Mystery Science Theater 3000

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cdnchris
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Re: Mystery Science Theater 3000

#176 Post by cdnchris » Tue Jul 23, 2013 1:36 pm

Interestingly "Mitchell" was just announced for the Warner Archive.

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matrixschmatrix
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Re: Mystery Science Theater 3000

#177 Post by matrixschmatrix » Tue Jul 23, 2013 1:48 pm

Yeah, there's a couple of indicators that Shout! has been able to make a deal with Warner, which was as much one of the hold outs here as with Criterion.

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Minkin
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Re: Mystery Science Theater 3000

#178 Post by Minkin » Tue Jul 23, 2013 5:04 pm

matrixschmatrix wrote:Vol XXVIII Announced

111- MOON ZERO TWO
422- THE DAY THE EARTH FROZE (with short: HERE COMES THE CIRCUS)
802- THE LEECH WOMAN
909- GORGO
There will also be a bonus disc with 512- “Mitchell” and 513- “The Brain That Wouldn’t Die.”
Wow! I never thought we'd see Moon Zero Two! Just the theme song alone to that film is tops (probably Hammer's cheesiest moment). Also was worried about Gorgo, since that bluray came out recently. Overall, what a perfect set! I've been wanting these episodes for quite some time now!

I do hope the bonus disc won't just be a "spend twice as much for the set on Shout Factory's website, and we'll give you this disc." If that's the case, I'd assume that we'd get both films in a later set, right? Right?

As to the organization suggestions: I don't think I could ever do a binder approach, I'd just feel too guilty. I think the organizing by airdate is probably the best way, even if I might be sent searching every now and then for a certain title.

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matrixschmatrix
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Re: Mystery Science Theater 3000

#179 Post by matrixschmatrix » Tue Jul 23, 2013 5:13 pm

Wait, what would make you feel guilty? Mine are all officially licensed product (well, with the exception of two I paid for which later disappeared, which are now copies, and the Episode That Is Not To Be Discussed) but I put them in production order in a binder because otherwise they take up a crazy amount of space.

I'm guessing the bonus disc is exactly what you're afraid of, same setup as the currently available disc of the serials strung together. If you don't have those two episodes, paying an extra $20 to get them seems relatively reasonable; it's less than buying the individual releases on Amazon right now would cost, and Shout has explicitly stated that apart from individual releases they're not redoing anything that was previously available in sets until they run out of everything else.

edit: Wow, I just realized I've never actually seen Moon Zero Two- I was confusing it with 12 to the Moon this whole time. That's exciting. Plus, it's an entry from the very limited overlap of directors featured in both MST and Criterion (Roy Ward Baker)

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Minkin
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Re: Mystery Science Theater 3000

#180 Post by Minkin » Tue Jul 23, 2013 5:46 pm

matrixschmatrix wrote:Wait, what would make you feel guilty? Mine are all officially licensed product (well, with the exception of two I paid for which later disappeared, which are now copies, and the Episode That Is Not To Be Discussed) but I put them in production order in a binder because otherwise they take up a crazy amount of space.

I'm guessing the bonus disc is exactly what you're afraid of, same setup as the currently available disc of the serials strung together. If you don't have those two episodes, paying an extra $20 to get them seems relatively reasonable; it's less than buying the individual releases on Amazon right now would cost, and Shout has explicitly stated that apart from individual releases they're not redoing anything that was previously available in sets until they run out of everything else.
I'd feel guilty about putting stuff in a binder. I enjoy the cover art too much, and could never bring myself to bindering anything that I own (well, perhaps other than some stupid studio blurays, but never MST3K). I've only bought the Shout Factory releases (still missing four volumes), and I don't have plans to get any of the Rhino releases. So my problem with organization is with the cases on the shelf (which if I do follow your guy's plan, I'll probably be reshuffling episodes between boxes, but I think I'll be ok with that). No, I don't have any qualms about Mfunk's approach - whatever you guys shove into your binders is your business :P

Too bad they don't plan on re-releasing any of the Rhino sets. They only do four sets a year, one would think that they could at least do two sets for Christmas, etc. Sure, some of those Rhino sets can still be bought relatively cheap, but then I'd have to re-purchase the Shout when they came out. The Rhino sets were rather bare-bones (don't really care about owning the non-MST3K version of the movie, since there are undoubtedly better releases), so I can get by with youtube, etc for those sets. Shout really has gone the extra mile: fun covers and probably the best dvd menu screens, plus the usual bonus features (each set has something from Larry Blamire, so its all a dream come true).

