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 itâs 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 donât really know how people use it n practice. Thanks again!Â
                 Aliens or something, I donât know
General notes
     I always remember that this movie is K19 because itâs Hangar 18 and that for some reason strikes me as mildly funny. From the title I expected it to be about airplanes, but itâs actually about spaceships. Made in 1980, starring people from things. Nothing really to note about the episode. Everyoneâs here for the whole thing this time, so letâs get a-rollinâ.
 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 canât tell when the guys get into the theater because the version Iâm 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 theyâre shot? Thereâs even a difference in look between different types of TV shows, so I assume thatâs 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 doesnât 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.
Crowâs 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 Crowâs incredulous tone at 9:10 is really funny.
When you can finally see them, Joel and bots look like theyâre 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 donât 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 theyâre in Arizona? And Iâm already sick of these captions.
As they leave the theater, Crow says he wants a soda, as if thatâs the reason theyâre leaving. Servo says he wants some saltines.
 Host Segment 1
 Crowâs wiggly fidgeting is cute. Heâs such a little kid in the first few seasons.
Joel tells Crow heâll need to borrow some of his RAM chips later to increase computing power for some other part of the ship. He doesnât 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 shipâs 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 itâs in space?
The bots have been really into irritating Joel in the past few episodes, and the trend continues here with Crow asking âWhy?â and âSo?â to everything Joel says. At first he seems sincere, but it quickly becomes clear that he just wants a reaction. Itâs 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 itâs 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 Joelâs not around, I can imagine how that goes.
Mid-morning pleasure stimulation? OkayâŚI mean, Iâm sure thatâs not weird but it sounds weird.
Crow finishes off the whole thing with the classic âDaddy, whatâs Vietnam?â and laughs, telling Joel to lighten up. Joel does not think itâs funny and finally snaps. Joelâs interesting; heâs almost impossible to rile, but once riled, heâs 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 canât tell if heâs really going to use it on Crow or if heâs just playing along with Crowâs game by being the angry dad. Hope itâs the latter.
Similarly, I canât tell if Crowâs reaction is real or if heâs 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. Thatâs the not the right way to discipline your robot children, Joel.
He also seems to be fixing Crowâs arms or something. They are kinda flimsy.
At 29:57, Crow says something about a âsafety sealâ 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. Iâd doubt it, but itâs not impossible, especially given that a) Joelâs 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 didnât have the big mask, so he might have just been talking about a regular raincoat. (Or maybe it was a joke, because riffing. But thatâs no fun.)
30: 56- I love Crowâs straightforward approach to things, hahaha.
At 31:09, theyâre talking about Meatloaf (the singer) and Crow mentions he likes ketchup on his meatloaf. Itâs 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 FesterâŚwhen 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 âJoe Namath Netted Slingshot Briefsâ, which become a running comment throughout the rest of the series, especially the Joel era. Iâm 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. Hereâs 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 âbotâ is; Crow doesnât respond.Â
Crow makes a zing! joke at 45:22, and Joel tells him to âtake the laughâ 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 donât 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 Crowâs head so they can look through his memory and decide whatâs worth keeping.
The first memory in the list is âOnâ. Iâm not totally sure what that means, but Iâm assuming itâs a necessary function. Maybe itâs the code that allows him to turn on?
Crow knows how to play Heart and Soul? Iâd like to see that.
Nobody wants to go through âload pan trainingâ again. My earlier sentiment about load pans has not changed. I would also like to see Tom and Crowâs bunk beds. What do you think the membrane that Crow mentions is? Apparently itâs less pleasant than load pans.
Nobody wants to keep the King Family specials.
They donât feel like keeping a bunch of Highlights magazines, STP commercials with Mario Andretti, every episode of Punky Brewster, Lyle Waggonerâs penile implant show (???), Joe Something-or-Otherâs business school (I wonder if thatâs a local thing), Robert Vaughnâs Helsinki Formula, Aaron Grayâs cellulite show, or George Hamiltonâs skin care hour. They do, however, want to keep a still of that one Farah Fawcett poster. I wonât bother to put a picture of that here because youâve 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 isnât 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 âpouty.â I donât 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 youâre just moving between places weâve already been several times, you donât 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 âshipâ jokes.
You know, these government agents would be a lot less conspicuous if didnât wear suits everywhere. Also, even if the brakes donât work, wouldnât the car, you know, slow down if he stopped pressing the gas? Cars donât just maintain momentum forever even if they canât stop. And Iâm 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.
Crowâs little âcâmon, câmonâ as they leave the theater is adorable.
 Host Segment 3
Theyâve hooked Crow up to the coupling device again, and take a look at his first memory ever.
For some reason the memory isnât from Crowâs point of viewâŚAnyway, 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 âCybernetic Remotely Operated Woman.â
Current Crow is very surprised to find out heâs a woman, but seems to get over it very quickly.
Joel tells him heâs 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.Â
I guess being a woman or hermaphrobot turns Crow into a stressed mother.
But itâs 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. Joelâs kind of a big jerk in this episode.
Movie pt. 4
 Hey, itâs 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 didnât get burnt up on re-entry when it landed, so maybe they will. OoooOOOOOoooo mysteryâŚ.
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 itâs 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 canât 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 donât know how I feel about this one. Itâs really not that bad, itâs 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.) Canât the Feds just keep them where they are until theyâre done lying about the U.F.O.? I mean, that doesnât sound legal, but neither does tampering with and lying about important scientific information to keep people happy until the election, and theyâre already doing that. Half the plot could have been avoided if theyâd just been smart enough to stop Bancroft and Price from running around. I guess thatâs why they didnât. But thatâs not a good enough reason to suspend my disbelief on that point. Â
     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 donât 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, thatâs where they always lose me. The whole âhumans are descended from themâ just doesnât work for me. If the two species were able to breed, wouldnât 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 wasnât much riffing. I didnât laugh a whole lot during this episode (favorite riff- Tom: Maybe theyâre 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 wasnât stupid or infuriating enough to keep them firing. Thatâs 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, itâs part of the experience of watching and episode. On the other hand, itâs not really the purpose of this guide. Iâll do whatever works better for you guys, so let me know if you have a preference. Thanks!
