Movie: (1983) In an dystopian future, a corporate drone discovers a way to project himself into his a favorite movie.
First shown: 12/6/97
Opening: Crow wants to cash in on his catchphrase: “You know you want me, baby!”
Intro: Mike tries to find himself a catchphrase, while Public Pearl TV begins its dubious pledge drive
Host segment 1: Crow and Tom order a monkey, which escapes and throws stuff
Host segment 2: While Mike continues to struggle with Henry the monkey, PPTV presents a preview of “Pearl! Pearl! Pearl! Pearl! Pearl!”
Host segment 3: Tom asks to be doppled to the nanite world, and soon regrets it
End: Bobo tries and fails to talk Henry down, so Mike takes deplorable action. Meanwhile, Pearl is counting her ill-gotten gain
Stinger: “Mom … ‘m I nuts?”
(307 votes, average: 4.62 out of 5)
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• And so season 8 comes to an end, and does so with a flourish. Another strange …er… movie, lots of great riffing and memorable host segments.
• Bill’s take this episode is here.
• This episode was included in Rhino’s The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection, Vol. 4
• References.
• The “You Know You Want Me, Baby” T-shirts hit the Info Club store very quickly after this show aired. The boxes we can see in the opening are probably real.
• This season started on the first of February and it was December when this last episode of the season aired. The first seven episodes were shown in seven weeks, an almost dizzying bounty of new MST3K. But after that we got exactly five episodes every three months. This would be the last new episode until season 9 began in mid-March of the following year.
• The “Public Pearl TV” pledge drive in the opening is inspired. And, of course, Ortega (that’s Paul under that mask) makes a return appearance. “The Nature of Bobo” bit-within-a-bit is great too.
• TV’s Frank is invoked twice, including an “eyukaeee!”
• Instantmonkeysonline.com actually exists (update: it STILL exists). It allows you to send a cute ascii picture of a monkey to a friend via e-mail. It wasn’t very instant when I tried it, though.
• Mary Jo and Bill managed to top the pledge drive sketch with the instant classic “When Loving Lovers Love.” The pair show a tremendous chemistry.
• The endless fat jokes might begin to seem unfair after a while, except, let’s face it, the movie itself keeps calling the character “The Fat Man.” That seems, to me, like permission to go nuts.
• Paul and Patrick are the voices of the hoodlum nanites. This is pretty much the one clunker segment in this episode.
• That’s Beez and then-recent BBI hire Peter Rudrud as the voices of the “Overdrawn at the Memory Bank Technical Support” team.
• By the way, the RiffTrax team actually did a very respectful, but still very funny riff of “Casablanca.”
• Cast and crew round up: Another brief one, since this was mostly done by Canadians. Costumer: Mary Jane McCarty also worked on “The Last Chase.”
• CreditsWatch: Produced and directed by Kevin. Fred Street, an audio guy who appeared in the credits in seasons 2 and 3 and then returned for season 8, falls off the regular credits after this episode, as does Post Audio Inc. (Both return one more time for special thanks in a season 10 episode.)
• Fave riff: “Thank you, Floyd the pervert.” Honorable mention: “Ah, the call to script rewrites.”
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i remember calling the pledge drive and i think that Ortega stole my credit card info! :lol: this was a good ep and good host segments, too. im gonna break out the tape tonite after work
I love the pledge drive segments, and the “loving lovers” bit is too funny. They are channeling Streisand and Neil Diamond, right? But, this is a tough episode for me to get through. I watch it VERY rarely. Maybe the combination of a slow, dopey movie and the embarrassed presence of Raul Julia. I just cringe for him through the whole thing. And also the flat video look makes it doubly hard to watch. A downer end to this season for me.
This is my leading Sampo’s Theorem episode: while I love the host sketches, and was having a great time the first half-hour, the rest of the episode crashed and burned for my tastes. Way, way, waaaaaaaay too many “Fat Man! He’s Fat” and “this movie really sucks” jokes to my ear, with not enough variation on them to keep them sounding fresh. (I also dislike jokes featuring flatulence noises, as a general thing.)
