Movie: (1957) An unethical doctor turns a short-tempered teen into a monster.
First shown: 4/19/97
Opening: Mike is to be removed as captain
Intro: While camping, Pearl lowers the SOL’s shields, and Tom meets a face-hugging alien
Host segment 1: Crow’s proximity detector malfunctions
Host segment 2: Servo goes after the alien
Host segment 3: It’s alien egg omelets for everyone, but Crow is a critic
End: The alien is draining the SOL’s energy and Mike is forced to become really repulsive. And at camp, Pearl tells some scary stories
Stinger: “People bug me, too!”
(216 votes, average: 4.35 out of 5)
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• Get Mary Jo’s take on this episode here.
• References.
• This episode has not been released on DVD.
• This one is just irresistible. The riffing is great, the movie is an iconic bad movie with a great bad movie cast, the segments are some of the best “parodying the classic sci-fi conventions” stuff they did and the ending is a classic.
• This episode debuted just as the movie “Volcano” was gearing up to hit movie theaters, and after the opening segment, Sci-Fi ran a short bumper with the “Volcano” logo super-imposed over the door sequence. Which means somebody actually thought this movie would appeal to MST3K viewers specifically…
• Not-so-much-annoying-as-amusing commercial: A Radio Shack ad that takes credit for helping people “understand cellular phones.” What was to understand?
• In this, the first full episode with the new evil trio, Pearl clearly prefers Observer to Bobo. It’s a dynamic that doesn’t last very long.
• Tom is still wearing the alien facehugger when he comes into the theater for the first movie segment.
• During segment 1, Crow accidentally bumps the “Mousetrap” game Mike and Tom were playing and sets some of it in motion. Kevin and Mike just roll with it, so to speak.
• Movie observation: That song is weird. What is with the tempo of the lyrics??
• In segment 2 we get another recall of the “Tom did some stuff while on his own in the universe…” backstory, but I think maybe this is one of the last.
• Daleism: [As Michael Landon looks at his hand] Mike: “I thought I was Dale!”
• Then-current reference: The first of several episodes to make reference to Richard Jewel. Now largely forgotten.
• This is the third straight movie featuring psychological regression!
• That’s Beez in a now-rare appearance as Magic Voice.
• Most of the time, when an actor or actress from a popular TV show appears in a movie, they purposely limit themselves to only one or two jokes about it. They did that here with Guy Williams of “Lost in Space” present: they limited themselves to “You’re worse than Dr. Smith!”
• Malcom Atterbury plays almost the EXACT same suicidal dad character he played in “High School Big Shot”!
• Tom enters the theater from the left after segment 2.
• In the ending segment, Tom uses the phrase “sour its milk,” a direct reference to a Star Trek: TNG plot line.
• Once again in a moment of extreme stress, Mike’s preternatural ability to transform himself comes in handy. I gotta say I did NOT see the Adam Duritz slam coming. I consider myself a Counting Crows fan, but Mike was hilarious. Does anybody know if Adam ever commented on it?
• The camping planet story arc — such as it is — begins with this episode, and the stingers thankfully returned.
• Cast and crew roundup: I will not go through the Arkoff/Nicholson litany again. Director Gene Fowler Jr. also worked on “The Rebel Set.” Assistant director/production manager Jack R. Berne also worked on “The Amazing Colossal Man.” Costume guy Oscar Rodriguez also worked on “The Magic Sword” and “Phantom Planet.” Set designer Morris Hoffman also worked on “War of the Colossal Beast.” Score composer Paul Dunlap also worked on “The Rebel Set” and “Lost Continent.”
In front of the camera, Yvonne Lime also appeared in “Untamed Youth.” Whit Bissell also appeared in “Lost Continent. Malcolm Atterbury also appeared in “High School Big Shot.”
• CreditsWatch: Jim gets a producer credit only. Kevin gets a director credit and is also listed as associate producer. Interns Elliot Cobb and Mytch Parks finish up their final stints as interns.
