Short: (1956) A explanation of why boys should take shop class even if they think they’ll never need it.
Movie: (1963) Conspiracy and adultery abound at a small skydiving school.
First shown: 8/27/94
Opening: Tom’s planetarium show is disrupted
Intro: M&tB and the Mads compete in a swing choir competition
Host segment 1: Mike’s shop class doesn’t go well
Host segment 2: Crow puts himself in a “double jock lock”
Host segment 3: Tom bombs Crow
End: Crow and Tom struggle in their parachutes, letter, the Mads have switched to dodge ball
Stinger: “I don’t know. I feel real free up there in the high blue sky.”
(265 votes, average: 4.66 out of 5)
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• I love this episode. We now begin our descent into the works of one Coleman Francis. Those wondering how he got the idea he could direct probably need look no further than the extensive list of bit parts he played in Hollywood over three decades. One begins to imagine Coleman, having spent so much time on movie sets, watching actual directors work, that he began to think he could do it himself. How wrong he was. That said, this movie is probably the best of Francis’ oeuvre, which isn’t saying much, but still. You almost get caught up in it. Not quite, but almost. Plus you’ve got a classic short and a series of host segments where poor Crow suffers one hilarious indignity after another. All in all, a winner in my book.
• This episode is featured in Rhino’s “Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection: Vol. 1.”
• References.
• The Servo in the opening is the one they use in theater (or one like it), just as Timmy the Dark Crow was the Crow they use in the theater. When they paint ’em black they make better silhouettes.
• The swing choir sketch is a classic. I had never heard of “swing choir” growing up. Our choirs were more of the “stand stock still in a robe” variety. But with the advent of “Glee” everybody understands now.
• The achingly funny short was shown at the Museum of TV event in Los Angeles in ’95. I think mentioned in a previous entry that it was really an epiphany for me, since I had never watched MST3K on a big screen with such a large group before. The crowd was just roaring with almost deafening gales of laughter. I’d seldom been in a crowd of people all laughing so hard and loud before. It really was an eye-opener.
• Tom Servo is quite correct about the “I can’t pay you but I can put your name in the credits cast list.” Word is that is exactly what it was.
• Kudos to Jef Maynard for the sawn-in-half Crow. Another great creation.
• My theory on they “why” of this movie is that Coleman guessed that sport skydiving was so novel and exciting to watch, in and of itself, that it would captivate America, and they wouldn’t notice the almost total lack of a plot.
• The ditty “sex for sundries is fun” was an immediate hit among internet MSTies.
• In addition to swing choir, I had never heard of a double jock lock. Apparently none of the bullies in my junior high school had heard of it either, thank goodness!
• I like coffee. It became an immediate catchphrase.
• Callbacks: “He’ll never touch you, Terry.” (Teenage Crimewave) ”Manos!” “No Lupita!” (from Santa Claus). “Why don’t they look?” (Last Clear Chance).
• But beyond all the other internet MSTie sensations that this episode created, far and away the hugest was Petey Plane. For a few days there, it was almost all anybody could talk about in the forums.
• Tom’s dialog in segment 3 (“splash one!”) echoes videos of laser-guided missile strikes that were being shown on TV a lot at the time.
• Jimmy Bryant may have been the only moderately talented person in the entire movie. His stuff is actually kinda good!
• Mike assumes Ike didn’t know this was going on, but since this movie was made in 1963, and he hadn’t been president for years … well, maybe he still might have objected.
• Cast and crew roundup: Cinematographer Austin McKinney was production supervisor on “The Beast of Yucca Flats.” Art director Mike Harrington also worked on “The Incredibly Strange Creatures…” Score composer John Bath also worked on “Red Zone Cuba.” Choreographer Robert Banas was an actor in “Daddy-O. In front of the camera: Titus Moede was in “Incredibly Strange Creatures.” Marcia Knight, Barbara Francis, Alan Francis, Ronald Francis were all in “Beast of Yucca Flats.” Frederic Downs was in “Red Zone Cuba,” “The Hellcats” and “Terror from the Year 5000.” Tony Cardoza produced and appeared in all three Francis films, as well as “The Hellcats.” Eric Tomlin is also in “The Hellcats” and”Beast of Yucca Flats.”
