Movie: (1978) Vacationers at a winter resort struggle to survive after an avalanche hits.
Opening: Crow and Tom are working on their “Mad Bots” script
Invention exchange: Ardy in Moon 14 has some concerns; J&tB have the mouth vacuum; the Mads have the Don La Font-aine 3000
Segment 1: Crow and Tom are impressed with Rock Hudson’s romantic moves. Jonah tries to talk them down
Segment 2: As J&tB play Marco Polo, Neville La Roy visits and he and Kinga sing “Our Love Is on Wings (You Can’t See)”
Segment 3: J&TB decry deliberately stupid hybrid B-movies
Closing: Night club singer Gypsy sings a wintry medly
Stinger: Collateral avalanche damage
(82 votes, average: 4.40 out of 5)
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• Several new things in this ep: Joel as Ardy in Moon 14 (other than saying “movie in the hole!”) and the first mention of Kingachrome.
• Movie thoughts: Did Rock and Mia just assume there would be chemistry and not even try to create it? Also interesting and vaguely related: J&tB carefully avoided any riffs on Rock’s, um, lifestyle.
• Jonah’s invention triggered my gag reflex.
• Steve Franken in two out of the first four movies? What are the odds?
• In the theater, Crow and Tom control drones which carefully block the naughty bits of a naked lady, similar to the umbrella bit in episode 403- CITY LIMITS.
• Also in the theater J&tB produce cymbals.
• As the helicopter flies in, they do a M*A*S*H-style description of the movie, one that is taken WORD FOR WORD from the synopsis in the IMDB. I know because I also stole MY synopsis, above, from there, but I rewrote mine a little.
• Neil Patrick Harris pops up out of the blue in a sort of “Dr. Horrible” reunion with Felicia Day. The lyrics by Joel, Elliott Kalan and Robert Lopez. The music is by Robert Lopez, arranged and produced by Stephen Oremus.
• Interesting “Simpsons” reference: “Feels like I’m wearing’ nothin’ at all! Nothin’s at all!” How many Simpsons references were on MST3K, even though “The Simpsons” referenced MST3K several times?
• The credits do not say who wrote Gypsy’s song, so I am guessing it was another great song from Paul and Storm.
• What sort of musical instrument in Jonah playing during Gypsy’s song?
• The TripAdvisor bit is very funny.
• Callback: “We want to hear California Lady!” (Track of the Moon Beast).
• Phrases from the legacy show: “Commercial sign,” “He died as he lived…” and “You look at it, I’m bitter.”
• Cast and crew round-up: As noted, Steve Franken was also in “The Time Travelers.” Stuntman Freddie Hice also did stunts for “Alien from LA.” Behind the camera, producer Paul Rapp was assistant director on “High School Big Shot.” Producer Roger Corman’s other riffed films include “Gunslinger,” “It Conquered the World,” “The Undead,” “Viking Women,” “Teenage Cave Man,” “Swamp Diamonds” and “The Sword and the Dragon.” Editor Larry Bock also edited “Final Justice,” in which he also had a cameo as a drunk. Production designer Sharon Compton was an actress in “Wizards of the Lost Kingdom II.” Special effects artist Roger George also did special effects on “The Human Duplicators” and “The Amazing Transparent Man.” Script supervisor Sandy King also supervised the script for “The Incredible Melting Man.”
• Fave riff: “1978, you have so many crimes to answer for.” Honorable mention: “o/` Rock rock rock rock rock ’n’ roll search team. o/`”
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No rockets, no aliens, no monsters except for Rock Hudson, but this movie did have bell bottoms, short skirts, lonnnng collars, and lots of Farrah Fawcett hair. It’s obvious that the New Brains really enjoyed doing this one!
The movie choice and the riffing itself is top notch.
I don’t know anything about “Dr. Horrible” so maybe I’m missing out on something, but I thought the duet was pretty horrible and drags the episode down a fair bit. First of all, the characterization is TERRIBLE for Kinga. I don’t want some fragile, squishy schoolgirl caricature as the antagonist for our satellite captives. It seriously undermines the menace. Secondly, the song itself is pretty uninspired. The joke of online relationship foibles is about 10 years too late. Lastly, apart from Patton’s interlude, the singing is just too damn sincere. That may have worked for Clown in the Sky, but not here. Patton, again, hits the tone of the show perfectly. Felica? There was nothing funny about that performance.
