Movie: (1984) In a bleak future, teen biker gangs and a sinister corporation battle for control of an abandoned city.
First shown: 6/20/92
Opening: Crow and Tom get Joel to say “ping-pong balls” and Joel soon wishes he hadn’t
Invention exchange: J&tB present Mr. meat & potato head, while the Mads demonstrate pop star Tupperware, featuring Morrissey
Host segment 1: Crow sings: “Oh, Kim Cattrall!”
Host segment 2: J&tB list some of the Fantastic 85
Host segment 3: J&tB keep listing superheroes
End: J&tB try to play the City Limits trivia game, Joel reads letters, the Mads have had enough of Morrissey
Stinger: Tiny radio-controlled death from on high
(205 votes, average: 3.87 out of 5)
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• I’m not a big fan of this one. It has its moments (every MST3K episode does) but J&TB seem to be fending this one off, rather than tearing it up. The plot’s confusing and most of the action is a little hard to see. The host segments are just sort of so-so. It’s just sort of a middling episode. Part of the problem is I don’t get why I am supposed to root for the biker kids. An apparently hopeful and rebuilding government has contracted with Kim Cattrall and Robbie Benson to restore basic services. That’s evil why, again?
• This episode has not yet been released on commercial DVD.
• It is, probably, with this episode that the “Turn down your lights (where applicable)” message at the beginning of each episode, was replaced by a title card featuring a still from the movie and a gruff voice (usually that of editor Tim Scott) saying “Mystery Science Theater 3000, show [show number here]; reel one.” But my copy, taped off TV, doesn’t have that. I can’t say for certain, because many showings on CC did not include it and just went right into the episode. However, some commenters say they saw rerun showings where it appeared. My guess: Nobody at BBI told anybody at CC about the change, and some drone at CC looked at it, didn’t think it was something the public was supposed to see, and skipped past it to the start of the theme song.
• The ping-pong ball bit comes from the old “Captain Kangaroo” show. Unfortunately, like so many daily kids shows of that era, most of “Captain Kangaroo” was not recorded and very little of it survives. But a running gag on the show was that the puppet characters would try to trick the captain into saying the words “ping-pong balls,” at which point a veritable cloudburst of the little guys would pour down from the heavens onto the Captain. You had to be there…and you had to be 6.
• Callbacks: Frank’s is humming “I sing whenever I sing” from Giant Gila Monster; Crow’s “help me!” is a callback from a well-remembered “Rocket Attack USA.” “Hi, I’m Max Keller.” (Master Ninja) “…After the Robot Holocaust.” “My own FLESH I don’t love better!” (Sidehackers) “I’m a Grimalt warrior!” (Viking Women), “I feel like a happy king!” (Mr. B Natural), “…not allowed…” (The Crawling Hand) and “McCloud!” (Pod People).
• Mike is just hilarious as Morrissey.
• The opening of the movie says that it takes place “15 years from now.” The movie was made in 1985, so “15 years from now” was 2000. Thankfully the world in 2000 looked very little like the one this movie predicts. (By the way, it’s been more than 15 years since this episode debuted, and it is 15 years [and counting] from “15 years from now.”)
• Early on, there is a very clever solution to the appearance of some brief female nudity when Joel inexplicably feels the urge to stand up and open an umbrella in the theater.
• Kim Cattrall tells the story that one evening she had just checked into a hotel and she turned on the TV and by pure chance host segment 1 was running on Comedy Central. At first she thought the hotel had cooked it up to welcome her. She says she was completely baffled as to why a golden puppet was repeatedly singing her name.
• There’s a mention of “Far Side Gallery,” a book I also owned. That shot does look like the cover, a little.
• Somewhat obscure riff: “I’m still here, Happer, you crap hound!” (From one of my favorite movies.)
• More obscure riff: “But all I have is an alcove!” (From another of my favorite movies.)
• For a full list of the Fantastic 185, visit Ward E.
• A rare moment: Tom does something they almost never do—he quietly explains a riff (after quoting Lady Macbeth). Wonder why they felt that riff, among all the others, needed explaining.
