Movie: (1966) A spaceship crashes on a prehistoric world, and its companion ship heads back to search for survivors.
First shown: 02/10/90 (unconfirmed)
Opening: Joel has redecorated and seems to be the host of a talk show; Crow made brownies
Invention exchange: Clay & Lar’s Flesh Barn, toilet paper in a bottle
Host segment 1: During “This is Joel’s Life,” a strange machine appears outside the ship, so Joel brings it inside
Host segment 2: J&TB try to disarm the Isaac Asimov’s Literary Doomsday Device, but the instructions are no help
Host segment 3: The device explodes, with horrific consequences
End: The effects wear off, letters, the winners of the “name the plant guy ” contest.
(155 votes, average: 4.19 out of 5)
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• I’m out of order?? This episode’s out of order! The whole show’s out of order!!
Sorry. Yes, this is the episode with the weird production number. In the ACEG, the Brains confirmed what many fans had long suspected: that this was the final episode BBI shot for season one but, for reasons that remain murky, it was given a production number of 104, indicating it was the fourth one shot, which it wasn’t.
• It was pretty clear to fans that something was up long before the Brains admitted it: this episode features a number of elements indicative of a late-season show, including an opening segment before the commercial, buttons on the desk in the SOL and a Movie Sign that looks much more like the Movie Sign we know. There were more clues in the references to several “later” episodes, most notably in the closing segment when Joel announces the winners of a contest that was announced in episode 110- ROBOT HOLOCAUST. Also in that segment, a letter refers to episode 105- THE CORPSE VANISHES and episode 109- PROJECT MOONBASE.
• So why aren’t I waiting to do this one at the end of season? It’s about consistency. I have no idea what other episodes were produced out of order from their production numbers (and I think there are some). If I had a complete, definitive list of every episode in the order it was produced, I might do them in that order. But if I can’t do them ALL like that, I’m not going to do any, and I will stick with the only ordering system I’m sure about.
• This episode is included in Rhino’s The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection, Vol. 9.
• References.
• The shadowrama seats are just straight black with no colorization that I can see. There’s also no blue tint on the movie that I can see.
• I’ve told the story before, but this was the episode that I stumbled on to when I discovered the show for the first time. I’d actually seen this movie on TV several years before and had been looking to catch it again, so my first delight was in recognizing the movie I’d been looking for for so long–then that delight was compounded by the commentary. I was hooked.
• So, all that said, this is definitely one of the best of season 1. The riffing is full-on and fierce, at full season 2 level. It’s got a big, bright, wacky movie with a typically smug John Agar, a clearly soused Wendell Corey, young Angel from “The Rockford Files,” the stupid “hi-keeba!” racist comic relief guy and on and on. It also has a nice story arc set of host segments that are, admittedly, more clever than funny (a problem we’ll encounter often in season 2), but they’re fun all the same. You can really see greatness in their future.
• In the opening bit, Joel says he has “redecorated.” That appears to mean only that they’ve lowered the desk and added a somewhat ratty-looking couch. Nothing else appears to be different.
• This episode contains the first original song on the national series: the “Clay and Lar’s Flesh Barn” jingle (and I would love to know who that is playing the kazoo in the background).
• The catchphrase “Wonder what SHE wanted?” arrives.
• When Joel wants to see the alien spacecraft that’s approaching, he shouts: “Give me an exterior of the ship.” No Rocket No. 9 just yet.
• Joel’s line “…and he’s nobody sweetheart” is a Firesign Theatre reference.
• This show features the first speaking role for Mike Nelson (he’s the voice of the killer satellite).
• Tom twice refers to one of the leading men as “Johnny Longtorso,” a name that would later be used in an invention exchange in episode 421- MONSTER A-GO-GO.
• Of course, this episode is where the oft-repeated phrase “Hi-keeba!” came from, shouted by actor Paul Gilbert (NOT Wendell Corey, as the ACEG incorrectly states).
• Great line from segment three: “Ah, the Samuel Becket method!”
• After being turned into Asimovs. when J&tB return to the theater they are still wearing their Asimov facial makeup.