By the way, the John Varley novella on which this is based is a lot better and probably worth the read. Among the big differences in the printed version: it’s actually clear what the heck is going on — most notably that because of the computer simulation thingy Fingal spends about six months in computer time while the real-world folks have a couple days pass; this is shown on-screen, but not in any way that makes sense if you don’t know to look for it.
The corporation doing the doppling isn’t evil, at least, it isn’t any more evil than (say) an airline trying to get back a piece of lost luggage.
And Fingal actually spends his time in the computer to improve his personality, which was kind of in the movie (it was theoretically why he was doppling at all) but not so clearly as to quite make sense.
Varley did a bunch of stories with roughly the same world, particularly with easy radical body manipulation or getting a brain doppled into something else, often for therapy or recreation, and they’re generally worth reading.
How about two criticisms?
1) If you’re doing a version of “The Birth of Venus” don’t put the girl in a bikini. Just have her slide her right hand and arm a bit to the left and all the naughty bits get covered.
The way they do it reminds you of the PBS travel guru (Rick Steves) sardonic view of the way they can’t show all of great European works of art (some not living people :mrgreen: ) because of American prudishness.
2) Why hasn’t the AAL (Anteater Anti-defamation League) protested the appalling stereotypical treatment of that noble animal?
Oh yeah, and where can I get one of those neat tote bags so I have something to carry around all the stuff I’ve got?
pearliemae, YOU LOOK DRUNK TO MEEEEEEE!
Whew! This episode is tough to watch, extremely slow and uninteresting. I usually skip the host segments but I found them to be more entertaining than the movie. I give this 2 stars.
I love the dialogue in The Nature of Bobo:
Brain Guy: Having lived among this magnificent creature for years, I have gained its trust and thereby…
Bobo: Hey that reminds me Brain Guy, I borrowed you a sweater and you never returned it. I don’t trust you anymore.
The whole documentary where the subject has complete and conscious knowledge of his observer is fantastic.
In a moment of funny because it’s ridiculous, Mike suddenly wearing an outfit similar to Appolonia’s when he synthed Tom down to the Nanite world was fantastic.
Man this movie is bad. I can give Raul Julia a pass on Street Fighter because his kids, who were big Street Fighter fans, really wanted him to do it. It’s just tragic that it was his last movie.
Back to this crumb fest, the whole doppeling idea, as presented in the movie, can be summed up with the joke, “Surely this will cure him of his love of cinemas.” The whole thing makes no sense. So the personality is placed in a real animal but with no control? What the f is the point of that? Was it really more cost effective to do this than further research and develop VR tech? Seriously I have a LOT of legitimate questions about the idea of doppeling.
Within the rest of it I love jokes where they keep trying to figure out which Casablanca characters the people are supposed to be. Being both a huge fan of Casablanca (my favorite movie of all time) and Peter Lorre made this movie so much fun for me. I also like how in the end, Fingal changes Appolonia’s name to Ingrid Laszlo instead of Ilsa Laszlo, though that is still fairly inaccurate since she’s referred to primarily as Ilsa Lund.
A while back there was a thread about M&tB being overly mean about overweight people and I’m sure this movie got mentioned. But I think one of the main reasons they launched everything they had at this movie is they not only call the CEO guy “The Fat Man,” but the actor actually has what Patton Oswalt calls, Fat Voice.
And you gotta love that Fingal actually gets tired of day after day of special time with Felicia. Can any man here honestly say that if he were in Fingal’s situation he’d ever get bored with women?
Favorite riff/joke:
Tom: See I thought he was Puerto Rican but I didn’t know he was…
Mike: No, don’t…
Tom: …Cuban!
This episode has many highlights. The segment with the catchphrase “You know you want me baby!” is great; I often find myself using the alternate “Kiss off, Slappy!”
The PPTV Pledge Drive segments are good. Mary Jo as Pearl is at her best here. (“Here you are, Ortega – go buy yourself some Irish Spring”) Also great is Mike adopting a submissive pose to forestall the monkey projectiles. Some of the riffing is good (the technobabble involving Flavo-fives and cinemas, etc., the TV’s Frnak riffs).
