“Mystery Science Theater 3000,” starring Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett, knows a thing or two about bad movies.
With news that the show will be back with four new episodes and the veteran “MST3K” trio returning, fans are wondering which movies they’ll skewer. In an interview with Variety, Nelson, Murphy and Corbett said they are focused on making the right choices.
“[Our]eye is on the kind of movies that we used to do. In a way, they’re corny and not too current,” Murphy told Variety. “It’s more like a classic delinquent than a modern delinquent.”
Viewers’ appetite for cheesy movies (and to see these three riffs) is as strong as ever, considering the Kickstarter campaign for the new episode hit its funding goal in a matter of hours. Corbett calls his excitement for returning to the show “amazing, compelling, exciting, and a little scary.” But the trio, primarily celebrating the 20th anniversary of RiffTrax, the spiritual successor to MST3K, aren’t sitting idle.
Still, this will be the first time they’ve returned to MST3K, both in front of and behind the camera, since the original show signed a deal with Sci-Fi Channel (now Syfy) in 1999. This also marks the beginning of a new era for the show, since it was officially announced just a few weeks ago that original creator Joel Hodgson had sold his interest in the series to Shout! The studio’s parent company is Radial Entertainment.
But fans seem to have little to worry about, as the three are still trying to stay sane with the help of their robot friends.
Check out the full Q&A below.
This interview was conducted on February 4, and has been edited and condensed.
The Kickstarter campaign raised more than $1.3 million in just two days. How does it feel to see this kind of support right away?
Bill Corbett: It’s amazing, compelling, exciting, and a little scary. We have to justify it now and I think we can do that. But, you know, it’s been a while.
Kevin Murphy: It’s really gratifying that after all this time, people still like this show and the way we do it. And I think that’s what we’re seeing there.
I looked it up and found out that the budget for Joe Don Baker’s movie “Mitchell” was $1.16 million, so they made “Mitchell” in one day.
Murphy: Wow, I did “Mitchell”!
Michael J. Nelson: You have to look at the dollar amounts on your calculator and see if you’re still ahead with today’s amounts.
Well, no one is going to be further ahead than Joe Don Baker.
Corbett: Not recommended. He will destroy you in no time.
But seriously, when did the conversation between RiffTrax and Shout! take place? Is the studio starting to revive “MST3K”?
Corbett: That was at least six months ago, but I think it was actually much earlier. Right? Maybe nine or eight months ago?
Murphy: Well, I think it was last spring, and during that time, Shout! Factory went through this merger, which slowed things down for a while…and as we all know, they were in the middle of acquiring all the rights to the show from Joel.
Corbett: Just to be clear, we are completely happy AARP members. they asked us. And I think what we come up with that sounds exciting also sounds dangerous. Like, if we don’t get the magic back or someone sees me and goes, “Oh my god, what happened to him?!” Especially me. But what I think made it better for us was that we said, “Can I eat it four times in relatively small bites?”
Kevin, you mentioned doing the show the way you guys did it. What does that mean exactly?
Murphy: Well, when I first heard that they might want to do this, I talked to our old DP Jeff Stonehouse…and he said, “Oh, let’s do it the old-fashioned way. We need to do it the old-fashioned way, the way we did it back then.” He was a very good magician at creating in-camera effects. And just handcrafting all the props and not relying on digital compositing or green screens other than what’s needed to make the shadows work and get through the doors, simple things like that… Everything is done by hand, which makes it really fun for us and for everyone involved.
And this year, you’re celebrating RiffTrax’s 20th anniversary. What have you learned during that time that you hope to incorporate into new episodes of “MST3K”?
Nelson: Well, I’d like to speak for Kevin here. Kevin hasn’t learned anything in 20 years.
Murphy: Not really. In fact, one of the things we learned to get better at is how to riff. We’ve learned over time to put straight people in movies and set up jokes better. So there are a lot of punchlines. And we know that we’ve learned that Dead Space is not what we think it is. People don’t want us to keep making jokes.
What’s strange to me is that outside of MST3K and RiffTrax, there aren’t too many people trying to take riffing to the level you’ve reached. Why do you think that is?
Nelson: I think one of the reasons for that is…it’s really hard to riff the way we do. And that’s not very rewarding writing for a normal person who just wants to be a writer… This is very technical writing. I happen to enjoy it. I think everyone who works with us enjoys it and loves the results, but it’s really, really difficult. I’m not saying that — we’re not nuclear submarine runners or anything here — but I’m just saying it’s difficult. And people often say, “This looks like fun!” You do that for two minutes and you’re like, “Wow, this is really hard.”
Corbett: There’s an almost self-deprecating element to writing this piece. I mean, we’ve gotten better at it, so I think we’ve gotten over it. It’s a strange thing to say that we’re good at it, but we’re definitely world specialists… We’re not afraid of many movies, but there are some that we don’t find interesting or that we should pass on. We’re pretty good at identifying movies that just don’t work. And in fact, that’s pretty much it.
Nelson: There are always people who complain. They’re like, “Hey, why are you making this movie? It’s a good movie!” We think, “Oh, we’ve made a lot of good movies, movies that we like,” and the comments in that case match that. If you were sitting with a good friend of yours, watching your favorite movie, and he was messing with it, you’d say, “Hey, come on.” That’s our intention. We enjoy this movie too, so our comments are tailored to that, but it’s still funny. It’s a challenge that I really like.
I know you have four films planned to be released during the Kickstarter campaign, what can you share about them? Are you targeting older films like “MST3K” or are you targeting newer films?
MURPHY: Well, I know we’re revisiting the “Mystery Science Theater” that we knew and loved, so I would say our eyes are on movies that are similar to what we used to do, movies that are corny and definitely not cutting edge. More of a classic delinquent rather than a modern delinquent…we’re casting the net to find just the right delinquent to fit the doll, not the three of us or our voices. And there’s a little difference there. “Mystery Science Theater” was more family-friendly than usual. RiffTrax has been slowly gaining traction lately.
Nelson: At RiffTrax, we hate families.
They then announced that all four episodes would be released on RiffTrax later this year. Were there any discussions about partnering with a platform like Netflix, like with other revival seasons?
Murphy: I think we always wanted to do it ourselves. Because when you get people like Netflix involved, as good as what they’re doing, you probably want more people to tell you what to do with it, not just us. We are responsible for the success or failure of this thing, and we feel it’s the right thing to do. And I don’t think that someone else’s sticking their finger in the pie, while it may make sense, is something that any of us would be comfortable with. We like finger-free pies.
Corbett: Get out of my pie! I’d also like to add… I’ve released RiffTrax work on other platforms, and depending on my mood, the payment method changes. And it only goes in one direction. So we don’t want to be at the mercy of it too much.
