Movie: (1948) A cowboy finds himself in the middle of a range war between a powerful rancher and his neighbors.
First shown: 10/15/94
Opening: Mike programs Crow and Tom with regional speech patterns
Intro: Dr. F.. sends a matter transference device to the SOL during an ion storm. It’s “Mirror, Mirror” time!
Host segment 1: The Mirror-Mads sing “Joey the Lemur.” In our universe, Crow and Mike struggle with Mirror-Servo
Host segment 2: Mike and Crow plot strategy, while Mirror-Gypsy and Mirror-Servo do likewise
Host segment 3: Mike and Crow consult The Alternate Universe Manual. In the mirror universe, Mirror-Crow attacks Mirror-Mike while Tom and Gypsy plot strategy
End: M&tB figure out what happened, the Mirror-Mads stop by while a letter is read, the Mads are enjoying their new agony booth
Stinger: Wheelchair Dad laughs
(197 votes, average: 4.32 out of 5)
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• Of course, this is one of those episodes where the host segments WAY overpower the movie segments. Internet MSTies went completely insane for about three days after this episode, which parodies the well-remembered “Mirror, Mirror” episode of the original “Star Trek.” It always amazes me when the host segments completely take over (the “Dark Timmy” segments and the “Joel escapes” segments are other good examples). The segments amount to, maybe, 15 minutes of a two-hour time slot. The Brains have to write lean and tight. It’s a tough assignment, but when they pull it off, as I think they did here, it’s an amazing thing to watch. For what it’s worth, the riffing is actually pretty good, but nobody really noticed.
• This episode is included in Shout’s “Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection: Vol XXIII.”
• The whole “Mirror, Mirror” thing overwhelmed the opening segment, which coincidentally dovetailed with a whole conversation we’d coincidentally been having about “coke/pop/soda” and other regional speech patterns on the RATM newsgroup. But some people did notice and were amused.
• The mirror Mads’ delight in “the eight of Chris Lemmon,” a reference to an invention exchange in episode 517- THE BEGINNING OF THE END. I may have asked this before, but I’ve always wondered happened to cause Chris Lemmon’s career to tank. He just fell off the radar.
• The mirror Mads enter the theater from the left and sit in seats on the left (or sinister) side of the theater.
• The riffing by Dr. F. and Frank was a marvelous change of pace, and I guess you could think of it as a bit of a preview of Cinematic Titanic and, now, The Mads.
• As I have noted more than once, Mary Beth Hughes was hot-hot-HOT!
• And while we’re on the subject, both the female leads in this movie kept reminding me of Jessie the cowgirl from the “Toy Story” movies.
• Of course, the mirror Mads’ fun friend Joey the lemur harkens back to a wacky segment in episode 210- KING DINOSAUR. It’s clearly a good-natured dig at Joel.
• Mirror Tom is in full Shatner mode as he enters the theater, until he looks up and says, “Oh, hey a cowboy movie!” Then he’s back to normal.
• Non-spaghetti ball bumpers: beaker, date book, bulletin board.
• Crow’s line, “He’s Black Crowes lead singer thin,” surprised me. Maybe they didn’t think people would know who Chris Robinson is?
• Nice to see Gypsy all dolled up as mirror Gypsy.
• Callbacks: Old Timer Billy Slater (Junior Rodeo Daredevils); “Shut up, Iris.” (The Beatniks), “the Milling About Festival” (Black Scorpion), “Again?” (Fugitive Alien).
• We get an early “I thought you were Dale,” which would be a running gag in season eight.
• Cast and crew roundup: I won’t do the Lippert litany again. Special effects guy Ray Mercer also worked on “Lost Continent,” “Radar Secret Service,” “I Accuse My Parents,” “The Sinister Urge” and “The Beast of Yucca Flats.” Costume designer Alfred Berke also worked on “Lost Continent.” I’m not going to do the whole Albert Glasser litany again, either. In front of the camera, Mary Beth Hughes was also the star of “I Accuse My Parents.”
• CreditsWatch: Host segments directed by Kevin Murphy. Andrea DuCane is back for a three-episode stint doing hair and makeup.
• Fave riff: “I’m so sick of gingham I could scream!” Honorable mention: “It’s a plot device. It’s very flimsy, so be careful.”
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Yippie-yi-OUCH!!
I visit this episode often; it’s one of my favorites. As soon as Crow mentions the ion storm, I immediately knew the target of their humor. What I didn’t predict was the characters switching locations. How wonderful to hear Frank getting to riff on the movie, a nice precursor to CT. Nice touch having Frank and Clay sit in the normally empty seats (Trace still gets to sit at the edge of the frame … hmmm). The film is often hard to hear, and I can’t imagine trying to watch it without the riffing. Outside of a couple of growls or an occassional “Shut up”, Mirror-Servo in the theater never seemed very evil. And what about Mirror-Gypsy? While Mike, Crow and Mirror Servo watch the movie, she was apparently left unattended, free to sabotage the ship or do anything she wanted. Anyway, I would have liked to spend more time in the mirror universe. At least we had a bit more during Host Segment 3.