But overall, the fact the movie is so turgid and confusing, along with the painful video stock, makes this ep a little harder to watch. As Larry King would say, “I give it a B minus.”
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go play the ponies on some well-meaning liberal’s coin. KA-CHINNNG!!
i just wonder if everyone associated with public t.v. think that all corporate leaders are rotund bags of goo that patrol the hallways in their capt.pikeXL100 scooterchair while ranting about their plans for world domination? i work for a large company in the southwest and while i can’t comment on downloading peoples minds into monkeys at this time, i can say our boss is a rather friendly, generous and athletic fellow. and best riff “i’m fartin’ monoploy cards.”
This movie really does crash by the end, and around the last 15 minutes nobody cares (or remembers) what the point was. They crew did have a lot of fun with the aggressively stupid futuristic names, and I still have a place in my heart for those late 70s/early 80s PBS effects. Maybe it reminds me of old Educational TV shows from that era like 321 Contact or Vegetable Soup.
But man, this thing made no sense. As Servo said, it seemed to just taunt us with the fact that we could be watching Casablanca instead of a really uninspired PBS movie. Raul Julia was good, and it’s sad to know he died so young.
I remember thinking how different this movie was. The video quality, the weird synthesized music, the solar flare special effects… and it all worked. And as Pearl said “Raul Julia, a very fine actor. What he was doing in this piece of sh….urely fine, quality…”
The plot’s impossible to follow. The internal logic changes every ten minutes. Appolonia wants to change into a non-threatening presence that will ease his mind… so she changes into his dead mother. We’re supposed to root for Fingal… especially when he creates insane weather patterns that cause tremendous damage (and assumably, loss of life). And why the hell do we care when Rick, presumably a figment of his imagination, gets shot? I mean, we linger over Ricck’s “death” as if it were his long lost brother or something. And Mike and the Bots are correct in wondering about “I’ve interfaced!” because it seems like he’d already done that. I mean, what the hell?
Just a uniquely awful TV movie that I’m glad they tackled. It’s so very different from the black and white B stuff from the fifties.
Oh, and I disagree that Tom’s doppelling was a clunker. “Monitor my cube time and my Fingal time” just makes me crack up whenever I hear it.
Maybe it’s just me, but the basic plot, the lighting, the sets, and the costumes give the impression that this is a lesser episode of the original Doctor Who with the Doctor inexplicably missing. The only thing that breaks the illusion is all the American accents.
The scene where Raul is narrating his time as a baboon is like watching MST3k watch a bad clone of itself.
A simple Caesar cipher would have defeated Fingal. But nooooo, just reverse the five letter/number password! Brilliant.
Another of my favorite episodes of the Sci-Fi era. Again the movie was goofy fun by itself and the riffing just added to it. That has always been my preferred format for the show. Although episodes that feature dreadful movies can be good so long as the riffing stays on top of it.
The decision to shoot this “film” on video makes Overdrawn look like a science fiction soap opera. A perfect look for a public broadcasting special really. Too bad for Raul Julia that he got stuck in this production. Although it was at least a step up from Street Fighter the Movie for him. Everything about this movie from the poor Casablanca imitations to the weird Matrix-before-the-Matrix plot kept me watching. The characters were all funny in their own way and had that bad movie charm. Especially the Fat Man. And what was with the hatred directed at anteaters here? Did the director get attacked by one as a child? Ouch.
Best Brains were at their best here. Smart and funny decision to package the episode with PBS-style fund-raising host segments. Pearl was spot-on here and this is my second favorite performance of the character next to last episode’s outer space small talk bits. The host segments did seem to go on longer than most, but I forgive that.
The riffing again hit its mark every time. Jokes about personal appearances are a common feature of the show so nothing felt too out of character here. The only riff that surprised me was comparing the Fat Man to TV’s Frank. I figured by that point they were actively ignoring everything prior to that season. The end credits gag by calling the movie’s technical support at 1-800-SUCK was one of the funniest bits they’ve done inside the theater.
