DVD review: ‘Glee Season 1, Volume 1: Road to Sectionals’–Extra! Extra!

Glee Season 1 Volume 1: Road to Sectionals

While the length of Glee’s fourth-month hiatus is a bitter pill, at least the interim brings its fall season on DVD, starting Tuesday with Fox’s release of Glee Season 1, Volume 1: Road to Sectionals. If you’re a Gleek like me, was there ever more of a no-brainer in terms of getting a DVD? I didn’t think so.

Plus, it’s got multi-marketing purposes. The four-disc set not only should keep Gleeks’ hearts warm and ready for more, but also should fan the flames of Glee’s momentum toward those who failed to catch it on telly in the fall.

Look at it this way: almost fourth months with only Glee DVDs (and some reruns, as with this week and the next) gives many unconverted people time to catch up and board the bandwagon when Glee returns with new shows April 13.

As for those discs, beyond their 13 superb episodes which I believe will carry Glee to multiple awards to go with its multiple nominations, what’s new? Well, beyond creative menu graphics (but monotonous menu music), there are lots of extras, all loaded onto Disc 4. You know the episodes, so this DVD review will focus on them.

First is an amusing five-minute Welcome to McKinley hosted by Principal Figgins and purportedly shot by the school’s AV Club. It’s for eighth-graders on the verge of attending high school. As Figgins points to a globe, we learn that students come to McKinley from as far away as Mexico — wow!  I love the actor, Iqbal Theba, and it’s great to see him get this showcase.

Next, and most entertaining, is an unnamed “Glee Music Video” which turns out to be Somebody to Love, whose audio plays against a montage of promo shots done early in the production process and clearly filmed at another location than what’s used in the show (with more stark looking high school hallways). All the characters promenade with various bits of business, ending with a triumphant group shot. Though I’ve glimpsed some of this footage before, this video is fun and fresh and the best bonus here for me.

Then there are two full-length audition pieces — meaning, characters‘ auditions. They’re expanded from the pilot, with Rachel singing On My Own and Mercedes singing Respect. Both get more footage than on the show, and Rachel is beautifully shot.

All the aforementioned extras sport new elements. Now we get to completely recycled extras, starting with a 12-minute featurette for the Fox Movie Channel called Casting Session.

This is great stuff, and crucial, since one of the key features of this highly creative show is the excellence of its casting. But many of us have seen this already. Ditto for Deconstructing Glee with Ryan Murphy and Dance Boot Camp, two featurettes already shown on the pilot’s DVD released last September, as well as circulated online. Even so, it’s good stuff.

That also holds true for a series of segments telling us things we didn’t know about Chris, Amber, Corey, Jayma and Jane Lynch, as well as Flip cam video diaries from eight cast members when they visited New York last May for Glee “Up Fronts” (selling the show to potential advertisers) and publicity rounds. Again, it’s fine material, and enjoyably candid, but it’s recycled. That said, though you may have seen these two- and three-minute clips online, did you have them on pristine DVD? I didn’t think so.

Look, if there’s one thing my mama taught me, it’s to be a grateful boy, and believe me, I am. I’m grateful for the best TV series I’ve ever beheld in Glee. I’m grateful for its quick release to the home video market. And I’m grateful for all the extras provided here, from the fresh to the recycled.

But while I’m grateful, I’m also greedy, and I’m thinking there’s a wealth of more Glee material for DVD, such as more making-of and behind-the-scenes featurettes, bloopers, outtakes, interviews with the cast and crew, commentaries by the cast and the show’s creators, collections of Glee’s artful promos and — oh yes — deleted scenes. For instance, didn’t they actually shoot footage of Will’s 1993 performance that Emma displayed (and we didn’t see) on her laptop screen? And where’s the footage with those tacky bell-bottomed disco outfits the glee kids wear, of which I’ve seen photos?

At any rate, any and all of these things could have been added to this release, though maybe some will turn up when the full season is issued on DVD after the back nine episodes air. I’m hearing conflicting reports: that the back nine will emerge as a stand-alone set designed to bookend this one, or that the entire first season will be issued in a DVD set, and those who bought the first 13 shows already may get a price break. We’ll see.

