Movie: (1961) An astronaut crashes on a planet inhabited by tiny people. After he shrinks down to their size, he learns they are at war with an aggressive neighboring planet.
First shown: 3/21/98
Opening: Crow and Tom challenge Mike to an Andy Rooney-off
Intro: Pearl’s World Domination Starter Kit arrives from Speigel, but the all-important “thing” has been mis-delivered to the SOL
Host segment 1: Mike and Tom focus their attention on the Good and the Beautiful
Host segment 2: Mike slips Crow’s mind; spooky sounds in Castle Forrester turn out to be less than other-worldly
Host segment 3: Crow and Tom, having taken up water glass rim music, invite Mike to try it, and soon regret that they did
End: Crow is baffled and enraged by his Solarite costume; Pearl despairs of taking over the world until torch-wielding neighbors arrive
Stinger: The “Good and the Beautiful” are extolled
(275 votes, average: 4.24 out of 5)
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• If I choose to focus my attention on the good and the beautiful, as I should, there’s much to enjoy in this episode. First of all, the movie. I love these rocketship movies. They’re my favorite genre of MST3K movie (giant bug movies are a close second). And this one is just pure cheese from start to finish, complete with the obligatory flock of Fiddle Faddle asteroids, “Lost in Space” quality sets and squarejawed white guys piloting the space ships. The riffing is great in this one too. The host segments are hit-and-miss, but generally it’s a fun episode.
• This episode was included in Rhino’s The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection, Vol. 8.
• Bill’s observations on this one are here.
• The “good and the beautiful” speech became an instant hit in internet MSTie forums.
• The Andy Rooney-off classic is a classic bit that sounds like something that started as a friendly competition in the writing room.
• After the sound problem in last week’s episode, I couldn’t help noticing that the sound on this one is also a little echoey, but not enough to be distracting or any kind of problem.
• Then-current reference: Anna Nichole Smith, then young and sexy, is presented as an example of “the beautiful.” What a long time ago that was.
• The effect of Mike floating away in segment 2 looks very nice. The spooky sounds bit, however, is one of those “long walk for a little joke” things they sometimes get themselves into.
• Take note: The Francis X. Bushman character is named Sesom: that’s Moses spelled backwards.
• “I should really just relax” item of the week: Hey, suddenly Tom’s hands work in segment 3!
• The bit at the end where Crow again goes insane is similar to the several previous bits, including the Bellerian bit in Space Mutiny, but Bill commits and it works anyway.
• That’s Patrick, Peter Rudrud and Beez as the voices of the scalded villagers.
• On my Rhino disk, the stinger cuts out about two seconds too soon. Does anybody else’s do that or did I get a defect?
• Cast and crew roundup: Producer-screenwriter-story guy Fred Gebhardt also did “12 to the Moon.” Hmm, I think we know who to blame for this one. Production designer Robert Kinoshita also worked on “Viking Women.” Assistant director/production supervisor Maurice Vaccarino also worked on “The Screaming Skull” and “Teenage Caveman.” Assistant producer/editor Hugo Grimaldi also worked on “First Spaceship on Venus,” “Human Duplicators” and “Hercules and the Captive Women.” Editor Donald Wolfe also worked on “Human Duplicators.” Special effects guy Louis DeWitt also worked on “Viking Women.” Special effects guy Charles R. Duncan also worked on “The Crawling Hand” and “Slime People.” Costumer Oscar Rodriguez also worked on “The Magic Sword” and “I Was a Teenage Werewolf.” Set designer Joseph Kish also worked on “The Rebel Set.” Sound mixer Al Overton also worked “Screaming Skull,” “Earth Vs. the Spider” and “Attack of the Giant Leeches.” Score composer Gordon Zahler also worked on “First Spaceship to Venus,” “Hercules and the Captive Women,” “Human Duplicators” and “Women of the Prehistoric Planet.”
