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Episode guide: 320- The Unearthly (with shorts: ‘Posture Pals’ and ‘Appreciating Our Parents’)

Short 1: (1952) An elementary school teacher holds a posture contest in her class.
Short 2: (1950) A young boy realizes how much his parents do for him, and that he should help out around the house.
Movie: (1957) A mad scientist uses nefarious methods to acquire subjects for his bizarre experiments.

First shown: 12/14/91
Opening: The bots are making a “funny” submission for “America’s Funniest Home Videos” and Crow gets the worst of it
Invention exchange: Crow is gnarled, but he likes it. The Mads demonstrate their “hard pills to swallow,” while Joel shows off his everyday products named for celebrities
Host segment 1: Crow and Tom present: “Appreciating Gypsy”
Host segment 2: With the help of the Video Toaster, J&tB present the many faces of Tor Johnson
Host segment 3: Tom and Crow create a “Unearthly” board game, but Joel gets hung up on reading the instructions
End: J&tB enjoy using their “Dead End Kids patois,” Joel reads a letter using the lingo, and even that Mads get into it.
Stinger: “Time for go to bed!”
1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (146 votes, average: 4.29 out of 5)

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• This is really a case where the shorts save the episode. Both shorts are fun and the riffing is great. But once the movie starts, things bog down. The guys make fun of Tor for a while, then they start kind of free associating (mixing in some state park jokes), then they fall back on the whole Dead End Kids patois thing. But the riffing never really takes off. Most of the segments are good, which helps drag the rating up a bit as well.
• Oh, the irony of an “America’s Funniest Home Videos” parody. Little did Trace suspect he would be drawing a paycheck from it in less than ten years.
• The Mads’ invention is my all-time favorite IE. Trace and Frank are brilliant. My main problem with Joel’s inventions are how how cheesy they look. None of the figures looks anything like the celebrity they’re supposed to be, and they all look like they were made out of cottage cheese.
References.
• Although there were episodes in the first season that had two episodes of “Radar Men from the Moon,” this is only the second time in the history of the series that we have had two shorts (the first was 315- TEENAGE CAVEMAN). They did it one more time in season six.
Incidentally, at a recent RiffTrax Live show, they riffed a short that supposedly was an updated version of “Appreciating Our Parents.”
• The Rhino version had alternate takes of the host segments. Always interesting to see which take they chose and which ended up on the cutting room floor.
• Dr. F says “Enjoy!” like Dr. Erhardt again.
• Short 1 was one of those instant classics that just struck a chord with the fans.
• During the first short, Joel says something odd: “That’s when the kids came up with a plan to blackmail Mrs. Reedy!” Where does that name come from? We know Joel knows the teacher’s name is Miss Martin, because he says it a few lines later. Is that a reference to something?
• Tom seems scandalized by Joel’s reference to VPL.
• Crow is still gnarled when they go into the theater, but during short 2 he says “I better go freshen up,” walks off, about three riffs go by without him, and then he returns good as new.
• During the segment 1, there’s a shot of the SOL bridge piled high with junk. Many of the items are past invention exchanges.
• At the end of segment 1, Gypsy breaks the button.
• In segment 2, the “artists renderings” make another appearance, only to be immediately rejected.
• In segment 2, Tom says “perfap…er…perhaps.” They keep going.
• Some techies may be amused by the appearance of an early version of the Video Toaster. It must have been fun ro use but, from a present-day perspective, it doesn’t seem that impressive. Maybe they were just not very good at it using it, but most of the images are pretty fuzzy and hard to make out.
• One other note about segment 2: the shot of Tor Johnson that is used over and over is at the very very end of the movie. Another example of them using a moment from the movie they are familiar with because they’ve seen it nine times, but that we aren’t because we’re still in the middle.
• Instant catchphrase: “Time for go to bed!”
• In segment 3 there’s a little Tom Servo figure among all the crap on the table. Where’d that come from?
• Tom and Crow are already there when Joel arrives back in the theater. Another example of Tom making it to the theater on his own.
• Cast and crew roundup: Editor Richard Currier also worked on “Night of the Blood Beast.” In front of the camera, Myron Healey was also in “The Incredible Melting Man.” Arthur Batanides was also in “The Leech Woman.” Harry Fleer was also in “Tormented.” John Carradine was also in “Red Zone Cuba” and Tor Johnson was also in “Bride of the Monster” and “The Beast of Yucca Flats.”
• CreditsWatch: Barb Oswald was prop assistant for her third and last time this season (was SHE responsible Joel’s invention exchange?). She’d be back for a couple of episodes in season four. Jef Maynard gets credit for “Paint Box Artistry” which I assume means he was able to figure out the Video Toaster better than anybody else.
• Fave riff from short 1: “She should just go home to bed.” Honorable mention: “Yes, very much so.”
• Fave riff from short 2: “Well, I isolated that nucleotide today…” “Honorable mention: “Dad pulls the lever at the big house.”
• Fave riff from the movie: “Stop fighting and give me some skin!”
Note: As we have done in the past, we will skip episode 321- SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE MARTIANS (next in the rotation) and do it in the holiday season.