• Fave line: “Um, mistakes were made?” Honorable mention: “Boy, does he ever!” “Sir, I gotta get back and transfer Oswald.”
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There were no Guy Williams/Zorro riffs! And with Whit Bissell playing the mad doctor, I thought the guys would throw in a Time Tunnel riff, but they never did. Good episode.
A catholic werewolf?
This one, more than any other movie they ever tackled, was already a household name beforehand, wasn’t it? I recall an episode of ‘Highway to Heaven’ that ended with Landon’s character becoming a werewolf and attacking the bearded guy, which must have assumed that people knew this is where Michael started out right? I think it turned out to just be a dream, but I’m positive that was a real HWTH ep.
I was shown the scene from Cabaret with the adorable lil’ Hitlerjugend in High School Humanities class around the time this debuted, meaning I received an almost perfectly timed explaination for the “Tomorrow, belo-ongs, to meeee…” joke, but the best one comes just after the big musical number.
Crow: “Ah, the precise moment Michael Landon became beloved by all America!”
Seriously, after seeing them riff so many old movies with horribly choreographed and uncompelling fight scenes (Skydivers springs to mind), the sheer viciousness with which the late Landon pounds the piss out of that little guy is downright awe-inspiring. The opening fight is equally memorable for Michael, who actually looked like a teen at the time, taking on one o’ them mysteriously middle-aged teenagers, probably assuming the guy had come from outer space to use the Gor-gon for TORCHA!
A super fun episode! The movie segments are top notch and the episode-length “Alien” parody works for me (as does next episode’s Body Snatchers riff) and I like he image of eating “mind fried rainbow trout”. Pearl’s camping trip sounds like my kind of fun, and I like the scary stories segment at the end. The opening host segment is a classic, with Servo at his Servoyest:
“Gentlemen… And Gypsy… And Crow… And Mike… And Servo…”
“I’m nary to know the distinction betwixt Shinola, and that other stuff.”
“Well, know this, Captain James T. Jerk- Your job is hanging by a thread- you’re between Scylla and Charybdis with the sword of Damocles hangin’ over ya by a Gordian Knot!”
Love the finale’s slam on Adam Duritz, I’ve always hated Adam Duritz and when this episode aired I was at, perhaps, the height of my Adam Duritz-hating.
Now, the quotes list.
=From the Host Segments:
Mike: Tom, oh yeah, one more thing- how long before you come back crying?
Crow: Inattentive service and brutal attack with steaming eggs marked a visit last week to what was once one of my favorite breakfast places…
=From the movie:
=The odd gang of kids provides lots of riff fodder:
Mike: Sock-Hop of the Damned!
Crow: Mike, I’m going to ask you to kill me now. Mike, please kill me.
Mike: I bet they smell reefer, Tide, and mildew down there…
Crow: It’s the wet, deformed elf competition!
Mike: You know, ‘wet him’ is worse than ‘him’.
Mike: Arch Hall Jr and Ada Annie: Beatniks
Crow: Women who love arrhythmic trolls!
Mike: Elvis J. Pollard!
Crow: When clowns mate!
Mike: The Carnival of Souls gang!
“Hey, Frank!”
Tom: Lighting fires and masturbating! I mean, What?
Mike: So, no one has any accumulated memory or experience…?
=And who could forget Pepe the Janitor?
“Hey, Pepe, you’re in late tonight!
Mike: Oh, whole lot of throw-up tonight!
Crow: Did anyone throw up in here?
“I’m going down to the lab.”
Tom: There’s a lot of throw-up down in the lab, so look out.
“Going on twelve years I have been working here, have I ever said a word?
Tom: Well, you messed up the Manson case for us, that was not good…
“That’s what I thought. First time I heard this–”
Mike: I beefed.
I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF
Crow: Of London!
Tom: You are not drinking a pina colada at Trader Vic’s, young man, you’re just not old enough!
Crow: I was a teenage werewolf until that summer of passion when I became a man!
Crow: So, a wolf with zits, then, that’s what we’re getting.
Tom: Ten days since last high school pregnancy!
