina Caper, Bloodlust And The Skydivers.



One more change: effective 9/2/16 Best Brains, Inc became known as Consolidated Puppets Incorporated.

At various times during DagonCon 2015 Trace, Frank and Bill appeared between 9/4-6.  Daniel Griffiths of Ballyhoo Productions once again hosted an MST night with Star Wars based trailers and riffing plus an MST trivia challenge. 

       

   

On 9/4, while attending DragonCon, Trace made an appearance on horror host Svengoolie’s show on MeTV.  That night's movie was the William Castle film Night Walker with Barbara Stanwyck.


Horrorhound Weekend was held in Indianapolis 9/11-13/15. The class of 2015 Horror Hosts was inducted into the Hall of Fame including Joel, Trace and Josh.

   

Mary Jo appeared in her play One Across: My Life As A Former Crossword Puzzle Clue at the Bryant Lake Bowl, Minneapolis, MN from 9/17-19.  On 9/18 Joel was at the Greenwich Odeum in East Greenwich, RI.  First doing a Mini-Marathon Double Feature hosting two of his favorite MST episodes, plus a Q&A.  Then on 9/19 presenting Riffing Myself and Joel's Favorite Shorts followed by a VIP reception.



Joel, Trace, Frank and Bill appeared at Salt Lake Comic Con from 9/24-26/15.  Another unrelated guest at the show was Felicia Day, the creator and star of the web series The Guild.  We would find out later in the year that Joel found some time this weekend to discuss with her some ideas for a new show.

           

October kicked off with the RiffTrax Live! of Miami Connection on 10/1 at the Belcourt  Theater.  Director and star YK Kim was a great sport about the show and helped do some promotions for the event.  The evening also included another bizarre short called Measuring Man.  Kickstarter backers received another custom t-shirt and those that attended the show live got a little foam ninja.

           

           

The final fruits of Ben Sovolosky's Kickstarter project to fully restore Manos: The Hands of Fate can be seen in the DVD/BLU released on 10/13 from Synapse Films.  Later that month, on 10/29 we learned that Shout! Factory was releasing a Blu-ray edition of the Brain That Wouldn't Die that would include the MST3K version as an extra.  That was a first.

   

On 10/24 Frank and Trace riffed two movies at the North Bar in Chicago, IL, Glen or Glenda at the early show and Plan 9 at the late show.  It was also about this time that they started promoting their appearances together by exclaiming that "The Mads Are Back."



History Channel debuted the TV movie Secrets of Einstein's Brain on 11/2.  Trace appears as Einstein in heavy makeup created by Crist Ballas.  The show costarred Kirsten Gregerson as a Russian spy.

       

RiffTrax.com started offering MST episodes on MST3K Mondays beginning 11/3.  These versions include new intros by Mike and as they put it "A significant share of the profits of all MST episodes sold on RiffTrax will be paid out directly to ALL the principal cast members of MST – Mike, Joel, Kevin, Bill, Mary Jo, Trace, Frank, Josh and Bridget. We feel it’s important that the original artists benefit directly from their awesome work. So if you want to support them, buy your MST here on RiffTrax!"  The first two episodes available were The Pumaman and The Final Sacrifice.



BIG news on 11/10/15.  Joel announced a Kickstarter to #BringBackMST3K that would bring all new episodes in the future.  We learned that Shout! Factory had acquired the rights to MST3K.  “With the new deal, negotiated by Shout’s David McIntosh, Shout! Factory now has the proprietary rights to “Mystery Science Theater 3000” from Best Brains Inc., including all brand assets and global intellectual property. The media company is partnering with Hodgson and his company Alternaversal LLC on future endeavors surrounding the “MST3K” brand, including plans for new content development, digital media initiatives, live events, merchandise licensing programs and content syndication to international territories.” 

   

Over the next few weeks an all new cast would be introduced.  First on 11/16 would be Jonah Ray as the new host Jonah Heston.  Jonah was one of the three hosts of The Nerdist Podcast and the co-host of Comedy Central's The Meltdown with Jonah and Kumail.  Next on 11/23 we would learn that comedians Hampton Yount and Baron Vaughn will provide the voices of Crow and Tom Servo, respectively and that Felicia Day had joined the cast as Kinga Forrester, Dr F's daughter (somehow).

           

A DVD of The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant (1971) was released on 11/24 that included RiffTrax commentary.



To start get us in the Thanksgiving mood Joel was on Yahoo!'s Superfan TV on 11/24 to discuss this year's MST3K Turkey Day.