• Several times the movie shows flashbacks of moments we’ve never seen. I assume this was stuff cut by either Film Ventures International or BBI.
• Movie observation: I do love how all the characters get gussied up to beat the band before making their big assault.
• Dated reference: a mention of the shortlived-and-now-forgotten James Earl Jones series “Gabriel’s Fire.”
• Watch the handoff from Joel to Kevin following after segment 3. You can see Kevin moving around.
• There’s another reference to Apple’s System 7, along with observation “we gotta get Windows for this thing.” In 1992 that was actually techie jargon.
• Tom still has ping pong balls in his head in a couple of segments.
• Great throwaway line by Crow: “Daddy needs a new pair o’ hydraulic talons!”
• During her appearance at the second convention, Kim’s recollections about making this movie included always filming at night in a dangerous part of L.A., and suffering with the ever-present stench from a nearby dogfood factory.
• Cast and crew roundup: One of the minor characters in this movie (the guy J&tB keep calling “Michelle Shocked”) is played by a fellow named Dean Devlin. He also appeared in the movies “My Bodyguard” and “The Wild Life” before going on to become a big Hollywood producer, bringing us such mindless, noisy blockbusters as “Independence Day” and “Godzilla.” Premiere magazine ranked Devlin and ID4 director Roland Emmerich No. 44 on 1997’s Power List of the 100 Most Influential People in the Hollywood Industry. Score composer Mitchell Froom has produced recordings for such acts as Los Lobos, Del Fuegos, Crowded House, Elvis Costello, Richard Thompson, and his then-wife (1995-98), Suzanne Vega. He was one of the founders of The Latin Playboys. He also composed the theme from the TV show “Pee-Wee’s Playhouse.” Sound mixer: Mark Ulano also worked on “Being from Another Planet.”
• CreditsWatch: Host segments directed by Jim Mallon. Production person Ellen “Ellie” McDonough joins the show. She’ll be there through season six. This is one of three episodes this season where Andrea DuCane did hair and makeup. Clayton James did most of them. Occasional prop assistant Barb Oswald, who did work back in season three as well, gets a new title this week: “Toolmaster Jr.” Brendan Glynn finishes up a three-episode stint as intern. Additional writer: John Carney. Dr. F’s name is still spelled “Forrestor.”
• Fave riff: “I’m getting beaten up by the cast of ‘Pirates of Penzance!'” “Okay, let’s stop for a moment and look at our scripts. Oh, I guess it DOES say Boy George comes riding in lobbing molotov cocktails.”
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Mays-a-may is probably actually Mazomanie which is famous for its secluded nude beach.
Yup, it’s in Wisconsin and I know they’ve referenced it other times as well.
Is this the episode where Joel shows off his new umbrella, obscuring a nude scene in the movie?
Haha! The story about Kim Catrall discovering MST3K makes me laugh. One can only wonder if she thought, the hotel had planned that.
– The “Look at me Smithers, I’m Davey Crockett” riff is of course a near direct quote from the then recent Simpsons’ second Treehouse of Horror.
– Tom has his super disturbing pinkish (unpainted?) hands in this one.
– There are a few references to Smiths songs sprinkled through the host segments, like Dr. F’s classic “Meat is murder, Frank” and Frank’s “Come here, Suedehead”.
Captain Kangaroo….Bunny Rabbit….Mr Moose…Mr. Greenjeans…
OH YEAH…I was there, and i was 6 !!
I always disliked this episode. Other than the whole Kim Cattrall looking totally hot thing, this is one of my least favorite eps, up there with “Hamlet”.
I don’t know why, but I actually enjoyed this episode. For me, it’s sort of in between… it’s not a great show, but neither is it a really bad show. One thing I did notice: throughout this movie, Crow keeps on mentioning the NBC Mystery Movie opening a lot, and Joel becomes mad at him for doing it. This “foreshadows” the opening of the next episode, in which Joel gives Crow and Tom shocks to make them stop referencing this. I think the references are in other shows, but this one has the most.
