MST3K: Episode 515

I'm watching all of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes in order. More about that here and here.

Episode 515: The Wild Wild World of Batwoman

First aired: Comedy Central on 13 November 1993
Availability: iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, Amazon DVD (Rhino/out of print), Amazon DVD (Shout version), Rhino (Solo DVD/out of print), Shout (Solo DVD), Best Brains

What's in a name?

There are bad movies, and then there are bad movies.

Not just bad. Wicked bad.

And not just wicked bad, but evil.

Movies that should be punished, they are so bad.

Movies that don't you wonder if they mean to be that bad, but then realize that it doesn't matter if they meant to or not, they are really, really bad.

Remember in Monty Python and the Holy Grail where Dingy refers to Zoot as "wicked bad naughty evil Zoot?" Sure you do.

[Direct link]

This movie is like that. Wicked bad naughty evil movie. But without the redeeming values of someone who would sidetrack a search for the Holy Grail.

Frank's atomic-powered hair dryer has unintended consequences.

Yes, it's that bad.

Even the title is bad, as in wicked bad naughty evil.

It's an obvious ripoff of Batman, because the TV show was so popular when this came out. DC Comics sued the company that made this movie because of the title, but lost.

You can't find this actual movie today, unless it's the MST3K version. If you look hard, you can find Wild World of Bat Woman on VHS but ... why?

The only reason to own this original movie would be if it came with the MST3K version. It doesn't, and that is probably for the best.

Batwoman and the others dance. Soup will do that to you!

What's it all about?

A scientist has developed an atomic-powered hearing aid that the government rejected but told the Ayjax Company to destroy, but the evil Rat Fink wants to steal it, so he makes people go dance crazy with soup, while battling Batwoman and her Batgirls with henchmen and scenes taken from other movies, but Batwoman survives and unmasks Rat Fink who is the guy that made the atomic-powered hearing aid to begin with, so everything turns out well in the end because the movie ends. The end.

The movie tries to be funny. It isn't. It's just plain bad. I can't tell you how bad this movie is. Well, yeah, I can. It's bad. Remember the worst movie you ever saw? Maybe it was this one. If not, it's probably because you haven't seen this one.

Don't cheat.

Okay, maybe that's harsh. There could be worse movies than this one, but I don't want to think about that possibility. Because I have to think about this movie, and that's enough bad to think about at one time. It's dangerous to think about two movies this bad at the same time.

The only way to survive that scenario would be by cheating. Like mentioning another movie as bad without really thinking about that movie. And cheating is wrong.

If you didn't know cheating was wrong, then you also missed the short film that Dr. Forrester sent to Mike. It's about cheating. So much so, it's called Cheating.

It, too, has little redeeming value. Well, it does say that cheating is bad, which is true. So there's that. But just how they went about it... Well, let's say it's not as poorly made as The Wild Wild World of Batwoman.

It does inspire a series of Host Segments about Crow getting caught cheating. Makes the same point as the short, but in such a more enjoyable way. So, don't cheat. Cheating is bad. Richard Basehart is good.

Despite the bad, bad movie, it's a good episode. The riffing is top-notch, and the Host Segments based on the short are hilarious. Another winner.

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MST3K: Episode 514

I'm watching all of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes in order. More about that here and here.

Episode 514: Teen-Age Strangler

First aired: Comedy Central on 7 November 1993
Availability: Amazon (Volume 10/out of print), Amazon (Volume 10.2/out of print), Rhino (Volume 10/out of print), Rhino (Volume 10.2/out of print), Best Brains (Volume 10.2), MST3KVideos.com Fan Copy

"So is it a teenager who strangles, or someone who strangles teenagers?"

Now that the whole "Mike is the new guy" is behind us -- the theme that ran through Episode 513: The Brain That Wouldn't Die -- we get a regular episode. Of course, Mike is still trying to escape -- he calls his grandmother in the Prologue -- which shows a major difference between him and Joel, but they're not making quite as big a deal about Mike being new.

Mike also gets his first short film, Is This Love?, and it's loads of fun. It has the Romulan-looking roommate who looks more like the parents of a college student than a college student -- one source puts the actress as being 37 -- and lots of hilarious riffing.

Romulans need love, too.

It's a cautionary tale, warning of the dangers of rushing into marriage. It actually makes some good points, but the casting is all goofy, what with the actors that are way too old for their parts. But, like I said, M&tB get in some good riffs.

