MST3K: Episode K08 - Gamera vs Guiron

I'm watching all the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes. Background on this little adventure can be found here and here.

Episode K08: Gamera vs Guiron

First aired: KTMA on 8 January 1989
Availability: MST3KVideos.com

Guiron: the monster villain.

At the end of the previous episode, they said they'd have another Gamera movie on the next show. They've RETCONned the storyline to have the Mad Scientists suddenly discover "one more" Gamera movie. But, as fans, we have to ask, is that proper for them to do that? Well, it's just a show, we should really just relax.

The voices of the Mads are a little more relaxes from the last episode. The show is settling down and refining the format, and it's more like what we remember.

The quality of the recording I have isn't great, but it's not a series of dubs. Considering the original source (remember, these are over-the-air VCR recorings from 1989) it's not too bad.

Joel's character is still "Joel Hodgson." Early in this film, Crow makes mention of "the Robinson family," because of a special effect's similarity to the Jupiter 2 from Lost In Space. I'll be making the effort to notice when Joel adopts the last name "Robinson" for his character.

We're having Beef-A-Roni!

I laughed out loud at the "We're having Beef-A-Roni" song. The really poor dubbing of voices is almost laugh-out-loud-worthy. All the references I've seen say that the KTMA season (Season Zero) was ad-libbed. I don't doubt them when they say that, but that song sure seemed like they had written the lyrics ahead of time. On the other hand, they did step on each other's lines a few times, which does support the whole "ad-libbed" thing.

Speaking of laugh-out-loud funny, Joel really cracked up when Crow said, "Well, you gotta shave 'em."

Once again, hot Japanese she-villains.

Again, the human-like villain is a hot Japanese babe. Two of them, actually. But *SPOILER ALERT* one is more villainous than the other.

They mentioned "without war or traffic accidents" more than once during the film. I wonder if the screenwriter has a thing against traffic accidents.

The political leanings of Joel, et al, are revealed with the Dan Quayle joke. Remember, this episode aired 12 days before Quayle was sworn in as Vice-President.

Though Joel has already gone through three non-Gamera movies, I haven't -- at least not during the KTMA season. I'll find out what that's like during the next episode. At least, it won't be some silly animal monster. I hope.

I won't miss the silly turtle. But, the hot Japanese she-villains? Those I'll miss.

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