Favorite line might be Jonah’s comment after “he’s up to his a$$ in celebrities” and the 3rd host segment is pretty fun
My favorite so far. Big name actors, (I especially like Robert Forster), decent special effects, and all kinds of 70’s crap to riff on. They’ve definitely settled in nicely. I lived through the avocado colored world that was the 1970’s and this is a nostalgic trip reminiscent of an Irwin Allen disaster movie.
Aloha!
Man oh man, yet another classic!!!! This was the episode I started with on Friday the 14th, the day the season went live on Netflix. I fell in love with it immediately. Not just a strong Season 11 episode, but one of the series’ best.
The movie is part of the half of Season 11’s films I had never seen/heard of, and all I can say is… wow. Yet another PERFECT movie for the show to tackle. 70’s disaster films are a fertile genre for riffing, especially when they are poorly written, star studded affairs. It reminded me of the similar films featured during the KTMA season, like City on Fire and, of course, SST Death Flight. With its 70’s aesthetic, failed romantic intrigue, the presence of Rock Hudson and Mia Farrow, and catchy disaster movie title, this movie is an MST3K playground, and they take full advantage of everything, creating one of Season 11’s finest moments.
In other words, it’s up to code. :)
Some observations:
-The opening segment officially introduces us to Moon 14, where the bubbly, low-fi Kinga Chrome is produced. We get some nice dialogue from Ardy explaining the whole thing, and if you hadn’t noticed that it was Joel in the suit, it’s pretty obvious after this segment. His explanation in this and other episodes regarding Kinga Chrome’s constant spilling is a nice excuse for the many deleted scenes in the movies! Also, what are these borderline paranormal manifestations he mentions? Maybe something to be elaborated upon in a future season?
-Again, the Mads are stealing inventions from riffs. Jonah and the bots haven’t caught on. Max uses the name Danny as a punching bag, just like in the last episode. I smiled. :)
-The guys fail to notice the name of one Roger Corman in the credits. A strange omission, unless they are trying to tone down the Corman bashing to try to get on his good side. He’s got a lot of riffable movies they could do…
-To not make a big deal out of Rock Hudson’s sexual orientation must have taken some restraint. At one point his mom says he’s “Up to his ass in celebrity”. A perfect set up, and the riff is “let’s let that one slide”. Now THAT’S restraint!
-“I’m not forgetting you, Danny from the last movie”. Yep, that’s nearly 15 years older Steve Franken. What are the odds of him turning up in two consecutive MSTed movies?
-“This is the big one!” *fart noise* Immature? Sure. Funny? You bet!
-The running lunch jokes just gets funnier.
Callbacks: “We want to hear “California Lady”!” (Track of the Moon Beast); “Joe Don Baker?!”
Classic MST3K riffs: “Diarrhea is like a storm raging inside you.”; “Mentos: the Fresh Maker!”; “Rosebud…”; “Try to reason with it?”; “Go Packers!”; “Does this bug you? I’m it touching you!”; “You look at it. I’m bitter.”
Star Wars References: Half buried imperial walker; “Anybody got a half frozen Tauntaun?”
-Is “The mountain avalanched” a grammatically correct phrase?
-The first segment is a hoot! Jonah’s interrupted 70’s light fixture presentation is very Season 2-ish.
-I wonder if “not up to code” will become a catchphrase? I think it could!
-Dear God, what ARE those hideous deserts being served during the dinner scene? Can anyone identify that monstrosity?
-The second little Skeleton Crew Interstitial bumper features Max explaining the Containment Ceremony that closes each episode, in which the Mads “safely store the remains of each experiment fur all time… so you don’t have to!” what is the purpose of this? Does it have something to do with Gypsy’s payload? Are they storing the movies themselves, or the riff data, or both? SO MANY QUESTIONS!!!!
-Naughty riff: “The “Immature”!”
-The “Hot Chocolate Beer” bit darn near killed my family when I showed them this episode. It’s freaking hysterical.
-I made the “Whoa, you got naked like super quick!” riff a couple of seconds before Servo did!
-Stupid line: “Can I give you a big hug?” Who wrote THAT?
-I swear Servo says “Wufus Wainwright” at one point. To borrow a line from Sampo… they keep going.
-In a rarity for MST, this movie features some boobage (and booty) that was not cut for the episode. However, like Joel with his umbrella in City Limits, it’s hysterically censored, this time by floating drones. It’s a censoring technique Joel first used during Cinematic Titanic, specifically during Frankenstein’s Castle of Freaks. In that episode, a “Boob Blimp” descended to cover up some skin during a couple of scenes. This is clearly an evolution of that concept. This is another bit that nearly killed my family with laughter.
