Posts Tagged ‘Joel Hodgson’

MST3K’s 14th Season Fundraiser Going Slow

Monday, November 20th, 2023

You may have noticed that Joel Hodgson and MST3K gang are having a new kickstarter for the next season (for values of “kickstarter” that include “not on the Kickstarter platform”). There are five days left and they are only 38% of the way to the first goal of $4.8 million, which will be six features and six shorts.

The last two Kickstarters they had blew past their goals.

This one? Not so much. Despite announcing that Plan 9 from Outer Space will be among the riffed films.

Donor fatigue? The Biden Recession? Not doing enough promotion? Not enough boost from a non-Kickstarter platform? Disgruntlement over how long it took people to get their promised rewards from the last campaign?

I think it may be some combination of all the above.

Maybe the usual Turkey Day festivities will kick it into higher gear. But if they don’t, this may be the first MST3K fundraising effort to fail.

MST3K Kickstarter Update: Fully Funded, New Joel Episodes, Dueling Hosts, More!

Friday, May 7th, 2021

For those who still haven’t backed the new Mystery Science Theater 3000, they just roared past their $5.5 million goal to make 12 episodes and they still have (as of this writing) 13 hours left to go.

I previously covered The Gizmoplex, but here are few of the more interesting tidbits about Season 13 that have been revealed since the campaign launch:

  • Grand Poobah Joel Hodgson will reprise his role as test subject Joel Robinson for two episodes.
  • In addition to Jonah Ray returning as test subject Jonah Heston (and Felicia Day and Patton Oswalt returning as the Mads), Emily Marsh (who appeared on the most recent MST3K live tour) will be appearing as test subject Emily Crenshaw. Evidently there will be separate Jonah and Emily (and Joel) episodes.
  • They’re going to do at least one 3D movie.
  • Two of the films to be riffed will be Robot Wars and Demon Squad. Since the latter came out in 2019, that has to rank as the shortest release-to-MST3K gap ever.
  • If you haven’t backed the Kickstarter yet, now would be a good time…

    Joel Hodgson Launches Another MST3K Kickstarter

    Thursday, April 8th, 2021

    MST3K creator Joel Hodgson has launched another MST3K Kickstarter to help fund the show that was dropped by Netflix after two seasons. Their minimum goal is $2 million for three more episodes (which I think they’re going to breeze past today), with stretch goals out to $5.5 million for 12 episodes (plus 12 short films).

    Plus something called “The Gizmoplex,” which he describes as “an online theater for live screenings & special events!”

    1. Live Premieres & Events: Each month for our first year, The Gizmoplex will host at least* one live event, where you can join me, our cast and writers, and some special surprise guests. Each live event will be like a night at the theater, and will have a lot of fun surprises. Our live events could include new sketches, trailers (done “MST3K style”), live Q&A panel discussions, interviews, contests… even the return of the MST3K “viewer mail” segment.

    2. The MST3K Watch Club: To make it easier to watch MST3K with your friends, The Gizmoplex will also be the official home of the MST3K Watch Club! Each month, you’ll get on-demand access to a new selection of episodes, and the ability to host your own live screenings for up to 10 people! Anyone with a Gizmoplex Pass can join for free, and if you want to invite someone who doesn’t, they can get a “Day Pass” for just $0.99!

    And, if we reach our stretch goals, the Gizmoplex Pass will get even more valuable!

    3. Gizmoplex Apps: If we raise $3.3 million, we’ll be able to develop apps that bring The Gizmoplex to mobile devices and TVs! Right now, the plan is to include apps for six of the most popular platforms: iOS, Android, AppleTV, AndroidTV, FireTV and Roku. Like Crow says: we’re gonna conquer cyberspace, man!

    Also: “I really want The Gizmoplex to feel like something new: less like another Netflix with nothing but MST, and more like a charming, off the radar, suburban cineplex that plays movies for 99 cents, long after their first run.”

    Though not stated, the ad campaign suggests they’re keeping the Season 11 and 12 cast, and Jonah Ray appears in the Kickstarter video.