102 Replies to “Episode guide: 320- The Unearthly (with shorts: ‘Posture Pals’ and ‘Appreciating Our Parents’)”

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  1. Alex says:

    “Time for go to bed!”

    One of those rare movies where Tor actually has speaking lines. For an old movie, I must say…. it’s a little creepy, especially when that woman had her skin removed from her face (I forgot what happened). But the riffing is very excellent overall. I love Dr. F’s and Frank’s invention exchange. :P

       1 likes

  2. Manny Sanguillen says:

    Get Porky some pants.

       1 likes

  3. Kouban says:

    I’m currently watching this episode, and I just noticed that in the movie’s credits, the name of the film company is blacked out (as seen here: twitpic.com/6w7ync). Was this an artifact of the distributor that BBI got it from or something else?

       2 likes

  4. John Branch says:

    @ #6 E.P. – You are dead on about Yucca Flats a WAR CRIME! LOL

       1 likes

  5. No, I like this episode. Four-ish stars.

       2 likes

  6. Thomas K. Dye says:

    The film is okay. John Carradine’s slumming overacting is somewhat amusing, and the riffing during the operation is pretty funny (“this Brown ‘n’ Serve is ALIVE! ALIVE!”) but yeah, for whatever reason, they keep up the Dead End Kids schtick whenever Art Batanides is onscreen. Although I do like Joel’s final line, “So what’s it to you Einstein?”

    I recently watched the Star Trek episode “That Which Survives” and wondered why Lt. D’amato looked so familiar… the crazy palooka.

    But the shorts are both classics. The overchirpy narrator in “Posture Pals” is hilariously grating. And I really like the implication of “Appreciating Your Parents” that Tommy’s some kind of sponging dim bulb.

    (Incidentally, the whole “blue” tint on the films is especially obvious in this episode, and it’s rather hard on the eyes. I’m very glad they finally gave that up over time.)

       1 likes

  7. mnenoch says:

    Watched this last night with my wife (who has been slowing watching episodes weekly with me following the reviews on here). She has been enjoying most of the movies lately and she liked the shorts but the movie she couldn’t stand itself.

    Have to say that I really enjoyed the shorts plus the host segments. The Unearthly itself is just one of those bland terrible story and I mean that in the since that the story about experimenting on human test subjects is terrible. Plus I think the stairs easily get 80% of the screen time in this movie. Overall though to me its still pretty enjoyable. Could be a lot worse.

       2 likes

  8. Steve K says:

    “That’s when the kids came up with a plan to blackmail Mrs. Reedy!”
    I always thought it was Mrs. McReedy, because that’s how it sounded and that name sounded familiar to me.
    But I couldn’t place it. So I just googled it, and now I’m kicking myself.

    Mrs McReedy (actually spelled MacReady) is the stern housekeeper in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.
    Now it makes sense.

       2 likes

  9. Servotron3000 says:

    “Time for go to bed!” I used to use that line on my nieces and nephews when they were little. They used to look at me like I was from Mars.

       4 likes

  10. Thomas K. Dye says:

    Tom seems scandalized by Joel’s reference to VPL.

    Oh, one thing I noticed here… I think the line “She’s got VPL” was clearly dubbed over something else, because you can hear another line quietly said underneath it. Plus, right after Tom’s “Joel!”, Crow quietly says “hinder.” Maybe Joel made a naughty remark about the girl’s rear end? Ew.