-Segment 2… what can I say? I ADORED it! I’m so glad they got the chance to give these two a duet. It’s obviously a lovely tribute to “Dr. Horrible”, and stands on its own as a wonderful bit of silliness and sweetness. Neil’s line “Sometimes I’m on the can when we make out!” darn near resulted in a spit take from me. That said, Max steals the show with his bits off in the corner by himself. One of the new season’s best segments.
-The naming of all those skating moves is reminiscent of the “Sidehacking moves” segment. It’s hysterical!
-If this was Season 3, Crow’s line “You need a password to LOG in!” would have resulted in an arm being torn off.
-What the ding dong heck is up with Kitchen Cheerleader?
-The scenes of chaos in town that has NOTHING to do with the avalanche result in some great riffing.
-Dear God, how I LOVE Segment 3! It’s high time the makers of these movies got called out in such a brilliant way, and it’s one of Season 11’s funniest moments. Now to see if any of those dozens of titles get stolen by The Asylum…
-Tom’s voice when he says “Dude, that must be the North Pole!” cracks me up every time (and I’ve seen the episode 4 times now!).
-A nice moment: Jonah sees a flashing yellow light and yells “Ah, its Commercial Sign!”, and sure enough, we cut to an Interstitial bumper a second later!
-Sorry Crow, that wasn’t the Wilhelm scream. It was the Howie Scream. I’ll just go adjust my nerd glasses now…
-The “Dear Trip Advisor…” bit at the end is a hoot! “Found cheerleader in my salad!”
-The ending bit, featuring the “Florence Gypsy” performance of “Alo-HA”, was just wonderful. It’s the moment the new Gypsy won me over. I still miss her original, dopey voice, but it’s segments like this that I feel my love for the character bubble up and give me the warm fuzzies. Her line “My first love was my third husband” had me in stitches. The segment really reminded me of “Gypsy Rose Me”, and might just be Rebecca’s best Gypsy moment all season! As a Bot Builder, Kinga’s line about her pipes being “pure… PVC” cracked me up. Max’s reaction brings the episode to a wonderful and hilarious close.
-And last but not least, YAY!!!! My name is in the credits of this episode! I was initially bummed that I wasn’t in the 200th episode of MST3K, but I’m a glass half full person. The way I see it, I’m in the first of the NEXT 200 episodes! Plus, I’m in an episode that’s sure to go down as an MST3K classic. I’m just happy to be able to see my name in MST3K at all. It’s a surreal pleasure. :)
-End credits songs: Hybrid Monster Movies segment music; Creepy Girl; Livin’ in Deep 13; Sidehackin’
-Favorite Riff: “The boss wants a larger, more complicated sauna!”
My three honorable mentions:
“You drew this goat from memory?”
“1978, you have SO many crimes to answer for.”
And…
“I need help with my trig homework”
And now, as a special treat, and brought to you because I love you, I present to you (after LOTS of typing and LOTS of pausing) the COMPLETE list of Segment 3’s Hybrid Monster Movie Titles!
Snowcano
Triceraquake
Birdaclysm
Gatorlanche
Ghost Orca
Horsetapus
Three-Toed Blitzsloth
Rainicane
Frog Fog
Pugslide
Gatoricane
Underlanche
Brunchtapus
Narwalrus: Arctic Terror
Blitzcano
Blitzfrog
Crocowasteland
Mastodennui
Swanpedo
Firenadosaurus
Eaglesaurus: American Frightmare
Tor-NATO
T-Rexplosion
Clamorrhoids
Frankensnake Riftbeaver Vs. Outer Space Napalmuskrat
Abominable Mega Snow Spiders
Beet Wave
Volcanosaurus Rex
Wooly Clammoth
Dinoseal
Beluga Moose
Rabbitoxicity
Rabbi Rabbit
Pugslide 2: The Puggening
Cesium Storm-odile
Monsoonicane 6000
Monsoonasaurus
Ptarmegeddon
Blitztastrophe
Sunfishoscopy
Cancercano
Snaketological Duckopalypse Vs. Protopuffin
Catpuffin
Bluejayquake
Buffalocolypse
Volecano Vs. Mole-atron
Snowbeaver Vs. Ultra-Fox
Lemonado
Streptococker Sapaniel
Mechaflood Vs. Clone Snake
Swanquake
Moose Moth Vs. Lemming Bear
Mothometer Vs. Pianodon
Ponyshark Meets the Tortoisito
Basswasp
Velociwalrus!
