Satellite Dishes for Episodes in Legal Rights Limbo

Ok, so the Shout! Factory DVD Volume 39 contains a disc featuring what it calls “Satellite Dishes” which collects the host segments of all the episodes that were still stuck in rights limbo at the time. I was just thinking it would be neat to still be able to at least view the host segments for the episodes that are unavailable, so that way you can get as close to a complete viewing experience as legally possible.

I only ask cause there’s a lot of really funny segments in these episodes that I’d like to watch in nice quality. And for a season like Season 8 with an ongoing storyline throughout each episode, it’ll help maintain continuity to be able to see what happened in each missing episode’s segments.

All host segment-only episodes could have a “Satellite Dishes” label on their canister in the Gizmoplex so that people don’t go into it expecting the full episode, but still know that the host segments are intact. Just something I was thinking of.

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That’s actually a great idea! After all, we can’t let the host segments from unavailable episodes be dormant for a long time.

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Indeed! Put all those priceless skits down in the Vault. Down, down…

image

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My favorite all-time cold open is the one for The Killer Bees. I don’t really care about the dog’s meat, but I want to see Mike and Gypsy’s romantic dinner.

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I’m all about the host segments for Fire Maidens from Outer Space for the Timmy storyline.

The whole thing loses a bit from losing the theater segment where Timmy attacks Servo in the theater, but even so, those host segments are straight-up fire.

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It’s not a perfect fix, but I think it’s a better option than just omitting the episodes entirely. (Plus the Godzilla Genealogy Bop is a bop, and I want to see it in good quality again.)

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Isn’t that how the MST3K Twitch channel handles it?

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Oh, no doubt, no doubt. I have that Shout box set, and that disc is great viewing. It’d be neat to see that in some form at the Gizmoplex!

It IS fantastico.

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I wouldn’t know, I’ve never looked at the Twitch channel before.

It is indeed.

I love the idea of having the Satellite Dishes in the Gizmoplex, but there’s one question I have: what about the final host segment in Godzilla vs. Megalon? The Jet Jaguar fight song uses movie footage, so that would still need to be excluded, no?

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I think that its use there might fall under fair use?

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It could fall under parody/fair use, but could be expensive to have the lawyers fight that out?

Do you want Season 14 or …. ?

Shrug

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I think there could still be workarounds for that one. Maybe mute the audio, and have a member of the team sing the lyrics as they’re written on-screen?

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It could be just as tricky for the Rex Dart, Eskimo Spy host segment, too, since that’s just footage of the movie with in-house music dubbed over it.

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Ah, that’s right. I was thinking there had to be at least one other host segment with movie footage, but was trying to think of other movies.

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Another one that comes to mind off the bat is the etiquette lesson from The Amazing Colossal Man, where Joel plays the scene of the insensitive man and tries to teach the Bots a lesson about tact.

And then there’s the ending host segment from Attack of the the Eye Creatures, where the gang uses still frames from the movie to show that the filmmaker just didn’t care.

Audio-wise, there’s Peter Graves’s concluding speech getting played on the SOL and in Deep 13 at the end of It Conquered the World.

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Please, oh Great White Dot, by Your command let it be done!

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I think that using such a small part of the overall work would fall under fair use.

I mean, there is technically a scene from Godzilla vs. Megalon in every Joel episode from Seasons 2-5.

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Timmy is out there in the void of space right now. “Well, sure. I’m a vicious demonic killer,” he says to the Milky Way. “But even I wouldn’t claim ‘Fire Maidens is a deeply personal and profound work undeserving of mockery by some louts from Cheese Country.’ Because there’s Evil, and then there’s just having no tether to reality at ALL.” He devours a few stray asteroids, wipes his beak on a passing comet’s tail, and floats on.

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Megalon isn’t on Satellite Dishes, so problem solved :wink:

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