The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Fanvid and Live-performance Database
*News and Announcements*
This is where you will find news and announcements concerning this website and Mystery Science Theater 3000 fan-productions in general. New fanvid projects will be announced here and also listed on the rumors page until they have been completed and confirmed. Upcoming live-performances will be announced here and also listed on the upcoming live-performances page until they have been performed. Afterwhich, they can be found on the past performances page. Changes to this website and additions to the Database are noted on the history page. Of course, everything can be found via the Main Index page.
27 May 2009:
New MSTF THIS FRIDAY! Here's the low-down from Phil Zeman, MSTF producer: "MSTF 12 will be performed at BotCon 2009 in Pasadena, CA this Friday, May 29th! Showtime starts at 10:00pm at the Pasadena Convention Center, in Ballroom A-D. In past years, walk-ins could attend with a donation, however, I am not sure if this is the case this year. Late Registration starts at 9:30am Friday morning at the Pasadena Convention Center in the Exhibit Hall A Foyer." MSTF is a long-running MST3K-style live-show which takes its experiments from the Transformers universe. BotCon is the official Transformers convention endorsed by Hasbro. Hasbro is the company that owns Transformers and makes the toys collector's items.
02 February 2009:
MT337 Update. The Doctor Who themed Mysterious Theatre 337 will once again be part of this year's Gallifrey One. Gallifrey One is a yearly "Doctor Who and science fiction media convention" that will be going on February 13-15 at the Los Angeles Airport Marriott Hotel. The experiment will be Doctor Who: Planet of Fire. If you're into that whole social-networking thing, check out MT337's brand new Facebook page.
I'm (Not) Huge! There's a new fanvid project being sporadically uploaded to YouTube. It's called The Mini MSTadventures of Tom and Crow. The creator of the series, free-lance artist J. Scott Nebel, is animating and voicing some miniature replicas of Tom and Crow who, through some twist of tiny fate, have ended up back on a tiny Satellite of Love. J. Scott calls it "Full-Scale fanboy's small-scale garage animation". So far, there are fourteen mini videos comprising two episodes. Yes, everything is small, even the length of each video; the longest being not much more than a minute. Check it out on the official YouTube channel, or brave the partially working official website.
MFTC Woes. At the height of it's uploading, there were four episodes of Movie From The Crypt on YouTube. Sadly, due to an instance of what Jason Soto calls "YouTube being stupid", the official MFTC channel was suspended. Scott L., the producer, says that he has been unable to rectify the situation. So, for the near future, MFTC will be unavailable for viewing. The website is still up, though.
Not Quite Mister Anderson. Speaking of YouTube, there's another new fanvid project on there. It's called MST3K Neo!. There is one complete episode so far (featuring the experiment Lion King 2). Another episode was announced around Christmas time. It was to feature Yogi's First Christmas as an experiment, but only one part seems to ever have been uploaded for it. MST3K Neo! follows in the footsteps of other fanvids by having puppets (or in this case, stuffed animals) in front of a television. It turns out that Zardoz (yes, THAT Zardoz), played by a "floating" hockey mask, is keeping Sonic The Hedgehog and other plush cartoon characters hostage and is forcing them to riff on movies.
MFT Update. New episodes of Mystery Fandom Theater 3000 are still in various states of pre-production. The old deadline of "late 2008" has passed, but things are still moving along. No new deadline has been announced.
Linkara Who? That's right, MST11 producer and comic book writer Lewis Lovhaug has something else up his sleeve. He's joined up with the That Guy With Glasses website and, as an addition to his text-based-comic-book-reviews-blog (Atop The Fourth Wall), is rockin' the Drudge-fedora in Atop The Fourth Wall video-blogs. His TGWG user-name is Linkara.
Jason Soto (BMC5K) has started up doing another web-show. He's calling it a "web-com". It's called Jason and Cokie are Roommates and features Jason as himself and the voice of Cokie The Dog. You may remember Cokie, a stuffed animal dog, from B-Movie Central 5000 and several of Jason's post BMC5K videos. This time, Jason is using DailyMotion to host the videos intead of his usual YouTube venue. For more on some other things he's been up to, look at his Up Late Productions website. Besides making the occasional video or starting new web-shows, Jason Soto also continues to regularly update his Invasion of the B-Movies movie-review website.
BMC5K Update. Jason Soto says that since his big move to a new city last year, footage for the final episode of B-Movie Central 5000 is still in some box somewhere. He still intends to edit it all together, but doesn't know when he'll be able to get to it.
Spam-free fanmst3k. The Yahoo! Groups group fanmst3k has a new owner. The new owner is none other than the person that writes the news items on this page (this item included) and maintains this website and Database. A new era has dawned on the venerable, old group. The spam and spam-bots were deleted and a new moderation policy put in place to keep future spams at bay. Also, a new moderator has been appointed. You may know him as "Jeff", "Toolmaster", "Fake Jack Perkins", or "the MSTie's Domain guy". However you know him, he's now on the fanmst3k team. If you haven't joined the group yet, go ahead on. Old members are also welcome to return. It's back to being a safe place to chat about your MST3K fan productions. Anything fan-made is game. But, traditionally, fan-made videos are the usual subject. Hikeeba!
