Talk:Mystery Science Theater 3000

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[edit] Initial popularity

The article isn't clear about how wide the initial KTMA broadcasts were. Since it was a local station, was the show's audience at the time limited to Minnesota? Was it syndicated on national networks? That this was called "season 0" seems to indicate that these episodes were not widely known at the time, and implies even that they might have been working with smaller budgets also. Was there a pronounced change in the show's production between season 0 and being picked up for season 1? A related question would be, when did MST3K hit its peak? Ham Pastrami (talk) 02:26, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

  1. Yes, the only people who could watch Season 0 were in Minneapolis and Saint Paul.
  2. It was not syndicated on national networks, KTMA was a very small and virtually unknown station outside of its loyal fans.
  3. The episodes were not widely known, and as for the budget—it wasn't even close to a respectable size until at least the Sci-Fi years, due to the high costs of the film rights.
  4. Yes, there was a very big change between seasons 0 and 1. The plot was shaky and inconsistent in season 0—in the first episode, Joel has escaped a destroyed or otherwise damaged Earth. He had built Crow and a Servo-esque bot named Beeper for company, and the three watched the B-flicks simply for amusement. By episode K03, Beeper had become Servo with no explanation. In episode K06, Joel states that he himself chooses the movies, only to be contradicted in episode K07 which marked the first real appearance of the mad scientists. The scientists were on Earth, which was apparently just dandy and not damaged as stated in the first episode. By the end of season, the plot had morphed half-hazardly into what became the basis of the nationally-aired series.
  5. There are endless debates all over the web over when MST3K hit its peak, but the general consensus seems to be somewhere between seasons 3 and 6.
Hope this cleared everything up. Tenk you veddy much. --Wack'd Talk to me! • Admire my handiwork! 14:54, 25 April 2008 (UTC)
I'm not clear on whether Ham's question was for personal edification or for article improvement. If the former, I certainly appreciate the info as well. But if the latter, none of it can go into the article without reliable sourcing. ~ Jeff Q (talk) 15:02, 25 April 2008 (UTC)
Both, actually. I was personally curious but I also think it's info that should be in the article if, as you said, sources can be found. Also, by "peak" I meant its Nielsen ratings (or equivalent). A discussion of the show's quality would naturally just spark an edit war and I'm not about that. And thank you Wack'd for the info. Ham Pastrami (talk) 02:59, 27 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] MST3K on YouTube

Shouldn't we mention that almost every episode of MST3K can be found on YouTube?

After the show was canceled in 1999, the show remained on Comedy Central until January 2004. While the show is no longer on TV, several of the episodes can be found on YouTube. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.171.230.145 (talk) 03:42, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

No, because they're not supposed to be there due to copyright law. A copyright holds whether or not a show is canceled. Jason Patton (talk) 03:59, 3 May 2008 (UTC)
I agree in saying no, but let me clarify what you said. If I recall correctly, most of the episodes put up on youtube (or was it google video?) were put up by bestbrains or some association thereof. They own the copyright to it so they put it up legally. Either way I still say no to adding links too.Imasleepviking ( talk ) 05:40, 3 May 2008 (UTC)
Right, the Google Video uploads are legit AFAIK, though I think they only have 20 episodes available. If there were a way to use one link for them all (I'm not sure how you can link to a specific user's list of videos on Google), it might be good for inclusion under External Links, but that information certainly don't deserve its own section. Jason Patton (talk) 06:01, 3 May 2008 (UTC)
Wikipedia policy forbids linking to pages that contain material that is known to violate copyrights, and discourages most links to YouTube and Google Video for this reason. (Read WP:COPY#Linking to copyrighted works and WP:EL#Linking to YouTube, Google Video, and similar sites for more info.) I can assure you from my own investigations that users claiming names like "BestBrains" are frequently not the legal entities implied by the names on these sites. Do not even think of linking to these videos unless you have documentation from reliable sources that the users posting these have complete legal rights to do so. Each and every episode of MST3K is copyrighted (even if some of the movies used aren't), and probably will remain so for decades to come. I am posting this here so that no one can claim ignorance of the likelihood that such web-based video clips are illegal. I love MST3K, too, but I don't want Wikipedia endangered just for our convenience. ~ Jeff Q (talk) 06:43, 3 May 2008 (UTC)
I'd also point out that we've discussed this before here, at "Copyright issues" and "Removed Google Video mention" on archive 1 of this talk page. The second discussion identifies Google Video user "Best Brains Inc." as a copyright violator, as they'd posted an entire Rhino DVD episode ("Space Mutiny"), which BBI does not have the legal right to do, pretty much guaranteeing that this user was not BBI or a representative of them. Please consider that user-edited sites like wikis and video-upload services usually take no responsibility whatsoever for any claims that their users make, including who they really are. (That's one reason why we require reliable sources and don't accept personal testimony from editors.) In the Internet age, we all need a little less credulity and a little more skepticism, however it may interfere with our wishes. ~ Jeff Q (talk) 06:59, 3 May 2008 (UTC)
Holy christ child, Mr. FBI. We are in no way encouraging the posting of these videos to be posted here. In fact, we've all disagreed with the original poster. Don't bring fire and brimstone down on us.Imasleepviking ( talk ) 16:47, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] A Platicar a su Casa

Mexican comedian Andres Bustamante had developed a TV show similar to the MST3K format, called "A Platicar a su Casa", with fellow comedian "Trino". It didn't have the same premise, just two guys who went to see a movie. The films played were also very bad, like Santo or Blue Demon wrestling movies or other "horror" mexican movies. Shouldn't they mention it in the show's influence? --Surten (talk) 05:12, 16 May 2008 (UTC)Surten

Do you have a reliable source for this information; e.g., a print publication or news website (not a discussion forum or blog) that describes this program and suggests the MST3K influence? Unfortunately, IMDb doesn't seem to know about this program yet, and what I found from a quick Google seemed to be the usual suspects of copyright-violating video uploads. They certainly indicate the likely truth of your assertion, but don't provide the verifiability that we need. ~ Jeff Q (talk) 12:31, 16 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Horror Hosts

MST3k, at least the host segments, look like they were heavily influenced by a long tradition of late-night horror hosts. Without a citation, it's not worth putting in an article, but it needs to be said. Tritium h3 (talk) 14:22, 19 May 2008 (UTC)