• Tom’s head comes off in the closing segment. They keep going.
• This movie contains several needle-drops of some very familiar incidental music. I tend to think if it as the musical sting from “This Island Earth” (o/` Da-da-daaaaaaa! o/`) but maybe that was a needle-drop too. Any movie score experts out there know what movie this music was in first?
• Let the record show that there’s only one woman on that prehistoric planet … and she’s not FROM the prehistoric planet.
• Cast and crew roundup: Special effects guy Howard A. Anderson also worked on “King Dinosaur,” “12 to the Moon,” “The Amazing Transparent Man” and “It Lives By Night. Art director Paul Sylos also worked on “Monster-A-Go-Go.” Set designer Harry Reif also worked on “I Accuse My Parents, “Radar Secret Service” and “The She-Creature” and was assistant director for “Gunslinger.” Supervising music editor Igo Kantor also worked on “Monster-A-Go-Go and was technical supervisor for “Bride of the Monster.” Music supervisor Gordon Zahler also worked on “Monster-A-Go-Go,” “First Spaceship on Venus,” “Hercules and the Captive Women” and “The Phantom Planet.” In front of the camera: Robert Ito also appeared in “SST: Death Flight.” Glenn Langan also appears in “The Amazing Colossal Man.” Lyle Waggoner also appears in “Catalina Caper. Wendell Corey also appears in “Agent For H.A.R.M.” and John Agar also appears in “Revenge of the Creature” and “The Mole People.”
• CreditsWatch: Alexandra Carr and Jann Johnson both got “additional writers” credits. Melanie Hartley and Neil Brede were “additional production assistants,” probably proto-interns.
• The obvious stinger: “HI-KEEBA! HUT!” (THUD).
• Favorite riff: “Oh, I’m gonna go spank myself!” Honorable mention: “Let’s make some friction with these pelts.”
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When MST3k made fun of Wendell Corey’s speech in Agent From HARM, I looked him up in IMDB back in the day. At the time there was little information expect that his cause of death was some sort of liver problem. That didn’t look good, and now I see it’s confirmed that he was an alcoholic. That made some of the jokes a little less funny to me.
I also noticed the Asimov jokes in Season 1 that seem to disappear after this season. I assume J.Elvis must be the Asimov fan, but was curious if any of BB have ever commented on this. I’m late to the thread so I’ll probably ask the question next week…
I liked this episode. It’s quite a bit more lively than the previous S1 eps. The attitude, the chemistry, the delivery – all much better for this go ’round. Crow’s voice is closer to what he would use in later eps, also. Riffing and host segments are good.
The movie is, well, the movie. They could’ve put a mat painting or SOMETHING beside the acid pond, or whatever the hell it was, to make it at least LOOK like it was their only choice to go over it and not around it. That was just horrible.
The first couple of times I saw this, I was actually paying so little attention to the movie that it took this viewing to realize that the first crew that got stuck on the planet had actually been there for years before the second group found them. It says in the ACEG that it was thirty years, but I kept hearing eighteen. Was that just the amount of time that Tang was alone? Or did I miss something else, too? Why were his parents frozen? (And apparently at the same age they were when they crashed??) Didn’t they say on one of the ships that there was no detectable life on the planet? Was that the same planet or were they talking about another one that they just didn’t search because they didn’t think the survivors (if any) of the first ship would be there? And why was there a giant lizard and a giant spider, but the chimp and the snake were normal? What the hell else did I miss? This thing just made no sense.
Is this the first time we’ve heard Joel’s, “Gee, DON’T say hi”, or did he do it in any of the KTMA’s?
Some fave lines:
“And you can’t remove the land from the man, the chalice from the palace has the brew that is true.” – All
“Are the scenes down on the planet just as static, Bill?” – Crow
“Have you met Steve, my monkey?” – Joel
“Do you think I’ll be offed first?” – Crow
“Uh, it’s too complicated for YOU, bonehead.” – Crow
“Their technology must be light years ahead of ours, their use of stock footage is amazing.” – Joel
“Hm. Coconut cream pie, car made out of bamboo and a sailor’s hat. What’s it all mean?” – Crow
“Did you ever see the movie, ‘Alive’, doughnut boy?” – Crow
“Kill your brother, it’s the only way to re-enforce the director’s white male reality.” – Servo
“Meanwhile – at the ocarina.” – Servo
“Now I know you just shot your brother, but why don’t you just come over here and love me a little bit.” – Joel
:)
Man, how could I have bypassed my most favorite line in this episode, one I use with distressing frequency in my daily life…
“Don’t just do something, stand there!”
