The MST3K "Black Friday" Special: Your Top 100 Episodes. PLUS: The Long-Awaited Turkey Day Surprise!
over 9 years ago – Fri, Nov 25, 2016 at 11:36:55 PM

Dear MST3K Revival League,

First, I hope you had a wonderful Turkey Day, and – if you got a chance to join us – that you enjoyed this year's MST3K Turkey Day Marathon! I'm still recovering from yesterday's big meal, so I'll try to keep this update short. There are just two things I promised I'd talk about today.

First, like I said on Monday, this year's Turkey Day Marathon lineup was a little bit different, because it was actually chosen by you, when you voted for your "Top 10 MST3K Episodes."

In case you weren't able to join us yesterday, Jonah and I counted-down the TOP 6 EPISODES, based on your votes, which were:

1. Manos: The Hands of Fate 
2. Space Mutiny
3. Final Sacrifice
4. Mitchell
5. Pod People
6. Pumaman 

Now for a little confession: Our lineup actually wasn't in the exactorder of the vote, because I wanted to keep up our Thanksgiving tradition of alternating between "Joel" and "Mike" episodes. But, those were the Top 6 Episodes – I was really pleased to see that your Top 6 naturally included three from each of us. It just seems right, you know?

Anyway, I didn't want to ruin yesterday's lineup by announcing the voting results ahead of time, but now that this year's Turkey Day Marathon is behind us, I wanted to go ahead and share the complete list, so you can see where the Revival League ranked your favorite episodes.

Here's how it all turned out:

THE REVIVAL LEAGUE'S DEFINITIVE
TOP 100 EPISODES OF MST3K

1. Manos: The Hands of Fate - (424)
2. Space Mutiny - (820)
3. Mitchell - (512)
4. The Final Sacrifice - (910)
5. Pod People - (303)
6. Puma Man - (903)
7. Santa Claus Conquers The Martians - (321)
8. Werewolf - (904)
9. Cave Dwellers - (301)
10. Time Chasers - (821)

11. Overdrawn At The Memory Bank - (822)
12. I Accuse My Parents - (507)
13. Eegah! - (506)
14. Gamera - (302)
15. Prince of Space - (816)
16. Hobgoblins - (907)
17. Laserblast - (706)
18. Soultaker - (1001)
19. Godzilla vs. Megalon - (212)
20. Jack Frost - (813)

21. Santa Claus - (521)
22. Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders - (1003)
23. The Brain That Wouldn't Die - (513)
24. The Touch of Satan - (908)
25. Teenagers From Outer Space - (404)
26. The Day the Earth Froze - (422)
27. Warrior of the Lost World - (501)
28. The Giant Spider Invasion - (810)
29. Catalina Caper - (204)
30. Fugitive Alien - (310)

31. Master Ninja I - (322)
32. Time of the Apes - (306)
33. Gamera vs. Guiron - (312)
34. Final Justice - (1008)
35. Boggy Creek II - (1006)
36. Riding with Death - (814)
37. The Sidehackers - (202)
38. Outlaw (Of Gor) - (519)
39. Future War - (1004)
40. Monster A-Go-Go - (421)

41. "Parts": The Clonus Horror - (811)
42. The Killer Shrews - (407)
43. The Giant Gila Monster - (402)
44. Deathstalker and the Warriors From Hell - (703)
45. Red Zone Cuba - (619)
46. The Girl in Gold Boots - (1002)
47. Alien From L.A. - (516)
48. Hercules Against The Moon Men - (410)
49. Diabolik - (1013)
50. Horror Of Party Beach - (817)

51. The Amazing Colossal Man - (309)
52. Danger! Death Ray - (620)
53. The Creeping Terror - (606)
54. Daddy-O + Alphabet Antics - (307)
55. The Incredibly Strange Creatures… - (812)
56. Lost Continent - (208)
57. Attack Of The Eye Creatures - (418)
58. Squirm - (1012)
59. Star Force: Fugitive Alien II - (318)
60. Zombie Nightmare - (604)

61. Hercules Unchained - (408)
62. Quest of the Delta Knights - (913)
63. The Beast of Yucca Flats - (621)
64. The Screaming Skull - (912)
65. The Magic Sword - (411)
66. The Mole People - (803)
67. Operation Double 007 - (508)
68. Wild, Wild World of Batwoman - (515)
69. The Beginning of the End - (517)
70. Magic Voyage of Sinbad - (505)