Hilarious episode and a great ending to season eight.
This is my favorite episode of all time, and I say “he looks drunk to me” on a daily basis.
Not a favorite of mine either. Boring film, and the PPBS pledge drive smacks of just enough realism that I begin to zone out after awhile. I will say Linda Griffiths (Appolonia) is one of MST3K’s most under-rated hotties though.
As far as Sampo’s plans for the weekly updates. I can’t wait for your take on the KTMA eps! I’ve watched them, and while nowhere near the quality of later seasons, there is a fun late night UHF charm to them.
One of my least favorite episodes; the made-for-PBS movie is unwatchable and though the guys do their best, it’s still unwatchable.
Which is a shame, because the host bits are very very funny; my favorite is Loving Lovers Love, where Bill and Mary Jo deflate every bad PBS pledge-drive lowest-common-denominator music special in 2 minutes.
Even on its own terms, the movie is so illogical, and so stupid, that I get angry every time I try to watch it. For me, the most inexplicable moment is when they let a bunch of unsupervised kids run amok among these supine vulnerable bodies and wreak havoc among them in the guise of an educational field trip. I don’t care what your future society is like, that’s like letting kids run wild in a hospital. Would. Never. Happen.
Don’t know why that bugs me so much, but it does!
To say this episode is rough, is an understatement, it’s hard to follow and I always get the munchies and the urge to slap that perverted kid.
The premise of this episode, this is what your tax-dollars and pledges create, enjoy.
For me, these last 3 Season 8 eps go together so cohesively that I can’t really watch Space Mutiny without Time Chasers and this one shortly thereafter. Just think how well they compliment each other: A totally uninspired Star Wars cash-in whose creators seemed oblivious to how bad it was, counterpointed by a quite original little movie whose producers knew it was hampered by meagre budget and resources but went up to bat and gave it a genuine shot anyway, all leading into a decent scifi story, bastardized by PBS employees who apparently thought they were doing a service to film appreciation by shoehorning the Casablanca stuff in (which, considering MST3K is the closest thing to a film appreciation course a lot of its viewers get, actually worked out in a way they never imagined), but turned it into an incomprehensible mess instead. And yet, they’re all united in being 3 of the most recent movies ever riffed, and best eps of the series, each enhancing the other two, though I imagine anyone who didn’t catch their first airing would feel different about their unity.
I personally don’t understand complaints about it being too boring or incomprehensible, since my favorite type of experiment is one that achieves the nostalgic feel of a fever dream I had when I watched TV half asleep with the flu when I was young enough to not understand what was going on anyway. Pod People was the show that made me a MSTie, and this is one of the few subsequent episodes with the same vibe.
Fave riffs:
(As they evade the snipers’ spotlight, the darts hit the wall)
CROW: “They wandered into a British pub.”
(The stupifyingly fake spear hits the wall)
TOM: “IT’S THE OOGA-BOOGA TRIBE!!!”
TOM: “Here’s looking at U, -turn.”
CROW: “Here’s looking at U, -biquitous”
MIKE: “Here’s looking at U, -lysses”
But I guess my favorite has to be one of Crow’s that’s just perfect for Fingal’s sudden revelation about Fat Man reversing the access code, but timeless enough that I use it as my IMDB sig:
“Oh, I am going to smack you SO HARD if this works, movie!”
I wish they could’ve found a few more PBS originals like this, prefferably somewhere in season 10. Five stars, as soon as ratings appear again!
One of my all-time fav eps from the SciFi era. So many great riffs.
“Oh, I get it! Cause they wern’t wearing hats!”
“Uh-oh… I just thought of something. What if this is still the pre-credit sequence.”
“Want some Pringles, Fingal?”
“I’ll have what I’m having!” (they’ve actually used this joke before, but it works well here)
“To Wendy’s!”
