Movie: (1987) A hero returns to the primitive planet Gor, and is soon caught up in palace intrigue involving an evil sorcerer.
First shown: 12/11/93
Opening: M&tB are roughhousing, and it doesn’t go well for Tom
Invention exchange: The Mads present their “really real” time machine, while M&tB show off their Fabio kit
Host segment 1: The bots find Mike’s theater scrapbook, and the photos all have something in common
Host segment 2: M&tB sing: “Tubular Boobular Joy”
Host segment 3: M&tB read relevant passages from “Palance on Palance”
End: Cambot puts together a compilation of buffalo shots!, while the Mads dance through the years
Stinger: “Get out of here, you disGUSting WOORRRRRM!”
(226 votes, average: 4.70 out of 5)
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• I love-love-LOVE this episode. Great riffing, great segments, seriously wacky but very watchable movie. It’s also a great gateway episode for newbies. For a while it was my all-time favorite Mike episode.
• This episode was the one that was submitted to the Peabody Award people, and won them the award.
• This episode was released as a part of Shout’s Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection Vol. XXX.
• It’s hard to imagine Joel “roughhousing” with the bots the way Mike does here. Maybe that’s the point.
• Slightly irritating thing in the Mads’ invention exchange: the little signs say “60’s” and “50’s” and “40’s.” Those apostrophes are grammatically incorrect.
• Remember when Fabio mattered? Neither do I. Best line: “Even Janis Ian kneels at his altar.”
• Gypsy singing “I sing whenever I sing…” is the first of a boatload of callbacks in this episode. Others include: o/` “Harry Alan Towerrrrrs!” o/` (Fu Manchu), “Mah-mah-mah-mah-Mitchell (Mitchell), “They’re on the ‘Moon Zero Two’ set!” “Watch out for snakes!” (Eegah), a reference to the Warrior of the Lost World set, “Sampo…Sampo…” and “Want some?” “Thanks Daddy O.”
• Note that when Dr. F is in his caveman outfit, his Deep 13 patch is attached to his skin.
• Servo says, in a stupid voice, “Can we listen to Z-Rock?” I assume this is a local Minneapolis reference?
• Anybody ever play that Cabot drinking game? Did you live through it?
• I’ve eaten at the Perkins on 494.
• Non-spaghetti-ball bumpers: pan to beaker, pan to notebook, close up on film canister, focus on blackboard as what looks like beach ball goes by.
• The debut showing of this episode took place during one of those theme weekends Comedy Central used to have. This one was called “Radio Active TV” and they got radio DJs from around the country to do little bumper bits. For this episode, the DJs were Dave Rickards and Cookie “Chainsaw” Randolph from a station in San Diego. (In a past go-round, I noted that, “astonishingly for an industry where a run of a year or two on any one station is amazing, those two are STILL doing the morning show there 15 years later.” Since I posted that, they were abruptly — or, more accurately, typically, since all radio firings are abrupt — fired. Fans complained, the station held firm. They were out of work for a few months, then they got hired at a competing station in San Diego, where, amazingly, they STILL are.) For some reason, also present in the bits was actor Marc Price, who played Skippy in the ’80s sitcom “Family Ties.” His presence was never explained. And, for some reason, Rickards and Randolph were under the impression that the movie being watched was the Howard Hughes classic film, “Outlaw.” It made them seem pretty clueless.
• Segment 1 is probably the least funny, but even that one is very clever. Mike does look good in a sailor suit.
• First Firesign Theatre reference in a while: “Don’t crush that dwarf! Hand me the pliers!” Maybe Joel was the main Firesign guy?
• Everybody gets to do their Palance impressions to death. Hope their throats were okay at the end of the day.
• Segment 2 was an instant classic, also sung on the live show at the first convention in 1994. The first time I heard the phrase “hung like a horsical” I did a beer spit-take.
• What song are Crow and Tom singing during the scene where the slavers are chasing the slaves around? They don’t seem to know the words.
• M&tB suspect that’s Italy at the end. Actually, despite a mostly Italian film crew, a lot of this was shot in South Africa. That could be Johannesburg.
• The USA Network movie sketch, hard on the heels of the womany movie sketch a couple of episodes ago, means another great credit sequence.
• This ep marks the third mention of Chris Lemmon in three episodes! Somebody really didn’t like him!
• Terrific editing of the buffalo shot compendium. Cambot gets the credit but I assume it was really Brad Keeley.
• Somebody named Kristin Land choreographed the dance number at the end. Great stuff.