16 November 2008:
Details At Eleven. Two more fanvid projects (totalling three more fan-made vides) have been confirmed. They are Maintenence Science Theater 3000 and Media Center Theater 3000. Both have accounts on the YouTube (which are here and here, respectively) where you can watch MxST3K: Into The Sun, MCT3K: Starcrash, and MCT3K: The Giant Claw. Due to uncontrollable circumstances, these fanvids have not yet been added to The List.
Not Exactly Official. So, there's that YouTube thing, right? Well, the author of this Database has gone and put up a channel on it. The purpose was to collect all the MST3K-style fan-made stuff on YouTube and concentrate it in one place for ease of finding (much like the reason the website you are reading right now was created). Another reason was to get the author's web-browser hotlist cleared out. Yet another reason was so the author could contact fanvid projects which have YouTube as their only online presence. The author isn't going as far as calling it an official extension of the The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Fanvid and Live-performance Database website, but it may be referenced in the future when direct links to fanvids on YouTube are not appropriate. The channel is called, eponymously, MST3KFanvids. You will find playlists for muiti-part fan-made single episodes, as well as playlists featuring fanvids with shadowrama, fanvids without shadowrama, and other fan-made videos. The subscription list will try to be filled with all known fanvid producer or project specific channels. Feel free to use the channel to contact the author of this Database as emails via YouTube will go to the same place as if you used the contact info found on this website's Caveats and Information page. Feel free also to contact the author if you find a video which has not been added to the playlists. The author doesn't promise to keep the YouTube channel updated (either on a regular basis or at all), but does promise to try to make sure that every email is answered and appropriate action (e.g. updating) taken when new information is recieved.
Officially Dead. Jason Soto, of BMC5K, posted a YouTube video that pretty much seals it with regard to the end of B-Movie Central 5000. "It is officially the end of an era. A era-- AN era, is going buh-bye." There's not going to be any more episodes, except for the one that was in production at the time he decided to call it quits. The final episode of BMC5K will feature the movie Frogs. But due to personal, chonological, and proximal reasons, the theater-segments were never filmed. So, since he taped the writing session, he'll be using that footage instead. Jason says that he'll try to edit it all together, but doesn't say when it will be completed. Watch the video for Jason's own words, and a behind-the-scenes expose of the BMC5K shadowrama technique.
Dating Service Update. There is a new ad on the classifieds page. He is an MST3K fan looking to help on someone's riffing project. He's also the very first person to have such an ad offering help rather than looking for it. The MST3KFvaLpDb,T website's "Dating Service" is as full as it's ever been. There are three ads in there! Check it out!
29 June 2008:
Sans "Live". "Vaguely Specific Productions is proud to anounce the next Mystery Anime Theater project that will debut this September 12th at Nan Desu Kan in Denver, Colorado. This year's project is The Fantastic Advetures of Yohko Leda." That's the latest from VSP in-charge-guy John S. Walker. MAT uses anime for its experiments and has been doing so off-and-on since 2002. Nan Desu Kan is an anime convention, but MAT's first two outings were at Starfest, a science fiction convention. MAT is not a live-show. It used to be, early on, but now they tape the performance beforehand and show the video at the con instead. Apparently, also, there will be a "making of" panel that Friday. At least, that's what this forum thread says.
Sans-Sans Moon Base Nine. The third episode of Nathaniel Torres's Moon Base Nine is back on the 'Net. A while back, he had put it up on Google Video, but he took it down shortly after. He didn't say why, but the sound was out of sync, so it probably was a good idea. In any case, he's put it back online! You can now download a very good quality MPEG-1 version of Moon Base Nine: The Transformation of Fanghorn from The Internet Archive. This episode features several cartoons created by Nathaiel himself. A longer while back, the cartoons were online seperately for a short time. Now, you can see them in context (or just see them at all) in MB9's third episode. MB9 was an MST3K fanvid project that aired three episodes on The Manhattan Neighborhood Network a few years ago. The third and last episode ended up not having in-theater riffs, even though some were written and the storyline still included the crew talking about having to go into the theater. So, the third episode isn't an MST3K fanvid, but if you've seen the first two and are wondering what happened to the MB9 crew, go ahead and download the last episode. Moon Base Nine featured experiments which were either created or written by Nathanial. The first episode featured The Adventures of Officer Fender, a three-part series, the characters of which ended up being the basis for Fender Saves The World, a scifi movie written by Nathanial and which is viewable on The Internet Archive and Google Video. It's even got a website. Heck, so does Nathaniel. And, there's a whole page of Nathaniel Torres Buckaroo Banzai fanfiction over on something called BBI Chronicles. Your Best Brains, Inc. may vary.