In front of the camera: Coleen Gray was also in “The Leech Woman.” Anthony Dexter was also in “12 to the Moon” and “Firemaidens From Outer Space.” Dolores Faith was also in “Human Duplicators.” Francis X. Bushman was also in “12 to the Moon,” as was Richard Weber. Lori Lyons was also in “Human Duplicators.” Richard Kiel was also in “The Magic Sword,” “Human Duplicators” and “Eegah.” Marvin Miller is also in “King Dinosaur” and “Day the Earth Froze.” Leon D. Selznick was also in “Hercules and the Captive Women.” Gloria Moreland was also in “The Rebel Set.”
• CreditsWatch: Produced and directed by Kevin. Brad gets another credit–Technical Supervisor. This would be intern Todd Severson’s last of two shows. The “Teachers of America” are again thanked at the end of the credits, but after this they are gone for good.
• Fave riff: “Thank you for attending pleated skirt day here at Combat Rod Park.” Honorable mention: “So you can just take a hard left in space?”
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“The Andy Rooney Off is awful, cringe-worthy and not funny at all.”
I have friends who didn’t even know who Andy Rooney was who thought that bit was hilarious. The delivery on their lines is outstanding. Successfully conveying that kind of absurdity with such a serious tone is what makes it work, more than any reference to Andy Rooney per se.
I frequently express distrust of soup thanks to this episode.
As for the rest of the episode, I agree with many here that there’s some pretty strong material present, but that the film is plodding and drear. It’s just about exactly intermediate between the soul-crushing stuffiness in Projected Man and the elated hilarity in Pumaman, which is fitting, I suppose.
I don’t like the Castle stuff as much as the Endless Chase stuff, but frankly, there are many memorable and fun moments there. I find it’s easier to take if you blame the channel and think of it as the Brains making the best of a rough situation. They do everything they can with what they have.
And within those parameters, they really do very well – especially Mary Jo. How often do you see hard-edged, boistrously self-assured female leads in anything? Women on TV usually seem to fall into four categories: emotionless, cruel antagonists; jaded world-weary professionals; sex interests; and victims (socially, criminally, or otherwise). As far as I can tell, Pearl is unique in the history of modern television, and MJ carries the role beautifully, for her part.
Lots of great stuff in this one. There’s a subtle bit that I always love for whatever reason — it’s after the SOL gets the World Domination Starter Kit delivered and Mike’s all hidden behind protective gear explaining why it has to be sent back down. Crow and Tom complain and before it cuts back to the Castle you see Mike looking up to the heavens, opening one hand in a ‘why, why me?’ gesture as the bots go on. It’s perfect, intentionally ridiculous melodrama and what makes it great is how Mike sells it while completely masked, you can’t see his face at all.
Ummm…out of all the foods to synthesize – why BREADFRUIT? :???: Why didn’t he just eat whatever the hell it was they were eating? And did this Phantom Planet have WATER? Didn’t look like it to me. Maybe they gathered ice from passing comets.
This ep was okay, I guess. The movie was very boring, and the whole thing just dragged at the end.
Weird science. When the backward Moses of Soul says something to the effect of “your oxygen levels on your world would make you resume your size” (don’t know the exact wording he used).
Umm…ri-igghtt. :roll:
“No time for explanations.” Uh – ’cause we don’t know what the HELL we’re talking about!!!
Host segments were so-so. I think Mike won the Andy Rooney-off. :grin:
I think they should’ve done a call back to Human Duplicators — Uhh, Lisaaa, remember mee?
BTW – for those saying Crow is doing the good and beautiful sketch with the celebrities’ pictures and the food – it was Servo, you dinks! ;-)
So what would you, the viewer, consider the perfect balance between the good and the beautiful?
Perhaps Ben Browder and Rhode Island spicy Calamari? Or Josh Holloway and chocolate lava cake?
Ahem *douses oneself with cold water* anyway – some fave riffs:
(When narrator says at start of film “this is only the beginning”)Mike: “Well, that said, enjoy your crappy sci-fi movie.”