I coulda sworn that I read somewhere that the voice announcing the episode name and number at the beginning was Frank C. Have I been living a lie????
I liked this episode, but I didn’t love it. The movie was silly enough to be funny but not cohesive enough to be entertaining.
Favorite Riff: Crow as James Earl Jones at the end: “This is F.U.N.” which wouldn’t have been funny if he hadn’t been booming out “This is C.N.N.” every few minutes for most of the preceeding film.
Favorite Host Segment Moment: Mike as Morrissey, sniffing Dr. F’s shoulder.
Also, this is one of two episodes where someone from Best Brains covers up explicit nudity. In Episode 911 Devil Fish, a digitally added MST3K logo briefly flashes across the screen to protect us from an uobstructed view of Pee-Dah’s wang.
My full review of the episode is here.
Sorry, I screwed up the html. My full review is here.
This is one of those episodes I got to like better and better with more viewings even though I didn’t like it much to start with. Like a lot of other dull films done on the show, or even some of the just terrible (e.g., Manos) or disgusting (e.g., Sidehackers) films done on the show, watching it the first time involved too much watching of the actual movie and not enough just rolling with the jokes. After I’d seen this a few times and could thereafter more or less tune out the movie and focus nearly 100% on the jokes I found that it is full of good laughs from Joel and the ‘Bots.
One of my favorite jokes is by the Mads at the beginning, when they state that the film “features James Earl Jones at a low-point in his career and Kim Cattrall at a high-point in hers”. That one always makes me laugh as does Robbie Benson being killed by a motorcycle and desk combo and the jokes that follow that less-than-exciting climax to the film.
“Did I mention that I cried?”
:lol:
I don’t get the hate for this one, as this is actully one of my all-time favorite episodes! (Still wanting to find that City Limits 32oz subway promotional glass! heh heh!) I love all the little “red guys” saying hi to the “yellow guys”(AKA Gordon’s Fishermen!) riffs they do towards the end of the film.
The end credits song at the end ALWAYS cracks me up!
Tom Servo (singing to credits rap): I wish I could view seven samurai, but all the films I see want to make me die!
Blech! Blech! Blech!
(“even the band is throwing up…”)
:mrgreen:
Favorite bit: “In the film City Limits, Crow, What was the name of the film?”
-Joel
Yeah, this episode is like fine cheese, it gets better with age. After a few viewings, when you know what’s coming in the film and start really focusing on the jokes it turns out this episode is loaded with MST3K joke goodness. It’s an overlooked, hilarious little gem of an episode.
Just goes to show you one of the grestest things about MST3K. One man’s crummy episode is another man’s top five episode. City Limits is one of my favorites. I’ve watched it so many times, even my wife has most of the “Fantastic 185” memorized!
Wow, three episodes in a row that I never even saw.
This one isn’t one of my favorites. It has it’s moments.
Kind of ironic when they said that this movie had “Kim Cattrall at the peak of her career” when she would revive her career a few years later with Sex & The City.
Loved Crow’s Kim Cattrall song & Mike as Morrissey. I was in college when this episode first aired and I knew people who loved the Morrissey “I’m really sad. Let me tell you how sad I am” genre of music
Little did he know…
Frank later worked with Robbie Benson on “Sabrina, the Teenage Witch”. Benson played Sabrina’s father and even directed a couple of episodes. I wonder if his performance in this film ever came up? Something tells me Frank would have brought it up at least once.
Callback: Frank kicks off the invention exchange sequence by singing “I sing when I sing…” while pounding on something offscreen, a reference to the previous episode The Giant Gila Monster.
Another callback: Joel (I think) mentions the geometric nucleus from Cave Dwellers at about 1:18:50. Also, Sidehackers, Mighty Jack, and Pod People all get mentions in the credits rap.
Even with the presence of James Earl “Voice of Darth Vader” Jones, J&TB were remarkably restrained in regards to Star Wars references. I counted only one: “Luke, I am your father.”