Sans Fanvid Soto. As a gift to his girlfriend fiance', Jason Soto (of B-Movie Central 5000 fame) made a short film called Birthday Present and uploaded it to the YouTube. It's not an episode of BMC5K, but it does star Jason, Cokie, and Dr. Snyder. It features music by the band Radiohead. If you do a little bit of digging, you'll find Jason's versiono of Radiohead's Just music video, recreated using Cokie (a stuff animal) and action figures. Most of which have appeared in episodes of BMC5K, incidentally.
Sans Update Reminder. Peter David's Mystery Trekkie Theater is usually part of the Shore Leave programming, but the Shore Leave convention website (or anywhere else it seems) doesn't have a schedule. The experiment is usually a secret until showtime, but sometimes, showtime is also a secret, as it were. In any case, the con is July 11-13, 2008, in Baltimore. That's where John Waters is from. It (the city) is also the nemesis of the G4 television show Attack of the Show!. Perhaps more tertiarily related information than you wanted, so let's get back from tangent-ville: Figure that Mystery Trekkie Theater is usually put on that Sunday. It was put on last year on that Sunday from 5 to 6 PM, but if you're going, you're likely to get a schedule at the door. So, consult your local in-hand schedule. MTT is a Mystery Science Theater Alive!-style live-show with experiments coming from the several Star Trek television serieses. Or, related to them, as was the case last year when the experiment was a pilot for a never aired show starring William Shatner (and apparently also Adam West) called Alexander the Great. Shore Leave is a science-fiction convention and this will be it's 30th anniversary.
23 April 2008:
"MSTF begins its second decade this week at BotCon 2008!" That, according to the official MSTF press release below. BotCon is being held at the Duke Energy Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, starting tomorrow and going through Sunday. A usual, the Transformers based experimental content of the show is being kept secret until showtime, which is 10 PM on Thursday. The official press release is as follows:
MSTF begins its second decade this week at BotCon 2008!
MSTF, the longest running fan panel at Transformers conventions, holds its annual performance this week at BotCon 2008! Held at the Duke Energy Center in Cincinatti, OH, the official Transformers convention is celebrating the one of the biggest years ever. Coming off the blockbuster live-action movie in 2007 plus the popular "Transformers: Animated" cartoon running weekly on Cartoon Network, Transformers have never been more popular.
So why are they still allowing MSTF? Surely they would have learned by now.
This year's performance, as always, is a secret. Will it be Generation 1? Will it be Beast Wars? Will it be Robots in Diguise (God help them)? You'll have to come to the show to find out.
Pre-registrants to BotCon 2008 get in free. But if you are in the Cincy area and just want to head on in, you'll be allowed to see the show with a charity donation. So even if the jokes are bad, you can feel good about donating for a good cause.
The Duke Energy Center is located at 525 Elm St, Cincinnati, OH 45202. The performance starts at 10:00pm in DEC Room 201.
For more information, you can go to the BotCon website at http://www.botcon.com
And maybe one of these days, http://www.MSTFonline.com will have something more than these press releases....
24 February 2008:
Zombies and Death Metal? You becha! And it's set up shop on MySpace. It's called Incognito Cinema Warriors XP and has a comic-book graphic style opening sequence with a death metal theme song for your listening pleasure. Their MySpace says they have four episodes so far, but only the first one seems up for procurement. You can check out the first thirty minutes of it, which features the Prelinger Archives classic Bride of the Gorilla as the experiment. Be sure to locate the sound control in the middle of the page before watching the embedded video or else it'll drive you insane cinema warriors xp for sure. Or, listen to the embedded audio first and find out how to call in and have your voice be included in the show. They really want you to. What's the premise of the show? Well, this commando guy gets trapped in a movie theater with a couple of robots when his squad gets killed by zombies. Now, he watches bad movies because a mad scientist will open the protective doors and let the zombies in if he doesn't. Your parental guidance may vary. Thanks go to Jason Soto for the info!
12 February 2008:
This weekend is Galafrey One, a Doctor Who convention in Los Angeles. Mysterious Theatre 337 will be performed. The experiment will be Doctor Who: Silver Nemesis.
John Sprengel has posted clips of his Count Xigeous' Halloween Bloodbath fanvid on the YouTube: a promo video and Mister Bonejangle's minimalist music video. John's latest project is a musical called The Indian Princess and he says it's soon to be recorded.
The newest episode of B-Movie Central 5000 is in production. This time, the movie Frogs is the experiment. Before the 3 year hiatus, Sorority House Massacre 2: Nighty Nightmare was going to be the next experiment, but it changed in the mean time. Your disappointment may vary. Check out the official BMC5K website for information on past episodes and "bonus" material, or go directly to the news section/blog for an embedded video of a BMC5K writing session in session.
