The Official and Very Rifftastic Mystery Science Theater 3000 Thread

[galleywest]

Re: The Official and Most Rifftastic Mystery Science Theater 3000 Thre

"Money Talks" and "Progress Island U.S.A."

Those two (which originally aired back-to-back in the same episode, right before The Beast of Yucca Flats) should put a big smile on his face and make him laugh more than a few times! I've rarely laughed as much at anything in the history of MST3K as I have at "Progress Island U.S.A."

A '50s educational short on good teenage budgeting habits and a '70s promotional film about Puerto Rico and tourism that features hilariously cheesy period music? A back-to-back pair of MST3K shorts has rarely if ever been more hilarious.

Actually, those two are perfect choices, especially the budgeting one, considering my friend just started a new job!! I'm sure he'll love them. Thanks for the suggestions!

 

[cooleddie74]

Re: The Official and Most Rifftastic Mystery Science Theater 3000 Thre

And thanks for bumping this thread back to the top! I can't believe we (and by "we" I mean "I" ) neglected it for so long.

 

[galleywest]

Re: The Official and Most Rifftastic Mystery Science Theater 3000 Thre

Keep the tapes circulating, and keep the thread going!

 

[cooleddie74]

Re: The Official and Most Rifftastic Mystery Science Theater 3000 Thre

 

[galleywest]

Re: The Official and Most Rifftastic Mystery Science Theater 3000 Thre

Okay, now I have a question. What did "Keep the tapes circulating" mean? I always took it as some kind of tacit permission to tape and share the show so as to keep interest going. Anyone know the real story behind this?

 

[Trekker4747]

Re: The Official and Most Rifftastic Mystery Science Theater 3000 Thre

Okay, now I have a question. What did "Keep the tapes circulating" mean? I always took it as some kind of tacit permission to tape and share the show so as to keep interest going. Anyone know the real story behind this?

The show became popular from the KTMA days (the local station in Minneapolis where the show started) because fans recorded it and circulated the tapes. It continued to be popular this way through the early years on the Comedy Channel/Comedy Central.

After a certain point the show's audience had grown enough to ensure a certain level of stability and there was no longer a "need" to circulate tapes of the show but they kept endorsing the idea anyway out of tradition. But the practiced stopped in the 3rd or 4th season because their lawyers were getting nervous.

Legally speaking, this doesn't strictly absolve any bootleggers of selling the tapes, but The Brains did seem to more-or-less be okay with the idea because it got them more exposure, especially when they were on seldom-seen networks. It's also worth pointing out they promoted people circulating tapes free of charge, which is in a legal gray-area. Sell a tape and you're profiting off another's work, give someone a tape and you're not. (Though you're removing a potential sale from the copyright owners.)

Today, it would seem this more-or-less holds true. There's a website that sells DVDs of episodes of the show, but only the ones that do not currently have a commercial release. I suspect Best Brains knows this as the website doesn't exactly hide itself, and it's been up and around forever without any apparent problem. So long as there's no direct competition I suspect everything will more-or-less remain prosecuted.

 

[cooleddie74]

Re: The Official and Most Rifftastic Mystery Science Theater 3000 Thre

Eh. Giving a personally-recorded videotape away to another fan would never bother me. That's my prerogative as a friend or as a fellow fan who wants to share the experience of watching the series and if somebody somewhere loses a sale of their material because of that sort of transaction it's not my concern. Giving another fan a copy of something free of charge is completely different than bootlegging and selling a copy for profit without the permission of the copyright holder.

Good points, by the way.

 

[Trekker4747]

Re: The Official and Most Rifftastic Mystery Science Theater 3000 Thre

Eh. Giving a personally-recorded videotape away to another fan would never bother me. That's my prerogative as a friend or as a fellow fan who wants to share the experience of watching the series and if somebody somewhere loses a sale of their material because of that sort of transaction it's not my concern. Giving another fan a copy of something free of charge is completely different than bootlegging and selling a copy for profit without the permission of the copyright holder.

Good points, by the way.

My understanding is the "gray-area" is that recording something isn't illegal. Making a *copy* of that copy *is.* But then it becomes that no one cares so long as that copy is personal use. I mean, who's going to know?

If you give it away, you may still be technically breaking the law but you're not profiting from it so you're still in a gray area, but if you *sell* it you're crossing the line.

Anyway, new Rifftrax comes out today.

The Magic Sword

 

[cooleddie74]

Re: The Official and Most Rifftastic Mystery Science Theater 3000 Thre

"They call me Esther Krebs!!!"

 

[cooleddie74]

Re: The Official and Most Rifftastic Mystery Science Theater 3000 Thre

Bumping to add these great panels and interviews with Mike Nelson and Kevin Murphy. These are more than a decade old but the content never gets old and their reflections are just as entertaining now as they were when the videos were originally recorded. Enjoy!

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67gmpMQr_DA[/yt]

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlVdQn2uuXg[/yt]

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukmFqOVKntM[/yt]

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4el9jDAaGsE[/yt]

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

Re: The Official and Most Rifftastic Mystery Science Theater 3000 Thre

Lately, my friends & I have been constantly re-watching the Rifftrax "Crater Lake Monster" & "Guy from Harlem." I love the guy that can't control the volume of his voice and I've got TWO REASONS for that. The first.... it's kinda personal....