Crow: “So, you can just take a sharp left in space?”
Mike: (During credits)”Well, movie, I sure hope you can justify all this personnel.”
Servo: “Permission to talk in flowery prose again, sir?”
Crow: “Cool, huh – watching them check things of which we don’t know what they are.”
Servo: “Would it be really that much of a problem to have human-sized doors?”
Mike: (when they’re ‘fixing’ the outside of the ship) “Good thing there’s so much gravity out in space.”
Crow: “Um – I’m not good at this, sir, I’m only good at fruity, philosophical speeches.”
Mike: “Geez, how’d I manage to land without that mincing little co-pilot jabbering about the ‘good’ and the ‘beautiful’?”
Servo: “Somebody rubbing a cat against a zither?”
Mike: (when a rescue ship is sent out) “So – which part of the universe do you want to search first?”
Mike: “Wow, no one told me about the black ice here in space.”
Crow: “Let’s just walk over here to the other end of the planet.”
Stay good and beautiful, folks!
@ #48 – You bring up two VERY entertaining points
“… ok, nothing grows on their ‘planet’, no plants or other animals … how did this race evolve? Where did they come from?”
At one point Chapman asks blondie about what they eat. She tells them they don’t need a lot of food because the way their bodies are designed, but she never actually tells him what they eat. Awesome.
“- Are the “Solarites” also a race of tiny people? Why haven’t the Solarites ever attacked Earth if they are in the neighborhood?”
I never thought about that. If their true size is the same as the Rehtonians, it makes the old guy in a dress’ foreboding claim that the Solarites may one day attack earth, quite amusing. I can just imagine NASA inventing some space tennis racket technology to defend the planet with. :)
#54
About the Solarites size. It reminds you of the bit in the BBC version of The Hitchhiker’s Guide where a similar error in scale is made by an invading species. ;-)
Every time I hear the planet’s name, I want there to be riff that references the fictional Raytown of the sitcom Mama’s Family.
I always thought the old guy’s name was Cecil. It sure sounds like it.
5 out of 5. One of my all time favorites.
The echoing lines of “I’m afraid you’re not 7/11 timbre Frank” and “You’re the worst party clown we’ve ever had” get me everytime.
One of my personal favorites. “You know captain…” one of the goofiest lines in any episode that never fails to bring a smile. I’m glad Mike and the bots pounded this one into the ground, including the host segement. :razz:
I’ve used the saying “focusing on the good and the beautiful” on my facebook status before. The right people will get it. :mrgreen:
This movie is, to me, almost hypnotically dull; I can’t remember any of the riffs, I can’t remember the plot, it’s like there’s just a long stretch of empty, gray nothing where a memory of a film should be. :) But I do like the opening and closing host segments, and I really think of Crow’s Solarite costume as the punchline to the running gag of “Crow thinks he’s a (insert film character here)”.
“I don’t even remember making this! And it’s a very good costume!” Briliant.
And I also love the Andy Rooney-off. Interestingly, Mike feels like he’s the only person actually impersonating Andy Rooney; the others all sound like they’re doing the stock “Andy Rooney voice” that we’ve all picked up from comedians (sort of the way that everyone doing “Howard Cosell” is really doing Rich Little doing Howard Cosell, or the way everyone impersonating George Bush is really impersonating Dana Carvey impersonating George Bush.)
Is anybody else struck by the similarity between the Andy Roony-off and the fallout from the literary doomsday device in season 1?
For anyone wondering, the piece Mike plays on the water glasses is ‘Deux Arabesques No.1: Andantino con moto’ by Claude Debussy. I remember it also being the theme music for the astronomy based series ‘Jack Horkheimer’s Starhustler’ that played on PBS about 20 years ago. Anyone else remember that?
“Maybe he’ll meet Wallace and Gromit on a CHEESE Tour.”
“So, ‘radioactive’ immediately equals ‘bad’ to you.” Crow with three eyes KILLS me.