Moonbase Nine producer, Nathaniel Torres, has posted the third episode of MB9 on Google Video. The story of Fanghorn and Commander Phil is continued in this episode, but not the riffing. There are cartoon shorts, produced by Nathaniel himself but, unlike an MST3K-style fanvid, there is no riffing. You can see other cartoons by Nate on Google Video, too.
You may remember something from way back in 2005 called Warning: May Contain Nudity 20,000. It was a fanvid project that got as far as making up a website, and doing up and intro, but that was pretty much it. The producer has put the intro video online, via the YouTube.
New Project? A dude in Goshen, Indiana called Anthony Hostetler broaches to say that he's looking for help on his very own MST3K-style fan-made video project. Contact info can be found via the Dating Service on this website. His project is going by the name of Drive-in Theater Mock V and he's looking for writers who "can write tv-pg related stuff".
23 December 2007: MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Chill'n In The Basement. New on the scene are some MST3K fans who weren't even alive when Joel Hodgson was on the show. From Scotteration, Incorperated (your spelling may vary) comes Movies From The Crypt! Scott, Nick, various Austin's, an occasional Brett, and (most recently) a Kevin, have produced fifteen verifiable fan-made episodes in homage to Mystery Science Theater 3000. They are currently in the process of uploading the sixteenth episode (featuring the movie The Human Monster) to their channel on YouTube. In August of 2005, Scott and pals started making episodes of MFTC and passing copies around to their friends. Then, this July, they started uploading to the YouTube. Scott, the producer, says that 45 episodes have been produced, so far, with more in the works. The fourth "season" of MFTC is said to still be in production. At this time, uploads to YouTube are nearing the end of the second season. Scott mentions that the early episodes aren't so great, but they've "gotten better and better at it through the years". The first season is tantamount to their "KTMA" season, as far as Scott seems concerned. He says that the Carnival of Souls episode of the second season (next in line to be uploaded) is one of their funniest, but that seasons 3 and 4 are their best work. For show details and to find out how they are defining their "seasons", check out the official MFTC website. It's the newest (and most official) of a few MFTC related websites and a slew of other quite "zany" websites (some that throttle your web browser) that have been put up on free webhosting services by the Scotteration guys. Stick to the most recent and official one for best results; perhaps visiting the forum. Movies From the Crypt is "about a man and some robots, and, later on, just the robots, stranded on a satellite called the 'Crippled Ship', being forced to watch horrible movies by a crazy mad scientist named Dr. Scott Frostbender." The name of the MFTC mad scientist comes from a line from MST3000 where in one episode Mike Nelson says, "It's probably Dr. Frostbender and TV's Fred calling". You can see a clip of that particular "legacy" host segment, coincidentally, in the videos/Gypsy Vision section of the new official MST3K website. Episodes of MFTC are being uploaded in parts, due to YouTube restrictions. So, if you're not in the mood to tackle with the twenty 5-minute sections of Movies From The Crypt: The Last Man on Earth, check out the season four theme song or the MFTC "making-of" video. Or, look up Scott's Josh Way-inspired, riffs-only side-project "Bad Movie General". Either way, Happy New Year!
17 December 2007:
Krotons In Your Ears And Silver In Your Nemeses. A while back, the folks at MT337 were going on about how they wanted to record the audio of their shows so people that missed them could recreate the experience in their own homes. Well, it turns out that they finally have done just that. You can now download the audio of their February performance at Gallifrey One from the MT337 website. In order to enjoy the show in your own home, you also need to have a copy of the experiment. In the case of this first audio recording, it is The Krotons. That's an episode of Doctor Who, and the first episode MT337 ever featured starring Patrick Troughton as The Doctor. It'll work sort of like The Spoony Experiment. (Or, the new fangled "Rifftrax" the kids are into these days. Hoolahoops move over!) As for their latest performance (on 24 November, featuring Destiny of the Daleks), sound "was not recorded due to lack of preparation time". Head writer Stephen Hill writes that overall the performance itself "went very well and was one of the better (though not one of the best) MT337 shows". There were scheduling issues getting the script done, so it wasn't completed until the morning of the show, causing there to be no time for a proper rehearsal. For more detailed insight, the MT337 website has post-show write-ups of this and other past shows. What's next for MT337? They've announced that Doctor Who: Silver Nemesis will be the experiment for the upcoming performance at Gallifrey One in February of 2008.
The main poobah, Nathan Heckel, over at MSTies Anonymous announces that he's "finally posted the video for MST Alive! The Dreaded Women of San Pedro online". You may remember that back in 2003, MSTies Anonymous of Colorado put together an MST-Alive!-style live-performance based around an original stageplay, The Dreaded Women of San Pedro! Yes, your memory is correct to remember that they riffed on a stageplay... live. The show was performed at Colorado State University on March 29 of that year, and then again on April 23. Besides just giving approval to put the show on, BBI gave permssion for them to record and distribute not-for-profit copies (DVD's). So, if you missed it, or didn't get a DVD copy, you can now watch one of the hour or so long performances for yourself on Google Video or at the MSTies Anonymous website via the embedded video.