• “Kathy Lee had her baby.” They’re referring to the birth of KLG’s second child, Cassidy Erin, who’s now an aspiring actress in her 20s.
• Cast and crew roundup: Producer Avi Lerner was the executive producer of “Alien From L.A.” Producer/screenwriter Harry Alan Towers, of course, also produced “Castle of Fu Manchu” and “Million Eyes of Su-Muru.” Makeup lady Debbi Nichol also worked on “Space Mutiny,” as did art director Geoffrey Hill. In front of the camera Russel Savadier was also in “Alien from L.A.” and, of course, Jack Palance was also in “Angels’ Revenge.”
• CreditsWatch: Crist Ballast takes over hair and makeup for the next three episodes. Host segments directed by Trace Beaulieu. “Tubular Boobular Joy” written and arranged by Michael J. Nelson and Kevin Murphy.
• Fave riff: “You see, freedom is–what the–P-P-PLEASURE???!!!” Honorable mention: “I brought the wrong bowl.” Also: “Please invent the battery!”
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I hope no college viewers were
playing a drinking game featuring
the hero’s name.
Also, I’m trying to think of any
more irritating MST3000 sidekick then this
movie’s one.
Maybe the second banana alien in
This Island Earth? (MST 3000 The Movie).
great ep! Riffs all greats … Sketches fun… Watney is such a joke of a human being it’s hilarious!
Also, very watchable movie … probably due to the hot babe quota lol
Fav: the slave girl cabot rescues followed closely by the queen ;)
Easily in my top 5, maybe #1. Great host segments, so many great riffs. Some faves:
1. Now…if you’ll excuse…i have to go…and tear my agent a new….
2.He’s conducting Flight of the Bumbleebee
3. Wash and go, Pert Plus
4. Wouldn’t it be great if you were trapped in another dimension with an annoying guy, and he brought beer?
5. I have to make dinner for Cabot
Cabot must be a saint if he can keep a guy like Watney for a friend. Why would he hang around with an overweight Rick Moranis clone that has gone wrong?
Cabot? Cabot? Cabot? Never will I forget that name in my life after sitting through this film.
This is the first Mike ep that I really liked. Maybe not the host segments so much, but the movie was fun and the riffing was spot-on.
Truly a delightful cherry on top of Mike’s first season.
I met Playmate-turned-actress Rebecca Ferrati a few years ago. She said she hadn’t heard of MST or their take on her most famous film role.
I haven’t seen this ep in years. Greatest stinger ever as I recall.
Much love for this episode. Great riffs, great skits, and the perfect so-bad-its-good film. Bad fantasy and sci-fi films are often so good for that, as they’re so much more ambitious and imaginative in scope…and pretentous in dialogue!
Crow’s impersonation of the midget is dead-on
“Uh boss, your batch is on fire.”
This is a great episode, but you reminded me of something I haven’t thought of for a long time.
One of the “You’re Gonna Win” commercials: http://current.com/items/85417291_you_re_gonna_win
I was a fan of the books this movie was based on as a teenager. The books were above average sword and sandles type dime store novels. The movie makes the books look like Shakespear.
60: Don’t forget the extensive s/m within said books.
Yes, Joel was the “Firesign Theatre” guy, with many references by him to their material. For more on Firesign, visit
Sorry I’m late on this.
Definitely a great episode. It’s a shame, though, that they didn’t get to riff on “Gor”, the original movie that shows how Cabotcabotcabotcabot first arrived at the place. It’s just as funny, and features Oliver Reed as the Respected Actor Wearing Silly Headresses.
Still, maybe Rifftrax or CT could give it a shot.
This episode is utterly brilliant; I even like all the host segments, which is rare. And while everybody talks about the “Toobular Boobular” song (with good reason), as an amateur thespian I really enjoy the first segment.
Finally, an episode we can all agree on!! I haven’t read one bad comment yet.
I mentioned this awhile back, but this was the only time I predicted what the stinger would be and got it right. It’s delivery by the actress is so over-the-top ridiculous, what else would make it? (maybe the eternal “Cabot?” shouts by Watney?)
While “Teenage Strangler” was the first ep where I felt Mike hit a home run, I think this ep confirmed that he would do well on this show after all.
Sorry… way late,
My favorite riff :
Ahhh good seasons and me!
Great episode from start to finish, with many great riffs. The gang at the top of their game and one of the best of the “Mike” CC episodes. You can really see them hitting their stride with Mike here, especially with the Toobular Boobular song. Cabot? Cabot! “You disgusting woorrrmmm”. “I’m so hetero-sexual”. “Cabot, nobody will know if you kill him right now”.