Some really bad dialogue in this episode — I started a thread a little while ago about hopeless dialogue, and this episode has lots. I always cringe at Frankchapman’s aloud-internal dialogues:
“Path of travel? Phantom Planet….”
@53, my ideal of the perfect balance between the good and the beautiful would be a bowl of New Mexico green chile stew, and my wife.
Also, I kept thinking the planet was spelled Raton, which is a town in N.M. that is properly pronounced “rat-TONE”.
“Safety barrier.. a sign.. ANYTHING?”
I was sure I’d seen a three-eyed Crow in an episode before (it’s probably my favorite sight gag in the whole series). Now I’m glad to know that gag is in this episode.
#62: Thank you! I was right about Debussy, then. I just had the wrong tune.
Refer-back: “He needs a Posture Pal.”
Starts off hot, falls off a cliff into a deep pool of dull. Even the riffing can’t save it.
The “good and the beautiful” speech is a rightful hilarious classic and I did like Crow’s baffled breakdown about how he always seems to have these movie-appropriate outfits.
But overwhelmingly, my emotional memory of The Phantom Planet is usually “What was that one again?”
This is a little off-topic, but I was wondering if anyone out there was interested in my vhs collection of old MST episodes. Let’s be clear- I’m not selling these,(I’d just ask for the cost of shipping) but I’ve long ago transferred them to DVD, so I don’t really need them. I’ll be moving soon, and I don’t want to box them up and carry them and it seems like a shame to just throw them in the trash. What I’ve got is a fairly complete collection of episodes from seasons 2 through 10 with a few from season 1, all taped off of Comedy Central and SciFi networks. This is very much a “warts and all” collection, with commercials, missing stingers here and there, and some episodes with some of the opening missing, etc. If you’re an absolute nut about pristine, complete episodes, this probably isn’t for you. But if you’re looking to view some episodes you haven’t seen, then maybe you’d enjoy them. If anyone is interested, why don’t you post a reply here with your email address and I’ll try to get in touch with you. I’ll check back throughout the weekend.
@AlbuquerqueTurkey (#65):
As I recall (it’s been a while since I saw this episode), the people of Rehton seem a little unclear on how their planet’s name is pronounced. I think Sesom pronounces it like the NM city.
This is definitely a far more enjoyable episode than last weeks, both because the movie is fun to watch with or without the riffing. It’s one of those movies that, despite its cheezy nature, I can’t help but like the story.
Movie:
* This was the first movie that caught my attention in regards to several movies on MST3K that have similar pieces in the soundtrack. If you listen closely you can hear several themes from this movie also used in Women of the Prehistoric Planet, First Spaceship on Venus, and even Human Duplicators.
* Back in the 50s it was customary for movie posters for sci-fi films to include the tagline, “Over X Years in the Making!” As if that was an attempt to give the film any kind of creative credibility.
* A little research on imdb shows that the guy who played McKonnan is also the Jewish doctor from 12 to the Moon. These two movies were his only films for about 30 years.
* Favorite riffs: The entire exchange of-
“Congratulations, Mrs. Astronaut, it’s a boy…boy…boy…”
“Wake up, Frank. You wet the bed.”
“Frank, you’ll have to take third grade again!”
“Frank, this is Northwest Collection Agency. Do you value your credit rating?”
“I’m afraid you’re not 7-11 timber, Frank!”
“Frank, you’re the worst party clown we ever had…had…had…”
Host Segments:
* The water glass rim music segment will remain my Season 9 favorite for a good while. At least until we get to The Screaming Skull.
* Favorite line: “Welcome to the neighborhood! Huzzah!” <– Only because it inspired my personal host riff of, "Great, Pearl moved into a neighborhood of Ren-festers."
@John M .Hanna (#62): “I remember it also being the theme music for the astronomy based series ‘Jack Horkheimer’s Starhustler’ that played on PBS about 20 years ago. Anyone else remember that?”
