{"id":4244,"date":"2017-08-10T08:30:33","date_gmt":"2017-08-10T12:30:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mst3kinfo.com\/?p=4244"},"modified":"2017-08-10T07:33:45","modified_gmt":"2017-08-10T11:33:45","slug":"episode-guide-814-riding-with-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mst3kinfo.com\/?p=4244","title":{"rendered":"Episode guide: 814- Riding with Death"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Movie:<\/strong> (1976) Two stitched-together episodes of the TV series “Gemini Man,” about a hero who gains the power of invisibility.<\/p>\n

First shown: <\/strong>7\/19\/97
\nOpening: <\/strong>Mike, who was once a teppanyaki chef, has a relapse
\nIntro:<\/strong> Pearl and company are under fire! She begs Mike for air support … and she gets it, and then some
\nHost segment 1:<\/strong> Tom sings about the 70s (and the 50s, too)
\nHost segment 2:<\/strong> Tom acquires a buttless truck driver body
\nHost segment 3:<\/strong> Crow is Turkey Volume Guessing Man!
\nEnd:<\/strong> Mike, Crow and Tom spoof the end of the film, while Pearl is weighed down with medals
\nStinger:<\/strong> Jim Stafford is really happy!
\n

\u2022 I like this one. The movie — two poorly spliced-together episodes of a forgotten ’70s TV series (a la “Master Ninja”) — is not painful to watch, but gives them plenty to work with. The riffing is great and the segments are mostly pretty good. So rock it, you turkeys!
\n\u2022 Kevin offers his take here<\/a>.
\n\u2022 This episode is included in Shout’s “MST3K: Volume XXXVI.”
\n\u2022 The opening, with Mike as the mindless teppanyaki chef, is hilarious. “There’s about a 1-in-4 chance were gonna get out of this alive!”
\n\u2022 This episode is the last one in which Jim is listed as providing the voice and puppetry for Gypsy, but Gypsy isn’t in this one. I had thought that meant his last actual performance as Gypsy was the previous episode’s “Lord of the Dance” sketch, but a commenter corrected me. More on that in the next episode’s writeup.
\n\u2022 Daleism: During the bar fight, the big guy tries to punch Buffalo Bill, but his fist is held back by invisible Sam. He looks at his fist. Crow: “Thought I was Dale.” Big guy tries again, and is again held back. He again looks at his fist. “Again, I thought I was Dale.”
\n\u2022 I love the way Mike answers the phone in this episode. His cheery little “Helloo?” is great.
\n\u2022 Mike destroys his third planet so far this season. This sets up the premise for the segments in the next episode.
\n\u2022 Crow and Mike reenact a memorable moment from “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
\n\u2022 A perfect example of the genius of this show is the scene early on in which four characters are just standing around explaining the plot. Not much to work with. Then they pick up on Ben Murphy\u2019s boss compulsively wiping his (apparently filthy!) glasses and suddenly the otherwise dull scene is a riot.
\n\u2022 Tom’s songs about the 70s and the 50s are a lot of fun. “The apostle Paul traveled to Greece…”
\n\u2022 I think the “Tom’s trucker body” segment seemed funnier on paper. Nice job on the body creation, however.
\n\u2022 Tom still has his trucker body in the theater. Mike and Crow are already there.
\n\u2022 The Turkey Volume Guessing Man segment is another gem, another hilarious example of Bill’s slightly deranged Crow.
\n\u2022 The “Pearl gets medals” bit at the end is cute, but doesn’t really go anywhere.
\n\u2022 This movie has two completely baffling elements, which probably only made sense in the context of the series, context which is completely lost in the movie. First there’s this Elliot guy, who angrily, even bitterly, berates Driscoll, who I think is his boss. Why is he doing this? Is he working for Denby? Is he just naive? As the movie plays out, it becomes clear that Denby is exactly the elusive crime boss Driscoll thinks he is. But we never see Elliot admit he was wrong (though he does seem a bit less grouchy in a later scene — maybe by then he’s seen the light).
\nThen there are the shots of Abby in the lab, watching some sort of super duper camera feed (it can pan and change angles and do closeups). Apparently the makers felt the need to include Abby, but why? (Note: A commenter had a plausible explanation for this.)
\n\u2022 On a related subject, you’re not seeing things: two different actors appear as Driscoll: Richard Dysart portrayed Driscoll in the pilot (and is seen briefly in the flashback sequence, which was taken from the pilot), while William Sylvester played Driscoll in the series.
\n\u2022 Then current reference: Kelly Flynn<\/a>.
\n\u2022 Callback: “Look, a couple of VAAAAAANS!” (“Giant Spider Invasion”)
\n\u2022 Cast and crew roundup: “Village of the Giants” also gives H.G. Wells an amusing story credit. Costumer Charles Waldo also worked on “San Francisco International.” In front of the camera, Ben Murphy was also in “Being from Another Planet.” William Sylvester was also in “Gorgo.” Ed Nelson was also in “Superdome,” “Teenage Caveman,” “Swamp Diamonds” and “Night of the Blood Beast,” plus he did costumes for “Attack of the Giant Leeches.” Austin Stoker was also in “Being from Another Planet.”
\n\u2022 CreditsWatch: Produced and directed by Kevin. Brad, who has been listed as “Editor” on and off since season five, is listed as “Editor” for the first time this season, a credit that will continue until the end of the series. Bob Seabold begins a two-episode stint as grip. Intern Joseph Olson begins a four-episode stint; intern Meshach Weber begins a six-episode stint. The music for “The Funky Seventies” and “The Fifties” was written by Michael J. Nelson, with lyrics by Bill Corbett.
\n\u2022 Fave line: \u201cDear, sweet, homicidal Murray.\u201d Honorable mention: “Okay, now, who wants their butts kicked first?”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\n

Movie: (1976) Two stitched-together episodes of the TV series “Gemini Man,” about a hero who gains the power of invisibility.<\/p>\n

First shown: 7\/19\/97 Opening: Mike, who was once a teppanyaki chef, has a relapse Intro: Pearl and company are under fire! She begs Mike for air support … and she gets it, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-episode-guide","odd"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mst3kinfo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mst3kinfo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mst3kinfo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mst3kinfo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mst3kinfo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4244"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.mst3kinfo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24811,"href":"https:\/\/www.mst3kinfo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4244\/revisions\/24811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mst3kinfo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mst3kinfo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mst3kinfo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}