Either way, and extras aside, it’s the show itself which truly entertains and enthralls, and believe me, I’m stoked to have it on DVD for savoring until spring. The best bonus of all is simply having Glee on DVD so quickly after its fall season aired. Kudos to Ryan Murphy and Fox for marketing this show so boldly and astutely.

Sure, I’d like more — or fresher — extras, but there are ample tasty tidbits here for die-hard Gleeks, and lots of new material for the uninitiated. What did you expect — a Lord of the Rings-sized Special Edition?

Bottom line: Glee is gone for four months, but thanks to DVD, Glee is back. Get it, savor it, and don’t stop believing. If any show is worth preserving on digital discs, this is it.

DVD review: ‘500 Days of Summer’ shows guy-romance graduating

It’s been said that (500) Days of Summer is a guy’s romantic comedy, which is to say, it’s not that romantic. But I would beg to differ.

Fact is, guys can be romantic, too — or did you never see The Graduate? That film’s obsessiveness for soulmates, in fact, forms the inspiration for Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Brick in Summer, a greetings card writer who falls for Zooey Deschanel’s Summer, a retro beauty out of the Katie Perry school. She says up-front she’s not into serious relationships, but he can’t help it: He loves her. That’s not romantic?

The film is a fragmented (by counting various days in the 500-day relationship) yet without being uneven, because its characters steadily ring true. There’s wit and humor, along with fanciful flourishes, such as animation and an elaborate musical number out of the blue. It’s also creatively staged, using the outskirts of downtown LA as a setting and a backdrop–and when has that been done? It’s another side of LA which befits Brick’s architect wannabe character — especially in the final scene, shot in LA’s Bradbury Building, the gloriously wrought-iron site of shoots ranging from Blade Runner to the ’60s Outer Limits. (I’ve visited that building, which — while not on the nicest street in LA — is a classy architectural marvel.)

The music — a mix of old and new pop and rock — is astutely chosen, and the actors shine — even those in the thankless “friend” roles. (Brick has them, though Summer doesn’t–see, it IS a guy movie.)

Brick even takes Summer to a retrospective of The Graduate, whose ending seems to throw her off. After all, there’s a world of uncertainty in the reckless liberation of Ben and Elaine boarding a bus in flight from her wedding. But behind that scene in the sense that what matters in life isn’t ceremonies or materialism or status or “plastics,” but love, true love. That’s what Brick believes he has found, and his sheer resolve to find it forms this film’s triumph, and makes it a romance, indeed.

I’m chillin’ on Mark Salling’s Glee

For the 600 of you who have found my little Glee blog to read my  Nov. 5 entry on Mark Salling’s tribute song to Glee, thanks. Also, remember how I dubbed that song Chilling on Glee, since Mark only posted it on his website as “Glee Cast and Crew Homage”? Well, that name seems to have stuck.

Two people just uploaded the audio to YouTube with Glee-style art and graphics — and the title Chillin on Glee. Though the song was first posted on YouTube a month ago, without that title, those new clips are nice to hear — and see — and I appreciate that they removed the little gag at the end.

What a wonderful, wistful, downright sweet song. Its mix of joyous gratitude and gentle melancholy clearly comes from Mark’s heart, and it seems to fit Gleeks’ mood right now, after the wildly satisfying and triumphant fall finale last week, coupled with the looming four months before a new show.

Anyway, I’m glad these YouTube posters finally picked up on Mark’s wonderful song — and the title I gave it, which, granted, seems a natural fit, so anyone could have come up with it–but I was there first!

Anyway, enjoy the music there or on Mark’s site (though I’m not finding it there now). And if you missed my first blog on this fine song and what it means to Mark — and me –  you can catch that blog here.

From WGA to Golden Globes, Glee is aglow in award nominations

I don’t care how rigged, political or otherwise flawed Hollywood’s awards systems may be. When it’s for a series or film or performer I love, I’m there, I’m on  it and I’m proudly trumpeting, “Did you see so-and-so got a Golden Globe nomination?”