It does appear that there will be an additional 20 or so volumes (so another five years) before Shout has covered everything not done by Rhino (I think the series will end at volume 50 - since Rhino released some things outside of the sets). I think I can wait that time to own several of these episodes. I'd rather not pay OOP prices for a barebones set, which I could just as easily get by with online/Amazon Prime. Its perhaps the same way I feel about the Shout individual episodes: nice to have, but I'd rather wait for them to be shoved into volumes (with extras/extra treatment). I'm not just going to collect everything for the sake of collecting, but rather wait for them to be done right.

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matrixschmatrix
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Re: Mystery Science Theater 3000

#181 Post by matrixschmatrix » Tue Jul 23, 2013 5:51 pm

Well, there may be another 20 plus sets worth of individual episodes, but God knows how many Shout will actually be able to get the rights to- they keep putting new deals together in time for each new set, but there are some that would take a miracle to get out (Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster, for instance.) And the Rhino sets are fine- I like Shout's extras, but they're rarely vital, and Rhino's PQ and so forth are roughly equivalent. And they got cast intros and otherwise unreleased shorts smuggled into a couple of sets, so they deserve credit for that, certainly.

I do wish I could get a copy of Volume 9 for less than like $150, which seems to be the going rate, though- it's the only thing in the whole collection that I'm missing, and it drives me up a wall.

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manicsounds
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Re: Mystery Science Theater 3000

#182 Post by manicsounds » Thu Jul 25, 2013 8:35 am

The Leech Woman is a pretty fun Universal movie in the first place. But the MST3K version is flat out awesome. The wife's drinking gets so many laughs which I didn't think about when I first saw the original.

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J Wilson
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Re: Mystery Science Theater 3000

#183 Post by J Wilson » Thu Jul 25, 2013 10:40 am

Does anyone here watch Riff Trax's releases? The upcoming inclusion of Mitchell in the next set reminded me of this, but the recent Riff Trax release of VIVA KNIEVEL! is hilarious, a perfect film for MST-style riffing, with its dopey star pretending to be a all around standup guy (as opposed to his real life Mitchell-esque douchebaggery). The movie also stars Gene Kelly, Red Buttons, Leslie Nielsen, Marjoe Gortner, and Lauren Hutton. It's a real piece of work. Their upcoming live riffing of STARSHIP TROOPERS will hopefully be choice as well.

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Re: Mystery Science Theater 3000

#184 Post by Brianruns10 » Thu Jul 25, 2013 1:08 pm

I know it's a pipe dream, but can you IMAGINE how awesome it'd be if they managed to clear the rights for all the shows, so we could at long last have a proper, definitive, season by season box set, even (gasp) of the KTMA episodes including the legendary lost three.

Seriously, if I were a billionaire I'd approach Shout! with a suitcase of cash, and tell 'em "No expense spared, Make this happen." Well, that and I'd hire all the alums for a reunion episode, so I could finally realize my dream of seeing Joel AND Mike in the theater with the bots. I think they'd work really well together.

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matrixschmatrix
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Re: Mystery Science Theater 3000

#185 Post by matrixschmatrix » Thu Jul 25, 2013 1:11 pm

The KTMA episodes are withheld because the cast doesn't want them seen, not for rights issues- otherwise they could have put them in as extras in the Gamera set, which had all been movies in the KTMA era as well. I'm guessing a bots-included MST reunion is probably out because Jim Mallon is on the outs with pretty much everybody, and he owns the intellectual rights at this point (or at least enough of them to block anyone doing anything without him.)

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mfunk9786
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Re: Mystery Science Theater 3000

#186 Post by mfunk9786 » Tue Jul 30, 2013 11:10 pm

manicsounds wrote:The Leech Woman is a pretty fun Universal movie in the first place. But the MST3K version is flat out awesome. The wife's drinking gets so many laughs which I didn't think about when I first saw the original.
Watching it now for the first time since perhaps its original broadcast - the Frank Zappa reference had me rolling. Looking forward to this set more than most.

