CG, I’ve been enjoying this thread. I just haven’t had anything to add… yet.
The way I’ve heard it, they used to just watch part of the movies, to determine suitability, then they’d watch it for the first time, in the writing room, the week they were filming. After running into this one, they started watching them all the way through. Primarily, that job fell to TV’s Frank, until he left the show.
Thanks for the vote, Maus.
I’m enjoying the thread too. I’ve been extra busy at work so I haven’t had much time to contribute.
A couple of weeks ago I showed my little brother, almost 13 years old, his first MST3K. We watched Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. He was amused by the basic concept of the show, but was too young to get a lot of the references. It’s hard to understand why “Have a Swayze Christmas” is funny if you don’t know who Patrick Swayze is, you know? It was crazy how much of it went right over his head. It doesn’t help that my parents have tried really hard to keep him living in a figurative cave, but I wonder if this is common among younger viewers. Anyone else have experience with this?
Okay, that’s the story I heard. Poor TV’s Frank.
That makes some amount of sense, given that most of the movies on MST3K are old, and feature actors that have long since passed out of being mainstream, if they ever were at all. References are going to fly over most kids’ heads, particularly things like “McCloud?!” and “By this time, my lungs were aching for air.” Granted, neither were in Santa Claus, but those are classic examples.
I’m one of those people that doesn’t necessarily have to understand the background of a joke to find it funny, so I tend to find a lot of MST3K hilarious. I still have no idea where the “McCloud?!” gag comes from, but every time they used it in Pod People I could not breathe for laughing. Likewise with “A Patrick Swayze Christmas”; I’ve never seen Roadhouse, the most I know is that it’s apparently a movie about a rough bar, but I thoroughly enjoy that skit anyway.
I just noticed that on the MST3K Info website, there’s poll Rhino Video asked them to do to find out which episodes fans want to see on DVD. The poll is here. Which ones that aren’t out yet would you like to see?
As a footnote, they’re planning Collection 8 now, and have two Sci-Fi era episodes signed already, the other two TBD.
I went through and picked out five episodes, but although I added two Gamera movies, Operation Double 007, and The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living And Became Mixed-Up Zombies (the latter two I’ve never seen, but the titles sound too funny), the only one I care about, that will complete me, is Warrior of the Lost World. Hooray for Megaweapon!
ISCWSLABMUZ is a horrible, horrible movie. But an excellent episode.
And Operation Double 007 is one of the best they’ve done, in my opinion.
I may have seen Operation Double 007 before, but unfortunately it was just so long ago that I can’t remember. I added it to the poll purely because I know there must be a joke right at the beginning of the movie involving one of the bots (probably Crow) playing a joke off “Operation Double Double Oh Seven.” That alone would make it worth watching.
My first choice had to be War of the Colossal Beast ! [ul]
[li]“Glen passed a truck on the highway! No, I mean Glen PASSED a truck on the highway!!!”[/li][/ul] One of the funniest lines of all time, IMHO.
The “almost Bond” jokes were great:
“Prepare to meet Kali’s brother. Near Hell!!”
“Prepare to meet Kali’s brother…near hell!!”
You have to know the movie stars Sean Connery’s brother Neil for that joke to make sense. I love that movie just for the blatant ways in which they try to cash in on Sean’s fame without actually breaking copyright.
Ditto. And the host segment where they track the brothers’ careers - “After Highlander 2, that was the one time Sean was comforted by Neil.” - or some such. Been a while.
Oh, yeah, Double 007 is one of the greatest! There’s soooo much to make fun of. Like when Neil’s reading lips and Joel/bots say stuff like, “Piano chive turkey dish … what the hell, I used to be good at this!”
And My White Goddess is another of my favorites. It’s just so unconscionably racist. Of course the natives have to worship the strange woman because she’s white. And the bad shoe polish job on Wanama. Ugh!
Please don’t stop your posts, I always look forward to them.
Okay, wow. One of the most boring movies they’ve ever done - it can’t quite pick a genre, and even as a Cold War era spy movie (for the most part) it’s tepid. We do get part two of the Phantom Creeps, which gives us the line below :
<Movie Guy> : “It’s okay, he’s just stunned.”
<Crow> : “Stunned?? He took six bullets!”
Some amusing Hogan’s Heroes riffs, and an inspired game show host segment. The nose whistle is back, though.
Important things - Tom’s temporary new head debuts this episode; it didn’t last long. We also get to see the Iris on the hexfield for the first time, as Joel’s Russian cosmonaut counterpart Sari pays the SOL a visit.
Most significant of all, this is the first episode to feature “the stinger” after the credits. With the exception of Tom’s head, everything’s pretty much in the shape it would be for the rest of Joel’s run.
Nothing much to add, but I spent my non-working parts of the work day reading MST3K quotes at Wikipedia. Tons of fun, and I had to try very hard not to burst out laughing a number of times.
Wow. Horrible copy of the episode, but oh, the episode of it! It had a good beat, and I could laugh to it.
Tom’s new head continues to appear, and the Bots prank Joel with a fake movie sign. The Invention Exchange includes jumbo Operation, as Dr. Forrester takes care of Frank’s “wrenched ankle”.
The movie is horrible, but the riffing is strong. We even get a Church of the Subgenius reference out of Joel. He and the Bots are merciless to the geriatic actors playing med students in this piece of cheese-whiz.
It all seemed to be coming to a head too early, though - and at the 75 minute mark (without commercials) Joel and the Bots were doing the ‘Good Thing, Bad Thing’ about the movie, and I was wondering if it was a special extra-short episode - but no! Those crafty Mads - just as the crew is recovering, they are informed that they’re to go back in the theater for Phantom Creeps, part three! The only time I remember seeing the short AFTER the film.
As a footnote, while they’re riffing on the now familiar Phantom Creeps credits, they say my name! Swoon
Lastly, Frank wraps things up with a “musical” number, entitled “If Chauffeurs Ruled the World”, and we get our second-ever stinger.
“Weird. pause Yeah, that’s the word for it - weird.”
One of the best callback jokes they ever did was in “Village of the Giants.” When Beau Bridges is being gassed with the antidote, Crow gives us, “By this time my sons lungs were screaming for oxygen.”
My own lungs were screaming for oxygen after I was done laughing.
And hey, Keep on posting your reviews. You have a rapt audience.
Just watched Operation Double 007 for the first time. What the hell was that? What the hell was the point of this movie? Did it get a commerical release? How did they get M and Moneypenny?
Favorite Line Thus Far:
Hot Woman: You’ve been reading too many novels by Fleming.
Servo: Jerry Fleming. Ian’s brother.
Joel molesting the Bots is now my second favorite host segment. Its going to take a lot to beat Dog and Bear.