       1 likes

  11. big61al says:

    @53 Holy smokes, Batman. I never noticed this before. I bet the copyright or something like that got changed after the prints were approved for printing but prior to actual printing.
    I propose a new feature…..The crawling eye award for spotting something significate on the show.
    I nominate you for the first award. I let the mads, I mean moderators – SAMPO & ERHARDT bestow the actual valuable [worthless, wink wink] prize. :announce:

       1 likes

  12. JCC says:

    I rarely watch the movie, but it’s all worth it for “Time for go to bed” and “The birth of the World Wrestling Federation.”

    @53 Kouban – The film company is also blacked out in Beginning of the End.

    The same flute music from Bloodlust and one other episode is used here. I’m pretty sure they used Mrs. Reedy in another episode, but my memory is like Swiss Cheese these days.

       3 likes

  13. Kenneth Morgan says:

    This episode is particularly memorable for me because it’s the first one I saw after I had illeostomy surgery. You know the saying, “It only hurts when I laugh”? This episode showed me that’s very true, especially during the shorts. Hilarious pain!

    And re: the Hard Pills to Swallow (one of the Mads funniest moments), I remember taking Flintstones vitamins when I was a kid, though I also took Spider-Man vitamins. They weren’t anywhere near that big, though.

       1 likes

  14. April de Wetpants says:

    This is one that had to grow on me. Like Batwoman and The Creeping Terror. Actually enjoy the movie now.

    But I agree that the shining moment is the Posture Pals. The the Mads IE. Always wondered what the extra pill in the corner was though. They never got to it.

       1 likes

  15. fathermushroom says:

    I have always assumed that Mrs. Reedy was one of Joel’s grade school teachers, the way he would sometimes reference Ashwabanan High School (if that’s how you spell it).

    Somebody earlier mentioned that Tor Johnson had a recurring role as Nabaro in Rocky Jones. But no, (if you were serious), that was the actor who played Sgt. Shultz of “Hogan’s Heroes” fame.

       0 likes

  16. Mr. B(ob) says:

    Regarding Rocky Jones Crash Of The Moons, the character’s name is Bavarro and the actor’s name is John Banner.

       1 likes

  17. Watch-out-for-Snakes says:

    During the opening segment, when the Bots are filming their Americas Funniest Home Video clip, Gypsy has an old Super 8 mm (possibly just an 8mm?) camera on her head instead of her usual eye. I LOVE THAT!

    I can’t make out the exact brand of camera, it looks to be brownish and have 3 lenses. I would guess a Brownie? ?

       1 likes

  18. Cornjob says:

    A little while ago my girlfriend told me over the phone that she, “was going to bed”. But on my speaker phone it sounded like she, “was going Tibet”. This made me imagine Tor Johnson boarding a plane for Eastern China and saying, “Time for go Tibet”.

       11 likes

  19. touches no one's life, then leaves says:

    #68: Ironic since, according to “Bride of the Monster,” Tibet is where Vornoff first met Lobo.

    #65-66: Not “Rocky Jones: Crash of Moons,” “Rocky Jones: Space Ranger” THE TV SERIES. It had 39 episodes, way more than just the ones that were jammed together to make the movies that appeared on MST3K.

    Although per the IMDB (I got the earlier stuff from Wikipedia) it turns out Tor didn’t have a recurring role, he was just in one episode: “Inferno in Space, Chapter 1” (Wikipedia didn’t say it was recurring, that was just my incorrect guess). As noted, he played “Naboro.” Who Is Naboro? Don’t know. Perhaps the henchman of whoever was the villain that week.

    “Time for go to Space!”

    Also, turns out his last film wasn’t Yucca Flats, it was 1968’s “Head,” a Monkees (!) movie where he played a guard and was uncredited. So he ended his career not in the comparative tour de force that was “The Beast of Yucca Flats,” but just as he began (in 1934’s “Registered Nurse”), in an uncredited role. Sad, really.

    Some of Tor’s 1930s film appearances are probably in the public domain by now, yet he has such minor roles in them that it would be silly to release them as “The Tor Johnson Collection” OSLT.

       1 likes

  20. lancecorbain says:

    A band of mine had a song years ago called Ode To A Vice that was all about drinking, and I used to yell the “What’s the word? Thunderbird!” toast after the verse about cheap liquor. I doubt anyone ever knew it was from this. The shorts here are classics, but my favorite riff from this episode is the “Edgar Allen Poe Marching Band” joke. That still cracks me up.