And that’s what I’m doing now–extolling the awards buzz that’s already begun for Glee, a show which apparently won’t have to wait in line for several seasons while paying its dues so that the same old programs get repeatedly rewarded. No, Glee is right up there — now.

Today’s Golden Globes nominations include four for Glee: Best Series, Musical or Comedy; Best Actor, Musical or Comedy, Matthew Morrison; Best Actress, Musical or Comedy, Lea Michele; and Best Supporting Actress, Series, Miniseries or Movie, Jane Lynch.

All are richly deserved, and Michele’s nod confirms what I’ve been saying all along: She’s not only an incredible singer but an incredible actress (and often the latter talent fuels the former).

The Globes aren’t all. The Writers Guild of America has nominated Glee as Best New Series and as Best Comedy Series.

Also, the American Film Institute named Glee one of the 10 Most Outstanding TV Programs of the Year, while the Satellite Awards voted by entertainment journalists gave loads of love to Glee, with nominations for top comedy series and for acting by Morrison, Michele, Lynch and Chris Colfer.

Emmy nominations for the full season aren’t due till next summer, but you can bet Glee will get more love then, too.

So don’t despair while waiting for Glee’s spring season–now LESS THAN four months away. Awards show glories are coming–as are promised sneak preview clips from Fox, which indicates it will release some original content during the break.

Production on Glee’s “back nine” episodes starts in early January. Satellite Awards winners will be announced Dec. 20. WGA winners will be revealed Feb. 20. Golden Globe awards will be presented Jan. 17 on NBC.

Surely NBC won’t cut away to a commercial when Glee wins, in line with its axing of the cast from appearing on NBC’s telecast of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. NBC, you’re stuck this time. Deal with it.

From the top!

Glee Blog-Episode 13-Sectionals: Don’t stop believing

I suppose my life will suck, in some ways, without new episodes of Glee for the next four months, but I do have consolations. One, I’ve just seen a half-season’s worth of the finest TV series I’ve ever encountered. Two, I now can savor that series on audio and video, with Season 1 Volume 1 Road to Sectionals DVDs due Dec. 29. And three, the fall season’s final episode,  Sectionals, was the best Glee hour since its pilot.

I was expecting a satisfying if not rousing finish — and I got it. For once, the twin drives of  vibrant music and compelling story/characters balanced perfectly. Loads of plot-heavy action and character development — from Sue’s suspension to Will and Emma’s respective breakups to New Directions’ triumph at sectionals to the final kissy-face clinch — were equally matched by four full-bodied, sensational and sustained songs (no meager telecast edits here).

As always, those songs helped tell the story, and none more emphatically than the finale of Kelly Clarkson’s My Life Would Suck Without You, three minutes of straight-ahead, propulsive rock ‘n’ roll glory. Mercedes’ And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going also was a belting showcase for Amber Riley, and the spirited competition number You Can’t Always Get What You Want did the Stones classic justice.

Yet nothing was more validating and revelatory than the long-awaited Streisand number by Rachel, from Funny Girl, Don’t Rain On My Parade. It showed that Lea Michele is not just a rare talent, but even can kick Babs’ ass, just as she kicked Celine Dion’s bony buns earlier this season with Taking Chances. My gawd, that woman can sing!

As Kurt says, Rachel is the club’s star, and while Michele may not be the star of Glee’s incredibly potent ensemble, she is its best singer and one of its best actors. (Who plays earnest and naive youth more than this savvy 23-year-old?) Thank you, Ryan Murphy, for making the best casting decision of your career’s life in hiring this gal. She’s the real thing — and more — big-time.

Now we await the evolution, if not resolution, of dangling plot threads, such as what happens with Will and Emma, and Will and Terri, and where Quinn will rest her head, and how Sue will carry out her threatened and sure return. Whatever happens, I’m confident it will be vastly entertaining. And until its return on April 13, at least I’m content, having been fulfilled beyond my wildest expectations by a show which melds cutting humor, a warm heart, unapologetic  compassion and sheer musical joy — or, as they say, glee.

