On November 10, 2015, the Bring Back MST3K Kickstarter went live, and instantly I was like...
But Joel refused to shut up, because he had a show to sell. And he sold it very well. He initially asked for $2 million to make three new episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and wound up with enough money to make fourteen. And thus, the eleventh season of Mystery Science Theater 3000 reached conception. Gestation and the painful process of birth could now begin.
These little bumper videos were pre-recorded by Joel and Shout Factory to help sell the concept of the new series, all the while being "riffed" and asked questions by Jonah, Tom Servo, and Crow in theater seats down at the bottom. But these videos weren't always up to date with the latest info, to get that we had to read the backer updates on Kickstarter. For example, Joel only came up with the idea to hire Patton Oswalt for the show as the Kickstarter was running, so Patton isn't in the videos (he was hilariously pasted in with photoshop TV's Frank hair onto the promo image about halfway through). But the backer updates gave a more thorough breakdown of him getting on board, including the origin of the name "TV's Son of TV's Frank" (while that's a joke in the final series, his name is simply Max in the end).
The first bumper features Joel explaining the Kickstarter and what the goal is, and giving an idea of what kind of backer rewards are offered. What's interesting about this bumper in retrospect is that it gives off an idea of what the new MST3K will be like by having Jonah Ray, Baron Vaughn, and Hampton Yaunt plucking away in the theater seats, letting us know it's a new cast, but it doesn't really tell us who the new cast is...or even if these people are the new cast or just there for promo purposes.
Joel let's us simmer with that wuestion for about a week then breaks out a new bumper introducing us to Jonah, then about a few weeks later Joel introduces us to Baron, Hampton, and Felicia Day as Servo, Crow, and Kinga Forrester. These climax with some fun sketchwork as Jonah and the Bots join Joel on the screen before Kinga storms in and bursts their bubble. Felicia is an all-star here, as she's easily the funniest presence here (though Hampton has been no slouch during these segments either). There's a little hint of sexual attraction between her and Jonah, which is kind of dropped in the show, though re-invented as Kinga being interested in a publicity stunt relationship with the host. But if they had gone the route they began seeding here, it probably would have been successful too, because Kinga's overt aggresive flirting is pretty fun.
Interestingly, Jonah's name was actually leaked before this, as was the rest of the cast (except Patton, as he hadn't been invited to join yet) through an online article. The only members I was familiar with were Felicia and I think I've seen Baron on a comedy special once (though I could easily be thinking of someone else). I was also familiar with Patton, because who hasn't seen Ratatouille? But Patton isn't really relevant to these bumpers. If I get any sort of impression of the new cast, it's that the thing I need to work hardest to accept is that Servo has a voice that isn't Kevin Murphy (not to knock Josh Weinstein's establishing work, but we spent nine years with Kevin and another sixteen on top of that watching his episodes over and over), but I was thrilled with the chemistry of the new cast. And I definitely knew Felicia was going to knock it out of the park.
One note of interest here is that while it's common knowledge now that Baron and Hampton don't do their own puppeteering, it's interesting to note that they're using a stand in for Jonah in the theater seats. This is especially glaring now that we know what Jonah's theater silhouette looks like. Jonah's a pretty big dude, way taller than Joel or Mike, and the guy they have in the theater seats is a very slim guy, about as tall as Joel and Mike. It's just strange to see this guy in between Servo and Crow in retrospect.
The technical issues are the subject of the final bumper, in which Joel confirms that puppets and models will be used for the series, the show will be in widescreen, and the show will be in HD. This is just the tip of the iceberg in the frequently asked questions, as he did guide people to the Kickstarter page to answer even deeper questions. Questions like "Why do you hate Mike, Trace, and Frank?" were mostly ignored for being stupid.
In the end, these bumpers did exactly what they needed to do and sold the series to exactly who they needed to sell the show to. We all have opinions on how the final product turned out, be it positive or negative, but I think for those who participated in the Kickstarter experience, the ordeal was magical and these bumpers helped make it a special time in our lives. They're little more than a curiosity now, but they were a sign of hope for this dormant fanbase back in the day.
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