The appearance of a slate card on this episode is pretty rare, actually. I can only recall ever seeing it once, a repeat on a mini-marathon in late September 1993. The first airing and the majority of airings don’t have a card, nor do they have the lights.
“Bite me! Buh-buh-buh-bite me!”
I didn’t know so many people disliked this episode! I wouldn’t call it my favorite, but it’s better than a lot of the other fare they’ve offered (Stranded in Space, Radar Secret Service, Danger!! Death Ray!!, War of the Collossal Beast (the short in that one, like I even need to say its name, was the BEST short they ever did, tho!), Swamp Diamonds (another one saved by the short), Code Name: Diamondhead, San Francisco International, Lassie: The Painted Hills, Gunslinger (why’d they choose *that* one for VHS release? Answer: Cheap Rights. And I’ll concede Bev G.’s hot), Bloodlust!, Lost Continent, Last of the Wild Horses (which would’ve been TOTALLY forgotten if not for the “evil Mike” subplot. Also liked the part when they first get in the theater with evil Servo, and he’s all “Unhand me, you…HEY! A cowboy movie!”, and becomes his old self in the theater), The Dead Talk Back, and those are just off the top of my head.) I like a bad film, but I LOATHE a boring one, which was what most of the ones I mentioned were. City Limits is a lot of things, but it’s NOT boring!
I too rather like City Limits as well! One of my favourite parts:
Crow: How come Kim gets such a boring wardrobe?
Joel: Because Kim’s so boring?
Crow: NO!!
I found it amusing the way Joel flinched to Crow’s response. :smile:
Sorry guys, it looks like I’m in a minority on this one. City Limits is one of my least fav of the entire series. I watched it again three days ago, knowing it would be next to be reviewed, and I realized why I never watch it repeatedly. It has nothing to do with J&TB’s commentary, it’s just the movie is next to impossible to follow! I do focus on what they’re saying about the movie, but it would be nice to have a small clue as to what’s going on!! The highlights for me have all already been mentioned: the opening with the Capt. Kangeroo/ping pong balls, Mike’s impression of Morrissey (“he hurt me with that remark….did I mention that I cried?”), the several references to the NBC Sunday Night Mystery Movie, and Joel’s convienently timed umbrella trick to cover up a woman’s naughty bits in a water tower. (Why would Joel have an umbrella? Does it rain in the SOL?) The rest was pretty standard fare. Kim Cattrall is gorgeous, but not in this movie; there are certain scenes where it’s hard to tell if she’s a nerdy female or an effeminate male. I know it’s supposed to be post-apocalyptic, but common! Rae Dawn Chong looked half-way desirable, even with those laughable costumes. I wonder what Kim Cattrall would think of Crow losing his adoration of her to Estelle Winwood of “The Magic Sword”. Opps! I’m jumping ahead again……. :smile: Let me put it this way: when a movie’s most exciting scene involves a flying MODEL air plane blowing up a watchtower, you are watching a boring movie!
Whether its a good episode or bad episode if Rhino put it on DVD we would probably be ok with it. I wouldn’t complain :)
City Limits not their best, I think the movie was heavily edited which made it a little harder to follow. There were a lot of scenes at the end credits that we didnt see during the movie.
Still the movie is MST material, & its a good episode,but there are plenty of better shows from Season 4 and in general.
You have a good point, happy; unless we’ve seen the actual, unMSTied version of a movie, we really don’t know how much and what was edited out. And you’re right, I’d still get the volume with this episode on it as a means of keeping up with my collection. This feels more like a season one episode rather than a season four episode.
This is (as far as I know) the only episode where there’s a decent reason for why you can’t see through Tom’s head in the theater: it’s full of ping-pong balls!