Yes, you did it, Glee. Like New Directions at Sectionals, you delivered in the clutch. And if this often jaded and wary veteran of show-biz glitz and glam had an award to give, then I’d give it to you.

But for now — as we dig in to wait four long, sucky months for Glee’s return — let us all take heart. Given the clear evidence, there’s no reason to stop believing in this amazing show and the humanity which lifts and ignites it. If Glee and its soaring spirit have taught us one thing, it’s that.

Glee Episode 12 Mattress: Jump for joy

While Glee Episode 12 Mattress was music-light and heavy on plot contrivance, it did have me jumping for joy in two respects.  Most importantly, the annoyingly preposterous fake pregnancy plot is done — though, sadly, Will and Terri may not be. When Emma confoundingly stuck up for Terri’s motives in a talk with angry and disillusioned Will, the door cracked open for Terri’s hideous character to remain on the show, even though she’s guilty of willful and sustained deception of her husband. And, oh yes, she treats him like crap on a daily basis, too, heaping insults, scorn and contempt on him. What’s not to love?

But that scene when Will found out — wow. There may never be a dramatic scene on Glee as intense as that one. Well played by both actors, it rang true — which is more than I can say for the latest plot contrivance, involving tainted amateur status for a teacher (say what? they may not be paid much, but teachers are paid) which in turn hinged on unsolicited sending of mattresses to the glee club after they performed in a TV commercial. (Was no mention made of paying or not paying for their services on the front end? Also absurd.)

But at least the mattress gig led to one big musical number for this show, and a great one, in its joyous updating of Van Halen’s Jump, Glee-style. Few Glee songs have been this much fun — in the studio audio, and in the on-screen performance — and that’s saying a lot.

Now we look ahead to the fall finale, as Emma takes the club to Sectionals in Will’s place, and her marriage to Ken is presumably either put on hold or (as is inevitable) called off. And I, for one, am awaiting the club’s rendition of the Stones’ You Can’t Always Get What You Want as eagerly as I awaited Queen’s Somebody to Love. It’s gonna be great — count on it. And for now, jump for joy with me for getting over the hump of a gallingly poor subplot and getting on with what Glee should be about: the glee club kids and their bouncy lives.

DVD review: Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian

Two things may confuse you when pondering a purchase or rental of Fox’s Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. First, it made $177 million domestically in theaters, but second, critics loathed it.

Whom to believe, critics or the ticket-buying public? Both, as it turns out, since Museum 2 is a distinctly mixed bag, awash in remarkable special-effects creativity, but floundering in a soggy script which vaults beyond the bounds of even remote credibility and lacks a steady stream of worthy one-liners.

Ben Stiller returns, morphed from his first-film role as night guard at the New York Museum of Natural History to his new riches and flimsy fame as shameless inventor/TV pitchman for minor-league products that have made him wealthy on the outside and soulless on the inside. (Don’t you love how wealthy Hollywood types, who demand many millions per role, ceaselessly remind us that it’s what’s inside that counts?)

His motley pals at the museum, who magically transform at night from history exhibits into living beings, are being shipped into the archival belly of DC’s Smithsonian, and Stiller suddenly feels he must protect them. So it’s off to DC for more wild adventures.

Stiller is not the most sympathetic of heroes, and we see the wonderful Robin Williams as Teddy Roosevelt only fleetingly (though look for his Smithsonian incarnation–as an armless bust–in great footage for the DVD’s gag reel).

We’re also offered Jonah Hill in an uncredited role as a rival museum guard who needlessly berates Stiller in an unhinged orgy of petty confrontation. It’s supposed to be a show-stealing scene, and even gets expanded in the deleted scenes segment. But it’s just not that funny.

No, the true show stealer here — beyond the marvelous giant squids and space monkeys and walking, talking Abe Lincoln statue — is Amy Adams as Emelia Earheart, a spunky woman out of time who teaches Stiller a thing or two about a truly intrepid spirit. He doesn’t deserve her, but we’ll take her — she brightens up the film.

