Short: (1957) A college couple rushes into marriage, while another couple is taking their time.
Movie: (1964) In a West Virginia town, a newly arrived family is at the center of a series of murders.
First shown: 11/7/93
Opening: Mike tries to phone his grandma
Invention exchange: Dr. F shows off the Frank-n-forcer, M&tB demonstrate the waiter-baiter
Host segment 1: M&tB ask: What is love?
Host segment 2: Crow and Tom want to rumble, but Mike intervenes
Host segment 3: Crow and Tom have a gadget that will make Mike act like Mikey
End: Song: “I’m a Janitor;” Dr. F. cleans up after Frank
Stinger: “And he didn’t steal no bike neither … I did!”
(208 votes, average: 4.54 out of 5)
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• And so the show tries to settle into a new routine, and largely succeeds. The movie is plenty riffable and the memorable riffs are plentiful. The host segments are still a little awkward, but the show ends on a real high note. It’s a sign of good things to come.
• This episode is included in Rhino’s Vol. 10.
• Why is Mike calling his grandma? Not his parents? Not his brother Eddie?
• That’s Mary Jo as the voice of Mike’s grandma; that’s Kevin as the voice of the waiter-baiter.
• Mike channels his TGIFridays days with the waiter-baiter invention.
• Once again we get a short apparently aimed not a grade-schoolers, or even high-schoolers, but college students. I wonder when, exactly, college students stopped listening to mental hygiene movies with 30-year-old Romulans playing the students. Still, the message of the short — take your time, let your parents give you a house — is a good one, perhaps even more so today.
• RiffTrax would later riff “How Much Affection?” which is plugged in the short’s closing credits.
• In the first segment, it’s amazing how many of those celebrity romances are no more: almost all of them. I guess that was the point, but I’m still impressed by their accuracy rate.
• What’s the deal with John Humphries, who plays Mikey? At the first Conventio-Con, he explained. He said was a complete novice to acting when the film was made, and that he took his acting cues from Jo Canterbury, the actress who played weepy girlfriend Betty, whom he knew was from New York and had some acting experience. Thus, as her performance became more teary and shrill, so did his.
• The movie was filmed in, and stars many of the residents of, Huntington, WV. The real sheriff even played the movie sheriff. As one reviewer put it, “The effect is of a small town putting on a high school play about a serial killer.”
• During the introduction to the immortal “Yipes Stripes” number, M&TB try to come up with the dirtiest band names they could get away with, including The Cramps, The Buzzcocks and The Butthole Surfers. I think at the time they were just looking for band names that were good punchlines, but all those bands are now considered pretty important.
• “Yipes Stripes” is a real earworm. I’ve been unwillingly humming it for days.
• We get a nice look at Crow’s legs in second segment, which is otherwise pretty forgettable.
• In this episode they began using something different from the traditional five-second shot of the spinning spaghetti ball when they went to commercial. The bits show closeups of Deep 13. In the first one, the camera focuses in on a datebook that gives the episode number and the name of the movie In the second, the camera pans along a workbench in Deep 13 and stops on a beaker labeled with that info. In the third, we see a blackboard with that info, then what looks to be a big spitball then hits the blackboard.
• In the theater, Servo whistles. Hmmm…
• Segment three is fun, though it goes on a little too long…and why “rime”?
• Mike and Tom are already in the theater after segment three, and Crow enters still wearing the Mikey glasses — and therefore talking like Mikey.
• Callbacks: “Cornjob!” (Gamera v. Guiron). “The Master wants you but he can’t have you.” (Manos) [Note: Mike does that one.] “You can flip any chick in the house.” (Brain That Wouldn’t Die) Also, references to “Eegah” including “Watch out for snakes!” “Mr. B Natural is in one of those lockers!”
• One thing about Mike in these early episodes (and I think somebody in the comment thread last week mentioned this) is that he seems unwilling to actually yell when the line calls for yelling. Instead he sort of whisper-yells. He sort of simulates yelling, though he’s not actually raising his voice. As he got more comfortable in the role, that kind of faded away, but it’s pretty noticeable in these early ones.
