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Sampo & Erhardt
Sci-Fi Archives
Visit our archives of the MST3K pages previously hosted by the Sci-Fi Channel's SCIFI.COM.
I was thinking about how the narrators in the movies tend to inspire great riffing (“The Creeping Terror: and “The Dead Talk Back” immediately spring to mind), so how about favorite narrator-inspired riffs? One of my favorites occurs when the narrator of “The Dead Talk Back” performs a running commentary on how many minutes the murder victim has to live (“she had 23 minutes to live”), and at one point Crow responds, “I wonder if I could get a pizza in that much time?” I love it!
I think a lot of these are going to be from shorts. Such as mine, from “A Day at the Fair,”
Narrator: First prize goes to a girl!
Crow: The cows are furious!
Movie: (1986) A voodoo queen resurrects a dead teen, who then seeks revenge on his killers.
First shown: 11/24/94 Opening: Crow and Tom are Secret Service agents protecting Mike Intro: The Mads are into voodoo, so they send a voodoo kit to the SOL Host segment 1: Crow is reading when Tom runs him down! Host segment 2: Mike, Crow and Tom enjoy a hot tub Host segment 3: Crow abandoned his “Batman” screenplay, but neglected to tell Tom and Mike End: Letters for Adam West, Frank has turned Dr. F. into a zombie Stinger: Incantation and screaming (269 votes, average: 4.70 out of 5)
• It’s hard not to like this episode. The movie is big and bold and insane, the riffing is fantastic and the segments have a goofy, happy-go-lucky quality that I like.
• This episode appears on Shout’s Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection: Vol. XV.
• This episode was held from TV while it made the rounds of many college campuses, during the fall of ’94, as part of Comedy Central’s “Fresh Cheese” tour. It was finally shown on Turkey Day ’94.
• I saw it in the University of Pennsylvania’s cavernous Irvine Auditorium. The sound was terrible and the place was about half full. One of the school’s modern and luxurious (at least at that time) screening rooms might have been a better venue. Anybody else see the college tour?
• This ep marks the change from green to the solid blue jumpsuit we saw Mike wear for much of this season.
• Do you think that “Head!” thing was planned? After so many accidental beheadings of Tom, it nice to think they did this one on purpose.
• This week it’s the “umbilicus.”
• Non-spaghetti ball bumpers: bulletin board, beaker, book
• Segment 1 is related to the movie — he runs Crow over just like the kids just ran over the guy. But it’s also the beginning of a running gag for season six, in which Tom repeatedly — and cheerfully — smashes Crow in various ways. Unfortunately, this episode, where the running gag begins, wasn’t shown in order, so some of the humor of the running gag was a drained away.
• Tom imitates a Jamaican guy attempting to lure tourists to his jet ski/parasail business. I understand that the cast vacationed together in Jamaica at least once. Maybe that’s where this came from.
• The song Tom is singing at the beginning of segment 2 is “Walkin’ in Memphis,” by Marc Cohn.
• Callbacks: “I’d never touch you, Terry. You’re dirt!” (Teenage Crime Wave)
• Second “Governor and JJ” reference in a few weeks.
• The original film was MUCH gorier. Tia Carrera’s character’s death, to give one example, is far more gruesome than we see here.
• Also, the attempted rape of the Twist N Creme waitress by Jimbo is much more explicit and brutal in the original (the original is on YouTube). There is a huge edit, shades of “Sidehackers,” from the point where Jimbo grabs her and the next scene, where she is wrapped in a blanket telling the cops what happened. That scene also includes the gruesome, explicit and completely deserved onscreen impalement death of that jerk Jimbo. The edit kind of robs us of that cinematic justice.
• I exchanged emails with a representative for Jon Mikl Thor, and he revealed three interesting bits of info.
1. The soundtrack list includes bands called The Things and Knighthawk. They are just Thor in disguise (dull surprise!). 2. A band called Battalion does a song called “Out For The Kill.” That New York City-based band did exist, and even had their own comic book. (Thor co-produced their first album.) Sadly, Thor told us the guitar player of Battalion committed suicide by leaping off a 35-story building in New York City just before their album was to be released, and they were to embark on a U.S. tour. This turn of events ended the band, the release of the album and the tour. 3. A band called Deathmask, reportedly one of the first speed-metal bands, did a song called “I’m Dangerous.” Thor invested a lot of time, money and effort into the band. He helped get them a record deal and then co-produced the record. But, for reasons that are not remembered, the band refused to tour (which is sort of required to back up an album). Without the effort from the band to get out there to promote and tour, Deathmask then faded into obscurity.
• No cast and crew roundup this time: Nobody involved with this worked on any other MSTed movies.
• CreditsWatch: Host segments directed by Trace Beaulieu. This is the final episode for the credit: Video Provided by: Fournelle Video Production Services, St. Paul, MN. The second of two episodes where Sarah E. Wisner helped out with Post Production Coordination with Ellen McDonough Thomas,
• Fave riff: “C’mon, turn the tape over!!” Honorable mention: “They’re missing the forest for the trees with this whole sleazy chicks thing.”
Horror icon Herschell Gordon Lewis, who directed more than 34 movies between 1961 and 1972 and was affectionately known as the “godfather of gore,” has died. He was 87 years old.
A representative for the filmmaker, who rose to prominence after directing such titles as “Two Thousand Maniacs” and “Blood Feast,” said Lewis “passed away peacefully in his sleep” on in the evening of Sept. 25. Lewis’ rep also confirmed the director had been suffering from congestive heart failure prior to his death.
MSTies will recall that he was the producer, director and screenwriter for the movie in episode 421- MONSTER A GO-GO.
With the recent #threefictionalcharacters thing going around, I thought it might be interesting to do #threeMST3Kcharacters (from the movies) that best describe you. I’ll have to give it some thought myself.
Krasker, Dad from “A Date with your Family” and Ator. Figure that one out.
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