• CreditsWatch: Host segments directed by Jim Mallon.
• Fave riff from the short: “And not a killer!” Honorable mention: “I can’t get this thing back in my pants, Earl.”
• Fave riff from movie: “This is typical of young directors: too many good ideas — or, in this case, none at all.” Honorable mention: “H.R. Haldemann on drums.”
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Its interesting that people call this the best Coleman Francis movie and “Beast of Yucca Flats” the worst. Like many directors, their first films get critical praise, but then they’re subsequent films get worse and worse (see M. Night Shamalan). Also, anyone notice that in every one of Coleman’s films, there is a scene of lawmen gunning down unarmed people?
“Sky Divers”: Police shoot the two parachute sabatuers in the back as they run away.
“Beast of Yucca Flats”: Lawman sees a random man running in the desert, starts firing at him.
“Red Zone Cuba”: Posse guns down Coleman in an open field. (I think he was carrying a small .38 pistol, but they still just pour lead into him).
It must have been great to be a policeman before video cameras.
“My teddy’s riding up.” :shock:
I forgot to mention two other things I loved: Petey Plane, and when Mr. Francis is aiming his rifle out of the plane, Mike says, ‘I see me a hippie! Get your hair cut, hippie! Not so groovy, is it?’
Omega: Yes, Coleman was the delivery man in TIE. The riff on him was “Sort this, deliver that. I’ll make ’em all pay…”
The Brains told me they did not recognize Coleman.
When the guy with a guitar for no reason is shown, they’re saying “Amon Goeth on guitar,” after the real-life Nazi played by Ralph Fiennes in Schindler’s List. The resemblance is actually pretty strong.
Unless I’m just crazy, and there’s another reference to Babe Ruth somewhere in the episode.
One I forgot…because of the goofy editing in this film….
When the drunk bum staggers for a couple seconds when Tony and “Michael Landon” are on the beach and Tom says
“Zabba Dabba Dabba Dooba”
Kills me every time!!
Jimmy Bryant is actually kind of a legendary guitarist. He also wrote Waylon Jennings’ “Only Daddy That’ll Walk The Line”. This film was obviously his career lowpoint.
That annotated MST3K guide explains the drink that the Coleman Francis character orders. “Where’s my old fashioned.” However, I think that also refers to what Jim Backus said in the movie “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, World.” He is also in a helicopter and has an old fashioned made for him while he is riding in the helicopter.
Wasn’t Suzy, the Michael Landon-faced homewrecker in this episode the same actress who played the deputy’s mute, buxom wife in “Beast of Yucca Flats?”
“That’s a hard face. That’s a face that challenges you.”
City Limits Fan: I think you’re right. IMDB bills her as “Jim’s Woman”, a most flattering character name for her. By the way, when Mike starts talking about the various smells coming off of Suzy’s purse (Juicy fruit, cigarettes,b.o., cheap perfume), does anyone else get really grossed out? I feel like I can actually smell her character after that. Ick.
Suddenly, Frank De Vol is there (He also played Happy Kine on “Fernwood 2night”) and owned the bun and run.
I can honestly say I knew about Jimmy Bryant and Speedy West before I saw this episode. Somewhere along the line I picked up a compilation album that had Stratosphere Boogie on it. And yes, they rock.
There’s something about the movie that reminds me of a John Steinbeck novel. Part of that is the rural California setting, of course. But you’ve also got a kinda Steinbeck-ish plot – ordinary folks with big dreams, but in the end are forced to settle back into an ordinary life. Ordinary, mundane things happen (a la the onion sandwich dialogue at the end of The Winter of our Discontent). Even the bizzare dance scene is similar to a surreal costume party in Sweet Thursday (the sequel to Cannery Row). I don’t know that Coleman Francis was deliberately trying to evoke Steinbeck, but I’ll wager he saw Of Mice and Men at least once.