A friend of mine once had an arguement over one riff. When Fingal is in the body of the baboon, at one point he says, “Fresh air”, followed by Servo saying “Time Square”, in reference to the show Green Acres. However my friend thought Servo is saying “I’m square!” I’ll admit it sounds like he’s saying that since Kevin doesn’t fully enunciate the “T” in “Time”, but I’m positive the actual written riff is “Time Square.”
Which of the Nanite hoodlums is Bridget?
Film Fact: The animal sequences used in this movie were lifted from the 1974 film “Animals Are Beautiful People.” I loved that film as a kid, so when I saw those shots in this movie, I was flabbergasted. And incidentally, as AABP mentions but OATMB screws up, the fruit the animals “get drunk” on is marula fruit, not “maruba” fruit . . . and although it’s biologically unlikely to get critters drunk off ’em, the fruit (I just discovered) has a fair bit of commercial potential: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marula
Boy, it’s weird where MST3k can take you if you branch out where they leave off. Anywaaay . . .
How can people not like this episode? I am once again confused by the numerous lackluster responses here. Admittedly, the movie is hard to swallow, and that does detract from it compared to my other favorites. But the host segments are exceptional (“Loving Lovers” is the most subtly cynical and spot-on parody of a love song I’ve ever heard), and the riffing is consistently top-notch. Some (paraphrased) highlights:
While snowing: This is how much pure cocaine you’d need to enjoy this movie.
At the psychist: So aging lesbian nuns rule the future?
Showing other dopples: Changing old guys into pandas – yep, that’s the future, all right.
As Apollonia accuses Fingal of . . . um . . . entertaining himself inside the computer: Does this mean we’re done with the officially sanctioned boring part of the movie? (“Officially sanctioned” gets used pretty often with me.)
As Apollonia descends on the clamshell: Um, you’ve got poison oak on your naughty bits, ma’am.
While the Fat Man looks terse: I want more butter for my ham! (Man, does that come out a lot when I’m cooking.)
As the short bearded guy with a cowboy hat meanders in the background: Yippie-yai-oy-vey!
As they barricade the door against the Fat Man: Yeah, that’ll stop the 400-pound guy who smells pancakes. (This one crops up regularly with friends.)
As Fingal and Rick fly through whatever that is exactly after interfacing: I love you this muuuch! . . . I don’t care for yoouuu! (Any time I see something that involves flying wildly through a vortex, or with someone standing with arms outstretched, I am compelled to say this.)
At the ending scene: I guess this movie was kind of like watching Casablanca . . . while a small child uses your groin as a punching bag.
————————
This episode was not all fat jokes, not that I mind those (especially where the villain is so absurdly over-the-top and so clearly supposed to bear the brunt of the audience’s dislike). There was a lot of unique wit flowing from a movie that was refreshing in just how uniquely bad it was, and I hold the episode to be in my top five.
Great stuff.
Obnoxious Kid: Dummy! Only a retard would want to be a medico.
Me: Oh, want a job, eh? :roll:
I do love how one of the objects Henry throws lands perfectly in Crow’s net.
“You know you want me, baby!”
I was still new to MST3K when I caught this episode (many times) during the final years of its stint on The SciFi Channel. Loved it, but became so familiar with it that I put off buying Rhino’s Vol. 4 (w/ Girl In Gold Boots, Space Mutiny, Hamlet) for years, as i’d seen them all so many times. Glad I finally did, as a few other sets since then have gone out of print.
So, I rate OatMB highly out of nostalgia, but I also like the story (if not the execution), find Raul Julia highly watchable, and because I developed quite a crush on Linda Griffiths (Apollonia) and her assistant Pat Benatar. Pearl & Brain Guy’s “When Loving Lovers Love” is good too.
I wasn’t overly attached to “Casablanca” in the first place, thus wasn’t offended by its use in the film. Funny that Mike, Kevin, & Bill finally did it as a Rifftrax. Still, I’d rate this episode at 4 Stars, whereas the previous two were 5 Stars.
“Whoa! Huge slam on anteaters out of nowhere!”