The movie? It's a fun one. Well, there is the whole plot of teenagers getting strangled and such, but other than that...

Someone is strangling teenagers when they're not dancing on the counters in the local diner, and a witness points to a gang that Jimmy belongs to, and the police suspect Jimmy, who keeps not having alibis because he's always off with his girlfriend, but won't tell anyone because he doesn't want to get his girlfriend in trouble, because her parents don't like her hanging around with Jimmy, but it turns out that the school janitor is killing all the teenagers because he used to be a teacher or something, but gets caught so it all ends well, except for the dead people. The end.

The show does make a change beginning with this episode. The bumpers contain scenes from Dr. Forrester's notes on the experiment in Deep 13. There are calendar entries, notes on test tubes, all kinds of things.

One of the new bumpers.

"This must be the start of the counter culture."

When the show began, the bumpers were simply the "spaghetti ball" logo. Later, various scenes from outside Gizmonic Institute were added to the mix. But, with Joel's departure, all references to Gizmonic Institute were removed (Joel wanted it that way), and that meant new bumpers.

The show hasn't missed a beat following Joel's departure. Not to say I don't miss him, but Mike was a good choice to replace him.

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MST3K: Episode 513 - The Brain That Wouldn't Die

I'm watching all of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes in order. More about that here and here.

Episode 513: The Brain That Wouldn't Die

First aired: Comedy Central on 30 October 1993
Availability: Amazon DVD, Rhino (Solo DVD/out of print), MST3KVideos.com Fan Copy

It's really about a head, not a brain, so the movie is wrong from the start.

It's Mike's first experiment. And this episode made a smooth transition from Joel to Mike.

I've seen The Brain That Wouldn't Die before. It's not a good movie. Which, of course, if why it's featured on MST3K.

What's it about, you ask?

Go ahead and ask. I'll wait.

I'm glad you asked.

Dr. Creepy recovers Jan's head.

Dr. Creepy (or whatever his name is) is an egotistical doctor who is conducting experiments on people, including on dead people, and while assisting his father, who's also a doctor, after the patient in the operating room dies, brings the dead guy back to life, but Dad warns him to be careful, since it's obviously better to let people die than to find a way to let them live, even if they want to live, but Dr. Creepy ignores him because when he's heading to the old country estate with his girlfriend Jan, who used to be Robert Wagner's girlfriend and intended victim in A Kiss Before Dying, he wrecks his car and she loses her head, literally, but Dr. Creepy picks it up and runs to the country estate and puts it in a pan to keep it alive, then spends the rest of the movie trying to find a woman with a body to give to Jan, which, surprisingly, is harder than it sounds, but Jan has been a busy little head, learning to communicate with the Thing In The Closet, who breaks out and burns the lab down killing everybody but the girl with the body, which Jan thinks is really funny. The end.

Stripper fight!

While it's not a good movie, it's not a jab-icepicks-in-your-eyes bad movie. It's one of those bad but watchable movies. Not one of my favorites, by any means, but one of those that you watch anyway.

It's got the over-used head kept alive in a jar plot, like in They Saved Hitler's Brain. It's got some sleazy stripper bar scenes. It's got a hero that's looking to lop off a woman's head to put it on -- or under, actually -- his girlfriend's body.

But then it's got some parts that aren't so good.

Mike & the Bots didn't like the movie. That's understandable. M&tB aren't supposed to. They do have some fun with it, though.

The movie makes a mistake by getting it right at the end.

Of course, you gotta remember, Mike Nelson was a writer with the show from when it went national, 4½ years earlier, and had been Head Writer for 3½ years. Sure, when Joel left, MST3K lost it's originator, but Mike Nelson had led the writing for a while.

The episode has an Invention Exchange, with Mike offering the Gutter-Bumber-Shoot, an umbrella with a gutter. The Mads came up with a way to pop balloons. Yawn.

They did a little character development with Mike. While Joel pretty much accepted his fate, Mike actively sought to escape. They also had a Host Segment that ended with the Bots making fun of Mike.

Mary Jo Pehl makes her first appearance as Jan in the Pan at the end of the episode. With Mike now having a regular role, he won't be making as many guest-starring roles -- although he will make a few -- so Mary Jo steps into that position.

Virginia Leith as Jan, in the pan.

