{"id":692,"date":"2016-04-07T08:30:18","date_gmt":"2016-04-07T12:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mst3kinfo.com\/?p=692"},"modified":"2015-11-20T20:06:34","modified_gmt":"2015-11-21T01:06:34","slug":"episode-guide-502-hercules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mst3kinfo.com\/?p=692","title":{"rendered":"Episode guide: 502- Hercules"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Movie:<\/strong> (1957) Hercules helps Jason, the true king, wrest the throne away from pretender Pelias and his son Iphitus, while wooing the lovely Iole. <\/p>\n

First shown:<\/strong> 7\/17\/93
\nOpening:<\/strong> J&tB “wing it” with the intro
\nInvention exchange:<\/strong> The Mads demonstrate the cellular desk, J&tB demonstrate Instant Karma
\nHost segment 1:<\/strong> Tom has updated the constellations for the ’90s; Crow disapproves
\nHost segment 2:<\/strong> Crow and Tom want to know about Hamilton Joe Frank and Reynolds
\nHost segment 3:<\/strong> Crow valiantly performs a solo version if the ‘Match Game’
\nEnd:<\/strong> The bots discuss Amazons, then some visit on the Hexfield; Frank is now at the desk
\nStinger:<\/strong> “It’s like something out of a bad dream!”
\n

\u2022 Pardon if it seems like I\u2019m channeling Leonard Maltin, but I\u2019d give this one two-and-a-half stars. The host segments are fair at best, and the movie is so cut up that it\u2019s almost impossible to follow. It has its moments, but the episode is a bit frustrating.
\n\u2022 This episode was included in Shout!Factory\u2019s \u201cMystery Science Theater 3000: Vol. XXXII.\u201d
\n\u2022 References<\/a>.
\n\u2022 It\u2019s clear that the Brains chose to make most of their cuts at the commercial breaks, but the result is that half the time the characters are in the midst of one plot development before the commercial, and by the time we get back they\u2019re somewhere else entirely. Important plot information was apparently cut as well. Why does the floor make a sound when Jason crosses it? We\u2019re never told, but it seems an important point to everyone in the movie. How does Herc go from retrieving a discus to fighting a lion? No idea. How do Herc and his pals escape the Amazons? One minute they\u2019re being fed sleeping potions and watching dancers, after the commercial break they\u2019re back on the ship. You almost have to treat each of the eight movie segments separately. The riffing is good, and they have plenty of weird stuff to work with, but I\u2019m afraid this episode is less than the sum of its parts.
\n\u2022 This was a widescreen movie, but in this print we see about half of the screen at any moment. It’s not even pan-and-scan. It just sits in the same spot no matter what’s happening on the screen.
\n\u2022 Callbacks: “Where is the sampo??!” (Day the Earth Froze) “Hey, its’ Commando Cody!”
\n\u2022 As noted in the previous writeup, despite being episode 502, this was the first episode shown in season 5. In the previous writeup, I offered a guess as to why.
\n\u2022 During the invention exchange, the third \u201cinstant karma\u201d bag leaks. They keep going.
\n\u2022 Many of the riffs in this episode were used in that MST3K program for Windows 3.1 somebody created. For those who weren\u2019t computing then, it put shadowrama at the bottom of your screen and played one of only about 15 quick sound bites every so often. It got very old very fast and, worse, it turned out to be a very invasive program that was hard to remove. Anybody remember that?
\n\u2022 The first host segment is clever but creating modern constellations that make about as much sense as the old ones do is really not an original idea. That said, they put a great spin on it.
\n\u2022 Arcane reference: something is said to resemble a Jim Dine<\/a> sculpture.
\n\u2022 Tom Servo channels every naughty third-grader with: “Claude Balls, ladies and gentlemen…”
\n\u2022 Note the completely unremarked-upon box of Capt\u2019n Ron cereal sitting on the desk in the second segment.
\n\u2022 If you\u2019re wondering, they were a trio, Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds, composed of Dan Hamilton, Joe Frank Carollo and Tommy Reynolds.
\n\u2022 One I don\u2019t get: When the Amazons surround our heroes and raise their arrows, Crow says, in a very stilted voice, “even the archers are beautiful!” What the heck?
\n\u2022 The Match Game bit, while funny, is another one of those “huh?” sketches.
\n\u2022 One of the cleverest bits comes right at the end, as they sit through the closing credits and Tom explains what happened to the characters after the story. Pretty funny stuff, but why do they sit through the credits when large chunks of the film were excised?
\n\u2022 Mary Jo makes her first physical appearance on the show, and Bridget makes her first appearance since season three, as the Minnesota amazons.
\n\u2022 Cast and crew roundup: Many of the same people also worked on the sequel “Hercules Unchained,” including American executive producer Joseph E. Levine (who also brought you “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians”), director Mario Bava (who also directed “Diabolik”), director\/screenwriter Pietro Francisci, screenwriters Ennio De Concini and Gaio Frattini, editor Mario Serandrei and score composer Enzo Masetti. Executive assistant Massimo DeRita also worked on “Puma Man” and art director\/set designer Flavio Mogherini was the art director on “Diabolik.”
\nSimilarly in front of the camera, Steve Reeves, Sylva Koscina, Fabrizio Mioni, Mimmo Palmara (who also appears in “Hercules and the Captive Women), Gabriele Antonini, Andrea Fantasia, Aldo Fiorelli, Gino Mattera, Willy Colombini, Fulvio Carrara and Aldo Pini were all in “Hercules Unchained.” In addition, Ivo Garrani was also in Hercules and the Captive Women and Luciana Paoluzzi was also in “The Green Slime.”
\n\u2022 Creditswatch: Host segments directed by Kevin Murphy. Hair and makeup by Clayton James (one of only two times this season).
\n\u2022 Fave riff: “Stay away from their powerful hind legs!” Honorable mention: “It’s the Andrea Dworkin memorial cemetery!” “Do you have a reservation for Hercules? It might be under Heracles\u2026”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\n

Movie: (1957) Hercules helps Jason, the true king, wrest the throne away from pretender Pelias and his son Iphitus, while wooing the lovely Iole. <\/p>\n

First shown: 7\/17\/93 Opening: J&tB “wing it” with the intro Invention exchange: The Mads demonstrate the cellular desk, J&tB demonstrate Instant Karma Host segment 1: Tom has […]<\/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-692","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\/692","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=692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mst3kinfo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mst3kinfo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mst3kinfo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mst3kinfo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}