What movies are “canon” as suggested by repeated reference by the Brains? Three that come to mind might be “Road House,” “Mannequin” and “The Goonies.” How important is it to see these movies and why (I have seen some of “Mannequin” but not the others)?
So in other words, what (non-MSTed) movies ought a MSTie be sure to have seen in order to get most of the references? The list is going to be long, my friend.
I’m going to start with “The Wizard of Oz,” riffed on dozens of times over. But I also maintain that this movie is perhaps the last communal experience we as Americans have, so everybody SHOULD have seen it. Two riffs from 303- POD PEOPLE (the most recent episode I saw) come to mind” “I DO believe in spooks! I DO believe in spooks!” and “I can’t come back! I dunno how it works!”
What movies would you put on the list?
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I’m not a medium, I’m a petite says
If you want to start on musical canon, Prince has got to be on there. Or is that next weekend’s thread?
One TV show they reference time and time again, and even tell you where the riff comes from in the episodes is “Then Came Bronson”. I never saw it because it was on a few years before I was born. I would have liked to, just to have mental reference point on the whole “where you headed man?” Riff.
The Rock opera ‘Tommy’ was the source of many riffs, and skits as well. See me, feel me, touch me!
Re: ck (#41)
I grew up listening to nearly all of Bob Newhart’s records, so the “Mrs. Webb” references struck a chord with me.
I don’t think anyone’s mentioned James Bond yet
Batman, in its many incarnations.
Rocky Horror Picture Sow was mention by bill when he joined the cast a lot and show be watch (in theater is can)
I see someone else mentioned “McCloud”, but I think we can safely extend this to any 70s-era TV show or film produced by Universal. They had such an absolutely distinct font style for the opening titles that it’s hard to miss. I think this distinctiveness is commented on in “Riding With Death”.
@16 – That, and “Pope of Greenwich Village”, for some weird reason (well, maybe not SEE it, but at least be familiar with it)–Not only for “They took my thumbs, Charlie!”, but also for Crow’s otherwise unexplained imitations of Sinatra singing “Da summa wind came blowing in…”
As for TV, even though Joel banned repeated use of the “Flashlight” ref, even that sketch would be meaningless without having seen at least one aforementioned McCloud episode back in the day:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaWuXHMrwXo
(Not so much for Mannix beyond the opening theme, though.)
The Jon Cryer vehicle “Morgan Stewart’s Coming Home” was referenced fairly regularly in the ’92/’93 era. “One, maybe two references?”[/MST Snark]
TV show: The Rockford Files.
Movie: The Warriors.
Today watched MST3K’s “The Brute Man”. In it were references to Planet of the Apes, Star Trek, The Thin Man, 2001, a Space Odyssey, the Wizard of Oz, and Psycho. Those were the ones I caught, anyway.
In one scene, the killer brute man was slowly climbing up the stairs in a dark house and they riffed “Mrs. Bates, can Norman come out and play?”
The funniest tho, was the Commisioner and the mayor’s male secretary, both men of short stature, were leaving the detectives’ office, they turned and began walking away, when one hears all three, Mike, Crow, and Servo singing, “We represent the Lollipop Guild”.
…and for TV shows, don’t forget “Sea Hunt”. “…by that time my lungs were aching for air…”.
There are so many film references, I suppose the only answer I can give is SEE THEM ALL….
:-)
“Its the NBC Mystery movie” (zap)
You know, I’ve always loved the fact that an episode might follow up a smart reference to the Thin Man movies (“Ah, it’s like Nick and Nora Charles”–thanks, porp0ise, for reminding me of them!) with a quip about triscuits. (Tricuits always make me think of Puma Man, and in fact that episode might have more snack-food references than any other single episode–which is saying a lot). I love the sheer RANGE of the show. (Okay, I just stated the obvious.) It never tried too hard to be smart, which is of course why it was so smart.
As Sampo notes, this could be a VERY long thread but rather than try and add movies I’ll just make the observation that quite aside from MST3K some critics have asserted that no movie since 1939 has been made that didn’t reference “Wizard of Oz” in some manner . I’m not sure I agree with this, but it’s clear that it has served as an influence for literally hundreds of films (for example, Lucas basically stole the entire plot for Star Wars).
The great thing about MST3K is that it rewards those who love movies AND who have eclectic tastes.
Not a medium… #43 – Absolutely Frank Zappa. I had no idea what the riff “Watch out where the huskies go, and don’t you eat that yellow snow” from “Day the Earth Froze” meant until I heard that album, and then it ALL made sense!
