I found out that Cameron Mitchell, (Commander Santa Claus) was in My Favorite Year. He played the gangster, Karl Rojeck! Since then it’s been bit parts on Hardcastle & McCormick, Simon & Simon, Etc…
I thought there might have been a comment to that effect, but honestly, I can’t recall at this point.
All the women on the planet were prehistoric. In the last shot of the film, which you missed when your DVD froze, it is revealed that the planet they’re on has been (prehistoric) Earth all along.
Well hell. I figured there was a cheesy twist coming, and there it is.
Have any of you all seen parts of MST shorts used in commercials? I just saw a commercial for a storage unit company that used footage from “Once Upon A Honeymoon.” Specifically, a segment where the lady is in the kitchen on the phone. They had made it black and white and intercut it with footage of another woman, but I still recognized it. I’ve also seen bits of “Design for Dreaming” used on the History Channel.
Since many of those shorts are in public domain, I’m not surprised advertisers use them for generic stock footage.
I also once saw a silent snippet of Manos in (I think) a tire commercial. It was the scene where the sheriff tells the couple making out in the sports car to move on.
Part of that was on a loop at the old ‘Future Center’ at the Franklin Institute. It was part of a bunch of clips of hollywood’s idea of the future.
Isn’t that where they have the “Dead racoon of the future?”
I’ve seen bits of those shorts in History Channel shows too.
Has anyone picked up the Volume 11 DVDs yet?
Because of a vacation I’m about to undertake, I’m waiting to place my order with Amazon for a couple of days, so they won’t be delivered while I’m gone.
Incidentally, I have Time Chasers written up, and hope to post it later this evening.
Since the thread is back on the front page, I have a question about an MST3K reference. In serveral episodes, the guys will say in a deep, giant-like voice, “Don’t worry, we won’t hurt you.” What is that from?
Argh! Wish I could help, it seems like I’ve just seen an episode with that bit in it. Just not coming to me.
**MST3K 8.21 - Time Chasers **
Available on Volume 5 of the DVD sets, and includes a fun little intro bit by Mike.
Intro : The Bots kick things off by stretching for a silly Lost in Space gag, then Mike and Pearl have a little chat about what’s gone on so far. In a fun nod to past continuity, Pearl greets Crow with “Hey, Art.”
Some cheesy computer-generated graphics take us through the credits (Crow : “This is like NFL graphics here.”) and we meet our hero, who’s just invented a Time Machine. Or, rather, has installed a Tandy Color PC in his Cessna that allows him to travel through time. Crow wastes no time in rejecting our hero, finding it inconceivable that this is the star of the film. Our hero, Nick, tries to drum up some interest with the local media and with a local research company by calling them up and lying to them. Unfortunately, he succeeds. An old flame of his turns out to be the reporter the local paper sends, and he takes her and a representative of Gen-Corp to the future, where they visit a mall food court. This impresses the pink-jacketed rep so much that he arranges for Nick to meet with Gen-Corp’s CEO. Another demonstration is given, and Nick signs away the ultimate technology to evil soulless corporate bastards. Smart move, Nick. They promptly hack his com-pu-ter and steal what they need to duplicate the ‘time transport’.
Host Segment : Tom convinces Crow to use the time machine on the ship (from Terror from the Year 5000) to go back and prevent Mike from getting stuck on the SOL. Crow has some trouble, and has to wait till the next host segment to try again.
Nick takes his newfound old flame out on a little date to celebrate him selling time-travelling technology - and they go to a real 50’s diner, in the 50’s. Whee. Then, for no reason at all, they pop back to the future, and discover - gasp! - something’s happened. The future is now a post-apocalyptic wasteland. (Well, it’s pretty untidy.) They have some wacky misadventures running from the degenerate local gangs, and escape back to the present, where they arrange a meeting with the CEO of Gen-Corp. CEO listens to their concerns, and basically blows them off as something to worry about later - see, Gen-Corp knows about the problem, and is, in fact, the cause of the problem. Nick, finally beginning to realize what a bad idea selling time travel was, demands the project be shut down - the CEO tries to have Nick arrested, but he and the girlfriend escape.
Host Segment : Crow successfully convinces Mike to pursue his music career rather than temp jobs - returning to the future, Crow meets Eddie, Mike’s brother, who has taken Mike’s palce, and learns Mike was killed, on-stage, at a concert. Eddie, who is a good bit rougher than Mike, does the next theater segment.