I agree that the movie does have a “Doctor Who” feeling, specifically the Peter Davison era, given the early computer effects and synthesized music. Actually, I’d say the movie has a good basic idea, but the execution is just too goofy to pass up for riffing. I thought the “PBS pledge week” host segs were fine, although they’d have had to last for about two hours each for the full effect. (Okay, the breaks are shorter nowadays, but I remember the endless ones WNET would have back in the 70’s.)
It’s my understanding this movie was made as part of the funding deal that also gave us the much better adaptation of “The Lathe of Heaven”, but that the funding ran out before more could be made.
And the stinger is tremendously funny.
Overall, a good episode.
One item that gets me, every time, is Bobo, talking Henry the Monkey down from the rafters; “Come on, man. You don’t want to do this, man. You don’t want to end up in the boneyard, man…”
UPS fashions – of the future!
I hope everyone is keeping their new year’s resolution to stop getting fat off flav-o-fives.
Ah, someone beat me to the Doctor Who analogy! :smile:
Either way, this is one of the episodes that really got me hooked on the show in general along with Werewolf. Pretty much everything in it is top notch.
Wow! I don’t know if I’ve ever seen so much division among the MSTies. I guess ya either love this one, or well…, don’t love it. Someone commented on Linda Griffiths being one of the more attractive MST actresses. Yes, she is very pretty, nice eyes. A little moustache remover on her upper lip wouldn’t hurt though. Ooooooh..I just can’t say anything nice! Raul looks delicious as always.
“I’m INTERFACED!” BFD!
I’m going to just say it: BEST HOST SEGMENTS EVER.
As for the movie, it’s grown on me over the years. Growing up with PBS, I had mixed emotions about them tearing into the kind of show I actually considered proper entertainment when I was younger. I also agree with Pearl’s comments regarding Raul Julia. I know as an actor you take a variety of roles, but this is really pretty emberassing. On the other hand, it’s better than Street Fighter. Since it’s been mentioned, I think Lathe of Heaven would have made for a great episode.
Fave riffs:
Wanda Cannon! Now that’s a porn name if I’ve ever heard one.
I love you this much! I don’t care for you!
Fingel, you are mine (with bernaise sauce)!
If only she’d turned into a beer it would’ve been perfect!
He died protecting the Cuantro.
The most face any screen has ever held!
#14 just reminded me of something a bit off-topic: I’ve yet to see ODATMB unriffed, but I know I’d like it better than ‘The Matrix’. I’ll never understand what the big deal supposedly was about that movie, as I’d seen all of its techno-babble elements done better in ‘Reboot’, ‘VR.5’, The first ep of ‘Spicy City’, and ‘Ghost in the Shell’, just to name a few, and didn’t see the FX as anything special. There, I said it, I’ll say it again if I have to. No, I somehow haven’t seen ‘Tron’. Go fig’.
As for the REAL Matrix, #21 just reminded me that I use “officially-sanctioned _________ part” a lot too: Whenever I’m explaining Marvel Comic Transformers continuity to someone, and they call the connection between the American and British books confusing, “No, the officially-sanctioned confusing part doesn’t start until ‘Time Wars’ in 1989…”
Anyone else think the image of Raul with the top of his head sawed off gave Tim Kring the idea for Sylar’s M.O. in ‘Heroes’?
And when Pearl refers to the feature as having 9 parts, is that the only time someone within the show acknowledges all the commercial breaks instead of just he host segments?
I love that they take on PBS the way they do. Endless pledge drives, programming trying way too hard to be culturally relevant, there’s an epic amount of material to work with.
Favorite riff:
“Stay away from the fat man, Mr. Fingal.”
Crow: He smells like feet!
Pretty good. The movie’s pretty good, definitely out there. Host segments are good too. I’m looking forward to what’s coming up.
So, are we not rating the movies anymore or what? There wasn’t a star bar last week either. I’m not complaining, just asking.
WOW, folks are really hot or cold on this one. For me there was a lot of hot and some cold. The PBS host segs were terrific; well written and cleverly presented. SOL segs basically sucked with the monkey bit being lame and long with a weak pay off.