El-Nino Bear
Spider-Man: But a Monster, Not the Superhero
Roboquake
Beaglebot Vs. Horsetapus
Shark-heatindexearning
Tarrantullama
Blitzcanoswordapocalastronaut
Dogclopse II
Volcanosaurus Rex
BlitzCraig
Adobe Flashflood
Fraggle Rockslide
Frankenferret
Rikki Tikki Tarantula
Robo-Bonobo
Sharkstesthiologist Vs. Proctologerbil
Clowntspus
Skunk Bucket
Mecha-Shakespeare-icane
Magnatonsil
Platapocolypse Vs. Clownocerus
Cari-BOO!
Rapper Identity Theft 2016
Wooly Clammoth Vs. Leopardvangelist
Nerdemic
Global Worming
Night of the Were-Dads
Sharkstadon
Rhinoculus
Shrimptologastrophe
Will Feral Cats
GoatSwarm
Kangapus Vs. Gullfrog
Mastadonatello
Underwater Kidnaposaurus
Robocowboys Vs. Sickle Squid Anemia
Influenzalanch
Glutenoceros
Mammalsquid Vs. Sandstorm
Lionado
Wedgiegeddon
Underground Coyoteprawn Merts the Tsunami Crab Squirrel
WHEW! Take THAT, SyFy Channel and The Asylum!
Been a few weeks since I watched this one, though it’s slated for a re-watch. I don’t recall too many, if any, references to Woody Allen. It’s probably for the best, given the family-friendly bent of the show, and not having to explain the complicated Allen family history.
Still, a great, over-the-top film, and I will echo the ‘instant classic’ sentiment of others. Particularly funny that the movie’s alleged ‘hero’ is actually trying to start an avalanche at one point.
Gypsy’s riff on her second theater appearance stole the show!
This is the best episode of the season (although my wife and I are only halfway through the season). While the movie isn’t a “typical” MST3K movie (it’s more of the exception like the occasional TV movies they would do) the riffing is excellent and the movie itself is goofy enough to have fun with (the biggest “disaster” in this movie is the emergency care folks, who seem to kill a lot more folks than the mountain does).
I like the gentle fun they make of the stars without getting too snarky. And… best song of the season (again, so far). Nice to see everyone having such a great time.
8 out of 10.
I love this episode! I couldn’t get into it at first, but it grew on me. The invention exchange is fun, especially with Jonah pretending to cough up confetti, and Kinga getting annoyed by her own invention. The trademarked hybrid B-movies segment was hilarious enough to inspire me to take a new name! I’m not a big fan of the Neil Patrick Harris cameo/song though. The lyrics are cute, but the song is just not that entertaining, and I’ve been skipping over it whenever I rewatch this episode. Also, Gypsy’s one-woman show parody at the end is just as annoying as I imagine a real-life show would be.
The movie itself is fun… There is so much goofiness, from Mia Farrrow using an Easter basket as a purse, to the incompetent first responders crashing into buildings and failing to catch the guy stuck on the ski lift, to the huge blocks of styrofoam snow getting blown around. I love all the different versions of the title: Avalunch, wolfalanche, flagalanche, timealanche! The Simpsons riff was unexpected and hilarious (stupid sexy Bruce!).
It seems like an odd decision to have the avalanche during the day… I get that people needed to be outdoors and enjoying the day in order to get caught in it, but it seems like the nighttime snowstorm was more threatening, and then disaster was just delayed. The actual avalanche scene, when it finally hit, was full of rapid-fire hilarity, especially the kitchen cheerleader and the Swedish chef muppet voice.
When the dynamite explodes at around 1:03:40, what is the squeaky little tune that the riffers sing?
Favorite riffs:
“Neptune again, WHY?!”
“Onnnnne peanut-butter banana cheesecake surprise—OHH!”
“Just move the surfboards aside, brah!”
“Let go or the boy dies!”
“I’ve got my photography rope!”
Flaming baked Alaska. Cake on top of ice cream, merangue on top, then pour hot rum on top and light it on fire.
Those are rather, um, inartfully prepared. Look like they were stolen from a Whoville Christmas feast.
Flaming baked Alaska. Cake on top of ice cream, merangue on top, then pour hot rum on top and light it on fire.
Those are rather, um, inartfully prepared. Look like they were stolen from a Whoville Christmas feast.
This particular episode I found similar to some of the monster movies they did where the riffing doesn’t really pick up until the monster shows up. Here, the riffing was kinda leisurely, but once the avalanche starts (after Segment 2!), the riffing becomes very sharp and clever.
I absolutely lost it at the “You’re as cooooold as iiiiice…” bit.