Excellent for season one. The host segments are probably funnier to Asimov fans. Crow’s voice is less robotic and more of what we were used to during the remaining Trace years. So sad to see how bad Agar and Corey looked. I didn’t even recognize them at first. In fact, it was Agar’s voice that tipped me off for him.
Hi-keeba or hotchka!from season seven? I love them both.
Fave riff: “Ah, Wilma, you’re up.”
Also: “Don’t just do something, stand there!”
My main memories of this episode are the “Why don’t they just walk around the pond?” joke, and a mutual friend of me and my MST-buddy asking what we were talking about once, us starting to explain the show and him stopping us and saying “Stir Tang or he will sink to bottom!!!” Oh, this show brought so many of us cable-junkies together in the early 90’s.
Incidentally, this sequence of the song
“Now there’s no need for you to drive through,
Our fresh meat’ll walk out to you.
You’ll say “Hi”, he’ll say “Moo”.
It’s Clay and Lar’s Flesh Barn.”
is misleading, since virtually all beef comes from cows [females], not bulls [males]; same is true with chickens [of tomorrow and otherwise]: hens, not roosters. So technically it should be “_she’ll_ say “Moo”.”
Yes, even in the livestock field, it’s the females who get the worst of it.
The episode that started it all for me!
My favorite riff, “We got a planet to populate honey!”
And of course the perfect stinger, “Hi-keeba!”
Irene Tsu is a total knock-out!! I think I’d be happy watching her do just about anything in that sarong!!
In the 3rd Host Segment, Joel in the fake sideburns and oversized glasses always get a chuckle from me, just too funny.
On the subject of the title, there’s one woman (or was it 2?) that survived the crash, and then Linda shows up years later. So technically, there was more than one woman on the prehistoric planet, just not at the same time (unless you count Tang’s mom’s preserved corpse).
Strange to see John Agar in color. I always assumed his skin was grey.
I enjoyed the Asimov host segments. I’ve always really liked his fiction (haven’t read the NF, since I’ve little interest in history – but if I needed to, his books would be the first I’d try). As to his personality? Couldn’t care less. I did enjoy his author notes in various books, but those never really came off as egotistic, just smart. I’ve never had any interest in the personal lives of the various people who’s books I’ve read or movies I’ve watched or music I’ve listened too. That has nothing whatsoever to do with my enjoyment of those mediums, and knowing more about the people involved really wouldn’t affect my interest one way or the other.
On the invention exchange – I think Joel’s toilet paper roll in a 2-liter bottle is one of those things that’s supposed to be funny (or at least amusing) simply because it’s not. It defies expectations, wherein lies the humor. Especially contrasted to something over-the top, like Clay & Lar’s Flesh Barn.
People really do need to start accepting the fact that this is the last episode of the season though. There’s plenty of evidence within the episode itself that it was made (and had to have been aired) after some of the episodes that are numbered after it. For one thing, a letter that they read at the end refers to The Corpse Vanishes (misidentified as “The Bride Vanishes”) and Project Moon Base.
I’ve come across at least one person who was under the impression that the Comedy Channel deliberately aired this one early on in the run since it was a color movie and better than the earliest episodes overall, hence the episode number. But again, there’s absolutely no way they could have aired this (brand new that is) between episodes 103 and 105 without 105 and 109 at least airing first due to that letter they read!
This episode is tied with Untamed Youth for the best of season 1 IMO. Good riffing and host segments and a watchable movie with a watchable print. In the old days when you had to circulate the tapes with fellow MSTies to get season 1 episodes because the Brains wouldn’t let them be repeated, this was the one that made doing that worthwhile after the first couple of season 1 episodes I got were the early not so good ones.
