What Frank had to say about the reboot, when he was talking with Bill Corbett on his Funhouse podcast. (This is long. Read it to the end if you want to understand why Trace and Frank aren’t participating. )
Bill: So the new Mystery Science Theater has been out for a couple of seasons and, you know, we’ll be diplomatic and, erm, I, just upfront, I love Jonah, he’s a pal-
Frank: Great guy.
Bill: Great guy, I love, I think there are amazingly talented people working on it across the board, but I did want to say, that on your behalf, whatever else my, my intense feelings about the endeavor were, on your behalf, I think that was the most offended I got, was when they suddenly announced TV’s Son of TV’s Frank with your basic hair-
Frank: It was a photoshop of Patton as me, basically.
Bill: Yeah, and I know you’re good friends with Patton, and anybody who’s met Patton loves him, he’s a great, generous guy-
Frank: Yeah, he did a shout out to me on the Tonight Show, and on Conan, uh, which is the closest I’ve ever been to being on those shows, so he’s, he’s, he’s the best.
Bill: He’s, he’s paid it back. But that seemed like particularly maladroit, to take your, to take your persona in a way, and just like slap it up there-
Frank: Well, I just, I just thought like Joel, you know, he should have just sent me a message like a day before, two days before, ‘Hey, here’s what’s about to happen, I’ve uh, I’ve cast Patton as uh, the new TV’s Frank and we’re, and the announcement is coming, so, since you’re the old TV’s Frank I thought I’d just let you know that…’ He didn’t do that, you know, I just logged onto the internet one morning and uh, and there it was, you know? And people kind of assumed that I was in on it, you know, and that- even Patton, ‘cause I did a couple of like jokes about it online, I said, “People say ‘Oh Frank, are you a part of this?’ and I would say ‘Joel has sent all of the old cast members to the glue factory,’” and, uh, so Patton like DM’d me, he was like ‘I thought you knew about it’, you know, and he’s like – and I told him, you know, don’t- this has nothing to do with you, you know-
Bill: No, he’s a decent guy, (unintelligable)
Frank: -don’t worry about it, and he knows that I’m cool with it and he’s cool with me, so there was no problem along those lines. But uh, you know, there wasn’t any, there wasn’t any kind of communication from Joel, when the whole thing was happening, the whole, uh, new Mystery Science Theater was being started up, and what makes it awkward is that, you know, we had just recently been working together on Cinematic Titanic, you know, we were like a whole family on the road for like five or six years or something like that, and then when he gets the new Mystery Science Theater started he’s just like ‘Well, you’re not gonna be a part of it. I’m not going to consult, I’m not going to ask you about anything, I’m not gonna ask your opinion about any of it, I’m just gonna do it, I’m gonna hire new writers, I’m not, you’re not going to be considered as a new writer’ and uh, and he just didn’t communicate with me at all about it. So that was, that was a little offputting, you know. And there was also kind of this, uh…one of the, the Kickstarter guys, one of the kind of top people there, was, was very – what I thought, and, uh, Trace thought as well, was very disrespectful to us, and very ageist. He posted one thing about how sad it would look if we came back in our Old Guys now wearing the costumes and that that would be kinda sad, and um, you know, and then on the last tour Joel got back into the costume, so…(chuckles) But uh, you know, so there was that kinda element to it. But in general it’s it’s been a fine thing, the new Mystery Science Theater I think has been good for all of us-
Bill: Yeah, yeah.
Frank: It like raised awareness, um…Trace and I have, you know, our shows sell very well, and, and it just doesn’t hurt. You know, there’s, one thing I’ve learned is like, when we were doing Cinematic Titanic, we like, we looked at RiffTrax as like our rivals, you know? And, and I kind of realize now that there’s just room for, for all of it. Our fans are so…there’s no fan that I’ve ever met who’s like ‘Oh, I really like Cinematic Titanic but I don’t like RiffTrax’, you know, and I, I-
Bill: You could, you could probably find them on MST3K Info site, the real granular-
Frank: Yeah, but overwhelmingly they’re like, they love RiffTrax, they love Cinematic Titanic, they love The Mads, they love the new MST-
Bill: They love it all, yeah.
Frank: And actually, I reached the point too where I just had to- well, I didn’t have to but I, I just started accepting compliments for RiffTrax.
(Bill and Frank laugh)
Frank: Where people said ‘Oh, I love that RiffTrax that you did!’ And I got that like so many times like eventually I would go “Yeah, that was a good one, wasn’t it?”
Bill: “Wanna buy my book? It’s just as good!”
Frank: Yeah.
Bill: Yeah, I mean, when, when it was announced I think it all, it took us, it caught us all at RiffTrax somewhat flat-footed, although, it’s not when it was announced, it’s when we knew it was seriously happening.
Frank: Uh-huh.
Bill: Um, and I just, it was very mixed feelings for me, because on some level like, I kinda get it, and I respect the desire to start new, it gets-
Frank: Yeah, that happens all the time in show business-
Bill: It gets hairy, of course, when but the thing, I think it was the thing that you just said, that kinda rankled me the most, which is “Yeah, we need some new blood to handle this riffing thing, it’s not an old man’s game.” Meanwhile, we’re all doing live shows, and doing fine and-
Frank: Yeah, that’s a, that’s a, that’s an important point, because Joel actually made that statement several times, where he said “Riffing is a young man’s game.” Which is just, it just is an expression that sounds good in your head, uh, but it has no relationship to truth whatsoever. And you guys, are proving it all the time, and I’m even older than you guys and I’m proving it! And I kinda feel, I’m 62, and, and people may disagree, I kind of feel like I’m at my height creatively these days. I, I feel like I’ve, uh, like you know, all the writing I’m doing, I don’t feel like anything has really dried up for me. And I, and, and one of the reasons that I…if I think of myself as a success in show business at all, it’s because I’m at my age and I’m still actively engaged in it. And after all these years I’m still, um, excited about things, I still have creative projects that I work on and that I am hopeful for and you know, I know there are some people my age who like, who feel like it’s all over for them, but that, that’s a state of mind, and Joel has said in many interviews, like almost every interview he’s given, in fact, he’s always said ‘I wanted to have people in their 30s writing and not people in their 60s.’ And that’s ageism! That’s discrimination, and you know what? It’s also against the law.”