       1 likes

  21. lancecorbain says:

    Oh, and my old friend Dusty would kill me if I failed to mention that his all-time favorite MST joke was from the end of this, where they say “Get Michael Jackson on the phone, he might want to buy one of these guys!” He never fails to mention that whenever MST comes up in conversation.

       2 likes

  22. rose from NJ says:

    Correction to #49 – It’s the same scene where John Carradine taps on Jedro’s head, but it’s the grunting noises Tom makes every time Jedro’s face twitches. That is what had me in tears. Guess I should have watched it again as a reminder. Senior moment, sorry.

       0 likes

  23. Warren says:

    This episode is slow but I re-watched it Saturday and didn’t fall asleep so I guess that’s good. The shorts are decent but not special. The premise of the movie is good, this is one of those cases where better budget and execution could have produced better results.
    TIME FOR GO TO BED!
    You know, because I’m getting a little tired.

       0 likes

  24. zombiewhacker says:

    Once again, this illustrates (somebody’s?) rule that how you like a MST3K ep depends entirely on how you react to the movie itself.

    I didn’t find “Unearthly” to be boring at all, so I love this ep.

       1 likes

  25. lancecorbain says:

    Oh, and I completely forgot (just now watched this again) my favorite moment from The Uneartly-it’s John Carradine’s odd quick reading of “necessary sacrifices”, after which Tom says “Now YOU try saying that!” Kills me every time.

       1 likes

  26. Seneca says:

    For me this is a classic episode. It’s one of the first CC eps I ever saw because I came aboard after they’d moved to Sci Fi and I only had Rhino tapes to choose from. The shorts are funny and the movie is filled with bizarre characters, bad performances, over-the-top mad scientist pomposity, Tor Johnson, leering, perversity, shameless criminality and breeches of medical ethics . . . what’s not to like?

       1 likes

  27. Blast Hardcheese says:

    OK, is it weird to be affected by Natalie’s transformation, even if none of it makes any sense? Maybe I’m just a sap (oh no, slipping into Dead End Kids lingo), but I actually find those shots of her face to be genuinely horrifying. Then, of course, Tor Johnson steps in and everything’s alright again. I absolutely love the voice they give Tor here (and in Bride and Yucca Flats)–cracks me up every time.

    Loved the Hard Day’s Night reference–just came out of the blue (and from one of the more surreal moments of that movie).

    Has any really obsessive MSTie put together a list of all the game parts used in Segment 3? I see some Mousetrap parts, but I’m sure there’s lots more to find.

       2 likes

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  31. Smoothie of Great Power says:

    I second that on Dr. F’s invention exchange being one of, if not, the all-time greatest. Segment 1 is also a classic. I often use the, “You’re nothing but dirt between the toes of an evil troll!” as a taunt.

    Favorite riffs:
    Short 1:
    Joel: “Ms. Martin, Tommy drew a bong!”

    Short 2:
    Servo: “He’s in the wrong house.”

    Movie:
    Servo: “The birth of the World Wrestling Federation!”

       0 likes

  32. Smoothie of Great Power says:

    I noticed the References list missed one:

    A M*A*S*H reference.
    Carradine: “In 24 hours we’ll know the answer.”
    Servo: “Want to head over to the swamp and grab some cocktails?”

       2 likes

  33. Sitting Duck says:

    The Unearthly passes the Bechdel Test. Grace and Sharon talk about the former settling in.

    Like how seeing the charred chicken reminds Crow to get himself fixed up.

    Of all the cartoon anthropomorphic critters who wear nothing below the waist, Porky is definitely the most unsettling. Sing the praises of pants indeed.

    You’re wrong, Tom. If you pay attention, it does get established earlier in the film that Sharon objects to Dr. Conway getting friendly with the female patients. Still doesn’t make it especially believable, though.

    Favorite riffs

    “You can see that this boy needs help.”
    He’s a loser and the kids let him know it.

    “Just like a house about to fall.”
    Just like his dad on Friday night.

    Tears of shame pour down Tommy’s face.

    Magic’s easy once you know Mom.

    Now the faces of those he’s wronged flash before his eyes.

    “There was the bed to be made.”
    And the maid to be bedded.

    Would you like to sample our anti-depressant cart?

