My blog: MST3K, Rifftrax, and Beyond

Oh my gooooooooood, Rifftrax just dropped a riff of Mortal Kombat and I am erect again.

They've done Super Mario Bros., Street Fighter, and now this. How much money do I have to donate to their Kickstarter to get them to riff all six Resident Evil movies?

I'm okay with Republicans retweeting my stuff. I am not okay with someone using me to spread Trump's bullying propaganda. This is bullshit.

For some reason I've been thinking a lot about how certain movies were edited together TV episodes lately. Maybe it's because one of my upcoming blog posts (Spoiler, I guess) was Invaders of the Deep, which was edited from an old Gerry Anderson marionette TV series called Stingray, but after I watched that I felt urged to watch the Filmed in Supermarionation documentary and I started thinking about all these TV shows that are best remembered today because they were on the show, after they just kind of came and went from the airwaves. I was curious about all these different shows, so I compiled a little list of the TV shows seen on the series.

Invaders from the Deep = Stingray
Revenge of the Mysterons from Mars = Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons
Cosmic Princess = Space:  1999
Time of the Apes = Army of the Apes
Fugitive Alien/Star Force = Star Wolf
Mighty Jack
Master Ninja = The Master
Manhunt in Space/Crash of Moons = Rocky Jones, Space Ranger
General Hospital
San Francisco International = San Francisco International Airport
Riding with Death = Gemini Man

Obviously the most successful one is General Hospital, which is still on the air after nearly 60 years. After that, I suppose the ones closest to mainstream are the Anderson shows, which incluse Stingray, Captain Scarlet, and Space: 1999. Rocky Jones was a pretty big hit in the 50's too, though it's not well remembered today. I have no real cultural context for the Japanese shows, though I know they're on DVD in Japan. One season blunders include high concept themed shows The Master and Gemini Man, though the biggest loser here is San Francisco International Airport, which only lasted seven episodes.

Surprisingly, a solid handful of these shows are on DVD. Stingray and Scarlet are both available as a part of "The Gerry Anderson Collection" by Timeless Media/Shout Factory (and can be seen on streaming through Shout Factory TV), and Shout released Space: 1999 on blu-ray. Even The Master is on blu-ray, which was released by Kino Lorber. A good amount of Rocky Jones is on home media, but not a comprehensive set. If all the episodes are out there, I need an extensive guide to figure out which DVD has which.

Shows I would like to see more of: As a fan of crappy high concept programming, I'd like to see more of Gemini Man. It probably doesn't get much better, but I'm curious. I also hope for US releases of Army of the Apes and Star Wolf, because I like my toku and they look like interesting shows.

Pilot movies that were reworked for theaters/didn't get picked up:
Project Moon Base = Ring Round the Moon
Stranded in Space = The Stranger
Code Name:  Diamond Head
Agent for HARM

I'd have watched a Moon Base series, but yeah, these shows didn't have promise.

In the beginning, God created man. In the middle, man created TV. And in the end, TV created Mystery Science Theater 3000. Let's celebrate that by going back to the first episode of the series, Invaders from the Deep!

He addresses that in the review.

Another great night with the Mads in the books! Probably the weakest version of Santa Claus in the riffing world, but I had great fun.

Next month is another series of shorts. Get those tickets purchased, people!

Volume 34 is going out of print, only instead of being movie rights complications (the entire set was composed of episodes from one licensee), it looks like the culprit is a documentary they produced for the set about American International Pictures. Owner of several films from AIP, Susan Hart, sued Shout Factory over the documentary a while back and they settled in court. Looks like Shout's time with the doc is up.

Buy them while you can. Will it be re-issued? Hard to say. They'd just have to re-print one disc in the set for a re-issue, but the question is whether or not it's worth the effort.

I wouldn't count on it. Technically Shout owns the documentary and Hart is preventing them from releasing it further.

Susan is a stickler when it comes to footage of films she owns, even when the footage used is fair use like it was in the doc. The set was comprised of films from AIP licensed from the Arkhoff estate and primarily used footage from the films they owned, but she still has that bad faith argument that even if a single frame or still featuring a character that originated from one of her films is used, that means she has grounds to sue.

She also argues that she is entitled to rights on War of the Colossal Beast because it's a sequel to Amazing Colossal Man, which she does own, but the simple answer is no, she has no claim to that movie. The lady is a bit off her rocker on what's hers and what isn't.

The only way to get the documentary is the box set. Though I wouldn't be surprised to see a fan rip it to YouTube once it goes out of print. It's pretty good. It's one of the most in-depth they've done, running at an hour and a half.

Thanks for the heads-up.