Tom: Ow, right in the Little Joe!
“Don’t worry, soon you’ll be back to your true self…
Mike: A cowboy, or an angel, or a frontier dad…
“Boom! You throw a carton of milk at him!”
Mike: It contained bovine growth hormone and he turned into a giant cow!
Crow: Hey, it’s depressing dad!
“Every time I’d assemble a motor my way, he’d beef.”
Tom: Sometimes he’d light his beefs. One time he sat on my head and beefed!
Mike: Mom’s inside, licking Metamucil off of Dad…
Mike: So, I bet you’re real hot for that nondescript character we didn’t give a ride home to, huh?
Crow: I’m probably tasty and well-marbled, not something I’ve often thought of…
Mike: What a waste of sexual prime, huh?
Tom (on newspaper): Oh, that poor building code!
Mike: He’s devolved too much! He enjoys Adam Sandler movies!
“Quickly, tell me where you are!”
Crow: I’m in my treehouse and I’m nude!
Mike: Eric Von Stroheim, nurses aide!
Crow: “I directed ‘Greed’, now this…
Who’s there?”
Mike: Judge Crater.
Crow: D.B. Cooper.
Tom: Adeline Murray O’Hare.
Tom: Can we ever be more than Spinster and Lycanthrope?
Crow: John Carradine has ‘major booty’ compared to Michael Landon…
Tom: I was having a generic emotion!
Tom: But doctor, I found a letter jacket in my stool!
“Your grades are good- Of course, they were always high.”
Mike: And so are you.
Crow: Does just walking through it make you want to kill yourself? Then it’s a high school!
“I amuse myself with fantasy.”
Tom: Like, I’m the stable boy and my assistant is the Countessa.
“Kept pretty much to himself…”
Tom: Collected roadkill, kept a kettle of hands…
Mike: Uh, sir, I saw a werewolf with a Chinese menu in his hands…
Tom: We searched Hooters, Deja-View, Buns & Roses, and Fat Burger, no luck.
Crow: Wow, a werewolf that size can really poop!
Mike: Oh, geez, I have clothes on and I’m piddling!
Tom: 1943- An Ewok makes his way behind enemy lines!
“The papers will eat this up.”
Crow: Or they’ll rerun ‘Dear God I’m Only Seventeen’…
Mike: J. Edgar Hoover, Greif Counseler
Enjoyable episode, and good segments.
Once again, we get a nice pooch that’s supposed to be attacking, when it looks like he wants to play. He’s a light blond shepherd, with dark hair on his back, but it looks like a stuffed dog is used for the rolling-around-on-the-ground fight, and the colors don’t match.
This film, at least, has day-for-night that doesn’t obscure the characters and action, but it’s so day-for-night that it’s just basically day.
I like the fact that two cops are supposed to stand guard and keep a werewolf trapped in the woods. And that whole dragnet scene. What, a whole 7 guys are going to comb the woods? How many acres? Also, it looks like all the action takes place in one gully, shot from various angles.
And really, a werewolf? Besides the hair, teeth, and animal-like instinct, he follows none of the tenets of being a werewolf, with the exception of transmogrification. No full moon needed, uses drugs and regression as the vector for initial ‘infection’, I would assume he cannot infect others, and no silver bullets needed to kill him. I call no-way on the werewolf.
I really like Pearl’s scary stories at the end. Very cute. I love how Bobo just immediately gets scared and starts saying, “No! No!” to every line. Brain Guy gets sucked-in immediately, too. Also, I thought it was funny that Bobo is roasting a banana over the campfire.
I might be alone on this, but this episode just does not click for me. I’m not exactly sure what it is. There are a few good riffs (the dairy throwing ones are solid), but overall I have trouble connecting with this one. It seems to me that they must have been really struggling to connect the milk-throwing line in the first scene and Landon’s milk-toss at home. To their credit, they did pick it up and make good use of it. Still, it seems to my untrained ear like they were having a tough time. Maybe the movie is too good? Take that in either the straight or Max Bialystock fashion.
