Welcome to the Amazing Colossal Mystery Science Theater 3000 Fan Girl Episode Guide! It exists to nurture fangirl-style absurdity in the name of love of MST3K. The ACFGEG will be updated on a whenever-I-feel-like-it/whenever-I-can basis (ideally twice a month or so, but don't expect too much). Join us, won't you?
If you're looking for input on whether you should include talking about the movie, I personally like the inclusion of talking about the film. It gives context to some of the host segments and you don't completely spoil everything from the movie when you discuss it.
Thanks for the input! I never quite know what people want out of this guide, so it’s nice to hear feedback. I mean, theoretically the guide is set up so a reader can either watch along or go look up moments from my list that seem interesting, but I don’t really know how people use it n practice. Thanks again!
I always remember that this movie is K19 because it’s Hangar 18 and that for some reason strikes me as mildly funny. From the title I expected it to be about airplanes, but it’s actually about spaceships. Made in 1980, starring people from things. Nothing really to note about the episode. Everyone’s here for the whole thing this time, so let’s get a-rollin’.
Prologue
Joel pops up from under the desk sounding like he hit his head.
No real intro this time, no Mads. Joel just tells us the name of the movie and we go straight into Movie Sign. Maybe they were pressed for time this week.
Movie pt. 1
I can’t tell when the guys get into the theater because the version I’m watching is such bad quality. Any black backgrounds make it impossible to see the guys. Later on they started putting a slight filter on the movies to make the silhouettes stand out better.
At 3:22, Joel asks why made-for-TV movies always look different than normal movies. Tom informs him, correctly, that Hangar 18 was shown in theaters. Why is that, actually? It is related to how they’re shot? There’s even a difference in look between different types of TV shows, so I assume that’s why. Does anyone want to inform both me and 1989 Joel?
When the movie astronauts are checking switches and things on the space shuttle at 5:39, Crow asks Joel if he remembered to check their switches and things. Joel doesn’t answer. Several seconds later at 5:47, Servo asks him the same thing, and he says no. Servo seems slightly distressed but lets it be.
Crow’s comment about the movie satellite makes Tom/Josh laugh at 7:26.
Joel messes with the on-screen controls at 7:43, but again, you can barely see him.
Something about Crow’s incredulous tone at 9:10 is really funny.
When you can finally see them, Joel and bots look like they’re sitting closer together than usual.
At 9:54, Joel makes a joke about prune-flavored Tang, and Josh laughs mockingly at it.
So far this whole movie has been half black screens. VHS movie played on UHF TV x old VHS recording + YouTube upload = hard to see.
76° at 6:13, when the time and temperature come up at 12:46. Looks like the Twin Cities are making their way toward summer.
Tom calls commercial at 13:25, Jeopardy-style, and Joel commands it more forcefully at 13:31. They don’t fade out until 13:38, though.
Joel reads the setting caption at 13:47, and Crows remarks a bit petulantly that he can read.
Holy crap, those are big lights on that police car. Also, why does this guy have such a strong Southern accent when they’re in Arizona? And I’m already sick of these captions.
As they leave the theater, Crow says he wants a soda, as if that’s the reason they’re leaving. Servo says he wants some saltines.
Host Segment 1
Crow’s wiggly fidgeting is cute. He’s such a little kid in the first few seasons.
Joel tells Crow he’ll need to borrow some of his RAM chips later to increase computing power for some other part of the ship. He doesn’t explain which, but maybe it would be common knowledge for Crow. Apparently, a dangerous meteor shower that could puncture holes in the ship is heading their way, and somehow the extra RAM chips with help with that? Maybe he can use it to increase the ship’s shields (which may or may not exist), or maybe he needs it to calculate a course away from the meteors or something. By the way, is it still called a meteor shower if it’s in space?
The bots have been really into irritating Joel in the past few episodes, and the trend continues here with Crow asking “Why?” and “So?” to everything Joel says. At first he seems sincere, but it quickly becomes clear that he just wants a reaction. It’s not clear if Joel catches on, but either way, he continues patiently explaining.
I love it whenever the bots cuddle up to Joel. Crow seems to know it’s cute and is using to his advantage.
Joel mentions that if he dies from lack of oxygen, the bots with have no human to play Parcheesi with, and implies that always ends badly. Having seen how the bots get along when Joel’s not around, I can imagine how that goes.
Mid-morning pleasure stimulation? Okay…I mean, I’m sure that’s not weird but it sounds weird.
Crow finishes off the whole thing with the classic “Daddy, what’s Vietnam?” and laughs, telling Joel to lighten up. Joel does not think it’s funny and finally snaps. Joel’s interesting; he’s almost impossible to rile, but once riled, he’s got something of a temper. You can see it in segments like his attempted barbershop/soda fountain in Giant Gila Monster [402] and the end of Castle of Fu Manchu [323]. Here he actually tells Crow to go get his belt! I can’t tell if he’s really going to use it on Crow or if he’s just playing along with Crow’s game by being the angry dad. Hope it’s the latter.
Similarly, I can’t tell if Crow’s reaction is real or if he’s still just in little kid mode. Again, I hope the latter is true.
Movie pt. 2
Crow is making sounds of pain as they come into the theater. Joel tells him to quiet down and Tom teases him and laughs about the ordeal. I guess he really did use the belt. That’s the not the right way to discipline your robot children, Joel.
He also seems to be fixing Crow’s arms or something. They are kinda flimsy.
At 29:57, Crow says something about a “safety seal” and Servo barks like a sea lion. Just made me laugh.
Joel says when he was in 4th grade, he had the same kind of biohazard suit from the movie at 30:31. I’d doubt it, but it’s not impossible, especially given that a) Joel’s weird and b) this show takes place in a version of reality where satellites, robots, and mad science are a pretty casual affair. So who knows? But Joel also says it didn’t have the big mask, so he might have just been talking about a regular raincoat. (Or maybe it was a joke, because riffing. But that’s no fun.)
30: 56- I love Crow’s straightforward approach to things, hahaha.
At 31:09, they’re talking about Meatloaf (the singer) and Crow mentions he likes ketchup on his meatloaf. It’s not related to the joke, but it makes me imagine tiny baby KTMA Crow trying to eat meatloaf at the table with his dysfunctional little arms, which is oddly adorable.
The aliens really do look like Uncle Fester…when the guys sing their version of the Addams Family song (at 36:43), you can hear all three of them snapping (well, at least two). The bots must be able to generate snapping noises.
At 39:20, Joel mentions “Joe Namath Netted Slingshot Briefs”, which become a running comment throughout the rest of the series, especially the Joel era. I’m not getting a picture for this one; I think the BVDs picture from the last entry was enough trauma for all of us.
Wow, mentions of Jackie Coogan and Tor Johnson back to back at 39:55. Little did they know then how many opportunities they would have to talk about Tor Johnson (so many episodes, including The Unearthly [320], Bride of the Monster [423], and The Beast of Yucca Flats [621]). By the time they got to Jackie Coogan (The Space Children [906]), though, none of these original three were there. Here’s a picture of Jackie Coogan for no reason.
Now this airport guy has like a half-Boston, half-Southern accent. Though it is in the southern half of the country, Arizona is not really The South, filmmakers.
At 44:49, Tom goes on making fun of the possibly-crazy airport guy for so long Crow mutters that Joel spanked the wrong bot. That prompts Servo to ask him how his “bot” is; Crow doesn’t respond.
Crow makes a zing! joke at 45:22, and Joel tells him to “take the laugh” like Dr. F told Larry in the previous episode. Crow says it hurts when he laughs, which makes me wonder how badly Joel spanked him with that belt. Oof. Tom also mentions that load pan-emptying will hurt later. The more I hear about load pans, the more I don’t want to know the details.
As they leave the theater, Crow says he need to get a pillow for some unspecified part of him.
Host Segment 2
Joel attaches what he calls a coupling device to Crow’s head so they can look through his memory and decide what’s worth keeping.
The first memory in the list is “On”. I’m not totally sure what that means, but I’m assuming it’s a necessary function. Maybe it’s the code that allows him to turn on?
Crow knows how to play Heart and Soul? I’d like to see that.
Nobody wants to go through “load pan training” again. My earlier sentiment about load pans has not changed. I would also like to see Tom and Crow’s bunk beds. What do you think the membrane that Crow mentions is? Apparently it’s less pleasant than load pans.
Nobody wants to keep the King Family specials.
They don’t feel like keeping a bunch of Highlights magazines, STP commercials with Mario Andretti, every episode of Punky Brewster, Lyle Waggoner’s penile implant show (???), Joe Something-or-Other’s business school (I wonder if that’s a local thing), Robert Vaughn’s Helsinki Formula, Aaron Gray’s cellulite show, or George Hamilton’s skin care hour. They do, however, want to keep a still of that one Farah Fawcett poster. I won’t bother to put a picture of that here because you’ve probably already seen it.
Joel smiles when Crow makes his buzzer noises.
He asks Crow where he picked up these weird infomercials, and Crow tells him he fell asleep while watching TV23 one night. It sounds like the Brains thought their channel played too many infomercials.
Movie pt. 3
I guess stunt driving isn’t part of the training to become a government agent. Also looks like their car was a Pinto.
The Apache Plaza Joel mentions at 58:03 was local mall in St. Anthony that was damaged by a tornado and then snowmelt. River Place is another spot in Minneapolis.
At 58:43, Crow notes that aliens have nipples like Joel does, as a human. Joel says his are a little more ”pouty.” I don’t know what that means, but ew.
Ah, thank you, movie, for cutting away instead of showing them cutting into the alien, proving once again that you are better than City on Fire. But you can really stop telling us where we are every single time we change locations. If the time is important, fine, put that, but if you’re just moving between places we’ve already been several times, you don’t need to tell us again.
Time and temp pop up again at 1:02:09, 75° at 7:15.
Tom calls commercial at 1:03:12.
Crow makes a good point at 1:05:44- why did it take them so long to even try to figure out where the government was hiding the ship?
Hey, a swear bleep at 1:08:45. The guys react to it, obviously knowing they would have to cut it out for the episode. Servo proceeds to make some “ship” jokes.
You know, these government agents would be a lot less conspicuous if didn’t wear suits everywhere. Also, even if the brakes don’t work, wouldn’t the car, you know, slow down if he stopped pressing the gas? Cars don’t just maintain momentum forever even if they can’t stop. And I’m already predicting this whole petroleum plant thing is going to explode in firey ball of death, killing the new set of G-men, while the astronauts get away.
Wow, Crow makes the same guess at 1:11:28.
Well, I was sort of right. Crow was more right than I was.
Crow’s little “c’mon, c’mon” as they leave the theater is adorable.
Host Segment 3
They’ve hooked Crow up to the coupling device again, and take a look at his first memory ever.
For some reason the memory isn’t from Crow’s point of view…Anyway, Joel sings a song while finishing Crow up, then whacks him lightly to turn him on. His first sound is a baby cry until Joel whacks him again. Joel tells him name and he asks why, and Joel tells him it stands for “Cybernetic Remotely Operated Woman.”
Current Crow is very surprised to find out he’s a woman, but seems to get over it very quickly.
Joel tells him he’s actually a hermaphrobot because he ran out of parts. Why would running out of parts mean that he had both- you know what, never mind.
I guess being a woman or hermaphrobot turns Crow into a stressed mother.
But it’s actually a joke anyway ha ha ha, Joel made a fake memory to tease him. Joel tells him that he only made him in the first place so he could play that joke on him in the future. Harsh, man. Joel’s kind of a big jerk in this episode.
Movie pt. 4
Hey, it’s the plot-relevant radio station, like Invention Exchange from Giant Gila Monster [402].
Crow makes another good point- will the people inside the spaceship survive? It didn’t get burnt up on re-entry when it landed, so maybe they will. OoooOOOOOoooo mystery….
At 1:34:31, Crow also makes a call-back to City on Fire [K16].
Oh, they did survive. Did the guys preview this movie, or are they just that eerily smart? Maybe one of them had seen it before in the past?
Conclusion
This segment is very short, just the guys mentioning that the fan club is almost up to 1,000 members, and showing off the fabulous demon dog that 1,000th member can win. They mention it’s from the opening credits. Demon dogs will show up again in the next season in The Robot vs. the Aztec Mummy [102].
Is Crow carrying something over his shoulder? I can’t tell what it is.
The credits cut off in this recording, so hopefully there was nothing terribly interesting or new.
Thoughts on the Movie
Forgive me the unkindness, but his movie is full of mostly rather ugly people. And Darren McGavin looks like the general from The Iron Giant, and/or Tommy Lee Jones. Which makes sense because the general from the Iron Giant looks like Tommy Lee Jones. Beyond that, I don’t know how I feel about this one. It’s really not that bad, it’s just sort of dumb. I feel like it would have made a more interesting television series than a movie. It has some good moments, but it felt like it was trying to tell two different stories. The longer the movie went on, the more it seemed to lose its focus. On the other hand, I actually cared some when Lou died, which is more than I can say for a lot of movies, even non-MSTed ones. Ending was kinda stupid, though.
The other main thing that kept bothering me was why the government kept letting the astronauts poke around and potentially muck up the their big cover-up. Why do they even let them out of D.C. or Houston or wherever they were? (I really should remember because of the excessive captioning.) Can’t the Feds just keep them where they are until they’re done lying about the U.F.O.? I mean, that doesn’t sound legal, but neither does tampering with and lying about important scientific information to keep people happy until the election, and they’re already doing that. Half the plot could have been avoided if they’d just been smart enough to stop Bancroft and Price from running around. I guess that’s why they didn’t. But that’s not a good enough reason to suspend my disbelief on that point.