                                Like Fu Manchu, but with more sexism!
General notes
         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 thereâs thatâŚanywayâŚ
         The Million Eyes of Sumuru is a 1967 British spy film about a scary lady and her army of scary ladies. Itâs 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 didnât recognize him until most of the way into this movie, even though Iâve seen My Fair Lady several times.) It also stars George Nader, from the famous and hilariously terrible Robot Monster, which weâll 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, itâs a case of Josh needing to be somewhere at the same time they were taping. Heâs still in the host segments, because they always taped those before the movie part. Now, letâs get to Sumuru. (I donât have a link for this one because itâs not on YouTube, but you can find it at Club MST3K.)
Prologue
I donât know if I ever mentioned that I like the little tentacle things in the KTMA doorway sequence.
Oh man, continuity! Thatâs unusual for this show in general, not even just KTMA. They did a âpreviously onâŚâ 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 âpreviouslyâ 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 doesnât 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 donât 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 âBVDsâ were, though. I had to look at this so now you do, too:
Whatever camera theyâre 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? Thatâs 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 Pearlâs van, so maybe thatâs how Joel managed. Of course, a week in the cold of space with no food or water doesnât 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 thereâs exceptions to that for sure). But again, Iâm 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, theyâre jerks.
I think this may the first occurrence of weirdly affectionate Dr. F nicknames for Joel. Weâve had a few weird insults in previous episodes, but I think this is the first of this particular kind.
I didnât 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 doesnât 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 doesnât seem too far outside something Joel might do on purposeâŚ
Joel also thanks the Mads for letting him inside. Itâs 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 heâs going out into space in only his underwear, he might not have a good place to keep itâŚthis is getting weird, letâs move on.
Traceâs 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 canât stand them.
Joelâs response is actually much more sarcastic than usual for him (outside the theater). 3-12 weeks? Whatâs 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 Madsâ 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 didnât 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 didnât see the bots in this segment, probably because theyâre 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 Iâd assume this is sometime around then, if not the exact night. I donât know if TV23 re-ran these or not.
Crow mispronounces âemperorâ at 4:39, and corrects himself, which makes Joel chuckle.
At 4:43, Tom tries to apologize for locking Joel outside, saying they âdidnât really know it was [him].â Joel understandably doesnât respond.
During the opening credits, they do a lot of ârelative of famous person with same last nameâ jokes. Those became a staple during credits for the rest of the show, especially the Joel seasons.
Servo doesnât know who the Buddha is at 7:27. Also, Joelâs Wisconsin accent really comes out when he says âBuddha.â
At 7:46, Joel starts a riff that just sort of peters out. Something about the plant in front of the camera, but Iâm not sure what he was trying to say.
8:13, Joel makes a pun and asks Crow if he likes it. Crow doesnât seem overly enthused, but he says it was cool, anyway. Tom then tells him should laugh at it, since Joelâs upset with them. He hasnât been acting too upset since they got into the theater, but maybe heâs been glowering or something.
Crow and Joel both talk at the same time at 8:31. Theyâre usually pretty good at not doing that, considering itâs improv.
At 8:35, Joel says âwhoopsâ and looks down. It looks like he was just moving out of the way of the movie, but maybe he hit Crowâs arm or something.
Movie thing: I know itâs 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.
Servoâs Frankie Avalon joke at 12:27- does that come from somewhere or did Josh just make that up on the fly? Itâs 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, Iâm not sure what Joelâs 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. Iâm 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 Frankieâs hugging a pretty lady on screen at the time, Crow disagrees with his assessment. His enthusiastic follow-up about Frankieâs hand placement makes me laugh, along with Joel.
Josh calls commercial at 17:22, while making fun of Colonel Medikaâs line delivery.
The guys are talking over each other a lot this week. I guess theyâre just full of riff ideas.
Joelâs 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?
Iâm sorry, but WHAT IS HAPPENING?!
You canât 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 Frankieâs giant chin at 22:57.
Crow just canât let the poor framing in this scene go.
Tomâs confused about the number of Sumuruâs 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 hereâŚ
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 canât tell whether he says something to Trace, or say something about âchaseâ. Either would make sense in context.
Host Segment 1
 We go right into the host segment, skipping the doorway sequence. Itâs hard to tell with these VHS recordings whether thatâs 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 heâs attached âidioprobesâ to the bots. They look like strings, and apparently administer pain while attached. That seems a little harsh to me, but Iâve 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 didnât have any extra string for a prop?
After Joel removes them, Servo starts trying to give the âwe didnât know it was youâ excuse again, saying they thought it was any of several dead musicians. (All the people in the list are drummers, except for Elvis.)
Joelâs not having it, and threatens the probes again. Iâm not really sure why theyâre called probes; theyâre not really probing anything.
Tom demands a trial by his peers, and Joel says that heâd build them more peers if he could. Interesting- does that mean heâs 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 theyâve used the term before, but infrequently. Anyway, Joelâs not happy about that, either. Servoâs defense is pretty reasonable, since his arms donât work. Crowâs 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 itâs just for that one spot. Crow calls it a robo-purge button, which kind of makes it sound like the former.
I love Gypsyâs screech when she gets released.
Joel seems so done with the bots and everything by the end of this segment. He canât do anything but smile and (metaphorically) wave. The cheesy grin isnât usually his style; thatâs 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. Iâm 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.
Joelâs sounding extra sleepy in a lot of his lines.
Ah good, itâs time for the movie to dial up the sexism again.
By 51:11, Crowâs 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 Iâm thinking in-universe, Servo was just tired of watching this movie. Joelâs 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 doesnât 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, itâs 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 wonât go along with anything heâs trying to do. The courtroom thing reminds me of Crowâs 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 doesnât 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 Iâm thinking.
At 59:45, Crow calls back to the oceanic opening credits from the Gamera films.
Oh goodness, again with the Brain That Wouldnât Die-style KPORN saxophoneâŚalso, so does security want to like, check her bag or anything before she goes in to the president? No? Yeah, see, thatâs exactly why security exists.
