Feed your RSS!
This is extremely short notice, but if you happen to be in the L.A. area tonight you might want to drop by the Fake Gallery at 4319 Melrose Ave. to catch The Fake Show. The show will be co-hosted by Frank and will feature an appearance by Josh.
Janet Varney and Cole Stratton’s last RiffTrax was their terrific riff of “Dirty Dancing.” As I said on the RiffTrax forum at the time, “it was genuinely and consistently funny, but what I really liked about it was they did not try to be Mike-Kevin-Bill. They courageously established their own riffing style, committed to the bits and established their own riffing personas. Bravo!” I’ve been looking forward to this one.
Download it here. Free sample here.
First shown: 4/19/96
Intro: Dr. F. explains the premise
Opening: Mike’s begins his day, but what’s that rythmic pounding?
Host segment 1: After the film breaks, Crow and Tom goad Mike into piloting the SOL–with disastrous results!
Host segment 2: Mike and Crow check out the interociter in Tom’s room, but the Metalunan they contact is no help
End: Dr. F. is sure Mike’s will has been broken, but on the SOL its party time–with a “THIS ISLAND EARTH” theme. Dr. F.’s attempt to poop the party backfires. Aaaahhhh!
Stinger: No stinger, but Mike, Crow and Tom return to riff their own credits!
(116 votes, average: 4.11 out of 5)
Loading ...
• Before we begin, the full season six episode guide is now up.
• There is SO much to talk about when it comes to this all-too-brief attempt at mainstreaming an almost unmainstreamable product. I’ll try to hit as many of the high notes as possible.
• For a lot of background on the movie, read our FAQ.
• In many ways, all their years of hard work were leading up to this and the movie is at the heart of so much that happened at (and to) Best Brains. One giant example: Joel recently revealed that it was Jim’s insistence on directing this movie that was the proverbial “straw that broke the camel’s back” and led him to depart the series. How might the world, the show and Best Brains have been different if they never thought to try to make a movie? The movie also caused them to put the regular series on the back burner, and that may have helped give Comedy Central the impression that there was no interest in continuing the show. I could probably come up with a dozen more examples, and who knows what sort of backstage stuff went on that we don’t know about?
• The movie proves one thing without a doubt: It IS possible to have closed captioning for MST3K. I forget now if the DVDs have captioning, but the VHS versions did–the dialog from the movie ran at the top of the screen and the riffs ran at the bottom. It worked reasonably well, and I really wish EVERY episode was closed captioned. I’m a bit of a militant on this issue, but I do think it can be done and I wish it would be done.
• I visited the set while they were filming (it was the day they shot Trace doing the opening bit) and everybody seemed pretty upbeat. Kevin was even speculating on the prospect of doing one of these a year for the foreseeable future.
• Trace worked like a real trooper that day. They must have done 20 takes. Oh, and anybody who says making a movie is exciting has never actually been on the set when a movie was being made. It is one of the most tedious things you can ever experience.
• Here’s a pretty good rundown of the reviews at the time.
• Many of the harshest reviews came from people who felt “This Island Earth” is “too good” to have been the subject for the movie, and I noticed something really strange: among the people who made this charge, the words “The Day the Earth Stood Still” were usually part of the review. It really was a remarkable thing. “This Island Earth” is NOT “The Day the Earth Stood Still” but the mere PROXIMITY of “This Island Earth” to “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” in the minds of these critics, was enough to disqualify it for mockery.
• It’s hard to fairly judge TIE based on the chopped-to-shreds version we get in MST3K:TM (as noted in the FAQ, the entire running time of this movie is less than the original running time of TIE). But I have seen the full thing (indeed I watched the full thing riffed by Mike, Kevin and Trace at the first convention in 1994) and I am here to tell you that it is NOT a good movie.
• I broached this subject with Kevin during a break on the set and his response was very simple: He threw his head back and laughed uproariously. Then he began to tick off the fundamental flaws in the movie. First of all, he said, Cal, our hero, goes on a mind-binding journey across the universe–and returns utterly unchanged in any way. Cal’s most heroic act is to yell “Run, Ruth, run!” at one point. It’s fairly clear that both Rex Reason and Jeff Morrow thought THEY were the hero of the movie, the chemistry between Faith Domergue and Rex Reason was tepid at best, and on and on. He hadn’t even gotten to all the criticisms before he was called back to the set.