Subterranean Cinema Realm "DVD Master Set" clarification: There will be commentary over the episodes, including over top of the theater segments. The commentaries will include "stories from the making of" the episodes and maybe even suggestions for new jokes.
BMC5K.v2. Jason Soto has revamped the B-Movie Central 5000 website. There are new graphics, and a brand new "bonus" section. Check out the new news section (now in blog form) for Jason's four point plan regarding the future of BMC5K. Point one: DVD's. For more details, there is a video called "BMC5K News Update" in the Bonus section. Along with other new and old stuff, the Bonus section includes a brand new BMC5K video. It's not an official episode, just some "bonus material" Jason was noodling with. It's called BMC5K: Channel Surfing. It's half an hour of Jason and Cokie riffing on local Gary, Indiana cable television in classic BMC5K shadowrama fashion. You may notice the new television set (see 19 August 2007, below).
05 November 2007:
Not Of Polyester. Have you checked out Mike White's article on MST3K fanvids? Well, you now can. He publishes a fanzine called Cashiers du Cinemart and in the latest issue, there is an article called Mystery Science Fandom. It's all about potato cakes. No, it's actually about MST3K fanvids. At least, that's what he announced: "Included therein is an article on MST3K Fan Vids." You'll have to buy it to make absolutely sure for yourself since out of the three articles from the issue that are readable online, the fanvid one isn't.
Holy Jackland, Morbius! Yes, that's right, Subterranean Cinema Realm is back in the news. Smart Guy Productions has a new website and, get this, are working on what's being called a "DVD master set". The official low down is that it will come "with all the episodes, complete with audio commentary and behind the scenes footage, plus two previously unreleased episodes". Remember Cult of the Cobra or Night of the Zombies? Perhaps not, since those episodes of SCR have existed as only unedited footage since they were taped circa 2002. But, those are the two unreleased episodes in question. No word on if the "audio commentary" is in addition to the riffing, or if it means the riffing itself. No word, either, on a release date, which Evan Hale says will be coming on the SCR website "once everything is ready". Other things on the new (and still slightly buggy) website include a webcomic and an as-of-yet under populated forum.
03 November 2007:
Wicked Huge! David B. Grelck, producer of Film Bunker, has created a web-series called Irving Renquist, Ghost Hunter. The first episode (including second episode teaser after the credits) is up for viewing on the IRGH website now, with the second episode coming November 7th. The series, produced by Grelck and friends' not-for-profit cinema venture, CNGM Pictures, is about a somewhat inept hunter of ghosts, his "sidekick", a serendipitous haunted house, and a television show segment that hangs in the balance. David says that you might be able to see the Tom Servo puppet he built in the first episode, but for sure in the second one. This Tom Servo did not appear in Film Bunker, as no Tom Servo's appeared in Film Bunker. If you want to see what else David B. Grelck is up to, check out his website.
21 October 2007:
Mike Hagen reveals that the Mystery Fandom Theater 3000 website that went offline a while back is back online, but at a new address. He hopes to get the original address (www.mft3000.org) back in action "before *too* much longer". The latest news on the next MFT3000 episode is that they're working on the script as time and scheduling permit, which puts the release somewhere late in 2008. The experiment will be The Eliminators.
BMSummary5000. In a twist of fate, the next episode of Jason Soto's B-Movie Central 5000 is also rockin' a possible 2008 release date. That's what he said in the update video he posted a month or so ago (see news for 14 October 2007). The biggest news is that he says that he will be making more episodes. When he'll be able to start back up was left as a vague mention of "sometime in 2008". Grab a gander at the video for the full scoop of ice cream.
BrokenLinkCentral5000. Due to the impending redesign of the BMC5K website, links to it on this Database may be broken. They will be left broken until the new BMC5K website is launched. In the mean time, try accessing an older version of the site via the Wayback Machine.
14 October 2007:
Jason Soto has replaced the BMC5K website with a special video message for B-Movie Central 5000 fans.
23 September 2007:
Pete Lane has started up a website for The VHS Hole. It's one of those "under construction" affairs at the moment, but you can hit up the "episodes" section for what can be considered the first MST3K fanvid put out by Pete's own Iconocrat Productions. It features the short Why Doesn't Cathy Eat Breakfast?, but no host segments. The imbedded video itself is being hosted on YouTube, if you want to leave a comment. According to good ol' Pete, future episodes of TVHSH, "will have wrap-around segments pre- and post-film with the cast as well as an animated silhouette that's actually synced up with the riffs." He also says that the next episode will be the "pilot" episode and that this one is good for a "teaser". Furthermore, the pilot will have host-segments and a whole other short as the experiment. After that, perhaps feature length experiments. The VHS Hole: Why Doesn't Cathy Eat Breakfast? has been confirmed and added to The List.