Wait, he did get shot? Huh? It would be nice if they would SHOW us whatâs happening! And this is the most ineffectual political security ever.
Host Segment 3
As promised, Tom is back for the host segment.
I love Crowâs flowers on his net.
Joel was out in space for five weeks? I guess it was longer between episodes than I thought. Thatâs 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 Joelâs got a guitar and heâs 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. Iâm 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 donât mind being reminded.
I wonder whose guitar that is. It might be Joshâs, since I know he has musical inclinations. It doesnât look the same as the guitar Larry has during the Clay and Larâs Flesh Barn song in Women of the Prehistoric Planet [104], but that doesnât mean itâs not still his. Also, do you think Joelâs really playing the guitar here? It sure looks like he is, but Iâve heard him say in interviews that he doesnât play the guitar. Maybe he just meant he doesnât anymore, or very much.
I think Crow is just moving his mouth, not actually singing. Nice harmonies from Tom, though.
Movie pt. 4
Haha, sheâs running to her inevitable death, itâs funny! These highly-trained assassins sure jog at a casual pace, donât they? I guess theyâre 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 âoh wowâ from Joel at 1:12:28, and another at 1:12:39. I donât know if Iâm 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 Frankieâs 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. Thatâs padding Roger Corman could be proud of. Â
Also, that cut. This movie canât decide if it wants to be a comedy or not. Not that itâs succeeding at comedy, but sometimes itâs sure trying.
âI know itâs bestâ because Iâm a man, albeit a wimpy, useless one. Man, just like City on Fire, this movie annoys me so much I canât leave it alone, even though thatâs not what this guide is for. (I also think itâs easy to start filling in riffs yourself in KTMA, when itâs slow.)
I just noticed Joelâs leaned way back in his chair.
He calls commercial at 1:21:07.
Sumuruâs mines are operated by switches? That seems far less effective than normal minesâŚ
Joel keeps talking about midriffs. I guess he really is a fan.Â
Iâm sorry I keep talking about movie things, but why the heck is Frankie here? Isnât 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.
Joelâs riff attempt at 1:32:26- he pauses to get his sentence in order, then still says âfoomsâ instead of âfilmsâ. I find that way funnier than I should.
Is Joel okay? Heâs having a really hard time getting over Trace on the way out, again. Maybe theyâre squished closer to the wall than usual?
Conclusion
 Apparently Servoâs mouth is broken now, so Joel moves it for him and makes him sing.
Joel mentions theyâve got 900 people in the fan club. Thatâs 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 Servoâs mouth to talk when heâs not even onscreen? Maybe he canât talk at all if his mouth doesnât move. That seems like an odd design choice for a robot, but then again, so do most aspects of the bots. Speaking of Tomâs mouth, is KTMA Tomâs mouth the same as regular Tomâs mouth, but upside down? Iâm probably just crazy.
Crow seems shocked by Joelâs sudden button press.
As he often does, Joel looks offscreen before the camera cuts away. He really does seem tired this week, doesnât he? Hope he went home after this and slept.
Kevinâs listed under âPuppet Operationâ 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 weâve seen. In some ways, thatâs true.
         But overall, I have to sayâŚWHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS MOVIE?! I have so many questions: Why canât 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 canât tell whatâs 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)- yâall have issues.
         This movie has plenty of other stupidity which Iâm not going to bother to get into. I think Iâve expressed my feelings adequately. Itâs not unwatchable in the way Castle of Fu Manchu is, but itâs plenty more offensive. Letâs 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 thereâs 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, wouldnât 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 itâŚanyway, 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! Iâm 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!
                                                    Monkey wrenching
General notes
         Ah, more Sandy Frank. That name just warms my heart. Oh wait, thatâs the rage at having to watch another one of these things. Okay, so maybe itâs not quite that bad, but man, itâs 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 (âArmy of Apesâ) and aired in the early â70s. Apparently, itâs not too bad, if Planet of the Apes adaptations (one might say ârip-offâ 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, itâsâŚwell, itâs on MST3K.
         This episode is unique- Joelâs not in it! I donât 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. Letâs 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 arenât being much help.
It sounds like the Mads send Time of the Apes as retaliation for the botsâ 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 âSandy Frank, Sandy Frankâ along to the opening music? I canât help myself.
Crow sits in Joelâs usual seat.
At 3:06, Tom already says he feels kind of a void without Joel in the theater. Heâs also not too happy about sitting right next to Crow, it seems. He tells Crow maybe he should empty his load pan because he doesnât smell very good. SoâŚdid anyone ever figure out what a load pan was actually supposed to be? Iâm 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 itâs a possum, Crow guesses lemur. Crow was closer- itâs actually a loris.
6:55- Crow continues his already storied career as an incorrigible punster.
Servo mentions Joelâs absence again at 7:16, wondering where he is.
At 8:32, Crowâs already got this movieâs number.
Wow, this advanced scientific compoundâs wiring does not seem up to code.
Crow mentions doing experiments in science class at 10:10. I know itâs probably just a joke, but Joel probably would do experiments with the bots for fun. Probably not âdestroy the monkey freezing plantâ experiments, though.
At 10:48, Tom mocks Crowâs time as a Christmas tree from several episodes ago, which Crow does not particularly appreciate. He compares being frozen to âdrinking a Slurpee real fast.â
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 theyâd 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 âblowportâ to pucker to make that sound. Tom says itâs a special program, butâŚAlso, if anyone knows what song(s) heâs whistling, Iâd be interested to know.
At 20:48, Crow says Joel should be there, and Servo says heâs getting a little concerned.
Trace has made Josh laugh at least three times so far in the episode. Heâs on a roll. Has been for the past few episodes, actually.
Crow mentions Joelâs absence again in a riff at 22:36.
I donât know why, but Crowâs little âMm?â 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 theyâve already looked. Itâs sort of cute how they donât know all the rooms on the ship.
They quickly degenerate into arguing, unsurprisingly. They really are like young siblings.