By the way, I always felt The Deadly Bees was one of the funniest episodes ever mostly because of the goofing on the main marital relationship, so, yeah, watch that one.

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Minkin
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Re: Mystery Science Theater 3000

#187 Post by Minkin » Fri Aug 02, 2013 6:44 pm

Well here's some exciting news, courtesy of TVshowsonDVD.com (click link to see the cover too)
Mystery Science Theater 3000 - XXVIII: 25th Anniversary Edition: Collector's Tin. Priced at $64.99 SRP, this will be in stores on November 19th. It will come with the usual 4 DVDs, with one episode each...
[list of the 4 previously mentioned episodes...]

...but it will also come with a special bonus 5th DVD this time, with the two episodes on it which were named in the studio description quoted at the top of this story: Mitchell (Episode #512) and The Brain That Wouldn't Die (Episode #513).
Amazing! Very happy that Mitchell/Brain are not just Shout website exclusives. I do wonder if they will be exclusive to the tin version of the set though. I had shelled out quite a lot of money a few months ago for the OOP 20th anniversary set, so I will be sure to to get this one (oh the lengths I went to just to own three plastic robots).

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Matt
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Re: Mystery Science Theater 3000

#188 Post by Matt » Tue Aug 06, 2013 12:51 pm

For those who take their MST3K very seriously: Reading Mystery Science Theater 3000: Critical Approaches, edited by Shelley S. Rees.
First broadcast in the not too distant past on a television station in Minnesota, Mystery Science Theater 3000 soon grew out of its humble beginnings and found a new home on cable television. This simple show about a man and two robots forced to watch bad movies became a cult classic, and episodes of the series continue to be packaged in DVD collections to this day. Before its final run, the show received Emmy nominations and a Peabody award for Television excellence, and in 2007, Time magazine declared MST3K one of “The 100 Best Shows of All-Time.”

In Reading Mystery Science Theater 3000: Critical Approaches, Shelley S. Rees presents a collection of essays that examines the complex relationship between narrative and audience constructed by this baffling but beloved television show. Invoking literary theory, cultural criticism, pedagogy, feminist criticism, humor theory, rhetorical analysis, and film and media studies, these essays affirm the show’s narrative and rhetorical intricacy. The first section, “Rhetoric and the Empowered Audience,” addresses MST3K’s function as an exercise in rhetorical resistance. Part Two, “Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Genre,” analyzes MST3K through distinct generic traditions, including humor studies, traditional science fiction tropes, and the B-movie. Finally, the third section addresses postmodern and intertextual readings of the show.

By providing an academic treatment of an iconic television phenomenon, these essays argue that Mystery Science Theater 3000 is worthy of serious scholarly attention. Though aimed at a discerning readership of academics, this collection will also appeal to the intellectual nature of the show’s well-educated audience.

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Gregory
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Re: Mystery Science Theater 3000

#189 Post by Gregory » Tue Aug 06, 2013 9:02 pm

Or for those who somehow don't realize that the show employed a huge range of cross-cultural references and sometimes critiqued the perceived cultural vantage point of the films on offer, and who need a bunch of tired jargon to "help" them understand that kind of thing? The book could be more than what its table of contents suggests, of course, but at $50 SRP for a 176-page book of essays that look like they should have been published 10+ years ago, I probably will not find out any different.
This kind of thing cries out for parody. My essay in progress: "Gypsy as Mother: The Deconstruction of Child Car Seats and the Phenomenology of Armlessness."

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manicsounds
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Re: Mystery Science Theater 3000

#190 Post by manicsounds » Wed Aug 07, 2013 10:35 am

Wow, so it's already been 5 years since the rights went to Shout!...

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Matt
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Re: Mystery Science Theater 3000

#191 Post by Matt » Wed Aug 07, 2013 12:54 pm

Academic books are almost entirely worthless nowadays: specious arguments made in hastily-written articles and monographs, published for the sole purpose of padding out a tenure portfolio.


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rrot
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Re: Mystery Science Theater 3000

#193 Post by rrot » Fri Aug 23, 2013 2:26 pm

The many suggestions upthread are responsible for renewing the spark of my MST3K flame. Thanks -- and damn you :wink: -- for that everyone.

I hope this will also be helpful to some people:

There are quite a lot of very high quality pirated editions of the fairly-recent Volume XXIV being sold on both eBay and Amazon. I bought two of them before relenting and going to B&N.