• In the opening, just watch the real estate Trace covers as he goes through his explanation of the premise. Now imagine doing that about 20 times under hot lights.
• After the little Dr. F intro, we go into an elaborate “2001″ parody during the credits. If you’re watching it carefully, they give away the joke (i.e. that Mike is actually on a giant hamster wheel) pretty early, but I also suspect that a lot of casual viewers may well have been finding their seats etc., and might have only gotten the joke as the credits end.
• Note that a copy of the old Satellite News newsletter is the “wire service reports” Gypsy gives to Mike.
• Also during the early moments of this scene look past Servo and Mike to the wall behind them. The set is decorated with many pink flamingoes, that were a gift of some fans (me among them) at the end of the first convention.
• One of the things that the publicity people for the movie pushed was that we would get our first glimpse of other parts of the SOL. But in the end, we didn’t really get to see anything very memorable.
• As we get ready for movie sign, they make explicit the threat Dr. F has always sort of implied in the past. He pulls a lever and apparently cuts the oxygen in the SOL. Mike, of course, has the most reason to cooperate, but Crow and Tom comply as well, not wanting to be the cause of Mike’s demise.
• Look for Frank on one of the doors during the door sequence.
• The movie contains many riffs that loyal fans have heard before, sometimes on several occasions. Among them: “It’s a long par five to the nation’s capital,” “Football practice!” “Put your shoes on, we’re at grandma’s,” “I have tubes in my ears!” “I kind of live out of my [insert vehicle type]” and [you] “wake and bake every day.”
• One of the problems I have with the movie is that, early on, when they should be establishing a riffing rhythm, there is a long stretch of no riffs. It happens during the scene in which Cal holds an impromptu press conference as he prepares to climb into his jet. A long painful minute goes by with only a few paltry riffs, and it’s really the wrong place for a dead zone.
• Then current riffs: “John Sununu goes for a haircut,” “Look out President Clinton!”, a reference pilots drinking rum and cokes and “The Kingdome!”
• In the live riffing, the “secret eggo project” scene went on much longer and established the “Cal always breaks things” running gag. The shortened version doesn’t really establish it, with the result that when Servo says “Cal, I don’t think there’s anything left to break!” we really don’t understand what he’s talking about.
• Take note: The “sort this, deliver that” delivery man is none other than Coleman Francis!! And, later, the Metalunan pilot who punches up the “Normal View” is Richard Deacon, Mel Cooley from “The Dick Van Dyke Show.”
• Another little in-joke for fans, you can hear a light musical riff on the “Manos” theme as Mike activates the manipulator arm, which is labeled “Manos.”
• It always cracks me up the way Crow nuzzles Mike while doing his George Takei impression.
• Servo mentions hamdingers under his breath as he looks for his interociter.
• One of the most surprising moments of the movie came with the appearance of actor John Brady, as a Metalunan taking a shower. Brady had never been involved with MST3K (in fact this was his first movie role) and fans were baffled by the appearance of this complete stranger.
• Just a shout-out to Jef or whoever built that replica of the catalog in the movie. Looks perfect.
• The movie contains two three “shits” in the dialog, expressly added so that would avoid the dreaded “G” rating. This is another one of those decisions that, in hindsight, seems pointless.
• Obscure riff (there were a few!): They enter a room on the ship that looks to have wooden tile floors. Crow, in his best Henry Fonda, says “Hey the floors look great!” Fonda was a longtime pitchman for GAF flooring.
• As they riff the closing credits, most of the names they pick out are folks who have been longtime BBI staffers.
• Fave riff: Hey, keep it on the road! We’re in the tubes back here! Honorable mention: Recognize me now, Ruth?
REDLANDS, Calif. — Edward “Ward” Costello, who had recurring roles on TV series including “The Streets of San Francisco” and “General Hospital,” died here June 4 due to complications from a stroke. He was 89.
MSTies will remember him as Capt. MacIntosh in episode 608- CODE NAME: DIAMOND HEAD and Dr. Robert Hodges Hedges in episode 807- TERROR FROM THE YEAR 5000.
Read his Variety obituary here.