Strange riffing moment. Early on they make a joke that Rock Hudson has a drawing of a goat on his wall….. then later in the film when Mia Farrow goes to the environmentalist’s house, he has a picture of a goat on his wall. Whaaaaaaaat?
I like how the blonde ice skater continues her skating routine, while the audience around her is being killed by the avalanche, and she too is eventually run over for her ignorance. Add her to the list of dumb b-movie characters.
The “drones” bit was clever, but slight nitpick: Wouldn’t it have made more since if it was *Jonah* controlling the drones, and not the ‘Bots? I mean the ‘Bots are often talking about wanting to see nudity….
I like that they got some playful digs at both Comedy Central, and Sci Fi Channel (or rather “Syfy”).
Oh yeah, another great riff, when Rock Hudson’s mother dies in the car crash, and it blows up:
“She died as she lived, completely lit up.” Ouch!
This is one I’m looking forward to seeing again, because I wasn’t overwhelmed by it. I thought the riffing was somewhat undisciplined — but it’s possible that I was just tired when I saw it (that is, my MIND was undisciplined).
I really don’t expect anyone to agree with me on this, but as much as I like Felicia Day I feel that Kinga Forrester is so far more of an attitude than a character. And I will confess that I really didn’t like the song. It was GOOD, almost too polished and good, in my opinion. I will likely change my mind about this, and I’m enjoying reading the comments by those who truly love this episode.
This, along with the other disaster movie City on Fire, was one of two that I’d actually seen prior to becoming aware of its riffing. I was stunned there were only a couple references to Rock’s sexual orientation in this. My guess is that they just wanted to avoid the low hanging fru…(I just realized what I did after typing that). I probably would have gone with kitchen cheerleader as the stinger.
Fav riffs:
Nick: I don’t know how you can ignore that hazard.
Servo: LA LA LA LA! (complete with mimicking that he was covering his ears)
“Is it really an avalanche if it doesn’t break an icicle?”
and the aforementioned “died as she lived”. Does that count as another callback?
Great episode, great riffing, best host segments yet, etc.! When the movie got to the town mayhem scene, i immediately screamed out “It’s Durango” when I saw the Gaslight Theater. Somehow Roger Corman got the Durango and Hermosa fire departments to lend their fire trucks for the movie too.
Actually, starting a (hopefully) small avalanche on purpose is done all the time at ski resorts, in order to (again hopefully) prevent a bigger one that would strike at an unknown time. It sounds like it makes as much sense as doing controlled burns to prevent forest fires, but there ya go. It does work… most of the time.
I love this episode; it’s my favorite of Season 11, hands down. The rampant stupidity, the ultra-1970s look of everything. Mr. Yeti and I watched this one together and were almost in tears of laughter/embarrassment at realizing that we, at some point in that decade, had a lot of the clothes and hairstyles ourselves. Highly flammable puffy vests, anyone? The decor of the ski lodge was pure ’70s ugly crap.
Favorite scenes were the Swedish Chef with Cheerleader, the Hot Chocolate Beer (there really is such a thing now) seduction, and the Fiery Grandma of Death. Was anyone else creeped out at Rock Hudson’s mom seeming to have the hots for him? Shudder. I applaud the writers for not doing any gay/AIDS jokes about Hudson.
And just to make it truly complete, the three that Kinga & Max rattled off were:
Quicksandvalanche
Amadeusaurus
Skee-Ball-ocaust
I thought the episode was OK, though I thought the way they had to cut the movie by between 15 and 20 minutes made the story a bit too choppy. I also thought the riffing was a bit too fast again.
I did like the song and the host segments, and I agree that Gypsy’s performance was reminiscent of “Gypsy Rose Me”. And how much would to care to bet that one or more of the spoof titles they came up with are actually in development somewhere?
Oh, and I’m pretty sure there was one Woody Allen and one Frank Sinatra riff. I’m surprised there were no “Rosemary’s Baby” jokes at some point.
Calling Ward E!
Also, with a certain twist of mind, I think several of those titles would work for episodes of the old Red Shoe Diaries…
So I grew up in Colorado in the 70’s/80’s. This whole developer versus environmentalist thing was the real deal. In fact, I kept expecting to see John Denver and Dan Haggerty pop up somewhere in the film planting trees and wrestling wolverines or something.
Other thoughts:
– Felicia can sing! I agree with other posters that the musical segment was a lot more polished than standard MST3K performances, but you don’t take a Ferrari to the supermarket. If you’ve got the talent on hand, might as well showcase it.
– Anybody else a fan of the Warren Miller ski films? I kept riffing some of Warren’s catch phrases during the ski scenes. “This is the year you finally try making your own action/disaster film.”