Oh yeah, and then it gets into the tired old sci-fi trope of the aliens who are almost exactly like humans and trying to explain with actual science. I don’t have any real problem with human aliens in fiction (Superman, for example, has never bugged me), but when they try to pretend like it makes any sense, that’s where they always lose me. The whole “humans are descended from them” just doesn’t work for me. If the two species were able to breed, wouldn’t they have needed to be very similar to begin with? Then that brings us back to the parallel evolution thing, which makes very little sense in an attempt at hard sci-fi. So yeah, not quite a bad movie, just a mediocre one. It would probably make good material for a modern riff.
Review
This one was alright. It seemed like they were a little distracted by a semi-watchable movie, so there wasn’t much riffing. I didn’t laugh a whole lot during this episode (favorite riff- Tom: Maybe they’re just a couple of yahoos from Arkansas.) The spots they did riff had a lot of energy, but they seemed to lose it as the movie went on. Maybe the movie wasn’t stupid or infuriating enough to keep them firing. That’s another good reason they wrote and practiced the riffing when they moved on to the wonderful world of cable.
Not related to the review, but I have a question for my six or seven readers. I mentioned a lot more of my thoughts on the movie in the notes this time- is that annoying, or do you prefer it that way? I got back and forth about whether I should include that there. On the one hand, it’s part of the experience of watching and episode. On the other hand, it’s not really the purpose of this guide. I’ll do whatever works better for you guys, so let me know if you have a preference. Thanks!
So, sorry it took me like four months to get this next entry out. School got busy faster than I expected. But last time it was almost a year and a half, so at least there’s that…anyway…
The Million Eyes of Sumuru is a 1967 British spy film about a scary lady and her army of scary ladies. It’s based on a book series by Sax Rohmer, a man whose name sounds like the title of a film-noir western about a jazz musician wandering in the desert. He also wrote the Fu Manchu books, which explains a lot. Also, it was directed by a guy named Lindsey. This movie includes some celebrities (sort of- does Frankie Avalon count as a celebrity?) and was produced by our other Castle of Fu Manchu friend, Harry Alan TOOOOOWEEEEERRRRRRRSSS. Wilfrid Hyde-White is in this, he played Colonel Pickering in the movie version of My Fair Lady. (I only mention that because I somehow didn’t recognize him until most of the way into this movie, even though I’ve seen My Fair Lady several times.) It also stars George Nader, from the famous and hilariously terrible Robot Monster, which we’ll get to watch later on in Season 1.
The main interesting note about this episode is that Tom Servo leaves partway through the movie. Again, it’s a case of Josh needing to be somewhere at the same time they were taping. He’s still in the host segments, because they always taped those before the movie part. Now, let’s get to Sumuru. (I don’t have a link for this one because it’s not on YouTube, but you can find it at Club MST3K.)
Prologue
I don’t know if I ever mentioned that I like the little tentacle things in the KTMA doorway sequence.
Oh man, continuity! That’s unusual for this show in general, not even just KTMA. They did a “previously on…” sketch as the intro for The Deadly Bees [905], but that one purposefully had nothing to do with anything that has ever happened on the S.O.L. They also did general premise recaps fairly often in Season 1 and occasional other times, and some story arc recaps in Season 8 when they were forced to have a story arc. This is the only episode I know of, thought, that has a classic “previously” bit, separate from the rest of the host segment, that recaps with a clip from the previous episode. Neat.
Also, does anyone recognize the voice-over voice? Josh or Kevin are the usual deep-voice go-tos, but this doesn’t sound like either of them. The musical sting comes from Fugitive Alien (I thought it was Time of the Apes at first, which goes to show how well I don’t know my Season 3 episodes).
After the clip, we join the Mads trying to get a look at Joel floating outside the satellite. They confirm for us that he is not floating naked in space, but is actually wearing underwear (which we could kinda tell from that very accurate action-figure Joel model). I had to look up what “BVDs” were, though. I had to look at this so now you do, too:
Whatever camera they’re using to look at Joel must have really good zoom if they can tell his cheeks are blue.
Has he been out there for a whole week? That’s impressive. Much later, in Time Chasers [821], the S.O.L. seemed to maybe have a Tardis-like air bubble-forcefield thing around it when it docked with Pearl’s van, so maybe that’s how Joel managed. Of course, a week in the cold of space with no food or water doesn’t really leave him very well off even if he had air, but those are all science facts. More likely this episode and the last one just take place closer together that that. (My default headcanon assumption is most episodes take place roughly in real time with when they aired, but there’s exceptions to that for sure). But again, I’m more than willing to relax about this kind of thing. I just speculate for fun.
The Mads are 2001-loving dorks, and we love them for it. As characters. As people, they’re jerks.
I think this may the first occurrence of weirdly affectionate Dr. F nicknames for Joel. We’ve had a few weird insults in previous episodes, but I think this is the first of this particular kind.
I didn’t know the Mads could open the S.O.L. doors from down on Earth. But I guess they control all sorts of other things from their lab, so why not the doors? Larry doesn’t actually press any buttons, but Joel gets inside anyway. Maybe he pressed it under the desk.
Joel is putting on his jumpsuit as he comes onto the bridge. The bots must have left it right by the door. Why did Joel take it off to go outside in the first place? Was he in the middle of changing and got sucked out the door? Actually, a random semi-nude spacewalk doesn’t seem too far outside something Joel might do on purpose…
Joel also thanks the Mads for letting him inside. It’s good to be polite to your captors, I suppose. In some episodes, rudeness does result in punishment, so probably a smart idea.
Locked you out again? How many times has this happened, Joel? Maybe you need to get another key. Although if he’s going out into space in only his underwear, he might not have a good place to keep it…this is getting weird, let’s move on.
Trace’s weird expressions in this segment keep making me laugh.
The Mads are really enjoying taunting Joel this week. I like their doofy handshake. I can imagine them doing that in the halls at Gizmonic and other mad scientists just looking at them like they can’t stand them.
Joel’s response is actually much more sarcastic than usual for him (outside the theater). 3-12 weeks? What’s he talking about there? Anyone know? Did KTMA have multiple seasons?
Poor guy, he sounds really done. Being stuck out in the vacuum of space for a while probably does that to you.
The Mads’ movie intros are starting to sound more like they will for the rest of the series. Also, Larry tells Clay to get the movie, and he does. I sometimes forget that Dr. F and Dr. Erhardt were portrayed mostly as equals during KTMA. The junior doctor/henchman thing didn’t really get going until Season 1.
I never know what to make of angry Joel. It happened more often in KTMA, but still not that much. Also, his hand gestures are weird.
We didn’t see the bots in this segment, probably because they’re off hiding from Joel and their impending punishment.
Movie pt. 1
Wow, the Mads were right; this is a really washed-out print.
Joel comes into the theater dancing to the parade music from the movie. He seems to have forgotten about being angry. Maybe the bots got an earful on the way down.
4:32, time and temp: 6:04 and 67°. The episode originally aired in early May, so I’d assume this is sometime around then, if not the exact night. I don’t know if TV23 re-ran these or not.
Crow mispronounces “emperor” at 4:39, and corrects himself, which makes Joel chuckle.
At 4:43, Tom tries to apologize for locking Joel outside, saying they “didn’t really know it was [him].” Joel understandably doesn’t respond.
During the opening credits, they do a lot of “relative of famous person with same last name” jokes. Those became a staple during credits for the rest of the show, especially the Joel seasons.
Servo doesn’t know who the Buddha is at 7:27. Also, Joel’s Wisconsin accent really comes out when he says “Buddha.”
At 7:46, Joel starts a riff that just sort of peters out. Something about the plant in front of the camera, but I’m not sure what he was trying to say.
8:13, Joel makes a pun and asks Crow if he likes it. Crow doesn’t seem overly enthused, but he says it was cool, anyway. Tom then tells him should laugh at it, since Joel’s upset with them. He hasn’t been acting too upset since they got into the theater, but maybe he’s been glowering or something.
Crow and Joel both talk at the same time at 8:31. They’re usually pretty good at not doing that, considering it’s improv.
At 8:35, Joel says “whoops” and looks down. It looks like he was just moving out of the way of the movie, but maybe he hit Crow’s arm or something.
Movie thing: I know it’s not even 10 minutes in yet, but the editing in this is really bad.
At 11:52, Joel tells Crow a terrible joke, which he kinda laughs at, but it seems to make him a little bit sad. Joel laughs, though.
Servo’s Frankie Avalon joke at 12:27- does that come from somewhere or did Josh just make that up on the fly? It’s very clever. Josh always has been the best of the MST alumni at off-the-cuff quips. Crow and Joel groan, though.
At 13:01, I’m not sure what Joel’s laughing at.
Joel bats at the old man at 13:16.
Movie thing: Gosh, 60s white-people dancing is always so second-hand embarrassing. Also, along with being washed out, the sound is really bad in this, too. I’m having a hard time understanding what anyone is saying.
I appreciate their Batman riffs at 15:43.
At 16:36, Tom makes fun of Frankie Avalon for being in the movie, but since Frankie’s hugging a pretty lady on screen at the time, Crow disagrees with his assessment. His enthusiastic follow-up about Frankie’s hand placement makes me laugh, along with Joel.
Josh calls commercial at 17:22, while making fun of Colonel Medika’s line delivery.
The guys are talking over each other a lot this week. I guess they’re just full of riff ideas.
Joel’s delivery at 17:45 is kind of adorable, for some reason.
All their riffs about the van starting at 18:26 are really funny, but what was that, Joel? Freeze him and make him into little bongs? Bombs? Huh?
I’m sorry, but WHAT IS HAPPENING?!
You can’t really see it because the quality is so bad, but at 19:27, Joel and the bots lean along with the car-chase cam.
Terrible pun from Joel at 20:20ish.
Some more of the Crow attitude we know and love at 22:20.
At 22:29, Servo complains to Joel about hearing voices in his head. Joel sounds a little concerned, but then Tom drops it.
Joel starts poking at Frankie’s giant chin at 22:57.
Crow just can’t let the poor framing in this scene go.
Tom’s confused about the number of Sumuru’s eyes at 26:10.
Joel gives the naked woman two thumbs up at 26:52, then stands up to look down at her chest! Unexpected from him. Things are getting awfully blue in here…
Crow starts a game of tag with Joel as they leave the theater, which is cute. Joel takes a huge obvious step over Trace on the floor, and mumbles something. I can’t tell whether he says something to Trace, or say something about “chase”. Either would make sense in context.
Host Segment 1
We go right into the host segment, skipping the doorway sequence. It’s hard to tell with these VHS recordings whether that’s how the episode was made, or if the person just cut it out. It does look like a little bit from the beginning of this segment is cut off.
Joel is still mad about being locked out of the ship, so he’s attached “idioprobes” to the bots. They look like strings, and apparently administer pain while attached. That seems a little harsh to me, but I’ve also never been stuck out in space in my underwear, either. I like the way Crow sidles sideways into frame.
When Joel rips the idioprobes off the bots, you can clearly see the string on Servo, but he just pretends to grab something off of Crow. They didn’t have any extra string for a prop?
After Joel removes them, Servo starts trying to give the “we didn’t know it was you” excuse again, saying they thought it was any of several dead musicians. (All the people in the list are drummers, except for Elvis.)
Joel’s not having it, and threatens the probes again. I’m not really sure why they’re called probes; they’re not really probing anything.
Tom demands a trial by his peers, and Joel says that he’d build them more peers if he could. Interesting- does that mean he’s used up all useful robot building parts on the ship already? That would explain why he stopped at four, besides the fact that four is more than enough to deal with.
Then Joel asks where Gypsy is, and the other two hem and haw and finally admit they left her stuck in the spiral-on-down, which I think is the way to the theater? I know they’ve used the term before, but infrequently. Anyway, Joel’s not happy about that, either. Servo’s defense is pretty reasonable, since his arms don’t work. Crow’s in trouble, though.
Apparently you can unstick Gypsy from the spiral-on-down by pressing a button on the little control panel thing. I wonder if that unsticks her from anywhere in the satellite, or if it’s just for that one spot. Crow calls it a robo-purge button, which kind of makes it sound like the former.
I love Gypsy’s screech when she gets released.
Joel seems so done with the bots and everything by the end of this segment. He can’t do anything but smile and (metaphorically) wave. The cheesy grin isn’t usually his style; that’s more of a Mike thing.
Movie pt. 2
Still 67° at 6:38 (am or pm).
Joel sings a little Sumuru song at 35:48. I’m not sure if the tune comes from somewhere or if he was just making it up on the spot. Anyone recognize it?
At 36:20, Joel and the bots mess with the car dashboard.
37:33- Tom makes another off-color joke. I have a feeling more are on the way, given the content of the movie.
At 44: 20, Servo brings up the slant-6 Swinger car again, the one they mentioned in a few previous episodes.
He also calls commercial at 44:45.
Joel’s sounding extra sleepy in a lot of his lines.
Ah good, it’s time for the movie to dial up the sexism again.
By 51:11, Crow’s lost patience with the kissing scene.
At 52:04, Tom tells Joel he needs to leave, because he needs to go bake brownies for the Pinewood Derby. The real-life reason was mentioned at the top, but I’m thinking in-universe, Servo was just tired of watching this movie. Joel’s fine with him leaving, as long as he agrees to show up for the sketches between the movies segments. Tom promises, and wonders if they have eggs. Just a pointless thought, since it doesn’t matter how they eat (or breathe), but I always assumed either the Mads send them supply shipments, or they have some kind of food synthesizer that makes it for them. They definitely have the latter by the end of the series, since Crow mentions it in Soultaker [1001], but earlier than that, it’s not clear. Maybe both?