I also might be alone in thinking that despite the tacky title, this is a very solid little B movie. Except for a couple of the “teens,” the actors are pretty good all around, and Michael Landon does a very good job fleshing out what could have been a one-note character, as someone mentioned in the good actors thread. It also seems to capture, in an overwrought fashion, the generation gap between baby boomers and the silent and GI generations (“You’ve got to bow to authority!”). Sure, the filmmakers are ripping off Marlon Brando and James Dean, but they are doing so in an interesting way. The adults for the most part are well-meaning but detached, and the scientist who is out to solve the world’s major problems has little to no concern for the costs of his ambitions. A pretty interesting sentiment for a film made well before large-scale involvement in Vietnam. Just like Rosemary’s Baby, The Exorcist, The Shining, and Nightmare on Elm Street captured the parent/child dynamic between my generation and our boomer parents, I could see this movie doing the same for the boomers. Any thoughts from the pre-1965 comrades?
While this episode did not make me laugh as much as some others (particularly next week’s offering), it is pretty watchable.
One quibble- According to the time signature on my DVD player, Mike wins the bet with Crow.
Eenie, meenie, minie MOE!!!
Re annoying commercial: Maybe they could have waited a few years for using that line, when cell phones started getting really complicated. I’m still waiting for the day when people get sick of those tools of the Devil and pay phones make a comeback.
DON3k #5: And really, a werewolf? Besides the hair, teeth, and animal-like instinct, he follows none of the tenets of being a werewolf, with the exception of transmogrification. No full moon needed, uses drugs and regression as the vector for initial ‘infection’, I would assume he cannot infect others, and no silver bullets needed to kill him. I call no-way on the werewolf.
If you do some fokloric research, you’ll find that there there are a variety of different ways of becoming a werewolf. The Dresden Files novel Fool Moon features a pretty good summary of the various types. It should also be noted that the whole infection through bite is a Hollywood invention, injecting vampire folklore into the mix.
[i]Most of the time, when an actor or actress from a popular TV show appears in a movie, they purposely limit themselves to only one or two jokes about it,[/i]
Ahem.
(singing to the Bonanza theme) “We’re gonna get a film with Michael LAN-Don!!!”
“This is not part of the Highway to Heaven.”
“Right in the Little Joe.”
“I’ll bet Nellie Olesen’s at the bottom of this.”
(You’ll be your true self) “An angel, a pioneer, a cowboy…” (paraphrase)
And these are just off the top of my head.
After “Bloodlust”‘s one single “Brady Bunch” joke, they started caring less and less about whether they’d beat a “guy from a popular TV series” joke to death. Wait until we get to Alan Hale in “The Giant Spider Invasion,” or, worse, Russell Johnson in “The Space Children.”
And frankly, I wouldn’t have it any other way, because it’s FUNNY.
“They’re listening to ‘Kind of White'” put me on the floor the first time I heard it. Still does, really.
I now refer to all smooth jazz albums as “Kind of White”.
This is the epsode what begat my username. Something about the word “Shinola” is just inherently funny to me.
There’s so much I love about this episode. Perhaps because I’m already a fan of running jokes and callbacks, they seemed to stand out a bit more in this episode. The milk-throwing saga, the ongoing debate over who beefed and why, werewolf/domestic dog jokes — every minute was gold.
In general, I agree with Sampo that this is easily among the best of the “front nine” black-and-white depress-a-thons.
“Why, sometimes he’d light his beefs.”
‘I was a teenage werewolf snack.’ Actually this film was a box office hit. This film actually is the reason micheal landon got the role on bonaza. I am suprised they never did the movie i was a teenage frankenstien.
I liked their usage of a common cartoon ‘honk’ sound effect as an alarm.
I love how they riff on Frank the Creepy Loner Guy being pawned off on the annoying troll’s date: “My dog said something interesting to me today”, and “The blood of my victims cleanses the earth.” I sometimes find myself saying “The blood of my victims cleanses the earth” whenever I want to creep out my friends. (All in good clean fun, of course.)