As for the movie, it had awful comic relief and terrible effects (not even a laser beam for the lasers) but I have to give it a little credit for trying to deal with relativity. And how did Tang’s parents get frozen? I have to share shame with Sharktopus since the first time I saw this 20 or so years ago, I didn’t see the ending coming either and I really should have.
As to Asimov, I think it’s obvious that Josh was the one behind all the Asimov references since they stopped after he left and I remember there were a few Asimov references in the KTMA episodes as well. The only thing I have read of his was the first book of the Foundation trilogy, and I can see how comments of smug, know it all, etc. could be applied to him, although of course I have no idea what he was like in real life.
Ah, a production number error. That explains all the “firsts” that seem to pop up in this ep. So I guess we haven’t yet seen the arrival of the desk buttons. Perhaps Mike’s voice appears in an earlier ep. It’s all just an “OP-TI-CAL EEL-LU-SHUN-UH” The riffing was fast and furious here. I almost hate to go backward next week.
This is one of my favorite Season 1 episodes. It makes total sense to me to consider this the last episode of the season, since that’s obviously when it was made; I get around the numbering issue by referring to this episode as #114 in my own collection.
I spotted a few typos in the cast and crew roundup: Supervising music editor Igo Kantor also workded on “Monster-A-Go-G- and was technical supervisor for “Bride of the Monster.”
Why would anyone admit that?
“The farther back you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.”
? Winston Churchill
Someone help me out with my Rhino history – were rights issues with THIS movie the reason why Volume 9 was pulled from the shelves? Or was The Incredibly Mixed Up Blah Blah the culprit?
At any case, regarding the racism issue with this movie, my best guess is that what’s up on the screen is a “socially conscious” screenwriter’s perception of broadmindedness in regards to race. That statement needs to be understood as in what counted for socially conscious OF THE TIME. I do agree that the portrayal of the Centaurans is more fleshed out and realistic than, say, Avatar, where the “other” are all good and noble. However, as some commentators have pointed out, the movie seems to assume that the “white” characters are correct in paternalistically trying to “better” the lot of the Centaurans. That viewpoint is never seriously challenged once established, leading me to believe the screenwriter probably wouldn’t have thought twice about attempts to “better” the lives of Native Americans, Australian Aborigines, etc.
One observation: this movie should get some commendation for having a substantially richer (I didn’t say more savory) backstory than most 50s/60s rocketship movies.
Thanks for the catches! Now fixed.
Women of the Prehistoric Planet passes the Bechdel Test. Sally complains to Zenda about their predicament, who in turn tries to mollify her.
Sampo is right about the obviousness of what the stinger should be. “Hi-keeba!”
The Flesh Barn jingle is quite catchy.
Much as how Overdrawn at the Memory Bank felt like an episode of Doctor Who with the Doctor inexplicably missing, this feels like an episode of Star Trek with the crew of the Enterprise inexplicably missing.
I disagree with Crow in calling the bit where Admiral King reveals that Linda is his daughter a deus ex machina. A deus ex machina is defined as a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem is suddenly and abruptly resolved by the contrived and unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability or object. First off, it doesn’t resolve anything in particular. It was just meant to explain why Admiral King was so concerned about Linda. Also, King did previously mention having known Linda’s mother, so it didn’t come completely out of nowhere. However, I will grant that it was clumsily presented.
Favorite riffs
You’re new here, aren’t you, Elvis?
Think they’re going to be the comic relief? I’ve just got a feeling.
Pigs! In! Spaaaaace!
Think of us as Klingons without the kling.
Filmed on location in Tommy Ronnick’s front yard.
That’s man talk. We’ll never understand it.
“Don’t get funny.”
Don’t worry. He won’t
“The first time I saluted Admiral King, I almost knocked my brains out.”
Sure you didn’t succeed?
“I am Tang.”
It’s not just for breakfast anymore.
Get me, I’m a wood nymph!
Tang and Tico. They’re cops!
Remember when we were dating, and we met right here at this pool of filth?