Crow calls Tom a âspasmodic crofisatorâ (crophysator?), a term that would be used again at least once in Season 1. It sounds like an insult but Iâm not sure what it means. Maybe they donât know, either.
Gypsy shows up to break up the fight, carrying Joelâs 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 doesnât know what a pod bay is either. Tom is not taking things seriously and activates a âwah-wah-wahâ noise. Does that satellite have those built in?
Apparently the only possible conclusion one could reach after finding Joelâs uniform is that heâs floating naked in space. They donât 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 theyâd tell us AM or PM, but I guess the people actually watching when this was on wouldnât need to be told that. It was probably PM, since they taped during the day and played them in the evenings. Iâm 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 youâve 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 donât.)
Crow starts singing about taking the âape trainâ 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 theyâll 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 didnât get to see it.
Movie thing- why does the action scene on the train have such slow, ponderous music? I guess itâs not really that much of an action scene anyway.
Host Segment 2
Crowâs wearing Joelâs 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 Joelâs time?
Predictably, Tomâs 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 itâs just because heâs likes making four pieces of toast at a time and not for some other reasonâŚspeaking of which, what kind of fun does Crow think Joel would have with the toaster? I guess heâd tinker with it. He wouldnât have anything else to do, since the sextant and charts sure arenât going to help him navigate anywhere in space.
The bots decide the pounding theyâre 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- Iâve never seen anyone that unconcerned about a UFO.
Josh sneezes at 54:12. Crow/Trace says âgesundheit.â
Tom forgets Godoâs name at 57:05. Usually forgetting how to say charactersâ names is Joelâs thing. I guess someone had to do it since heâs wasnât there.
Did Sandy Frank even attempt to make this part coherent? Was it 5 pm on a Friday and he was just like âEh, this is good enough, those kids wonât know whatâs going on anywayâ?
Servo calls commercial again at 1:01:43.
At 1:03:23, Crow is unimpressed by Tomâs joke.
1:04:46- Servo mentions Joel again, though Iâm not sure whether he means Joel is a naked ape, or someone who is going back to his country. Is he saying thatâs 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 theyâll be in trouble. Have we ever seen this part before? I canât 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 didnât 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 donât 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 doesnât 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 doesnât believe it.
I think weâre all starting to get impatient along with Crow. This is dragging on forever.
Down to 54° by 7:45, so Iâm guessing it is PM, at 1:27:24.
Ah, weâre finally back on track- Wizard of Oz reference #14 at 1:29:23. I knew theyâd return someday. The last three episode havenât 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, theyâd have run out of monkey puns much earlier. Is that because theyâd have said more of them in a row to annoy him, or because Joelâs presence discourages the creation of monkey puns?
Something about Tomâs 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 Godoâs 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 canât 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. IâŚdonât 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 âYouâre the greatestâ remark from Crow could have a bit sarcastic. Hard to tell. I prefer to interpret it in a positive light.
I donât know if I mentioned it before, but Alexandra Carr is now in the credits as the Fan Club Coordinator and Production Assistant. Sheâd continue to be on the showâs staff for a long time.
Joel is also still listed as starring in the episode even though he wasnât 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 isâŚreally goofy. I wonât go in-depth, since we have to watch it again in a few seasons, but man. Actually, itâs quite refreshing after two confusing 70s TV-movie dramas in a row. Itâs not really any less confusing, but itâs 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 donât 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 theyâve done so far. Josh and Trace kept the energy nicely throughout. The two of them always played off each other well (favorite riff- Crow: Letâs buy these guys a tripod, whadda ya say?). This episode didnât 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.
                          Roasted turkey
General notes
        âŚSo. Hey. Remember when I used to make these, like, a long time ago? Itâs 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 wonât go into details because who cares. Letâs 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. Letâs 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 Iâd note it here for people whoâd 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 itâs called something different, but the idea is the same. Here, as in later mentions, theyâre not really sure if the Madsâ 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 donât really remember. I tried to go back and verify, but uh, I canât 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 havenât heard about? (I havenât been very active in the fandom for, like, more than a year, so Iâm 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 âworked for two weeks, paid for two yearsâ 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 thatâs related to theâŚlook, I know it doesnât matter, and the guys didnât 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 itâs kind of amusing when you find it. At least to me.
Sounds like Larryâs already kinda bored with the âworst movie everâ 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 doesnât consider them mad enough because their experiment is too cutesy. I wonder if thatâs what it said in the report. Personally, I wouldnât 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 donât think thatâs happened before.
Movie pt. 1
Am I crazy, or do the theater seats look extra tiny and crowded together this time?
I like Servoâs wrestling-announcer-style reading of the title card at 3:58.
At 6:02- I canât be the only one who automatically responds âMcCloud.â
Crow sounds concerned about the smoothie (or whatever thatâs 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 havenât been keeping a count, but thatâs 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, Iâd 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: âMonsieur Pierre. Pas maintenant. Non, uh, après le mois demain Ă trois heures. Non, something something. Something bien something? Au revoir.â, which translates to âMr. Pierre. Not now. No, uh, after the month, tomorrow at 3 oâclock. No, something something. Something good something? Goodbye.â 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 donât know, really.)
At 17:46, Tom mentions nude Shelley Winters photos in Joelâs 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 canât remember if they were reviewing part of the movies before using them by this point in the showâs run or not. They might have seen farther into the movie previously and know whatâs going to happen. Letâs watch.
Man, itâs like 20 minutes into the movie and theyâre 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? ThatâsâŚkinda disappointing. I was sort of hoping for gigantic explosion, and Iâm not even usually a gigantic explosion kind of person.
Crowâs 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.
Thereâs 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 isâŚto 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, didnât he? He still had his moments later in the series, though, like in Being from Another Planet [405] when heâs 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 somebodyâs been overusing the oil. I donât want to point fingers, but Iâd guess it was Tom, seems like something heâd do. Then again, Crow has said in the past that WD-40 was his favorite lubricant, so maybeâŚ
The bots arenât listening to him, though- theyâre trying to get their prank going. Itâs surprising that Joel still falls for some of these by now, but I guess heâs 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. Iâm 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 doesnât know how to use a telescope. Maybe itâs just a weird telescope.