Definite 5 star. From swing choir through industrial arts through Coleman Francis. It’s a lot like life itself.
“I can’t get this back in my pants Earl.”
“… or skin, if you can get it.”
“No. Let’s just stay in the crawlspace.”
Keep an eye out for communism!
‘Course when the house began sliding downhill that was a different story.
This one of, if not, the funniest episodes of MST3K I have ever seen. Great short (the funniest one they ever did IMO), terrible movie (which, of course, makes for a terrific episode), and contains some of my favorite riffs:
From the short:
“There wasnt that fun”
“And not a killer”
“Oh you never would belive where those keibler cookies come from”
“I can open a door”
“And it only weighs 500 pounds”
From the movie:
“This place is just crawling with missile silos”
“Wait, is today the day they’re testing that bomb?”
“Where is it your coffee?”
“Will there be mashed potatoes?”
“They’d know about it”
“Franie your kissing an ant hill”
“H.R. Haldemann on drums”
I was running sound for a middle school swing choir contest a couple of years ago, and all of a sudden I hear these kids singing:
“Rivers belong where they can ramble
Eagles belong where they can fly”
Needless to say, I just about fell out of my chair laughing. Fortunately, nobody noticed–how would I have explained that one?
The beginning of the Coleman Francis trilogy. Really the only one of the three that I like. Good ep, really good short, and great host segments.
I consider this the start of the greatest stretch of episodes in MST3K history. Of the next 10 episodes, I would rate 3 in my top 10 and 2-3 not far behind.
Simply put….a great episode!!!
Baha i love the showchoir sketch.
Showchoir isnt just midwest,we have it here in the south. Its basicaly-unhappy or overly happy high school/middle school kids+lame outfits.like fushchia and sequins and tight.on one outfit+jazzy tunes,showtunes,doowop hits=showchoir
thankfully,I was in bandgeekdom*for one year only,then i drifted to art* so i idnt have to be in the horrific pink sequined spandex mess,
but showchoir is not as pretty as the boys make it
Fave riff: “Roger, tower, which way’s the sky?”
Coleman Francis seemed to have something to say about outsiders and their inability to fit in with mainstream society (which is why the law always ends up shooting them from airplanes). I have a bizarre fascination with the works of Coleman Francis, and to this day I wonder how he managed to get three movies made.
The Beast of Yucca Flats gets my vote for the least bad Coleman Francis film. It has the most discernable plot and has characters that can actually be differentiated from each other.
Favorite Riff:
Crow: “I want the dark haired guy to win.”
Mike: “The one in the dark clothes?”
Tom: “I like them both. I care deeply about them as characters.”
I also love all the Petey Plane lines.
There is one Wizard of Oz reference.
The helmet headed wife adjusts some gas pumps.
Crow: “Shi looks like a munchkin from this angle.”
Tom: (singing under his breath) “…in the merry old land of Oz.”
Oh, one other thing I wanted to mention…for some reason the Rhino set (vol 1) lists this as episode 0109 on the back of the box. And I can’t look at this set without thinking about how poor the quality of the package was — all the plastic centers where the discs should fit into the case disintegrated so the discs won’t stay in. Then again, this set does feature double sided discs with the un-MSTed title, so that is pretty nifty.
And the riffs keep on coming:
“This is downright Hitchcockian.” “Robyn Hitchcock”
“You put beans up your nose too?”
“I’m not a communist.”
“I assume Ike didn’t know any of this was going on.”
Oh, what’s to say about this one? Beyond, obviously, “Classic.” The swing choir contest is an iconic host segment, the short is right up there with Mr. B as one of their best ever, and that movie…
What I always love about the riffs at the end is that they pick up on the fact that Coleman Francis appears to think that this is a perfectly logical conclusion. The bad guys killed someone, so of course they should be chased down and murdered in retribution. “We do have frontier justice in this town, right?” “Hurry! Switzerland is just over the hill! And then 3000 miles. And–and then the ocean.”