The movie was flat out stupid but the riffing was great throughout. An earlier post explained why Raul was in Street Fighter but every time I view this I am scratching my head on why he did this one? He must of did this role instead of a cash donation to score some tote bags I guess.
Sampo, I like your plans on the future episodes. Relative to KTMA, I agree they are not the best episodes but they are very endearing somehow. The sets are so slapped together with whatever they could use, long riff pauses, timing issues, some insensitive remarks/skits, but you can actually see them growing. What I found most interesting is that they seemed to be unscripted!? That takes a lot of guts. In summary, they are worth viewing and I am glad we will be able to comment on them.
To WENDYS!
Re: the plans for the future, sounds like a good idea to me. Will the Oscar and Summer Blockbuster specials be included, as well as the “Poopie Parade of Values”?
And a question about the ep: the music used during the pledge breaks sounds familiar. I know it’s been used before on the show, but can’t remember exactly where. Any ideas?
I’ve got a fever for the flava of a Fingle. Well not really, but I do love this episode. I think it’s one of the best of the sci-fi era and along with “Space Mutiny” and “Time Chasers” a perfect way to end the season.
The movie itself is one of those that has a nugget of an idea, obviously the short story probably worked well enough to be adapted. But I suspect the adaptation was just wrong. Interestingly, they had enough of a budget to come up with costumes and props and some special effects. In those terms it creates a more believable world than “Space Mutiny”. But the execution is just plain sloppy. I wonder if footage was edited for the MST3K version that would have helped – but at the same time some things just don’t make sense. Apollonia turning into Fingle’s mom or into Venus with the commandments. Just plain odd.
I think the first half of the film provides more laughs than the second half. The doppling, the horny kid, the introduction of all the crazy chracters and bizarre situations is just fuel to the riffing fire. The second half kinda gets static with Fingle trying to figure out the code and bouncing around between “The Place” and his office. But once our low budget Peter Lorre yells “He’s here!” followed by the riff “Grandpa! Grandpa!” it gets hilarious again.
Then you have the host segments, which are top notch. I love the public Pearl stuff, and the song is one of my absolute favorites. My wife and I will often break into how much she likes pie and how I know a couple of guys. The stuff with Henry aboard the SOL is amusing. But for me Pearl and Co steal the show. Whenever anyone mentions a tote bag, I have to say “I have so many things I need to tote!”
“Overdrawn at the Memory Bank” is one of my favorite episodes. Great movie, great riffing, and solid host segments containing one of my favorite MST3K songs. This gets five stars out of five in my memory bank.
>>35
The pledge break music is the same music used for the Mystery Science Theater Hour host segments.
This episode has great moments and bad, mostly it drags in the second half. I still use the term “flav-o-fives” a lot.
Re KTMA: I just got the chance recently to see these for the first time myself. Some of it is barely watchable, but some of it is remarkably good, particularly if you are prepared to accept it as something other than MST3K as we generally know it. Phase IV, City on Fire and Superdome are episodes I would put up against many a regular season show.
I have a hard time watching this episode. Something about the look of the movie gives me a splitting headache. Not to mention the acting,dialog,etc.
The Children of the Damned comment was funny though. That “Is it sexy?” kid. Scary.
CRAP! I forgot the ratings thingy again!! Sorry! It’s up now.
The segments are good but the movie shines. I love when tom begins spouting out technobable and getting mad about all the made up terms they used. This movie apparently has ties to Total Recall so I’m not sure if that hurts or helps it. Best riff by far is when crow says “Doctor Who….The hell cares.” The loving lovers song is an instant classic and a great bit.
Really enjoyed the host segments (“Public Pearl”), especially the duet between Pearl and Brain Guy (“Loving lovers loving love…”). Wonderful spoof of PBS telethons.
As for the movie, it was pretty good, not among the best of this season, but Mike and the ‘Bots were in fine form throughout. A good ending to what was in my opinion one of the best seasons in the show’s history, and certainly the best of the Sci-Fi era.
