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Why would they when clearly they have an audience that will pony up for them to do it?

It just seems like a vicious cycle by this point...get fan-funded, get two seasons out of it, get cancelled, repeat. I love MST3K as much as the next nerd, but maybe the show's creators should find ways to fund it themselves, like they did for eleven years on TV back in the 80s and 90s.

Monterey Jack wrote: Sat Apr 17, 2021 4:05 am It just seems like a vicious cycle by this point...get fan-funded, get two seasons out of it, get cancelled, repeat. I love MST3K as much as the next nerd, but maybe the show's creators should find ways to fund it themselves, like they did for eleven years on TV back in the 80s and 90s.

I think the short and sweet of it is is that TV is more expensive these days and funding these to be put out on a special service is far more feasible. It's a legendary series but that unfortunately doesn't mean much to people who are only in it for the money.

Also, when MST3K was actually on TV in the ‘90s, it was constantly struggling to stay on the air; after its fifth season there was virtually never any guarantee it was going to survive another year. It didn’t help that the show was always a rights and scheduling nightmare for the networks it was on.

I absolutely love the original series and enjoyed the live show I attended in 2019 but have failed to be charmed at all by the revival show. I do continue to support Joel & co. by picking up the DVDs of the old episodes so more power to the fans who are interested enough to contribute to the new episodes.

The Kickstarter beat the first one, raising $6.5 million, $1 million over the final stretch goal.

Their streaming service they are building with the money, The Gizmoplex, is the way for the show's creators to fund things themselves from now on, via subscriptions rather than depending on a network who can cancel them. And judging by the result of this Kickstarter, there's more than enough MSTies out there to want to pay for new seasons.

Joel didn't rule out returning to Kickstarter in the future to supplement the show and additional content, which Rifftrax does. Rifftrax has a Patreon and does regular Kickstarter drives despite being a much cheaper production yet no one asks why aren't they funding it themselves.

I thought it would be worthwhile to note that the spin-off of MST3K, RiffTrax, has been putting up some riffed full features and shorts up on its YouTube channel for free over the last couple of months, and some pretty well known bad-cult movie titles as well:

Features:

The Guy From Harlem
Birdemic: Shock and Terror (which is about as subtle about its ecological subtext as taking a brick to the face)
Miami Connection
A Talking Cat!?! (with Eric Roberts as the talking cat in a film by David DeCoteau. This actually came out three years before the 'Kevin Spacey voicing a cat' film Nine Lives, though ten years after Gary Busey got reincarnated as a dog in Quigley)
Rollergator
The Bermuda Triangle (the film directed by René Cardona Jr, featuring John Huston in the cast)
The Last Shark
R.O.T.O.R.
Cat-Women of the Moon
Samurai Cop
Star Games
Night of the Living Dead - Live Riff
Carnival of Souls - Live Riff
Fairy King of Ar (aka Beings) - with Corbin Bernsen and Malcolm McDowell! (plus Gavin Hood in an acting role before he became better known as director of Tsotsi, X-Men: Origins - Wolverine and Ender's Game!)
Plan 9 From Outer Space (Colorized)
Star Wars Holiday Special
Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny and its explanation
Santa's Summer House
Wonderful Land of Oz
Attack From Space
Replica - an earlier unreleased film from the director of Birdemic, featuring footage of Kim Novak?!?! (EDIT: Turns out its a riff on Vertigo!)
To Catch A Yeti - the Meat Loaf kids movie!
Dinosaurus
Day of the Animals, aka the when nature attacks movie that involves Leslie Nielsen wrestling a bear!
Vacation Days
Retro Puppet Master
Cyber Tracker
Honor and Glory
Hillbillies In A Haunted House
Missile X: The Neutron Bomb Incident
Christmas Circus with Whizzo the Clown
Gamera The Invincible
Giant From The Unknown
Sorceror's Apprentice
Galaxy Invader
Stitches
MANOS: The Hands of Fate
Feeders
The Little Unicorn
Ator, The Fighting Eagle
Pressure Point
Oblivion (1994)
Suburban Sasquatch: Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4
Lycan Colony
The Giant Spider Invasion - the major Bill Rebane film that wasn't in the Arrow Blu-ray set of a few years back
Baby Ghost
The Most Dangerous Game (1932) - colorized version: Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4
Santa's Christmas Circus starring Whizzo The Clown