Tying in with last weekend’s discussion, Michael Landon is actually pretty good in this movie, even though he does chew the scenery a bit.
Love the beef riffs!
(By the way, they did make I Was A Teenage Frankenstein.)
Milk tossing- coming to a county fair near you!
I liked the whole ‘what does the girl see in this abusive jerk’ theme in this movie. To quote Mike Nelson from his ‘Movie Megacheese’ book, “I’ve done nothing more than sneeze 3 months into a solid relationship and been dumped like a flounder.” Why do moody, abusive A-holes always manage to get girls? :?:
Anyway, my favorite line:
Acrobat girl screams-
Crow: “Judy Garland finally runs out of pills.”
Re # 12:
Especially since that was the film that the stars of the previous movie, ‘Terror from the Year 5000’, went to see while the oily guy was getting “Spayed.”
“This is the third straight movie featuring psychological regression!”
I think you have a slight episode-order hiccup there. The Undead was 806, followed by the non-psychologically-regressing Terror from the Year 5000.
This is definitely one of the few episodes that is instantly recognizable by lots of people because it features a pretty mainstream movie. Films like this, that are respectably put-together and well-acted, albeit with a goofy premise, are a double-edged sword for the MST3K crew. They are generally less tedious, but also are harder to pummel into submission, than truly awful films. In this case it makes for a solid and fun episode, but not a stand-out one.
I’ll disagree with Sampo on one point: I think Pearl’s preference for Brain Guy is pretty sustained. Even though she does torment Brain Guy at times, they routinely gang up on Bobo. She leaves Brain Guy in charge while she’s away in Incredibly Strange Creatures, they torment Bobo with their universal-remote, they spin him in a giant centrifuge, they start a “we hate Bobo” club together, and so forth. Whether it’s because he’s smarter or because she needs him for his powers, Pearl clearly seems to be much easier on Brain Guy than Bobo. The two also seem to share a “you go girlfriend!” vibe, especially in season 10.
Malcom Atterbury was definitely typecast. Since “Werewolf” came first, I’m assuming that he was recruited for “Big Shot” based on his performance in the former. I’m gonna go with him as my favorite character. Even though he was depressing as always, he seemed to be the only one who had any sense. Every one else seemed either clueless or extremely illogical:
-Whit Bissel’s plan to help humanity made no sense and revealed him as merely a psychopath.
-His assistant could clearly see that his boss was nuts and yet continued to assist him despite his clear understanding that their actions were pure evil.
-The detective’s pre-occupation with minor juvenile disputes made you wonder about his credentials in crime prevention.
-The teens were your typically slow-witted, “jive-talking” types. As is always the case in these teen movies, every other adult/parent is an utter moron. A lot of parallels with the considerably more amateur Teenage-Strangler (dumb parents, cop who befriends the teens, lame teen hang-out, annoying musical numbers, etc.).
Atterbury’s character seemed to have a bit more depth than all of these others. His affection for his son seemed very genuine. In this film he was like the good, cleaned-up version of the same dad he played in “Big Shot.”
A Counting Crows fan, eh Sampo? :: shakes head in disbelieving disgust :: :wink:
“I was a Teenage Werewolf” is one of those movies I’d heard about long before actually seeing it. There used to be a diner near one of my high school jobs that had a ton of old movie posters on the walls. I’d sat beside the poster and often wondered if that was the Michael Landon I knew from “Little House” and “Highway to Heaven”.
I’d seen a few moments of this episode over the years, but never the whole thing. So when I finally got around to accessing DAP, this is one of the first episodes I picked up. We watched it a few months ago, and when I saw that this was the next one being discussed I couldn’t remember much about it – not a good sign.
The movie isn’t completely horrible. It’s competently made, the acting is pretty solid, the only real weakness is the motivation of the doctor to regress our hero back to his werewolf state. It feels shoehorned in. The numerous scenes of the doctor babbling about taking man back to his roots are silly and over long. On the flip side, the angry teen as werewolf is interesting and actually played well. This could have been a more effective film if more time was spent figuring out the doctors motivation, or if they just went with a more standard reason for the transformation.