One thing I always liked about the bots- especially in the first few seasons but really throughout the showâs run- is how they donât 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 couldnât think of everything important at once, so theyâve got big holes in their knowledge base. For the purpose Joel built them for, it makes sense and works pretty well.
Poor Joel. Heâs not the butt of the joke that often, at least not without getting back in some way.
Movie pt. 2
Crowâs confused at first by Joelâs 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 doesnât fill the gaps in my heartâŚActually 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
Joelâs 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 Crowâs 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 heâd 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 botsâ thug mode pretty funny. Maybe thatâs why he programmed it into them.
Crowâs 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 didnât seem phased, so really only Crow got punished. Crowâs also the only one who apologizes. Crow is always cute, but heâs extra cute in these old episodes. I just really love Crow, you guys.
Movie pt. 3
Itâs called the Manson Refinery? Thatâs fitting, I suppose, with all the people itâs 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 âlike a T-square.â
At 56:18, Tom calls someone onscreen a âboinkusâ? 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. Theyâre having a little bit of trouble staying on beat, though (and on pitch). I like the song, though.
Joelâs 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. Iâve already forgotten if theyâve done that before in KTMA (thatâs 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 didnât 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 psychoâs comeuppance is getting anti-climatically crushed by a falling fire escape, and Shelley Winters dies too for no good reason? I havenât 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.
Thatâs the ending? THATâS THE ENDING? Sappy music and romance and whatever, the city was on fire but hey it got put out (OFFSCREEN) so itâs all fine? Who cares about the thousands of victims and the millions in property damage? Not us, weâre kissing! Wow. Thanks for that, movie.
Crow gets excited about the name âMcCrowâ 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
Gypsyâs on deck for this segment, and Joel asks her where sheâs been. Apparently âbumping into newslettersâ. I wonder if sheâs 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 Gypsyâs âooh, aahâ 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 Iâd want to see it, but with a title like City on Fire you kind of expect to see a whole city on fire. All Iâm 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? âHah, you thought the fire was going to be earlier in the movie but instead, it was later in the movie!â 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 thatâs common in movies and TV, in various forms, but it doesnât 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 doesnât 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 thatâs not the case here. This movie becomes more a parade of lurid and gruesome imagery than anything else. No thank you. I guess maybe thatâs why it wasnât successful, hm.
         On a lighter note of criticism, did every frigginâ TV movie in the â70s have to be about 800 different people? Seriously, thatâs SST: Death Flight, Superdome, San Francisco International, this movie- ok, I guess Stranded in Space wasnât. 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.
         Thereâs 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: Thatâll wake the dog up.) The guys are really starting to get good at this. Even with the slower pace of the improv riffing, it doesnât 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 Iâd call this as good an episode as SST: Death Flight, which I previously called the best KTMA ep. Nice job, guys.
                                  Are you ready for some FOOTBALL?
General notes
         Well, too bad. Because there isnât any in this movie. This episode features flashback clips, similar to what they did in Hellcats [209] in Season 2. Iâm 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! Iâve looked around but havenât 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! Hereâs your link, so letâs 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 itâs 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. (Iâm getting the dates from the episode guide at mst3kinfo.com, by the way.) I wonder if heâs 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 donât really think thatâs how it works, but hey, whatever. It also sounds like the Uncle Wally to whom heâs 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 feetâŚOkay, nobody tell Tom that he doesnât have feet. He must learn it eventually though, since itâs 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. Â
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.
âAirheaded white guy smiling up the placeâ I never really thought of Joel like that, but itâs a pretty accurate description, Iâve 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 arenât typically the sharpest people. It doesnât seem very hard to distract them from the original purpose of their experiment. Theyâve 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 Tomâs deal with them. They sure are fickle.
Are the Madsâ glasses different this week? I guess I donât 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*
Iâm glad the Mads find the name Dick Butkus as ridiculous as the rest of us must. I donât think itâs possible to have a worse name than that. Hereâs a picture of him for no reason:
Servoâs letter to âWhom it may concernâ seems to have evolved into a newsletter or something.
For whatever reason, this episode doesnât seem to have a prologue- it just heads right into the movie intro and from there into Movie Sign. Itâs possible that a cut was in there somewhere, and somebody just edited the video with great expertise, but I donât 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 âHeâs creamyâ? It kinda sounds like he says âHeâs Koreanâ but that doesnât 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 âOh woooowâŚâ at 9:43.
At 10:05, Crow claims the scenes of the river boat are making him nauseous.
Is it weird that Iâm hearing phantom KevinServo singing along to the jazz on the river boat? Thatâs exactly the kind of spot weâd be hearing it in a Season 2 or later. Itâs 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 heâs probably like a foot away.
Somebody makes a cougar sound at 11:42 (to go with the Cougars football team in the movie). Iâm not sure who, but I think it was Josh. I donât 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 guyâs 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 Joelâs film noir narration (noirration?) starting at 16:01.
At 20:16, one of the more famous dirty riffs from KTMA, involving âlittle cocktail weeniesâ. Quick work by Josh, there.
First instance of the ârhubarb, rhubarbâ 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 heâs gonna go work on his letter.
Host Segment 1
âŚwhich he proceeds to do. Has he decided who heâs 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 oneâs an actual flashback to a host segment from a previous episode (SST: Death Flight [K13]). Weâve already done that segment when we did that episode, so thereâs 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 Servoâs mouth. Itâs 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, itâs hard to blame him for. He must get better later.
Movie pt. 2
Joelâs 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?
Crowâs riff cracks Joel up at 36:40.
39:31- Two âoh wooowâs from Joel in same episode.
Servoâs 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 heâs doing it. Iâm not sure why thatâs any different than when he usually breaks into song, maybe because it wasnât really related to anything happening in the movie. Â
Unrelated movie thing: the line delivery at 45:43 is really weird.
Crowâs comment at 46:09- is it ironic that heâd be talking about how big someone elseâs beak is?
At 47:21, in their list of things the P.K. in the guyâs name might stand for, Tom submits âpeeling carrotsâ. Not quite, there, buddy.