Hank Azaria also has moments as the delusionally imperious ancient Egyptian bad guy, who talks like Boris Karloff with a speech impediment. (That’s also Azaria as Abe Lincoln and Rodin’s the Thinker). And it’s good to see the spritely old-timers from the 2006 first film (Mickey Rooney, Dick Van Dyke and Bill Cobbs) in a cameo.

Don’t expect much plotwise, and you’ll be entertained — by the SPFX alone, in fact. Needing meat on the bones of your comedy skeleton? You may fare no better than watching the T-Rex’s exhibit bones act like an eager dog. But for undemanding family fun, you could do far worse. Besides, anything that stirs kids to visit museums is a good thing.

DVD review: The Donna Reed Show: Season Three

A half-century after its birth, The Donna Reed Show still entertains — and still warms hearts. This family sitcom, now with its third season from Virgil Films, epitomized all-American wholesomeness from the late ’50s into the ’60s, where it now ventures with the 1960-61 third season, captured on a four-disc set featuring 38 episodes.

Disc 4 has extras, too, most notably a 27-minute session with series star Paul Petersen (Jeff) and Reed’s actual daughter who was around the same age at the time, Mary Owen, both speaking recently in an appearance at a New York bookstore. They reveal that Reed and her husband at the time, producer Tony Owen, were smart business people, and retained more control over the show than creators often have today.

Reed, we’re told, never lost her temper during production, and was almost as much of a mother to Petersen as his real mom. “I was a handful,” he admits of his TV family years. “I spent more time with them than with my own family.”

There’s also a touching tribute to Carl Betz, the doctor dad who was a classically trained actor, and to whom Petersen (now 64) sings My Dad in the recent footage, intercut with comparable shots showing a teary-eyed Betz being serenaded in the series.

But mostly this is a tribute to Reed, the woman who was typecast in wholesome roles (apart from her From Here to Eternity breakthrough) but who made the most of it, especially on this series. “What she left on film is a treasure,” Petersen says. “It celebrates moms — great moms.”

The show itself grows up a bit in its third season, with a new and more clipped intro (note the phone isn’t black anymore) and the hairstyles getting tweaked (including Petersen’s buzz cut–or is that a flat top?). Mary (Shelley Fabares) is 16 and about to drive, and the generic pop-rock masquerading as the real thing is as bad as ever. (Did TV and film producers really think the audience would buy that kids would listen to this junk?)

But they made up for it in sitcom quality–and in quantity. Seasons from this era ran almost twice as long as those today. Donna Reed’s third season had 38 episodes, bringing its three-year total to 113. It would take today’s sitcoms five years to deliver that. By the series’ end in 1966 after the eighth season, it had amassed 275 episodes.

That’s a lot of good-hearted humor and non-cloying warmth in a home environment where both parents remain, where the family often eats together and where no one texts or tweets during a meal. Hey, that’s enough reason to watch, right there.

Glee Episode 11 Hairography: Papa Ryan, don’t preach

Fellow Gleeks, let us not be distracted by the incredibly annoying overuse of this week’s Glee theme word, “distracted,” by virtually every character in every scene, sledge-hammering us into submission like pre-school Sesame Street kids being taught that today’s word is “overdone.” Let us not dwell on the fact that Glee Episode 11: Hairography was as gallingly single-minded in its motif as was Acafellas, with its constant belaboring of the word and theme “confidence.” And that’s not even counting the monotonous jokes at the expense of a half-deaf rival club’s coach.

Instead, let’s celebrate the finest things of this show, which — after such a strong story/character episode in Ballad — were not story or characters, but the music. From the tear-inducing inspirational tenderness of meshing with the deaf choir for John Lennon’s Imagine to the rare Tina (Jenna) lead vocal for Cindi Lauper’s True Colors to Quinn’s (Dianna Agron’s) jaunty, edgy and unplugged Papa Don’t Preach (an appetizer for next spring’s all-Madonna episode), this show had some memorable music. If only it hadn’t distracted us with a relentlessly overstated theme.