    My car ran out of tire.

    “I wear a leather jacket and I’m not a midget. So what?”
    So you won’t be booked on the Sullivan Show.

    “I’ll take every precaution!”
    I’ll take the curtain.

    And now our next Miss Manic Depressive event, the swimsuit competition.

    “Well sooner or later, everyone’s afraid of something.”
    I’m afraid of sock monkeys. Go figure.

    Nutcase Natalie’s here!

    “Did you sterilize my #23 scalpel?
    I got confused and sterilized your cat.

    Not the 23 scalpel! You’re mad, Doctor!

       6 likes

  34. A.J. (A Jerk) says:

    I actually like the movie more than the shorts. I don’t know how to describe it exactly, but the riffing on the movie has kind of a loose feel to it that I like. It’s mostly dull, sure, but there are good jokes to be found and (this is key) there isn’t much that gets on my nerves like a lot of other shows from this season do, or even from the shorts which don’t hold up for me. They were both funny the first time I saw them, but after getting all the most memorable jokes lodged into my brain, tied in with the fact that I still don’t get the more “cerebral” jokes (I’m 24 and have a high school education, what the heck is the “Lathe of Heaven” and why is that necessarily funny?) and I’m left bored by them on repeat viewings and even often skip them.

       1 likes

  35. Memorable riffs from “Posture Pals”
    Servo: “Amazing physique for an 8-year old.”

    Servo: “They’re disgusted and filled with self-loathing.”

    Crow: “A playground where apes evolved from Man?!”

    Joel: “They’re the posture posse!”

    Memorable riffs from “Appreciating Our Parents”
    Servo: “It’s called ‘guilt’, and boy does it work!”

    Servo: “Tommy calls many men ‘Dad’.”

    Servo: “But, first he straps gophers to his feet.”

    Joel: “And, what all the yelling’s about.”

    Narrator: “After a week of trying…”
    Crow: “He gives up!”

    Servo: “Get Porky some pants!”

    Crow: “Tommy only showers half his body to save water.”

    Fav. riff from “Posture Pals”
    Joel: “Mrs. Martin! Tommy drew a bong!”

    Fav. riff from “Appreciating Our Parents”
    Servo: “Mom? Dad? OH MY GOD! THAT’S DISGUSTING!”

    Memorable riffs from “The Unearthly”:

    Crow: “Hey, don’t forget to turn the guy off!”

    Joel: “Sign, sign, everywhere a sign.”

    Servo: “What do you say we go to the Swamp and have cocktails?”

    Servo: “Oh no! She looks like me!”

    Servo: “I have some bad news, your modeling career is down the toilet.”

    Crow: “Get Michael Jackson on the phone! He might wanna buy one of these guys!”

    Fav. riff from movie:
    John Carradine gets stabbed)
    Servo: “Ssssssssssssssssss….”

    Comments:
    – Gypsy’s eye is missing in the opening segment, and in its place, a video camera!

    – A rare moment where we see Crow’s feet. They look like weird duck feet.

    – Was Joel having some allergies the day they filmed this episode? He sure is blinking a lot.

    – We can *sort of* see Crow’s eye mechanism during the invention Exchange.

    – When Dr. F sends the films he says “Enjoy!” like Dr. Erhardt. He even pauses for a moment after he says it.

    -At the beginning of the 1st short, Servo quotes Joel’s “Weird which results in creativity”. Crow repeats it in Segment 3.

    -When Crow leaves the theater to go “freshen up”, you can see Trace set the gnarled Crow down before he brings in the normal Crow puppet.

    – Surprisingly, they don’t make a “Goodnight John Boy” reference during the “Goodnight scene” in the 2nd short.

    – Nitpick regarding “Appreciating Our Parents”. The narrator explicitly says a parents doesn’t have to do as much work if their son or daughter simply puts things away “where they belong”. However, what if the parent prefers something in a different place? Speaking as someone who has a bit of OCD, this *can* be aggravating.

    – The Brains sure like that “Big Head” prop, because there it is again in Segment 1.

    – When that guy chews out Tor for the cold food, did anyone else besides me think about riffing out, “Tor, your a lousy butler!”?

    Best Segment: The Tor Johnson segment is pretty funny.
    Worst Segment: The board game segment dies early.

