Rifftrax vs. MST3K vs. Television and Whycome?

[hootyhaha]

With the success of Rifftrax I really don't understand what the problem is with keeping MST3K on the air. All television stations have to do is look at the numbers on the Rifftrax site, as well as all the video clips (and number counts) on YouTube. 

Whycome it kaint work on the magical tawlky box today? 

 

[FordPrefect]

With the success of Rifftrax I really don't understand what the problem is with keeping MST3K on the air. All television stations have to do is look at the numbers on the Rifftrax site, as well as all the video clips (and number counts) on YouTube. 

Whycome it kaint work on the magical tawlky box today? 

 

There are a number of unfortunate facts holding them back:

1) Everyone is busy with their own riffing projects already. Riffing projects that are made specifically for today's media environment. Riffing projects that fit their own individual creative needs.

2) There's no creative advantage in going back to TV in 2010. They would have to submit to executives who would micro-manage what they're doing. With Rifftrax and Cinematic Titanic, they own the product. The only advantage is that they'd make more money up front.

3) In order for MST3K to come back as a TV series, they'd need a TV network to air it. None of the networks have been interested in airing the reruns since 2004, so I can't imagine they'd be interested in producing new episodes. They can't even release all the completed episodes on DVD due to the movie rights issues involved.

4) You basically have two people for every position. So part of it is, "Well, is it Mike, is it Joel? Is it Bill, is it Trace?" So they really couldn't have a big reunion of everybody. As Trace said, "The streams must never cross."

[Sharktopus]

The bottom line is that it would be prohibitively expensive to purchase the rights to big movies. Heck, SciFi couldn't even justify spending the money for crappy movies. Plus, no network would air a two hour long TV show in this extreme attention deficit age.

[Thrifty]

Producing audio commentaries is far far different from producing a TV show.  For one, you have to wear clothes to produce a TV show.  I'm pretty sure Mike, Kevin, and Bill record all the Rifftrax completely nude.

Also, what makes you think the popularity of Rifftrax is anywhere near the average TV show?  I'm sure they're doing okay for themselves, but I don't imagine they have nearly the market penetration¹ that even a modestly successful TV show has.












¹Heh heh.

[Sharktopus]

Huh huhhuhhuh. Penetrate.

[Doctor Who?]

Also even when you put together all the people going to every rifftrax or MST3K site out there what does it come to?  Maybe 100000 people,it takes about 100 times that many people watching for a show to be a hit even on cable.

[LordZordec]

If MST3K were to ever come back to air on TV, it would require some format changes.  I loved MST3K, but I have to admit that 2-hours of a Saturday was a lot to commit to a show.  I think that it would require partnering with one of the big media giants who already hold the rights to a bunch of things, like NBC/Universal who has thousands of craphole movies and billions of hours of terrible TV to pull from.  Tell the media giant that MST3K will make the worst, crappiest movies dryrotting in their archives instant gold, and then release it direct to DVD.  Or if they did an on-air version, cut a 2-hour movie to one hour, only showing the most riffable parts.  No one really ever cared about the plot of the obscure, plotless movies anyway - it was all about the riffs.

Please do not misunderstand me - I mean no disrespect to RiffTrax et al despite any strong rhetoric I may have used in the past.

However, there were some incredibly lame, horribly crappy, low budget, stupid movies out there that were a lot of fun to riff, and because they will never be on DVD, we may never see them riffed.  For example, my favorite MST3K of all time is Space Mutiny.  I dont know how a movie could be any more horrible, between the acting, writing, unapologetic overuse of Battlestar Galactica stock footage, and all the scifi cliche that could be crammed into one horrible movie - all making the riffs even more hilarious.  As bad as Hollywood-produced movies on DVD are now, they will never be this bad.

So, RiffTrax covers the higher budget, newer movies that may not even be all that bad.  MST3K covers the obscure crap rotting in archives that weve never heard of.

[Plastic Self-Cleaning Duck]

Producing audio commentaries is far far different from producing a TV show.  For one, you have to wear clothes to produce a TV show.

Yeah....and sets, props, other cast members overdubbed....why go to all that trouble....

[Thrifty]

Producing audio commentaries is far far different from producing a TV show.  For one, you have to wear clothes to produce a TV show.

Yeah....and sets, props, other cast members overdubbed....why go to all that trouble....

I have the 4 Film Crew DVDs.  While they're done nicely, they're also 1) direct to DVD, no networks and 2) only four in number whereas there are over 100 Rifftrax. 

I really think people overestimate the popularity of MST3K.  I don't think it would be popular enough to thrive in today's TV market.  I don't think it would have gotten anywhere in the first place if not for the attractiveness of its length in a programming starved Comedy Central.

[LordZordec]

I really think people overestimate the popularity of MST3K.  I don't think it would be popular enough to thrive in today's TV market.  I don't think it would have gotten anywhere in the first place if not for the attractiveness of its length in a programming starved Comedy Central.

There are probably twice as many TV channels now as there was ten years ago.  Many new channels are content starved and looking for CHEAPLY PRODUCED shows to fill airtime.  Thats why there are so flipping many reality shows and networks running retro content like the Jeffersons or The Brady Bunch.  MST3K had a lot of production challenges Im sure, but I dont get the sense that "enormous production costs" was one of them.

Popularity?  I think pretty much everyone in the target demographic has heard of it and probably liked it - twenty and thirty something nerds who were teens in the 90's, plus people who like SNL, Family Guy, The Simpsons, Robot Chicken and the rest of the Adult Swim lineup.

The thought has been brought up that all of the original stars are busy with their own projects, particularly Joel and Mike.  Well, what has happened in the past when ia performer on the show went their separate ways?  We got TV's Frank, Mike Nelson, and Crow's voice changed, but the show lived on.  In the spirit of SNL, maybe it would be time for new cast members to carry on the tradition started by the original masters (with the occasional guest appearence of course).

[Thrifty]

How come nobody clamors for the revival of OTHER shows that have been off the air for years?  Cheers was hugely popular.  Nobody asks NBC to relaunch that.

[LordZordec]

Cheers and the such was a very story centric sitcom that ran its course.  There was nowhere left for the story to go.

MST3K falls into the same category as SNL - there will always be something to make fun of.

[MSTJedi]

LordZordec has a point. As ICWXP has proven, new talent can be just as entertaining as the originals in the riffing/sketch format of MST3K. Still not sure about getting it on TV, though. I'd love to see it happen, but it would be a serious long shot with today's TV climate. I wish someone would throw Rikk a buttload of money so he could hire some people to do post-production, though. They finished filming ages ago, but they still haven't finished the post work because it's mostly Rikk himself doing it and he's too busy being a rock god to get it done in a timely fashion.

[LordZordec]

Oh well, give it another 10 years and TV will not even function in the same way it does now.  At that point, all TV will be video streamed on-demand from a digital source provider, often the internet.

[Audrey II]

So, RiffTrax covers the higher budget, newer movies that may not even be all that bad.  MST3K covers the obscure crap rotting in archives that weve never heard of.

They should go back to doing obscure films. Then I can finally see a riffing on Spider's Web: A Pigs Tale or Rugrats: Three Jacks and a Beanstalk.