Callback: More Reba (The Violent Years), Torgo (Manos).
I had to struggle with this one so I’ll just make note of my favorite riff: “You lost the last of the wild horses, you dink!”
One of the big reasons I love this show so much is that, often, you can just tell that the Brains loved their jobs and loved doing whatever the hell they wanted as long as they found it funny. I think this episode is a great example of that. The totally gratuitous Star Trek parody, the self-referential, well-meaning ribbing on their own show, and, when in doubt, throw in some Torgo. Oh yes, and a well-riffed movie will get tossed in there, too, somewhere. Can you imagine how much fun it must have been to work for Best Brains, and, in particular, on this episode? It really was such a treat to watch something that was not only brilliantly funny, but also made by people who so obviously loved their jobs and respected their audience. It was a nice shot of goofy, well-meaning optimism and a pretty good counterpoint to the somewhat cynical 90s and I think it’s become even more welcome in these dark days of economic panic. I love this damn show.
Finally, speaking of “hot hot HOT,” ladies: back me up on this. Evil Mike? Sleeveless gold tunic? Goatee? Agnonizers AND an agony booth? Oh MY. :)
I watched this one recently, and still the only thing that stands out is Grady Sutton, best known as “Ogg Oggleby” in W. C. Fields’ “The Bank Dick” (which is why the MST crew keeps coming up with variations on the name). Douglas Dumbrille also plays the wheelchair-bound father, and he was the veteran of two Marx Brothers films, “A Day at the Races” and “The Big Store.” Other than that, it’s a long, dreary slog of a movie. They needed the “Mirror, Mirror” host segments in order to make anything about the episode stand out.
Oh, yes… and I remember thinking at the time of “Beginning of the End” that “the eight of Chris Lemmon” was lame, so it was kind of amusing when it seemed the Brains thought so too, in hindsight.
4 stars.
I want more host segment ! They did great work with it, I just wish they could have done more.
But the movie itself just isn’t bad enough. It’s almost interesting and it’s somewhat competently nailed together. The riffing has many highs but too many slow spots too.
3 is the magic number. I do like F&F in the theater ( two of my fave riffs are from them : Tomayto Tomahto and take it like it a boy-hee hee ), but 2 people is not enough for riffing. And IMHO, CT shows that 5 is too many. 3 is just right.
( btw Trace does really good voice work )
In addition to the aforemntioned Tomato and Boy, the foot fetish riffs are good. Too bad they didn’t have brokeback mountain at the time, but La Cage of the old west is pretty funny too.
Someone on the writing staff must have grown up on Long island. This ep’s Al D’Amato reference, plus other ep’s Long Island RR references etc are too specific.
The regional speech patterns bit was pretty cute, and an homage to Joel, no ?
Our ‘hero’ looks a lot like Michael Moriarty, no ?
Let me check my notes re the Host Segment:
We saw alt-Mike and alt-Crow in alt-Deep13 with norm-Tom and norm-Gypsy
We saw norm-Mike and norm-Crow with alt-Tom and alt-Gypsy on the norm-SOL
We saw alt-F&F on the alt-SOL
golly I can’t get enough of it.
And Gypsy as predatory female… MMRRROWW !
I’ve never seen this one and would really love to. Anybody know what the likelyhood of the rights being acquired by Shout Factory for this one? I know somebody compiled a list once of rights probability but I don’t recall where to find it.
# 7 – Anybody know what the likelyhood of the rights being acquired by Shout Factory for this one? I know somebody compiled a list once of rights probability but I don’t recall where to find it.
I don’t know where to find that list any longer, but I made of copy of it in my files. According to the list, it is ‘extremely likely’.
Oh … DUH! It’s in Ward E, here on this site.
https://www.mst3kinfo.com/ward_e/listlikely.html
Sorry I don’t know how to make it clickable here (or italicized, or bold or … you get the point).
lol, the site makes it clickable by itself. Sweet.
Every time a new DVD set is announced, I keep hoping this one’s on it.
Yippee-die-yi-yah!
This episode is among the good to very good. The host segments were outstanding, really enjoyed the “Mirror,mirror” parody, and it was a hoot to see Forrester and Frank riffing on the movie in the first segment.
Overall the movie was ok and they got off some decent riffs, but this one bogged down at times for me. I’d give it a 3 out of five.
I always laugh at mirrorcrow attacking mirror mike and yelling die, die, die. The riffing strats our great but the movie is so slow moving the riffs are not that funny. i just wtach it for the host segments.
