apodman wrote:These days I have to go to the Café if I want "mystery science".
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'MST3K' founder back with new tack on proven yak
By Robert K. Elder | Chicago Tribune staff reporter
December 12, 2008
<<Joel is back. This time, without the 'bots.
Joel Hodgson, creator of "Mystery Science Theater 3000," spent years as character Joel Robinson, heckling movies with wisecracking robots Crow and Tom Servo, skewering Z-grade films such as "Attack of the Eye Creatures." But halfway through the cult TV show's decade-long run, Hodgson exited the show.
Next week, Hodgson and the show's cast bring "Cinematic Titanic," a new live version of the movie-riffing template, to the Lakeshore Theatre. (New versions of the show, minus the live audience, also are
being released on DVD.) Below, Hodgson talks about his new venture, leaving "MST3K" and possibly returning to cable television.
Q: You've made talking back to the screen an art. But do people heckle you during live shows?
A: In St. Louis, we played our biggest event. They took a hockey arena and split it in half. The acoustics were awful. Supposedly, there was a drunk guy there yelling out stuff, but I didn't hear him. But that's what I'd do.
No, I'm kidding.
But people don't really do that. If they go to all the trouble to come to the show and pay, they pretty much want to see what we're up to.
Q: But what is the wraparound story for "Cinematic Titanic"? Who are these figures, and why are they heckling movies?
A: We're slowly unfolding it, and I'm trying to stay one ahead of everybody, just trying to reveal what's going on. Each disc, we kind of reveal more of where they are and what they are doing. I don't want to completely give it away. Basically, they are doing it to save movies.
Q: Why isn't this project "Mystery Science Theater 4000"?
A: We had talked about it. [Producer] Jim Mallon and I got together and talked about working together again, and it just kind of fell apart. But doing "Mystery Science Theater" again would kind of feel like doing "After M*A*S*H." And so, instead, to get the same impact and the same feeling, I thought we should take another run at it.
Q: Did the fact that your former colleagues put their toes into the water with similar projects, "RiffTrax" and the "Film Crew," make you want to get back into it?
A: I knew about it, but I didn't really see it until after we started and I felt obliged to look at it, just to make sure I wasn't going to do anything they did. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet. It's kind of like: They didn't do it the way I would have done it.
I think I had the impulse to do it again before "Rifftrax" or "Film Crew." It's the most fun I've ever had in show business, and I felt really frustrated that I didn't get to get in on all of it. I really regret what happened with "Mystery Science Theater." I felt like I got cheated out of five good years of doing something I loved. If anything, that's what motivated me.
Q:In previous interviews, you said that you left the show over clashes with Mallon. ... Was that the extent of it? Creative differences?
A: I ran the creative side, and he ran the production. I think the day he came in and said, "I want to direct the movie," he kind of walked into my domain. There weren't creative differences because he wasn't even supposed to be in the creative realm. He had directed a feature before, so I think that's what he was thinking. And I said, "You know, if you do that, I don't think I want to be part of it."
Q: If a cable station came to you and said, "Listen, we like what you do and we want you to do it for us and we're not going to give you notes"—would you consider doing "Cinematic Titanic" for television?
A: Absolutely. But if you look at it in terms of what we did with "Mystery Science Theater," we didn't even pitch it to a network until we had done 22 shows. And so, by those standards, it'll be another two or three years until we're kind of at the same level. Of course, we're a lot more cagey now. It could happen any time, if the right deal came along.>>
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http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=WQKRXSo-qTo
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=C_N1NnrJdJk
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=IlVdQn2uuXg
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=ukmFqOVKntM
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=eoVAdxUN_bA
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=cFlw5rDzAqI
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=Y375LhFGDds
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=Jc2eAZV2Mn0
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=MQ0eAPAzvm4