    Overall: Oh wow, this episode comes CLOSE to being a dud. The riffing on the shorts is pretty good, but the riffing on the film itself is near KTMA-like. It doesn’t help that The Unearthly doesn’t have much going on. I give it ** stars.

       0 likes

  36. Juice says:

    Yes, it’s slow and bland, but I like it! It’s also one of those eps that is so familiar and comforting to me I can use it as a sleep aid (and that’s a good thing). #7 Yes, Alison Hayes was missed in the line up, but in a (good) way I can see how you could miss her. She was completely different in each role she played – “Gunslinger”, “The Undead”, this one, and I’m probably missing some. I think she was a very good actress considering the limitations of some of her roles (like this one). Wasn’t she also the 50 foot woman?
    Has anyone mentioned “Hal’s reading your lips!”

       2 likes

  37. Basil says:

    Think about this… 24 years later, AFV is still on the air.

    Okay, don’t think about it too hard. You’ll start to cry.

       4 likes

  38. Goshzilla says:

    It’s taken me many years, but I think I’ve finally figured out “William Styron tablets.” William Styron was a writer, of course, but I knew there had to be a more esoteric reference in there somewhere, presumably to some medicinal product I’d never heard of. Googling got me nowhere until I turned up an eBay listing for a vintage tin of Great Seal Cold Tablets (with laxative and quinine, of course, perfectly reasonable…) produced by the Styron-Beggs Company of Newark, Ohio. Great, good enough for me, now I can stop wondering. Somebody’s gramma must’ve had a stockpile of this snakeoil.

       0 likes

  39. EricJ says:

    tied in with the fact that I still don’t get the more “cerebral” jokes (I’m 24 and have a high school education, what the heck is the “Lathe of Heaven” and why is that necessarily funny?)

    Ursula LeGuin sci-fi novel (and early proto-PBS movie from the “Overdrawn/Memory” days, which meant you probably weren’t around to see it) about a character whose dreams keep changing reality.
    See, Tommy woke up and found the kitchen different, so…Laugh, it’s a literary joke! :)

    Oh, and if it’s any consolation, AFV officially put tight restrictions a while ago on any videos involving kids tripping, pratfalling or otherwise falling into mud, as too many greedy parents were also faking it.

       4 likes

  40. touches no one's life, then leaves says:

    #77

    Based on “Plan Nine from Outer Space,” that might be Tor Johnson’s actual voice.

       1 likes

  41. Angie Schultz says:

    Goshzilla:
    It’s taken me many years, but I think I’ve finally figured out “William Styron tablets.”…Googling got me nowhere until I turned up an eBay listing for a vintage tin of Great Seal Cold Tablets (with laxative and quinine, of course, perfectly reasonable…) produced by the Styron-Beggs Company…

    Bzzzt! Sorry, but thanks for playing! William Styron wrote Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness, a book about his descent into depression. Ergo, William Styron tablets would be anti-depressants of some sort. (My own copy of the book was a freebie given to a doctor by “Mead Johnson Pharmaceuticals, Makers of Desyrel Dividose”. It ended up at a library sale, which is how I got it. That’s an…interesting… marketing tool.)

    Desyrel Dividose is a terrible attempt at a pr0n name, by the way.

       1 likes

  42. thequietman says:

    Hadn’t watched this one in a long time, but parts of it still shone through in my memory, mainly the “Appreciating Gypsy” segment. That shot of Crow taking a bath is one of the few times I’d ever be tempted to call him ‘cute’. There’s also the cobbled together board game, a perfect example of that brotherly vibe Joel & the bots had.

    As for the main feature itself, I found myself more interested when I found I could compare Myron Healy’s performance here with “The Incredible Melting Man”. There’s a film that could have used some of that rat-a-tat dialogue.

    Fave riffs:
    From Posture Pals:
    [panning shot of a tree] Servo: The… larch!
    From Unearthly:
    Carradine: That excuse wouldn’t fool a child!
    Crow: Tor bought it!

       1 likes

  43. ahaerhar says:

    @90
    There’s some footage of Tor speaking normally from his appearance on You Bet Your Life.

    Sadly no footage of him in the ring.

       0 likes

  44. snowdog says:

    A couple of small things I noticed on this viewing:

    If you watch closely during the invention exchange, Trace is having a hard time concentrating on his lines with Frank’s moaning. He even looks a little annoyed for just a moment.