• We get another “whu-happa?”.
• The show ends with Mike’s first song as host, and it’s a winner. Mike sang it in the live show at the first conventio-con as well.
• This movie was largely made by, and featured, people who had never made a movie before and would never make a movie again. Hence, no cast and crew roundup this week.
• CreditsWatch: Host segments directed by Kevin Murphy. “The Janitor Song”: Music by: Michael J. Nelson and David Sussman. Lyrics by: Frank Conniff.
• Fave riff from the short: “A big VISA bill!”
• Fave riff: “Fortunately, the Higgins Boys and Gruber were on the scene.” Honorable mention: “Looks like mom has won some dirt track trophies.”
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ck: Food for thought, who’s more too old for their movie role: Space Mutiny–Lea Jansen or the movie short’s Romulan roommate?
Cubby: Answer: C. John Ensign, who plays Jimmy Walton in Teen-Age Strangler. He was 47 when he made this movie.
Some of those Ring of Terror “college students” must be about that age.
Of all of the many “narm” scenes in MST3K, the part with Betty and Mikey crying is one of my favorites.
My favorite riff from this ep had to be whenever Detective Anderson introduced himself, Servo channeled Danny Kaye by singing “Anderson, that’s me!”
I love this episode, top to bottom.
HA! Mike’s “shout-whispering” always kind of bugged me. I figured he didn’t want to blow out the mic, but then there was Trace and Kevin screaming bloody murder all the time. For the record, I’ve noticed in some sketches that Frank would also do the shout-whispering.
IMO, this is a sleeper episode–in the good sense of the word. I don’t know why, but I keep watching this episode again and again. The movie’s so frickin’ goofy and wholesome (despite the sordid material) it’s irresistible. Host segment wise, I like the way Mike’s still learning the ropes. He doesn’t know that the bots are playing, or he thinks Baccarat (sp?) and David are calling.
Favorite line: “Mistress Aisha, I’m here for my beating.”
Runner up: “Doin’ the butt…”
Something I noticed: the girl on one of the movie’s one-sheets is from Monster A-Go-Go. Figures because this was second bill to H.G. Lewis’s A Taste of Blood.
Don’t forget the episode callback when Betty is in the hallway of the school and there’s a shot of lockers and Crow says, “Oh no, Mr. B Natural is in one of those lockers!”
I love this episode. One of my fave Mikey riffs is, “Mistress Aisha, I’m here for my beating.”
Wow, what are the odds that TWO women look like elderly Romulans!
Thanks I’m not a medium, I’m a petite, at least now I know It’s not my imagination!
Didn’t John Humphries also mention that Jo Canterbury was really a flight attendant. I seem to recall that was mentioned in the Convention Con segment of the Scrapbook.
for some reason, the janitor song gets stuck in my head for days and days. when i’m doing chores here at home, i hum or sing it and it kinda makes my hubby wonder about me.
and mikey…woo! what a hoot! this episode is pretty solid and i like the whisper-shouting. i do that when hubby and i go out on dates and i’m riffing on the people around us.
my hubby also likes it when i break out and say stuff torgo-style. but it makes the cashiers at target look at you really oddly.
how could i NOT add my two cents to this…
Yipe stripes is one of my fav moments in mstie lore.
I is a true EARWORM.
that’s what cats are wearin’ nowadays.
Nice episode. Not one of my favorites, but still good. Fave riffs: Is this love? “Or is it just rough sex with Michael Douglas?” “So is it a teenager who strangles or someone who strangles teenagers?”
I totally agree with Cubby on this one: “Teenage Strangler” affirmed that Mike Nelson was going to fit as host. “The Brain That Wouldn’t Die” was somewhat dark and disturbing, and in a certain way the theme overshadowed Mike’s newbie status. But this movie gave them so much fodder, even before Mikey’s presence about half-way in. The closing “Janitor Song” was a perfect end to what is, in my humble opinion, one of the show’s best efforts of any era.
Fav riff, kind of under the radar, is when Mikey and Betty run off the school campus, you hear Crow as one of the students say, “Hey!? Aren’t we supposed to beat him up?”, to which you hear Mike as another student say, “Next time..it’s implied.” It took about five viewings to catch all of that.