I couldn’t figure out why M&TB were so nonchalant about the bizarre montage at the beginning of the movie. It felt like I was watching a trailer for a movie or something, and they totally took it in stride… though the comment “Woah, no more gin fizz for me.” summed it up nicely I suppose :D
I also can’t even imagine how many takes they had to do to get the Tubular Boobular song down – even reading the lyrics in Ward E, I get tongue-tied.
I absolutely LOVE the “Tubular Boobular” song! I sing it a lot because it’s so darn fun to sing. :grin: The buffalo shot montage was hilarious.
Why isn’t this one on DVD? It’s got everything one would or could want in an episode. Scantily clad women (for the men…or the ladies, who can say for sure), scantily clad men (for the ladies…or the men, who can say for sure), a dwarf (for the…), repetitive dialogue, repetitive dialogue and did I mention the repetitive dialogue, and not to be forgotten, Jack Palace as a curmudgeony wizard with flamboyant hats…okay, you’re average wizard. Did I miss anything? Oh, a doughy easily bamboozled sidekick with the intellect of a potato skin! I must wrap it up. The village is chanting the imminent arrival of, um, someone. I think it rhymes with Abbot.
Randy
I wrote “you’re” when I meant “your”. I am ashamed. I must re-watch the entire film without popcorn, beer or potty breaks.
Randy
This was the earliest Mike episode I ever sat all the way through. (I have Wild Wild World of Batwoman, but the movie itself was so horrible I couldn’t watch the whole thing.) Outlaw was awesome–everything a MST episode should be. The riffs are great, the movie isn’t quite bad enough to be painful, and I saw Mike really coming into his own as the host. A lot of his riffs here, and especially the “Tubular Boobular” song, were things I just couldn’t imagine Joel ever doing.
And I always crack up on the “you dis-GUST-ing WOOOOOORM” line. It never fails.
“You’re acting like a BITCH in HEAT! And NAWWT like a QUEEEEEN!”
Ah, yes. I can still hear that voice now; “Z-ROCK! 102.7 WDZR, DETROIT!!”
R.I.P. (The Invention Exchange)
Cabot, Cabot, Cabot, Cabot, Cabot, Cabot, Cabot, Cabot, Cabot, Cabot, Cabot, Cabot, I don’t think I ever laughed as hard as I did during that scene.
One of my favorites.
The invention exchange is really starting to evolve now. The Mads certainly had a legitimate invention. Sure they presented it in a typical MST way but it was something many actually aspire to. In the meantime Mike and the Bots do more of a stand up routine with props being window dressing but it really isn’t about the props either. We are leaving Joel’s prop comic days behind here.
Frank says it best: “We’ve broken through the space time continuum and passed the savings on to you.”
Whenever Crow riffs as the midget he sounds a lot like the first Josh voice for KTMA Tom Servo.
This was really a blah episode for me. I’m not a great fan of this movie genre (riffed or unriffed), the riffing was rather pedestrian and the host segments didn’t do a lot for me either.
Favorite Riffs:
Waking up in Gor Watney asks “where’s the car” and Tom as Cabot answers “I thought you had it.”
Cabott kisses Talena: Crow “He dislocated his mandable.”
Crow as Cabott “I have come to chew bubble gum and kick ass. And I’m all out of ass.”
sadly, we never did get to see ‘Barney Rubble’ fly through the windshield. this ep plus the winners they had with the Herc series makes me wish they had thrown out a few more of the sword and sandal genre. i still have a hard time making ‘Cabot’ the world saving hero of this fictional storyline. not having seen the first one, i can only assume the villian was an 85 year old asthmatic who accidently tripped on his own garish cape and fell down a flight of stairs while Cabot was in a prison cell. speaking of prison. i can only hope that the ‘happy pig’ was sent there after the cops picked him up and that all the sodomy stories are true…sorry.
I particularly like the scene at the end where Watney is returned to Earth still in his Gor garb and gets hauled off by the cops, as it gives Kevin another opportunity to do an Officer O’Hara bit.
@ #71: Without the beer, you probably won’t need the potty breaks anyway. :P
To answer #4 way back when, what Tom and Crow were singing during the protracted slavers scene was *not* the song from ‘Warrior of the Lost World.’ The tune is completely different. I wonder if we’ll ever get an answer… (‘Cause no, I don’t know what it is, either.)
Why are these two guys friends? I wonder this every time I watch this goofy movie. Cabot!!