Host Segment 2
Joel tries to hold a trial for the bots, but, as usual, everything is a joke to them. They just won’t go along with anything he’s trying to do. The courtroom thing reminds me of Crow’s trial for cheating in Wild World of Batwoman [515].
The bots go off on another word-association tangent, which leads to a game show sketch, while Joel just looks on impatiently.
He uses the button panel as a gavel.
Even Gypsy gets in on making life difficult for Joel. It looks like maybe Josh was throwing his voice to do Gypsy from the other side of the desk. Either that or they recorded that part in post. Either way, Trace or somebody else must have been operating her.
Time and temp comes up on the host segment this time; Still 67° at 7:07. The updates are more frequent this week than last time.
Joel gives up on getting order in the court, and picks up Tom and kisses his head while misquoting Jimi Hendrix. What else can you do but give into the madness?
What is that on the desk besides the papers? It looks like an upside-down mug, maybe?
I like the weird noise Crow makes when Joel calls Movie Sign.
Movie pt. 3
As Servo mentioned, he doesn’t go back into the theater with the others. Joel was holding him as they ended the last segment, so I guess he must have put him down somewhere on the way to the theater.
Joel and Crow try to move away from the spraying champagne at 55:10.
I agree with Crow at 56:27, please stop.
Man, Crow keeps saying what I’m thinking.
At 59:45, Crow calls back to the oceanic opening credits from the Gamera films.
Oh goodness, again with the Brain That Wouldn’t Die-style KPORN saxophone…also, so does security want to like, check her bag or anything before she goes in to the president? No? Yeah, see, that’s exactly why security exists.
Wait, he did get shot? Huh? It would be nice if they would SHOW us what’s happening! And this is the most ineffectual political security ever.
Host Segment 3
As promised, Tom is back for the host segment.
I love Crow’s flowers on his net.
Joel was out in space for five weeks? I guess it was longer between episodes than I thought. That’s what I get for not checking first.
It amuses me that the bots are just now asking about this, even though they obviously thought about before, since Servo did calculations. But Joel’s got a guitar and he’s ignoring their questions, sort of like how they ignored him earlier when he was trying to put them on trial.
Time and temperature again, 7:28 and down to 65°.
Joel and the bots sing us a lovely part of the theme song to remind us to just relax about the eating and breathing thing. I’m guessing they anticipated people calling/writing in with questions about how Joel survived. As much as this episode guide exists to overthink things, that kind of science fact I am quite relaxed about, and I don’t mind being reminded.
I wonder whose guitar that is. It might be Josh’s, since I know he has musical inclinations. It doesn’t look the same as the guitar Larry has during the Clay and Lar’s Flesh Barn song in Women of the Prehistoric Planet [104], but that doesn’t mean it’s not still his. Also, do you think Joel’s really playing the guitar here? It sure looks like he is, but I’ve heard him say in interviews that he doesn’t play the guitar. Maybe he just meant he doesn’t anymore, or very much.
I think Crow is just moving his mouth, not actually singing. Nice harmonies from Tom, though.
Movie pt. 4
Haha, she’s running to her inevitable death, it’s funny! These highly-trained assassins sure jog at a casual pace, don’t they? I guess they’re probably in heels.
At 1:08:21, Joel mentions that he likes a movie with lots of midriff. This one ought to make him happy, then, no midriff shortage here.
Classic “oh wow” from Joel at 1:12:28, and another at 1:12:39. I don’t know if I’m going to note all of them. Maybe I should, and then someday someone can make a pointless compilation video or something.
Wizard of Oz reference #16 at 1:12:46. Maybe someday someone can make a pointless compilation of these, too.
Crow makes Joel laugh at 1:12:53.
The guys have no patience for Frankie’s fourth-wall-breaking joke at 1:13:01.
Wow, what a pointlessly prolonged scene leading up to nothing. They did in two minutes what they could have done in 30 seconds. That’s padding Roger Corman could be proud of.
Also, that cut. This movie can’t decide if it wants to be a comedy or not. Not that it’s succeeding at comedy, but sometimes it’s sure trying.
“I know it’s best” because I’m a man, albeit a wimpy, useless one. Man, just like City on Fire, this movie annoys me so much I can’t leave it alone, even though that’s not what this guide is for. (I also think it’s easy to start filling in riffs yourself in KTMA, when it’s slow.)
I just noticed Joel’s leaned way back in his chair.
He calls commercial at 1:21:07.
Sumuru’s mines are operated by switches? That seems far less effective than normal mines…
Joel keeps talking about midriffs. I guess he really is a fan.
I’m sorry I keep talking about movie things, but why the heck is Frankie here? Isn’t his character just some rich playboy with no actual skills? Did I miss some line near the beginning that explained his extensive military training? I really might have, the sound was terrible.
Joel’s riff attempt at 1:32:26- he pauses to get his sentence in order, then still says “fooms” instead of “films”. I find that way funnier than I should.
Is Joel okay? He’s having a really hard time getting over Trace on the way out, again. Maybe they’re squished closer to the wall than usual?
Conclusion
Apparently Servo’s mouth is broken now, so Joel moves it for him and makes him sing.
Joel mentions they’ve got 900 people in the fan club. That’s extremely impressive for a dinky little puppet show on local UHF. Seems like people could tell from the beginning that MST3K was destined for greatness.
The fan club newsletter is called The Binding Polymer? I wonder why. Just science-y sounding, I guess.
Why does Joel need to move Servo’s mouth to talk when he’s not even onscreen? Maybe he can’t talk at all if his mouth doesn’t move. That seems like an odd design choice for a robot, but then again, so do most aspects of the bots. Speaking of Tom’s mouth, is KTMA Tom’s mouth the same as regular Tom’s mouth, but upside down? I’m probably just crazy.
Crow seems shocked by Joel’s sudden button press.
As he often does, Joel looks offscreen before the camera cuts away. He really does seem tired this week, doesn’t he? Hope he went home after this and slept.
Kevin’s listed under “Puppet Operation” in the credits. Maybe that means he was running Gypsy in the second host segment.
Thoughts on the Movie
Wow. You know, after reading a little bit about it, I had hopes that The Million Eyes of Sumuru would be a little bit higher quality than the past few movies we’ve seen. In some ways, that’s true.
But overall, I have to say…WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS MOVIE?! I have so many questions: Why can’t George Nader and Frankie Avalon stop being smug and sardonic and cutesy for three and a half seconds? Why did they frame shots so half the time you can’t tell what’s going on? And President Boong? First of all, Boong, really? Second of all, Sinonesia? What? Third of all, he is clearly a white guy in eyeliner and all of this is supposed to be remotely acceptable to the audience!? I mean, Fu Manchu was racist, too, but at least they made some attempt to suspend audience disbelief.
And the really big one: how do you think they fit this much misogyny into one film? Remember, even if a woman hates men and has dedicated her whole life to destroying them, she still becomes instantly smitten if touched by a man, no matter how unattractive. Also, even if she is a trained martial-artist-assassin, she will not make any attempt to stop said man from touching her, because she is a woman. Yes, women exist solely as sexual creatures who could never desire anything more than to be dominated by men, no matter what they may try to convince themselves otherwise. In fact, every human being is motivated only by sex at all times! And was that significant glance between Helga and the other chick at the end there supposed to redeem anything? Sax Rohmer, Harry Towers, Kevin Kavanagh (screenwriter on this fine, fine film)- y’all have issues.
This movie has plenty of other stupidity which I’m not going to bother to get into. I think I’ve expressed my feelings adequately. It’s not unwatchable in the way Castle of Fu Manchu is, but it’s plenty more offensive. Let’s just move on with our lives.
Review
This one was okay. As I said before, Josh thrives the most on the improv riffing, and the second part really starts to drag once he leaves. I still laughed out loud at several riffs, (favorite riff- Crow: Does she always make that noise when she walks?) but there’s a lot of dead space in between. Compared to the past few episodes, it definitely has less energy, which also makes it easier to get caught up in the badness of the movie.
Overall, had good parts, wouldn’t put it in my KTMA top five, by any means. Still, with every episode the guys seem to figuring out more and more the feeling they want in the movie and host segments. You can see it moving towards its destination.
Not really a question, more of just an anonymous appreciation. Thank you so much for updating! I found this site by accident a few months ago and absolutely love how you review the movies and the more touching moments of the show. Your recent update made my day! Keep up the good work!
Wow, how did I miss this? I swear I never got a notification for it…anyway, thank you so much, Anonny! I wanted to compile the kinds of moments beyond just the funny jokes that make MST3K special to me. I really started just for myself, but the fact that it makes anyone else happy is awesome! I’m glad something I made could do you some good in a small way. I just posted another update tonight, so I hope you like that one, too. Thanks for the encouragement!
Ah, more Sandy Frank. That name just warms my heart. Oh wait, that’s the rage at having to watch another one of these things. Okay, so maybe it’s not quite that bad, but man, it’s not good. This is the last Sandy Frank episode for KTMA, giving us two seasons of freedom from the hot dog dropped on the beach, until Season 3 when we get to watch almost all of these movies again, but with better riffing.
Like Cosmic Princess [K10], Fugitive Alien [K12], and Mighty Jack [K14], Time of the Apes is actually assembled from pieces of a TV show. The original show was called Saru no Gundan (“Army of Apes”) and aired in the early ‘70s. Apparently, it’s not too bad, if Planet of the Apes adaptations (one might say “rip-off” instead, but hey) are your thing. I can see how, without bad dubbing and half the story cut out, it could be a fun watch. In this form, however, it’s…well, it’s on MST3K.
This episode is unique- Joel’s not in it! I don’t know the detailed backstory, but I guess he had to be out of town that week, so they just taped the episode without him. Having just Tom and Crow in the theater makes for a slightly different feel. Let’s go watch some monkeys, shall we?
Prologue
The Mads are having trouble getting the Joel on the phone. Unfortunately for them, the bots are in a trolling mood and aren’t being much help.
It sounds like the Mads send Time of the Apes as retaliation for the bots’ unhelpfulness. Something similar happens in several later episodes, such as Hobgoblins [907]. It seems like Pearl was especially prone to this.
Mr. Potato Head is back on the desk this week. Dr. Forrester takes out his anger on it by ripping off its nose. Or maybe he just felt like dressing it up differently, at that exact moment.
Movie pt. 1
Does anyone else automatically sing “Sandy Frank, Sandy Frank” along to the opening music? I can’t help myself.
Crow sits in Joel’s usual seat.
At 3:06, Tom already says he feels kind of a void without Joel in the theater. He’s also not too happy about sitting right next to Crow, it seems. He tells Crow maybe he should empty his load pan because he doesn’t smell very good. So…did anyone ever figure out what a load pan was actually supposed to be? I’m not sure I want to know, now.
I never noticed before how peppy the music in this section of the movie is.
Crow doubts the monkeyhood of the animal at 5:41. Tom thinks it’s a possum, Crow guesses lemur. Crow was closer- it’s actually a loris.
6:55- Crow continues his already storied career as an incorrigible punster.
Servo mentions Joel’s absence again at 7:16, wondering where he is.
At 8:32, Crow’s already got this movie’s number.
Wow, this advanced scientific compound’s wiring does not seem up to code.
Crow mentions doing experiments in science class at 10:10. I know it’s probably just a joke, but Joel probably would do experiments with the bots for fun. Probably not “destroy the monkey freezing plant” experiments, though.
At 10:48, Tom mocks Crow’s time as a Christmas tree from several episodes ago, which Crow does not particularly appreciate. He compares being frozen to “drinking a Slurpee real fast.”
Tom also calls commercial at 11:23.
When Johnny starts calling for his uncle at 13:10, the bots start up calling out other names. Sort of a proto version of a joke they’d use in multiple later episodes, most memorably in Pod People [303]. They start it up again at 16: 27.
Some of the camera movement and editing choices in this movie are so strange.
Tom begins whistling at 18:47. After a little while, Crow asks him how he gets his “blowport” to pucker to make that sound. Tom says it’s a special program, but…Also, if anyone knows what song(s) he’s whistling, I’d be interested to know.
At 20:48, Crow says Joel should be there, and Servo says he’s getting a little concerned.
Trace has made Josh laugh at least three times so far in the episode. He’s on a roll. Has been for the past few episodes, actually.
Crow mentions Joel’s absence again in a riff at 22:36.
I don’t know why, but Crow’s little “Mm?” at 23:18 is adorable.
The bots decide to go look for Joel as they leave the theater.
Host Segment 1
The bots discuss where Joel might be, and go over where they’ve already looked. It’s sort of cute how they don’t know all the rooms on the ship.
They quickly degenerate into arguing, unsurprisingly. They really are like young siblings.
Crow calls Tom a “spasmodic crofisator” (crophysator?), a term that would be used again at least once in Season 1. It sounds like an insult but I’m not sure what it means. Maybe they don’t know, either.
Gypsy shows up to break up the fight, carrying Joel’s jumpsuit in her mouth. Does Joel only have one jumpsuit? I always sort of assumed he had at least a couple. But I guess in KTMA he only ever wore the one on camera, so maybe he did only have one. He only had one on camera in Season 1, too. Actually, the only season where he clearly had more than one jumpsuit was Season 2, where he had at least 5- teal, bright red, cyan, light green, and his classic maroon one, which he wears in every episode after it first shows up in Godzilla vs. Megalon [212]. Mike wore the same green one throughout Season 5 (unless you count the navy one in Mitchell), got a royal blue one (Zombie Nightmare [604]) and a teal one (The Creeping Terror [606]) in Season 6, and then switched between the three of them for the rest of his time as host. You know, in case you wanted the brief jumpsuit history of MST3K.
