Green Bay article
an1...@anon.penet.fi
"You can finally see Joel Hodgson on TV, but just in Green Bay"
Green Bay Press-Gazette
October 31, 1992
by Warren Gerds, Critic-at-large
This is an unauthorized reprint.
Finally, Joel Hodgson is playing on home terf. Well, almost.
The arrival of Comedy Central on Green Bay's Cablevision system brings
with it Hodgson's popular Mystery Science Theater 3000 series.
The show doesn't play in Ashwaubenon, where Hodgson grew up and where
Crown Cable operates.
Still, Hodgson is pleased his friends in Green Bay have a chance to catch
his wacky show.
The show, which stars him lampooning crummy movies, received a nomination
for a cable Ace Award last year.
It airs regularly at 11:30 a.m. Fridays and 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. Saturdays.
Because it's Halloween and the channel is doing a "Howl-A-Thon," tonight's 6
o'clock showing is a special edition, The Unearthly.
Mystery Science Theater 3000 is in its fourth season. It has just been
renewed for three more seasons on Comedy Central, which reaches 25 million
homes.
Still, Hodgson has bigger plans.
"We're working on doing Mystery Science Theater as a feature film," he
says from the production company he formed, Best Brains, in Eden Prairie,
Minn.
Here's a switch: Hodgson and his partners TURNED DOWN an offer from
Paramount Studios for the movie.
"We realized we couldn't really do what we needed to do," he says. "We've
done 75 shows by ourselves without anyone being involved, and it's been pretty
successful.
"It was really hard to go into the studios and all of a sudden they have
all the control. We felt like we just couldn't do our best job if had to kind
of run everything by these other guys who had a different agenda than we did."
Best Brains is more interested in releasing the movie independently.
"That way if we fail, we'll still kind of be heroes," Hodgson says. "If
we do a big feature film and it fails, then it's real ugly. We feel we'd
rather try to do it ourselves and kind of come out of nowhere than have them
spend $20 million or whatever promoting it."
The movie will be done up on a bigger scale than TV show. "But it will be
basically the same, us making fun of a bad movie," Hodgson says.
Best Brains will make another 72 shows under the new contract. Hodgson
probably won't. At least on camera.
"I just feel like there comes a time when I have to just stop," he says.
"By this time next year, I'll be done with the show. It will live on. I'll
still be an executive producer and participate with it from a writing
standpoint, but I won't be on camera.
"...I think I'll probably get into making my own bad movies."
Hodgson doesn't know who would replace him on the air but says his
character will live on.
"Yeah, he may get hit by a beam and get turned into a woman, but it'll
still be Joel," he says. "Things like that can happen in outer space."
Mystery Science Theater 3000 started life on an idependent station in
Minneapolis-St. Paul. The program director came to Hodgson, who was doing
stand-up comedy at the time, with the idea for a show "like they have all over
TV, with comics in front of a brick wall," Hodgson says. "I said, 'Ah, well,
you can do that, but I have this idea.'"
The idea: Mystery Science Theater 3000.
"We just hit 20,000 people in the fan club, and they're really nice and
they really are devoted to the show and we just want to keep making it and
pleasing them," Hodgson says.
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Eric A. Meyer
In a previous article, an1...@anon.penet.fi () says:
> Best Brains will make another 72 shows under the new contract. Hodgson
>probably won't. At least on camera.
>
> "I just feel like there comes a time when I have to just stop," he says.
>"By this time next year, I'll be done with the show. It will live on. I'll
>still be an executive producer and participate with it from a writing
>standpoint, but I won't be on camera.
NOOOOO!!! Say it ain't so, Joel. Say it ain't so!
> "...I think I'll probably get into making my own bad movies."
Okay, that might be worthwhile. WHAT AM I SAYING?!? Joel, your gentle,
sleepy-eyed, bemused outlook on your predicament is one of the things I
find so endearing about the show. Every time you look at the camera with
a wry grin about one of the 'bots and their antics, I have to chuckle along
with you. Without that, how can I cope? How can I live?
Maybe I SHOULD relax.