The following not so much for number of references as for memorability of references:
Hardcore (TURN IT OFF! TURN IT OFF! FOR GOD’S SAKE, TURN IT OFF!)
Blue Velvet (DON’T LOOK AT ME! DON’T LOOK AT ME!)
Anatomy of a Murder (Panties, panties, panties, panties… panties…. Panties, panties… )
Do TV shows count? If so, then Star Trek (I’m in love, Jim!)(Your agonizer, please!)
Another movie to be familiar with is “Ed Wood,” not that the cast riffed it per se, but they riffed Ed Wood the person and his work, and the movie titled “Ed Wood” starring Johnny Depp explains a lot about EW’s art (and I use that word loosely), his cross-dressing, Bela Lugosi’s last days, and so on.
I think the movies have been pretty well covered so I’ll throw in a couple of tv shows that are referenced often: The Beverly Hillbillies and any Quinn Martin show
Yeah, there’s a lot of TV shows one should see some of to get references. One of my favorites has always been Perfect Strangers references. “It’s Larry and Balki’s apartment!” Plus, everyone should see Perfect Strangers.
And commercials! Don’t forget t.v. commercials and infomercials! Too many to list, but I could start with the Sally Struthers “Want to make more money? Sure, we all do!”
Wow. You have an entire room of writers’ entire life experiences crammed in to every episode. Movies, TV shows, commercials (including local ones that NO ONE besides someone from their area would get), music, “graphic novels”, books, plays, comedians, performance art, childhood memories, just local references from where they happened to have lived or traveled to… The list goes on. You can watch this show for years (which we all have done) and keep “getting” something new each time.
Great show. :-D
Patton
Hardcore(1979)
Seem to remember both of these being referenced.
The show is such a cultural succotash that NOBODY can get everything. The sheer heft of “Mannix” theme hits makes seeing that show at least once a must. Think about all those odd drop-ins written by Frank, like when Dr. F is wrapped in bandages and Frank offers him, “hard boiled eggs and nuts”, a comment during a short about “a firm and hearty hand clasp”. The former is from a Laurel and Hardy short (“County Hospital”), the latter a W.C. Fields movie (“The Bank Dick”). How many of you knew that offhand, as I did? Maybe one. That’s why the show is a classic. It’s a different experience for each viewer, a throw it against the wall and see what sticks formula that worked and still works for Rifftrax and Cinematic Titanic.
Randy
Oh, and one more thought about “Wizard of Oz” and MST3K — when my wife and I watch MST3K we always wait for the moment… wait for it… when they make a reference to it. And they ALWAYS do.
So, Sampo, here’s an idea for another weekend discussion: list a MST3K movie where they DON’T reference “Wizard” (I think we found exactly two in the entire pantheon, but we may have missed a reference in one of those).
“This Is Spinal Tap”
If you’re watching ever-popular Fire Maidens From Outer Space, you’d need to watch James Cameron’s Aliens from 1986 to know where all that business with him comes from. Although Ridley Scott’s Alien is the original, it seems most everything they parody comes from the sequel.
The invention exchange from Rocketship X-M also parodies Aliens with the BGC-19 drum robot-thing.
Must sees “What;s up Tiger Lily” and “Kentucky Fried Movie”. Amazing how many references to both. I do still feel so sorry for the man who lost his “soul”.
Goodfellas
Taxi Driver
I’ll try to think of some more.
A lot of movies supply one key riff that gets used a lot. A few examples have already been mentioned, like Paul Schrader’s Hardcore. Another is James Cameron’s The Abyss which gave us, “You never gave up on anything in your life!!” Gymkata doesn’t even supply an actual line, just its title (as far as I remember, the term “gymkata” is never actually mentioned even once in the movies itself) but the riff “Gymkata!” comes up frequently.
If someone really were patient and more than a little tetched, they could make a list of these single references like lists of hapax legomenoi in Homer.
Most movies have been mentioned already I think, but there’s at least one reference to The Producers that I know of, in the short Once Upon A Honeymoon.
Bill Cosby: Himself.
They referenced his collections quite a bit, but this was the only movie. Of course, they did more than a few Fat Albert references too.
Carnival of Souls …
There are certain movies that get referenced repeatedly, making them somewhat required viewing to fully enjoy related jokes. It’s at least necessary to know a bit about them in order to follow a lot of references and jokes on MST3K throughout the years. Some of those that spring to mind are:
– Monty Python And The Holy Grail. MST3K mentions things like “I’m not dead yet, I’m getting better”, “I feel happy, happy…”, “How do you know she is a witch?” and many more lines just from that one film so many times.