Crow doesn’t know what a pod bay is either. Tom is not taking things seriously and activates a “wah-wah-wah” noise. Does that satellite have those built in?
Apparently the only possible conclusion one could reach after finding Joel’s uniform is that he’s floating naked in space. They don’t seem too concerned for his safety, just more interested in seeing him in an embarrassing position. These are the monsters you created, Joel.
Movie pt. 2
The way this is cut makes the story feel really choppy. Was is this bad in the version they used for the Season 3 episode? Probably.
The fire in the movie makes Crow sneeze at 28:52. Somehow. I wonder if Trace is a little sick- his voice cracks, too, at 29:08.
TV23 time and temperature at 35:41. 6:42, and 56°. I wish they’d tell us AM or PM, but I guess the people actually watching when this was on wouldn’t need to be told that. It was probably PM, since they taped during the day and played them in the evenings. I’m not sure if they showed them at other times on the channel as re-runs or not, though. Tom from mst3ktemple.com would probably know.
At 37:24, the bots start talking about how good it is to get your shoes off when you’ve been on your feet for a long time, despite the fact that neither of them wear shoes and only one of them could. (Unless you count that time from Danger Death Ray [620] where Tom wore the shoes on his head and hands. I don’t.)
Crow starts singing about taking the “ape train” at 46:41. It annoys Servo, but apparently Crow has to do it or his head will blow up. Personally, I think he may be exaggerating.
Immediately after, at 47:01, Tom mentions Joel void again. Crow says they’ll just go look at him through the telescope when they get out of the theater again. I guess that means they did locate him outside at the end of the last host segment, even if we didn’t get to see it.
Movie thing- why does the action scene on the train have such slow, ponderous music? I guess it’s not really that much of an action scene anyway.
Host Segment 2
Crow’s wearing Joel’s jumpsuit, which is ridiculously adorable. I wonder how he managed to put it on. It probably would have been entertaining to watch.
Servo and Crow discuss the implication of Joel being stuck outside, with themselves being the only ones who could let him in, all the while ignoring his pounding on the door outside. They like the idea of forcing Joel to do their will in exchange for saving him from the dark vacuum of space.
What does Crow have against breadfruit plants? Do they take up too much of Joel’s time?
Predictably, Tom’s still on about babes.
Crow also suggests sending him adrift with a sextant, charts and a toaster. Servo objects to losing Lucille the toaster, something about four toast slots. I hope hope hope that it’s just because he’s likes making four pieces of toast at a time and not for some other reason…speaking of which, what kind of fun does Crow think Joel would have with the toaster? I guess he’d tinker with it. He wouldn’t have anything else to do, since the sextant and charts sure aren’t going to help him navigate anywhere in space.
The bots decide the pounding they’re hearing is space barnacles that need removal, to justify messing with Joel some more, but get Movie Sign before they get a chance.
Movie pt. 3
At 51:41, I agree with Tom- I’ve never seen anyone that unconcerned about a UFO.
Josh sneezes at 54:12. Crow/Trace says “gesundheit.”
Tom forgets Godo’s name at 57:05. Usually forgetting how to say characters’ names is Joel’s thing. I guess someone had to do it since he’s wasn’t there.
Did Sandy Frank even attempt to make this part coherent? Was it 5 pm on a Friday and he was just like “Eh, this is good enough, those kids won’t know what’s going on anyway”?
Servo calls commercial again at 1:01:43.
At 1:03:23, Crow is unimpressed by Tom’s joke.
1:04:46- Servo mentions Joel again, though I’m not sure whether he means Joel is a naked ape, or someone who is going back to his country. Is he saying that’s why Joel went out into space in the first place? I guess it could be.
Tom and Crow discuss the Academy Awards at 1:06:12.
The cliff in this flashback is, like, the least treacherous cliff ever. You could walk up that.
Host Segment 3
Cambot plays some old footage of Joel (from Invaders from the Deep [K01], with the long hair and turquoise jumpsuit- wait, he did have another jumpsuit in KTMA. Does that invalidate my whole spiel about jumpsuits from earlier? Oh nevermind). It freaks out Tom and Crow for a second because they think they’ll be in trouble. Have we ever seen this part before? I can’t recall if that little bit is in the snippets video of the three missing episodes.
Inevitably, the bots get into another argument, this time about whether the Joel behind the door was real or simulated. Usually the human has to break up the fighting. If something else didn’t interrupt, I wonder how far it would escalate.
Anybody know who that was behind door #2? Whoever it was, he terrified the bots. Maybe just because he was huge? Or perhaps they don’t like baldness.
Things get a little trippy when Tom starts playing with the laws of reality. He seems to have that power. He does something similar in Gunslinger [511], and Crow doesn’t like it any better then than he does here.
Movie pt. 4
At 1:15:17, Crow and Servo talk about whether or not humans have the same number of hairs on their bodies as apes. Crow thinks so, Servo doesn’t believe it.
I think we’re all starting to get impatient along with Crow. This is dragging on forever.
Down to 54° by 7:45, so I’m guessing it is PM, at 1:27:24.
Ah, we’re finally back on track- Wizard of Oz reference #14 at 1:29:23. I knew they’d return someday. The last three episode haven’t had any, at least that I could find, so my original theory about there being a WoZ riff in every Joel episode has been disproven. I still predict that there will be at least one in every Joel ep in the series proper, though.
The impatience continues.
At 1:31:20, Servo says that if Joel were there, they’d have run out of monkey puns much earlier. Is that because they’d have said more of them in a row to annoy him, or because Joel’s presence discourages the creation of monkey puns?
Something about Tom’s timing at 1:32:07 is just great.
Very brief Wizard of Oz reference #15 at 1:33:55.
Movie thing- So they do explain how they got back to their own time, it just makes NO SENSE. I wonder if Tom still feels like exploding.
Servo forgets Godo’s name again at 1:36:16, calling him Gobo.
1:36:58- uh, what other organ were you thinking of, Crow?
Tom falls over onto Crow as they start to leave the theater, but manages to get back up.
Once again, I can’t not sing the Sandy Frank song along with the credits.
Conclusion
We get a rare outside shot of the S.O.L., along with floating-(semi)-naked-in-space Joel, as represented by an action figure of some kind. I…don’t really think Joel would look like that with his shirt off, but hey.
Tom and Crow contemplate life without Joel. They only seem to recall all the mean stuff Joel has done to them since their creation, but they still do say they miss him a little.
They also talk about how they actually like each other, although that “You’re the greatest” remark from Crow could have a bit sarcastic. Hard to tell. I prefer to interpret it in a positive light.
I don’t know if I mentioned it before, but Alexandra Carr is now in the credits as the Fan Club Coordinator and Production Assistant. She’d continue to be on the show’s staff for a long time.
Joel is also still listed as starring in the episode even though he wasn’t there, just like Trace was still credited for Crow in the eps where he was gone.
At least in the copy I linked, the sound on the tape starts flipping out in an amusing way at the very end.
Thoughts on the Movie
This movie is…really goofy. I won’t go in-depth, since we have to watch it again in a few seasons, but man. Actually, it’s quite refreshing after two confusing 70s TV-movie dramas in a row. It’s not really any less confusing, but it’s much more entertaining to watch. This is also the second movie in a row with a really annoying child, although Johnny is much more amusing in his annoyingness than the kid in City on Fire (Gerald? Was that his name? I don’t care enough to go check). That kid was just not very good, whereas Johnny is not that terrible, he just kind of a spaz. Fits in with the rest of the movie, I guess.
Review
This was a pretty solid episode. Of course, the definition of a solid episode in KTMA versus Season 1 and beyond is quite different, but this one measures up to what they’ve done so far. Josh and Trace kept the energy nicely throughout. The two of them always played off each other well (favorite riff- Crow: Let’s buy these guys a tripod, whadda ya say?). This episode didn’t provide nearly as many laugh-out-loud moments as the last one, though, which reinforces to me that three really is the magic number. Something about having all of them together brings it up to the right level. The movie itself was pretty lively this week, which probably helped make up for losing a riffer. If it had been say, Cosmic Princess with only Tom and Crow, it might not have worked as well.
…So. Hey. Remember when I used to make these, like, a long time ago? It’s been over a year since I worked on the guide, for various reasons involving school and reboot junk and other stuff, but mostly school and reboot junk. I won’t go into details because who cares. Let’s just move on and watch an episode of MST3K.
This episode features a little more fan club talk, and not much else worth noting here. Let’s get to the watching. Guess who finally learned how to embed hyperlinks? Onward!
PS note: This movie contains quite a bit of unpleasant imagery, including a lot of people getting burnt throughout, a couple of distressed/dead animals, and a short surgery scene which begins about 1:17:30. Just thought I’d note it here for people who’d want to be warned.
Prologue
The Mads get a letter from the Mad Scientists League, an organization that will crop up in one form or another in various episodes down the line, such as Mitchell [512] and Girl in Gold Boots [1002]. Sometimes it’s called something different, but the idea is the same. Here, as in later mentions, they’re not really sure if the Mads’ brand of evil is really mad or scientific enough to qualify as mad science.
The official unofficial episode guide on Satellite News says that the comment Larry makes about Ken Keller has something do with a local university president, I think. I read it a long time ago and don’t really remember. I tried to go back and verify, but uh, I can’t get www.mst3kinfo.com to work for me. Is that just me or are other people having that problem? Did something happen to it that I haven’t heard about? (I haven’t been very active in the fandom for, like, more than a year, so I’m a little out of the loop about a lot of stuff.)
What kind of job do you think Larry had at the Pentagon? Do you think the “worked for two weeks, paid for two years” thing was actually part of the gig, or something he engineered for himself? Questions for the ages.
Apparently now the Mads get all of their research money from the MSL. I wonder what happened to all the money Clay won in Vegas a few episodes back. Guess they blew it all on who-knows-what already, which would not be surprising. Is Gizmonics as a whole funded by the MSL? In a previous episode, it sounded like the Mads had to meet some kind of standard for Gizmonics in order to work there, so maybe that’s related to the…look, I know it doesn’t matter, and the guys didn’t think any of this through when they made it up. They just threw it together 45 minutes before they taped the episode, not worrying how it fit together in the world. Which is totally fine. I just like to see if I can make it make sense, despite that. Coherence is not required in the MST universe, but it’s kind of amusing when you find it. At least to me.
Sounds like Larry’s already kinda bored with the “worst movie ever” experiment. I think Joel and the bots might be on the same page.
Uh, is Gizmonics not considered the private sector? Do they have government funding? If so, how the heck do they swing that? I realize the pork goes pretty far in this country, but thinly-veiled mad science seems like it would be pushing even that. They must have some kind of in with a senator or something. Maybe one is a Gizmonics alumni- politics would be a nice place to continue practicing evil.
Fruit inspection is apparently their only other option for a job. Ouch.
Clay, at least, seems to think the MSL doesn’t consider them mad enough because their experiment is too cutesy. I wonder if that’s what it said in the report. Personally, I wouldn’t really consider their movie selection cute, but I guess in comparison to the truly grade Z garbage that would come later, like Manos or Red Zone Cuba, I can see what they mean.
Huh, it heads straight into the movie without showing the S.O.L. first, without even the doorway sequence. I don’t think that’s happened before.
Movie pt. 1
Am I crazy, or do the theater seats look extra tiny and crowded together this time?
I like Servo’s wrestling-announcer-style reading of the title card at 3:58.
At 6:02- I can’t be the only one who automatically responds “McCloud.”
Crow sounds concerned about the smoothie (or whatever that’s supposed to be) at 6:30. He also mentions the many camera edits. Why does that scene have so many of those?
Josh interrupts Joel again at 6:56. I haven’t been keeping a count, but that’s gotta be at least 6 or 7 times over the course of the series.
At 14: 39, TV23 shows the time and temperature. Is that 6:15 AM or PM? Based on the 32° temperature, I’d guess morning, assuming this aired in March or April.
A transcript of the French that begins at 15:23, at least as well as my two years of high school French can tell: “Monsieur Pierre. Pas maintenant. Non, uh, après le mois demain à trois heures. Non, something something. Something bien something? Au revoir.”, which translates to “Mr. Pierre. Not now. No, uh, after the month, tomorrow at 3 o’clock. No, something something. Something good something? Goodbye.” You guys probably understood most of that without help, but still, there it is. (The après le mois could have actually been rapidement, meaning quickly, but I thought the former made slightly more sense in context. Or not. I don’t know, really.)
At 17:46, Tom mentions nude Shelley Winters photos in Joel’s room, and Joel shushes him. Sounds like maybe he has something to hide.
Joel and the bots keep predicting that maintenance guy will turn out to be a psycho. I can’t remember if they were reviewing part of the movies before using them by this point in the show’s run or not. They might have seen farther into the movie previously and know what’s going to happen. Let’s watch.
Man, it’s like 20 minutes into the movie and they’re still introducing whole new swaths of characters. Were people supposed to take notes while watching? Also, seriously? The city on fire is on fire because some dumb kids threw a cigarette? That’s…kinda disappointing. I was sort of hoping for gigantic explosion, and I’m not even usually a gigantic explosion kind of person.
Crow’s distressed about Mickey Mouse burning to death at 20:54.
Crow comment at 21:07 about same movies kinda sums up my feelings, as well.
The boys do a classic Lassie type sketch at 22:00.
There’s another interruption problem at 22:43, this time with Joel interrupting Josh. Afterwards, he asks Josh what he was going to say, and then says he was glad he interrupted him once he hears the riff. Burn. Crow/Trace even comments on it.
