Short: (1952) A family appreciates the modern household appliances electricity makes possible.
Movie: (1956) A neglected socialite leads an all-girl gang on a violent crime spree.
First shown: 10/8/94
Opening: Tom Servo has a new head!
Intro: The Mads unveil their theme music, “Living in Deep 13,” and demand themes from M&tB. Tom is ready
Host segment 1: Now, the Mads are promoting a radio station called Frank
Host segment 2: Tom reenacts a tearful scene from “A Star is Born”
Host segment 3: A rehearsal for Crow’s one man show about Keanu Reeves starring Mike!
End: Mike and Crow reenact the gas station hold-up scene from the movie, they read a letter, the Mads are still turning their cranks to Frank!
Stinger: “So what?”
(212 votes, average: 4.49 out of 5)
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• I said in a previous thread that I consider this my “desert island” episode. I know, it may seem like a weird choice, but for me this episode has it all: (mostly) great host segments, classic short and great riffing of a movie (reportedly) written by Ed Wood. It all works.
• This episode is included in Shout! Factory’s “Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection: Vol XXII.”
• References .
• Crow’s reaction to Servo’s new head is just one riotous moment of the brilliant opening bit. This is one of my all-time favorite openings.
• That brilliance is followed by the theme song intro. Frank and Trace are wonderful in Deep 13, Kevin is hilarious and then Trace caps it all off with two more great theme songs. Another classic.
• Tom’s theme song, for those not musically inclined, is set to the famous music of “Carmina Burana.”
• The short continues the fun. The first time I saw this, it took me a little while for me to figure out what the hell its point was. Eventually it’s becomes clear, but it takes its sweet time!
• The short was edited. It was even longer! You can see the full thing at archive.org.
• The term “squishy” immediately entered the MSTie lexicon.
• At one point in the short, Tom predicts the girl will say “oh dear” and then she does, to which he boastfully declares, “Did I call that?” They don’t do that too often and I’m glad, because it feels a little like cheating.
• Coming into the first segment, Tom is teaching mike to singing the “hum-didda-hee-hee” song, made famous in episode 421- Monster A-Go-Go.
• Amazingly there are still several radio stations called Frank. The bit is a local Minneapolis reference to a then-newly introduced country station called “Bob” that had the catchphrase “turn your knob to Bob.” That station was one of the first to have a person’s name. The gimmick has spread throughout the industry since then.
• Non-spaghetti-ball bumpers: datebook, beaker, bulletin board.
• Despite all the talk that Ed Wood wrote this screenplay, his name does not appear in the credits. Apparently the fact that he wrote it is mentioned in his various biographies. One commenter speculated that it may have been a union issue (no director is credited either).
• The “rape” scene was also an immediate sensation on MSTie internet forums. As noted in the ACEG, don’t get your hopes up, guys. This has never, ever happened.
• Segment 2 is really the only clunker in the episode. I remember when it first aired, people were baffled by it. What a parody of a scene from the Barbra Streisand version of “A Star is Born” has to do with this movie is beyond me. Kevin really gives it his all, though, you gotta admit that.
• Callbacks: “He’ll never touch you, Terry. You’re dirt.” (Teenage Crimewave) ”We shot that fat barkeep!” (The Beatniks)
• Stupidest line of dialog (which, even if he didn’t write it, sure sounds like Ed Wood’s writing): “What in the world is a pajama party?”
• Back to brilliance with the end segment. It just gets funnier the longer it goes on.
• Yes, the list of people Frank rattles off at the end is in Ward E.
• Cast and Crew Roundup: Producer Roy Reid also worked on “The Sinister Urge. Cinematographer William C. Thompson also worked on “Bride of the Monster,” “The Sinister Urge,” “Project Moon Base” and “Racket Girls.” Score composer Manuel Francisco a.k.a. Mischa Terr also worked on “The Sinister Urge,” “King Dinosaur,” “The Unearthly” and “Bloodlust!” In front of the camera I. Stanford Jolley was also in “The Rebel Set.” Timothy Farrell was also in “Racket Girls.” Harry Keatan was also in “The Sinister Urge.”
• CreditsWatch: Host segments directed by Trace Beaulieu. This is the final episode with one Charles A. Zimmerman listed as an editor. He started about three quarters through season five. Crist Ballas is back doing hair and makeup. On “Forrester’s Theme Song” (which the rest of the world calls “Livin’ in Deep 13): Music by Michael J. Nelson; Lyrics by “Best Brains.” So I guess that makes them a collaborative effort.
• Fave riff from the short: “Double bag it, son!” Honorable mention: “I’m squishy and I need to move on it!”