Note to producer Ryan Murphy: If you want to teach with Glee, if you want to lead by example, if you want to inspire us to grasp certain concepts, you can do so without belaboring, pummeling and preaching with the single-mindedness of a Bible-beating pastor. Your show is rich enough without such obvious declarations of purpose. Fix this in the back nine next spring. Please.

Speaking of which, some of you may have gotten the glum news that Glee, after Episode 13 on Dec. 9, will be gone until — can you believe this? — April 13. That’s a Tuesday, where Glee is moving to follow American Idol. I suppose Fox will show all of the season’s final nine episodes each week for nine weeks, running into early summer.

Me? I’d prefer Glee coming back earlier, and taking weeks off occasionally (as during the World Series break) for Fox to show specials or reruns or anything, but at least space out the shows better. This sounds almost as bad as Lost’s long hiatus breaks, with Glee being lost to us for four months in the middle of the season.

Oh well, 22 shows are 22 shows. Whenever we see them, they’ll be welcome. But after this fall’s bounty, it’ll be a long wait.

Besides, you can do worse than American Idol as a lead-in. But Idol’s performance-night show could run long, meaning Glee will start–and end–late. It’ll also be up against Lost on ABC. But I’ll take the Idol lead-in, anyway. Here we come, Season Two of Glee.

But back to Hairography, which, for all its fine music, had some clunkers, too. The reform-school girls’ Bootylicious, under Eve’s guidance, was mundane to the max, and it was right to point out that all the hair-slinging and booty-shaking in the world shouldn’t distract (oops) from mediocre music. Then, absurdly aping their approach, the McKingley glee club’s Hair/Crazy in Love was downright awful (and btw, there was very little Hair there, so why name this alleged mashup with Hair first?).

Besides, what we really needed to hear (beyond instrumental teases scattered through the episode) was the full-length studio version of Mercedes’ (Amber’s) Don’t Make Me Over, a resonant remake of Dionne Warwick’s ’60s hit. Check it out online — it’s a winner.

As for the “distractions” obsessed story, not much really happened this episode, after the wildly eventful Ballad show. The tiresome pregnancy and fake-pregnancy plots were as wearisome as ever — Ryan, please move on next spring and in Season Two — and there were no great character revelations. I was surprised that Finn declared his love for Quinn, which I don’t really buy, and when the news finally hits (and why hasn’t it yet, with Mercedes in the loop?) that Puck is the papa, then everything should change, anyway.

Call this a treading water show. Glee, as much as I love you, you can’t be outstanding every single week. But you did toss Imagine, True Colors and Papa Don’t Preach into the offering plate. As Artie would say, “Preach!” You’ve got me there.

Kevin Murphy speaks–on RiffTrax, MST3K Vol. XVI and a ‘working monkey ass’

Misties have known and loved him for two decades, from his earliest riffs and rants as space-faring, movie-bashing ‘bot Tom Servo to his Sci-Fi incarnation as smelly, hairy ape guy Professor Bobo to his more recent post-MST forays with the Film Crew and now RiffTrax.

He’s Kevin Murphy, of course, and I caught up with him recently to dish on the new Mystery Science Theater 3000 Volume XVI boxed set DVDs due Dec. 1 from Shout! Factory, among other things. You can join our visit below in the form of a Q and A between me, Bruce Westbrook, and Kevin. Enjoy!

B. So, Kevin, are you still living in Minneapolis (where MST was produced)?

K. Yes I am.

B. RiffTrax is based in San Diego. Ever do the RiffTrax tapings at home?

K. No, generally we travel. It’s just easier for us when we do the actual recording. And it’s a better product if we (along with Bill Corbett and Mike Nelson) can all sit together and play off each other. It’s just a lot more fun. It’s a great excuse to get together and play, too.

B. I’ve just screened the new MST DVD box set. Among the extras, the Turkey Day sketches are great to see again, and the new retrospective of the film Santa Claus is fantastic.

K. I know. I met the guy who put that together, and he did a heck of a job. He’s a huge fan of (Santa Claus director) K. Gordon Murray and really knows his stuff. And boy, what a film that thing is.