Uh, the boy in the striped shirt, Gerald or whatever his name is…to quote the Star Wars: Episode 1 RiffTrax, is it okay to say this kid sucks?
Crow thinks the movie is getting too scary as they leave the theater. He used to be quite a bit more sensitive early on, didn’t he? He still had his moments later in the series, though, like in Being from Another Planet [405] when he’s afraid of the basement.
Host Segment 1
The bots are doing something potentially suspicious with a telescope as we enter the bridge.
Joel brings up their supplies, saying somebody’s been overusing the oil. I don’t want to point fingers, but I’d guess it was Tom, seems like something he’d do. Then again, Crow has said in the past that WD-40 was his favorite lubricant, so maybe…
The bots aren’t listening to him, though- they’re trying to get their prank going. It’s surprising that Joel still falls for some of these by now, but I guess he’s not known for being really aware of his surroundings.
Servo was definitely the less innocent one if the first couple of seasons of the show. Crow had moments but Tom made his babe obsession a part of his personality.
Joel not only falls for the telescope eye ring prank, he rubs his eye all over it to be sure it gets on there really well. I’m sure they had to do that for the episode to make sure you could see it on camera, but it makes Joel look like he doesn’t know how to use a telescope. Maybe it’s just a weird telescope.
One thing I always liked about the bots- especially in the first few seasons but really throughout the show’s run- is how they don’t know so many basic things but still know details about, for instance, 1960s ad campaigns for cigarettes. It gives the impression that they have random parts of encyclopedias in their memory banks, which is probably true. I always felt like Joel probably dumped as much info as he could think of into the bots when he built them, but he couldn’t think of everything important at once, so they’ve got big holes in their knowledge base. For the purpose Joel built them for, it makes sense and works pretty well.
Poor Joel. He’s not the butt of the joke that often, at least not without getting back in some way.
Movie pt. 2
Crow’s confused at first by Joel’s comment about cattiness at 32:39.
At 37:55, Joel starts talking about seeing Orville Redenbacher get into a fistfight with his nephew at a party. I have no idea if this is true (though I doubt it) but maybe that eventually became the inspiration for the Orville Popcorn sketch in Godzilla vs. Megalon [212]. Odd how a weird little idea like that could stick around for so long.
Hm, I guess I did get my gigantic explosion after all. But somehow it still doesn’t fill the gaps in my heart…Actually that was really horrific. Geez.
Not important, but does anyone else think the psycho guy looks kinda like Peter Davison?
Joel laugh at 44:47, and a pretty enthusiastic one.
Huh, that movie section was unusually short.
Host Segment 2
Joel’s got an invention, which may have been inspired by the movie- Hell in a Handbag. This one, like many KTMA era inventions, will be reused in Season 1, in The Mad Monster [103].
Servo is not impressed by Crow’s flirting techniques with pretending-to-be-a-woman Joel and demonstrates his own. What is it with him and mangoes?
Joel got really into his part there for a second. Maybe he should have been in drag more often on the show, since, like, everyone else was. Actually maybe that was just all Mike.
Why would Joel program a thug algorithm into the bots? When did he ever think he’d need that? Maybe that explains what happens at the pinball machine in The Girl in Lovers Lane [509]. Also, I like how they can apparently just rummage through their own programming and find old stuff. Cool.
Joel seems to find the bots’ thug mode pretty funny. Maybe that’s why he programmed it into them.
Crow’s scared of the Hell-in-a-Handbag. Poor baby hahah. The way Joel grabs his neck affectionately afterwards is really cute, though. Joel says it was all in retaliation for the telescope prank earlier, but Servo didn’t seem phased, so really only Crow got punished. Crow’s also the only one who apologizes. Crow is always cute, but he’s extra cute in these old episodes. I just really love Crow, you guys.
Movie pt. 3
It’s called the Manson Refinery? That’s fitting, I suppose, with all the people it’s killed.
Crow falls right over backwards at 53:58. He and then Servo say they feel woozy. Understandable given the content of the scene. Ugh. But in reality, Trace was probably having trouble with the puppet. He has said in interviews that the KTMA Crow handled “like a T-square.”
At 56:18, Tom calls someone onscreen a “boinkus”? Doinkus, maybe?
Geez, nobody in this entire city has heard of stop, drop, and roll.
Host Segment 3
Joel and the bots do a little march/call and response thing. They’re having a little bit of trouble staying on beat, though (and on pitch). I like the song, though.
Joel’s jumpsuit is pretty fitted in the butt area. Just in case, you know, you were interested in knowing that.
They run down the hall with Cambot at Movie Sign. I’ve already forgotten if they’ve done that before in KTMA (that’s what happens when you go a year without working on your episode guide). They did it once or twice in the show proper, though not with the bots.
Movie pt. 4
Wow, seriously? First all the burning people, now surgery close-ups? How much pointlessly gross stuff is this movie going to include?
Also, dead bird shot, just to be sure everyone is sad. Why didn’t that kid just let the bird OUT OF THE CAGE? It can fly! That would at least give it a better chance.
And now the psycho’s comeuppance is getting anti-climatically crushed by a falling fire escape, and Shelley Winters dies too for no good reason? I haven’t even had anything to say about the riffers during this segment because stupid crap keeps happening in this movie.
Tom comments on how they killed off Shelley Winters in a stupid way, but the doctor guy somehow survives all the fire. I agree. This movie is stupid.
That’s the ending? THAT’S THE ENDING? Sappy music and romance and whatever, the city was on fire but hey it got put out (OFFSCREEN) so it’s all fine? Who cares about the thousands of victims and the millions in property damage? Not us, we’re kissing! Wow. Thanks for that, movie.
Crow gets excited about the name “McCrow” in the end credits at 1:37:22.
At 1:38:00, Servo begs to leave. At first Crow says they need to stay for the credits, but then agrees that they should go.
Servo also says goodbye to the audience as he leaves the theater.
Conclusion
Gypsy’s on deck for this segment, and Joel asks her where she’s been. Apparently “bumping into newsletters”. I wonder if she’s the one who printed them off.
Looks like back then you got a certificate for joining the fan club. I wonder if anyone out there still has theirs. Probably at least a few do.
I like Gypsy’s “ooh, aah” at the fan club membership card.
Crow tells the fans to keep more drawings coming. I guess he likes those.
Mr. Crow of Beverly Hills is still credited with the hair designs for the show.
Thoughts on the Movie
A more accurate name for this movie would be Oil Refinery and Area Around a Hospital on Fire, since most of the city is never actually on fire. Not that I’d want to see it, but with a title like City on Fire you kind of expect to see a whole city on fire. All I’m saying is our expectations were mismanaged. Also, what was the point of burning the house earlier in the movie? Just to give us a fake-out? “Hah, you thought the fire was going to be earlier in the movie but instead, it was later in the movie!” You really got us there, guys.
But jokes asides, this film mostly disgusted me. Does anyone want to watch long sequences of people getting burned alive? Do they like watching people endure terror and pain? It could be the filmmakers were just trying to underscore the dire situation, but it seems more like a sick fascination with showing suffering and death. I guess that’s common in movies and TV, in various forms, but it doesn’t make any sense to me. I talked about this a little in the entry for SST: Death Flight [K13], but it applies here again- pointless destruction of things and lives just doesn’t make good entertainment for me. Maybe a good disaster movie is about people overcoming and surviving in the face of horrible circumstances outside of their control. Certainly that’s not the case here. This movie becomes more a parade of lurid and gruesome imagery than anything else. No thank you. I guess maybe that’s why it wasn’t successful, hm.
On a lighter note of criticism, did every friggin’ TV movie in the ‘70s have to be about 800 different people? Seriously, that’s SST: Death Flight, Superdome, San Francisco International, this movie- ok, I guess Stranded in Space wasn’t. Or Code Name Diamond Head. Or Mitchell. But those are sci-fi, spy, and cop movies, respectively, while the others are disaster/action/um, airport genre. Whatever. Point is, you do not need 437 different protagonists. Stop putting in 437 different protagonists.
There’s not much else to say about this movie, I guess. The plot starts out confusing but converges and becomes somewhat less so as it goes along (though that's partially because several plot threads just drop off the map). Most of the acting is decent, some of the characters actually seem kind of interesting. Not every part of it sucks. Unfortunately, any of that mildly good stuff is buried in a pile of rubble and burnt bodies.
Review
Despite my distaste for the movie, this was a funny episode. I laughed out loud many times and had a hard time picking a favorite riff (though I did pick one- Crow: That’ll wake the dog up.) The guys are really starting to get good at this. Even with the slower pace of the improv riffing, it doesn’t really feel empty like some of the older eps do. That may have something to do with a more action-filled movie, too, but the jokes are definitely improving. While the movie is not as watchable, funny-wise I’d call this as good an episode as SST: Death Flight, which I previously called the best KTMA ep. Nice job, guys.
Well, too bad. Because there isn’t any in this movie. This episode features flashback clips, similar to what they did in Hellcats [209] in Season 2. I’m not sure of the reasoning behind the choice. Probably not time restraints, since the new material must have taken just as long to shoot as a regular episode. So *shrug*. Oh, and the last section of this one is missing! I’ve looked around but haven’t been able to find another version that has the ending. If anyone happens to have one, or know where I can find one, please let me know! Here’s your link, so let’s roll: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_3UTtsazuU
Prologue/ Movie intro
We enter on Servo typing a letter to Uncle Wally (possibly the one from Sesame Street?). How does he type with boxing gloves on without any hands? Science facts.
He states that it’s been nearly 1/3 of a year since Joel invented him. If we calculate from the date the episode first aired, which I tend to do just for the sake of convenience March 12, 1989, that puts his invention around the end of November 1988, which of course fits the timeline, such as it is. (I’m getting the dates from the episode guide at mst3kinfo.com, by the way.) I wonder if he’s measuring from his very beginnings as Beeper or just from when he got Servo-ized, not that it really matters.
Servo comes to the conclusion that because Joel invented him, his experiences are simulated. I don’t really think that’s how it works, but hey, whatever. It also sounds like the Uncle Wally to whom he’s writing might be some relative he actually believes he has.
Apparently, though Joel neglected to provide him with functioning arms, he can still type with his feet…Okay, nobody tell Tom that he doesn’t have feet. He must learn it eventually though, since it’s directly mentioned in at least two host segments that I can think of off the top of my head. In Danger! Death Ray [620] and The Projected Man [901], not that anyone is going to rush off to look them up.
It sounds like at this point, the bots were pretty enthusiastic about the idea of going down to Earth. I wonder if Joel was selling the idea, or if it was the movies and other stuff they learned that got them excited. It also seems like at this point, it was expected to occur sometime eventually, if not soon. I wonder when they kinda gave up on it. Later on in the series, they talk about it every once in a while, but for the most part, they seem resigned to and even content with life on the Satellite.
Servo and mango juice. Always the mango juice. I can understand the frustration with the dehydrated stuff, though.
“Airheaded white guy smiling up the place” I never really thought of Joel like that, but it’s a pretty accurate description, I’ve gotta give him that hahaha.
It seems that Servo actually almost talked the Mads into bringing them back down to Earth the day prior. His reasons sound a little thin to me, but the Mads aren’t typically the sharpest people. It doesn’t seem very hard to distract them from the original purpose of their experiment. They’ve done it to themselves a few times already.
Crow was always Crow, even from the beginning. His first reaction to seeing the Mads is to slip straight into troll mode. Unfortunately, it screws up Tom’s deal with them. They sure are fickle.
Are the Mads’ glasses different this week? I guess I don’t pay enough attention. I can never remember what they were the week before. That could be easily solved by going to look at the previous episode, but eeeeeeeeeenh *Frank hands*
I’m glad the Mads find the name Dick Butkus as ridiculous as the rest of us must. I don’t think it’s possible to have a worse name than that. Here’s a picture of him for no reason:
Servo’s letter to “Whom it may concern” seems to have evolved into a newsletter or something.
For whatever reason, this episode doesn’t seem to have a prologue- it just heads right into the movie intro and from there into Movie Sign. It’s possible that a cut was in there somewhere, and somebody just edited the video with great expertise, but I don’t know why anyone would bother to do that.
Movie pt. 1
Joel thinks the printing press at 4:21 looks kinda like Servo. I think he might need to get his glasses checked.
At 5:53, does Joel say “He’s creamy”? It kinda sounds like he says “He’s Korean” but that doesn’t seem all that likely. My immediate thought would be the line from Kitten with a Whip [615], but obviously this was a long time before that.
A classic Joel “Oh woooow…” at 9:43.
At 10:05, Crow claims the scenes of the river boat are making him nauseous.
Is it weird that I’m hearing phantom KevinServo singing along to the jazz on the river boat? That’s exactly the kind of spot we’d be hearing it in a Season 2 or later. It’s interesting how ingrained some things become after watching the show so much.
Crow starts to dance about 11:26 and the other two join in. Also, Joel reaches up to grab the bridge, but he’s probably like a foot away.
Somebody makes a cougar sound at 11:42 (to go with the Cougars football team in the movie). I’m not sure who, but I think it was Josh. I don’t think cougars actually sound like that, but you know, whatever.
Tom starts to sing a song at 13:31, and Joel tells him to settle down. Then Tom keeps leaning over onto Joel and Joel keep pushing him back up until he finally just holds him place in his own seat. Heheh.
On-screen at 15:30, a guy’s wife says she needs a little affection, and Servo states quickly that he needs some, too. Crow and Joel tell him not to look at them, and he tells them not to worry.
I like Joel’s film noir narration (noirration?) starting at 16:01.