Good news: I just read that Roger Corman's "The Undead" is going to be included on the DVD of Volume XXXIV on December 1. That's probably the best episode that they ever did that hadn't ever been released on DVD until now. Digger Smolken approves! http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Mystery-Science-Theater-3000-XXXIV/21537

Today, it would seem this more-or-less holds true. There's a website that sells DVDs of episodes of the show, but only the ones that do not currently have a commercial release. I suspect Best Brains knows this as the website doesn't exactly hide itself, and it's been up and around forever without any apparent problem. So long as there's no direct competition I suspect everything will more-or-less remain prosecuted.

I heard somewhere that Best Brains doesn't really exist any more. And while Shout! Factory owns the distribution rights to the episodes themselves, the characters are more of a gray area. I heard this because there was a guy at a convention that was selling posters with drawings of the robots on them. He says he tried to contact Best Brains to figure out some kind of licensing arrangement only to discover that there wasn't anyone left to negotiate with (and really no one left to sue him either).

 

[cooleddie74]

Re: The Official and Most Rifftastic Mystery Science Theater 3000 Thre

Best Brains might well have folded shop and closed down after the series was cancelled in 1999. Trace Beaulieu has said that Best Brains was set up solely and specifically to produce MST3K and had no functions other than make the series and its associated and spinoff projects.

For all we know Best Brains ceased to exist more than fifteen years ago and other companies have been responsible for all the marketing and legal issues since.

 

[Sto-Vo-Kory]

Re: The Official and Most Rifftastic Mystery Science Theater 3000 Thre

Anyone going to Rifftrax Live: Miami Connection tomorrow night?

I tried watching the un-riffed version on TCM a few months back and it is genuinely terrible. Should be an awesome Rifftrax!

 

[Trekker4747]

Re: The Official and Most Rifftastic Mystery Science Theater 3000 Thre

Oh, I'll be there with bells on!

 

[cooleddie74]

Re: The Official and Most Rifftastic Mystery Science Theater 3000 Thre

I look forward to hearing how good it is! I myself wasn't planning to see it but I'm sure clips will be posted online pretty soon afterwards.

 

[Awesome Possum]

Re: The Official and Most Rifftastic Mystery Science Theater 3000 Thre

Best Brains might well have folded shop and closed down after the series was cancelled in 1999. Trace Beaulieu has said that Best Brains was set up solely and specifically to produce MST3K and had no functions other than make the series and its associated and spinoff projects.

For all we know Best Brains ceased to exist more than fifteen years ago and other companies have been responsible for all the marketing and legal issues since.

I've read that Jim Mallon actually owns the rights to the Bots, he's supposed to be one of the reasons that Joel left.

 

[Sto-Vo-Kory]

Re: The Official and Most Rifftastic Mystery Science Theater 3000 Thre

Just got back from Rifftrax Live: the Miami Connection (which is set mostly in Orlando) and it was great.

The Measurement Man short at the beginning was worth the price of admission alone and the feature movie was a glorious mess. One of my favorite lines was a hilarious slam on MRA supporters toward the end of the film.

The next Rifftrax Live will be in December for the newly-restored classic Santa Claus and the Ice Cream Bunny. Apparently the Thumbelina story in the center of the movie was originally a Jack and the Beanstalk story. I can't wait to see the restored version live since the first Rifftrax edition of the movie is a holiday favorite with my family.

 

[cooleddie74]

Re: The Official and Most Rifftastic Mystery Science Theater 3000 Thre

I've read that Jim Mallon actually owns the rights to the Bots, he's supposed to be one of the reasons that Joel left.

In at least one interview Joel admitted that some pretty bad friction and creative differences between himself and Jim Mallon were major factors in him deciding to leave the series in 1993. They seem to have patched things up since then from what I can tell from their public appearances together, but Joel said he was upset and offended by some of the things Mallon said to him when he left the show and the plans were underway to produce the MST3K movie.

 

[Trekker4747]

Re: The Official and Most Rifftastic Mystery Science Theater 3000 Thre

The Miami Connection live show was a great night, and the movie was a hot mess. If one missed it last night and has the opportunity next Tuesday I recommend going to see it. Hell, I recommend going to see it again if you saw it last night!

The "measurements" short was a great one too, especially a riff when Bill calls into question the "sparkly thing" on the belt of "Measuring Man." (it looks like a lavish vibrator, this is during a sequence where he's in a fantasy-land talking to a grade-school boy (who should be old enough to understand the subject) about measurements.)

The movie was just a fun, fun ride with lots of great riffs and the guys in top-form, even with some great interactions and play off one another as well as flubbed lines. The movie has a soundtrack that's basically an '80s hair-band rock one, giving Kevin plenty of opportunity to make up his own lyrics to the music being played.

Lots of baffling events in the movie itself, including how a group of 3 or 4 guys are constantly able to defeat another group that vastly outnumbers them; as well as a brother who's strangely over-protective of his sister's choice in boyfriends.

Also our group of male characters are confounded by how pants and shirts work.

Man, great fun.

 

[galleywest]

Re: The Official and Most Rifftastic Mystery Science Theater 3000 Thre

I've read that Jim Mallon actually owns the rights to the Bots, he's supposed to be one of the reasons that Joel left.

In at least one interview Joel admitted that some pretty bad friction and creative differences between himself and Jim Mallon were major factors in him deciding to leave the series in 1993. They seem to have patched things up since then from what I can tell from their public appearances together, but Joel said he was upset and offended by some of the things Mallon said to him when he left the show and the plans were underway to produce the MST3K movie.

My impression was always that Joel didn't like the idea of making a movie, but Mallon really pushed for it. That might have contributed to the friction. Or maybe I don't know what I'm talking about, your guess is as good as mine.

I recommended Chicken of Tomorrow to someone the other day and he fell asleep while watching it! How do I gently tell this person that we can no longer be friends?