Host Segment 2
Tomâs still typing up his letter. He mentions them being in decaying orbit, but I guess it wasnât decaying all the fast, since they stayed there without much trouble till at least Season 7.
We get another flashback. This time itâs Joel berating the bots and generally being domineering and rude, in Tomâs 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 âThis Boyâs Lifeâ mean-Mike simulation from Code Name Diamond Head [608].
Joelâs smoking in this one (though the cigarette clearly isnât lit, being a prop and all) to underscore his jerkiness.
Gypsy has a drive train? And itâs a piece of clear plastic or glass? I mean, theyâre all made out of random junk anyway, so Iâm 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 itâs 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 Joelâs line- âIâm not normally this way, itâs just Servoâs perception of me.â which also pretty much states that this didnât really happen, at least not the way Tomâs presenting it.
I know itâs just Tomâs perception of him, as noted, but itâs 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 doesnât have, so it probably doesnât 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 heâs already insecure about, but if itâs something that heâs cool with, heâll 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 peopleâs 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 itâs 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
Tomâs already in his seat when the other two come in. Crow brought Jujubes, apparently.
Servoâs attempt at 54:04 to spell âboozeâ kind of falls apart.
Something about Crowâs 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 Joelâs shoulder, then the other direction all the way out of frame, maybe to mimic Servoâs tipping?
Joel attempts to play the bandâs 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 heâd 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 studioâs library, too.
Fittingly, they included the clip of them playing football. Thereâs also one where Gypsy has a bunch of tennis balls or something in her mouth, which Iâve never seen before. It must be from K03, because Joelâs 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.
Heâs doing his Louis Armstrong impression as we come back from the montage.
Joel comes in and tells Servo that itâs 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 donât? Never knowing would make it a lot more stressful.
Joel seems a little concerned with Tomâs insistence about his lovely montage. He even looks at the letter heâs 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 heâs 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 weâre 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 canât keep track of what all these people look like, although the poor video quality is definitely not helping.
Another movie thing: Thereâs the classic 555 movie phone number at 1:14:30. Itâs 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 husbandâs 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 donât think itâs intentionally adorable, but itâs killing me here.
Joelâs 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 canât think of anything funny to say, and Tom blames Crowâs behavior towards the Mads in the opening segment that they have to watch this movie at all. Crow canât 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 movieâs 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 doesnât matter because most of the viewers have tuned to something else by this point anyway. They didnât mention viewers or the TV show aspect as often after the KTMA days.
Crow notes again at 1:26:27 that even though weâve finally gotten to the Super Bowl part of the movie, we still donât see any football, but he doesnât 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- Crowâs 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 âNooooâ when it got to the end and there was no more.) So for now weâll just have to imagine.
Thoughts on the Movie
         There is a decided lack of football in this movie, which youâve probably noticed because Iâve 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 weâre seeing it).
         I didnât ever really know what was going on or who anyone was. Thereâs at least five different story threads weâre supposed to be following, and I kinda knew whatâs 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 didnât 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 canât be bothered to expound on: I just canât buy the P.K. Jackson guy as having been a huge football star; heâs just way too scrawny. The villain, Lainey is pretty much the 70s incarnate. Um, also, could a Whirlpool actually explode like that? Iâm not electrician, butâŚwell, whatever. Thatâs 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: âYouâre going to a shrink? What for?â Crow: âI wanna be smaller.â), 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. Iâm not really complaining about it (for one thing, they make it easier to finish these because thereâs 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, doesnât it? This uncut version of the âfilmâ helps clear up a lot of the confusion of the Season 3 hacked-even-more-to-bits version. Well, I say a lot⌠Anyway, weâve got no major news to mention here, so letâs 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 heâs 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 Larryâs disbelief in their own madness, insisting that they are, in fact, only angry scientists. Dr. Fâs objection to the idea seems to stem mainly from not wanting a lame, touchy-feely partner, though he says itâs because it would cost too much to change the letterhead. What letterhead? Do they have official stationery? Also, didnât 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 didnât let him choose his own.
Joel interrupts their argument to ask if theyâre 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 Iâm 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 donât seem very happy that Joel was listening in on their conversation. What do they have to hide? I guess thatâs a dumb question.
I feel like Joel might have been trolling a little when he said heâd been listening since Thursday. Then again, itâs 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 itâs 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 donât want to know the state of Dr. Erhardtâs 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 itâs a bit delayed?
Movie thing: okay, Iâm 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 âunlockâ Crowâs net (wiggles it around). Crow seems a little bit ticklish, maybe.
At 5:39, Joel says that the Mighty Jack ship looks like Crowâs brother. I assume he means it looks like it could be Crowâs brother, and not that Crow has a brother who looks like this ship. I donât really see how it looks all that much like Crow, though.
Crow seems to think the ship is pretty sweet. He keeps saying âcoolâ and âawesomeâ when it does stuff, though he might mean it sarcastically. Itâs hard to tell from his inflection.
The bots start to return to base at 7:37, until they realize the guy wasnât talking to them.
Tomâs attempts to quickly pronounce the Japanese names in the credits areâŚwell, he tried. Â
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.
âKitty!â 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 âStrap on your Mighty Jack crotch cages.â UmâŚwhatâŚ? Also, Crowâs biting various things on-screen around the same time.
At 18:30, Joel asks Mr. Atari about the secret to Mario Bros. Thatâs Nintendo, not Atari, but Iâll 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. Theyâre worried about telling Joel, most likely because theyâll get in trouble. Crow says something about âthe bookâ saying that Joel will just laugh. What book?
Joel doesnât 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 âThe Boyâs Life Book of Safe-But-Naughty Practical Jokesâ. 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 itâs 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 thatâs probably a good thing, since it was pretty dumb thing to do, and if he doesnât react to it, theyâre 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. Heâs always seemed to be the one who really wanted Joelâs attention the most. Servo loves attention from anyone, but Crow seems to want Joelâs specifically.