Mary Jo Pehl as Jan in the Pan.

A fun episode with a bad but watchable movie. Oh, and it showed that MST3K could go on without Joel.

Now, keep in mind that I haven't seen all the episodes of the show. I have seen all the ones up to this one (except for the KTMA "lost" episodes), and I've seen most of the Mike episodes (and will watch them again). However, having watched all the Joel episodes, I'm used to him as host. Mike is going to take some getting used to.

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MST3K: Changing of the guard

I'm watching all of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes in order. More about that here and here.

Mike Nelson's first on-camera appearance, back in Episode 201: Rocketship X-M

Last episode I watched was Episode 512: Mitchell. That episode wasn't so much about the movie as it was about writing Joel Hodgson's character, Joel Robinson, out of the show and writing Mike Nelson's character, Mike Nelson, into the show.

They had Gypsy and Mike helping Joel escape, then Dr. Forrester deciding to send Mike up in Joel's place.

Before we get to Mike's first episode, I thought I'd sit back and look at how this impacts me.

Why does it have to be about me? Well, this is Basil's Blog, and I'm Basil, so there you go.

Before I started this project, I had seen a few Joel episodes. More than I realized, in fact.

The first season of MST3K, it was a local show on KTMA (now WUCW) in Minneapolis. It's not referred to as Season One, though. It's Season Zero. Or The KTMA Season.

Season One is the first nationally-available season. It aired on The Comedy Channel (which eventually merged with another channel and became Comedy Central).

I didn't get The Comedy Channel, so I never saw any of the episodes of Season One or Season Two when they originally aired. I did see some reruns when they aired on Comedy Central, though. In particular, I remember the "Thank You!" catchphrase that Dr. Forrester and Dr. Erhardt used, and that would have to have been a rerun.

I remember some of the episodes from Seasons Three, Four, and Five, particularly Episode 411: The Magic Sword, which is the first episode I recall watching, although I may have seen an earlier episode.

No more Joel...

... but lots more Mike.

But, until this project, I had seen only a few Joel episodes. When I started watching regularly, Mike was already in the experiment. And, when I began making serious effort to watch the show, they had moved to the Sci-Fi Channel (now SyFy). So I was actually more familiar with Pearl, Brain Guy, Bobo, and Mike, as well as Bill Corbett's Crow, before I started this project.

But now, I've seen all the Joel episodes. All the ones that are available, at least. I've seen:

• The 17 available episodes from the KTMA Season in which Joel appears. Of the 21 KTMA episodes, three episodes aren't available, and Joel doesn't appear in Episode K17: Time of the Apes (though I have seen that episode).
• The 13 episodes from Season One.
• The 13 episodes from Season Two.
• All 24 episodes from Season Three.
• All 24 episodes from Season Four.
• The first 12 episodes from Season Five.

Doing the math, that's ... a lot of episodes. Joel appeared in 106 episodes, and I've seen all 103 that are available. Mike will appear in 90 as Mike; he appeared on-camera 23 times as other characters during Joel's tenure.

The new show opening opens.

What this meant for fans at the time (October 1993) is that Mike wasn't completely unfamiliar. But, it also began the Joel vs. Mike debate.

What it now means for me, though?

Before I started this project, I was in the Mike camp of Joel vs. Mike, because of my familiarity with Mike and my unfamiliarity with Joel.

Now, though, I'm familiar with Joel. I havent' forgotten about Mike as host, I just haven't thought about it in a while. I've seen the shows as fans saw it back in the late 80s and early 90s. It's Joel's show. It may take some time before I get used to Mike.

But, there are other changes, too.

First, remember the whole Gizmonic Institute? It's in the lyrics: "He worked at Gizmonic Institute, just another face in a red jumpsuit..." That's gone. The "G" gear symbol? Just a gear now. You can see that for the first time in the background during the show opening. When Cambot is shown, you can see the difference. Look at Season One Cambot vs Season Five ½ Cambot.

Cambot from KTMA.

Cambot from Season One.

Cambot, beginning Season Two.

Cambot beginning Season Five ½.

In fact, Cambot changes, too. He was a robot who ran the camera in the KTMA Season. He became a camera and robot in one in Season One, looking a lot like the original Gypsy/Gypsum. In Season Two, he changed again, looking more like a camera, but with a long, Gypsy-like body. Now, in the middle of Season Five, he's a floating camera.