I think they failed to note that the androgynous Mikey grimaces a lot like Woody Allen during that famous “And I didn’t still no bike neither..” line.
Much better effort for Mike and the Bots in this one,which perhaps should’ve been Mike’s debut episode instead of that putrid “Brain that wouldn’t die”.
Great stuff here as this is such a cheesy delight,and gives us one of the most memorable characters in MST3K history in “Mikey”. The host segment where Mike turns into Mikey when the ‘Bots trick him into trying on those special glasses was priceless! I had a good feeling after this episode that “the new guy” was gonna be ok.
The biggest, most obvious departure of Joel for me was when Mike, during the short, says “Well he’s good in the sack, and he likes to get high…”
Joel’s very ‘PC’ attitude was really kind of annoying. The ‘Booing’ whenever a woman was hit was probably the most annoying.
My sister and I imagine that nowadys, Liz and Andy run a Fortune 500 company, and that Joe works as a football mascot and that Peggy sells pencils in the street.
LESSON: When your parents offer to buy a house for you, TAKE IT!!!!! And that it’s not unreasonable for the parents to ask to actually meet the boyfriend before the marriage.
I did like the Frank-n-forcer but there really isn’t much to add there. Now the Waiter-Baiter signals the beginning of the end of the invention exchange. The invention really seems to below to the Bots. Mike really claims no part of the credit for it and simply is a part of the demonstration.
I wonder why they started using the non-spaghetti ball bumpers for the SECOND Mike episode.
We see the beginning of bonding in the Is this Love host segment. In fact that is a conversation you could easily drop Joel into the middle of and it would work just as well.
Of course by the Mike as Mikey segment we have the Bots taking advantage of Mike again.
That background guitar line heard throughout the movie sounds a lot like a Jeff Healey blues line.
It really doesn’t raise the bar all that high, but this film is a lot better than that other community made and casted film from season four: Manos. But overall it is decent but unspectacular episode. The host segments are okay and the riffing is cute but rarely laugh out loud funny.
Favorite Riffs:
Short:
Peggy “a good chance he’ll get a job on a pro football team this summer” Tom “as a water boy.”
Tom noticing what appears to be Colonel Sanders tie on Joe: “original or extra crispy?”
Movie:
Betty “Fellow citizens and lovers of the good music.” Tom “You better leave.”
Mike “Employees must wash feet before dancing on the counter.”
Crow “It’s Junior Car Rodeo with old timer Bill Slater.” [great callback]
Tom “Boy they’re driving at speeds approaching the actual speed limit.”
Sampo, I can’t speak to Mike’s parents but did Eddie REALLY appear to be the kind of guy to help out? “Yeah, bro hang on i… oh crap. out of smokes… I’ll call ya back later…CLICK”
And with the emergence of young Mikey, the MST3K pantheon of geeky losers swells and perspires and…oozes..and…ugh…
‘And i didn’t steal no bike either.’
I have a question about Mike’s song. As someone who got sick at school more than once, I thought the janitors used something other than sawdust. It looked like sawdust, but it was in a package and seemed to be some kind of deodorant/disinfectant material. Maybe they used sawdust in the midwest.
Yes, that’s a bit revolting, but it’s early and I couldn’t think of anything else. Great episode, though.
LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS EP!!!
To me it’s the best episode of Season 5 (barely edging out Mitchell). Mikey is a revelation, the invention from Forrester is my fav (in case the name wasn’t a dead give away). I remember watching a bit of it on it’s original broadcast but it wasn’t a lot that I got to see.
I never got to fully watch it until V.10 came out and it was love at first sight. This was the one episode that I wanted to watch more than others simply because I loved “The Janitor Song” from Clowns in the Sky v.1. The episode didn’t dissapoint, spectacular short followed by a classic movie all made so by the on point riffing. They all stole it for me as they all had moments and were in a groove. BRILLIANT!
OH! NO! Pleasure! is still one of my favorite riffs ever.