B. Hell plays a big role in this Santa movie, and it now occurs to me: Santa has the same letters as Satan. Scary!

K. I know. Something’s going on there. We’ve ruined Christmas for many people, I’m afraid.

B. You have some great lines in the retrospective, including: “Nobody wants to see a working monkey ass in the middle of a Santa Claus movie.” Was that off the top of your head?

K. Whenever we did anything in the theater it was generally very tightly scripted. Whenever I do an interview (as with that — shot in Minneapolis), it’s whatever comes out of my mouth. Sometimes it’s blather. Sometimes I drop a bomb and it’s nice.

B. Another great observation you made was: “Color so stark it’s like getting hit in the face by a clown.”

K. I remember we were watching the film and we had to stop because it was giving us headaches. The color was so bright.

B. But that was then, this is now, and now, via RiffTrax, you and Mike and Bill seem busier than ever  doing MST-style riffs.

K. We are, and it’s been great fun. We’ve been able to do not only films we could never have gotten our mitts on at MST — Twilight has turned out to be one of the most popular riffs we’ve ever done — but we also get to do shorts and we get to do some of the old chestnuts that we never did at Mystery Science Theater. And we’re still digging up some new old stuff, all the time. We’ve got another RiffTrax Live Nationwide show coming up on Dec. 16. It’s gonna be an all-shorts showcase for the evening, and it’s gonna be great fun.

B. That reminds me: Another thing you’ve ruined for me is riding a bicycle. That RiffTrax short of the kids on bicycles wearing ape masks was truly creepy.

K. Yes, it was One Got Fat, narrated by Edward Everett Horton and featuring a disturbing nightmare.

B. Whatever the case, the format of slinging barbs at the screen lives on.

K. Well, you know, people like to talk back to movies, and I’ve been encouraging people to do it for most of my adult life. Talk back to your culture, because otherwise it’s just gonna keep pounding you down. It’s sort of liberating for people to be able to have that sort of catharsis where they no longer have to feel that they’re being spoon-fed everything. They can actually fight back a little bit. Certainly, keep your mouth shut when you’re in the theater. No, pay to see us do it. We’re the professionals. And do it at home all you want.

B. But though the process lives on since MST’s run, I greatly miss some things, including Professor Bobo, your additional character for MST’s final three seasons.

K. Yes, but I don’t miss the makeup. That was hard. I had the first migraine of my life, wearing that makeup all day long, and then we did a photo shoot for four hours. I was in that makeup for 16 hours total, and went home and collapsed with a migraine. It sure was fun to do, but I don’t miss the makeup.

B. Well, Kevin, sometimes you have to suffer for your art.

K. Yes, and I agree that the Sci-Fi years were great. It was the most fun I had in the whole run of the series, because we really knew what we were doing. The whole group we’d put together was really tight as writers and enjoyed each other’s work. We were a very well oiled machine at that time. It was just sheer fun to do.

B. Did you ever grapple with burnout?

K. We were really smart about the way we’d schedule the thing. During our production cycle we’d do six weeks of work on, and a week off. And quite often we’d take two weeks at Christmas. We did have enough down time that people could recover and do other things in their lives. And that was really important for something with that long of a life.

B. Now RiffTrax is catching up. You’ve done upwards of 75 titles on RiffTrax, I believe.

K. Yes,and counting the shorts, we really have a lot of material available.

B. There were about 170-something MST movies, or episodes.

K. Yes, so we’re approaching about half the number of movies on RiffTrax that we did on MST. It makes me realize I’ve been spoending the last 20 years talking back to a TV set. But doing RiffTrax isn’t bad. We’re fortunate that the production part of it is much simpler than putting on a TV show. Even to assemble a (RiffTrax) DVD the way we’re doing, we don’t have much in–studio stuff. We’re really relying on the film to be the star of the thing and our riffing to be what people want to get with it.

B. What’s your mission, then, with RiffTrax?

K. We have concentrated on making sure these things are as funny as they can be, and picking the right films to do. We want to keep it interesting for ourselves and for our audience. And the beauty now is that we don’t have to look good or hurry up and wait. We can go to the studio, get right to the funny, and get out in time for a beer in the afternoon.