-EMeyer
(P.S. If Joel wants to stop doing the show, that's his right. Don't flame
me for "assuming that the artist must obey your personal preferences" or
any of that. I agree. But I still think that something would be lost if
Joel were no longer on the SOL...)
--
"Unstable condition--a symptom of life | Eric A. Meyer (ea...@po.CWRU.edu)
In mental and environmental change | Library Information Technologies
Atmospheric disturbance--the feverish flux | Software Support Technician
Of human interface and interchange-" -N.P. | "What do you think, sirs?" -Joel
G. Galcik
> Okay, that might be worthwhile. WHAT AM I SAYING?!? Joel, your gentle,
>sleepy-eyed, bemused outlook on your predicament is one of the things I
>find so endearing about the show. Every time you look at the camera with
>a wry grin about one of the 'bots and their antics, I have to chuckle along
>with you. Without that, how can I cope? How can I live?
See that...maybe my idea about sending Frank to the SOL wasn't that
off-the-wall, after all.
sigh...you know, this always seems to happen to me. Whenever I get really
interested in something, for one reason or another, it becomes too late. I have
this habit of getting into bands two months after their last concert leaves the
city.
I expect there'll be a bunch of "well, life goes on" and "the show is just
changing, it doesn't mean it's getting worse" and "it couldn't stay the same
forever" sort of replies. I don't care. This just SUCKS. The bit I quoted here
from Eric Meyer puts it better than I would have been able.
Debbie Brown
>In a previous article, an1...@anon.penet.fi () says:
>> Best Brains will make another 72 shows under the new contract. Hodgson
>>probably won't. At least on camera.
>> "I just feel like there comes a time when I have to just stop," he says.
[... standpoint, but I won't be on camera. ]
>
> NOOOOO!!! Say it ain't so, Joel. Say it ain't so!
My thoughts exactly.
>> "...I think I'll probably get into making my own bad movies."
> Okay, that might be worthwhile. WHAT AM I SAYING?!? Joel, your gentle,
>sleepy-eyed, bemused outlook on your predicament is one of the things I
>find so endearing about the show. Every time you look at the camera with
>a wry grin about one of the 'bots and their antics, I have to chuckle along
>with you. Without that, how can I cope? How can I live?
> Maybe I SHOULD relax.
Well, I'm with you on the first part of this paragraph. :-} I can
understand what Joel said about being zapped by some ray and being
transformed into a female (that bit wasn't quoted in the post I follow
up), but I'm sorry, it's the personalities that we've grown to know and
love. It WOULD be interesting though, to see if they could come up
with someone just as interesting who can deliver the lines (as long as
Joel remains to produce and write).
It would still be a major loss though. I can now kind of see what the
Weinstein fans felt when he left and was replaced by Murphy. As much as
I love Murphy's Servo, the Weinstein-ers must have had a hell of a time
getting used to the new voice and personality.
Hmmm. MAYBE it could work, but it would take a LOT of effort to get used
to it. It's not something I will look forward to.
>(P.S. If Joel wants to stop doing the show, that's his right. Don't flame
> me for "assuming that the artist must obey your personal preferences" or
> any of that. I agree. But I still think that something would be lost if
> Joel were no longer on the SOL...)
Major loss, my man... MAJOR loss, IMHO.
--
*********** "Oh, shut up Frank!" Dr. Clayton Forrester, MST3K *******
Disclaimer: "Disclaim THIS, pal!" (I can barely speak for myself!)
Internet: dmb...@ultb.isc.rit.edu |"Oh... the pain... the pain..."
America OnLine: misty...@aol.com | A proud member of SEFEB!
Dave Van Domelen
type show will continue, and the cardboard and treacle satellite will remain in
high orbit, right Bluebottle?
<get me down from here! My trousers are boiling off!>
Sorry, he hasn't been the same since he lost his patent protection.
Anyway, the goons were saddened by the loss of Bentine (since he owned us
money, folks), and the Sargent/York switch on Bewitched traumatized many a
young idiot.
{You mean they switched ac-ac-actors?}
Shut up Eccles!
{Shut up Eccles!}
Ahem. Indeed the show will be different, but then, it was always
different. Joel will still be writing the naughty scripts and helping choose
the heavily laboured movies, and certainly the sucessor will follow in his
bootsteps. Changing the actor on Holly in _Red Dwarf_ didn't destroy the show,
after all.
