Mystery Science Theater 3000: the Definitive Oral History of a TV Masterpiece
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The cult classic TV show Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) continues to captivate audiences, with its recent revival sparking debate among fans about its current charm. While some commenters, like bink, feel the newer episodes have "too much 'drama kid' energy," others, such as uhoh-itsmaciek, praise the movie selection and likable hosts, including Jonah and the Mads, played by Felicia Day and Patton Oswalt. The show's Kickstarter-funded seasons have been a hit, with KingMob noting its success in bringing back three more seasons, and michaelbuckbee highlighting the new episodes as a great entry point for new viewers. The discussion reveals a mix of nostalgia and enthusiasm for the show's irreverent humor, with some fans also enjoying spin-offs like Rifftrax.
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(And happy "thousand" got shorted to "K" — perhaps the early USENET nerds coined that.)
I think the riffs are more "generalized." In the original, there were riffs that were regional or more obscure (e.g. Hamdingers).
At this point it sees the fans are split into people who follow whatever MST3K and Rifftrax do, “keep sharing the tapes,” and people who liked MST3K because it was funnier and scrappier than other shows and tapered off when it lost that. I lean toward the latter, but I’m friends with the former and we make it work.
Note also, there's another season that's on the streaming services as individual movies post the Netflix reboot with much of the same team.
IIRC, they might have been crowdfunding for a fourth new season, but they ran into some major issues with getting backers their rewards on the last one, and I think that made a lot of fans reluctant.
https://www.twitch.tv/rifftrax
https://www.twitch.tv/mst3k
“Save the bones!! The fat kid can fend for his or her self!”
E.g., two of my favorites: "Shake Hands with Danger" and "More Dangerous than Dynamite".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinematic_Titanic
I used to love these, but now I can't sit through more than 5 minutes, because that sense of "oh this is special" is gone. I think for slow burn/buildup art, you have to kind of keep it special.
Why wife and I watched the entire series over a year and loved every minute.
There are shows like "Twin Peaks" that, if you first introduction to them is binge watching, you'll wonder what all the fuss was ever about. (Some shows seem to need some water-cooler time in order to keep you on the edge of your sear, wondering, trying to make the connections yourself.)
You had to wait a whole ~four months to see Episode 1 when Episode 26 ended in a "holy shit!" moment on top of one of the best TNG episodes to-date.
If you watch the subsequently, you miss that feeling of build-up; there's no school-yard discussion about what could happen next.
Doesn't keep me from watching it roughly once per year, but the original impact of the cliffhanger was incredible.
We watch one episode of mst3k as a family Sunday night. Popcorn, lights off, huddled under blankets on the floor.
If anything, it's more special for my kids (than it was for me) because they can see what we'll watch next week, and enjoy looking up random trivia about the terrible movie throughout the week.
https://www.pracdev.org/channel99/pls_files/channel_3000.pls
https://www.pracdev.org/channel99/pls_files/channel_3000_hal...
from his site: https://www.pracdev.org/channel99/
https://mst3k.com/gizmoplex-visit/