• Fave riff from the movie: “Thousands of men flock to crime scene!” Honorable mention: “Rabbits…with…big…guns…and…good…aim…”
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Is it wrong of me to think that Tom’s screams as Mike rips off his new head are really, really funny?
And I still think that Tom’s Streisand is also really funny.
Daughter: Mom…
Tom: …is space curved?
No matter how many times I watch this episode, I laugh at that. It’s so bizarre and brilliant. Oh, and this is also easily a desert island ep for me, too.
Huh. While sources seem to agree that the screenplay for this is Ed Wood’s work, there don’t seem to be ANY onscreen credits for a writer or writers. Even in 1956, the Writers Guild would’ve plotzed. I guess these terrible little exploitation films could get in under the radar (no thanks to RADAR!)
Flogging a dead horse, but during the credits, I still think that Frank should’ve ended his country run with a meek “Winona?”, given the fact that she was his third or fourth mention during the original radio run.
Also… when you look at the movie, you know patients are doomed when they got that bald doctor. In one scene, he talks about how the patient is all but paralyzed, but when another doctor arrives, the condition drastically improves. Maybe if she got somebody other than him, the main female character would’ve survived childbirth. But that’s me.
#103: are you suggesting someone wrote this movie?
Now having seen this episode thanks to Shout!, the short immediately jumped into the top 5 or 3 of all time great shorts. I nearly cried when I heard the “Wow, the bacon truck is here” line for the first time. Other great lines:
Would you just get in the door?
You can hardly see where you bit me (a friend I watched this with just about died at this line).
AND IT’S QUIET TOO!
Why I’m baking my panties, but that IS what mom suggested.
Yeah, that’s a bowl, you know?
As you can see, I am beyond squishy about the short.
Ed Wood…everything he touched on MST3K turned to gold. When we get a MST3K Hall Of Fame going he is getting my vote.:yes:
So, “squishy”. Okay, don’t look so shocked everyone, it might not really be a naughty word–I guess?
The ending of “The Violent Years” really is dead boring. I think, rather than dying to make a point, Paula died of boredom. I love Mike’s potato sketch because of his delivery (check out Mr. Reeves using that exact same voice to play an Englishman in “Dracula”) and the nutty wig. It’s witch-like!
One of the reasons Frank has become one of my fave MST3K characters is the end of this episode. The plaintive listing of names! He sounds increasingly desperate as he goes on. So, yeah, I like this one all right.
It’s been established in all Ed Wood’s biographies… plus, if you look carefully at Johnny Ryde’s office in “The Sinister Urge,” you’ll notice “The Violent Years” interspersed among Wood’s other films. I’m not sure why his credit was left off this film, apart from possible union regulations. For that matter, there’s no director listed either.
This educational film taught me how to go from misdemeanor vandalism to capital murder in less than 60 seconds. Good job ladies.
This was the first Mike episode I ever saw, and one of my favorite Mike episodes. The doll face they used for Tom at the beginning is just…. creepy. :O
The riffing to this episode was excellent and the host segments were funny (especially Tom’s re-enactment of “A Star Is Born.”
P.S.
A radio station…. called FRANK????
@109: Oh, good point about the posters in TSU. So Ed made a film condemning “smut” and then made the smut-making character have posters of Ed’s own movies up in his office. Hm.
Promo for this episode: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpQWLjYvwEc
Dr. F and Frank in fine form here. I love how Clay mockingly acts like he really cares about what Frank’s saying.
@ #96: Part of it I think has to do with how aggressively Bob tries to dissuade Judy from seducing Alex, as he almost sounds like a jealous boyfriend. Then again, it can just as easily be perceived as him twitting an annoying little sister.
Ed Wood is an interesting case of contradictions. Ed includes numerous gratuitous scenes of sex and violence. But then appears to rationalize it by including long monotonous scenes with the judge admonishing Paula and the parents. It’s almost like these some kind of personal self-conflict going on in the the script. I see the same thing in The Sinister Urge. Ed Wood talks about how evil “smut” is, but then includes gratuitous scenes of a woman running in her underwear or women posing for a photoshoot (which I assume this was titillating back in the 50s).
I’m with Thanos6 on this whole thing. I’m definitely not the kind of guy to call the censors every time I get offended, but I’ve been raised to see rape “jokes” as just plain wrong, and that holds true even when it’s Mike and Bots making them. I’m especially sad to see so many people making the dismissive assumption, even as a joke, that the act of female-on-male rape “doesn’t happen”.