But just because it’s competent doesn’t mean that it’s not dull. And this movie really drags to a halt, and ironically once our hero meets with the doctor. The first portion is actually kind of interesting, but the doctor scenes and cop scenes end up dragging the pacing to a slow grind. The ending lacks any kind of climactic surge and just kind of sputters out. The best thrill of the film is the werewolf’s attack on the gymnast.
Mike and bots seem game enough and the fact that Landon is our lead offers plenty of fodder in the form of jokes based around “Bonanza”, “Highway to Heaven” and “Little House”. The teen party is my favorite riffing sequence. I also enjoyed the whole “throwing of dairy products” riff they had going. But just as the movie starts to sputter, so does the energy of the riffing. There are some solid laughs, but the consistency was lacking a bit here.
The host segments are average as well. Most of them provided some laughs but my favorites are the opening segment where Mike is removed from command, and the ending segment. I never like Counting Crows and so that part had me on the floor. I also loved Pearl’s story time. Bobo and Brain Guy’s reactions are perfect.
This wraps up that long stretch of dreary films that were tackled in this season. At least it wasn’t as boring as it could have been, but in the end “I Was a Teenage Werewolf” was just an average episode of the show. Three stars from me.
Oh and I forgot to mention that Stephen King sites this movie as one of his favorite werewolf films. He goes into it quite a bit in his non-fiction examination of horror “Dance Macabre” and it plays an important role in the novel “It”.
“Most of the time, when an actor or actress from a popular TV show appears in a movie, they purposely limit themselves to only one or two jokes about it, rather than beating it to death”
*Cough* Lovejoy! *Cough*
Can somebody explain “Daleisms” to me? Perhaps future references to “Daleisms” could link back to an explanation for others who only just arrived to the discussion?
Have we already had a thread about over-used riffs? The Richard Jewel thing was used many, many, times in this and other eps. The teen hang-out, especially the painful song the hideous troll sings always cracks me up. ‘London calling, yes I was there too…’
‘Cab Calloway!! oh.. no…’
I was saddled with a roommate in college who loved the Counting Crows, up until that time I never knew what the sam hill the last host segment was about. I will say Adam Duritz has one of the most obnoxious, makes-you-want-to-rip-out-his-vocal-cords “singing” voices of all time and that I, for one, am glad they didn’t pull any punches.
“Lighting fires and masterbating!!!”
This one gets four stars from me. Goofy movie, great riffing, fun host segments…the Brians really end this stretch of B&W films in style. I do have to point out that the off-time singing on “eenie, meenie, miney, mo” really bothers me for some reason. Granted, i bet this way sounds more intesting than the original but it sounds as if Frank Zappa wrote the song. That’s not a bad thing, per se, but I find that song very strange. Maybe it assaults my pop and folk sensiblities?
This is officially my favortite episode of the show, bar none. Classic B-movie, like previously mentioned, and it’s a weird case of the things that sometimes irritate me about the show, make me laugh even harder.
The running joke about someone ‘beefing’ was just outstanding, especially since the term was first said by one of the characters in the movie.
The whole plot running through the host segments is something, also, that usually doesn’t work for me, but I loved all of it this time. I think we’re really starting to see Bill make Crow his own, or at least this is the first episode that I really liked him in.
All in all, a hilarious 90 minutes.
A good one. I think the camping planet was my favorite location they traveled to before Castle Forrester. Movie’s great, classic stuff. Host segments are great too.
And #24, briefly- the Brains mixed up two commercials, one for Ivory (which contained the mistaken hand identity) and one for Grape Nuts (which contains the line ‘I thought you were Dale’). More info at https://www.mst3kinfo.com/mstfaq/subtle.html about 3/4 of the way down.
I agree about “Richard Jewel” being overused. My teeth get on edge whenever I hear it; the guy’s dead, the incident’s forgotten, and it only shows how you should keep away from overly obscure topical references. (I mean, once would have been fine, but they must have mentioned his name five times in this episode!)