Here’s some stuff I gathered up. I was surprised there weren’t more Corman regulars involved in this.
Originally released Aug. 30, 1978
Director/writer Corey Allen, born June 29, 1934, died June 27, 2010
Actor Rock Hudson (David Shelby), born Nov. 17, 1925, died Oct. 2, 1985
Actress Mia Farrow (Caroline Brace), born Feb. 9, 1945
Actor Robert Forester (Nick Thorne), born July 13, 1941
Actress Jeanette Nolan (Florence Shelby), born Dec. 30, 1911, died June 5, 1998
Actor Rick Moses (Bruce Scott), born Sept. 5, 1952
Actor Barry Primus (Mark Elliott), born Feb. 16, 1938
Actor Jerry Douglas (Phil Prentis), born Nov. 12, 1932
Actor Anthony Carbone (Leo the Coach), born June 15, 1925
Actor Joby Baker (TV director), born March 26, 1934
Actor X Brands (Marty Brenner), born July 24, 1927, died May 8, 2000
Producer Paul Rapp, born Oct. 24, 1937
Composer William Kraft, born Sept. 6, 1923
Cinematographer Pierre-William Glenn, born Oct. 31, 1943
Assistant director Russell Vreeland, born March 15, 1943, died Jan. 11, 2011
Special effects artist Roger George, born June 3, 1925, died Dec. 14, 2007
Visual effects artist Pete Kleinow, born Aug. 20, 1934, died Jan. 6, 2007
Visual effects artist Gene Warren, born Aug. 12, 1916, died July 17, 1997
Stunt coordinator Bob Bralver, born Jan 15, 1941
Connections
Producer Roger Corman’s other riffed films include Gunslinger, It Conquered the World, The Undead, The Saga of the Viking Women, Teenage Cave Man, Swamp Diamonds and The Sword and the Dragon. Am I missing any others?
Actor Steve Franken was also in The Time Travelers.
Producer Paul Rapp was assistant director on High School Big Shot
Editor Larry Bock also edited Final Justice, in which he also had a cameo as a drunk.
Production designer Sharon Compton was an actress in Wizards of the Lost Kingdom II
Special effects artist Roger George also did special effects on The Human Duplicators and The Amazing Transparent Man
Visual effects artist Pete Kleinow did the stop-motion animation on Joel’s favorite movie, 7 Faces of Dr. Lao
Stuntman Freddie Hice also did stunts for Alien from LA.
Script supervisor Sandy King also supervised the script for The Incredible Melting Man
“Producer Roger Corman’s other riffed films include Gunslinger, It Conquered the World, The Undead, The Saga of the Viking Women, Teenage Cave Man, Swamp Diamonds and The Sword and the Dragon. Am I missing any others?”
You just counting his directorial credits?
too slow on my edits… was going to add:
As a producer he was involved with Deathstalker and the Warriors of the Lost World movies. IMDB claims hes the exec producer on Women of the Prehistoric Planet and High School Big Shot, too. He also produced Sharktopus, which is clearly one of the inspirations in the host segment this week.
As a distributor, he’s related to most films from American International Pictures or New World Pictures, so that gives us Reptilicus and Starcrash.
definitely my favorite of the new season, i was laughing more during this one than any other episode. i really like episodes with non-sci-fi/horror movies in general so that was a huge plus already. the only part i really didn’t like was that dang song in the middle (just a big “whatever”). all that said, i still wouldn’t put this up there with my favorites from the old show, despite how good it was. it does give me some hope that they’ll do really good with a second season (if there’s going to be one) at least.
Sort of middle of the road as far as the season goes for me, but an episode I still liked a good deal all the same. As others noted, when the avalanche finally hits the riffing rubber meets the riffing road (so to speak); I too enjoyed the TripAdvisor bit at the end (shades of Crow and Servo mocking the 80s), as well as their mocking of the anti-chemistry between Rock Hudson and Mia Farrow.
W/R/T the cameo, even as a Dr. Horrible enjoyer, the duet wasn’t really for me – I don’t mind Kinga having a softer side (mainly b/c the Mads always came off as less menacing and more buffoons to me), but the song itself just wasn’t super great IMO. Doesn’t prevent the rest of the episode being good fun, though.
Favorite riff: “What’s next, someone’s going to cut themselves reading a newspaper article about the avalanche?”
Sorry to clog up the discussion with questions, but two things — one, I no longer see that the comments are numbered; is that new? Also, can someone please tell me how to make the Ignore button “stick” on this site? I am having to click Ignore for the same user on every single page, even within the same discussion. I want it to be like the old IMDb boards, where if you “ignored” one user, it lasted until you “unignored” them. Thanks!