At 20:16, one of the more famous dirty riffs from KTMA, involving “little cocktail weenies”. Quick work by Josh, there.
First instance of the “rhubarb, rhubarb” thing that they often did with crowds, at 24:20
At 24:21, Joel asks Crow to do his David Janssen impression. I guess that was a thing, because it eventually made it into the opening host segment of Gamera vs. Gaos [308].
Just after 26:37- is that riff what I think it is? Man, they snuck a lot of stuff into this episode.
On the way out of the theater, Tom says he’s gonna go work on his letter.
Host Segment 1
…which he proceeds to do. Has he decided who he’s writing to yet?
We get another flashback, this time of Joel running high voltage electrical currents through Servo for no particular reason that I can see. Unlike the one from the opener, this one’s an actual flashback to a host segment from a previous episode (SST: Death Flight [K13]). We’ve already done that segment when we did that episode, so there’s not a whole lot else for me to say about it here.
When we come back from the flashback, we get a close-up of Servo’s mouth. It’s painted red on the inside, which I never noticed before. Something about that kind of disturbs me.
Tom seems kinda fed up with Joel here, which, going by that flashback, it’s hard to blame him for. He must get better later.
Movie pt. 2
Joel’s the one late into the theater this time, and Crow moves out the way to let him in.
Is it just me, or is Servo sitting a lot lower down in his seat than usual?
Crow’s riff cracks Joel up at 36:40.
39:31- Two “oh wooow”s from Joel in same episode.
Servo’s falling over all over the place at 42:54. He claims robot narcolepsy.
At 44:22, Servo starts singing a song, and Joel questions why he’s doing it. I’m not sure why that’s any different than when he usually breaks into song, maybe because it wasn’t really related to anything happening in the movie.
Unrelated movie thing: the line delivery at 45:43 is really weird.
Crow’s comment at 46:09- is it ironic that he’d be talking about how big someone else’s beak is?
At 47:21, in their list of things the P.K. in the guy’s name might stand for, Tom submits “peeling carrots”. Not quite, there, buddy.
Host Segment 2
Tom’s still typing up his letter. He mentions them being in decaying orbit, but I guess it wasn’t decaying all the fast, since they stayed there without much trouble till at least Season 7.
We get another flashback. This time it’s Joel berating the bots and generally being domineering and rude, in Tom’s attempt to convince us that the Joel we see on air is nothing like the Joel he gets behind the scenes. It vibes similarly to the “This Boy’s Life” mean-Mike simulation from Code Name Diamond Head [608].
Joel’s smoking in this one (though the cigarette clearly isn’t lit, being a prop and all) to underscore his jerkiness.
Gypsy has a drive train? And it’s a piece of clear plastic or glass? I mean, they’re all made out of random junk anyway, so I’m not gonna question it. Also, what would Gypsy getting her oil changed every week have to do with the shower? Cleaning off afterwards, perhaps?
So, do they have recharge every day, or is it like a weekly thing? I always imagined they just got plugged in at night or something, or maybe charged off of ambient energy from the ship. Maybe recharge is something more specific than that. In these early days, it seems like the bots function somewhat differently than they do later on, so it’s very possible that they used to do it like this and then got upgrades later. Or maybe Tom totally just made it up.
Hahah I like Joel’s line- “I’m not normally this way, it’s just Servo’s perception of me.” which also pretty much states that this didn’t really happen, at least not the way Tom’s presenting it.
I know it’s just Tom’s perception of him, as noted, but it’s still kind of unsettling to see Joel hitting the bots like that. Also, he ashes on Gypsy!
I was about to ask how Tom even stuck his gum under the theater seats, and then I remembered that right now the same bot is typing with feet that he doesn’t have, so it probably doesn’t much matter.
It seems like Tom is a lot better at brushing off criticism than Crow, especially when it comes from Joel. Tom gets upset when somebody points out a weakness that he’s already insecure about, but if it’s something that he’s cool with, he’ll usually just ignore or shrug off such comments. Crow is more sensitive to what other people think of him, and is generally much more dependent on other people’s reactions to him. You can see it here- when Joel gets mad at him, he seems more upset. Servo fights back a little more. Or course, this is his flashback, so it’s not surprising that Crow would be wimpier and he would be cooler, but still, the reactions do fit with their personalities overall.
The flashback ends with lots of famous movie quotes. Servo makes everything so dramatic.
Movie pt. 3
Tom’s already in his seat when the other two come in. Crow brought Jujubes, apparently.
Servo’s attempt at 54:04 to spell “booze” kind of falls apart.
Something about Crow’s line delivery at 55:52 is absurdly cute.
Servo keeps tipping over, and tells Joel that he needs him to adjust his equilibrium function, at 56:58. There must be something going wrong with the puppet.
At 58:05, Crow leans over on Joel’s shoulder, then the other direction all the way out of frame, maybe to mimic Servo’s tipping?
Joel attempts to play the band’s instruments at 1:04:24.
Another past-the-radar type joke from Tom as they leave the theater.
Host Segment 3
Host Segment 3: And the Letter Continues. Servo talks about how he does love his Satellite buddies, even though he’d never tell Crow.
This time the flashback is a montage collection of fun moments, complete with sappy music. I wonder if that came out of the studio’s library, too.
Fittingly, they included the clip of them playing football. There’s also one where Gypsy has a bunch of tennis balls or something in her mouth, which I’ve never seen before. It must be from K03, because Joel’s got the long hair and the beige jumpsuit (he had the turquoise one in K01 and K02).
I also like how Tom included the mirror-verse dream sequence where the Mads are suffering on the Satellite of Loathe in his memories of fun times.
He’s doing his Louis Armstrong impression as we come back from the montage.
Joel comes in and tells Servo that it’s almost Movie Sign. Do they know when Movie Sign is? I always thought it seemed to be at random, based on how much they usually flip out when it happens. Maybe it varies, since sometimes it seems like they have a lot of time between movie sections and other times not much at all, so maybe sometimes they get a countdown and sometimes they don’t? Never knowing would make it a lot more stressful.
Joel seems a little concerned with Tom’s insistence about his lovely montage. He even looks at the letter he’s been typing and seems confused. Also, he handles him very gingerly when he picks him up to take him into the theater. Either the puppet must be kinda fragile, or it was just because Josh still had to keep working him while they moved.
Movie pt. 4
Servo comes into the theater on his own, and stills looks like he’s having a tipping problem.
Crow starts doing goofy things with his seat (or at least pretends to) after he gets into the theater.
Crow asks if we’re ever going to see any actual football in this football movie, at 1:13:08. Good question, buddy.
Movie thing: Oh, the girl who got poisoned was the daughter from before? I can’t keep track of what all these people look like, although the poor video quality is definitely not helping.
Another movie thing: There’s the classic 555 movie phone number at 1:14:30. It’s not really relevant, but I think that kind of thing is interesting.
At 1:15:02, Crow (not Joel, this time, surprisingly) mentions the Fan Club info on the screen (also his voice is adorable when he does) and Servo adds the address. As stated in previous entries, I really want to know how they had all the ads organized, as to how they fit it into the episodes.
Joel questions why the husband’s speech made the wife come back to him, at 1:16:39. I have to agree.
1:17:22- Crow is just throwing the cute inflection all over the place today. I don’t think it’s intentionally adorable, but it’s killing me here.
Joel’s doing his trademark head tilt thing around 1:21:15. He just keeps like that, too.
At 1:21:20, they talk about how they can’t think of anything funny to say, and Tom blames Crow’s behavior towards the Mads in the opening segment that they have to watch this movie at all. Crow can’t come up with a very good comeback, but they almost get in a fight, and again at 1:24:30. Joel tells them to calm down, since the movie’s almost over. Servo tells Crow that he actually loves him like a brother, despite saying in the previous host segment that he would never do so.
At 1:25:25, Crow mentions what a yawn-fest the movie has been, and Tom says it doesn’t matter because most of the viewers have tuned to something else by this point anyway. They didn’t mention viewers or the TV show aspect as often after the KTMA days.
Crow notes again at 1:26:27 that even though we’ve finally gotten to the Super Bowl part of the movie, we still don’t see any football, but he doesn’t think the band and cheerleaders are so bad.
Movie thing at 1:25:57- 25 years old? She definitely looks older than 25 to me. Also this marching band music kinda puts a damper on the drama of this chase scene, as do the small security carts. And then a scaffolding chase? Is this turning into Space Mutiny all of a sudden?
1:30:58- Crow’s still on about the lack football thing, not that I can blame him.
They all stand up for the national anthem when it plays before the credits.
Servo wants to know who won, as they leave the theater.
Conclusion
As, stated above, the last host segment is cut off of the video. (I will not deny that I yelled out “Noooo” when it got to the end and there was no more.) So for now we’ll just have to imagine.
Thoughts on the Movie
There is a decided lack of football in this movie, which you’ve probably noticed because I’ve mentioned it like six times by now. I guess nobody ever said that there would be, but when you hear it labeled a football movie, you kind of expect to see people playing football. Anyway, this movie is… really pretty bad (not shocking, given the context in which we’re seeing it).
I didn’t ever really know what was going on or who anyone was. There’s at least five different story threads we’re supposed to be following, and I kinda knew what’s going on with like three of them at any given moment, but not enough to care. Additionally, the crime scenes, or scary scenes, or whatever those are supposed to be, are totally disconnected from the rest of anything. I could see what it was going for, but it really didn’t get there. Very much in the same vein as San Francisco International [614] and SST: Death Flight [K13], although I think those two were slightly better because they were easier to follow, and a lot more amusing in their badness. Was there really that much of this in the 70s?
An assorted collection of other thoughts about it that I can’t be bothered to expound on: I just can’t buy the P.K. Jackson guy as having been a huge football star; he’s just way too scrawny. The villain, Lainey is pretty much the 70s incarnate. Um, also, could a Whirlpool actually explode like that? I’m not electrician, but…well, whatever. That’s one of the lesser problems this movie has. So yeah. Not a good movie.
Review
This one was a pretty smooth watch. Not that many laugh-out-loud moments for me (Favorite riff- Football dude: “You’re going to a shrink? What for?” Crow: “I wanna be smaller.”), but that can depend on mood. Still went down pretty easy, even with me getting annoyed with the movie for being so hard to follow. (Also, no Wizard of Oz reference, again, not that anyone besides me cares.) It seems like, with the riff quality and character interactions steadily improving and becoming more interesting, the long empty stretches are more noticeable. I’m not really complaining about it (for one thing, they make it easier to finish these because there’s less stuff to go through), but they do stick out a little. But overall, good. Fun, Servo-centric host segments, and decent riffing for the era. All good work in progress.
You guys are great (though your taste in blogs in somewhat questionable). I've never been especially on-the-ball about updates, but the past 2 months I have been especially lax. September was weird because I was kinda freaking out about/preparing for/then going to/then decompressing from Salt Lake Comic Con, and then October's been kinda busy because I've been trying to keep up with Inktober. So I've been neglecting this blog even more than I was before.
BUT
Since I'm too lame to do NaNoWriMo, instead I'm going to try and marathon the rest of KTMA in the month of November. If I really get on a delicious buttery roll, I'll start into Season 1, as well. So I'm promising you guys (if ya'll still care, and I wouldn't blame you if you didn't) at least 7 entries soon.
Almost makes some kind of sense in this cut (almost)
General notes
It always comes back to Sandy Frank, doesn’t it? This uncut version of the “film” helps clear up a lot of the confusion of the Season 3 hacked-even-more-to-bits version. Well, I say a lot… Anyway, we’ve got no major news to mention here, so let’s get right to it, I guess. Episode link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MR9HpOpcQXU
Movie intro
Uh-oh, looks like the Mads are having some domestic problems. Josh looks like he’s having a hard time keeping a straight face.
I wonder if the Mr. Potato Head serves some kind of purpose, or if Dr. F just likes to play with it.
Apparently the source of the argument is Larry’s disbelief in their own madness, insisting that they are, in fact, only angry scientists. Dr. F’s objection to the idea seems to stem mainly from not wanting a lame, touchy-feely partner, though he says it’s because it would cost too much to change the letterhead. What letterhead? Do they have official stationery? Also, didn’t Dr. F win a gajillion dollars in Vegas in the last episode? Have they already blown all of it (which I would believe, actually), or is changing a letterhead a lot more expensive than I would have thought?
Larry suggests that they need a change, like more colorful outfits, maybe. Obviously Dr. F eventually took that idea to heart, though Larry must have either changed his mind about his outfit, or Dr. F didn’t let him choose his own.
Joel interrupts their argument to ask if they’re still doing an experiment that week. I wonder if it was one of those instances where the Mads call the Satellite and then seem to immediately forget that they did, since I’m not sure if a) the S.O.L. can call the Mads at this point, or b) Joel would actually want to. (That feature was definitely installed at some point, because Mike calls the Mads in Beginning of the End [517] just to see if he can.)
The Mads don’t seem very happy that Joel was listening in on their conversation. What do they have to hide? I guess that’s a dumb question.
I feel like Joel might have been trolling a little when he said he’d been listening since Thursday. Then again, it’s also pretty possible that the Mads knocked the receiver off the hook, as it were, and accidentally left the feed on for a few days (assuming these take place on Sunday, not, again, that it really matters). I can imagine Joel and the bots hanging around, popcorn in hand, watching the Mads do whatever they do. Even if it’s not that interesting, they might not be able to turn it off from their end. I guess if it has been on since Thursday, that also answers my earlier question about whether they called Joel and then forgot a second later.
I don’t want to know the state of Dr. Erhardt’s casserole.