– Monty Python’s Meaning Of Life. Very expensive machine that goes ping and others get mentioned over the years.
– Dune. Many jokes related to this one like “I will kill him!” and Servo geeking out describing an entire scene from the movie with the “Yueh, Yueh” line, and more.
– Planet of the Apes (the classic, original movie of course). “It’s a madhouse!” and “A planet where apes evolved from men!” are referenced many times along with many more.
– 2001: A Space Odyssey. So many jokes about monoliths, “sorry, I can’t do that, Dave”, an entire description of the opening scene of 2001 in Cave Dwellers, and many more as well as the final sketch in the final episode of MST3K Season 7.
– Seven Samurai (or any similar Kurosawa film). Multiple references to Kurosawa films in various episodes mean it’s quite helpful if you’ve seen one of his samurai masterpieces.
– Star Wars.
– Star Trek (either the original TV show or the movies with the original cast). Lots of jokes about Spock, Kirk, William Shatner and more on the show throughout its entire run, so some knowledge of Star Trek will help with enjoying MST3K.
– Roadhouse.
– Wizard Of Oz.
There are also several books which get mentions from; Catch-22, and Slaughterhouse Five for instance (I’ve heard references to Yossarian, Billy Pilgrim, Tralfamadore, etc). Getting the jokes often requires familiarity with a lot of different books & music, as well. Near the end of ‘Century 21 Calling’ Mike says of the soundtrack music, “Sounds like something from side five of ‘Sandinista’, which refers to the 3 LP album by The Clash (‘Sandinista’), circa 1979. Of which I own a copy. And I assume he had in mind such songs as “Mensforth Hill” although all songs on that side are VERY experimental.
There are some TV shows that get referenced quite heavily during the seasons with Joel/Trace, most noticeably Mannix (every time somebody jumps over a camera),Dukes of Hazard (for most vehicle chases and shots of cars driving around in the country), Sea Hunt (By this time, my lungs were aching for air), Faulty Towers (is difficult!), Hogan’s Heroes, and of course, Biography on A&E.
Movie-wise, I think 2001, Planet of the Apes, The Pink Panther, Spinal Tap and Apocalypse Now are definitely required viewing, not only because they’re all great movies, but because a lot of the references scattered throughout various episodes are fairly subtle.
One of the finest movies ever “Jaws” is referenced throughout “Devil Fish” and most other movies in which water is a theme. Willy Wonka (the good one with Gene Wilder) “I can see my house from here”.
I suppose as an addendum, I should also add The Muppet Show, which is not only referenced multiple times on its own, but also featured many oft-referenced (but now obscure) guest stars like Señor Wences, Mummenschanz, and Spike Jones.
If you ever wondered what the bots were talking about during the puppet sketch from Fugitive Alien 2 or why one of them always says “S’alright? S’okay!” in a gravelly voice whenever anybody on screen looks inside a box, then the clip below should give you a better idea:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AaIDmiFXmo
A few that haven’t been mentioned:
The Godfather
The Godfather Part II
Clockwork Orange
The Shining
The films of Ingmar Bergman, especially The Seventh Seal
Eraserhead….
Howard The Duck I’d love to see a riff of Howard the Duck
The Three Stooges. Not only in the theater, but a strong influence on the bridge and in Deep 13 and Castle Forrester.
@68 MPSh I never connoted Bobo’s “Panties,” bit with Anatomy of a Murder. I always try to figure out the many parodies the Mike on Trial skits had, but I missed that one. Thanks for pointing it out.
That would have been a neat trick for Spike Jones to appear on The Muppet Show, considering he had been dead for eleven years when the show first premiered.
The most obvious movie that came to mind is It’s a Wonderful Life for the reasons stated already.
On one of the Simpsons DVD sets, the writers were bragging in one of the commentaries that someone somewhere made a claim that they had put so many Citizen Kane references into the show that one could piece together the whole movie from Simpsons clips. They apparently agreed with that statement, but I really don’t think they overdid references to that movie.
But when I did hear that, I immediately thought that it was much more possible to piece together It’s a Wonderful Life from MST3K references…at least enough to present the whole plot without missing too much. I always wanted to see someone attempt a YouTube project like that, where the movie is presented via a montage of MST3K clips and riffs.