One CAH-LASSIC of a song in this one, though, up there with the best. Not an episode I reach for immediately. Cool that they won their Peabody with it, tho.
I thought I was a fairly knowledgeable and fanatic MSTie, but I am barely aware of this episode! (I must have been sick that week) Must rectify that and order it from some DVD purveyor (do they still exist?
Oh, and Dyne, if you read this, I think we went to the same college, although I was in college when you were probably in kindergarten. The visiting hours for the opposite gender thing…yep.
Another shot in Italy, but pretending to be an American movie. To quote Jack Palance, “Most of the stuff I do is garbage”–truer words were never spoken, Jack. Born Valdimir Palahnuik on February 18, 1919 in Lattimer Mines, Pennsylvania, Jack Palance lived until November 10, 2006 when he passed away of natural causes at his daughter’s home in Montecito, California. Few people know that Jack was a professional heavyweight boxer in the early 1940s. Fighting under the name Jack Brazzo, Palance, won his first 15 fights, 12 by knockout before losing a 4th round decision to future heavyweight contender Joe Baksi on Dec. 17, 1940. With the outbreak of World War II, Jack Palance’s boxing career ended and his military career began. Wounded in combat, he received the purple heart, good conduct medal, and the World War II Victory Medal. After the war he began his long and famous motion picture career.
Favorite lines:
[and Jack Palance as Xenos] I crap bigger than this movie.
Honey, I shrunk the Nelson
“You know how to party.” You just put your lips together and drink.
When time traveling, always wear your seatbelt.
“What are you doing?” Drying my hands, there are no towels.
I’m starting [drinking] early today…it’s the Windex that really spices it up.
…and put some club soda on that stain.
Oh no, they’re on the Moon Zero Two set.
That dress makes Jack [Palance] look hippy.
…and so the Osmond’s are marched from Utah.
[Palance voice on] Now if you’ll excuse me I’m going to tear my agent a new…
Scotch, make it a double, no ice.
She’s cheeky.
You know, actually, I think this was Italy. You know during this shot there have been three governments.
Final Thought: This movie was worse than Cave Dwellers. I give this one 2 out of 5 stars.
From IMDB trivia:
The final scene is shot in South Africa. If you look at the cars they have the distinctive ‘T’ at the end of the license plates, indicating Transvaal (now Gauteng) Province. This places the filming somewhere in Johannesburg.
There’s a series of video games on Playstation Network (Maybe xbox, too?) called ‘Deathspank’. I wondered if they got the name from this episode’s credit bit.
I used to listen to Z-Rock (should have been Z-Metal?) in Kansas City all the time. I always found it amusing that it was AM, not FM, found inbetween all the religious radio stations. I was even listening when they went off the air…
All that said, this is one of my favorite episodes of all time. I even watched the first movie, ‘Gor'(which was a better movie, though it’s a low bar to hurdle).
“Slightly irritating thing in the Mads’ invention exchange: the little signs say “60’s” and “50’s” and “40’s.” Those apostrophes are grammatically incorrect.”
You’d be surprised how many people make that error.
robot rump! (#77)
As I noted in an earlier post, the villain in the original movie is played by Oliver Reed, who wears hats just as funny as Palance’s. And CabotCabotCabotCabotCabot becomes a hero pretty much by accident. I don’t know if it’s out on video, but you should catch on its rare cable runs. And, as I noted, CT or RT should grab it right away.
Still a big fan of this one, and I still use it to hook newcomers to the show. It’s sort of quintessential MST3K – the movie’s not crushingly terrible, but more of a goofy kind of bad, and the riffing really clicks. Full of great quotables from beginning (“I hate this movie already”) to end (“During this shot, there have been three governments”). Brilliant!
This movie sets itself up to be knocked down again and again, most notably with Cabot’s dorky buddy Whatney. I get a lot of mileage out of “I am so heterosexual!”
Missed riff opportunity when Cabot’s car goes through the time portal or whatever the hell it is – you can clearly see the reflection of the stage lights on the windshield, and the car obviously isn’t moving forward at all. “Sorry, folks, we simply could not afford to have special effects!”
I think I actually counted all the “Cabot”s during the first ten minutes once. After I hit the hundred mark, I gave up.
As weird as it sounds, I kinda like the concept behind this movie. Or more specifically, some of the characters. Well, one character, anyway. I thought Talena was hot, is what I’m trying to say.
“Well, what do you know, he crapped bigger than me.”
“Crow, I think I know where you’re going with that, and just stop there, okay?”