To make my comment more Avalanche-y, I wasn’t thrilled with the host segment duet. Felicia’s got a great voice but I don’t like the “squishy schoolgirl” emoting, as someone else posted. I want her to be more evil. More Mad.
Where is this red “ignore” button? Does one have to have some special status or am I just missing it?
You are my new favorite person, DCMLHSoK! :)
I liked the song VERY MUCH. I agree that is was maybe done a little too straight-up, but Max was the payoff, BIGTIME! He nailed it, and at his line “when I talk with my mouth tiny specks of my spit will fly out and land on her hair” I went – quite literally – into paroxysms of laughter: I believe some of you young’uns call it “LMAO”?
Majorjoe–thanks for your hard work! Please continue. :-)
“Mia Farrow is Michael Nesmith!”
“I was thinking the avalanche would go there…”
“Whoa, you got naked like SUPER QUICK!”
“These baked Alaskas are not up to code!”
The other thirteen episodes of the new season could have been nothing but static and it still would have been worth it just for Avalanche. The Seventies is probably the most riffable decade and the guys are given a buffet to work with here. The best Season Eleven episode by a mile.
I’ve seen some complaints about the song in this episode and while it’s not bad (it helps that Neil, Felicia, and Patton sell the hell out of it), it does illustrate my main problem with the songs this season: they just go on for too damn long. Brevity is the soul of wit and the original show was usually smart to get in, make their point, and get out whenever they sang. The new songs are well written, but just drag out long after the joke’s been delivered. They did eventually learn not to belabor their skits over the course of the season, so hopefully they’ll tighten up the music next time…
It’s a tiny red [X], just to the right of EricJ’s name. ;)
Really? I’ll have to go back and watch this again sometime, but I could have SWORN there were at least two, done very tastefully mind you, but definite digs at his sexuality (IIRC, and this old man sometimes doesn’t, one occurred during the “nude” scene). If I am right, perhaps it’s because they were so well done and not over the top you missed them, which was one of the things I most liked about this episode (another example — grandmother at the piano would have been the easy time to do the Elaine Stritch reference, and my wife and I indeed wondered why they missed it, but saving it for Gypsy at the end was even better).
5 stars from Droppo. An instant classic.
Mia: “You didn’t ask me to dance, you TOLD me to dance!”
Servo: “(singing the Heart song) Crazy on you!”
a few lines later….
Jonah: “Get a second divorce!”
Amazing.
I could’ve missed any as well; the new season riffs go by so quickly. The main digs at Hudson I noticed were about his clothes, his phoning in his performance, and the total lack of chemistry with Farrow.
I agree that Clayton and Frank could behave like they were in a muffin-y, Calista Flockhart, Swoosie Kurtz kind of club. That at least showed the good times for why Frank stayed by Clayton’s side despite the constant maiming.
The biggest problem I have with the “softer side” is the timing in this episode. The preceding host segment was about how dark things can get for women if they let men be jerks. The very next host segment, Kinga lets her man be jerk. She just accepts his callousness as meek as a Mia Farrow mouse.
Seems like a lost opportunity to reinforce the point. I’d rather see Kinga get even
I confess I have a sort of nostalgic fondness for 70’s disaster movies, Irwin Allen or not, since they’re like the days of 70’s TV (I miss TV… :( ) When washed-up stars like Rock Hudson could show up, and the whole production had all of the studio’s ambitious money behind it–Even Roger Corman’s.
But the disaster had to happen at the midpoint, after all the actor’s soap-opera plots had been established, and the “Hubris of greed” (“You can’t build that new hotel/resort/skyscraper!”) had to be identified as the catalyst Nature would strike back against–The “Yep, ‘Avalanche’, any minute now!…” jokes in the first half, which the M*A*S*H* riff also seem to be taking a running-joke at, just don’t understand how these things work, and feels like it’s slipping back into the “C’mon, movie, start Avalanching!” M&tB days.
…H-ho, friends, just wait till you get to Beast From Hollow Mountain, you’ll be BEGGING for an Act II plot point. >: )
Yeah, did sort of feel like those SciFi-era moments when they didn’t have an actual movie-related sketch-premise to poke at, and just paid faux-Broadway tribute to Mike Nelson, the Man, the Legend, the Songwriter, with some off-topic drive-by trend to parody.
Maybe it’s to establish Kinga’s Punctured Romance in order to set up her (SPOILER) subplot later in 1111-14, but even then, S11 needs a “running plot” about as much as S8 did.