71. Agent for H.A.R.M. - (815)
72. Girls Town - (601)
73. Devil Doll - (818)
74. Hamlet - (1009) 
75. Night of the Blood Beast - (701)
76. The Beatniks - (415)
77. Secret Agent Super Dragon - (504)
78. The Starfighters - (612)
79. Bride of the Monster - (423)
80. It Conquered The World - (311) 

81. Rocketship X-M - (201)
82. The Crawling Eye - (101)
83. Moon Zero Two - (111)
84. Godzilla Vs. The Sea Monster - (213)
85. Gamera Vs. Zigra - (316)
86. Robot Holocaust - (110)
87. The Incredible Melting Man - (704)
88. Escape 2000 - (705)
89. Gamera Vs. Gaos - (308)
90. Gamera Vs. Barugon - (304)

91. Tormented - (414)
92. Samson vs. The Vampire Women - (624)
93. Angels' Revenge - (622)
94. Horrors of Spider Island - (1011)
95. Invasion of the Neptune Men - (819)
96. Devil Fish - (911)
97. Master Ninja II - (324)
98. The Deadly Mantis - (804)
99. San Francisco International - (614)
100. Wild Rebels - (207)

So, there you go! Your official Top 100 List, based on thousands of ballots from backers.

Now, I've got to tell you, I also had a little bit of an ulterior motive when I asked you to vote on your Top 100 Episodes. Now that we're in post-production, it’s really not that long until you'll finally see 14 new episodes, and I've been thinking a lot about how hard it can be to compete with nostalgia. One of the things I'll be really curious about, once you have seen the new episodes, is where you'll decide they rank against this list, taken from the first 11 years of the show.

There's no way for me to guess how these new episodes will live up to how you remember your favorites, but what I can tell you is, I'm feeling pretty good about all of them. And, since we're working with a whole new team, and new writers, and so much time has passed, I'm trying to set a realistic goal for us. So, I think we'd be doing pretty great – and on par with the original run – if about half of our new episodes end up somewhere in the Top 100. That's kind of my goal. If we can do that, I think we'll be doing pretty good. But once the episodes come out, you'll tell us what you think, and that'll help me figure if we got off to the right start this time.

Now, let's get to today's other big announcement.

Your "Black Friday" Bonus Reward!

On Monday, I also promised that – since we didn't have any new episodes ready to show you on Turkey Day – I'd send a special treat on Friday to make it up to you.

And you know, I know it's a treat some of you have been wanting for a long time – maybe even since we first ran this advertisement in The St. Paul Pioneer Press Dispatch on Turkey Day of 1988, when our very first episode, Invaders From the Deep, premiered on KTMA:

.

So yeah, some of you already guessed it, but let's make it official:

I'm happy to tell you that we finally found master tapes for two of the three "lost KTMA episodes" of MST3K: Invaders from the Deep, and Revenge of the Mysterons from Mars.

I actually thought we had discovered copies of these episodes at one point during the Kickstarter last year, and I was really excited that I'd be able to finally share them with you… and then it turned out that we hadn't found them, and it was a real bummer. But then, earlier this year, a few final boxes turned up. And there they were: the very first episodes of MST3K ever made.

So yeah: If your Kickstarter rewards include any of the "Classic MST3K Bonus Episodes", the two "lost episodes" are now waiting for you – a special "Happy Turkey Day" present from all of us at MST3K. (Just remember, though, these are really old episodes, so I hope you can look at them like a "first draft" of what the show would turn into.)

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Just log into your VHX account, and you'll see them in your collection of Classic Episodes. You can stream and download them, whatever you want.

I don't want to give you more reading for today, so I'll just say that I really loved getting a chance to see these early episodes again. You can see Josh and Trace and me just wading into “movie riffing” and starting to play with all the elements and dynamics of the show and the set pieces. Obviously, it’s pretty slow. We didn’t pre-watch any of the films or even attempt to write any jokes; it’s just us, starting out, “blue skying” it.

(Naturally, if I could have known that, almost 30 years later, there would be a group of about 50,000 folks looking at these as a sort of “historical document,” I probably would have tried to find ways to put more time into them. But, as they say, it is what it is.)