    When Dr F looks into the camera and says something like “It does my heart good to see Crow burned to a crisp”, it feels like it’s actually Trace talking about the puppet, rather than Dr F talking about the character.

    If any of you younger folks have never seen “The Lathe of Heaven”, it’s on YouTube. While still low-budget, it’s a much better film than “Overdrawn”. Don’t bother with the 2002 remake.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8VRbaVNvSA

       1 likes

  45. Goshzilla says:

    Angie Schultz: Bzzzt!Sorry, but thanks for playing!William Styron wrote Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness, a book about his descent into depression. Ergo, William Styron tablets would be anti-depressants of some sort.

    Yeah, I had considered that, but it just feels to me like there’s a pun or some kind of play on words in there somewhere. Maybe I’m just thinking too hard.

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  46. Terry the Sensitive Knight says:

    I love this episode, and I have to say my roommate’s kids desperately need to see the Appreciating Our Parents short >__>

    Sitting Duck: Of all the cartoon anthropomorphic critters who wear nothing below the waist, Porky is definitely the most unsettling. Sing the praises of pants indeed.

    Seeing as pigs tend to be quite well-endowed… yes.

    snowdog: When Dr F looks into the camera and says something like “It does my heart good to see Crow burned to a crisp”, it feels like it’s actually Trace talking about the puppet, rather than Dr F talking about the character.

    It’s much like in Atomic Brain where Crow/Dr. F mock each other. Utterly brilliant.
    “I’m Dr. Clayton Forrester, the one with the weak chin. I’m going to hit TV’s Frank because of my frustration at my own limitations…”

    Fave riffs:
    Short 1:
    “It’s Alfred Hitchcock!”
    “Yeah, after SlimFast”

    “She’s weird which results in creativity!”

    “Ms. Martin, Tommy drew a bong!”

    “Then Mary’s head is lit on fire!”

    “They’re gonna take this for about a half-hour before they start killing each other…”

    Short 2:
    Uh-oh! Almost forgot something very important!
    “To pay homage to Gorto!”

    “Yeah, you wouldn’t want that penny just sitting out…”

    “Dad pulls the lever at the big house”

    “Here’s a dollar, buy yourself someth’n pretty…”

    Tommy would like to be on that team…
    “So he punts a football through the window!”

    Movie:
    “It’s the Visible Venus De Milo, here…”

    “Tor, buddy, you can lower your eyebrows!”

    “He even sleeps crabby!” (and pretty much any riff about Danny Green)

    I love you! And I won’t have anything come between us!!!
    “Heh heh, this is NEW!”

    “And next in the Miss Manic-Depressive Event: The Swimsuit Competition!”

    “uh… let’s just forget we saw this, think of the paperwork”

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  47. touches no one's life, then leaves says:

    Something reminded me:

    What, if any, pre-existing entity/object was Crow referring to when he mentioned the name “Gorto” in the first place?

    It’s the Posture Pals narrator who referred to Bombo the Clown, so where did THAT name come from? A 1952 clown/toy now lost to the ages?

    Thanks.

       1 likes

  48. Ro-man says:

    I think the shorts are some of the best here… Appreciating Our Parents has some great moments.
    The movie actually has a decent premise, and the riffs are pretty good… but it is Allison Hayes that makes this one watchable for me!

       1 likes

  49. touches no one's life, then leaves says:

    Dr. Conway fell victim to bitter irony, in that his greatest success, a man who actually rose from the dead (and what’s immortality but an immunity to death?) is the one who brought him down. Boy, what are the odds, huh?

    It would’ve been doubly ironic if Mark Houston had come to Conway’s house specifically to investigate Jedrow’s disappearance, but I don’t think that was the case.

    In a line that I don’t remember being in the MST3K version, a police officer, regarding the failed experiments who will theoretically be cared for in institutions for the rest of their lives, wonders: “Good Lord – what if they DO live forever?”

    Oddly enough, the IMDB seems to think that Danny “Palooka” Green is one and the same with a number of other characters by that name: http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0502899/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t5

       2 likes

  50. Sitting Duck says:

    A final thought. If any of the Brains started up families after doing this episode, would they have a different appreciation for Appreciating Our Parents?

    @ #99: The, “What if they do live forever?” line was kept in the MST3K version.

       1 likes

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