It’s actually still around (I just saw it myself the other day), only now it’s called “Jack Horkheimer: Star Gazer.” According to Wikipedia, they changed the name in 1997 because Google searches for “Star Hustler” would bring up lots of links to “Hustler” magazine before it got to any about the show.
In my post for last weeks “The Projected Man,” I commented something like, “this is a meh episode, but not as bad as the worst of season 9, Phantom Planet and/or Space Children.” I am totally going to have to eat my words. I haven’t seen this one in years and I guess I was misremembering it. I must have confused it with one of the other b/w space rocketship bore-a-thons that the crew ripped on. Sorry Sampo, not a big fan of the hokey sci-fi space flicks. BUT, this episode is pretty damn funny, the host segments don’t do it for me, but the riffing is strong. All the references to the Solarites looking like dogs and the planet/ship/asteroid that looks like a piece of chicken, all that stuff had me giggling and laughing. “We can’t penetrate their defenses! They’re too crispy!” Hilarious. So, sorry “The Projected Man,” looks like you’re in the running for worst of season 9.
FAVE RIFF: “He’s kinda shaped like Dr. Beverly Crusher,” and “pretty tight turning radius for that chicken strip.”
@#70: I didn’t get cable ’till the SciFi era, and I have a large collection of VHS tapes clearanced from video stores in my basement, so what the heck!
Harrington2525@live.com
And on the host segments, was it ever stated just where Castle Forrester was supposed to be? Clearly European, it would fit into what used to be the southern end of the Eastern Block (did I spell that right? Cold War’s been over for 2/3 of my life) where country borders and names changed so much in the last century that most Americans could buy a made-up country, like Pottsylvania in the Bullwinkle cartoons. Or did it share a border with Mooselvania, which turned out to be mosquito-infested swamp on the U.S./Canadian border that neither country wanted to claim? That inspired a great gag in season 2 of Venture Brothers, where fakey Latveria-inspired Unterland turned out to somehow share a border with Michigan.
Um, I guess all I’m saying is that Castle Forrester’s location contained a good 1 or 2 eps worth of potential comedy gold that was sadly never mined in those last 2 seasons. Not even when they moved it to save money on Bobo’s monkey license in Horrors of Spider Island. Ah well…
Since it’s been brought up again…
I dunno if anyone has brought this up but it’s weird to me how everyone has mentioned the “audio problem” thing from the previous episode. Everyone seems to remember it the same except me. How come i seem to remember reading many times (including here i thought) that the original airing of 901 was a test of some sorts? Like they made a version of 901 with an “effect” to suggest they were in an echoey theater but knowing that the fans would most likely hate it. And I always assumed that meant it was just a failed one time only “experiment” suggested to them by the network.
The whole mistake part of it is totally new to me. This happen to anybody else?
BTW kinda off topic… the audio in the theater through the years has always fascinated me. I missed out on pointing out the couple episodes (season 4 i think) where it sounded like Kevin has a really bad cold in the theater segments. And also in City Limits, the mic is Super sensitive on Joel as he is breathing in an out between lines in the theater. You can even hear Joel’s nose “whistle”, especially if you listen on headphones. it’s all i hear in City Limits now when i watch it. Another headphone thing: sometimes when there’s a sound edit you can hear the original line. For instance in Pod People there’s a typical Crow edit where you can slightly hear the original line in the background when his mouth moves. Then slightly after the correctly timed line is dubbed in.
“Attack of the killer peanut brittle!” Something about the way Bill says that cracks me up.
I also love the Andy Rooney-off. Three different takes on the spectacularly eyebrowed Mr. Rooney, and they’re all good, each in its own way.
I also love the random Athol Fugard reference.
The amazing thing to me is how hacky and mock-able Andy Rooney was even then, and that now, twelve years later he’s still on the same top-rated show with the same lame schtick. Truly CBS’ answer to Jay Leno in many ways.
This is one of the better Sci-Fi era episodes for me. These old black and white SF films with fantastic space voyages are always whimsical fun and worked quite well for me on MST3K up till the show ended. Lots of good jokes in this one and the movie is fun too.