19 August 2007:
Animated Shadows Not By A Greek Guy. From Ocean Springs, Mississippi comes artist Pete Lane, who has been working on an animated MST3K fanvid project. He first announced it sometime last year, but doesn't know exactly when he'll be done. He's been slowly learning how to do animation, and promises that his fanvid will have shadorama and host segments. The project is called The VHS Hole. Here, "VHS" stands for "Video Hostage Situation", which sums up the premis in a nutshell. A bigger nutshell will, of course, hold more premis details. A peek at some of his progress and a riffs-only sample can be found on his YouTube account. If all else fails, he's also looking for some help, so you can find contact information in the Dating Service (want ads) section of this website.
Fanvid History Ex. Jason Soto has released a video blog entry detailing the demise of his television set. It was the same set that can be seen being "watched" in episodes of his B-Movie Central 5000. What has this eventuality done to the current most prolific MST3K fanvid producer? Knowing is in the asking.
Greg Sepelak, producer of MSTF, has kindly submitted the scripts for MSTF 10, which was performed at this year's Botcon. It can now be downloaded in The Scriptory. In honor of the release of the new Transformers movie, which coincided with the con, the MSTF crew went back to the early days of their show's history and pulled out their first experiment ever, the original Transformers cartoon movie from 1986, and wrote a mostly new show around it. "Mostly", because there was technically one "recycled joke" from their original script from ten years ago. Just the one, though. Greg says that this year's performance was a hit, and that they had "another big crowd and lots of laughs".
08 August 2007:
Mike Hagen has announced that there are two more episodes of Mystery Fandom Theater 3000 in the works, with shooting to begin sometime next summer. There have been three episodes of MFT3000 so far. The last episode featured Star Crash, starring Marjoe Gortner, as the experiment, and was released in 2003.
Gymkata! Way back in 1995, some people from the rec.arts.tv.mst3k.misc (RATMM) newsgroup put together a convention to tide themselves over between the ConventioCon ExpoFest-A-Rama (1994) and ConventioCon ExpoFest-A-Rama II: Electric Boogaloo (1996). It was called "Texas Noncon '95" and happened that August, in Dallas. While there, a subset of those people taped their own fanvid featuring the movie Gymkata as the experiment. They edited it together later on, though, and it became the fourth ever MST3K-style fan-made video (or possibly a tie for third, with Battle of the Worlds). The "Gymkata MiSTing" has been confirmed and added to The List. It is a "standard" fanvid set in the era between Frank Conniff's leaving MST3K and "did I tell you my mother's here?". If you get a chance to see it, look for a reference to Ryan K. Johnson's 1992 MST3K fanvid featuring Star Trek V: The Undiscovered Country.
Unfishy Find. A group of kids (calling themeselves "Scotteration, Incorporated") over on the YouTube have started uploading what may turn out to be thirty (!) episodes of a fanvid project they've been doing the past few years called Movies From The Crypt. No information has been collected, other than the fact that the project exists. Episodes of MFTC are practically confirming their own existence by being available online and will be added to The List as soon as up with which more details can be dug.
24 June 2007:
MSTF! What? That's Right! Next weekend, "MSTF -the longest-running fan-panel in official TF convention history- will be once again performed at BotCon 2007". It'll be their tenth performance. Talk about decadence! MSTF, a live-show, sends up experiments based on the Transformers universe. Like every year, the chosen experiment(s) will(is/are) (be) kept secret until showtime. Check out the press release on their official website. MSTF is set to energize that Friday (June 29) at 9 P.M.. Like last year, pre-registrants get in free, and those that "make a charity donation" do, too, technically. This year's BotCon is being held June 28-July 1, in Providence, Rhode Island, at the Rhode Island Convention Center.
Guess who's master of their own domain. It's Matters of the Force, that's who. You can now go to their new website for all of your MOTF informational needs. Information like how they'll be doing their live-show at Dragon*Con again, this year. This time, they'll be riffing on Star Wars (yes, the first/forth/A New Hope one). When does that con happen? Only Memorial Day weekend, that's when. MOTF is hoping to perform their live-show that Friday, but show scheduling has not been finalized. MOTF is the group that puts on the Star Wars programming track at D*C, and in the 2004 pocket program, the performance was listed simply as "MST3K". So, check your program with confidence. If that wasn't enough, MOTF will be puttin' on their thang at next year's OmegaCon-- "the newest and greatest science fiction convention on the scene" (March 14-16, 2008). They're still working on getting the Dragon*Con candle lit, so they don't even know if their fan-alive will be rockin' the OC, Star Wars Style, or not. Stay tuned.