@I’m not a medium:
I believe Frank is usually credited with the LIRR jokes.
This was an above-average episode for me. Of course, Frank & Forrester being in the theater was the headliner, and they did a decent job during their time. I found it fitting that this episode should come up just at the same time I finally got around to buying my first CT dvd; I’m guessing this was a prelude of what to expect. Looking forward to it!
Fav Frank riff: “Jacksonville…where church, family – and hopefully someday industry – all come together!”
Fav Forrester riff: “Go home and disappoint your husbands!”
Fav M&tB riffs, from Mike who’s mimicking the old man in the wheelchair: “I’m a Formula One racer..VROOM!!!” Another one is when Mike says about Remedy: “You know, I’ve been trapped by this guy at so many parties”, which has happened to me too!
Like Sampo, I thought the “he’s Black-Crowes-Lead-Singer thin!” remark was alittle lazy. Chris Robinson was a rock star by that time, years before he got involved with Kate Hudson, and most people would have probably gotten the reference had they mentioned him by name. I’m guessing most of the writers at BB were not Black Crowes fans.
Overall, the riffing was strong, and the segments were just crazy. I also love a weird-ass moment in the movie, where the two guys fighting in the barn fall down…the quick close-ups of both actors are so strange they’re funny.
“THE DOUBLE CRANCH??!!”
I haven’t watched this episode in a while, but I certainly remember the host segments. The Mads making fun of Joel’s Joey the Lemur sketch is still very funny. Evil Mike was good as well.
The movie? Oh right, there was a movie in this one too. I know Frank and Forrester riffed it for a while, but I can’t remember a single line. The only memorable western they’ve done (and the only other one) is Gunslinger for having most of the cast killed off.
“Whoa, cool! He almost made it into his hat!” I don’t know why, but that riff makes me giggle like a loon every time I hear it.
Frank and Forrester provide some of my favorite riffs in this one. “I miss my spur noises!”, “You lost the last of the wild horses, you dink!”, “Ah, Albert Glasser, the man who holds you down and pummels you with music!”, “Nice going, Tad, now we have to talk to him again!”, “He drank our apple juice!”, etc.
I’m not even a “Star Trek” geek, and I still love these host segments. I’m at least somewhat familiar with the “Mirror, Mirror” episode, so I get all the references (the goatee on Mike, the agony booth, etc.), but I also like how the Brains work in various digs at themselves too. “There are no lemurs in this movie! AAAHH!!”
Foot fetishists of the Old West…..
Favorite riff by Dr. F, just under his breath: “You got a sweet outlaw ass”
Ted, you stole the riff I was thinking of quoting, and I salute you, you magnificent bastard! I read your book!
I think my sister had a bit of a crush on Mike around this time so I’m sure she appreciated shirtless evil Mike.
I try not to give into scatalogical humor too often, but the Johnny Pooper sequence is glorious.
“Pooper held as probe widens!”
Such a great episode. But even if they did nothing else, the scene where Crow attacks Mike yelling DIE! to the tune of the Shatner fight music from Star Trek, is enough to make me fall down laughing every time I see it.
If this is’nt the worst(dull) movie they ever did, I don’t know what is. I would rather sit through Manos a hundred times than this one.
( for you Cordwainer Smith fans out there, a Double Cranch must be when you use twice the normal amount of Cranching Wire, badum bum )
This is a fun one. Movie’s great, Glasser and Lippert are reliably riffable. The host segments, of course, top notch. I wish Frank and Forrester were in the the theater more but that’s just me.
Sweet, this episode is a favorite of mine both for the good riffing and the departures from the norm, ie a Western and the mirror-mirror plot. I have one of the opening sceens tattoed on the inside of my arm with Forester and Frank in the theater seats.
here it is on my photobucket:
http://i476.photobucket.com/albums/rr128/habitat_agaisnt_humanity/Tattoos%20are%20far%20to%20perme%20pa/DSCF2677.jpg
#4: I am so with you on this it isn’t funny. XD
Way to go me. That’s supposed to be #3, Kris. :oops:
Johnny Pooper Johnny Pooper…number 2 bad man of the west.
Love that riff!!
For those interested in watching this episode, go to YouTube and search mst3kmrplastik. Page over until you find “MST-0611” grouped together, click “play all” and if segments aren’t in order, click “stop autoplay” and select them in order manually. It’s a bit of work finding/getting all the segments together and the quality is less than a fair VHS taping but watchable.
“Yippee Die Aye Yay” best take on an old cowboy phrase since Die Hard 1.
MST3K should have made this a color movie – not a black & white movie … the silhouettes would look better …
… the rare boss silhouettes. Of course Pearl Forrester gets a color movie when doing Quest of the Delta Knights.
Yes, Kris #3, I am in total agreement with you – Evil Mike is quite sexy!
Wow, Ransom, that is hardcore. Well done.
