Movie: (1976) Two stitched-together episodes of the TV series “Gemini Man,” about a hero who gains the power of invisibility.
First shown: 7/19/97
Opening: Mike, who was once a teppanyaki chef, has a relapse
Intro: Pearl and company are under fire! She begs Mike for air support … and she gets it, and then some
Host segment 1: Tom sings about the 70s (and the 50s, too)
Host segment 2: Tom acquires a buttless truck driver body
Host segment 3: Crow is Turkey Volume Guessing Man!
End: Mike, Crow and Tom spoof the end of the film, while Pearl is weighed down with medals
Stinger: Jim Stafford is really happy!
(291 votes, average: 4.77 out of 5)
Loading...
• I like this one. The movie — two poorly spliced-together episodes of a forgotten ’70s TV series (a la “Master Ninja”) — is not painful to watch, but gives them plenty to work with. The riffing is great and the segments are mostly pretty good. So rock it, you turkeys!
• Kevin offers his take here.
• This episode is included in Shout’s “MST3K: Volume XXXVI.”
• The opening, with Mike as the mindless teppanyaki chef, is hilarious. “There’s about a 1-in-4 chance were gonna get out of this alive!”
• This episode is the last one in which Jim is listed as providing the voice and puppetry for Gypsy, but Gypsy isn’t in this one. I had thought that meant his last actual performance as Gypsy was the previous episode’s “Lord of the Dance” sketch, but a commenter corrected me. More on that in the next episode’s writeup.
• Daleism: During the bar fight, the big guy tries to punch Buffalo Bill, but his fist is held back by invisible Sam. He looks at his fist. Crow: “Thought I was Dale.” Big guy tries again, and is again held back. He again looks at his fist. “Again, I thought I was Dale.”
• I love the way Mike answers the phone in this episode. His cheery little “Helloo?” is great.
• Mike destroys his third planet so far this season. This sets up the premise for the segments in the next episode.
• Crow and Mike reenact a memorable moment from “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
• A perfect example of the genius of this show is the scene early on in which four characters are just standing around explaining the plot. Not much to work with. Then they pick up on Ben Murphy’s boss compulsively wiping his (apparently filthy!) glasses and suddenly the otherwise dull scene is a riot.
• Tom’s songs about the 70s and the 50s are a lot of fun. “The apostle Paul traveled to Greece…”
• I think the “Tom’s trucker body” segment seemed funnier on paper. Nice job on the body creation, however.
• Tom still has his trucker body in the theater. Mike and Crow are already there.
• The Turkey Volume Guessing Man segment is another gem, another hilarious example of Bill’s slightly deranged Crow.
• The “Pearl gets medals” bit at the end is cute, but doesn’t really go anywhere.
• This movie has two completely baffling elements, which probably only made sense in the context of the series, context which is completely lost in the movie. First there’s this Elliot guy, who angrily, even bitterly, berates Driscoll, who I think is his boss. Why is he doing this? Is he working for Denby? Is he just naive? As the movie plays out, it becomes clear that Denby is exactly the elusive crime boss Driscoll thinks he is. But we never see Elliot admit he was wrong (though he does seem a bit less grouchy in a later scene — maybe by then he’s seen the light).
Then there are the shots of Abby in the lab, watching some sort of super duper camera feed (it can pan and change angles and do closeups). Apparently the makers felt the need to include Abby, but why? (Note: A commenter had a plausible explanation for this.)
• On a related subject, you’re not seeing things: two different actors appear as Driscoll: Richard Dysart portrayed Driscoll in the pilot (and is seen briefly in the flashback sequence, which was taken from the pilot), while William Sylvester played Driscoll in the series.
• Then current reference: Kelly Flynn.
• Callback: “Look, a couple of VAAAAAANS!” (“Giant Spider Invasion”)
• Cast and crew roundup: “Village of the Giants” also gives H.G. Wells an amusing story credit. Costumer Charles Waldo also worked on “San Francisco International.” In front of the camera, Ben Murphy was also in “Being from Another Planet.” William Sylvester was also in “Gorgo.” Ed Nelson was also in “Superdome,” “Teenage Caveman,” “Swamp Diamonds” and “Night of the Blood Beast,” plus he did costumes for “Attack of the Giant Leeches.” Austin Stoker was also in “Being from Another Planet.”