Also, I have to tell you: This week was the first time that I’ve watched these in a long time. Seeing them now, I’m so proud we took the leap of faith and tried it. The cast and crew are suiting up in the gear and giving it a whack, and even this early on – as primitive as it is – you can sort of feel where this is all going.

Anyway, I took some notes when I watched them, and I'd like to share those with you. But I thought maybe I'd wait until next week, and give you this weekend to watch them first.

If you do watch, I hope you'll let me and your fellow Revival Leaguers know what you think in the comments. I'll be really interested to hear your take.

Anyway, that's all for today.

I hope you each had a wonderful Turkey Day, and that you know how grateful I am for everything you've done to help Bring Back MST3K.

Cheers & Thanks,

Joel

Post-Production Update, Turkey Day Marathon THIS THURSDAY. Plus: DOUBLE-CHECK your End Credit Listing ASAP!
over 9 years ago – Mon, Nov 21, 2016 at 11:33:11 PM

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Dear MST3K Revival League,

First things first: We've got a special occasion to celebrate!

The last year has been such a crazy ride that I didn't realize until a few days ago that our club – the MST3K Revival League – is now a year old. So, you know...

Happy Anniversary!

It's hard to believe, but we launched our Kickstarter all the way back on November 10, 2016… and by this time last year, the Kickstarter was almost halfway over, and we had just passed our first big goal.

Since then, so much has happened… and with Turkey Day coming up this week, I've been thinking about how grateful the whole Mystery Science team is for everything that happened. But you know, it's not Turkey Day yet, so I'll save that for later this week.

Today, I wanted to share a few important updates with you. Also, I know Ivan has one important update about your Kickstarter rewards, and I want him to tell you about that. Sound good?

Post-Production Update

First, I wanted to update you on how the new episodes are coming along.

As you know, we shot all 14 new episodes around the end of September, and for the last month and a half, we've been hard at work on post-production: editing the episodes together, mixing the audio, adding the music, fixing some transitions, that sort of thing. And man, I just have to say, they're coming out beautifully. I've been working with some very talented people, and they're almost finished. The episodes, not the people.

Anyway, there's a few more steps involved, because modern television needs to be at higher level of quality than it used to, but I'm happy to be doing it. I'm also thrilled to report that the new episodes feel like they've landed in the world of MST3K. I've been really happy watching them come together, and I think you will be too.

No, when we did last year's Turkey Day Marathon, I thought it would be great if we could show you our very first new episode on this year's Turkey Day Marathon. But I've got to tell you: they're just not quite ready yet. And like I've said all along, we all want to make these new episodes as good as we can, so I hope you'll be patient just a little bit longer. It'll be worth the wait.

There are still a lot of little twitchy details to deal with, but it's looking good. In fact…

Right now, we're on track to finish editing all of the new episodes by the end of January!

I know a lot of you are eager to hear when the new episodes will be available, both on Netflix and – if your Kickstarter rewards include them – to download. The answer is that we still aren't 100% sure, but we're getting really close, and I think you can definitely expect them in the first half of 2017. 

As soon as we have an official release date, I'll tell you.

And you know, even without our first new episode, it's still going to be a good week, because it's time for...

The MST3K Turkey Day Marathon 2016!

That's right, friends. This Thursday, we'll continue a time-honored tradition with another installment of our MST3K TURKEY DAY MARATHON! 

If you don't remember from last year, here's how it works: every year on Turkey Day, we select six great, classic Mystery Science Theater episodes, then reheat them and serve 'em up with new introductions.

This year, I'll be getting some help from the next host of MST3K, Jonah Ray!

So, be sure to mark your calendars, because...

This Thursday, November 24, the MST3K Turkey Day Marathon will start at 9am PT / 12pm ET, on ShoutFactoryTV.com!

And, since I was busy getting our new episodes ready, I asked all of you to help pick this year's menu, by voting for your "Top Ten" episodes of MST3K. And man, did you: with over 10,000 votes, we now have a DEFINITIVE LIST of the TOP 100 CLASSIC MST3K EPISODES!

On Thursday, we'll serve up the TOP SIX, based on your votes. Then, when this year's marathon is over, I'll share the entire TOP 100, so you can see how it all came out.

Anyway, if you need a break from football and want to spend some of your Turkey Day with your MST3K family, I hope you'll join us. Feel free to RSVP in the comments, and be sure to join us during the marathon on Thursday by posting with #MST3K.

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A Friday Surprise!