Li’l platinum-blonde Hup seems to get all the best riffs in this. First off, the guys all delight in doing his Marvin the Martian-y voice. (“See, it’s dark, there ‘n there…”) And then there’s winners like “I figured it out, this guy’s the photo negative of Herve Villechaize.”
“Tubular Boobular Joy” used to get stuck in my head at odd intervals, usually while I was at work. I kept wondering how it’d look if one of my coworkers passed by and overheard me singing “It’s breasticaboobular chesticamammular pendular-globular fun…”
“Check it out, it’s one of them Jack Nicklaus golf communities!”
“…Are you old? How do you know about that?” (I bet that was an actual conversation that occurred in the writers’ room.)
“After four days of shooting, finally got script today, and guess what? I’m not playing Thomas Aquinas. I’m supposed to be some kind of freakin’ wizard!” I was on the floor the first time I heard that. :D
Lara is such a delightfully dumb cardboard villain. It helps that whoever dubbed her voice gave her all the subtle intonations of a Captain Planet bad guy. “GET out of HERE! …You disGUSting worrrrm!” You can’t make this up, folks.
It’s hard to top the femmy movie war from “Alien from LA”, but the USA Original Movie-off in this episode is a darn good companion piece. I wanna see more of Naked Came the Nude.
In regards to the original Gor, I actually spotted it on Netflix last year, though I never got around to watching it. Now I’m kicking myself for it because I don’t have Netflix anymore. :(
Watney is at the very top of my list of Characters I Do Not Want Trapped In An Elevator With Me. No one else, not even Droppo, is even close.
I think they are definitely riffing on the song from WARRIOR OF THE LOST WORLD during the slave sequence. For one thing, it starts right after Crow makes his own little joke about the movie, and for another, you can *clearly* hear Tom say “Aw du peepo abba in da wooooa” several times. So what if they didn’t get the melody right? This isn’t the first or last mistake they ever made.
Sampo, Brandon #85 – If you intend plurality, yes. But if you imply that the decade belonged to the 50’s then you have possession, justifying the apostrophe. “I like Cabot’s car.” “I was born in the 50’s [decade].” But then it would also read, “I was born in the fifty’s.”
No, you’re right. The apostrophe sucks.
I always thought having the apostrophe there was a just a way to visually separate letters from numbers. Otherwise, “50s” looks like “SOS”. Just sayin’…
sol-survivor #88–sounds like a WDT to me!
Sampo #91 – Nice! I think we should also include characters you WOULD want to be trapped in an elevator with (you know, since we’re talking about Talena this week and all). :inlove:
GizmonicTemp: Just one problem: the phrase “I was born in the fifty’s” is gibberish. The apostrophe is probably the most misused piece of punctuation in the language. http://www.apostropheabuse.com/
Sampo #93 – Thanks for the site! I won’t argue with a writer over punctuation. :-)
I get notes from my customers every once in a while and more than a few have included “Thank’s” at the end. Therefore, when one of my coworkers helps me or vice versa, our phrase of gratitude is “Thank is you.”
I love this episode, especially the Palance on Palance host segment.
I found a VHS of the first movie, Gor, at Half Price Books. It’s not as bad as this one, and it has Oliver Reed being ridiculous, so that’s fun. The box says that Jack Palance is in the movie. Well, he is in the movie, right at the very end simply to introduce the Xenos character and lead into the sequel. Oh, and there’s no Watney in the first movie, so that automatically makes it superior to the sequel.
Something which has me curious. On the Poopie reel, most of featured bits consist of the raw footage without any sound effects or music or suchlike. However, the snippet used from the Toobular Boobular Joy sketch had the music. Anyone know the reason for that?
The Palance on Palance host segment is one of my favorites of all time.
Which Perkins off of 494 are they talking about in this episode? There’s two: one in Bloomington (on the East-West portion of 494) and one by me on the North-South portion.
Either way, I’ve eaten at a Perkins, but not the one off of 494.
Great episode. Poor Jack. That costume he is wearing just looks plain goofy. Obviously as an actor you have to be in movies strictly for a paycheck. :eek:
Definitely the funniest of the Mike CC era episodes.
Crow as Jack Palace: God, I’m drunk…
kenneth morgan (#86)
hey thank’s for the head’s up and advisement about watching the storyline’s original. but, i must confide to you and all other’s recommending the original. the though of Cabot and his leading lady involved in some nightmarish Showtime-esque 80’s love making scene’s really put’s me off my lunch. not as much as Watley and the evil queen but pretty close. and yes i meant to be a donkey’s hinder about the apostrophe’s…..help meeeeeeeee