Gorgeous, gorgeous stuff.
Aces high on this episode! Classic MST3K from start to finish – the host segments, excellent short, horrible film (making for great riffing).
I’m surprised that no one has mentioned the “Tom Star Show” segment and Crow’s heckling “Take me to…Uranus!”
“WAKE & BAKE…”
“How solid is a sky-diving based economy?”
One of the greatest ever shorts, right up there with the “days of our years” and “puerto rico” shorts.
For me this movie is one of the major beginnings of the true Mike era. It took a number of episodes for the Mike version of the show to begin to peak through, but by the Francis movies it is starting to really appear.
Love this one.
I almost forgot, this episode has one of my favorite Frank and Forrester moments ever!
“…Uh, how did you put it, Frank?”
“It made you mad. It made ya mean mad!”
“That’s right, and–”
“It worked on ya ’til you were nothin’ but a big ball o’ mean–”
“FRANK! What is with you today? Geez!”
One thing I find interesting from Coleman Francis’s films: All three of them contained a sequence of people shooting at other people from a plane. The question is, why? Was he scared by planes as a child? Or was it some sort of fantasy for him?
(I’ve written reviews of a few MST3K episodes, including this one.)
One of my top 10 fav’s.My favorite scene is Crow riffing on sniper Coleman in the plane.”Where’s my Old Fashioned?” & “Drink’s all around!”.Classic.
I want my Coleman Francis Action Figure!
Is it wrong that I usually read the comments on Satellite News before I read the news from the “real world”?
“Why Study Industrial Arts?” is a real gem. For me it’s a tough choice between it and “The Chicken of Tomorrow” for best Mike era short film. (I worked with chickens for many, many years, so “Chicken” has a special place in my heart.)
“Why study industrial arts?…Because you’re bad at math.” “Of course, your Mexican can do it cheaper.” (For the record, I’m of Mexican- American heritage and my Dad expressed this statement many times in his life. He always tried to have a Mexican plumber, mechanic, etc. I guess why I find that so darn funny.)
Would it really be fair to call it a Coleman Francis “action” figure? If they do make one, it should come accessorized with a coffee cup, a rifle, and a few cigarette butts. Maybe he could come with HOBO STRANGLING GRIP.
From the short
“Oh look, the previous tenant didn’t flush!”
I also love the planetarium sketch..its one of my favorites. Crow going on and on about Uranus and Klingons is great sophmoric humor!!
OH NO ! they’re jumping at night and heading the wrong direction ! ( or words to that effect )
It’s not a riff exactly, but in the short when Joe tells his big-eared friend,”In the meantime, I’m gonna set you straight about a few of the facts of life”, or something to that affect, one of the guys makes a “mmefph!” kind of sound that kills me. I usually have to rewind to hear it a couple more times, till I’m reduced to tears. I also like the riff “Can you help staple my ears back?”
I notice that all of you interpreted the line “The piercing scream of a freshmen”, whereas I always thought he said “The peircing scream of a Craftsman”.
If you guys are right (and probably are), that’s pretty messed up even for the Brains.
I thought it was craftsman, too. It sounds like Mike is mimicking the narrator’s drawl, so it comes out creftsman.
Yeah, I think he is saying “freshman”. The short does take place in high school and the guys in it are probably seniors. Upperclassmen torturing freshmen is common in jokes. So it is perfectly logical that Mike says, “The piercing scream of a freshman,” in that drawl accent.
I think “splash one” was a reference to Top Gun.
—
I’m Interfaced!
#88 – Well I’ll be durned! I had to go back and listen to be sure. I can’t believe my ears have been deceiving me all these years…I’ll have to move my earwax collection to jars instead of just letting it gunk up in there.