Nick and the girl sneak back to their plane, and with an ingenious distraction tactic, coupled with a feeble hangar fight, manage to get the time transport in the air. Their goal is to prevent past-Nick from demoing the technology to CEO. But all is not lost for Gen-Corp! Pinky Boy and CEO get their duplicate transport, and correctly guess where Nick is going, and jump back in time with them. Like, RIGHT with them. Close enough to be in pistol range. CEO boy pops a cap in Nick’s plane, and kills the girl. Aww. Nick manages to bring the plane in low and bail out safely. Aww. The plane crashes, leaving the girl’s body behind, and Nick scurries through the woods to try and find his past self in time. However, wackiness ensues as present-CEO uses past-minions to hunt present-Nick while past-Nick and past-girlfriend discover the wreckage of present-plane and present-girlfriend. Confused yet? Well, past-Nick must be a genius, because when present-CEO captures present-Nick with the intent of dumping his body in a Revolutionary War battle in 1777, past-Nick figures out just what’s happened and when they are! Wackiness ensues.
Host Segment : Crow, tired of Eddie, goes back in time to convince himself not to convince Mike to give up temping.
Present-CEO falls afoul of minutemen when his Uzi runs out of bullets, and decides to make a break for it. Present-Nick chases him to the transport, and gets in with him - they fight as the plane soars through the air, and the transporter is counting down - such tension. They crash, and both are injured. CEO shoots Nick, and then the plane’s debris falls and crushes him. It’s a happy ending!
Observer breaks into the credits of the movie with a little comedy bit that just embarrasses him, but amuses me.
Finale : Tom and Crow try to go for a Gilligan’s Island gag, but Mike isn’t biting. Mike and Pearl have another chat, and Pearl points out that there’s a spare Crow still hanging out in the past.
Signature Riffs:
<Mike> “Just a floppy disk for breakfast, honey?”
<Tom> “Two different plaids? Man, I’m a nude robot and I know that’s a fashion no-no.”
<Crow> “So, in the future, kids become gay agents?”
<Mike> “It’s Lisa Kudrow!”
<Mike, as CEO> “Hi, I’m Bob Evil.”
<Mike, as Future Gang Member> “Arr, sixteen men on a dead Dodge Dart.”
<Crow> “Vermont. City on the Go.”
<Crow> “Remember when everyone got Nick Miller haircuts and started wearing Castleton t-shirts?”
<Mike> “Never chase a wounded executive into the woods.”
<Tom> “Our young nation’s first spaz attack!”
<Mike> “Oh, he’s trying to get honey, like Pooh.”
<Crow> “He’s like poo, allright.”
NEXT:
8.22 - Overdrawn at the Memory Bank
Forgot to note one Riff - a Riff-Back, in fact.
<Mike> “Now that guy could use chinderwear.”
Even though “Overdrawn…” was a PBS movie, “Time Chasers” is the one that really gives me that liberal, PBS-style vibe.
Lesbians…OF THE FUTURE!
Watched Overdrawn, but I don’t think I’ll have time to type up the overview before my vacation - sorry, folks. I’ll come back to it ASAP!
We just watched Overdrawn the other night. I hadn’t seen it before. Good lord, that movie is awful! Who was the intended audience? It played like a kids’ movie, one where they assume kids are too dumb to know how nonsensical the plot is, but then they trotted out all the sex and naughty language.
And the movie’s rabid anti-anteater bias is just bizarre.
Some of the best lines came from the ‘battle’ in 1777 which used some rather old, hefty reenactors.
Tom: “I never knew our forefathers were so beefy!”
Mike: (as a reenactor): “So didja catch the game last ni…err. UP LIBERTY!”
Tom (noting one poorly dressed reenactor): “Oh come on no,w that guy’s just a pirate!”
The intended audience was my parents, apparently. Yes, they saw it on PBS back when it was made, and videotaped it and handed it to me to watch. “It’s really good! It’s like science fiction, only, you know, it’s not really science fiction.”**
My parents were by no means stupid or without taste. Crazy, perhaps…but I remain baffled by their fondness for Overdrawn. They were also fans of MST3K, but never saw them do Overdrawn, so I never got to see their reaction to that.
**Any SF reader will recognize that statement immediately.
I’ve sometimes wondered if the “Mom, 'my nuts?” bit was intentionally done that way. I could see some cheesy director trying to get all artsy and slip in a ham-handed Freudian reference.
Well, it’s lunch time. I think I’ll have some flav-o-synths and scroll up a cinema. I’d go for a rehab but they might bumble or bobble my doppel.
Didn’t Bela Legosi use that line in The Corpse Vanishes?