They could have put the Obligatory Celebrity Cameo segment in any episode–maybe closer to 1113, or switch places with Jerry Seinfeld–and it would have fit, but here we already had a long musical movie-related segment at the end with Gypsy Rose Me II (now even longer and more awkwardly disturbing, with Gypsy’s new less-funny normal voice, but at least it was a movie reference to Ms. Aloha!) to wear us out with song.
And Lawrence Woolsey’s “Galigator”–Half gal, half alligator!
“Basswasp” would also be a great name for my all bass(and drums) math metal band.
Fronted by Donny Osmond?
This movie definitely had the best “speaking as the character” riff so far:
“Caroline! Can you check on mother!?”
Math-metal? Cool! Thrashing out old Schoolhouse Rock numbers, and grinding the axes on “Three Is a Magic Number”… :)
You have a bunch of stray question marks in the section before the rating? It looks like?
Danzilla mentioned it first, but don’t forget this callback from #318, “Star Force: Fugitive Alien II”
“Diarrhea is like a storm raging inside of you.”
It’s even a double callback since that riff was directed at character Rocky, and ‘Avalanche’ allegedly stars Rock Hudson, who is also a low budget Japanese sci-fi television series actor, so there’s multiple layers of meta in that callback!
Avalanche passes the Bechdel Test. Caroline consults the hotel clerk about her reservation.
Two weeks in a row, the Invention Exchange causes Jonah to vomit weird stuff.
It’s probably partly because Monsters of the World set such a high bar, and partly because I don’t like Dr. Horrible, but this episode’s song left me cold. Considering the wintery setting for the movie, that’s kind of appropriate.
Love how they timed one of the bumpers to occur just after the commercial sign riff.
Another spot-on choice for the stinger. The haphazard nature of the deployment of the emergency services is bizarre. As with a Coleman Francis movie, it’s like the director is trying to convey something, but is too incompetent to have it make sense.
I would call it a riff theme, much like the, “Jim Henson’s [fill in the blank] Babies!” riffs.
There’s also Night of the Blood Beast. That one frequently gets overlooked for some reason.
To Danzilla “Cornjob” McLargeHuge, Student of Kaijuology:
Well done unto thee I do say!
“Is that the phone or is my heterosexuality reaching DANGEROUS LEVELS!?” I knew there was at least one or two references to Rock’s, um, proclivities.
Anyone heard anything on Volume XL (40) yet?
There was the “up to his ass in celebrities” line that Jonah advised the bots to just let slide.
The host seg did skate rather tastefully around the “I wish I could be as manly as Rock Hudson!” issue without calling undue attention.
Actually, it’s only Roger Corman (oh, Roger, Roger, what happened to the director of “Masque of the Red Death”??) at Syfy who does the Polyglot “Croctorhinopihranagatorweilerpanther” knockoffs, while the Asylum does the “Mashup” “Mega Dinoshark vs. 100 Kittens With a Nuclear Submarine” titles. (Yep, you can tell I’ve been playing Superfight.) :)
Although after being bitten by the Battleship and Hobbit knockoffs, the Asylum now usually just sits and waits for another big-budget Hollywood public-domain-folktale-source to share wells with…I sort of stopped paying attention after “Avengers Grimm”, so I haven’t really noticed “King Arthur & the Round Table” or “Operation Dunkirk”.
Yeah, that’s another one I was thinking about. I just remembered that they alluded to it but were not so blatant about it that it felt like bashing. I like these kinds of riffs far more since they assume a certain level of sophistication from the audience (not that there’s anything wrong with yelling “Skipper! Little Buddy” from time to time).
With this episode, the season is really gaining momentum. I have watched all the episodes at this point, and now am watching them on Saturday mornings as Satellite News reviews them. I REALLY like this one, for all the reasons already noted by previous posters.
Regarding the love song host segment, I liked it very much! Music is the great passion of my life (besides my wife, children, Bizzy the dachshund and MST3K), and they do a great job parodying romance duets (with the third wheel cameo by Patton). It does go on, but then that’s what most of those song types tend to do, don’t they? Really ups the annoyance factor.
I also find that Kinga just does not come off as that menacing or evil. Her voice does not have the qualities that made Gloria-from-Sinister-Urge, for example, sound so hard and scary. Her emotional demeanor is also kind of soft. It reminds me of when Joel pretended to be The Master from “Manos”, and the bots just couldn’t buy it because Joel looks and acts just too…nice. I do like her comedic delivery and sensibility, though, and she does have a good singing voice too.
Great stuff!