I may have misinterpreted what Sampo wrote in the notes. But the lab bumpers aren’t the first time they didn’t use the spaghetti ball logo. Didn’t they use a couple others in Joels time. The Big G Burger stand and the drive in movie ones.
#60
Learn to spell right! Jeez!
Great movie, fantastic short. Liz and Andy probably had a long marriage punctuated by once-a-month sex (“Oh, Andy, if you MUST.”) Joe and Peggy ended up living in a trailer when he was never able to get a job in football. She stayed home, eating bon bons, and gained a ton of weight. They shop exclusively at Wal-Mart.
Not a lot to add, except that I think “Yipes Stripes” was such an earworm that it was used as a chewing gum ad. Anyone else remember that? I think it was for a fruit-flavored striped version of Beechnut Gum.
Amusing personal MST anecdote (latest in a series)…
Many Years Ago…I`m dating the woman who would eventually become my wife….After a passionate embrace, she looks into my eyes and asks breathlessly;
‘Is this Love?’
….To which I, being a long-time MST fan, reply automatically;
‘Or is it just rough sex?’
…Needless to say, I had some FAST explaining to do.
After that, I intro`d her to the show and warned her to expect such responses.
Nowadays, she knows that I cannot drive over a railroad track without asking the question;
‘Why don`t they look?’
One time, when watching the “Is This Love” short in college with my future wife (introducing her to the show), it got to the part where Liz and Andy were reflecting on their discussion of drinking in college. Now, I’d seen this episode plenty of times, but when Mike goes “Drinking? In College? I’ve never heard of that.” I had to stop the tape because I was hyperventilating with laughter :rotfl:. Future wife was almost scared I wouldn’t be able to breathe. Just something about the way Mike said it that time and having experienced college, I guess it struck home, and shows how this show rewards multiple viewings at various stages in your life.
Shouldn’t the description of the short read as:
A “college” couple…?
Yipe Striper – Congratulations! I see your spelling and/or typing skills are much improved from four years ago.
I stick by my comments of four years back. Though having had a child since then, I find I don’t get to watch nearly as much MST as I used to, and when I do get that rare 90 minute break, I don’t have a lot of time to be choosy. Teenage Strangler and Starfighters are very reliable episodes, and probably get the most play these days, along with Assignment: Venezuela from the Killer Shrews disc.
Pretty good ep. The Mikey glasses provided a nice flashback to the not-so-distant past when Mike would do cameo appearances as the characters from the movie. I laughed pretty hard at that segment, especially when they put the glasses on Crow.
They had a short called “Is This Love” and didn’t reference Whitesnake once?
4 Stars
Is this Love? Or just a venereal disease?
Love this episdoe. Specially the janitor song.
It’s curious that you mentioned The Cramps, because this seems to be the kind of movie they would make a song about.
Cabbage Patch: you are indeed brave if you watch Starfighters as a go-to episode. I love it, but what a slog.
Great episode, but I too was confused when the middle-aged woman was killed; does he only PRIMARILY strangle teens, or is the strangler a teen him/herself? The whole title is thrown into question. I didn’t get Betty’s mom either; oddly her giddiness on having a police in the house and her crush on Lt Anderson is one of the few colorful moments in the movie; but why? I guess to show she’s incompetent and unfeeling, as all the parents in this movie are. And speaking of the good Lt., is he the real hero of the movie and not Jimmy, he’s bland on toast, yet we are supposed to admire his understanding and compassion when dealing with the teens, his strange hold on Betty’s Mom, and his reconciling Curly with the whole town. He even has the power to shoot through dimensions, as he is clearly in another county when he shoots at the janitor. As in Gunslinger, it bothers me when someone is being shot onscreen and you can’t tell where the bullets are coming from: from left, right, or above? I didn’t even think the janitor’s room had windows until the cop started shooting through one.
Thanks for noticing Mike’s ‘whisper-shouting’ too. Frank and the others do it as well, esp. when re-creating a PA announcer or crowd noise(“the Monsters Win the Pennant!”) ; I’m pretty sure it’s a scandinavian thing, as we Norwegians don’t like to raise our voices if we don’t need to. Mumbling will do just fine, thank you.