Now I’m not attacking the Brains or defending this movie. I’ve never seen it, and in all likelihood the guys are just as funny as ever, and I’d probably laugh my head off like always. But I sure wouldn’t feel very good about myself afterwards. I think I’ll take an indefinite pass on giving this one a watch, thanks.
@115: And then he went on to do out-and-out porn in the 60s and 70s. I suppose that tells us which side won the conflict.
#36:
Hypocrite? Or subversive?
We have “BOB FM” here in Santa Rosa. And yes, “turn your knob to BOB”, is their catchphrase. Ugh.
For some reason, I always get this one mixed up with “The Sinister Urge”. I actually started watching that one this week before realizing my mistake. Probably because they’re both Ed Wood masterpieces…
Anyway, I really like this episode. The short is all sorts of funny, and the movie is great for about 3/4’s of it before it turns into a moralistic snooze-fest. But the “Penthouse Forum: The Motion Picture” sequence has to be one of the funniest 10 minutes or so in the entire series for me. I could not stop laughing. I know that the act being depicted in the movie is no laughing matter, but the scene carries absolutely no conveyence of dread or horror by the victim for me to get all bent out of shape about it. If it had been acted and directed better to come across as more sinister, then the Brains probably would have cut it like they did in “Sidehackers” As it stands, it plays right into the riffs that Mike and the Bots made: some sort of weird male fantasy of being “taken advantage of” by four young women. And it’s a riot!
The host segments on the other hand…well, a total mixed bag. Servo’s new head was great, as was “Living In Deep 13” and FRANK. The Keanu Reeves and gas station hold-up reenactment were just fine, but far from their best bits. But man, the “A Star Is Born” segment is just the worst! I didn’t know what the reference was when I first saw it, and finding out what it was didn’t make it any better for me. It’s got to be my least favorite segment of the series.
But, having said that, it doesn’t really prevent me from loving this experiment. 4 stars for this one!
With the dearth of ‘delinquent teenager’ films that came out of this time period, I do have to wonder: were there any good ‘delinquent teen’ films that didn’t devolve into ridiculous cliche?
Most of these play out like people telling you the suburbs was safe, and the city was a dangerous war zone from which you and your family would surely die from street crime, unsafe driving, or corrupt politicians.
I’m still convinced that even after that guy was ‘accosted’ by the girl gang, he still was confused about what just happened. Though I did love their jokes (“refuses to file charges! Says thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!”), but definitely felt like the judge showed little to no remorse towards the parents. Then again, didn’t alot of these types of films end with someone delivering a boring monologue to make the audience realize ‘right from wrong?’
Does anybody know what “the REDS” are?
this has driven me crazy for over a decade!
I don’t recall if “Movie character acting like the biggest dick” was a weekend discussion title. But if not, I nominate the brother from the short.
I have watched every episode from seasons 1-10 at least 20 times and
not only is this one of the worst movies, it is, in my opinion,
without a doubt, the WORST episode.
The thunder-squishy short is insipidly awful on all levels, riffs included,
the Streisand freakout is the lamest host segment ever
with the Keanu Reeves segment coming in second,
and to top it off, the riffing is embarrassingly stale throughout.
The only redeeming scene is their reaction to Judge Pedantic, whom, btw
was great as the beatnik poet in ep. 419, The Rebel Set (one of my favorites)
Without par, the lowest low point for the MST3K crew.
I recently used this episode to introduce a friend of mine to MST3K. I knew I was taking a gamble, because the movie is kind of maddeningly stupid at times and the host segments have nothing to do with anything, but luckily, she thought it was all hilarious. Another successful convert! :D
The opening segments are a great example of the Brains’ idea of “just another day at the office”. Tom Servo has a frightening new head, Dr. Forrester demands that everyone write their own theme songs, and Frank loves Kramer. (“Well, you know — OOOHH!”) Trace gives a bravura performance as Crow sings his half-assed theme song. “La la la la la la la……Crow.” I love how Mike isn’t even trying to keep a straight face through the whole thing.
“Young Man’s Fancy” is one of my favorite shorts, despite its mammoth length. It’s just full of stuff for the Brains to tear apart, from Judy’s indecipherable ’50s slang (“Squishy”? “Frantic”? “Real Jonah”? What the hell is she talking about?) to the lipless Alexander Phipps and his love of “anything mechanical”. Some of the best riffing of the season right here. “Um, has anybody noticed that the daughter is psychotic?”
“A radio station…called FRANK?!?” I got so many quotables out of this segment. I literally cannot see Reba McEntire anywhere on TV or a magazine or whatever without saying “More Reba!” Usually adding a stern “Brooks and Dunn!” afterwards.
“Carl Parkins had brown suede shoes, he was so close!”
I love Ed Wood’s demented attempt at a morality tale. Only in his twisted yet well-meaning mind could this story ever happen. It’s a great preamble to “The Sinister Urge” and its mind-bendingly bizarre insistence that watching porn turns people into murderers.
I love Crow’s “Ding-Ding!” when the car drives out of the gas station. Simple but perfect. :)
I haven’t seen Barbra Streisand’s A Star is Born. And yes, Segment 2 is incredibly stupid. But dammit, it still makes me laugh, because Kevin just goes so over the top with the crying and wailing and flopping Servo all over the table. The performance itself is funny, even if you don’t get the reference.
“What in the world is a pajama party?” Um, it’s pretty obvious if you think about it.
“Skin! I saw skin!…It was right there.”
The mud butler guy gives them so much to work with. I still laugh out loud at “There’s an audible thud every time he tells a joke.”
And then when you think this movie can’t get any kookier, in comes Count Juggula and her offer for the girls to trash a classroom for Communism. (Or “COMMUNISM!!!”, as Crow puts it.) I still can’t believe they erased that blackboard, those fiends!
It wouldn’t be Ed Wood without laughably bad special effects. Their cheap-ass way of showing a car crash into a plate glass window is hysterically funny.
“In other news, Paula Parkins picked a peck of pickled peppers.” That’s funny all on its own, but then Mike calls back to it a few seconds later (“Paula Parkins…” “Picked a peck of…”), and the way he says that just kills me.
And what better way to go out than with Mike and Crow’s never-ending gas station holdup re-enactment and Frank listing off endless country singers over the credits. “Crispin Glover? “Dag Hammarskjold? Larry Storch?” A great all-around episode as far as I’m concerned. :D
It’s been mentioned before, but my favorite line in this is the perfectly executed scene in the school where the cops have showed up and are exchanging fire with the girls:
Girl X: (Incredulously) They’re shooting back!
Tom: Those bastards!
It’s so great.
I have a question re: Tom’s creepy new head. Was that the head of a Danny O’Day ventriloquist dummy? I had one when I was a kid, and it looks familiar. Also, Joel used one (well, a couple of them) during his stage act.
Just wondering…
Communists?
The Violent Years passes the Bechdel Test. Paula has multiple non-male conversations with the members of her gang, her mom, and the fence.
I’ve got a general idea as to what squishy is, but what the hell are the reds?
Female-on-male rape, while not especially common, is a real thing (and almost certainly underreported for obvious reasons).
Gawd, was that judge ever a pompous bore! What especially chafes my hinder is how his rant is much harsher (and goes on for far longer) than the one from the judge in I Accuse My Parents, yet the targets far less deserving.
Favorite riffs
If you’re named Alexander Phipps, it’s just over for you.
“Dad’s a swell guy. You’ll like him.”
Just don’t use his razor. He goes ballistic.
“I thought you said your sister was just a little kid.”
She must be forty.
Dad’s calling from Chippendales. He’s got two shows, he won’t be home.
Why, what are all these gin bottles doing in here?
“A nice little conspiracy, for a nice, young man.”
Like Whitewater.
A young Mrs. Lockhorn prepares dinner.
Has anybody noticed that the daughter is psychotic?
Don’t wag your finger at me, pink boy.
“Something about growing mushrooms under artificial conditions.”
And avoiding the narcs.
This film is brought to you by the Nerd Council. Support your local nerd.
“Will you approach the bench, please?”
But don’t touch it. It’s made of Styrofoam.
Society owes me a Kit Kat bar.
Oh the passion. I find you so acceptable.
“It’s Paula’s birthday party.”
Paula? Who’s Paula?
Well goodbye, my suffocating little ice queen.
“It’s Lt. Holmes’ theory that they were from out of town.”
No we weren’t.
“Speak your piece.”
Or forever hold your now.
Now there’s a girl who takes squishiness and does something about it.
Pajamas, jazz, and communism. This is wild!
Make Out Police. Come out with your lips up.
This is going to be the front page story in the Glenview Shopper.
We’ll bring the fifth grade to its knees!
Later, in completely unrelated footage.
She died as she lived. Failing algebra.
Another right turn. Those fiends!
The lamp is a statue of Our Lady of Do You Have a Bathroom Around Here.
Hey everybody, welcome to Tuesday’s sentencing! Be sure to take your bailiff.
It’s too late to spend time with her, isn’t it.
Well, how’s out gun-toting little trollop?
I sentence you to my Toastmasters meeting.
Love this episode so much, definitely a top 10 for me.
I just re-watched the short to hear “the reds” in context. Mom says to Bob not to tease Judy too much, or he’ll “give her the reds.” I can only guess that “the reds” is an old slang term for embarrassment — you know, blushing. Whaddya think, sirs?
I’m not sure about the whole “giving her the reds” line; I always thought it was supposed to be a play on the expression “giving [someone] the blues” which Guardian Angel Mom screwed up. (Oh, for dumb!)
I haven’t yet created any minor messes at a public school to help advance Communism.
I’m STILL waiting for the Bacon Truck.
Guess I’ll turn my crank to Frank and contemplate life.
The uncut short explained the reds.
As for the movie, my favorite part was Mikes reaction to the girls shooting at the cops. They’re guilty of trespassing and vandalism, yet they act like thy’re going down for murder. Those poor cops probably thought they were just going to chase off some teenage pranksters and suddenly, POW! they’re in a fire fight.
And I HATE the Streisand segment. Always Fast Forward through it.
That’s an old exploitation trick. Spend most of the running time showing sex and/or violence, then have someone condemn it so you can claim the moral high ground. “You see? We’re teaching the audience a valuable lesson.” Still used today, especially on TV.
Also helpful for Accusing One’s Parents, in documenting Reefer Madness, or in delving into the psyche of a Maniac.
(One of the things that came out of the Hollywood Code, that frowned upon actual sex and violence.)
What Tim Burton movies forget is that “Jail Bait” was one of Wood’s surprise hit screenplays, and for a while, typecast him with cheap, quick girl-delinquent epics.
You couldn’t lecture the teens, but you couldn’t ignore the grownup studio heads, so in exploitation-depicting “the delinquent problem” Living Fast meant Dying Young, except for the “good” led-astray characters who survive to reform, having seen the consequences of bad ends.
Yeah, you could show them being bad, but they either had to pay for their evil deeds, or reform in the end.
Sampo (I apologize if anyone has already commented on this), you are wondering about Ed Wood’s authorship of this movie since his name doesn’t appear. According to the great book Nightmare of Ecstasy (absolutely required reading for Wood fans), Wood wrote at least (from my memory) one porn novel with basically the same plot as The Violent Years, including a female-male rape scene. Even without this little bit of commonality, I’m inclined to say that’s a bit of imaginative writing that only someone with extremely complex and puzzling sex-gender issues (as Wood appears to have had) could have come up with.
Boy, did I misread that!
This is one of my favorite episodes as well as one of my favorite shorts.The riffs are funny throughout,but the only thing that I fast forward through is host segment 2 where Tom is reenacting a scene from A Star is Born.It’s not funny and goes on a little too long.Other than that,everything else is gold,perfection..Lots of memorable quotes/riffs…Yeah,but what about your upper lip??
I don’t know who you are or why you’re here, but c’mon in!
This one starts strong and doesn’t let up. The reaction to Tom’s new head and the resulting freakout when Mike wrenches it off is one of the best openings in my opinion, and I even like the ‘Start is Born’ skit. It’s just so bizarre and hilariously surreal to me as someone who’s never seen that particular version of the story.
As for the short and movie, they made a perfect pair of contrasting views of the kids these days. If only one of the guys at Paula’s pajama party had expressed an interest in all the electric gizmos her parents lavish her with, maybe all this could have been avoided.
Why don’t they look?
Fave riff from the movie:
Here comes Uncle Mame!
I can’t be the only one who remembers Dan Aykroyd from “It Came From Hollywood”:
“Yeah, and look at ’em shoot–Just like trained marksmen.”
(…Isn’t that that thing you’re supposed to spot in every Pixar movie?)
Regarding Tom Servo’s new head – I always wondered what happened to Danny O Danny!
https://youtu.be/2kSw45_WEyo?t=6m16s
I said in a previous thread that I consider this my “desert island” episode. I know, it may seem like a weird choice, but for me this episode has it all: (mostly) great host segments, classic short and great riffing of a movie (reportedly) written by Ed Wood. It all works.
Sampo Johnson is right!
IIRC a similar principle was applied to British theater after Cromwell took over.
As I posted before, I thought that head looked familiar.
I remember that movie very well. It’s still pretty funny, though odds are it will never get a DVD release.
You can get it on dvdr at j4hi.com As close as you can get it to a dvd release.Better than nothing I suppose..
It’s also on YouTube in individual segments, and there are still VHS copies floating around for us older folks.
We should figure out which movies are featured in “It Came from Hollywood” that were later MSTed or RTed or CTed, and which ones are still fair game.
@136 I’ve read online that Ed Wood wrote quite a few porn books for quite a few audiences.