Why all the changes? Well, since we never saw Cambot except during the show's opening -- he's running the camera, remember? -- they didn't keep the puppet around after they filmed the credits.

They changed the credits when they went national, of course, and used parts from the KTMA Gypsy to make Cambot. In Season Two, when J. Elvis (nee Josh) Weinstein left and Frank Conniff joined the crew, they filmed a new opening, and made a new Cambot. And, in the middle of Season Five, Joel's departure meant new credits ... and they made a new Cambot.

The big change, though, is Mike sitting in the center seat instead of Joel.

Now that I'm used to Joel, let's see how I like Mike now.

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MST3K: Episode 512 - Mitchell

I'm watching all of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes in order. More about that here and here.

Episode 512: Mitchell

First aired: Comedy Central on 23 October 1993
Availability: Amazon DVD, Rhino (Solo DVD/out of print), MST3KVideos.com Fan Copy

Joel's last film on MST3K.

This is the turning point of MST3K. Not saying it gets better or worse, it's just that this is a big, big change with this episode.

Remember when Dr. Erhardt went "missing" (J. Elvis nee Josh Weinstein left the show) and Frank replaced him? This is bigger.

Remember when Tom Servo's voice changed (also because of Weinstein's departure) and Kevin Murphy took over? This is bigger.

What could be bigger than one of the original stars leaving? One of the original stars, who also created the show, leaving.

Merlin Olson watches Joe Don Baker and Martin Balsam eat.

Joel escapes and Mike is chosen to replace him in the experiment. I'll have a lot more thoughts on that soon, but for now, we'll focus on the specifics of this episode and ... the movie.

It's Mitchell. Cop. Slob. Ladies' Man.

Okay, not so sure about the ladies' man part, but he's definitely the first two.

Joe Don Baker is Mitchell, a mostly-honest cop who finds something suspicious about the death of a burglar at union lawyer John Saxon's house, but the Police Chief tells Mitchell to back off, since the FBI is after the lawyer already, and puts Mitchell on a stake-out of mobster Martin Balsam, which means the two plots will eventually meet when John Saxon sends hooker Linda Evans to Joe Don Mitchell's house, so Mitchell screws her by screwing her, then screws her by arresting her for possession of drugs, and then somewhere along the way, John Saxon gets killed off, but that gets edited out so we can watch Joe Don and Linda Evans get it on, which means we get screwed, too, but then Martin Balsam invites Joe Don Mitchell to intercept some drugs coming in that he doesn't want coming in -- he'll be a front man for lots of stuff, but not for drugs -- but double-crosses Mitchell along the way, but then Mitchell figures it out and blows up the drug car and chases Martin Balsam's boat with a helicopter before impaling Merlin Olson with a gaff and shooting Martin Balsam, then going home and finding Linda Evans in his bed, arresting her again. The end.

It's audit time, so "they hired a temp by the name of Mike..."

How could you not love a movie like that?

But then, this episode isn't about the movie. As winding as the plot of Mitchell is, the writers of MST3K had to come up with a plot to write out Joel and introduce Mike.

The plot running through the Invention Exchange and Host Segments involves the Mads getting audited by the League of Calamitous Intent (or somebody), so they hire a temp by the name of Mike to help get things organized.

Being evil and mad and such, they plan to kill Mike when the work is done. In a scene reminiscent of 2001, Gypsy overhears the conversation. She missed out on the fact that the Mads are talking about Mike. She thinks the Mads are planning to kill Joel.

Gypsy thinks Dr. Forrester and TV's Frank are going to kill Joel.

They aren't planning to kill Joel. They're planning to kill Mike.

With Mike's help, and with Frank's unwitting help, Gypsy manages to rig up the escape pod -- yes, the Satellite of Love had an escape pod the whole time, in a box marked "Hamdingers" -- and send Joel to earth at the end of the movie.

Dr. Forrester finds a replacement for Joel in the experiment.

Mike Nelson plays Mike Nelson, the newest character on the show.

Dr. Forrester rescues the experiment by planning to send Mike into orbit to replace Joel on the Satellite and in the experiment.

The last we see of Joel. For a while, anyway.

In reality, Joel Hodgson wasn't having fun on the show any more.

The crew was planning Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie, and he and Jim Mallon were having disagreements about that and other stuff. Rather than stick around and be miserable, Joel left.

