EVEN DeepER Blurting!: DBNS: The State of the Drought

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DBNS: The State of the Drought - 2008

Posted by Kenneth Morgan on 1/30/2008, 10:05 pm

Today, Kenneth Morgan once again takes stock of the situation, drought-wise.

Wow! Have I really been working on this Great Drought thing for this long? The anniversary date is Feb. 8, which’ll make 209 or 210 weeks, depending on my usually-flawed math. That’s a pretty big commitment, especially from a lazy soul like me. Anyway, as I usually do around this time, let’s see where things stand.

(Oh, one matter to dispense with. I went a little overboard with the verbiage last year. I’ll try to keep things comparatively low key this time.)

First, the problems faced. This past year saw a couple of instances where I very nearly abandoned the schedule for a week, or even longer than that. The first time was the unexpected flooding of my basement that, so I thought, damaged a large section of my video collection. Fortunately, the tapes dried out to the extent that I’ve been able to transfer the material to DVD, via a rather quickly purchased DVD recorder. The second time was a serious family emergency that really threw me off-stride. In that case, I finally decided I needed something to cheer me up, if only for a brief time, so I went ahead with the scheduled viewing of the pretty awful “Teen-Age Crimewave”. In addition, there were two times (the respective showings of the KTMA version of “Gamera vs. Guiron” and the TFNWSRN version of “Star Force: Fugitive Alien 2”) where my copies (DVDs obtained via trading) were defective and I was only able to see part of the episode. (Sort of a high-tech version of the film breaking.) I have since listed those items as off-limits until I can get new copies. (Both were Sandy Frank items, so I guess it’ll be another tape trade deal.) Beyond those, things actually went fairly smoothly in 2007, though there were a couple of instances where I pushed things back a day for one reason or another, like special events (hey, I have a life beyond MST3K) or poor health (it’s tough to enjoy the show with a bad headache).

Next, a problem solved. Years ago, for a while, TFNWSRN shared time on my cable system with another channel, the public TV outlet New Jersey Network. They’d change over from one outlet to another at around 12M each night. As a result, there were times when, due to a late transition between networks, I’d miss the opening of a particular episode I was taping and I’d foolishly assume that I could just get another copy next time it was on. Well, rights issues and cancellation ended those plans. Then, when I put the Great Drought idea together, I faced a bit of trouble. Since I’d already determined that the episodes had to be as complete as possible for inclusion in the rotation (only the opening & closing music were dispensable), that meant some shows would have to be left out. I was able to add some via Rhino releases and others through tape trading, but eventually I was left with four shows (“Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster”, “Castle of Fu Manchu”, “First Spaceship on Venus”, and the aforementioned “Teen-Age Crimewave”) minus openings. Add to this a slight lack of funds for more trading and I was left with a difficult situation. Then, I stumbled upon a solution: YouTube.

Mainly out of curiosity, I’d started browsing the site looking for anything of general interest to me, from the old General Cinemas “Feature Presentation” graphic to a bit from Python that I remembered but has been deleted from the show’s master tapes (the dancing Party Political Broadcast sketch). At one point, to my surprise, I found that some MST episodes had been added, segment by segment, to the site, including the opening-less shows I was concerned about. (It also features the segment of the aforementioned “Fugitive Alien 2” that my copy lacked, so I was able to see the whole thing, after all.) Ultimately, I added them to the list by merely dividing the sources for each showing; I’d watch the intro on YouTube and then switch to my own copy for the rest. I’ve tried it three times now and it works OK. It’s not a perfect solution (it assumes that YouTube won’t pull the clips or that my cable-provided hookup won’t conk out), but it should work until I get myself going and get a full copy somewhere. (I remember Dex suggested going to the MST3K Digital Archive Project, but I can’t make heads or tails of the technical jargon on the site.)

Now, we come to the biggest change in the past year. As I mentioned in an earlier article, we seem to have a sudden MSTie embarrassment of riches. In addition to the Film Crew (Mike, Kevin & Bill) and Rifftrax offerings, there’s the new website and animated segments from BBI itself (Jim & Paul), along with a recently-announced deal to make future material (including previously off-limits material) available via the Shout Factory label (replacing old standby Rhino). And, of course, there’s Cinematic Titanic, the new venture led by Joel and featuring the rest of the old guard (Trace, Mary Jo, Frank and Josh/J. Elvis) Unless I’ve missed someone, it seems just about the only vet not fully involved is Bridget, though she’s been featured on at least one Rifftrax commentary. So, as noted here and elsewhere, the whole gang is back at work on the MST3K concept, in one form or another. So, where does that leave the Great Drought?

From the beginning, my concept was to keep the show as a regular part of my life and schedule until the inevitable revival. And, contrary to some fan comments I’ve seen on “Satellite News”, I still firmly believe in that idea. The question is, does our current situation count as such? I’ve given it some thought, and I’ve decided that the answer is, “yes and no”. On the one hand, though “Cinematic Titanic” was only recently launched and there seems to be a bit of a stall in new segments on the official MST site, BBI and the two outside groups are indeed making new stuff, with or without the official label. On the other hand, we still haven’t seen a fully-fledged return of the show in its recognizable and time-honored format. (Not even in a “reimagined” form from J.J. Abrams or Russell T. Davies.) So, what to do? Here’s my idea about that:

Referring to that earlier article, I’m not about to put up the “Mission Accomplished” banner and sit back. I’ve decided not to stop my usual routine of random selection of shows for weekly viewing. And, seeing as how new stuff of a sort is coming out in a good quantity, I’m considering abandoning the name “The Great Drought” and replacing it with something else. (How does “The Original Stuff” sound?) However, I am making one change immediately: I’m removing the category of “outside projects”, the place where I filed stuff like the Film Crew releases and “TV Wheel”. To be honest, I’d put them in to pad out the schedule a bit, so that I wouldn’t run out of material too quickly. (I didn’t realize I’d still be going four years later.) But, since it seems that I’ve got more than enough stuff to work with, and still more to be obtained, I’m going to remove the outside projects from the rotation. Well, to be honest, just the Great Drought (or Original Stuff) rotation.

You see, I’m not about to forget that our pals from BBI did good stuff before and after the advent of MST3K. So, I’m just going to start a new rotation schedule featuring that material that I shall call (drum roll please!) THE OUTSIDE PROJECTS! (Okay, it’s not that creative, but it says it all, doesn’t it?) I’m not going to start it right away; I want to build up my collection a bit. I still need items like Joel’s stand-up appearances, Frank’s shamelessly derivative “Attack of the Killer B-Movies” and Jim’s horror movie “Blood Hook”. (I used to have that last one, but it didn’t survive the flood.) I probably won’t be ready for this until spring; I’ll let you know when I’ll launch it. Meanwhile, I’ll still keep the other categories of “episodes”, “compilations”, “fan events” (the show-era ones) and “specials” (like the “making of” shows). And certain time-specific items, like the Turkey Day bumpers, will get used when appropriate.

So, here we are. By my estimation, I have about six more items left in the stack. Then, it’ll be time to toss all the cards back into that popcorn can and start the whole thing over, with or without the name change. It’s been tough at times, but it’s been a lot of fun. And, if anyone else has been able to tag along with me on this, either with my selections or their own, I’m glad for the company. And here’s hoping we won’t have to look to the past for too much longer for our regular MSTing fix.

But, if we do have to wait, so be it. If that is the case, what more can I say but-

FOUR MORE YEARS! FOUR MORE YEARS! FOUR MORE YEARS!