One more thing: even though I don't have a new episode of MST3K ready to share with you for Turkey Day, I still want you to have something special to look forward to.

So, if your Kickstarter rewards include any "bonus classic episodes of MST3K," save some room on Turkey Day for a bonus reward that I'll send on Friday to go with your leftovers. I've got a pretty special treat to share, which some of you have been waiting a long time for.

Stay tuned for that!

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Now, that's all I've got for today, because I've got to get ready to go back to Los Angeles for the next few days. I'll be working with Jonah and some of our cast on "ADR", which is when we re-record some of the audio for their lines to make sure it sounds just right.

But I know Ivan has a pretty IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT about your Kickstarter rewards, so keep reading. I'll see you on Turkey Day.

Cheers & Thanks,

Joel

Hey Everyone!

I've just got one quick – but important! – update for you, because it's time-sensitive.

This update is for anyone whose Kickstarter rewards included a "Thank You" in the end credits (that's Experiment 085 and up) OR who claimed a "Thank You Credit" Add-On Reward on the MST3K website.

As Joel said, we're making good progress on all 14 episodes for the new season, and as part of that, we're starting to put together the end credits for each episode.

At this point, we've prepped all of the lists of names, and we need to lock them down in about a week. But a few hundred of you still haven't provided a name for us to use, and there's always a chance that a few of you had typos when you requested your name.

The last thing we want is for you to discover a problem when you're watching the new season, because it'll be too late for us to fix it! So...

Please take 30 seconds and proofread your "Thank You" credit for the new season right now!

Here's how:

1. Take a look at the MASTER LIST of end credits. 
2. Wait a minute for it to load, then use "FIND" to search for your name.
3. If your name is LISTED WRONG, please let us know ASAP using this form.

If your name is MISSING: 

Please be sure you've checked your BackerKit answers to confirm that your rewards included a name in the end credits and that you provided one. If both answers are "Yes", let us know ASAP at [email protected], not in the comments below!

Please let us know if there's a problem by MONDAY, NOV 28, or we can't guarantee we'll be able to make changes.

Happy Almost Turkey Day!

Ivan

Production has wrapped! Help rank the TOP 100 CLASSIC MST3Ks! PLUS: Kickstarter Reward Updates + the Zappa/MST3K Winners!
over 9 years ago – Wed, Oct 19, 2016 at 02:33:57 PM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.

We've Got Production Sign in 10...9...8…
over 9 years ago – Mon, Sep 26, 2016 at 12:11:29 PM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.

MST3K's new season will be on NETFLIX! Plus: the return of Pearl, Bobo and Brain Guy!
over 9 years ago – Tue, Aug 02, 2016 at 12:00:53 AM

Dear MST3K Revival League,

Joel here. How is everyone? I hope you all had a good weekend.

This update took a few days longer to write than I wanted, because I had a few personal matters come up just after San Diego Comic-Con, so I'm just getting home.

But, you know, even if you weren't able to "tune in" last Saturday night when we posted it, I'm hoping you've now heard the big news that we announced, because it seems like it got around pretty fast.

After going to a lot of meetings with a lot of networks, and talking with lots of board rooms full of open-minded executives, we've finally reached a deal I'm thrilled about:

I'm really happy to tell you that Mystery Science Theater 3000 has found a new home with our friends at Netflix!

Now, we just wrapped up this deal last Saturday – just a couple hours before our panel – so I don't have all of the details and answers for you just yet. But the most important thing I can tell you is that this is a really great outcome for our show. I'll tell you more in a second, but here are a few other specific details you might want to know:

• WHERE: We've reached a deal with Netflix to distribute MST3K in what our lawyers call "the English-speaking territories," which means you'll be able to watch Mystery Science Theater on Netflix in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the UK and Ireland. This is huge, because we’ve actually never been available outside of North America before.

(Now, if you're not in one of those countries, don't get too worked up yet. We're still looking at more international options. And no matter what, I promise: if your Kickstarter rewards include the new episodes, you will get them at the same time as everyone else, no matter where you live. We're not going to make you wait. You're not second-class citizens! You’re first class all the way.)

• WHEN: The official announcement said that the new episodes will be released in "the not-too-distant future", and of course, I want to get them to you as soon as we can… but like I said earlier this year: I want to get these new episodes right, even if it takes a little longer to finish them. So, we don't have an official date yet, but we'll tell you as soon as we do.