B. Is this basically a full-time gig?

K. It’s been full time recently. It’s been so dang successful it’s become my No. 1 occupation. There are always a couple of other things I work on. I do music whenever I can, but some of that has been with Mike and Bill for what we call the RiffTones. So I’ve kept my hand in music and learning about new music digital production, which is very rewarding. And I’ve been drafting my first attempt at a comic book. I don’t know when it’s coming out. I was thinking of writing a film and thought, ‘Well, the best way to visualize this first would be to find a really good comic book artist and have them put it down in comic book form,’ and then that started taking a life of its own. We’ll see how that goes.

B. Since there are a finite number of MST episodes available for DVD, and many already are on DVD, and getting the DVD rights to films which are not public domain can be tricky, are we nearing the end of the line?

K. Well, the rights do get difficult for a lot of these films. But the folks at Shout! Factory have worked really hard to get these rights cleared and get these collections together. And they do a great job of packaging the things. It’s been fun to watch them come out.

Like any distributor, they (Shout! Factory) have relationships with a lot of other distributors — film distributors –so a lot of these things are in place. But it does take a lot of finesse and skill. Since MST became successful, a lot of the films’ original distributors are not going to offer the same deal as they did the first time around. So it does take some skill to do it. I’m glad it’s something I don’t have to do, because I’d have an ulcer by now if I did.

B. How has the MST fan base changed over the years?

K. It’s astonishing. When I do live shows or conventions or college appearances or film festivals, the audience is getting younger. I get approached by as many teenagers and college students as I do people my age. So I think that’s really cool. It’s sort of being passed down. The show has gone from being cool to being underground to being cool again.

B. “Keep circulating the tapes.”

K. Right.

B. So new MST fans have discovered it via DVD?

K. Many have, yes. Having them on DVD — and particularly the way Shout has put out these most recent collections — has really re-energized the whole thing. And having it available in ways that younger people are finding it in media helps, too. On NetFlix, online and on iTunes, those things are really helpful to get us to a younger audience.

B. So with new MST fans, and separate RiffTrax fans, you have different audiences that are merging?

K. Yes, the MST and RiffTrax audiences blend and merge. A lot of people came to RiffTrax first and then went on to MST, which I find really cool. It means we’ve accomplished what we wanted to, which was to do something fresh and new beyond MST and not try to recreate what we’d already done. Because MST’s been done. We wanted to riff, but we didn’t want to depend on that attachment to MST. And I think that’s happened.

B. Not that you’ve abandoned your creaky-old-movie MST roots by doing so many new and current films on RiffTrax, right?

K. Right. We did do Plan 9 and Reefer Madness, so there’s a little bit of that. And there’s an affection doing that, because those kinds of films in comparison are so fun and easy to do. It’s really great to go back to those and have some fun with them. It’s a way of saying to MST fans, ‘Yes, we can still do this stuff. We can still do old school.’

B. The new DVD set comes with a small model of your character, Tom Servo. What do you think of it?

K. I think it’s pretty cool. I think it turned out well. Some larger collectables were done awhile back, and I got sent one of those because it was my character, and it fell to pieces in a very short period of time. It was very fragile, and my nieces and nephews made quick work of it. I’m glad to have the smaller one.

B. How many Servos do you have lying around the house?

K. I have that new small one, and I have a small pewter Tom Servo. And that’s it. I never wanted to actually have a copy of the puppet at home, because that was just a little too freaky. That was work.

B. I visited Best Brains while you were in production, and I saw that you had several Servos on the premises.

K. Yes, we had a hero model, the most beat up, and various stunt Servos in various stages of disrepair. Sometimes we actually had to have two Servos when he appeared and disappeared quickly. We had Servos for flying on a wire above, Servos for blowing up because they were pre-wired. We had quite a few Servos around.

B. And, of course, Servos in drag. That had to be your creative influence, right?

K. Well, Servo was great for dressing up, because he could fit into an American girl’s skirt really well. I remember when we dressed him as a hillbilly grandma — as    Granny Clampett, in fact. It doesn’t get much better than that!