Oh, I get it… You’re impersonating Mickey Rooney
I’m not generally a big fan of the dumb 50s (or 60s, in this case) rocketship movies. They tend to plod a lot and they’re mostly kind of similar, save for the occasional presence of a Lloyd Bridges, or even–yes–a Francis X. Bushman (who seems to be putting in at least a little bit of effort.) On the other hand, this one does feature memorably goofy monsters, and in terms of pacing, it’s a hell of an improvement over the previous experiment. The plot may be stupid, and it may run on incredibly bad science, but at least it contained events that occurred, and that’s more than you can say for “The Projected Man.”
The push-rod duel scene really just cried out for M&TB to start singing the Star Trek fight music. A real missed opportunity. For their dematerialization plates, the people of Rheton seem to have taken the opposite view from Commander Santa (and Servo) when it comes to safety precautions, but in the end, they proved that no railings can be just as dangerous as lots of railings.
“Oh, our OLD future.” It’s incredible to think that this movie’s future is now thirty years in the past. There’s a bigger gap between the film’s setting and now than between the film’s release and its setting. Also, it’s a bit weird to watch a film in which the DISTANT FUTURE is envisioned to be before I was born. Even Orwell didn’t manage that, and he was writing some twelve years before this movie was even made.
Final thought: The instrument on which Mike is such a virtuoso is called a glass harp. It really is still just a bunch of tuned wineglasses, but I think “glass harp” is nicer and easier to say than “water-glass-rim music.” Maybe it was for comedic effect, and no doubt I should really just relax. It sounds like a name Leonard of Quirm would make up.
This should be more dull than it is, I still watch this semi-regularly, it’s a higher-ranking mid-grade episode in which those nooks and crannies really hold the butter. I must say that was a real fine-looking jury :grin: Crow really did put together a good Solarite costume. This one’s very quotable-Frank “they’ll never believe me”–Mike “I’ll have to kill them all”. I wonder if ESPN-6 ever started showing combat rod.
Wasn’t combat rod an actual event on American Gladiators?
Hey, regarding the ratings… Are we ranking the episodes based on overall entertainment value (i.e. compared with all the other TV shows / movies out there) or just in the context of MST3K episodes?
I LIKE Andy Rooney — but Mike and pals do a good job on him. And, as someone has noted previously, each of them hits different little bits of him. As with most good impersonations, it has more to do with having the right things to say, IMO. The voice and mannerisms come easily once you have the right material.
“You know captain, every year of my life, I grow more and more convinced that the wisest and the best is to fix our attention on the good and the beautiful…If you’ll just take the time to look at it.”
“You’re some guy Makonnen.”
To this day, I have that little speech memorized. I make a habit of memorizing some of the long-winded speeches from MST3K movies. I also know Peter Graves’ speech from the end of “It Conquered The World” by heart. I’m weird, I know.
Check out my full review here: http://romansreviews.blogspot.com/2010/01/phantom-planet-mst3k-review.html
Ashwaubenon Jaguar
I’d defintely be interested in your collection of VHS episodes. Email me at mctroncale@yahoo.com.
Time to play catch up…
This is always a little better than I remember it being when I watch it again.
The ep particularly picks up when the solarites appear. The funniest sequence, riff-wise, is when the solarite menaces our lovely heroine and kidnaps her…if even a third of the rest of the ep was that good this would be a classic. But the rest of the ep is just solid stuff.
I also love the riff about the solarites being in doggy cages on fire (the actual words of the riff are much better than that).
Host seg wise I like Crow as a solarite. Predictable as hell which they make fun of but his appearence and his tirade crack me up every time.
Now off to do some brief write ups for Projected Man and Memory Bank…
B+
Yes…the Debussey piece “Arabesque no. 1” that Mike is playing on the water glasses is lifted straight off the album “Snowflakes Are Dancing” by Isao Tomita (who, coincidentally, was also the composer of the score for “Mighty Jack”!)