    There’s also some interesting discussion of the economics behind the show and Kickstarter:

    1. Without a network supporting us, we need to fund everything ourselves. During our first Kickstarter, we estimated that, once production was up and running, we’d be able to produce new episodes for about $250K each. In the end, though, the budget for each new episode ended up being closer to $350K. For the last two seasons, we were able to cover the difference through our deal with Netflix… but this time, we’re on our own. We’ve got a lot of ways we can keep the budget lower, but, you know… it’s still going to cost something. And when you think about it, $350K for 90 minutes of television is still one of the best deals in show business.

    2. We still can’t spend everything we raise on Kickstarter to make the show.

    Campaign Fees: Between Kickstarter and the credit card processor, we pay about 8% of your pledge in fees. There’s also a fee for CrowdOx, the platform we’ll use to manage all of your surveys and rewards after the campaign ends.

    Making Rewards: We reserve about 20% of your pledge in order to design, produce, print, sort and pack all of your rewards. And that’s not even including shipping, which we’re not collecting until after our Kickstarter campaign ends!

    Dedicated Support: During our first Kickstarter, we underestimated the amount of work involved in providing customer support and creating detailed backer updates, so we had to depend on volunteers to do a lot of it. This time, we want to make sure we’re prepared, so we budgeted about 4% of each pledge for that.

    Building & Running The Gizmoplex: We really want The Gizmoplex to be great, but getting it started will take some work – and keeping it running also means we’ll have some monthly fees to cover. We also need some budget to support all of the special live events we’re planning to host. So, we’re using about 3% of your pledge for that.

    When you put it all together, we have to spend about 35% of what we raise just to cover Kickstarter expenses, and to keep all the promises we’re making to you.

    He thinks that if they do 12 episodes, per episode cost will be down to just under $300K.

    You may remember that MST3K already had the biggest Kickstarter in history up to that time. It’s since been surpassed by several smart watches and board games, among other things.

    Despite the caveat that “this might not be a good time for some people to offer financial support to a robot puppet show dedicated to cheesy movies,” I expect them to blow the doors off the totals of their last Kickstarter.

    Naturally I’ve already pledged.

    Update: Just ticked over the first goal of $2 million.

    Joel Hodgson on Letterman

    Thursday, July 20th, 2017

    Here’s a blast from the past: A young Joel Hodgson appearing on David Letterman before creating Mystery Science Theater 3000.

    No wonder Letterman had him on: they both share some of the same goofy Midwestern sense of humor…

    MST3K Reunion Concert Rebroadcast Tomorrow

    Monday, July 11th, 2016

    If you missed the live broadcast of the MST3K reunion concert, you can still catch the rebroadcast tomorrow, July 12.

    Having attended the live simulcast, I highly recommend attending seeing it to any MST3K fans, where the combined Rifftrax/MST3K crews tackle such shorts as Shake Hands With Danger and At Your Fingertips: Grasses, a school arts-and-crafts film of such depressing sadness (“It’s Jim Henson’s Blair Witch Babies!”) that you realize how desperately kids of the 1960s and 70s needed the Internet and video games to be invented.

    And new star/test subject Jonah Ray did a pretty good job holding his own in the riffing, only flubbing once.

    if you’re a fan of MST3K or riffing, you should definitely check it out.

    Bring Back MST3K Biggest Video Kickstarter Ever

    Saturday, December 12th, 2015

    The final fundraising tally was $5,764,229, plus $600,000 in “add-ons.”

    Bring Back MST3K “became the most successful crowdfunded video project of all time, surpassing the Veronica Mars movie, which previously held the title with $5.7 million.”

    Joel Hodgson and his team did a masterful job generating momentum over the course of the kickstarter (Felicia Day! Jerry Seinfeld!). Now they’re going to make 14 new episodes, which wasn’t even a stretch goal when the started out.

    Now all we have to do is wait until November 2016…

    MST3K Kickstarter Update: Seinfeld, Hader, Harris, Jack Black

    Thursday, December 10th, 2015

    The MST3K Kickstarter is going to have a cavalcade of guest comedians appearing on the show.