Upon review of this episode I found two things:
1) I too, (like #86 & #87) thought it was “Craftsman” – but then, when I first heard Seals and Crofts “Summer Breeze” I thought it was a song about drugs (“some of these…make me feel fine…) – I wonder if I’m mis-hearing other riffs?
2) The conversation between Guitar man (“I learned this in prison”) and Camera Club Geek:
GM: “takin’ pictures for a magazine?”
CCG: “nop”
GM: “newspaper?”
CCG: “nop”
(scene switches to skydivers entering plane)
Crow: “now we’ll never know!”
(back to GM & CCG)
GM: “well what then?”
CCG: “just take ’em home and look at them”
Makes you think what other pictures he was taking – – –
I grew up in Wisconsin and my high school had a “championship” swing choir, or show choir. There’s a big competition every year in Onalaska, Wisconsin, which is right down the Mississippi River from the Twin Cities. I never participated in show choir, but I’d have to say the Brains nailed it right on the head!
It only recently occured to me that the femme fatale does the druggist for acid, and then she leaves the store empty-handed.
Can’t believe I forgot about the Tom Star Show.
“Mars is the brightest star in our nations’ solar system.”
Funny ep.
“We have to get to Uranus to wipe out the Klingons.”
Most of my favorite lines have been said already.
Uh…why a carhop at the jump party? Well, I guess it makes as much sense as the Scottsman. Just get as many goofy getups as possible, I suppose.
Apparently making movies in the Sixties was all about inane dance sequences. The stupider and longer the better.
It looked like the character of Pete (Paul Francis)got his car from a Demolition Derby. The right front side was all caved in, and couldn’t they fix that damn door? If only he had taken an Industrial Arts course.
Good all around ep. Host segments, movie riffs.
Some more faves:
“I have a headache – tomorrow.” – Crow
“This isn’t the only gray town I can go to, you know.” – Crow
(When a skydiver is landing)”This is so beautiful – OH! My SHINBONES!” – Crow
“So, how long have you LIKED coffee?” – Crow
“Coffee’s a MAJOR plot point.” – Mike
(When Tony Cardoza’s character is lying there dead) “I’m O-KAY!” – Crow
“Many people have enjoyed sport parachuting WITHOUT dying.” – Crow
“Way to kill the customers, honey.” – Crow
(Hmm – mostly Crow lines).
“I forgot my line, let’s trash this scene.” – Guess who
Okay, all Crow the rest of the way:
“Well, technically, I AM a broad, I gotta give him tha-at.”
“Frolicking has never been so depressing.”
“Finally – COFFEE.”
“Filmed in ‘Despair-vision’.”
“Can I get this coffee to GO?”
And, as was mentioned earlier by some, “A stranger comes to town, touches NOBODY’S life, and leaves.”
And many more…
What is that pink tag thing on servo’s hoverskirt in this episode anyway?
I’ve held back on commenting because I’ve been so busy, and this episode being a favorite of mine, I wanted to put my many comments in some kind of intelligible order.
First, this is definitely the “best” of the Coleman Francis trilogy – not nearly as nasty in tone as “Red Zone Cuba” or as boring as “The Beast of Yucca Flats”.
(I may be in the minority here, but I actually kind of liked “Red Zone Cuba”, as bad as it was. I found “The Beast of Yucca Flats” much harder to take because so little happens in the movie, aside from the tedious, pretentious and somewhat random narration.)
I found the collection of weird extras particularly entertaining: the shirtless Iggy Pop-ish dancer with whom the big beefy woman cuts in during his spasmodic performance, the Scotsman, complete with plaid, kilt and sporran, who ogles the same big beefy woman (“A Scotsman can handle any woman!”), the roller skater in her mini-skirt, the camera club geek, the dorky guy with the (unplayed) guitar, the guy with the Lou Reed shades who “flies all the time”, the woman in the Huck Finn hat, the chick in the polka-dot bikini, the squinting slack-jawed kids, etc.