#42: People can be college students regardless of age so it’s impossible to look too old to be one. I’m just sayin’.
#80
i completely agree about the college age issue. but let’s face it. Girlfriend IS a Romulan. I’m just sayin’
Fun episode. Man that kid over acted bigtime. Favorite riff – CROW: Damn you Duke boys! :eek:
I’d like to know who thought it was a good idea for Jimmy to look like he was giving birth.
“Oh, God, he’s at 10!”
I intended to watch THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN’T DIE last Tuesday in anticpation of the discussion. I took me almost a week to get through it. By contrast, I watched all of TEEN-AGE STRANGLER in one sitting last night.
Very easy episode to sit through. The movie is sort of pleasant in a dumb way. And I too like the actress who played the sobbing girlfriend. I like movies that exist in their own strange little universe with their own little quirks and laws. Like how everyone seems to cower from the fry-cook. Or that a lot of the action is at or near a High School, but we see no teachers or administrators, just one janitor.
And Frank Conniff screaming in the Frank-n-forcer while Dr. F starts screaming at him is one of the funniest host segments they ever did.
Short-ah, poor Romulan woman. From our family albums, young women really did look like that once upon a time.
Film-Mikey sounds to me what Leslie Jordan probably sounded like as a kid. Then again, all childhoods are strange.
I really enjoy this show, over and over. Both the short and the movie are stand-along-great.
” One thing about Mike in these early episodes (and I think somebody in the comment thread last week mentioned this) is that he seems unwilling to actually yell when the line calls for yelling. Instead he sort of whisper-yells. He sort of simulates yelling, though he’s not actually raising his voice. As he got more comfortable in the role, that kind of faded away, but it’s pretty noticeable in these early ones.
It always seemed Mike never got over that. He never boomed it out when it needed to be. Maybe from his standup days, he never wanted to overwhelm the mike. But I did believe he had the best understated delivery of them all.
Kevin? When it came to throwing it out Kevin THREW IT OUT!
#72
yep, yep remember the gum..
had a zebra for the salesperson.
didn’t make it hurt any less
As for the whispered yell…I do that as well when I am using it for humor purposes, so I think that is Mike’s forte
This is an average episode for me, the opening segment was hilarious when Crow says “We’re your family now” and Mike grabs the phone after a look to the camera.
The invention exchange is all Crow with the faux-innocent…Frank’s ham and Trace’s effiminate manners are a dud for me. The waitenator is mediocre…which sums up the whole episode.Kevin really brought this down with his exasperation and flat jokes IMO
The SHORT
*The romulan quip was funny
The woman in the short was irrational and crazy, with 40’s woman head shake…I’m sure that marriage wouldn’t last
FAVORITE RIFF
*Actually the funniest line was from the narrator “They are OBVIOUSLY physically attracted to one another”
*The riffs at the end “Know your oinments,Oh, pleasure” were hilarious
THE MOVIE
very weird flick, but nicely done considering the lack of budget and no actors. I wasn’t so humored by Mikey, but Betty’s shakey voice and over reaction always gets me. But what about ‘Runt’ whose GF is killed in the shower…next time we see him, he is laughing and smiling, like nothing happened!
FAVORITE RIFFS
*Punch it up some…SELL me this madmen
*YIPE STRIPES!
*The Father’s beat down of Jimmy was hilarious “Oh, don’t involve Jupiter”
*What re we going to do? CROW:Nothing, like we’ve been doing the whole movie
*GOOOOD BLESSSSS AMERICA!
*MIKE:Well, home…wait he dropped me off at the wrong house
*Oh no, Mr B. Natural is in one of those lockers
*The Master wants you, but he can’t have you
Host segments were again…mediocre
For me, many of the jokes went DUD but it wasn’t a horrible episode, it was just slightly subpar for me I give this 2 stars out of 5
This is just wild speculation on my part. So, keep that in mind. On the subject of Mike’s “whisper-shouting”. I kind of remember Frank doing that from time to time. So, my thinking is that he may have wrote the riffs that way. We also noticed that Mike stops doing this as the show goes on. Maybe after Frank’s departure there aren’t riffs wrote in that manner? Just a W.A.G. on my part.