#76 – I recall 901 as being the first MST3k actually mastered in Stereo, and when the tape was provided to Sci-Fi, the network had the playback set for Mono, and thus the crazy echo. Something to that effect.
Rocky #90: Ah, Tomita-san! One of the more interesting pioneers of the analog synthesizer. His rendition of Musorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition still haunts me (particularly the Ballet of the Unborn Chicks, which always manages to evoke images of Marvin Suggs and/or Terry Jones beating small critters with mallets…).
#92: underwoc…
LOL!!!
“I’ve used the saying “focusing on the good and the beautiful” on my facebook status before. The right people will get it.”
I am so stealing that.
Okay, i have never heard the real Andy Rooney speak before so who do you guys think did the best impression of him?
Also, my perfect balance of the good and the beautiful would be a plate of lasagna and a picture of Sofia Vergara.
I give it a 2.5 Stars.
I used to like it more than I do now. I will probably enjoy it again someday, but for now I have a hard time getting through it.
It was riffed good, I don’t have a problem with that. I think I just saw it too much.
My favorite riff was very early in the episode. In the credits.
Kevin Murphy: “Fred Gebhard wrote the Messiah?!
Mike “No, the name before!” (It was Handel).
I still think about Fred Gebhard everytime I hear or read about Handel’s Messiah. I will have that name always indented in my mind and associated with it.
I also liked:
Weird Guy: “Path of travel?”
Kevin Murphy: “Uhh, is that the path you travel on?”
I like the riff early on when Kevin said “I’m the weird guy!” because the guy IS weird. So to me his name will always be ‘weird guy’.
Also Mike: “You also have to fight around our bike rack”
and “We’re just gonna pour some concrete while you’re fighting”
I think another problem I might have with this episode is the let down after the awesome #901 ‘The Projected Man’ before it. I don’t think they get back to that level of quality/quantity riffing again until the next one, #903 ‘The Puma Man’.
I still think it wasnt bad though. I don’t think any of the episodes of this season were poorly riffed, actually.
Oh, another riff that I liked was the reference to Beverly Crusher, which he did resemble from that angle.
For me, this is the Sci-Fi Era’s answer to Rocketship X-M; a middle-of-the-road, good but not great ep that gets appropriately forgotten amid other great S9 episodes to follow. The Andy-Rooney-off and the “Good and the Beautiful” riffing is funny, but not too much else really stands out here.
I do believe my copy on Volume 8 has the full speech on the stinger. Rhino had a strange way of leaving bits of the show out, or in certain cases not transfering them properly. Or just letting the copyrights expire, causing oop issues that new fans to the show are finding out the hard way! :roll:
While none of the Andy Rooneys where bad, in my mind it is no contest. Mike wins hands down.
The water glass music host segment was cool. If I were Mike I’d help the Bots get a cat so they can feed it and give him those pointers.
I don’t know what it is about this one. Like Sampo, rocket movies are my favorite MST fodder. Yet this one falls flat and I can’t really explain why. On the surface it has everything I like about the genre. I guess the riffing isn’t quite up to snuff…
Favorite Riffs:
During the credits: Mike “Well movie I sure how you can justify all this personnel.”
Tom “You know what? Combat rod used to be great. But there is just too much money in it.”
Crow “Yeah it’s just a business now.”
Frank Chapman “I don’t see how this is possible. What about my size.” Crow “You could be a bowling trophy model.”
Frank Chapman “What are we going to do?” Sesom “We must try to break up the attack.” Tom “Thanks Patton.”
ah yes, i remember this one quite fondly. a couple of years ago during a particularly insane day for everyone at the office, my boss came up and went on a lengthy rant about everything that had gone wrong for him. figuring “why not?” i spoke up with “y’know sir, it’s times like these that we should take time out to focus on the Good and the Beautiful..” Unemployment is kind of different than it was in my younger days. perhaps i should just spend my free time focusing on the Good and…