Welded together and wearing womenâs 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 couldnât actually put on the âfoundation garmentsâ 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 nâ 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 guyâs suggestion at 31:56. He insists that heâs 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, itâs possible heâs being sarcastic.
At 36:20, Crowâs question about the lack of lightbulbs in the film leads to Joel mentioning prime rib, and Crow says that Joelâs been on some kind of âprime rib kick.â Wonder what he means by that. Probably that Joelâs been bringing it up a lot lately? *shrug*
Thereâs something really adorable about Crowâs delivery at 38:10.
Joel puts on a weird voice while talking about biscuits at 38:23. He also karate chops the guyâs neck at 39:49.
At 40: 19, Servo asks Crow to pass the pork rinds, and he does. Itâs 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 heâs 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 wonât 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 donât know whatâŚ
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 donât 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, hereâs a pointless picture of The Robot:Â
Iâm 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, theyâre mostly amusing themselves, but theyâre also amusing Joel. Then again, Joelâs not exactly your average human. Maybe itâs just not something they thought about a whole lot before now.
Now theyâre questioning Joelâs 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 Crowâs not into the idea, he immediately assumes that the reason that Crow doesnât want to do it because it wouldnât 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 studioâs 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 canât tell whether the seats are really squeaky or itâs 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 doesnât want to watch everything being frozen. Poor baby!
Tom gets majestic at 50:52. Very him. He doesnât 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 âflockingâ 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 Joelâs shoulder to underscore his seriousness.
Joel makes a note of the fan club information being on the screen at 55:46. Iâm 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 itâll 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. Thatâs a trend that continues through pretty much the whole run of the show.
Movie thing: âŚThey bother to roll the ârâ on Perez, but they pronounce âManuelâ like an instruction booklet? I canât even with this dubbingâŚ
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. Itâs kind of fun to hear him mentioned so long before he became TVâs 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 Iâd see the day when Crow steered somebody AWAY from the word âboogerâ. 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 âI one itâ and then somebody else says âI two itâ and then you go through until somebody has to say âI eight (ate) itâ and that person loses. Does that game have a name? Has anybody else ever played that? Anyway, the others arenât that eager to join in, and both try to subvert it so they donât have to eight it. Eventually Joel gives in, though, and Tomâs giant âBAH!â is kind of hilarious.
Is Tomâs 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].
Joelâs 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 somethingâŚ?
Hereâs another example of Joel not quite getting that whole âfree will really means free willâ thing. It seems like sometimes he thinks, because they bots usually listen to him at this point, that they will about everything. Clearly thatâs not the case, but it seems to take Joel a while to adjust to that idea. Still, heâs being kind of a butt here, and the bots arenât having it.
It amuses me that Servo calls him a dweeb.
I like Joelâs petulant-7-year-old button press at Movie Sign. Also, Iâm 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. Servoâs not having that, either, and they get into a bit of an insult-off for a moment.
Crowâs gentle correction at 1:17:55 is absurdly cute.
Movie thing: I literally yelled out âNoooooâ when theyâre talking about the âportable sychroton (sp?) unitâ 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 itâs a genre thing and it doesnât all have to be 100% perfect, but thisâŚ
At 1:21:15, the guys dance to the snazzy tunes again.
Crowâs afraid of the freeze-ray again at 1:25:40 and talks about it again at 1:27:55.
As theyâre leaving the theater, Joel says âOpen the bay pod doors, Sarvo.â 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-writerâs favorite. He stills maintains most of his enthusiasm, thought.
I love Joelâs little bounce when he asks Cambot to put up the next letter, and I love Crowâs âYay!â when it contains a drawing of him and his little happy bounce when it says heâs the best. Heâs not as happy with the description of his appearance, thought. I canât 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.
Itâs kind of fun to watch Joel look at people off-camera when heâs on set. He canât 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 Iâll 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 donât know what else to say about it. Pretty much the same thing Iâve been saying- the riffing is getting better, the characters are developing, the showâs really finding its groove. (Favorite riff- Joel: Well, that all depends on what you mean by politicsâŚ) This episode is not especially remarkable, but itâs good. Thatâs 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- Â 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.Â
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. Iâd probably keep making them even if nobody read them, but it makes me so happy to know that people like them!
                                          Neither crashing nor burning
General notes
         This is episode is sort of landmark one, in a way- itâs 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. Weâll have to see if thatâs 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). Thatâs 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. Thereâs not really a good way to justify that in-universe, timeline-wise, but itâs one of those things that just exists in the medium of TV, so Iâm willing to ignore it. Which is kinda saying something, because generally I try to find some kind of explanation even if I donât really need one. Maybe Iâm just getting lazy. ANYWAY
Dr. Forrester is back from Vegas. Apparently winning a gajillion dollars makes him moody. (Part of me wonders if itâs actually because something happened with his La Cage Aux FollesâŚfriend that was mentioned in the last episode.) I donât know why winning is supposed to be upsetting to him, other than because itâs unexpected and therefore humorous.
It seems that the Mads are now totally loaded, and have more fancy cars. Iâm 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, thereâs 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. Iâm very curious as to what space smells like.
Iâm not entirely sure what âmasculine hygiene mistâ is, but I think Iâll pass on Googling that one.
Kind of sweet that Drs. Forrester and Erhardt seem to have a pretty nice relationship, but I canât really care about that because theyâre 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 thereâs 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 itâs a pattern with him. Also, it looked like Joel helped Servo into his seat, and put hisâŚlid, 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 âvolatileâ, which Crow immediately teases him about.
The pilot says âRotate.â 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. Itâs a balmy 6° in the Minneapolis (which actually probably isnât too awful for a mid-February evening).
Joel has some trouble figuring out where the windows are in the planeâs cabin at 29:42.
I love Tomâs seal pun at 30:25, though Crow doesnât seem to have much patience for it.
Tomâs line at 37:33- âWhy didnât they just eat Gilligan?â- was used again in a later episode (I donât 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
Joelâs voice-cracky riff at 38:36 amuses me. He doesnât sound that energetic very often.