I was able to get confirmation from Shout! Factory, based on the info I gave them, that the earlier discs, which were just slightly hinky seeming, were in fact bogus.

Without belaboring it too much, the best way to tell from the exterior of a shrink-wrapped product is by weight -- the pirates have used much cheaper plastic cases and lighter-weight paper throughout. You can tell if you hold in one hand any legit 4-disc release from Shout! and this bootleg in the other hand that the bootleg is notably lighter.

If you've already gotten the release, the easiest confirmation of illegitimacy is that the included posters do not have the product number marking on the reverse that Shout! always does. The poster for Fugitive Alien, for example, should be marked "SF 13382-IS1" on the reverse. The counterfeits are blank.

There are many other, more subtle, details that distinguish the legit from the counterfeit, but suffice it to say that the knock-off artists have significantly upped their game from the previously-bootlegged Volume XX with its many typos and mis-labelled discs.

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matrixschmatrix
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Re: Mystery Science Theater 3000

#194 Post by matrixschmatrix » Tue Nov 26, 2013 6:40 pm

Next set:

112- UNTAMED YOUTH
412- HERCULES AND THE CAPTIVE WOMEN
805- THE THING THAT COULDN’T DIE
903- THE PUMAMAN

Pumaman is a hands down all time favorite, and one of the biggest unreleased ones I was looking forward to. Also, Untamed Youth leaves only The Black Scorpion from the first season- that's far and away the closest to a finished season yet.

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Polybius
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Re: Mystery Science Theater 3000

#195 Post by Polybius » Fri Nov 29, 2013 2:12 am

The Thing That Couldn't Die is a real traysure.

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Minkin
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Re: Mystery Science Theater 3000

#196 Post by Minkin » Mon Jan 13, 2014 9:09 pm

Extras for volume XXIX have been announced:

New Interview with Untamed Youth Star Mamie Van Doren
New Interview with The Pumaman Star Walter G. Alton, Jr.
The Original Version of The Pumaman
The Movie That Couldn't Die
New Introductions By Joel Hodsgon
About Joel Hodgson's Riffing Myself
MST3K Artist In Residence: Steve Vance
The Posters Of MST3K
Theatrical Trailers
4 Exclusive Mini-Posters By Artist Steve Vance

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matrixschmatrix
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Re: Mystery Science Theater 3000

#197 Post by matrixschmatrix » Mon Jan 13, 2014 9:20 pm

Oh, beautiful. This was already a must-get, but Pumaman is a delight with or without riffing- and it's exciting that uncut versions of the movies are a possibility again.

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HerrSchreck
Joined: Sun Sep 04, 2005 11:46 am

Re: Mystery Science Theater 3000

#198 Post by HerrSchreck » Tue Jan 14, 2014 2:51 pm

The Thing That Couldn't Die is pretty lame, IMHO-- it warms the ground for DER NACKTE UND DER SATAN (aka THE HEAD in the US, w/Michel Simon of all people furchrissakes playing a talking decapitated head on a platter framed in gorgeous moody chiaroscuro) and of course the magesterial BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE.

Are they actually doing both BRAIN as well as THING?

I swear, if BRAIN was in French, it'd be some avant classic along the lines of Les Yeux sans visage.

Speaking of brains, nothing comes close to THE EVIL BRAIN FROM OUTER SPACE. Even Ed Wood's PLAN NINE is like an agonized, grief-wrung funeral compared to it.

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matrixschmatrix
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Re: Mystery Science Theater 3000

#199 Post by matrixschmatrix » Tue Jan 14, 2014 3:43 pm

The Brain That Wouldn't Die actually just got rereleased in the most recent box set before the one under discussion- it's certainly creepier and more atmospheric than most of the black and white Z grade stuff MST got, which was usually too full of empty spaces to be particularly entertaining on any level (though I kind of like Terror from the Year 5000 and It Conquered the World.)

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matrixschmatrix
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Re: Mystery Science Theater 3000

#200 Post by matrixschmatrix » Tue Mar 25, 2014 2:11 pm

Volume XXX titles:

113- The Black Scorpion
519- Outlaw (Of Gor)
901-The Projected Man
1010- It Lives By Night

Finally a complete season!

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