Re:your most obscure riff.This is from the movie A Thousand Clowns which starred Jason Robards. He tells his nephew to go to his room, and the nephew replies, I don’t have a room I have an alcove. so Robards tells him to go to his alcove
2 shots of brief nudity? I would have passed…
I gotta agree with Sampo. This one isn’t firing for me. I’ve re-watched a fair few older MSTs lately via, well, you know… and really, seasons 3 and the first half of 4 probably have -for me- the show’s largest concentration of “ehn, it was alright I guess” episodes. I mean, the shorts are uniformly fun, because they never seemed to avoid going dark there. And every episode does have a few real zingers. But overall, I dunno. It’s a period that feels off. The latter half of Season 4 picks up, though, with more solid episodes, which more or less continues through 5 and on (until you could tell the crushing weight of impending cancellation on Sci-Fi was affecting their general cheeriness level during 10).
Maybe it’s the delivery. I can’t help but notice that there’s a period where MST felt overly-scripted. I like it when the riffers chuckle at each other’s jokes in a clearly “I just honestly found this funny” manner, rather than the over-sold “d’oh!” at a bad pun… I mean, that’s what real people would do. They seem to start loosening up roughly halfway through 4. Mike absolutely losing it at the Crotchety Old Shopkeeper in “The Brute Man” is hilarious, something I have a hard time imaging they scripted, and it’s something I can’t see happening in mid-CC-era MST.
Maybe it’s the volume of impregnable, interminable Japanese movies in 3, followed by the similarly-paced Hercules movies of 4. They just don’t do it for me.
:lol: I love you all
I have to agree with the others, I like much of this episode. The umbrella is one of Joel’s most memorable sight gags, and the sheer joy the guys attack the Fantastic 185 with is wonderful. “Professor Hitler and his Automatic Knee Machine!” “The Awesome Power of Absorbine Sr.!” “It’s Really Deep Man, he’s really deep, man!” “Larry King!”/”By himself?”/”He’d have a really good guest!”
This episode had 703 riffs over 3992 1:06:32 for an average of 10.566 RPMs. That’s a ranking of #14 all-time.
Watching this episode again right now with headphones, and this is one of those episodes where Joel’s microphone picks up a bit TOO much in the theater. There’s several episodes I remember that you can hear lots of breathing in but this one might just have the most. Listen to it on headphones sometime. You can hear Joel breathing in and out throughout the movie. I may just have been Joel’s nose or sinuses that day though. Like the couple episodes where it’s very obvious Kevin has a cold.
Isn’t “I’m still here, Happer” from the movie Local Hero? I guess that was why it’s listed as somewhat obscure. Local Hero was one of my favorite movies but it seemed like few people have seen it.
An ok episode, not bad but not great. There are some good scenes, especially Joel’s clever use of an umbrella to cover up the nudity of the water tower swim scene, and I love the mocking “This is CNN”…every time James Earl Jones appears on the screen, and of course Crow’s memorable love ode to Kim Cattrall. Still, I find that at times this one drags despite the best efforts of Joel and the ‘Bots. Maybe because over half the scenes take place at night or the insipid dialogue. Like I said, has its moments but not one I’d rank among my favorites.
Joel put it best when he sang during the credits: “… but this stupid movie was the biggest piece of sh-“, before crow interrupts (in perfect Shaft-ness): “Hey, shut your mouth!”
I’ve really been enjoying reading all these MST reviews! This movie was an absolute drag, but the riffing, the host segments, and Crow’s love affair with Ms. Cattrall made it worth watching. Loved the umbrella solution to the nude scene. :lol:
Other note, along with Catalina Caper, I believe this was another episode Comedy Central lost the rights to and removed from circulation making it a bit of a hot commodity during the “Keep Circulating the Tapes” days.
This one took a while to grow on me. The movie takes multiple viewings for all of the random chunks of the plot to come together. Not exactly the most constantly hilarious riffing they’ve done, but not bad, either…although I never fail to totally crack up when, just before the final “big rumble”, Whitey climbs into the guard tower with an odd-looking hat on his head, and Crow yells out: “Look, Smithers!….I’m Davy Crockett!”
oops….on second thought, I think it was Whitey who was killed earlier on in the movie…can’t remember the name of the other guy. You know who I mean….it’s the crazy “pussy nibbles” dude….
whatever….
Wow. Just watched this. Good riffing, but the plot is impossible to follow.