    Here are a few performers who are interested in appearing on MST3K next season:

    • JACK BLACK, the brilliant comic actor and musician, star of everything from the Kung Fu Panda films to the wonderful School of Rock… though to some people, of course, he’s better known as one-half of Tenacious D. So, I don’t wanna tell you anything about what I’m planning for his character… but I think it would be a lot of fun to have him perform a song.
    • JOEL MCHALE, who I first knew as the hilariously dry host of The Soup, and who has been expanding his acting career into television (as the star of Community) and film (the Ted movies). I met Joel at a friend’s wedding last year, and we became fast friends. He’s a really nice guy, so even though he’s in demand for big-time revivals like The X-Files, he says he’s up for joining us too!
    • BILL HADER, the incredible changeling/actor/impressionist who has appeared in everything from SNL to Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs to Trainwreck. I’ve always been amazed by Bill’s talents, and was finally introduced to him backstage at SNL by a mutual friend.
    • NEIL PATRICK HARRIS is a true renaissance man whose career spans film, TV, the broadway stage and the internet, where he appeared opposite our own Felicia Day in Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. Funny enough, though, I actually met Neil through mutual friends at the Los Angeles Magic History Conference, where we geeked out on magic together. Also, I’m honored to point out that Neil has always been a MSTie. In fact, he was included in first MST documentary – This is MST3K – all the way back in his Doogie Howser days!
    • JERRY SEINFELD, my long time friend, and of course, one of our most brilliant stand-up comedians. Jerry was also the co-creator of Seinfeld, and the creator and host of my favorite concept for a talk show, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. You know, I’ve known this guy for over thirty years. I actually remember him from when he only had one car.

    Plus Mark Hamill. And (from yesterday’s email) the guys behind the designs for Pee-wee’s Playhouse and Adventure Time.

    A lot of those guys have extremely popular and active fanbases, so this could very well put them over the $5.5 million/12 episode mark.

    I declare that this is officially A Thing.

    MST3K Kickstarter Hits $3.3 Million/6 Episodes Goal

    Monday, November 30th, 2015

    I’m happy to see that the Bring Back Mystery Science Theater 3000 Kickstarter has hit $3.3 million, meaning they’ll produce at least six episodes.

    At $4.4 million they’ll make nine episodes, but at this point $5.5 million (twelve episodes) is looking like it might be a stretch.

    Also Patton Oswalt is joining the cast as TV’s Son of TV’s Frank, a move I’m pretty “meh” on (though I can see the physical resemblance between Frank Conniff and Oswalt).

    Bring Back MST3K Kickstarter Hits $2 Million Goal

    Monday, November 16th, 2015

    The Bring Back Mystery Science Theater 3000 Kickstarter has hit their $2 million goal, which means it’s funded and they’ll do at least three new episodes.

    Everybody Smile!

    And they still have 25 days to go! Now let’s hope they make it all they way to their 12 episode $5.5 million stretch goal…

    Kickstarter for New MST3K episodes?

    Tuesday, November 10th, 2015

    Joel Hodgson just launched a kickstarter to produce new episodes of Mystery Science Theatre 3000.

    Let me get the obligatory meme out of the way:

    But fans have been calling out for an MST3K reboot for years. Why only now?

    Simple: Jim Mallon sold his share of the rights to Shout Factory:

    Shout! Factory has acquired cult comedy series “Mystery Science Theater 3000,” Variety has learned.

    The news of the acquisition comes the same day Joel Hodgson, the creator and writer of “Mystery Science Theater 3000,” launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund a new season of the show.

    With the new deal, negotiated by Shout’s David McIntosh, Shout! Factory now has the proprietary rights the “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.

    The one caveat I have is evidently there will be a “new cast” for the show. I think the consensus is that the MST3K faithful would love to have Hodgson, Trace Beaulieu and Frank Conniff back in their old roles (and possibly J. Elvis Weinstein back as the original Tom Servo; given his attachment to RiffTracks, Kevin Murphy seems unlikely to reprise the Tom Servo voice role). But I’m certainly willing to give the new cast a chance.

    So, yeah, I signed up.

    Here’s the pitch video: