Movie: (1958) After some mysterious deaths in the Swiss Alps, a U.N. troubleshooter is sent to assist a scientist who is investigating the situation. But a pretty young psychic may be the most help.
First shown: approx. 11/25/89? (See below).
Opening: None
Invention exchange: Electric bagpipes, canine anti-perspirant, welcome to Deep 13
Host segment 1: Crow and Tom fail to understand why losing your head is a big deal
Host segment 2: Gypsy uncoils
Host segment 3: J&TB discuss the whole “giant eye” premise
End: Good thing/bad thing, the Mads are happy
(175 votes, average: 4.17 out of 5)
Loading...
• In the months between Memorial Day weekend (when the last KTMA episode aired) and the end of November (when this episode first aired), the Brains put together a nine-minute pitch video with what they considered to be the funniest moments from the show (that video was later included on the Scrapbook Tape). Joel called in some favors and managed to get meetings with executives at The Comedy Channel and Ha!, the two competing 24-hour comedy basic cable channels that had just started up, or were about to. Joel and Jim headed to New York with high hopes. The Ha! executives took a pass (the show really didn’t fit in with their lineup of mostly sitcom reruns) but the Comedy Channel executives liked what they saw–especially the fact that the show would be two hours long, really helping to fill their programming grid. Stu Smiley, a well-regarded TV producer who was then working at HBO (The Comedy Channel’s parent company) once told me that the other reason they went with the show is that the executives knew and trusted Joel. They offered a 13-show deal and Jim and Joel signed. Jim and Kevin quit their jobs at the KTMA (it wasn’t THAT courageous a leap–the station was circling the drain), and, with Joel, Trace and Josh, incorporated as Best Brains Inc. in July. A friend had some empty warehouse space in the Minneapolis suburb of Eden Prairie. It was just what they needed. They moved in and set about building new sets, new bots and generally rebooting the whole show. This is the result.
• Do I like it? It’s such an icon that, like the Taj Mahal, it almost seems above my likes and dislikes. Yes, the riffing is funny and steady, but the whole thing is still pretty rough. Really it’s not much more than a somewhat polished KTMA episode, not even close to the level of entertainment we’d get even later this season, and certainly in season two and forward. But there are definitely some fun spots, and it’s where it all began.
• This episode is part of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection: Vol. XVII.
• References.
• The Comedy Channel went live on Nov. 15, 1989, and we now believe, thanks to the diligent work of Tom Noel, that the first episode actually aired was episode 102- ROBOT VS. THE AZTEC MUMMY, on Nov. 18, and that this episode appeared the following weekend, on Nov. 25. Cast members have said, somewhat casually, that it first ran on Thanksgiving day, 1989. That year Thanksgiving fell on the 23rd, but we do not believe an episode actually aired on that date. That was a Thursday, and the show aired on Saturdays. But, let’s face it, back then, nobody was keeping track of this stuff. If somebody has TV Guides or some other TV schedule from the second half of November, 1989, and it lists The Comedy Channel, let us know!
• The stretch between the end of the KTMA season and the beginning of season one (if we assume the first episode aired on Nov. 18) was 173 days, the fifth-longest amount of time MSTies had to wait between episodes.
• Firsts (in addition to being the first national show): The first episode to be fully scripted, first mention of Gizmonic Institute, first invention exchange, first episode to be filmed at Best Brains studios, first movie to have a film used with permission, first episode with Jim doing the voice and puppeteering for Gypsy and the first episode with scenes set in Deep 13. Also this was the first episode to end its credits with: “Keep circulating the tapes.”
• Changes from KTMA: A completely redesigned dog-bone shaped satellite, a new door sequence, new sets and new theme lyrics.
• A little about The Comedy Channel (since there is VERY little video of it on YouTube that I could find): The premise was that it was going to be a comedy version of MTV — MTV the way it was back when it first started and actually showed music videos, that is. When MTV started, they had hosts (veejays as they were called) who introduced the videos and generally chatted between videos. The Comedy Channel wanted to emulate that setup: It called its hosts “ceejays” and they generally showed clips of comedy shows (they had all all those HBO comedy specials in their vault) and movies. But, one by one, most of the ceejays evolved their shows into something else. Alan Havey turned his into a talk show. The Higgins Boys and Gruber turned theirs into a sketch comedy show, and so forth. But not all the programming was like that. Rich Hall had a terrific series (hey Shout! get the rights!) called “Onion World.” And then, of course, there was MST3K. Initially they ran it on Saturday morning, playing off the idea that it was a parody of a kid’s show, but it also played in the wee hours. One last note: The Comedy Channel was not available in many areas of the Twin Cities when the show debuted. BBI staffers found a bar that carried it and went there to celebrate and watch it when this show first debuted.
• During the theme song, we see Joel (as the lyrics say) “working” and “cleaning up” but in these shots we can see that he’s in Deep 13 and on the SOL. We never actually see him working at Gizmonic Institute. You’d think they could have just had him go out into the hallway at the BBI offices and shot some footage. Maybe that footage in Deep 13 is from when he cleaned up that Flubber spill? I know, it’s just a show…
• During the opening theme, you can spot Jim’s head sticking up–it’s during the section where Joel sings “…to make his robot friends…” You can also spot the PVC pipe that was used to work Crow.
• There is no opening host segment between the theme song and the first commercial, something that became institutionalized later.
• In Deep 13, Dr. F. appears to be controlling the camera with some sort of remote control device that looks like a little satellite antenna. In season two, they would create the notion of the Mole People assisting on camera and such … and then they just stopped worrying about explaining who was behind the camera.
• We get as much information as we’re ever going to get about Deep 13 in that first host segment.
• Joel wore a tan jumpsuit in the KTMA episodes. With this episode he switches to bright red and the red jumpsuit continues through the entire season. In season two, he switches up the colors a bit, but we’ll deal with that when we get there.
• The “electric bagpipes” used in the invention exchange were the first of many props from Joel’s old standup act that would re-appear as inventions.
• During the KTMA shows, Joel and the bots (usually Servo) used to signal the approach of a commercial during the theater riffing. It’s a habit they continue in this episode and for many to come before it fades away.
• Both Tom Servo and Crow have been rebuilt. Tom is built slightly different from later eps–larger shoulder thingies and a larger white beak.
• Trace has pretty much abandoned the “baby” voice he used for Crow during KTMA, though we get occasional, er, traces of it.
• Note that there are no buttons on the table: At Movie Sign, Joel just sort of slaps the table! Movie Sign is a somewhat lifeless affair all the way around…no flashing lights, just a little camera-shaking.
• During this season, BBI experimented with making the theater seats different colors, to see if the signature visual element of the show might be a little easier to see especially during dark scenes. In this episode they are just sort of a dark gray.
• BBI was using a “thinner” bluescreen level than they would use later–the result is that Crow’s “net” seems to vanish, and you can see some odd gaps between Servo and the theater seats.
• Even taking the bluescreen level into account, you may notice that Crow’s silhouette in the theater looks a little strange. According to an informed source, BBI used the KTMA Crow for the theater segments here–all they did was add an extra floralier tray and clean him up a little.
• Tom walks into the theater by himself in the first movie segment, just as he often did during the KTMA episodes. Joel carries him in after the first and second host segments, and Tom seems to like it.
• Of course, this is the movie that Mike and the Bots were watching at the end of the final episode of Season 10. As we discussed then, it was a cute “full-circle” kind of thing, but the writers forgot (or decided not to care) that this movie doesn’t start with the credits. It has a “cold” opening right into a mountain climbing scene. Maybe Mike and the bots tuned in late?
• Fans of the terrific cartoon series “Freakazoid” may recall an episode that did an almost scene-for-scene (in spots) takeoff of this movie.
• I was still pretty new to the show when I saw this, and when they said “directed by us!” during the credits, I thought that was some sort of catchphrase that they were going to say every week. I later figured out that they were just referring to the fact that an arrow was pointing at them.
• A couple of times Joel does a funny bit where he provides the the voice of the other person on the telephone when somebody is talking on the phone. Cracks me up.
• You can see the shadows of the puppeteers on the wall during the second host segment. Cambot should not have pulled back quite so far.
• We meet a whole new Gypsy in segment two. She’s completely redesigned and has a new person running her and doing her voice, but her mouth mechanism squeaks so much you can barely make out what she’s saying. And that whole comment from Tom about discovering something that “narrows down” what Gypsy’s sex is–that’s just odd. Also, her light isn’t on. And this is the one and only time Joel removes her “eye”–something that seems to upset her quite a bit.
• Joel blows a line in the the theater: “Pick up some ice and some cubes.” They just keep going.
• I like the radio conversations between the pilot and the guys on the ground, clearly written by somebody with no aviation experience. The guys on the ground address the pilot as “plane.” The pilot addresses the guys on the ground as “party.”
• We get the origin of the “Richard Basehart” running gag in the final host segment. If you ever wondered what the whole Richard Basehart thing was about, it was just a weird non-sequitur.
• Cast and crew roundup: Special effects guy SFX: Les Bowie also worked on “Moon Zero Two.” In front of the camera, Warren Mitchell also appeared in “Moon Zero Two.”
• CreditsWatch: The basic credits for season 1 are: Writers: Trace Beaulieu, Joel Hodgson, Jim Mallon, Kevin Murphy, Mike Nelson, Josh Weinstein. Featuring: Joel Hodgson’s Puppet Bots.Associate Producer: Kevin Murphy.Production Manager: Alexandra B. Carr. Editor: Randy Davis. Art Direction: Trace Beaulieu, Joel Hodgson.Set Design: Trace Beaulieu, Joel Hodgson.Lighting: Kevin Murphy. Make-up: Faye Burkholder, Clayton James. Costumes: Bow Tie. Gizmonic Devices: Joel Hodgson. Production Assistants: Jann L. Johnson, Steve Rosenberer, Sara J. Sandborn. Production/Post Production: Fuller Productions, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Production Staff: Ken Fournelle, Jim Fuller. Production Assistant: Jim Erickson. Special thanks: Randy Herget, Skyline Inc., Bryan Beaulieu, KTMA TV23, The Teachers of America, David Campbell, Rick Leed. Keep circulating the tapes.
• Favorite riff: “o/` I’m Popeye the sailor man…I’ve got a guy’s head in my hand… o/`” Honorable mention: “Fannie Flag and Groucho and Carl Sagan…..”
) to help our users cope with "trolls" and other commenters whom they find annoying. Go to our
I finally sat down and watched this episode for the first time about a month and a half ago. Aside from the interest that it is the first show of the national series it’s not really that enjoyable to me. Now granted I never saw a first season episode until Rhino released The Crawling Hand in the late 90’s so I don’t have the frame of reference as many do who saw these episodes in the original order as well as those who came from the KTMA episodes.
Were these episodes better than the KTMA? Probably, I don’t know. KTMA is that last frontier of episodes for me. I look at the first season as a work in progress, them working and banging out what works and what doesn’t. For this episode, to me, it’s only quality is that it is the first. I didn’t laugh one time at anything. And for me KEvin is and always will be my Servo. I’m not saying he’s better than Josh, because that’s a subjective assessment. I prefer him better than Josh. Josh’s humor has always fallen flat to me. And the lack of Kevin as Servo hangs over all of these episodes.
But then again, I started watching during Season 3, so I got see the show with it’s vast improvements and when it hit it’s stride, so it was more than likely I wasn’t going to be impressed by Season 1 at all, let alone the first episode.
Sorry, if I angered anyone, just keep in mind. It is not my intent to offend, merely state my opinion. I hope I have apologized enough.
If anyone is interested in seeing another riff on this film, an iRiff group called Dogknob released it under it’s alternate title, The Trollenberg Terror.
http://www.rifftrax.com/iriffs/dogknob-presents-trollenberg-terror-aka-crawling-eye-vod
@ #51 frankenforcer
Re. Josh in Season 1:
I don’t think I got how funny he is until I saw him live with Cinematic Titanic. But it took me a long time to enjoy Josh’s appearances on MST3K.
When comparing him to Kevin (Servo) & Frank (Mad scientist/2nd banana), he always comes up short. But those other guys inherited those roles from him after the show’s identity had been more defined. And they got to play them longer than he ever did.
To fully appreciate Josh you’d have to watch all the KTMA’s. His performances really stand out. The funniest theater lines usually come from his Servo, and once you get past Dr. Erhardt’s annoying voice, he’s funny there too. Josh thrived in the unscripted era, and supposedly part of why he left after Season 1 was that he didn’t like being restricted to a script (though he recently admitted it was really because Mallon wouldn’t pay him what he felt he deserved). I’ll also go out on a limb and suggest that the movies shown in Season “Zero” were more in sync with Josh’s sensibilities than those in Season 1, so he comes off better in the KTMA’s.
My own complaint about Season 1 is the episode selection. Too many creaky B&W monster movies; not enough of the made-for-TV and man-in-suit mayhem that made up the colorful KTMA lineup. The all-star casts and Sandy Frank-dubbed craziness of those movies kind of filled in the gaps of the sparse riffing. But by front-loading Season 1 with movies that drag, they did themselves no favors. I don’t think the SOL crew became adept at riffing the older, slower movies until later in the run of the show (like Season 2).
http://quartus.net/nbridges/bots/crow/
There’s a picture of theatre Crow in here.
Not a bad “debut” in my opinion. Solid riffing, you can see the genesis of what will become a TV classic. What a difference pre-screening made, and that new guy Mike Nelson might be someone to keep an eye on.
As for the movie, good fodder, though I am surprised that Forrest Tucker was adequate in the lead. Screenwriter Jimmy Sangster would go on to write better things, including most of the classic Hammer Horror films. Check out The Hound of the Baskervilles and Horror of Dracula.
Fave riff: “If only we had a ball. A small rubber ball.” Also: “He’s wearing Mr. Spocks jammies.”
Worst rendidtion of Amazing Grace ever.
I haven’t seen Cinematic Titanic yet, but I will keep that in mind when I do. But I agree with you here, the choice of movies (which I heard somewhere came more from what HBO had available more than what they wanted. Excuses? maybe, but a good one.) is had to get through, simply because the riffing isn’t as refined as it became, around, I say, episode 204.
I’ll try not to sound harsh from here on out with my own opinion of Season 1 because it is coming from one who caught them first when they were in Season 3 and were in their stride. Same will go with Josh. I’ll take him not as a comaparison to Kevin but on his own merits. But I wanted to get that out more of an explanation of where I’m coming from in my view.
“first movie to have a film used with permission”
Wait, really?
Either that, or the writers of Freakazoid were fans of 1950’s/1960’s science fiction/horror altogether, as there were a number of moments on that show that had a B movie feel to it.
The Crawling Eye passes the Bechdel Test. Sarah and Anna have multiple conversations on non-male topics.
Movie Sign is a somewhat lifeless affair all the way around… no flashing lights, just a little camera shaking.
There was also no siren.
Tom walks into the theater by himself in the first movie segment, just as he often did during the KTMA. Joel carries him in after the first and second host segments.
This is acknowledged in the DVD menu, as the headline on the paper Crow is reading states, “Tom observed moving under own power.”
So much so that it gets mentioned in The Lurker in the Lobby, a book about movies adapted from Lovecraft as well as Lovecraftian films.
Favorite riffs
Trollenberg, Home of the Crawling Eye. All stops lead to a bloody death.
Dead Diary, once again the fat guy got the bed.
Great! We saw how well he did with the booze. Now let’s give him something that’s lit.
Norman, I told you not to bother the guests.
Joel’s getting really eye-rate.
I have a fondness for this episode not just because it really started the MST3K most of know(I didn’t see any KTMA Ep. until many years later) but it was a movie that was shown in my area by a late night movie host (Ghoulardi) many times in the early 60’s. Even my mother who was not really a fan of Sci-Fi or Horror movies enjoyed this one.
Finally, season 1. Yeah, this one is slow, but it’s incredible compared to the K’s. I have so much more love and respect for this episode, and season 1 in general, after the careful analyzing of the K season. It feels so professional compared!
You forgot “Sports Monster”.
We didn’t get Comedy Channel on our system, but we did get HA! I mainly remember that they were among the last to show re-runs of the Dick Ebersol-produced SNL shows (before Lorne Michaels pulled them from distribution), and that they actually dug up an all-but-forgotten sit-com called “Camp Runamuck” just before the merger.
I think this is a pretty good movie.
Much like the Quatermass films, this was originally a 6 part serial that had a movie version made. So if the ending seems rushed and not everything fully explained or developed, that’s part of the reason
This was my first episode. I had the freakish good fortune to catch it during 1989 (what I presume was its first airing) and I’ve been hooked on the show ever since. While I acknowledge the show got better, tighter and funnier (all the way through, I dare say), I found this incredibly funny during the first airing. I’m not embellishing. I grabbed a videotape and recorded about half of it, which I watched over and over while waiting for the next episode to air. Which was Mad Monster, leaving me a bit confounded about the “Commando Cody” serial starting with the second chapter. Maybe this is all because, as people have suggested, the “second” MST3K episode aired before the first.
I had watched The Comedy Channel a bit. Although the video clips were repeated to the point of aggravation (but the first place I saw The Producers’ “Springtime for Hitler”), I liked the hosts well enough. Rachel Sweet was fun to watch, but didn’t have much of a “set-up” like the other hosts, just sort of introduced clips from her fake living room set. Tommy Sledge played the whole noir private eye schtick, I never found out much about him, maybe this was his stand-up act premise? Allan Havey was kind of a basic cable Letterman, with Nick Bakay (later of Dennis Miller’s show fame) as his announcer/sidekick, and I found his show funny enough. My favorite were the Higgins Boys and Gruber, who had some amazing gems of episodes once they survived the first Comedy Channel cuts and had a chance to evolve their show into surreal sitcom/adventure-show premises, like battling the mole people or their (then very topical) take on America’s Funniest Home Videos with public domain safety shorts. I agree with Sampo, Onion World was a bit of genius for offbeat programming, and the only program besides MST3K that wasn’t bound to airing comedy clips. I remember seeing Camper Van Beethoven as the musical act, very unique in their tastes. I also remember Rich Hall dressed as Charles Kuralt dancing in public to Iggy Pop’s “Wild One.”
I’m not sure why the creators of The Comedy Channel were so married to the video clip concept, maybe it was a budget-oriented decision that allowed the channel to run cheap. With the state of programming nowadays, it seems ridiculous how people argued that basic cable couldn’t sustain two comedy-oriented networks. As if comedy has a niche audience. The only show I really liked on Ha! was The Unnaturals. It was half-hour sketch comedy with a skewed sense of humor, and each episode seemed to focus on the talents of one particular performer. I remember Siobhan Fallon (later of Seinfeld and Saturday Night Live) on the first episode I saw. I also recall Paul Feig being in an episode, is that possible?
I recorded every MST3K episode after that, with few failures. Bought VHS releases, DVDs, now own The Movie on Blu-ray. Spent money on T-shirts, collected SOL newsletters, wrote several letters to keep the show on the air at various points, converted many an outsider into a fan, and participated in far more online discussions than was healthy. It all started here for me. Back when the show first came on, it was my own private very cool thing. So I’m incapable of finding fault with this episode.
I had forgotten about the good thing/bad thing about the movie. I once had a meeting with my boss after a meeting and told her the good thing/bad thing about the meeting. She was confused. I don’t work there anymore. :-)
We had the comedy channel. They had the Higgins Boys and Gruber, Night after Night, and this two hour show where a guy and some robots watch movies. I found it strange that a network would give a guy two hours to have a show. It was just too long by my logic. I think I saw part of this one at one time.
I’ve been waiting for the ep that begins the show’s tradition of carrying Servo into the theater, and it looks like we’re finally there. It’s funny that in the final theater segment, Joel puts him down and says “That’s the last time.”
Another thing that stood out on this viewing is how quiet the set is without the SOL background sound effects. I think that’s part of the reason you notice how noisy the bots are.
The riffing was improved over KTMA, but they still haven’t found their rhythm yet.
When I started watching MST during it’s 4th Season I immediately recognized the clip of The Crawling Eye in the credits sequence and was eager to see the MST version. But Comedy Central wasn’t playing any Season 1 episodes as repeats any more, so I had to wait to get a Cheepnis fan copy around 2002 to finally see this. It took me a while to get used to the KTMA/Season 1 material, but it’s been growing on me more.
This movie and episode really pick up in the last third around the time the possessed guy who can’t hold his booze shows up. And for a cheesy cheep film the monsters are pretty cool when they finally reveal themselves.
I have to agree, the movie really isn’t that bad. It seems like it should be, but it’s not. I do question at the end how the people inside the observatory weren’t roasted alive by the firebombing. Especially with a large crack in the office wall…
Joel is way more energetic then he ever was in KTMA. It seems like he’s more comfortable with a script.
When did the anti-pun thing begin? Or is it just eye-based puns that are OK?
speaking of Basehart:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxdoPaKJ64o
Actually — at least to my ears — Beaulieu’s transition from the KTMA “Baby Crow” voice to his “Classic Crow” voice was a bit more gradual. As late as the last part of Season 2, I still heard little bits of the “baby” voice sneaking in, even as Crow’s voice became a bit more flexible and expressive, introducing that old-fashioned avuncular announcer voice, and his Peter Graves voice, and his other excellent movie-star impersonation voices including his immortal Lloyd Bridges “by this time…” imitation.
By the middle of Season 3, though, Crow’s “baby voice” was pretty much gone, and Murphy was using something closer to his own natural voice instead of doing his version of Weinstein’s “mighty voice” for Servo.
Wow, I’m going to have to go back and watch that one again; the background atmospheric sound effex — kind of like background sounds on the Enterprise in Star Trek — were one of those subtle things you don’t notice unless it’s not there.
You don’t hear the noises the puppets make as Murphy and Beaulieu work them quite so much later on; I suppose a lot of that depended on how much “maintenance” the puppets got between shows. Of course, when Murphy makes Servo jump up and down and spin on his hoverskirt, you hear his hands slapping against his body no matter what.
I also thought it was actually pretty cool when, in some episodes’ host segments, you can hear Crow’s mouth parts clattering when he talks; it seems to reinforce the whole idea that he’s a robot, hacked together with spare parts from the ship (as the theme tells us).
Well the new sets and bots really are an upgrade over the KTMA era. I wonder why the ended up using the KTMA Crow puppet for the theater segments instead of the newly built Crow puppet. This is pretty close to the standard MST3K episode. We got invention exchange, the mads, Joel being a father figure, etc. The riffing is pretty light but the movie itself helps with that part.
I agree with the other comments that this movie is very Lovecraftian in its origin and feel. Definitely a movie I would watch growing up (although I don’t ever remember seeing unMSTIED). Good times though.
One other First I would add that I don’t see Sampo’s part is that this is the first time they use the “Love Theme” for the ending theme song.
Favorite line is Crow “Dear diary, once again the fat guy got the bed.”
These were definitely some Lovecraftian monsters. I just watched The Flesh Eaters which had two tentacled eye monsters of a similar sort. I was also listening to some of the commentary on the original The Fog, and John Carpenter mentioned The Crawling Eye being a favorite film of his and inspiration for some of the “fog creeping under the door shots”. Carpenter also likes Robot Monster and will have it playing on a TV in some of his films. In the Mouth of Madness comes to mind.
One big thing I noticed with this viewing, and coming off the KTMA episodes, is that Josh seems really reigned in. His riff count is way down, and while Servo does get some of the best riffs here, they don’t feel like same things he could’ve/would’ve said on KTMA. I never really appreciated Josh (having discovered the show after he was already gone), but as I’ve been collecting and re-watching these older episodes, his Servo has really grown on me, and I think he made most of those Season 0 episodes very watchable. While not a big fan of his Dr. Erhardt, his Servo is hilarious.