But, dear listeners, take heart. If the show does suffer a dramatic, nigh
Welsh, loss of quality, it will certainly win the Ace award!
Dave "Knees" Van Domelen, of the House of Bricks, still doesn't get Comedy
Central::::
Matthew Duhan
or e-mail it to me? Thanks.
Matt
ps - when I saw the post on Joel becoming female, I was horrified. We'll have
to start calling him Joel 1/2 (bad anime reference for those who don't get it)
______ _ _ _
o | | -[O]- ( ) |#/)
ROBOT | [] | /_____\ |<| (oo)
ROLL) | o__] | |/ \| /{"}\ (=)/
CALL | || | \ / /_"_\ __=__
| | |CAMBOT| GYPSY TOM SERVO CROOOOW!
|______| \_/ /_______\ | /_\ |
(let's go) (pan left) (hi, girl) (what a cool guy) (wisecracker)
Mark Meyer
> Hmmm. MAYBE it could work, but it would take a LOT of effort to get used
> to it. It's not something I will look forward to.
I just had a thought. Do you think the people who enjoy
Doctor Who (like me - I've got a Dalek on my workstation) would have
an easier time adjusting to a shift in experimental subject? Hey!
Maybe it could go through a whole series of actors, and last 25 years
like Doctor Who! Yeah! I can see it - Tom Baker as the fourth Joel
Robinson! Fan clubs in every city! Merchandising! And NO BBC to
screw it all up! What? Okay, officer, I'll come along quietly.
--
Mark Meyer | mme...@dseg.ti.com |
Texas Instruments, Inc., Plano TX +--------------------+
Every day, Jerry Junkins is grateful that I don't speak for TI.
Klingon proverb: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, prepare for doom.
Ben Scott
I'm forced to wonder whether losing Joel as an actor would be worse than
losing him as a writer; his sense of humor is a vital component of the show
and apparently won't be leaving, but I'd almost rather he stayed on as an
actor and stopped writing... his character is unique and comes mostly from
his own special stage-persona...
It would be like the changing of Holly in Red Dwarf!
(it would not be like the changing of the husband in Bewitched - nobody
cared about either one there...)
It's also interesting to see them talk about producing the movie themselves.
It wasn't a surprise, by any means, but hearing it straight was interesting.
Here's an idea - Joel's invention exchange one week is a transporter - just
like in Star Trek only to preserve the laws of physics, you have to have a
body going in each direction. To demonstrate, he tests it out on himself
and Frank - quickly, before Dr. Forrester realizes it's part of an elaborate
scheme to get back to Earth - but for some strange reason only the bodies
are switched - the minds remain the same! So we have Joel's mind in
Frank's body on the SoL - and Frank's mind in Joel's body in Deep 13. Frank
(the mind) is so shaken by all this, he runs away and is never heard from
again. Dr. F gets another assistant from the corridors of Gizmonics next
week and we continue with the show...
. <<<<Infinite K>>>>
(hey, it was just an idea...)
--
|Ben Scott, professional goof-off and consultant at The Raster Image, Denver|
|Internet bsc...@nyx.cs.du.edu, or call the Arvada 68K BBS at (303)424-6208.|
|"Don't tug on that - you never know what ][The Raster Image IS responsible |
|it might be attached to." Buckaroo Banzai][for everything I say! | *Amiga* |
Eric A. Meyer
All right, here's a good chunk of the article that has some of us saying,
"So who should the replacement be?" If, after reading this, you feel the
need to wail and gnash your teeth, go ahead. I certainly did, and posted
it to boot.
Here ya go. Read it and weep.
In a previous article, an1...@anon.penet.fi () says:
>"You can finally see Joel Hodgson on TV, but just in Green Bay"
>Green Bay Press-Gazette
>October 31, 1992
>by Warren Gerds, Critic-at-large
>
>This is an unauthorized reprint.
>
> Finally, Joel Hodgson is playing on home terf. Well, almost.
> The arrival of Comedy Central on Green Bay's Cablevision system brings
>with it Hodgson's popular Mystery Science Theater 3000 series.
