I was just wondering, if they’re looking for ways to cut back on the amount of money they need to produce new episodes, maybe we could get more new episodes if they didn’t surgically enhance any old. I think I would rather have three more new episodes than 18 enhanced old episodes. Just my opinion, thought I’d throw it out there to see what the general consensus was.
New episodes > old episodes?
It’s not just money, but also time. If they freed up the surgical enhancement money, then they’d have to hire writers, actors, camera crew, etc, etc. They are two separate production teams that can work simultaneously.
I’m surprised there isn’t a perk to buy the existing surgically enhanced versions and another to buy the new ones (for download). I got all the digital versions last time, and would definitely buy the upgraded ones. Maybe the new ones will be included in the season digital purchase? I was assuming not.
Yes the cost of 18 old episodes might pay for 3 new ones.
I’m the same. A couple of years ago i bought everything digital they had to sell. I’d even buy un-enhanced episodes.
I doubt surgically enhancing old episodes costs that much, maybe a couple of thousand dollars per ep.
And don’t forget upsampling these episodes does add appeal for those watching on 21st-century systems. I do wish there was a way to sell these though. I would absolutely upgrade my copies of older episodes for the new ones.
It wouldn’t. I’d be shocked if surgically enhancing 18 episodes exceeded $100,000. The surgically enchanted episodes are a way to add value without a lot of expense.
That’s my thinking as well. Maybe that could be a secondary fund raising, sort of like selling cookies at a bake sale to raise money for team uniforms. I’d buy enhanced episodes and then that money can go towards making new episodes. 
Yes and that’s a good thought. What if they raised a million selling enhanced episodes? I have no idea what the actual numbers are though.
Oh wow, for once I have info! A person that would be working on the enhanced episodes posted deep in a Reddit thread (I can’t find it now because Turkey Day but I will try later). They said that the amount of money to do it would specifically not be a remotely big part of the budget. So no need to worry about those eating up funds.
Yes i think the amount of money is negligible compared to the cost of making a new episode.
I was thinking more that maybe that could leverage the enhanced episodes to raise more money rather than having them be just a perk.
I’m also wondering if “surgically enhanced” episodes are good money for value? I also question he cost. Outside of the movie rights, how much does this really cost? So far as I can tell, all they are doing is taking the master copies of episodes (as the source materials are long lost) and using an AI upscaler. Like the resources to do that when they first started were pretty sparse since the AI boom was just catching on, but there are plenty of cost effective (and free) ways to upscale this stuff now. As long as you have a decent graphics card and enough hard drive space it doesn’t take very long to do this.
I mean, fans could do this on their own at home, that’s how easily DIY this is now. So if they’re spending anything but a very minute amount of their production budget to do this, I don’t see much value in this.
I’d rather them try and secure the rights to movies of the OG series that have yet to have a commercial release. That’s something I’d be willing to put my own money into.
I think if they did a crowdsource for one final MST3K box set of unreleased episodes I think people would be willing to put money into that. It probably wouldn’t net ALL of the “lost” episodes but maybe four of the 11 episodes that haven’t been released by SHOUT (yes, I’m including The Colossal Man on Rhino VHS, and Godzilla vs. Megalon since that episode was technically recalled) that would be nice.
I know a lot of people will bemoan that the Godzilla movies will never see the light of day, but — are we so sure of that anymore? – Like, I’m a big Tokusatsu guy and Shout Factory has been developing quite the relationship with Toho in recent years and Toho seems to be more open to licensing out the giant lizard to western companies in recent years. It’s still a slim chance for sure, but I’d say the possibility is looking a little better.