“Eeny, meeny, miney, WHOA!”
Definitely gets my vote for one of the worst songs ever, sung during a wonderful scene filled with high schoolers who are obviously going to matriculate at the Old School when they graduate.
The only scene that makes me laugh harder is the gymnast’s practice…I sincerely hope it doesn’t really reflect her routine.
Personally I always hated that they limited themselves on making references to tv actors such as here with Guy Williams as well as back with Robert Reed in Bloodlust or even Alan Hale Jr in his MSTie appearances.
I haven’t seen this ep in several years but as I remember it, it was one of the better eps. As a movie, some parts are good and some so silly that you don’t need the brains to laugh at them.
I disagree that Richard Jewell jokes were over used. For about 6 months, if you flipped though the channels you could hear someone refering to RJ with 5 minutes of turning the TV on. If there was a hurricane, some commedian would say it was RJ’s fault. He was the Sarah Palin or Anna Nicole Smith of his time.
If they make some Sarah Palin jokes now, everyone would get them. Unless she gets to run for president herself or gets her own TV show, 12 years from now 18 year olds will be saying who the heck is Sarah Palin. Why did they tell so many jokes about an obscure losing vice president candidate. How many of you can remeber off the top of your head any losing VP candidates who didn’t later become president from before you started to vote?
If you watched a lot of tv at the time you probably remember RJ name even now. I thought the counting crows references were obscure. I don’t listen to music and if I hadn’t listened to MST3k, I would have never heard of them.
3 Stars. Nothing special.
“Hey! It’s Depressing Dad!” I like Crow’s joyful recognition of that actor. It’s like seeing an old friend. I too felt Crow’s joy. Malcom Atterbury does play a similar character, only this time he’s got a steady job.
I like this episode. It’s refreshing after the string of super-dull, black & almost black, movies that came before it. I must say, though, that it sure is a strange premise for a werewolf movie.
So, Michael Landon’s character has rage issues, but is otherwise a normal teenager who does well in school and has some good friends and a girlfriend. To cure him of his rages, he is not sent to a typical psychiatrist. No. He is sent to a creepy mad scientist who thinks he can revert man to a more savage state. So where does the werewolf come in? This is the second movie in a row to play free and loose with the theory of evolution.
The host segments are great. I don’t really care for host segments that have a single story, but these work well. It think the fact that they play on sci-fi movie conventions is what makes them enjoyable.
A favorite riff: When we first see the girl’s mom in profile, Tom does a subtle horse’s neigh.
Now, onto current events riffs. Yeah, the whole Richard Jewel thing got old the first time they used it. There is a better Olypmics reference during the gymnast’s scene, in which Servo calls the girl Kerri Slug.
The idea of what, then current, riffs could be replaced with today could make a good weekend discussion topic.
For example, instead of Adam Duritz of Counting Crows, Mike could play John Mayer; a far more repulsive creature than Adam Duritz. Mike could have probably destroyed the “camping planet” had he been John Mayer instead of Adam Duritz.
This one loses steam for me after the basement party antics. Still a good episode, of course.
#20 Mike:
Amazon.com’s review of their live album notes that “People may tire of vocalist Adam Duritz’s perpetually-wounded-soldier-of-love act”. Great description of Adam’s persona. Mike Nelson clearly has tired of it and I understand that, and like I said, I thought the segment was a riot. Still the band has grown on me. They’re not my FAVORITE band or anything, and I don’t know that I’d pay money to see them (if I could even afford it) but if they come on the radio, I tend to turn it up.
I would argue that IWATW is not only a legitimately good movie, but in fact the BEST movie ever given the MST3K treatment. Landon gives a good performance, the werewolf metaphor works, and…Whit Bissell!
This is just a great episode. The movie gives them a lot to work with: silly B-movie plot, memorable characters, an awful song, amusing special effects. The teens versus adults viewpoint of the movie kills me (considering half the teens look like they would be more comfortable at a dinner party with the “bow to authority” parents).