> The show doesn't play in Ashwaubenon, where Hodgson grew up and where
>Crown Cable operates.
[..deleted text..]
[..deleted text..]
(sob)
-EMeyer
Bruce Tesar
>In a previous article, an1...@anon.penet.fi () says:
>
>>"You can finally see Joel Hodgson on TV, but just in Green Bay"
>>Green Bay Press-Gazette
>>October 31, 1992
>>by Warren Gerds, Critic-at-large
>>
>
>> "We're working on doing Mystery Science Theater as a feature film," he
>>says from the production company he formed, Best Brains, in Eden Prairie,
>>Minn.
>> Here's a switch: Hodgson and his partners TURNED DOWN an offer from
>>Paramount Studios for the movie.
>> "We realized we couldn't really do what we needed to do," he says. "We've
>>done 75 shows by ourselves without anyone being involved, and it's been pretty
>>successful.
>> "It was really hard to go into the studios and all of a sudden they have
>>all the control. We felt like we just couldn't do our best job if had to kind
>>of run everything by these other guys who had a different agenda than we did."
All sobbing aside, this is clearly what makes MST3K such a good show.
This kind of integrity is just too rare.
Bruce
--
Bruce B. Tesar Internet: te...@cs.colorado.edu
Computer Science Department
University of Colorado at Boulder
Boulder, CO USA 80309-0430
BogusMan
>In article <1993Mar20.0...@fuug.fi> an1...@anon.penet.fi writes:
>>
>|>"You can finally see Joel Hodgson on TV, but just in Green Bay"
>|>Green Bay Press-Gazette
>|>October 31, 1992
>|>by Warren Gerds, Critic-at-large
>
>|>probably won't. At least on camera.
>|>
>|> "I just feel like there comes a time when I have to just stop," he says.
>|>"By this time next year, I'll be done with the show. It will live on. I'll
>|>still be an executive producer and participate with it from a writing
>|>standpoint, but I won't be on camera.
>|>
>|> "...I think I'll probably get into making my own bad movies."
>|>
>|> Hodgson doesn't know who would replace him on the air but says his
>|>character will live on.
>|>
>|> "Yeah, he may get hit by a beam and get turned into a woman, but it'll
>|>still be Joel," he says. "Things like that can happen in outer space."
>Oh the horror, the horror
>
>Joel's quirky nature is what makes the show, the six characters have the best
>chemistry ever! I would die ... I still can't forget how much I disliked the
>pompous english voice of the first tom, you replace Joel and the show would
>go way downhill ... I hope this is something he snaps out of MST is not like
>Saturday Night Live
>
>Hopefully Joel will realize before it is too late that man is a feeling creature,
>and because of that the most powerful in the universe ....
>
>Dustin
Say what you will about Josh Weinstein, but without his involvement, there
would not have been a "Mystery Science Theater 3000", that great theme song,
or even a Tom Servo at all! Kevin Murphy was still mainly an underpaid
lackey at KTMA <he did their New Years specials, but that was about it>,
when the show was created.
Pax
--Judex--
Lazer
At least if they have a replacement, don't make his name "Joel Robinson".
(I can see where they want the replacement to have the same name. If you
can't...sing the theme song with the line "There was a guy named Frank...
not too different from you or me.")
I hope his last name is different and they DON'T just have him in some
horrible accident.
Actually...would all bots be that bad? (assuming they added a bot named Joel)
(hmmm...but then it would screw up the theme again...DAMN!)
Anyway... This is truly horrible! Excuse me...I have to go throw myself off
a building right now.
--
-Lazer (Patrick Delahanty) |WARNING!: MST3K & Star Trek fan, Macintosh user,
InterNet: patr...@wpi.wpi.edu| and Co-sysop of L/A Blues BBS!
la...@lablues.UUCP | Call L/A Blues BBS (207-777-3465 or 777-7782)
* MACINTOSH USER * | for Macintosh & MS-DOS files & *FREE USENET*!