Solid episode! The crew managed to take possibly overdone comedy bits like Fat Guy Riffs (“Gravy!” “To Wendy’s!”) and singing lame songs (“When Loving Lovers Love”) and make them funny. Super Kudos to the singing Mary Jo, great expressions!
The weirdest moment of this movie to me is the pervert kid who strays away from the tour group to peak at the naughty bits of the soon to be doppled. That just came out of nowhere, for me.
I didnt like this movie or episode at all..never watch it. Didnt like the segments or anything about it
Im glad its on DVD so it wont come out again a 2nd time.
In reply to #33: Raul Julia took this role because he was a big supporter of public television. However, the record is silent on whether he was still a supporter after doing “Overdrawn at the Memory Bank.” (Oooh! Burn!)
I like this episode because there isn’t another movie quite like this one in the MST3K canon. Most other movies that are riffed fall into clear-cut categories. But I find it tough to lump this movie with any other one from the show. I wonder if the writers enjoyed this episode more for that very reason.
The host segments are pure genius! And almost anyone who has been in the U.S. for more than six months instantly gets the joke. As a libertarian, I’m not a fan of public television, so seeing it mocked is just heaven for me.
As mentioned before, the movie’s content is… um… something else. I could understand it being produced as an independent film, but PBS?!?! So many of the lines are funny without riffing. (“Desiree! You could have gotten mustard all over his brain!” or “Flavo-Fives”) The garishly tacky “special” effects and the incoherent motivations of all of the actors make for a very confusing cinema. In the end, “Overdrawn at the Memory Bank” isn’t so much of a movie as it is a collection of random scenes that may or may not have much to do with each other.
A great episode, but it gets bogged down in the last twenty minutes. 4 stars out of 5.
KTMA eps are on YouTube?
no phrase i know rolls off the tongue better then “i’ve got a fever for the flavor of fingal”
i was one of those sad folks who didn’t have comedy central or sci-fi locally until well into the 2000’s…i remember watching mst3k when i would visit relatives in cincy for thanksgiving or christmas…that’s when i would watch mst3k…but i held a grudge that i couldn’t watch the show regularly, therefore haboring bitter feelings towards actually considering it one of my favorite shows…
long story short, i really didn’t get to indulge in the show till the dvd’s came out (and i had a friend who had 80 of them on tape, thanks eric!)
volume 4 was the first i ever bought and though i didn’t have the honor of watching this episode when it came out..i really think this is one of my fav’s…
i need to sit down with youtube sometime and watch some ktma episodes..i saw superdome from a friend and knowing that it’s improvised, i think, makes it more then watchable…still laugh out loud moments…allbeit with longer time inbetween them… –sam–
My fave joke from this is actually before the movie even starts…
“It stars Raul Julia, a very fine actor. What was he doing in this piece of sh…urely quality, quality entertainment?”
As for the KTMA episodes:
“Well, all the reports I heard were that they were not really that funny.”
Well… that might be true of some of them, but I’ve seen some that I think stack up to almost any other episode. I think Superdome is great, and I love Phase IV.
“Prophylactic rehab, Fingel…” So they’re going to retread his condom?
Love this episode. This is one of those episodes where you could feel the writers’ pain because of just how awful the movie was. And those are usually my favorite.
“Mom.. my nuts” is a legendary moment.
Also love anytime when Mike and the bots talk about variations of “doppling” their “Fingal.”
But…the sequence that always makes me laugh the hardest is Raul Julia’s narration over the stock footage of the animals. “He looks drunk to me” never fails to get a laugh.
I, apparently like the MST3K crew, liked Raul Julia. I actually saw him in Broadway once as Don Quixote in Man of La Mancha and he was very good. Unrelated, but interesting, his sidekick (can’t remember the name of the character) was played by Ernie Sabella, aka, Mr. Kerosi on Saved By the Bell and one of either Timon or Pumba.
I’m way off topic.
Great episode. In my top 5 Sci Fi era shows, along with Time Chasers, Merlin’s Mystical Shop of Wonders, Track of the Moonbeast and