The last part where they both rush off feels more like the Mads segments from the show proper. I feel like we get our first glimpse of Dr. F as we eventually come to know him.
Also, just as an update, Joel is still adorable.
Movie pt. 1
Crow is yet again a slowbie. Do they have to cue Trace when to bring him in or something, and it’s a bit delayed?
Movie thing: okay, I’m sorry, but what is up with this music at the beginning?
At 5:01, Crow opens his mouth to catch some of the streaming water. Looks like Tom is reaching up to get some, too.
When the people in the movie unlock the gate at 5:21, Joel tries to “unlock” Crow’s net (wiggles it around). Crow seems a little bit ticklish, maybe.
At 5:39, Joel says that the Mighty Jack ship looks like Crow’s brother. I assume he means it looks like it could be Crow’s brother, and not that Crow has a brother who looks like this ship. I don’t really see how it looks all that much like Crow, though.
Crow seems to think the ship is pretty sweet. He keeps saying “cool” and “awesome” when it does stuff, though he might mean it sarcastically. It’s hard to tell from his inflection.
The bots start to return to base at 7:37, until they realize the guy wasn’t talking to them.
Tom’s attempts to quickly pronounce the Japanese names in the credits are…well, he tried.
8:22- Actually, it was 1987 (the Sandy Frank version; the original TV show was 1968), but that was super impressive if Josh just read off the Roman numerals like that.
Joel reminds everybody about the existence of the fan club, and the upcoming fan club newsletter, at 8:37, seemingly without any particular prompting. It kind of sounded like he just happened to remember it, so he wanted to mention it before he forgot again. Also, Tom tries to add a little announcement, but messes it up and then mumbles something about his head not being screwed on.
“Kitty!” at 9:50.
Joel whacks one of the movie guys in his giant face at 16:17.
At 17:04, it sounds like Joel says “Strap on your Mighty Jack crotch cages.” Um…what…? Also, Crow’s biting various things on-screen around the same time.
At 18:30, Joel asks Mr. Atari about the secret to Mario Bros. That’s Nintendo, not Atari, but I’ll give him a pass on that one, since it was released on Atari platforms, as well.
Host Segment 1
The bots somehow welded themselves together. I would have loved to see how they accomplished that. They’re worried about telling Joel, most likely because they’ll get in trouble. Crow says something about “the book” saying that Joel will just laugh. What book?
Joel doesn’t seem bothered or even surprised by the bots welded-together state. I guess this may not be the first time something like this has happened, knowing them.
Oh, apparently the book Crow was talking about was “The Boy’s Life Book of Safe-But-Naughty Practical Jokes”. I feel like that book may not actually be that safe, if it tells kids how to weld themselves together. That would be okay if it were specifically marketed towards robots, but if it’s supposed to be for human kids, parents may want to pick out a different Christmas present.
Aw, Joel pretty much shoots their enthusiasm right down, hahaha. But that’s probably a good thing, since it was pretty dumb thing to do, and if he doesn’t react to it, they’re not likely to try it again for attention.
The fact that Crow wants to know what Joel actually would think is funny tells you something about him, I think. He’s always seemed to be the one who really wanted Joel’s attention the most. Servo loves attention from anyone, but Crow seems to want Joel’s specifically.
Welded together and wearing women’s foundation garments? Would that be funny, Joel, really? Apparently the bots think so, at least enough to try it out. Or maybe they just want that badly to please him.
Did Joel drop that pen(cil) on purpose? Kinda looked like it.
[ ^Edit: It was pointed out to me that he probably dropped down under the table so they could make a smooth cut in the tape, since they probably couldn’t actually put on the “foundation garments” that quickly. So, yes, probably dropped it on purpose, heh.]
I was about to ask why they had bustier/dress forms lying around within quick n’ easy reach, and then I remembered that there really could be any reason for that in this show.
Movie pt. 2
Tom jumps for joy at the movie guy’s suggestion at 31:56. He insists that he’s practicing to be a bouncer.
At 35:07, Servo points out that the lady made a lot of assumptions based on not a lot of information. He has a really good point, I think.
Crow thinks the ship is cool again at 35:13, though, as before, it’s possible he’s being sarcastic.
At 36:20, Crow’s question about the lack of lightbulbs in the film leads to Joel mentioning prime rib, and Crow says that Joel’s been on some kind of “prime rib kick.” Wonder what he means by that. Probably that Joel’s been bringing it up a lot lately? *shrug*
There’s something really adorable about Crow’s delivery at 38:10.
Joel puts on a weird voice while talking about biscuits at 38:23. He also karate chops the guy’s neck at 39:49.
At 40: 19, Servo asks Crow to pass the pork rinds, and he does. It’s kind of funny to me to see them eating in the theater, because they seem to get mad about Joel and Mike doing it later in the series. (In Wild World of Batwoman [515], Mike brings popcorn into the theater and they tell him he’s not allowed to have it, and in Monster A-Go Go [421], they get mad that Joel has a soda, though that may be because he blatantly lies about having it, and/or won’t let them have one.)
At 44:43, Joel makes another reference to just eating Gilligan, like in the previous episode (although it was Servo that time). Was that a thing, generally, or just something they talked about a lot? Crow says something about working it in again this week, so I don’t know what…
Joel has to yank Tom out of the theater at the end of the segment, very much like he does at the end of Gamera [302] with Crow.
Host Segment 2
The bots try to decipher what humans find funny. They don’t get Punky Brewster. They do, however, think that the robot from Lost in Space is funny. (It seems like they never really stop, if the opening host segment from Time Chasers [821] is any indication, though again, they might have been purposefully trying to be annoying.) Because I forgot to shoehorn in a picture in the last entry, here’s a pointless picture of The Robot:
I’m not sure why the bots seem so confused about human humor (humanor?). They seem to have been doing fine at gauging it for several weeks. Yes, they’re mostly amusing themselves, but they’re also amusing Joel. Then again, Joel’s not exactly your average human. Maybe it’s just not something they thought about a whole lot before now.
Now they’re questioning Joel’s sense of humor, though. Admittedly, the examples they cite do kind of call it into question.
I like how when Servo suggests perhaps they ought to destroy Joel, and Crow’s not into the idea, he immediately assumes that the reason that Crow doesn’t want to do it because it wouldn’t work, and not because it would be a bad thing to do.
Also, where did they get that episode of Punky Brewster? I guess it was probably pilfered from the studio’s library like everything else. It also looks like they used the same chroma key technique that they use for the movies in the theater to put it on that little TV.
Movie pt. 3
When they come into the theater, I can’t tell whether the seats are really squeaky or it’s the movie making that sound.
At 49:55, when the missile fires, Crows accidentally drops his Dots (lots of snacks this week). Servo volunteers to get them off the floor, but ends up becoming a sticky mess. Crow also jumps off his seat to help, but Joel makes them get up. Tom says the dirty floor gives him an idea for a Halloween costume. Eventually his idea makes it into the Invention Exchange in Godzilla vs. Megalon [212].
Joel is a meanie at 50:40, reminding Crow of how he was frozen into a Christmas tree for a few weeks. Crow has flashbacks and doesn’t want to watch everything being frozen. Poor baby!
Tom gets majestic at 50:52. Very him. He doesn’t usually apologize for it later on, though.
More waterfall drinking from Crow at 52:25.
The guys dance to the snappy spy music at 53:10. Crow gets especially into it.
At 54:38, Crow takes offense at the word “flocking” for some reason, perhaps because of his time as a treecicle (although it might be partially so he can sneak in another pun). He even nudges/bites Joel’s shoulder to underscore his seriousness.
Joel makes a note of the fan club information being on the screen at 55:46. I’m really increasingly curious as to how they did all that. Maybe they had somebody cueing them when to call commercial or the phone number or whatever, since Joel seems quite deliberate this time. He also mentions the newsletter again. Did he forget he already did that, or did he just want to make sure anybody who had tuned in part-way through would hear about it, too? I have a feeling it’ll get mentioned at least one more time before the episode is over.
At 1:01:25, the bots get mad at the movie guys for hitting a woman. That’s a trend that continues through pretty much the whole run of the show.
Movie thing: …They bother to roll the “r” on Perez, but they pronounce “Manuel” like an instruction booklet? I can’t even with this dubbing…
At 1:03:00, Josh accidentally mentions himself. Oops.
At 1:04:32, Crow says that one of the guys on-screen looks like Frank Conniff. Frank was a part of the Minneapolis comedy scene, along with most of the people who eventually became part of the show, particularly the writing team/cast, so I guess they probably knew him or at least knew of him. It’s kind of fun to hear him mentioned so long before he became TV’s Frank. But, which guy was Crow saying looked like him? None of them really do, but I guess maybe the one on the far left? I can sorta see that.
1:06:24- I never thought I’d see the day when Crow steered somebody AWAY from the word “booger”. But I guess that happens with early character development phases.
Tom starts up a round of that game where you say you saw something gross- in this case, a worm- and then say “I one it” and then somebody else says “I two it” and then you go through until somebody has to say “I eight (ate) it” and that person loses. Does that game have a name? Has anybody else ever played that? Anyway, the others aren’t that eager to join in, and both try to subvert it so they don’t have to eight it. Eventually Joel gives in, though, and Tom’s giant “BAH!” is kind of hilarious.
Is Tom’s bottom half falling off as they leave the theater?
Host Segment 3
Crow is bowling, and Tom commentates. This sketch gets repeated almost verbatim in The Crawling Hand [106].
Joel’s surprised that the bots have the ability to smell, so he must not have programmed that into them. For some reason, the bots act like it was a secret. Maybe it was their own project to program that sense into themselves, or something…?
Here’s another example of Joel not quite getting that whole “free will really means free will” thing. It seems like sometimes he thinks, because they bots usually listen to him at this point, that they will about everything. Clearly that’s not the case, but it seems to take Joel a while to adjust to that idea. Still, he’s being kind of a butt here, and the bots aren’t having it.
It amuses me that Servo calls him a dweeb.
I like Joel’s petulant-7-year-old button press at Movie Sign. Also, I’m kinda liking the popped collar on the jumpsuit. I wonder if he put it up like that deliberately. Probably not, knowing him.
Movie pt. 4
When Joel comes into the theater, he directly calls the bots jerks for running off! For whatever reason, that kind of shocks me, in a slightly amused way. Servo’s not having that, either, and they get into a bit of an insult-off for a moment.
Crow’s gentle correction at 1:17:55 is absurdly cute.
Movie thing: I literally yelled out “Nooooo” when they’re talking about the “portable sychroton (sp?) unit” and how it turns water into ice instantly by accelerating the molecules. And somehow that device also allows you to alter molecular structure of anything anywhere? Did anyone even try a tiny bit to make up any science for this that was not utter garbage? No? I mean, I get that it’s a genre thing and it doesn’t all have to be 100% perfect, but this…
At 1:21:15, the guys dance to the snazzy tunes again.
Crow’s afraid of the freeze-ray again at 1:25:40 and talks about it again at 1:27:55.
As they’re leaving the theater, Joel says “Open the bay pod doors, Sarvo.” Oh, Joel. We do love you.
Conclusion
Looks like the viewer mail is already becoming a regular segment. Obviously, that trend continued for quite a while- all the way through their time on Comedy Central.
Wow, the quality on this is so low you can't see anything but white when Cambot shows the letters on stillstore.
Crow seems very excited about reading letters, until it says that Servo is the letter-writer’s favorite. He stills maintains most of his enthusiasm, thought.
I love Joel’s little bounce when he asks Cambot to put up the next letter, and I love Crow’s “Yay!” when it contains a drawing of him and his little happy bounce when it says he’s the best. He’s not as happy with the description of his appearance, thought. I can’t deal with how adorable Crow is all the time.
Servo got a fan letter from a guy telling him that some girl he knew was in love with him? Interesting.
It’s kind of fun to watch Joel look at people off-camera when he’s on set. He can’t seem to keep from doing it. It happens a lot, though I think the frequency decreases over time.
Thoughts on the Movie
I was mostly following what was going on, basically, until about 50 minutes in, and then the Mighty Jack blackouts started setting in, and nothing seemed connected to anything else anymore. Also, what was with the violent news stills at the beginning? But I’ll leave it at that for now, and do this one along with the other Sandy Franks in Season 3. Hooray (?) for laziness!
Review
Another good one. I kinda don’t know what else to say about it. Pretty much the same thing I’ve been saying- the riffing is getting better, the characters are developing, the show’s really finding its groove. (Favorite riff- Joel: Well, that all depends on what you mean by politics…) This episode is not especially remarkable, but it’s good. That’s kind of my mantra for these, I guess. Good, getting better.
I believe it is "remember to poke holes in the suitcase OR the cat will die." What do you think ma'ams?
Double and triple checked it- he says "Don't forget to punch holes in the suitcase SO that cat will die." Actually, here, let me just link ya:
It's entirely possible that it was a slip-up and that Josh actually meant to say "OR that cat will die", but what he actually said was "so". I was really just being a smart aleck about it in the entry.
So I updated the theme quite a bit, and I hope that the new layout is more convenient and a little bit prettier. Is there anything glaring that makes it difficult to navigate or hard to read, or any other problems? Thoughts?
Thank you for keeping this going. I'm going to get myself some fan copies of the KTMA series and keep following along.
Aw, thanks, Anonny! You guys are all super nice. I’d probably keep making them even if nobody read them, but it makes me so happy to know that people like them!
This is episode is sort of landmark one, in a way- it’s widely considered one of the best of the KTMA episodes. Whenever somebody asks where to start going about watching KTMA, this is usually the one that gets brought up. We’ll have to see if that’s true. Other notable notes: Trace is back this week! Hooray! Also, a fan letter is read on the air for the first time (not the last). That’s it for announcements; on to the show.
