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Sampo & Erhardt
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I want to note that this is not an exhaustive list and I don’t claim it to be. One or two people (mostly film crew folks) were left out because no photo was available that I could find.
Plus, I always hear months later into the new year of people who quietly passed on and whose family didn’t alert the media. So, I apologize, in advance, for anybody who is not included and should have been.
I think this is an improvement over last year’s. I hope I will slowly get better at this.
One more note, about Cubby: If you were a participant in the AOL chat room in the 90s, or the AOL message boards of the same period, you knew Cubby. As a commenter here, he has been unfailingly positive and thoughtful. One notable accomplishment: some disapproved, in the episode guide entries, of my use of the phrase “dated reference.” He suggested an alternative: “then-current reference.” Everybody liked it and it stuck. That was fairly typical of Jim, a sensible peacemaker. If you read through the comments you’ll find observations of his that are astute or funny and usually both at the same time. He was also the heart and soul of my now-disbanded private riffing group and made an incalculable contribution there as well.
Whenever we met, he would put on a face of mock-concern and say, in his best soap opera doctor voice, “Chris…how are you REALLY?”
I miss him very much.
A lot of MST3K episodes have very random Christmas moments inserted into them regardless of if the actual movie is about Christmas or not.
My personal favorite moment comes from TISCWSLABMUZ when Mike and the bots start singing Christmas carols along with the music in the first dance number.
Movie: (1961) Hercules goes to Atlantis to save his son, but evil Queen Antinea stands in his way.
First shown: 9/12/92 Opening: Gypsy wants to join Joel, Tom and Crow in the theater and Joel agrees, though Tom and Crow are dubious Invention exchange: Frank demonstrates The lawn baby, J&tB show off the womb-mate Host segment 1: Joel wonders: is there such a thing as “good-natured” brawling Host segment 2: Crow presents his rather dubious “history” of Hercules Host segment 3: The bots’ have created a Hercules action figure, and it’s pretty lame End: Laying the Hercules movies to rest, Joel reads letter, Frank is being chased by mower Stinger: “Hercules! Help me!” (173 votes, average: 4.23 out of 5)
• This is one of the lesser sword-and-sandal outings. Confusing movie, hit and miss riffing, pretty good segments. Of course, this one includes the classic line: “Today is dedicated to Uranus,” and is the landmark episode in which Gypsy watches a short portion of the movie along with Joel, Tom and Crow. All in all, fun, but a lesser effort.
• This episode was included in Shout! Factory’s “Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection: Vol XXIX.”
• Joel’s confidence in Gypsy is admirable, but let’s note for the record that, sadly, Crow and Tom’s instincts were correct. Gypsy is not down with the street.
• Joel says “Zatharatu.” I’ve always heard it was “Zarathustra.” Did he mean it or is Joel using some obscure alternate name?
• Despite all the hoopla to the contrary, this is NOT the last Hercules movie.
• As Tom sagely notes: “This would really be exciting if I knew what was goin’ on.” All the excitement about Gypsy in the theater takes place when the movie is setting up the plot, with the result that I never did really figure out what the heck is going on in this movie.
• I suspect a hunk of the movie was cut right around the first commercial. Before the commercial, there are portents of danger and Herc is tossin’ thrones around. After the break, Herc wakes up on a ship and everybody is smirking silently at him. The heck?
• Does this story resemble any actual ancient tale? Was there ever a King Androcles (with or without a lion)?
• All these movies have men in miniskirts, but this one has to have the miniest minis I’ve seen yet (shudder).
• Gypsy’s riff: “They’re steam-cleaning the horses!” delights Joel, Tom and Crow. Eh, not bad. But of her few riffs, I actually like “Oh, they’ve got a fun friend!” better.
• By my count, Gypsy lasts 5 and a half minutes. Sheesh, Gypsy, these sword-and-sandal things are among the more watchable movies MST did! What a lightweight!
• Gypsy exits left. A few other characters have exited or entered this way. Where does that exit lead? And how do they eat and breathe?
• Firesign Theatre reference: “…The Golden Hind.”
• I never noticed before that, a couple of times, they do a needle drop on that musical sting that I think was originally composed for “This Island Earth” and that I’ve heard in a lot of Universal movies.
• Crow goes a bit overboard with the “I have my rights! It was Callahan!” bit. (For those who don’t know, it’s a reference to the movie “Dirty Harry.”) He does it five times by my count, practically every time the little guy in the movie has a line.
• Callback: ”Hurry, Diana!” (Undersea Kingdom), Frank sings “I sing whenever I sing…” (Giant Gila Monster), “Rock Candy Baby” (Daddy-O), “…I’ve heard them talk about so much lately…” (Gamera).
• That’s Frank as the voice of the action figure when he says “I’m so sleepy…” but the final comment is by Mike. Wonder why they didn’t just have one of them do all the comments? By the way, the action figure’s arm falls off in the middle of the sketch. Joel conceals pretty well and they keep going.
• CreditsWatch: Nathan Devery finished up his internship with this episode. “Ammendment” is still misspelled.
• Cast and crew roundup: The editor of the American version was Hugo Grimaldi, who also worked on “The Phantom Planet,” “First Spaceship on Venus” and “The Human Duplicators.” Gordon Zahler composed the score on the American version, as he did with “The Phantom Planet,” “First Spaceship on Venus,” “The Human Duplicators” and “Women of the Prehistoric Planet.” In front of the camera, Ivo Garrani also appeared in “Hercules” and Mimmo Palmara also appeared in “Hercules Unchained” and “Hercules.” Narrator Leon Selznick can also be heard in “The Phantom Planet.”
• Fave riff: “Dear lord, the canary exploded!” Honorable mention: Tom: “You guys are supposed to be nice to me! Today is dedicated to my…” Joel: “We know!” Also: “Well, whatever tugs at your bobber, little fella.”
According to this blog post, longtime movie producer, sometime actor and pal of Coleman Francis, Anthony “Tony” Cardoza, died in early December as the result of a stroke. He was 85.
MSTies know he starred as Harry Rowe in the movie in episode 609- THE SKYDIVERS, as Landis in the movie in episode 619- RED ZONE CUBA and as the KGB driver in the movie in episode 621- THE BEAST OF YUCCA FLATS. He also appeared in episode 209- THE HELLCATS, and he was the producer of all four of those films, and of many others. There’s an extensive bio here.
When we have more specifics on his passing, we will update this post.
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