Cashiers du Cinemart. It's a fanzine about movies and whatnot put out by this dude, Mike White, in Michigan. He's written an article about MST3K fan-made videos for the next issue, which is just about to hit the presses. More details as they come. Or, keep an eye on his website, which has an archive of back-issues and a purchasing function. (Shield your eyes if you're frightened of cover-art featuring pin-up girls clad in scantilly. Especially issue number 10! WOW!)
According to the "blog" of his wife, Kathleen, Peter David's Mystery Trekkie Theater will indeed be put on again at this year's Shore Leave. They were working on the script just yesterday, in fact. MTT sends up Star Trek related experiments (which are kept secret until showtime), and have been since 1992. In 2005, it wasn't Star Trek at all, but an old TV pilot starring William Shatner. Surprise! Shore Leave (a scienty-fiction convention in it's 29th year) will be held July 13-15 at Marriot's Hunt Valley Inn, in Baltimore, Maryland. MTT, in past years, has gone on at 10 in the morning, the Sunday of the convention. Check the schedule once it's been finalize to be absolutely shore sure.
Back For Seconds, Again. The Federation's Mysterious Theatre 337 will be performed at this year's Chicago TARDIS. It'll be the second of MT337's two yearly performances. The first was in February, at Galafrey One, with Doctor Who: The Krotons as the experiment. There will be a different experiment this time, as there always is, but it has not yet been officially revealed. They have picked it out, and are working on the script, though. Chicago TARDIS is a Doctor Who convention and is being held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Rosemont, Illinois, this Thansgiving weekend.
Mystery Science Theater 3000: Season 11 producer, Lewis Lovhaug, has started doing reviews of comic books. He calls it Atop the Fourth Wall. (Click the review titles to read them, not the cover art.) He joins the ranks of other fan-stuff producers who review things. Jason Soto (BMC5K), who reviews movies; and Noah Antwiler (The Spoony Experiment), who reviews both movies and video games. The later, he does in video form via YouTube. (Your parental guidance may vary.)
On The Front Lines. There may be some movement on the MFT3K and BMC5K fronts. No promises, just rumblings. Stay tuned. (Rumor mill much?)
YouTube news? You Got It. Fun with Shorts and YouTube Theater and Interweb Theater 5000 all have new episodes. And, there's something else that might interest the fan-made enthusiast. One of the users on the botbuilders Yahoo! Group has posted a re-inactment of Mike and the 'Bots singing the Tubular Boobular song from the Outlaw episode of MST3K, using 'bot puppets that he built himself.
Dead Again? A few months ago, Pedge Jameson said that his MST3K: Second Wave was having another cast change and a new website design was about to be revealed. Soon after, the website disappeared altogether. No other news is available, but stay tuned.
Staying Tuned. Tune staying has become a recent pastime in MST3K fanvidia. C'mon! It's fun when it's fun! Stay tuned.
25 February 2007:
Krotons Of Jokes! Last Friday, The Federation preented it's latest live-performance of Mysterious Theatre 337 at the Galafrey One convention in Los Angeles California. It was their 17th such performance, and the experiment this time was The Krotons, an episode of the British science fiction series Doctor Who, their chosen experimental penchant. They're currently working on finalizing details for their November performance at Chicago TARDIS and are also looking ahead to the 2008 Galafrey One performance. There is no official word regarding the planned audio recording of the performance. The plan was to start having performances recorded and made available for download. Un-officially, Krotons taste good on Crinoid salad.
The Nigiyaka Players have decided not to perform their Nigiyakaza live-show at the upcoming Anizona 3. They hope to be able to put on a show at some other con this year, but have not yet worked out the details. Nigiyakaza, which uses anime based experiments, was performed at the first and second years of Anizona, but is not expected to return.
The guys that do the MSTF live-show have posted the closing credit sequence to their 2004 performance on YouTube. Will they be posting complete performances as well? Only time and legal lawyers can tell. MSTF uses Transformers related experiments.
04 January 2007:
Over on the Myterious Theater 337 website, there's a downloads section. You can get scripts, posters, and a video of their new title sequence from there. But, in the future, they say you might be able to download audio files of their performances. They have this new gadget that will record them doing their lines, and they hope to be able to put the audio of future MT337 performances up on their website. The idea, presumably, would be so you could listen to their jokes while watching your own copy of the Doctor Who episode they're riffing on. Coincidentally, you can find links to all available scripts of MT337 performances (9 of 16) in The Scriptory. How fun would that be, reading the script while watching the episode while listening to the performance audio? High times, indeed!
Speaking of scripts, the long awaited host and theater scripts for B-Movie Central 5000's Shorts Spectacular! Volume 1 are available for download from The Scriptory, courtesy of that fanvid project's host and producer, Jason Soto.