The story was that Joel left to pursue other things, but the reality was, he stepped away from the show to save the show:

"I felt like it would split the company and ruin the show," says Hodgson, "It felt like 'Mommy and Daddy are fighting but we don't want the kids to know. "My leaving was kind of like a personal tragedy," he said over hot dogs at Woofie's, "but I felt like if I stayed and fought for creative control of the movie, it would wreck the show. So I walked away instead of letting King Solomon cut the baby in two."

Prior to this project of watching all of the episodes, I had seen mostly Mike-hosted episodes. But now, I've seen all the Joel episodes. More about that later.

For now, they've written Joel out of the show, and are replacing him with Head Writer Michael J. Nelson, starring as Mike Nelson.

I wonder how Mike Nelson will adapt to space. I can imagine it now: "Soon my lungs were aching for air."

It's not going to be the same. But it will be very familiar.

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MST3K: Episode 511 - Gunslinger

I'm watching all of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes in order. More about that here and here.

Episode 511: Gunslinger

First aired: Comedy Central on 9 October 1993
Availability: iTunes, Amazon (Solo DVD), Amazon (Volume 6), Rhino (Volume 6/out of print), Shout (Solo DVD), Best Brains

It's "Gunslinger," not "The Gunslinger."

Roger Corman. Those two words should bring fear to all who hear them.

Yeah, I know. He's supposed to be some great filmmaker, but I don't buy it.

Sure, he makes movies under budget, but he doesn't make good movies under budget. He had seven films that he either directed or produced that were selected by the MST3K crew. So, yeah, he makes movies. Bad movies.

Maybe not Ed Wood bad, but certainly not Orson Welles good.

Death at a funeral.

This is one that I didn't see until I bought the DVD. The multi-pack it came in, Volume 6, is no longer available from Rhino, but this episode has been re-released as a Solo DVD by Shout. The other episodes on Volume 6 are available electronically, from iTunes and Amazon Instant Video, so I suspect it's not a rights issue with the movies so much as an expiration of Rhino's contract with MST3K that caused Volume 6 to go out of print. They simply sold all they made and can't make any more.

As a result of the re-issue, I had to get this one multiple times in order to have a full library. I have both the Volume 6 multi-pack and the Solo DVD, plus the iTunes. Oh, and both VHS releases: the solo, plus the 3-pack that contained it. Oh! but what it takes to have a collection!

Joel blows up Tom Servo's head.

Dr. Forrester blows up Frank's head.

On the VHS release, the movie was called "The Gunslinger" on the box. But, the movie's title is actually "Gunslinger," and the DVD reflects that.

Back to the movie. The bad movie. The wicked bad naughty movie.

Dance hall girls.

Beverly Garland is married to town marshal William Schallert who gets shot dead in front of her before the movie gets started good, then, at his funeral, kills one of the killers and puts on his star so she can get the rest of his killers and whoever hired them. Turns out the town's Miss Kitty and future 50-Foot Woman, Allison Hayes, was behind the whole thing so she could get a lot of money by selling to the railroad if it came through town instead of Rock Ridge or something, and, as insurance, hires John Ireland, to come to town to kill Beverly Garland, but he falls in love with her, so he kills Allison Hayes instead, but Beverly Garland kills John Ireland anyway, and lives happily ever after. Or something. The end.

Couple of sub-plots.

• The wormy bartender loves 50-Foot Woman, but she's all hot for John Ireland, who won't turn town an offer from a skirt.
• John Ireland was in the War with the town mayor and blames him for the loss at the Battle of Lookout Mountain, partly because he got the details all wrong. It was important battle in that it did help turn the tide of the war by opening up supply lines for Federal troops.
• Beverly Garland keeps throwing the same town drunk in jail, sort of like what Andy did to Otis. I think that's the comedy relief, but it's hard to tell.

Naturally, there are a couple of cat-fights, since it's a Roger Corman movie.

It wouldn't be a Roger Corman film without a catfight...

... or two. Beverly Garland's town marshal isn't afraid of a scrap.

The movie, while not ice-picks-in-the-eyeballs bad, it's still bad, but the episode is enjoyable because the riffing is good.

The host segments are good, too. Joel played "Kaboom" with Tom Servo serving as the balloon. His head, anyway. The Bots play Pony Express, then discuss what it's like to be dead. Oh, and Joel discusses the 1970s.

Fun episode.

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