Brian Perler - OTL
>Here's an idea - Joel's invention exchange one week is a transporter - just
>like in Star Trek only to preserve the laws of physics, you have to have a
>body going in each direction. To demonstrate, he tests it out on himself
>and Frank - quickly, before Dr. Forrester realizes it's part of an elaborate
>scheme to get back to Earth - but for some strange reason only the bodies
>are switched - the minds remain the same! So we have Joel's mind in
>Frank's body on the SoL - and Frank's mind in Joel's body in Deep 13. Frank
>(the mind) is so shaken by all this, he runs away and is never heard from
>again. Dr. F gets another assistant from the corridors of Gizmonics next
>week and we continue with the show...
Hey, maybe he could send out a search party and get Larry back!
*Sigh* At least the Larry-bashers now understand how *I* felt when
Josh left (or was forced to leave). There just had to have been a
better way to do it, though...
--
Brian Perler bxp...@hertz.njit.edu
"I wanna decide who lives and who dies"
-Crow T. Robot, "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians," MST3K
Ben Scott
>In article <1993Mar23.0...@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> bsc...@nyx.cs.du.edu (Ben Scott) writes:
>>Here's an idea - Joel's invention exchange one week is a transporter - just
>>like in Star Trek only to preserve the laws of physics, you have to have a
>>body going in each direction. To demonstrate, he tests it out on himself
>>and Frank - quickly, before Dr. Forrester realizes it's part of an elaborate
>>scheme to get back to Earth - but for some strange reason only the bodies
>>are switched - the minds remain the same! So we have Joel's mind in
>>Frank's body on the SoL - and Frank's mind in Joel's body in Deep 13. Frank
>
>Josh left (or was forced to leave). There just had to have been a
Maybe. At least we have some warning, though.
I hereby retract my idea posted above - I've had a better one. Joel (as has
been suggested before) becomes a 'bot, and Tom becomes real! Kevin Murphy
takes over as the human castmember on the SoL - what do you think, sirs?
. <<<<Infinite K>>>>
John Whelan
> I missed this article that everyone's talking about. Can someone post it
>or e-mail it to me? Thanks.
Same here. If anyone's e-mailing it, I'd like a copy too.
John Whelan
JOHN SHULL
mdu...@husc10.harvard.edu (Matthew Duhan) writes:
> I missed this article that everyone's talking about. Can someone post it
>or e-mail it to me? Thanks.
Yet another ditto. I'm completely lost. 'Course that's nothing new.
Later, The Quack
*******
"If Batman told a fib, would he be 'cowledly lyin'?"
-The Punster
Brian Perler - OTL
>In article <12...@news.duke.edu> lan...@acpub.duke.edu (Dustin Lanier) writes:
>>Joel's quirky nature is what makes the show, the six characters have the best
>>chemistry ever! I would die ... I still can't forget how much I disliked the
>>pompous english voice of the first tom, you replace Joel and the show would
>>go way downhill ... I hope this is something he snaps out of MST is not like
>>Saturday Night Live
>
>would not have been a "Mystery Science Theater 3000", that great theme song,
>or even a Tom Servo at all! Kevin Murphy was still mainly an underpaid
>lackey at KTMA <he did their New Years specials, but that was about it>,
>when the show was created.
Which, of course, is a lot more than Frank Conniff was doing for them
back then. Which is the way it should have been. Bring back Josh
Weinstein!
roberta chi-woon kwong
Geez, I'd hate to see Joel leave. It's his personality that caught
me from the beginning. He has such a wonderful interaction with
the Mads, and an even better one with the 'Bots, and I can't see
anyone else doing the same. His laid-back, just-another-nice-guy
personality is what makes him such a great counterpoint to the
(relatively) more eccentric Mads and 'Bots, and makes it easy
for the audience to relate to the situation of watching these bad
movies along with him. He's got this undefinable but definite sense
of charm and humor that makes up the core of MST3K.
It'd be such a loss, IMHO, and such a shame. It's not as if Joel
Robinson's character is getting tired, or anything like that. Of
course, I wouldn't *demand* that Joel stays on against his wishes,
just for the viewers' sake, but I sincerely wish that he'd
reconsider this.
Just my $.02.
Robin C. Kwong ("er)
"...uhhh...Am I hip yet?..."
--Joel, "Mr. B Natural"