Coleman Francis himself seems to have played two roles: the cigar smoking dad who is impatient to see skydiving, and the guy in the plane with the rifle who looks like a chimera of Pat Buchanan and Jim Backus.
(Speaking of Jim Backus, I’m delighted that an earlier poster caught the Jim Backus reference (“Where the hell’s my old-fashioned?”).)
Several Coleman Francis leitmotifs run through this film: coffee, cigarettes, booze, guns, light airplanes, infidelity, killing, betrayal, etc.
A lot of people spent a lot time glaring at each other in the movie. Tony Cardoza was particularly good at this. It seems to been a good substitute for good dialogue or honest emoting.
Titus Moede portrayed one of the geekiest, most pathetic villains I’ve ever seen in a movie. He later shows up as a hobo listen to a very powerful transistor radio in “The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies”, another movie I kind of liked, which again puts me in a small minority.
Speaking of being in a small minority, I found Kevin Casey to be incredibly hot as Beth, the lovesick, put-upon wife of Tony Cardoza. Actually, it is the hair. I confess to having a strange fascinating with flips, bouffants and beehives.
(Even so, a name like Kevin Casey makes me wonder if she’s a trannie. That might position Coleman Francis as a kind of proto-John Waters.)
Favorite riff: “I’m going to take it to Broadway!”
I thank you.
One night, me and three of my friends were up late chatting and decided to watch “Why Study Industrial Arts” to amuse ourselves. The riff “Yeah, but your Mexicans do it real cheap” had us in stitches since one of the group, Michael, is Mexican and absolutely loved it. We’ve taken to randomly saying “Yeah Mike, your people do it real cheap” at random intervals.
Y’know, despite living in the midwest – northern Illinois to be precise – I can attest that I have never heard nor witnessed swing choir, glee club, or any title variation thereof. I’m in high school now, and – actually, I’m going to ask the band and chorale directors to see if they’ve ever heard of it…
So here we are, finally entering upon one of the great MST3K episodes ever, and its no surprise that it’s created as much feedback as it has.
From the get-go, this was such a great episode! From Servo’s “star-show” exhibit (and Crow’s stream of Uranus jokes) to Forrester slamming Frank with dodge balls, screaming “Stay in the circle!!”, it’s next to impossible to not love this episode! A Top 5 short, an unforgettably horrible movie, hilarious host segments (all hurting Crow in some fashion). Probably the best “bunny-slope” episode, too.
Fav line from the short, spoken by Mike: “Now people usually like the whisper the word ‘sink-hole’ around here, but its really not a problem.”
As for the movie, too many fav lines to mention them all, but the most memorable for me include:
-“The loneliness of the long-distance greaser!”
-“He’s an idiot savant, minus the savant!”
-“You can use his face to jimmy door-locks!”, along with Crow’s quick retort of “Jimmy Doorlocks!”
-“Did the actors do their own skydiving?”
“No, the skydivers did their own acting!”
-“I have to go to the Rat Boy audition!”
I often wondered what exactly in Coleman Francis’ life made him create these dark visions onto screen. To say “Skydivers” was the least dark of the three films he wrote/directed isn’t saying much, since there are several deaths, adultery and an overall bleak landscape in the movie. Was it perhaps a culmination of failed relationships, career aspirations, and the abysmal company he kept that made him this way? Or was his overall world view always this negative and dreary?
Mark me down as someone who’s very impressed with Jimmy Bryant’s guitar work; he’s a strong reminder of the brief wave of great guitar-driven music in the early ’60’s. I’ll be looking for that CD collection already mentioned by a couple of people here.
This episode is a real favorite. It was a joy to finally get a handle on how a sky diving based economy works. Now I can sleep at night.
And who knew coffee was such an important factor? Or that a lack of coffee could lead to murder and sexual betrayal?
Presenting a movie rife with sex and murder, yet somehow remains completely non-compelling is a triumph for auture Coleman Francis. Kudos, indeed.
Riffing is excellent. Host segments, too.