#95: “On one of the Simpsons DVD sets, the writers were bragging in one of the commentaries that someone somewhere made a claim that they had put so many Citizen Kane references into the show that one could piece together the whole movie from Simpsons clips. They apparently agreed with that statement, but I really don’t think they overdid references to that movie.”
I don’t know. You’d be surprised at the obscure references to Kane that ended up in some Simpsons episode or other. Like when Homer is watching Marge perform in “Streetcar!” and he begins ripping up his program into strips and playing with it like Jed Leland goofing off during Susan Alexander’s operatic debut. Or when Mr. Smithers starts singing a song of tribute to Mr. Burns during a retirement party and it’s completely ripped off the “There is a man, a certain man…” song from Kane. Of course, this was all a long, long while ago, back when “The Simpsons” was actually funny.
Gotta go with The Abyss. “Live damn it! LIIIVVVE!”
Here is a work in progress (therefore incomplete) – a list of films by famous and semi-famous directors cited by the Brains. (“famous” as used here is defined somewhat arbitrarily, or “those I have heard of”. Non-famous and infamous directors (for the most part) are considered separately. This is film only. Television is considered separately.
American directors: Robert Aldrich (Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?)… Woody Allen (Annie Hall, Broadway Danny Rose, Hannah and Her Sisters, Love and Death, Sleeper, Stardust Memories, Take the Money and Run)… Mel Brooks (Blazing Saddles, The Producers, Young Frankenstein)… James Cameron (Aliens, The Terminator, Titanic)… Frank Capra (It’s a Wonderful Life)… Francis Ford Coppola (Apocalypse Now, The Godfather)… Blake Edwards (Pink Panther series, Victor Victoria)… John Ford (How Green Was My Valley, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon)… Brian dePalma (Sisters)… Clint Eastwood (The Bridges of Madison County, Dirty Harry series, The Eiger Sanction, High Plains Drifter, Play Misty for Me)… William Friedkin (The Exorcist)… Alfred Hitchcock (The Birds, North by Northwest, Psycho, Rear Window, Rope)… John Huston (The Maltese Falcon, Key Largo)… Norman Jewison (In the Heat of the Night)… Elia Kazan (On the Waterfront, A Streetcar Named Desire)… (Stanley Kramer (The Defiant Ones)… Stanley Kubrick (Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey)… George Lucas (Star Wars)… Sidney Lumet (Fail-Safe)… David Lynch (Blue Velvet, Dune, The Elephant Man, Eraserhead)… Joseph Mankewicz (All About Eve)… Hal Needham (Smokey and the Bandit)… Mke Nichols (The Graduate, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolfe?)… Gordon Parks (Shaft)… Sam Peckinpah (Straw Dogs)… Melvin van Peebles (Sweet Sweetback’s Badass Song)… Roman Polanski (Chinatown)… Rob Reiner (The Princess Bride, This is Spinal Tap)… John Schlesinger (Marathon Man, Midnight Cowboy)… Martin Scorcese (Goodfellas, Raging Bull, Taxi Driver)… Ridley Scott (Alien, Blade Runner)… Steven Spielberg (Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Poltergeist)… Orson Welles (Citizen Kane)… Billy Wilder (Sunset Boulevard)…
I am not a foreign film expert, so this next list is much skimpier, in many cases just directors. The definition of “foreign” is a bid shaky as well. This is just meant to inspire further conversation.
Pedro Almoduvar … Michelangelo Antonioni (Blowup)… Ingmar Bergman (The Seventh Seal)… Bernardo Bertolucci… Rainer Werner Fassbinder (Berlin Alexanderplatz)… Frederico Fellini… Jim Jarmusch… Akira Kurosawa (The Seven Samurai)… Fritz Lang (Metropolis)… Sergio Leone (The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly)… David Lean (Wuthering Heights)… Louis Malle (My Dinner with Andre)… Leni Riefenstahl (Triumph of the Will)… Francois Truffaut (The 400 Blows) …
P.S. Of course, I have omitted many *critical* core references (such as “Monty Python’s Search for the Holy Grail” and other Python movies) because the director does not meet my shaky definition of “famous”. They will be considered elsewhere.
I’m going to go with THE MONKEES TV show.
“Hey, he’s wearing Mike Nesmith’s wool hat.”
“Here we come…” Anytime someone is walking down the beach.
And I believe Tom and/or Crow has said in differnt episodes…
“He looks like Micky Dolenz.”
“Is that Peter Tork?”