   

Turkey Day Marathon 2015 took place on 11/26.  Six classic MST3K episodes were shown, Outlaw (of Gor), Eegah!, Gorgo, Teenagers from Outer Space, Danger! Death Ray and Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.  As usual the day was hosted by Joel, this time from the Kickstarter headquarters.  For some reason different bumpers were created for the Yahoo and Youtube feeds. Bill made an appearance promoting the upcoming RiffTrax Live of Santa Claus and the Ice Cream Bunny.  Along with meeting a few of the local workers Joel and Kickstarter CEO Yancey Strickler shared cornbread recipes.  Ashley Holtgraver, a fan who had sent a letter to MST back during the Comedy Central days that was read on the air, made an appearance during the marathon and even sang a song about the show.

           

       

On 11/29 Kevin was interviewed by Jon Foss from CW23 Twin Cities, the descendant of KTMA TV23, that resurrected the New Years' Eve Melon Drop and brought back original host Bob Bagadonuts (Kevin Murphy).  During their chat they shared some pictures from the original Melon Drop back in 1986.

       

The next member of the MST revival cast announced was Patton Oswalt as the new henchman TV's Son of TV's Frank on 11/30.  Because the Kickstarter campaign was going so well we began to learn of more and more stretch goals for more episodes.

       

MST DVD XXXIV came out on 12/1.  Along with episodes Viking Women vs. the Sea Serpent (317), War of the Colossal Beast (319), The Undead (806) and The She Creature (808) was a new documentary It Was A Colossal Teenage Movie Machine: The A.I.P. Story, new introductions by Frank and theatrical trailers.



Tom and Crow (and their new voices) successfully auditioned for Star Wars on Funny or Die on 12/2.

       

   

RiffTrax Live! of Santa Claus and the Ice Cream Bunny was presented on 12/3 at the Belcourt Theater, Nashville.  The movie, of course, is a fan favorite.  This version was somewhat different than the one riffed earlier for a DVD release.  Instead of the story of Thumbelina we are treated to very 1970’s Jack and the Beanstalk.  I nice Christmasy sweatshirt was made available and attendees at the Nashville show received their own Ice Cream Bunny.

           

       

Each night the week of 12/7 fans were treated to two MST episodes to celebrate the last few days of the MST revival Kickstarter.  The First Final Countdown double feature (12/7) - Pod People, Werewolf.  Second (12/8) - Wild, Wild World of Batwoman, Catalina Caper.  Third (12/9) - Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders, I Accuse My Parents.  Fourth (12/10) - Warrior of the Lost World, Space Mutiny.  Fifth (12/11) - Final Sacrifice, Mitchell.  And that would lead us up to the Final Countdown event itself.

   

The evening of 12/11/15 saw the Final Countdown celebration.  Perhaps in a bit of foreshadowing we started with a test pattern that seemed to predict there may be a few issues tonight.  Joel was joined by Paul and Storm as co-hosts for the event, but the early part of the show was plagued with starts and stops, frozen screens and out of sync sound and images.  There were many live acts that were to help out, but first we were treated to some hilarious live responses to Tweets by new evil henchman Patton Oswalt, who really saved what was becoming an uncomfortable situation.  Having bought time for the technical difficulties to be (mostly) resolved we saw many comedians, magicians, including John Carney, and musical acts.  Some other highlights were Joel and Felicia Day sharing a relaxed moment, Dana Gould as Dr Zaius as William Shatner reciting Santa Claus Is Coming To Town and of course the last few minutes as the countdown (which included the earnings for some additional rewards) eventually reached $6,364,229 from 47,270 backers.  The dollar amount set a new Kickstarter record for a web series.  (One note, I got the picture of Dana Gould while watching Felicia Day’s simulcast podcast.)

       

               

       

One fun off shoot of the campaign was the creation of what became known as the MST3K Revival League.  Initially this was a vocal group of supporters on Facebook, Twitter and other social media, but grew as the Kickstarter accelerated and continued after the campaign ended.



On 12/12 Frank and Trace appeared for two shows at the Ivory Theater in St. Louis, MO riffing a different movie at each show.  Earlier in the day they taught a riff writing workshop at the theater.  The two movies selected were the Ed Wood classics Plan 9 From Outer Space and Glen or Glenda.

   

   

Later that day we received a nice Christmas message from Mary Jo and Bridget  and of course the year wrapped up with Kevin making a reprise performance as Bob Bagadonuts that the Twin Cities CW23 2016 Melon Drop.

       


 
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