I’ve heard that Women Of The Prehistoric Planet was licensed to Rhino by the same company as Godzilla Vs Megalon – we all know how that went – but I have no evidence that that’s case. I have seen firsthand that Sinister Cinema (sinistercinema.com) claimed for a while (after the release and disappearance of Volume 9) in their mail catalogue that they had the exclusive rights to The Sinister Urge. However, I just checked their web store and they apparently no longer sell it. Neither of those episodes has been rereleased as singles by Shout (nor has Wild Rebels), so… um, yeah, I dunno. Anybody have any better theories?
This is a fun one, a nice change of pace, even if it is out of order. I think the reason there is no blue tint in the movie because the movie is in color. Maybe ol’ Sampo was just making a funny with that observation, and here I am reading into it.
Hopefully, this discussion will be open until after we watch Black Scorpion, so we can further anaylize it.
Also, I’m really enjoying being able to watch Season 1 from all official copies this time around!
Goshzilla – oh, I hadn’t even thought about the possibility of The Sinister Urge being the culprit. Such a good episode!
Now I want to go home and stroke my copy of Volume 9 with a switchblade.
I love this episode. As much as I enjoyed Frank/Kevin, it’s episodes like this that make curious to see what Josh would have done with season 3 or 4 material. Especially some of the KTMA revisits of season 3.
“Don’t just do something, stand there!” Is a goto life rif for me.
When Mr. Hi Keeba is getting up off the ground, there’s an enormous roar (as if of a distant T. Rex), and all the other men start laughing. They don’t laugh when he falls, but they laugh while he’s getting up. It’s an odd moment. Any idea what that’s all about?
I have to give this movie credit: it’s one of the few movies of that era which dealt with interstellar, rather than interplanetary, travel. There are movies about aliens which come to Earth, of course, but very few about humans who go to other star systems. The only one I can think of off the top of my head is Forbidden Planet. (Then again, this movie cheats, kinda.)
And while I have you here, is anyone else:
1) Finding that you cannot right-click on this site, at all, and
2) are eally annoyed by it?
I can’t right-click to open a link in a new tab, or highlight text for a google search. This happened after the Great Outage of last (?) month. Does anyone else care? Hello?
#72:
1) but not 2). I just kind of shrug it off.
You can’t copy and paste text, either, and that annoys me. And now I’m over it. ;-)
#13 (so it’s an old post, so what):
The common “biblical” theory is that the entire human race descended from two caucasians so, really, the movie’s theory is more racially encompassing.
In retrospect, it’s surprising that the implication that “Adam and Eve” were half-Chinese (which in 1966 was practically synonymous with *COMMUNISM*) didn’t get this movie in trouble. Obviously, cheap SF films had come a long way since six seasons from now, when John Agar as Dr. Roger Bentley and Cynthia Patrick as Adal the Marked One weren’t allowed to live happily ever after (supposedly) because that would’ve constituted an “interracial” marriage.
I can’t right click since the great outage either, and I can’t cut and paste my posts to e-mail to friends. It bugs me man, it Really Bugs Me!!
One of my earliest memories is of watching this movie one afternoon and being really absorbed in it. Having it turn up as an MST episode was like a love letter from or maybe to my childhood.
It turns out the cute racist communications officer is named Sally and was played by Sally Frei who was in Coming Home along with Jon Voight who creeped us out in Anaconda.
Sally was refreshingly committed to her “struggling actress” scene during the hostage holding at the film’s beginning. Hestia, the Fire Maiden of Outer Space remained motionless with a rope draped over her during an ostensible human sacrifice as if she was an indulgent baby sitter who let the kids tie her up. Compared to that Sally looks like she’s auditioning to work for Irving Klaw. Not that I’d know anything about that sort of thing.
Did we ever have “Favorite bondage or S&M riffs” as a discussion topic. Not that I’d know anything about that sort of thing.
The “outage” was more than an outage: we were hacked. As a result, Erhardt has battened things down here a bit. We know it’s inconvenient. Sorry.
one of my favorites, I paid about 160 for volume 9 on ebay it still cost a lot
@#66: No problem, Sampo!