Just for the record –
JOEY THE LEMUR WAS NEVER FUNNY.
Unless, of course, you like watching people you love make complete asses out of themselves while TRYING to be funny with a crappy hand-puppet, constant mispronunciations and a lame Gilbert Godfrey impersonation. Then, of course, it’s HYSTERICAL.
I so want “Mirror-Mirror” versions of the Crow and Servo action figures….Oh, wait – there still aren’t any action figures from the show at all.
What gives?
I’ve seen this episode a lot but not for years. It was good to bring it out again. While the host segments of course get the most attention, along with the Mads in the theater at the start, a lot of folks see the movie riffing itself as second grade. I have to disagree. The riffs were top notch, as well as the voice delivery. Trace did a fantastic job as always with his lines, and the other two (and Frank) were at the tops of their games.
“It’s a plot device. It’s very flimsy so be careful.”
“Maybe they’re like bees and they won’t go in the water. Sure enough.”
“I don’t think you were supposed to burn down your own barn, Ted.”
#17, I also love the line, “Oh cool, he almost made it into his hat.” Crow says it with such gusto, it gets me every time.
I see this episode as a precursor to season 10, where they take shots at any and every SF convention they can put their hands on, this being a good example.
Don’t know why, but I kinda feel like the Brains were actually thinking of Sebastian Bach of the band Skid Row when they made the Black Crows riff. Yes, the music is completely different, but both bands did become popular at about the same time, and Bach is by far one of the scrawniest frontmen in the history of history.
And INAMIAP (#24), that’s a horrible pun. C’Mell should scratch you a good one for that.
Another solid season 6 outing, IMO, but I agree that the host segments overpower the movie. Having Frank and Forrester in the theater was cool (“This is really awkward for the horses because they’re all friends” “Beautiful thighs!”). Evil Tom entering the studio and suddenly realizing it’s a cowboy movie also cracks me up every time.
Ultimately, the movie is not so interesting but not a complete failure…I think it is really the efforts to inject comedy into the story (i.e. Remedy) that makes the film such good fodder. “High Noon” it ain’t, but I think the movie is pretty much on par with a lot of cowboy flicks from that era.
Watching this now, and forgot how great it was. excellent.
( hush underwoc, or it’s Mother Hittons Littul Kittons for you. I have to go tend the sheep :)
Dull movie not bad enough to be really funny, not good enough to be entertaining. The host segment sketches make this episode worthwhile. Love the whole “Mirror, Mirror” Star Trek thing and everything they did with it.
The host segment here are legendary, but the movie is so gray and dull and the sound is so washed out and gray and dull, this movie just sits on my head and crushes it way more than Gunslinger did. Some of my favorite episodes feature some of the worst movies, but this is just inert, and the occasionally great riffs can’t make the movie not be one of the hardest to watch. Right below Castle of Fu Manchu and Million Eyes of Su-Maru.
Love the apple juice riff…
“Oooohhhhh….quit givin’ me pee!”
Wasn’t it:
“What the hell is going ON here”?
(Forgot the “on”?)
I liked how evil Crow was not so much evil as just incompetent
I just love Tom’s “THERE ARE NO LEMURS IN THIS MOVIE!” since even the Brains acknowledged King Dinosaur had no lemurs at all. And Gypsy getting angry at that song was mere icing on the cake.
The riffs I clearly remember:
– Yep *spits*. We can go watch a wagon wheel get made or we can go to the trial.
– *newspaper spins* Flash! Attractive woman spotted!
– “I found out who killed Charlie Cooper, Riley!”
“Who’s Charlie Cooper Riley?”
Get this out on DVD.
I like watching people I love make complete asses out of themselves while TRYING to be funny with a crappy hand-puppet, constant mispronunciations and a lame Gilbert Godfrey impersonation. It’s HYSTERICAL.
I love this one! The host segments are great and it’s hilarious to see “evil Mike”. He sure did like to wear outfits made of lame didn’t he? :wink: Trace and Frank did a great job in the theater as well. Overall though, I enjoy the movie the best. It’s just right in its badness and clearly they are trying to make the “hero” into a John Wayne type, even calling him Duke. There’s no love lost between me and the real “Duke” so I loved all the shots they took at this guy. Crow riffing about how that guy almost fell into his hat cracks me up too! That would have been pretty neat.
Fave riffs:
“Quit giving me pee” – the look on his face when they say this is what makes it b/c I swear that’s what he was thinking
“I wasn’t playing shoe store!” – love this one b/c in college I worked in a shoe store
“You got a sweet outlaw ass”
“It’s a town full of Holly Hobbies” – I had a Holly Hobby doll when I was a kid
I have never seen this episode, so I’m looking forward to it, if and when it comes into circulation. By reading all of your comments, it seems the majority thought it was well done.