Movie thing: What do you mean theyâve killed you all, grudge-holding mechanic guy? Youâre the one who PURPOSELY BROKE THE PLANE, soâŚ
Host Segment 1
Joel sets up an experiment to show the bots what pain feels likeâŚ.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 Joelâs just jumping around and not going in order. The whole thingâs very Princess Bride six-fingered man, I feel like.
Crowâs pretty eager to see Servo experience some pain. Thatâs pretty Crow, I guess.
It doesnât 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 doesnât 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 doesnât seem bothered by the botsâ sibling-like fighting. He never really seems to be. He usually just seems to think itâs funny.
Movie pt. 2
Iâm assuming that Joelâs comment about the âboner awardâ at 45:38 was probably using the older definition of the word âbonerâ, 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. Crowâs sound effect doesnât 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 showâs run.
At 49:19, Crow mentions that he hopes the lady whoâs wiping a guyâs face shoves the hankie up said guyâs nose. Joel thinks Crow only thinks thatâs funny because heâs jealous, not having a nose himself. Or maybe because he doesnât understand how painful that would actually be, since he doesnât have a nose. Iâm 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
Gypsyâs 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 nâ 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 isnât fixable, since he changed Tomâs voice lots of times, and even Crowâs turns out to be changeable (much) later on. Well, actually, I guess he does end up changing it between KTMA and Season 1, but itâs 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.
Gypsyâs Marilyn Monroe-style song is kind of disturbing. Of course, it was kind of disturbing when Marilyn Monroe did it, so I guess thatâs 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 heâs already demonstrated like 4 different ones over the course of the show so far, so whatever.
The botsâ lines about nobody being home and the factory making different stuff get reused in a later episode. I canât remember which one it is, and Iâm not going to go sift through two or three seasonâs worth of Mads segments to find it, so if anybody knows off the top of their heads, inform me. I know itâs 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 doesnât 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 itâs kinda funny. Cutie.
Crow also seems to be in a hurry to get out of the theater. Wonder if heâs up to something.
Host Segment 3
Itâs a limbo-off, accompanied by Tom Servo singing the Banana Boat Song. Of course, itâs hard not to compare the singing to Kevinâs, but Josh does a pretty good job, especially considering that heâs doing his âmightyâ Servo voice at the same time, and that heâs like 17.
Servoâs 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 thatâs probably not it.
Crowâs neck moves up and down when he goes under the bar. Heâs never done that before, has he? I donât think he has. He definitely never did it in the series proper. Weâll have to see if the puppet ever does that again in KTMA.
I wonder if Josh was working Gypsy this time. Sheâs doesnât talk, so it might have been Trace.
You can see Traceâs hat at 1:22:52. At least I assume itâs Traceâs hat. Could be Joshâs hair, but I donât know why heâd 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 thereâs clearly no letters here, or even answering machine messages, so *shrug*?
Hey, Joel carries Servo into the theater. He seems like heâs in a particular rush this time.
Looks like Crow wasnât up to anything, after all.
Movie pt. 4
Nice Wrath of Khan reference at 1:25:18.
Thereâs something funny and adorable about Crowâs cheerful assertion at 1:27:05 that itâs okay for the doctor to use the same thermometer on multiple people because heâs 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 Joelâs accent gets more Wisconsin-y when he says âheadphonesâ 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 canât really figure out what he means. Iâm not sure if I want to, actually.
At 1:31:19, Crow makes a dumb pun, and Joel goes along with it. He didnât 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.
Crowâs sincere comments at 1:38:42 about how the wrong people go are interesting. Itâs 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 canât he take? The deluge of TV personalities? Or is it the sad ending thatâs 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 âfrom the babes.â Oh, Tom.
Old âstill-storeâ (is that how you spell that?) is masking tape and a board. Lookinâ good.
âŚIs this letter Teen Girl Squad? I know it cannot be related, but it looks uncannily like it. Tomâs even kinda channeling Strong Bad there, though sadly he does not say any of them are looking âso makey-outy tonightâ. (He wouldnât of course, because this was 1989 and that was like, what, 2005? But I can still dream.)
Crowâs letter-reading is adorable. KTMA Crow is almost aggressively cute. Of course, I think heâs 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
         Iâll be clear- I donât 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 itâs clearly a personal problem. But I also just donât 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, itâs 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. Thatâs 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 couldnât get the rights to it, since they pretty much stole all of the stuff they used in KTMA.
         Letâs not be too nice to it, though- itâs got plenty of flaws. For one thing, as Crow says: âThereâs too many people in this film.â Theyâre trying to do that crisscrossing stories thing, but they overdo it, and you end up not being able to keep track of everyoneâs story arcs. That means you canât care about all of them, which means they donât need to be there. Also, as soon as they load the virus on the plane, you know whatâs going to happen with it. Iâm not sure if thatâs being effective at building up dread, or just being really predictable. And another also, man, there is not much build-up to that explosion. Thereâs tension when things first start to go wrong, but then it flattens out for so long that you donât expect anything to happen, and then all of sudden BAM. Itâs so abrupt it almost becomes funny. But then it isnât because like three people get roasted alive and everythingâs 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 didnât expect them to crash.
         Thereâs definitely more to talk about, but Iâve already written almost a whole 5th grade essay on it, so Iâll 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 âBoy, that totally sucked.â This one actually has enough good parts to make me want to bother correcting the flaws. Anyway, Iâd rate this one as solidly okay, even decent.
Review
         This one is good. To be honest, I donât think there are as many laugh-out-loud riffs in this one as in a few of the previous ones, though itâs 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, thatâs bake!) It fills in the empty spaces that usually plague KTMAâs slower, improv riffing. Itâs definitely a good one for anyone who wants to watch a KTMA ep, but doesnât have the patience for one of the slower ones (which is a very valid stance). I feel like Iâm writing a book report here. Anyway, Iâm not sure Iâd call it my favorite riff or host segment-wise, but itâs a good, solid episode. Weâre starting to get into the territory where we can call a KTMA ep solid- thereâs enough behind us to compare it to, and the concept has been sitting in the fridge for several weeks now, so itâs setting up nicely. It still wonât reach its most ideal consistency until about Season 2, but itâs 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;
