ViewAskewbian

From Satellite News:

SOME VOLUME 8 NEWS
Our Rhino Home Video spy tells us that they are busily at work negotiating licensing deals for the movies that will be in the Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection: Volume 8 DVD set. Two of the four titles have been selected: episode 902- PHANTOM PLANET and -- yikes!-- episode 907- HOBGOBLINS. The other two titles are still in the negotiation stage and were not revealed.

No release date yet, but at this point, you have to figure fall at the earliest. Stay tuned!

darkside

Kind of a downer to hear the two Sci-Fi episodes picked. Not that they are bad episodes, but they were shown a ton on Sci-Fi and I've seen each one many times over the last few years. I wish they could have gotten a more obscure Sci-Fi episode like Gorgo, but as always I will take all the MST3K goodness I can get.

naitram

Why didn't they just release these in seasons? Just give me season 8 - Revenge of the Creature, Terror From the Year 5000, The Thing That Couldn't Die, I Was a Teenage Werewolf, Riding With Death - most of my favorite episodes are from that season.

Man, I hate Rhino...

ViewAskewbian

Don't blame Rhino. Do you know how much it would cost now to get the rights to the bulk of the movies they did on the show for DVD release? Especially with how popular the films have become. There is no way we will see MST in Season sets. The Brains only got the rights for broadcast (except KTMA) and Rhino has basically be digging up the public domain titles. It stinks but at least Rhino is doing SOMETHING (despite some of the boneheaded things they have done in the past).

lotsofdvds

Yeah, don't blame Rhino here at all. They're doing a great job with what they can. Universal was all keen on MST3k doing their classics like Revenge of the Creature when the Sci-Fi era started, but now that they'd have to reacquire the rights, Universal is no doubt asking for top dollar. The fault lies with the rights holders of the films themselves.

darkside

There is just no way Rhino could afford the rights to films like Revenge of the Creature. They have to pick and choose among the episodes and find a mix of either public domain titles or at least affordable films. They have to pay not only the rights for the films, but also royalties to Best Brains. They also have to keep the four disc sets around the $50 MSRP area. I think Rhino has done a pretty good job.

Even if they could do season sets some of the MST3K seasons were 24 episodes and I doubt they could find many people willing to pay $300+ for a season set.

JesseCuster

There's some guy, I think his name is Sandy Frank, who leased the rights to several films to BB for broadcast. I think they were all during the Comedy Central era and they were mostly made up of the *real* crapola films, like Master Ninja, most of the Japanese monster films, etc, that had been re-edited by Frank. BB pissed him off with some lines about him in a few episodes and Frank swore that he would never ever allow them rights to any of his films that they had riffed on ever again. That's why some of the funniest CC era episodes remain officially unreleased.

darkside

Sandy Frank owns the syndication rights of the dubbed versions of many of the Japanese films used in the Joel erea. Gamera films , Time of the Apes, Fugitive Alien and others. By far some of the best episodes of the entire series and as noted Frank would never ever allow them to get the rights back. They made Frank the butt of many, many jokes including the Sandy Frank song so that bridge is burned probably forever.

Time of the Apes is one of the top 5 episodes of MST3K all time.

Gojira69

Rhino is also running a poll of fans to determine which episodes the fans would like to see. Hop on over to http://www.mst3k.com/ and take the poll which closes July 31.

BobB

darkside

The poll doesn't seem to reflect the final lineup for Vol 8, but here it is.

902- PHANTOM PLANET
907- HOBGOBLINS
421- MONSTER A-GO-GO (with short: CIRCUS ON ICE)
603- THE DEAD TALK BACK (with short: THE SELLING WIZARD)

Nice mix of Sci-Fi and Comedy Central Episodes. Can't wait and I hope they find some extras for the set.

September 20th is the release date.

gbub

I voted for Monster A-Go-Go, but I doubt it had anything to do with it being in this volume. It absolutely has to take the cake for the worst ending ever in a movie (the title ranks up there too).

JesseCuster

The Dead Talk Back is one of my favorites, though a lesser talked about episode for whatever reason. It's freaking hilarious.

Autumn

MST3K's web site now shows that the correct release date is November 8th.

"The set is tentatively scheduled to hit stores November 8th, and not September 20th as earlier reported."
http://www.mst3kinfo.com/

Gojira69

That's now http://www.mst3k.com

darkside

Watched 3 of the episodes in this set and I do have a couple of comments. First of all no extras this time, but they did give us four full episodes instead of 3 and a shorts disc so no complaint there. Phantom Planet is still a pretty good episode, but Hobgoblins is an absolute classic. There is just something about bad 80's movies that really has them firing on all cylinders. Maybe the best disc in the set.

My problem is with The Dead Talk Back. I'm not sure what tapes Rhino is using for the transfers, but the tape for The Dead Talk Back is in pretty bad condition. I'm not talking about the film either because those were always in bad shape. The problems here are with the actual video tape used for the transfer. It has tracking problems, jumps, noise and just about any other problem a tape can have all through the episode. The episode is still very watchable, but the problems are there and noticable all through the episode. The only other problems I noticed in the other two episodes I watched was a single 1 second bad spot on the tape for Hobgoblins.

This really has me worried since MST3K was shot on tape. If the master tapes for the show are starting to deteriorate some episodes may end up getting lost whether they can get the rights or not. I'm wondering if Rhino didn't discover these problems until they had already cleared the rights for The Dead Talk Back (unless its public domain) and were then stuck using it even though the tape had problems. I can't imagine why they would have used a tape in this condition unless its the only source available.

I'm going to watch Monster a Go Go next and hopefully its in much better condition.

Chauncygardener

I just finished watching DEAD TALK BACK and I noticed the same problems you mention and I did not read your comment about this till just a few minutes ago. Thankfully it is still watchable even tho these problems happen now and then. MONSTER A -GO GO is fine, no problems.

darkside

Rhino has responded and it was pretty much the situation I figured. The problem is with the original source master so there is nothing they can do to fix it. They didn't realize the problem until after they had paid the money to clear the rights so they had no choice but transfer it the best way they could.

This has me worried as there is no telling how many other masters could be in this condition. So, I'm not mad at Rhino, but they still should have mentioned this ahead of time.

Also Rhino has a rights problem with the DVD release of Beginning of the End so that episode of MST3K has been pulled out of circulation. Rhino is trying to solve the issues, but there is no word when it might come back.

That is an individual release, but if something like that happens with a box set they will have to pull the whole set. Gotta love rights issues on films not worth 10 cents.

milo bloom

I almost wish they would go back to individual releases. Boxes are always nice, of course, but I mean it's not like we're getting season sets here. I've never even really noticed a theme within any of the box sets. Plus there's the price factor. I know it's not very much money, but it's just the whole thing with me buckling down and saving my pennies for an extra week or two, whereas I could probably pickup a single title a lot easier. I haven't picked up this set yet, I imagine I'll get some gift cert's for Christmas so I'll likely get it then.

Joe Molotov

I just wish the Volumes were cheaper. I love MST3K, but $45-50 for 4 episodes is alot.

milo bloom

I picked up a bunch at DeepDiscountDVD earlier this year for $35 each. Even with paying taxes since we're instate, it was still a heck of a deal.

Ms. M

And a bunch of the earlier releases have been marked down to $26 at Amazon.com. Wait a little longer and the newer ones will probably be reduced in price also.