Ah Kim Catrall… I remember reading somewhere on here that the first time she is ever mentioned in MSTory is a few episodes prior to this but in fact her name appears in the mock slow-mo credits sequence of Cave Dwellers.
Add me to the list of people who love the Captain Kangaroo ping pong ball bit. I was young on the last days of that show and remember it fondly.
I also love coming back from the ping ball bit how Tom somehow ends up with Crow’s eye and he sings “I’ve got Crow T Robot eyes.” Of course that was set up perfectly by a blind Crow calling back to Rocket Attack USA: “help me.”
Wait a second here. How can Clayton refer to the 80’s as a shameful decade? That was the decade where I came of age. I have nothing but fond memories.
Parts of the “Oh, Kim Cattrall” song borrows its melody heavily from the Sandy Frank Song.
In the second host segment Joel makes a comment about putting comic books in plastic bags to protect them and Tom fires back that they won’t because they have lives. Okay that one strikes a little close to home. I’m a collector myself and it is a hobby I enjoy. You would think there is a lot of crossover between comic collectors and MiSTies. Besides it would be 19 short years later they would be signing autographs in Powers Comics in Green Bay WI prior to a Cinematic Titanic Show.
They are missing a hero for the Fantastic 85/185: Turkey Volume Guessing Man.
The NBC Sunday Mystery Movie riff seems to have become season four’s “by this time my lungs were aching for air.”
In summary, this truly was the most incomprehensible movie since Humanoid Woman. I gave up quickly trying to follow the plot early on and just went with the riffing.
Favorite Riffs:
There is some sort of map on the wall: Crow “Hey look in the back. It’s the audience interest curve.”
Joel “Hey that’s not Old Milwaukee, that’s Colt 45.” Crow “The beer that made Detroit famous.”
All in a very slow drone “Born to be willlld.”
Crow as James Earl Jones “From now on call me Loren Green”
Tom “Oh these desk jobs will just kill you.”
I’ll have to second Sampo – the Stygian lighting / print, the unsympathetic, vaguely repellent protagonists, the incomprehensible plot premise all make this highly problematic. Perhaps the presence of Bill Corbett would have enabled the Brains to open up a Tupperware container of whupass (in the form of extremely petty and mean personal comments about personal appearance, etc) on everyone in this piece of celluloid who deserved it.
The “Yoda / Yogi / Yoyo” sketch reminds me somewhat of a similar segment in MIGHTY JACK in which the bots are unable to remember any details of the film.
This will always be a fave of mine as I was able to pluck my I interwebs nickname from it. I’ve used it for years but only a handfull of people have known where it comes from.
I agree that I don’t get why the government’s policies in this movie
are supposed to be so evil.
And off topic, any chance Episode 201, Rocketship X-M will be on dvd?
Mainly because I assume it’s the first episode with TV’s Frank.
Sampo, I couldn’t disagree more…this ep is completely dark and completely unintelligible (or offers dialogue such as “We can’t eat cat food!” “Why not?” “We ain’t cats!“), but I love it! You’ve got great riffing, some of the best host segments of the season (the Fantastic 185, Kim Cattrall song), and James Earl Jones (on a break from doing August Wilson plays!) For some reason it reminds me of Robot Holocaust in that the bad print actually makes the film funnier.
Does anyone else think this movie looks like a Prince video…without Prince?
I also heard that Kim had her publicist send Trace flowers after seeing the show…does anyone know if that’s true?
(JEJ shoots off his shotgun)
Crow: “Oh! Austin City Limits!”
I can’t go higher than 3 stars for this one. The movie is so dull and the plot is nonsensical, the characters are all unlikable. I’ve only made it through this sucker once or twice and last night wasn’t one of those times…
During the water tower skinny dipping scene, there’s a brief moment where Joel’s positioning is a bit off and the gal gives us a full moon. Not that I was going out of my way looking for it. :eek:
Another thought. If Sampo ever has a Unvillainous Villains Weekend Discussion, City Limits would probably be one of the more frequently mentioned titles (as would Overdrawn at the Memory Bank).