Just for kicks, I re-watched the “Hi-Keeba” moment from this episode. Paul Gilbert’s “comic relief” in this movie may be annoying, but I thought that flipping in mid-air and landing straight on his back was actually an impressive bit of physical comedy. His adopted daughter, the actress Melissa Gilbert, said once in an interview that Gilbert had been an aerialist (a trapeze artist) in his youth.
Another fun moment in that scene: as Gilbert is getting back up off the ground and saying “… and after completing the course, I became a karate expert!”, watch John Agar sitting off to the right. He completely loses it shortly afterward, just like Hugh Beaumont in “Lost Continent”, but then there’s an abrupt cut to a closeup of Paul Gilbert. It looks as if they had to break the take because Agar started laughing.
@#75 – Does your favorite movie happen to be “Yards Of Leather”?
All the normal things work if you disable scripts for the site.
Damn! My internet connection glitched and because I wasn’t able to “copy” my post as a back-up measure I lost a somewhat lengthy post about John Agar’s appearance in Nightbreed.
How do you disable scripts on a website?
Re#74 Nice comments on the Chinese Genesis aspect. As a kid when I first heard about inbreeding and why it was bad I immediately thought of the Adam and Eve story, and wondered why we didn’t all look like the supporting cast of Deliverance.
#79 So far I haven’t been able to track down a copy of Yards of Leather. Too busy reading all these Gor books. Not that I’d know anything about that sort of thing.
Sampo — Thanks for the explanation. I figured that was it, but I was hoping it was a bug, rather than a feature.
#82:
Well, Adam and Eve’s son Cain married a woman who wasn’t his sister (“and Cain knew his wife”), so there’s that, anyway.
Really, though, it would take a fundamentalist to explain it, and I’m…not one.
There would have been similar genetic diversity issues after Noah’s family were the only ones to survive the great flood. For that matter Abraham and Sarah were siblings. On two occasions a Pharaoh and King Abimelech were tricked into thinking that Sarah was unmarried when Abraham claimed that Sarah was his sister. When confronted about his deception Abraham claimed that he had told a partial truth since Sarah was his sister as well as his wife (Genesis 12:11-20, Genesis 20:2-12). So Abraham was a fellow that could say, “Let me introduce you to my wife and sister” while gesturing towards a single person. Which means he was a redneck.
How do I turn scripts off?
No, that means he MIGHT be a redneck.
There’s a saying, “You can’t choose your family,” but several characters in the Bible prove that saying wrong.
The REAL “deus ex machina” isn’t the Admiral being woman’s father (which was ham-handedly telegraphed a couple of times), but the deadly volcanic eruption that was about to consume them all just….stops right after the ship lifts off. A real “gimme a break!” moment just so the attractive young couple can live happily ever after and populate the planet. Yeah, sure.
One other thing I didn’t see mentioned that I found amusing: the lengthy (albeit inaccurate) explanation of the time dilation effect of travel at near-light speeds given to the semi-moronic crewman on the search party. So, they waited until months into their interstellar trip to explain to the poor sap that all his family, friends, and loved ones would be long dead and buried when he returned from the mission? Nice.
#87 I stand corrected. He MIGHT be a redneck. We could have some fun analyzing his other behavior to see if it fits the criterion, but this probably isn’t the place.
This episode might be my favorite of the season next to Robot Monster. As for the obvious “out of sequence” nature of it, I say let’s just go ahead and call it #104 and leave it where it is. Call it another quircky episode like the ones in season K where Joel or one or both of the bots are missing. Or our little version of the Star Wars movies being out of sequence. I think anyone in the know enough to be confused by the anachronisms (like I was at first) will figure it out quickly enough. The right people will get it.
What’s Yurs?
One of my faves.
I wonder what the story behind this being numbered 104. For the rest of the series from season 2 onwards it wouldn’t have been noticed much but here where during seasons 1 the little elements are getting added and then bam you have all of them it shows.
As for the movie, I love this one. It is a crazy movie but fun enough and the riffing is top notch. Nice little “twist” ending at the end as well. My favorite of seasons 1 for sure.