02 January 2007:
There is widespread rejoicing throughout the world as The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Fanvid and Live-performance Database enters its FIFTH YEAR! HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Fantastic News! Well, not really. Ryan K. Johnson and pals have decided not to turn their latest script into a fanvid. These guys were the first to do it all way back in 1992 and 1995. For many, many years, there had been a notice on the MST3K fanvid portion of RKJ's website about the possibility of a third fanvid. Turns out that they've had a script for it the whole time, but never were able to find a good copy of the movie. The experiment would have been Roger Corman's The Fantastic Four. From RKJ's official notice:It's been over a decade since we last got together to do MST3K and it's probably time we hung up our hats. That is unless a movie comes out that is so bad, so pretentious, that we are compelled to give it the MST treatment. Until that day though, thanks for enjoying our two other productions which will remain available on DVD.
More Spoony Experiments? Why, yes. Noah Antwiler has produced three more audio-only commentary tracks for download on his website. The newest experiments are Stay Alive, Dungeon & Dragons: Wrath of the Dragon God, and Hackers. You can find them via Noah's "features" section.
Greg Sepelak, producer of MSTF, has kindly submitted the scripts for MSTF's 8 and 9. They can now be downloaded in The Scriptory.
What's fanvid producer Lewis Lovhaug (Mystery Science Theater 3000: Season 11) been up to? He's been working on a webcomic called The Lightbringer: The Worlds First Super Hero. He joins the ranks of other MST3K fanvid folks turned webcomic folks David B. Grelck (Film Bunker), T.K. Dye (Mystery Fandom Theater 3000), and Mark Sachs and Jon Kilgannon (Mystery Anime Theater 3000); whose webcomics are Cinerama, Newshounds, and A Miracle of Science, respectively. The latter is still up and running, but the first two are now caput. Newshounds had it's last strip on December 6, 2006, while Cinerama ended it's run on March 3, 2004. But, you can still access their archives. New on the scene is David Willis. Although, strictly speaking, he was doing the web comic thing way before Greg Sepelak roped him in to doing MSTF the last 2 years. He started doing his Shortpacked! webcomic about eight months before doing MSTF the first time, and his Joyce and Walky! webcomic was started way back in 1997 when it was called It's Walky! or Roomies! or somesuch. What all this means is that web-comics are the new "in" thing. Forget "you" tube. It's old hat. Put on your new hat and start comiccing up the web!
What, you say you're still a little behind the times? Okay, well, just for you then: There are currenty three fanvid projects over on YouTube. Matthew J. Sanderson is doing Interweb Theater 5000, Josh Way is doing Fun With Shorts, and some dudes that are apparently from Canada are doing something called "YouTube Theater. The first two are using experiments from Prelinger, but the last one is riffing on videos people have posted to YouTube. It's also got animated shadowrama characters! The first two are audio only, but the producers say that they'd would like to have shadowrama in the future. Interweb Theater 5000 is double posted, on Google Video, if you prefer. And, it just so happens that there is actually another online MST3K fanvideo person. (Coming out of the woodwork, they are!) It's Adam Cadre. He's made one video so far, using a Prelinger short called Molly Grows Up for the experiment, and put it up on Google Video. It turns out that he's some kind of smarty pants author from Maryland, but who can tell without actually having contacted him yet... or the YouTube Theater guys either, for that matter. Stay tuned.
Gone Fish-in'. A new feature has been added to the database. It is called The Fish List. That comes from "fanvid-ish". It's where things will be listed if they kinda seem like, but aren't quite enough like something just about anyone would say was MST3K-fanvid-like. The first entry on The Fish List will be one for the audio productions of Noah Antwiler, which have previously been only mentioned on the news page and in the FPIC. The obvious reason being that it doesn't come with video. It's only a riff track, but it's in the right spirit, but it's not quite a "fanvid", but it still should be listed (not Listed), somewhere. Everything you see listed as a "fish" will make you think, "yeah, I see why," but might make you question why it was on The List. Being classified as a fish is not a judgement on quality: "This database makes no statement regarding the quality of the listed productions." Fish-related data will be included in the Card Catalog of Alphabetical Information (FPIC) section, where appropriate.
YouTube, YouBiquitousity. Pedge Jameson has reported a new pre-view of his MST3K: Second Wave project, a six minute video over on the YouTube. The experiment within is The Brain from Planet Arous. Pedge says,"We are currently exploring aspects of [You Tube and other such sites] for the future of Second Wave. Am I saying our first episode will also make it's complete form to the web? You never, never know." So, stay tuned. If that video doesn't satiate your whistle dryness, the old pre-view is still in the "media" section of the MST3K2W website, with six minutes of a different experiment.
January 2007:
The old news page was retired and a new news page (this one) was launched to take over for the old news page, which served this web-site so well for the first four years of it's existence. Go to the old news page for vintage and nostalgic news of fan-made Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes and live-performances. Go to here to read the most newest of the new news of the same nature.
The old history page has been similarly retired, to maintain cross-reference consistancy with the old new page. Go to the old history page for a nostalgic look at the early history of this website, and how it was incrementally modified over the first four years of it's existence to what you see here today.
And so it continues.