Movie Intro
Interestingly, we actually start out with a little promo for the upcoming episode, with Joel and the bots singing about TV movies. There’s not really a good way to justify that in-universe, timeline-wise, but it’s one of those things that just exists in the medium of TV, so I’m willing to ignore it. Which is kinda saying something, because generally I try to find some kind of explanation even if I don’t really need one. Maybe I’m just getting lazy. ANYWAY
Dr. Forrester is back from Vegas. Apparently winning a gajillion dollars makes him moody. (Part of me wonders if it’s actually because something happened with his La Cage Aux Folles…friend that was mentioned in the last episode.) I don’t know why winning is supposed to be upsetting to him, other than because it’s unexpected and therefore humorous.
It seems that the Mads are now totally loaded, and have more fancy cars. I’m really starting to think that one or more of the group were big car people, because they seem to come up in a lot of the host segments. Also, there’s another mention of the Mad Scientist-mobile, which I would still love to see.
Did they always have those lab coats? I never noticed them until now, if they did. Maybe because Trace has been gone, and Josh wears his open so it just looks like a jacket. Also, why dark tan? Also, Dr. F is wearing dark glasses this week. Has he always had those, too?
The Isaac Asimov gift basket idea gets reused later in a Season 1 episode. I’m very curious as to what space smells like.
I’m not entirely sure what “masculine hygiene mist” is, but I think I’ll pass on Googling that one.
Kind of sweet that Drs. Forrester and Erhardt seem to have a pretty nice relationship, but I can’t really care about that because they’re both huge jerks. Sorry, just how I roll.
Apparently, Dr. F got this movie directly from one of the many TV actors that was in it.
Joel shows up before Movie Sign for a big spit take. It seems the Brains were all big fans of spit takes, because there’s at least one other host segment (in Daddy-O, 307) dedicated to them.
Movie pt. 1
Crow is slow into the theater. It seems like it’s a pattern with him. Also, it looked like Joel helped Servo into his seat, and put his…lid, I guess, back on after it falls off.
They did a pretty good job keeping up with the river of TV actor names.
At 3:10, they all read the words off a barrel, and Servo has trouble pronouncing the word “volatile”, which Crow immediately teases him about.
The pilot says “Rotate.” at 24:24 when the plane is taking off, and the bots obediently start to spin around in their seats.
Joel calls commercial at 24:43.
At 26:46, the time and temperature come up on the side of the screen. It’s a balmy 6° in the Minneapolis (which actually probably isn’t too awful for a mid-February evening).
Joel has some trouble figuring out where the windows are in the plane’s cabin at 29:42.
I love Tom’s seal pun at 30:25, though Crow doesn’t seem to have much patience for it.
Tom’s line at 37:33- “Why didn’t they just eat Gilligan?”- was used again in a later episode (I don’t remember which, but probably another one featuring Alan Hale Jr.), and became the trope namer for this entry on TV Tropes: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/JustEatGilligan
Joel’s voice-cracky riff at 38:36 amuses me. He doesn’t sound that energetic very often.
Movie thing: What do you mean they’ve killed you all, grudge-holding mechanic guy? You’re the one who PURPOSELY BROKE THE PLANE, so…
Host Segment 1
Joel sets up an experiment to show the bots what pain feels like….Did the bots actually ask for this lesson, or did Joel just decide that for some reason this was one of the most important things they needed to know about being human?
It seems like the settings on that pain simulator escalate a tad bit quickly, unless of course Joel’s just jumping around and not going in order. The whole thing’s very Princess Bride six-fingered man, I feel like.
Crow’s pretty eager to see Servo experience some pain. That’s pretty Crow, I guess.
It doesn’t seem like even the Arsenio setting caused much outward reaction, but apparently it was bad enough for Joel to decide the experiment is over. Also, that negative camera effect doesn’t look too bad, considering their total per-episode budget was roughly $3.50.
Evidently, the pain that this machine delivers can build up in an electronic body and be transferred to another electronic body through a simple touch. Because science.
Joel doesn’t seem bothered by the bots’ sibling-like fighting. He never really seems to be. He usually just seems to think it’s funny.
Movie pt. 2
I’m assuming that Joel’s comment about the “boner award” at 45:38 was probably using the older definition of the word “boner”, meaning an outrageous or highly embarrassing mistake. I mean, it could be the, uh, more modern definition, since the whole pregnancy thing, but I think the other one makes more sense in the context. Crow’s sound effect doesn’t really do anything to clear it up.
The string of lists they provide at 45:50 is very much in line with the kind of riffs they use a lot later on in the show’s run.
At 49:19, Crow mentions that he hopes the lady who’s wiping a guy’s face shoves the hankie up said guy’s nose. Joel thinks Crow only thinks that’s funny because he’s jealous, not having a nose himself. Or maybe because he doesn’t understand how painful that would actually be, since he doesn’t have a nose. I’m not sure which Joel is implying.
Joel calls commercial at 53:30.
Joel and the bots experience some turbulence at 1:00:35.
Host Segment 2
Gypsy’s voice suddenly becomes much more feminine, which weirds Joel out. Her claim that she got over a cold only confuses him further, since he purposefully programmed her to have a deep n’ sexy Kim Carnes voice, except for the fact that he messed it up and she ended up with her current voice instead. Not sure why that isn’t fixable, since he changed Tom’s voice lots of times, and even Crow’s turns out to be changeable (much) later on. Well, actually, I guess he does end up changing it between KTMA and Season 1, but it’s still pretty, well, you know. Maybe he really did botch it so badly that there was only so much he could do without taking her completely apart.
Gypsy’s Marilyn Monroe-style song is kind of disturbing. Of course, it was kind of disturbing when Marilyn Monroe did it, so I guess that’s not surprising. Joel seems torn between amusement and discomfort.
Joel really is kind of dumbfounded, but it turns out that it was just Servo throwing his voice in order to mess with him. Not sure how he produced that voice, either, but he’s already demonstrated like 4 different ones over the course of the show so far, so whatever.
The bots’ lines about nobody being home and the factory making different stuff get reused in a later episode. I can’t remember which one it is, and I’m not going to go sift through two or three season’s worth of Mads segments to find it, so if anybody knows off the top of their heads, inform me. I know it’s after Season 1, because it involves Frank.
Also, is Josh working both puppets at the same time again? He sure can multitask!
Movie pt. 3
At 1:14:49, Joel sounds genuinely concerned when the old guy starts to cough. Crow doesn’t seem nearly so sympathetic- probably a combination of general irreverence and a lack of full understanding of the reality of sickness, age, and death.
Crow messes up his riff at 1:20:06, and thinks it’s kinda funny. Cutie.
Crow also seems to be in a hurry to get out of the theater. Wonder if he’s up to something.
Host Segment 3
It’s a limbo-off, accompanied by Tom Servo singing the Banana Boat Song. Of course, it’s hard not to compare the singing to Kevin’s, but Josh does a pretty good job, especially considering that he’s doing his “mighty” Servo voice at the same time, and that he’s like 17.
Servo’s shoulders are especially noticeable in this segment for some reason. I wonder what they were made of. They kinda look like pieces of an egg carton, but that’s probably not it.
Crow’s neck moves up and down when he goes under the bar. He’s never done that before, has he? I don’t think he has. He definitely never did it in the series proper. We’ll have to see if the puppet ever does that again in KTMA.
I wonder if Josh was working Gypsy this time. She’s doesn’t talk, so it might have been Trace.
You can see Trace’s hat at 1:22:52. At least I assume it’s Trace’s hat. Could be Josh’s hair, but I don’t know why he’d be moving there at that moment.
Who are the people whose names Tom mentions? It sounds like the kind of thing they would have done in a letter-reading segment later on in the series, but there’s clearly no letters here, or even answering machine messages, so *shrug*?
Hey, Joel carries Servo into the theater. He seems like he’s in a particular rush this time.
Looks like Crow wasn’t up to anything, after all.
Movie pt. 4
Nice Wrath of Khan reference at 1:25:18.
There’s something funny and adorable about Crow’s cheerful assertion at 1:27:05 that it’s okay for the doctor to use the same thermometer on multiple people because he’s a doctor.
1:27:19- Reptile thermometer. Wow.
Tom makes Joel laugh at 1:28:35.
This is a weird thing to bother pointing out, but Joel’s accent gets more Wisconsin-y when he says “headphones” at 1:29:03, which I always like.
At 1:30:29, is Crow basically telling this movie to kiss his backside?
Josh cracks the other two up at 1:31:03, though I can’t really figure out what he means. I’m not sure if I want to, actually.
At 1:31:19, Crow makes a dumb pun, and Joel goes along with it. He didn’t stay that positive about puns forever. As the series went on, he seemed to get less and less tolerant of them. Crow, on the other hand, never seemed to stop enjoying them.
Joel singing the M*A*S*H* theme song at 1:32:45 actually makes me sad.
Crow’s sincere comments at 1:38:42 about how the wrong people go are interesting. It’s stuff like this that make me feel that while Crow presents himself pretty childishly on the outside, his heart and mind are actually fairly mature in their understanding, or least their desire for it.
He also leaves at 1:39:49. What can’t he take? The deluge of TV personalities? Or is it the sad ending that’s got him down? Maybe a combination. Joel follows him out, still spouting IMDB trivia. Tom almost decides to stay for a little longer, then gives in and heads out, too.
Conclusion
As noted above, the first letter they read on the air. The bots seem excited. Servo wants Joel to read the ones “from the babes.” Oh, Tom.
Old “still-store” (is that how you spell that?) is masking tape and a board. Lookin’ good.
…Is this letter Teen Girl Squad? I know it cannot be related, but it looks uncannily like it. Tom’s even kinda channeling Strong Bad there, though sadly he does not say any of them are looking “so makey-outy tonight”. (He wouldn’t of course, because this was 1989 and that was like, what, 2005? But I can still dream.)
Crow’s letter-reading is adorable. KTMA Crow is almost aggressively cute. Of course, I think he’s adorable all the time, so I would think that. But still.
Joel keeps laughing, and I will keep enjoying it. Also, will Servo regret asking people to include their favorite pizza topping? Why?
Faye Burkholder, their make-up lady, is listed as a puppeteer in the credits. She must have helped out with the limbo segment.
Thoughts on the Movie
I’ll be clear- I don’t like disaster movies. They make me anxious and sad. Of course, when I was in school, the natural disaster unit in science class always put me on edge for days, so it’s clearly a personal problem. But I also just don’t like watching things get destroyed and people dying and suffering just for excitement, even if they justify it with the obligatory lesson about banding together and helping each other as a community or whatever. Just not my thing.
But putting my own bias aside, this movie is considerably better than most of the stuff they ever did, and it really does a lot to carry the episode on its own. Sure, it’s cheesy and 70s, and crammed full of every TV star they could rustle up, but at least the plot is followable and even kind of engaging, and many of the characters are actually likable, if not terribly interesting. That’s waaay more than can be said for probably, like, 80% of MSTed movies. It hits a nice sweet spot between watchabilty and riffability, which amplifies both parts. It would have made a good written episode later on, but they probably couldn’t get the rights to it, since they pretty much stole all of the stuff they used in KTMA.
Let’s not be too nice to it, though- it’s got plenty of flaws. For one thing, as Crow says: “There’s too many people in this film.” They’re trying to do that crisscrossing stories thing, but they overdo it, and you end up not being able to keep track of everyone’s story arcs. That means you can’t care about all of them, which means they don’t need to be there. Also, as soon as they load the virus on the plane, you know what’s going to happen with it. I’m not sure if that’s being effective at building up dread, or just being really predictable. And another also, man, there is not much build-up to that explosion. There’s tension when things first start to go wrong, but then it flattens out for so long that you don’t expect anything to happen, and then all of sudden BAM. It’s so abrupt it almost becomes funny. But then it isn’t because like three people get roasted alive and everything’s breaking and none of that is funny, so it creates some weird dissonance for me. But the ending surprised me, and that counts for something. I didn’t expect them to crash.
There’s definitely more to talk about, but I’ve already written almost a whole 5th grade essay on it, so I’ll stop there. Actually the fact that I can go on that much about it shows how much better it is that most MST fare, since the most you can say about a lot those is “Boy, that totally sucked.” This one actually has enough good parts to make me want to bother correcting the flaws. Anyway, I’d rate this one as solidly okay, even decent.
Review
This one is good. To be honest, I don’t think there are as many laugh-out-loud riffs in this one as in a few of the previous ones, though it’s good at the beginning and picks up a lot in the last third or so. As I discussed above (at length, sorry), the movie does most of the heavy-lifting for making this a very watchable episode. (Favorite riff- *Engineer turns knobs in plane cabin* Crow: No, that’s bake!) It fills in the empty spaces that usually plague KTMA’s slower, improv riffing. It’s definitely a good one for anyone who wants to watch a KTMA ep, but doesn’t have the patience for one of the slower ones (which is a very valid stance). I feel like I’m writing a book report here. Anyway, I’m not sure I’d call it my favorite riff or host segment-wise, but it’s a good, solid episode. We’re starting to get into the territory where we can call a KTMA ep solid- there’s enough behind us to compare it to, and the concept has been sitting in the fridge for several weeks now, so it’s setting up nicely. It still won’t reach its most ideal consistency until about Season 2, but it’s really coming along, getting better all the time.
jolokiamoruga Ah, I did kind of suspect so. Normally I would have looked that up, but I'll admit it- it was 3:00 AM and I just wanted to finish the entry, so I was a bit remiss in my duties c;