This is also great episode IMHO.
Police detective enters a loud soda shop, making the place go quickly silent
Servo(in the detectives voice): I want a chick-sal sandwich and I wanna eat it in peace!
One of my all time favorite lines.
We noticed last time we watched TS, that when the shower girl is being strangled, the “janitor’s” coat had a bulldog emblem. Now the coat wasn’t thrown away until later in the movie. Continuity, or were there two stranglers?
BTW, I can’t rate this it states
Failed To Verify Referrer
when I try to give it 2 stars
They may not have dull filmstrips, but now they’ve got dull web-based instruction whatevers. Buddy of mine started the nearby University and they required him to take a two-hour “web class” that was basically clicking on the “next” button a thousand times until the javascript timer decided you spent enough time at that page. It was mostly about not drinking yourself into a coma and calling 911 if your friend does.
I’m pretty sure it stopped all college drinking about as well as the short… what was the short supposed to teach us? Don’t get married while you’re in college? I guess that’s not much of a concern anymore. Maybe they should go back to filmstrips.
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A great great episode, in my top 5 Mike episodes. The excoriation of young Mikey is right up there with that of Torgo, Tor Johnson, Mitchell, Jimmy Wilson, Crenshaw, et al. Classic stuff, and one of the best shorts of the series.
“Mistress Iesha, I’m here for my beating…”
I’m dumbfounded about the love for this one. I planned to watch it again so I could comment on it. But I just couldn’t bring myself to sit down and watch it. Outside of Outlaw, Village of the Giants, Girl’s Town and Angel’s Revenge (wait, I’m seeing a pattern here…) I don’t have many fond memories of this (Mike CC) era. Oh well.
Serial strangler
Huntington West Virginia
No bike was stolen
-Haiku for Mikey
The movie is good, but the short was one of the very best they did. There are so many great riffs:
“Handsome equals not dull”
“Oh no, pleasure!”
“Well, honey, looks like we spawned a demon seed”
“Take the house!”
So, so great.
Mike’s tenure as host is off to a rough start, as this episode stumbles quite a bit. Sure, the Z-grade movie is fun, and the riffing is pretty decent, but everything else falls flat. The Invention Exchange is bad, the Host Segments aren’t much better, the short is kinda funny, but not one of their best, and I’m sorry, but someone has got to say it: the “Janitor Song” blows. Sorry, it’s not very funny (to me) and Mike’s fake singing voice is without tone, very flat (he does get better as the show goes on). I prefer Joel’s fake singing voice, much more lively and lounge singer-ish… *sigh…. now I’m comparing their fake singing voices… i really need to relax…*
I know Mike gets on a roll later this season and as the series goes on, but these first couple episodes show that there were some jitters and kinks to work out as Mike was still adjusting to his role as full time host. I can see why some long time fans of the show might have been apprehensive and concerned about the switch in host.
Riffs:
–
Short:-
Mike: “well he’s good in the sack and he likes to get high.”
Servo: “Watch out for snakes.”
Crow: “Let’s make sweet love and have a new daughter.”
end credits,
Mike: “Know your Ointments.”
Servo: “What’s That Down There?”
Crow: “When He Wants it Rough.”
Mike: “Procreation, not Recreation.”
Servo: “Oh no! Pleasure!”
Crow: “McClintock!”
–
movie:-
Mike: “You can see the ceiling. Gregg Toland must have photographed this.”
during the song,
Crow: “Look, you’re standing in my biscuits and gravy…”
&
All 3: “Seig Heil!”
Mike: “Wow, that was good pot, wasn’t it?
—-not good enough…….
You know, I’ve seen this one a few times now, and after this most recent viewing, I really wanted to give this a 2/5. It is just… unimpressive. BUT the movie, and Mikey, are both so weird and impressive in their ineptitudes, that I find myself giving this one 3/5, but just barely. This is my least favorite episode since the Rocky and Winky movies of Season 4. And sad to say, this is not my least favorite of Season 5….
I really like this one.
As I’ve said before Mike was blessed with some really great ones to riff in his half of the season.
A