Also, some of you are wondering what this means for your Kickstarter rewards, like the live-stream, the digital downloads of the new season, and the DVDs. But don't worry, my friends: We're going to do right by you. We made sure that Netflix knew about all of our Kickstarter promises, and made sure we'd still be able to honor them. So, even though the new season will be available on Netflix, it won't change when you get your rewards.

Why Netflix?

There are a lot of reasons that helped us decide Netflix was the best home for Mystery Science Theater, but I just want to tell you a few of the big ones.

I think one of the biggest reasons I'm glad we're on Netflix is length. See, MST is a lot longer than most television shows, because each episode includes most of a cheesy feature film. Back when we were first making MST3K, that wasn't a problem. In fact, it was really an advantage, because on KTMA, The Comedy Channel, Comedy Central and even Sci-Fi, there was a lot of unused airtime to fill up. So, having two-hour episodes was a good thing back then. But these days, broadcast and cable programming is really competitive, and it's a lot harder to keep one show on for two hours every week.

When we started talking to all of the different networks in December and January, there was a lot of enthusiasm about the show, but I think we figured out pretty fast that it would be best for MST3K to live on a digital platform. That way, no one would be worried about cutting the episodes in half or finding enough advertisers. Plus, the digital platforms are a little more comfortable with shows that are kind of weird, you know? Like, you don't have to be able to fit into quite as neat a box. That's good for us too.

Anyway, once we realized that Mystery Science Theater would work really well on a digital network, Netflix seemed like the best choice. They're kind of the 800-pound-gorilla in this space, and they've done a great job helping bring back some other cancelled shows. Also, I've been using Netflix for the past four or five years, and I think it’s great from a user perspective. And, even more important, lots of people already have Netflix – they're in over 80 million homes worldwide – which means that this gives us a really great chance for more people to discover our little show. And if more people start watching, it gives us a better chance of being renewed for more new seasons, which was always the goal.

Plus, Netflix is available in so many countries around the world, which made it easier to get the new episodes into a lot of those "English-speaking territories" at the same time, instead of trying to find a different network for each country. And you know, a lot of you wrote in over the last six months to tell us that you thought Netflix was the best new home for MST3K, so I felt pretty good about that, too.

And listen, I know there are probably still more questions about how this will all work, and what it will mean for the show. We’re still working through some of those details with Netflix, but as soon as I know more, I’ll tell you. For now, I just wanna say this again: I think this is a really, really good thing for us. I think Netflix will be a great place for Mystery Science Theater, and if they see enough people are watching the new episodes, I think it's really likely we'll be able to make more new seasons. So, I'm really happy about this, and I hope you are too.

But that's not all... I've got some more good news for you! 

During our panel last Saturday, I was really happy to finally announce something we've been working on for a while:

The wonderful Mary Jo Pehl, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett have agreed to visit and help out with the new season of MST3K!

Now, looking at some of the questions and comments on Facebook and Twitter, I think there was a little confusion about what this meant, so I'll tell you exactly what I announced at Comic-Con:

• Mary Jo Pehl will guest star as Pearl Forrester. 
• Kevin Murphy will guest star as Professor Bobo. 
• Bill Corbett will guest star as Brain Guy.

And, to show our new team how the pros do it, Mary Jo and Bill have also joined the writing team for some of the new episodes, to make sure we've still got that "Original MST3K Flavor."

I'm really excited to have them back writing and on set with us, so it's great that we were able to make this work with their schedules. We're also in the process of working with other original cast members to see if we can get more of them to come back, because my goal has always been for all of the original cast to make it back to MST3K. If it doesn't happen this season, then hopefully it will happen in Season 12...

Now, there's a lot more fun stuff to show you and talk about from Comic-Con, but I want to write a little more about all of that, so I think I'm going to roll out the rest of it over the next few updates.

Before I finish, though, Ivan asked me to remind everyone:

All Kickstarter Reward Order Forms are due NOW, so if you haven't filled yours out, please finish it right now.

I guess we can't start making all of your rewards until we get most of the forms filled out, and there are still about 4,750 missing. And listen, I'm really pleased with all of the stuff we're making for you, so I want to make sure you get everything you paid for as soon as we can. Also, I think Ivan's going to go a little insane if we don't get this done... so, you know, help a brother out!

Okay. Have a good week, everyone.

Cheers & Thanks, 

Joel