'Educational' Shorts:

One Got Fat (narrated by Edward Everett Horton!)
Patriotism
Drugs Are Like That
Live and Learn
More Dangerous Than Dynamite
Aqua Frolics
The Snob
Courtesy - A Good Eggsample
Setting Up A Room
This Is Hormel
What Is Nothing?
Shake Hands With Danger
Farm Family In Autumn
Paper and I
Magical Disappearing Money
Halloween Party
Paper And I
People Soup
At Your Fingertips: Play Clay
Dining Together
Farm Family in Winter
Building An Outline
Soapy The Germ Fighter
Flash That Smile
The Litter Monster
Social Acceptability
Shapes We Live With
Safety As We Play
The Value of Teamwork
Girls Are Better Than Ever
Drawing For Beginners: The Triangle
Six Murderous Beliefs
The Water We Drink
On Guard - Bunco!
How To Be A Friend
Drawing For Beginners: The Square
Busy Bodies
Let's Talk Turkey
Gifts From The Air
My Mother Was Never A Kid
What Is A Map?
Farm Family In Spring
Don't Get Angry
Harry The Dirty Dog
The Hothead and the Forgetter
The Boy In The Plastic Bubble
Glasses For Susan
Voting at 18
Victory Squad (with both John Wayne and Ronald Reagan!)
U.S. Elections - How We Vote
Am I Trustworthy?
The Shoemaker and the Elves
A Christmas Carol by Coronet
Charlie's Christmas Secret
A Song For Santa
A Christmas Fantasy
The Boy Who Didn't Listen
Jack and the Beanstalk
Just Awful
Farm Animals
The Talking Car
Arranging The Buffet Supper
Nutrition: The All American Meal
An Airplane Trip By Jet
Speak Up Andrew
Munchers
Why Study Science
Chimp The Fireman
Masks of Grass
The Baggs
Big Yellow Fellow
Beginning Responsibility: A Lunchroom Goes Bananas
Manners In School
Beginning Responsibility: Doing Things For Ourselves In School
Rhythmic Ball Skills
The Myths of Shoplifting
Warty The Toad
With An All-Star Cast
Starting School
Duck and Cover
Behave Bernard
Getting Angry
Study Skills: Verbal Communication
Read On From Left To Right
Night Before Christmas
Santa's Spaceship
Toyland
The Tale of Moose Baby
Leadfoot
Holiday From Rules
A Magical Field Trip To The Denver Mint
Beginning Responsibility: Taking Care Of Things
The Snowman
Basketball Is Fun
Meet Mrs. Swenson
Appreciating Our Parents

After the failed kickstarter to make Season 14, Rifftrax has launched their own kickstarter to make new episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000 this year with Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbet returning to their Sci-Fi channel roles for the first time in over 25 years.

http://variety.com/2026/tv/news/mystery ... 236645782/

This has potential to be better than the Netflix era episodes at least. I hope that with Nelson, Corbett, and Murphy returning and the production returning to Minneapolis, we will also have a return to the distinctive Upper Midwest voice of the show. The Netflix episodes were all just making the same mainstream entertainment riffs and jokes every other show and podcast make, nary a single Tommy Bartlett Water Show reference to be found.

Insane that they tried to raise almost $5 million for six episodes. I want cast and crew to be paid fairly, but half the appeal of the original show was its shoestring budget and homemade feel.

Grand Wazoo wrote: Sat Mar 21, 2026 5:31 pm The lost KTMA episode was just uploaded to youtube after the tape was discovered at a Minneapolis garage sale

Space Force: Fugitive Alien II, starring Joe Shishido as “Captain Joe”!!!!!