I can’t get enough of the troll who sings, speaks in slang which must’ve sounded dated on opening day and plays the bongos worse than the title character in Boxing Helena.
The riffing is top-notch including great use of recurring jokes regarding milk tossing, beefing, etc…
My favorite riffs would have to be either the previously mentioned beef riffing or the partygoer offers to walk home alone through the park and Servo responds “RINGRINGRINGRING VICTIM!”
#37 Sampo:
Fair enough. :smile: I was only funnin’ ya, anyway. To each his own. I’m probably the only person on this board who would pay good money to see Yoko Ono live, so we all have our idiosyncrasies. :wink:
I suppose this episode is a “special” one for me. When I managed to work out how to see the “not on video” Mystery Science Theater episodes, I started by picking and choosing instead of going in any sort of order, and by the time I realised I was running out of episodes to see “for the first time,” I decided the last one from the list would be “I Was A Teenage Werewolf.” That probably had something to do with it being one of the “known outside the series” movies. Anyway, I think I managed to get beyond “end of an era” thoughts to enjoy the episode, but perhaps its specifics didn’t make a big impression on me after one viewing.
I think this episode provides a lot of unavoidably obvious gags and only unavoidably obvious gags, allowing no clever subtext. The riffs that are funniest are the ones that sort of catch you unaware, not ones that are simply served up. I put this one in the same category as Catalina Caper. The characters are annoying and the riffs too effortless to be more than smirk-level. I wouldn’t want to have to riff it. Disappointing, too, since the werewolf is so iconic.
Back in the day, several of us saw The Counting Crows in St. Louis. Our friends were there for Jakob Dylan (go figure), but they had to concede that the Crows blew Dylan out of the water. Meanwhile, if I so much as mention the band to another friend of mine he simply replies, “if I had a gun.” Me? I like the Crows. But I _way_ prefer jazz. The Crows might be many things, but they’re definitely not jazz. That is to say, they’re not _that_ cool.
I LOVE this episode! I saw the movie countless times as a child, so it sits right with me. The fight scene at the beginning is hilarious.
From Sampo’s intro: “Movie observation: That song is weird. What is with the tempo of the lyrics??”
On the discussion page of his site for this episode, Mighty Jack has a link to an interview with the blond actor Kenny Miller (who also worked with Bert I. Gordon):
http://gammillustrations.bizland.com/monsterkid4/kenny.html
Turns out he had to sing and dance without music, and when the music was dubbed in later, it was out of sync and the producers never fixed it.
I have to say, I’m not exactly an expert on psychology. When you say psychological regression, do you mean someone reverting to an animal mindset? If so, where does that happen in ‘Terror From the Year 5000’?
Sampo – “… and the stingers thankfully returned.”
That’s an understatement.
Loved it!
“… and Hoss signs the committment papers” LOL!!!
This movie should have been done during the Dr. Forrester years. Just look at this dialogue:
Dr Hugo Wagner: But you’re sacrificing a human life!
Dr Alfred Brandon: Do you cry over a guinea pig? This boy is a free police case. We’re probably saving him from the gas chamber.
Dr Hugo Wagner: But the boy is so young, the transformation horrible–
Dr Alfred Brandon: And you call yourself a scientist! :evil: That’s why you’ve never been anything more than an assistant!
I never cared much for this episode. I couldn’t get into the segments or the movie riffing. Only a few of the milk gags worked for me.
I’ll stand in the pro-Counting Crows corner with you, Sampo. I’ve been a fan since the heyday of ’90s alt rock – hey, I was in junior high at the time – but I can easily see how people might find Adam Duritz annoying. In fact, I’d be happy to never hear “The Rain King” ever again, but I’ll take Counting Crows over, say, Eddie Vedder’s narcoleptic moaning any day.
I liked this episode very much! The riff when Tony comes home after the first fight and Dad is leaving for work… *Havn’t killed myself yet son.* One of the best callbacks ever!