• CreditsWatch: Produced and directed by Kevin. Brad, who has been listed as “Editor” on and off since season five, is listed as “Editor” for the first time this season, a credit that will continue until the end of the series. Bob Seabold begins a two-episode stint as grip. Intern Joseph Olson begins a four-episode stint; intern Meshach Weber begins a six-episode stint. The music for “The Funky Seventies” and “The Fifties” was written by Michael J. Nelson, with lyrics by Bill Corbett.
• Fave line: “Dear, sweet, homicidal Murray.” Honorable mention: “Okay, now, who wants their butts kicked first?”
) to help our users cope with "trolls" and other commenters whom they find annoying. Go to our
touches no one’s life, then leaves (#36): “Apropros of nothing, odd that Sam’s graduation date (from The Backstory Database) was IIRC in the *1980s*. So the series was for no particular reason set in a future that looked exactly like the then-present?”
I’m guessing that was an utterly failed attempt by whoever assembled “Riding with Death” (in the 1980’s) to make it seem more contemporary, despite the obvious 70’s trappings. But for all I know, that scene may be picking up on some utterly failed attempt by the series to seem more futuristic, despite the obvious 70’s trappings.
mikek (#23), do you remember if the pilot gave a date for when it was happening? Has anyone else here seen more of “Gemini Man”?
As I recall, this ep features at least one Pete Duel reference. Appropriate, but heavily obscure for today’s audience.
Or am I mistaken?
Great episode. But 2 lines by Kevin reallly stuck with me, more because of the delivery than the actual line itself:
“They don’t call me Carl for nothing!”
and
“Well sit on it you nerd!”
No matter how many times I see this ep I laugh hysterically when Carl slaps that wrench in his hands as Servo delivers the first line.
I love the frugal nature of “near future” storylines. A filmmaker can just use everyday objects and clothing (perhaps dressed up with a scrap of silver fabric and velcro) and voila! It’s the (near) future!!!
New England journalists?
Iggy Pop’s Brother Steve Pop says:
November 12th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
I don’t think it said anything about the show being set in anything but the, then, present time.
John Seavey says:
November 12th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
Oh, come on! 42 comments, and nobody has mentioned the best scene in the whole movie?
““Drained and satisfied, I’m tracing lazy circles on your supercab…” The entire ‘truck sex’ sequence is filled with some of the funniest, filthiest riffs they ever did on the series. Single-handedly raises the movie a whole star for me.”
I know. It is my favorite sequence in the episode. It’s so filled with homoerotic undertones. I am shamed for not mentioning it. :oops:
In IMDB it says the John Milford, who plays the scientist who appears inexplicably and chews out William Sylvester for “harassing Denby” is credited with the original design for the Hollywood Walk of Fame and Andrew Prine (It can’t be! You’re dead!) posed nude for Viva, a women’s magazine for their May 1974 issue!
Travis says:
November 12th, 2009 at 10:03 am
Didn’t Gemini Man get remade for the Sci-Fi channel a few years ago? I seem to remember a show about a guy who could go invisible and worked for the government…
Judging Sci-Fi (or is it Sy-Fy now?) channel’s normal quality, it must have been terrible…
Not so much a remake as yet another ‘invisible man’ series (remember David McCallum had one?). In another burst of creativity, similar to the ‘syfy’ renaming it was called “The Invisible Man”.. not as bad as Mansquito.
Ben Murphy is definitely in the MST Hall of Fame. This and his stupefying performance in Being from Another Planet (aka: Time Walker) solidify his reputation as a huge piece of 70’s cheesy man-beef.
Classic episode.
“You’re as elusive as Robert Denby!”
I absolutely love this episode. In my top 10 all time. In my humble opinion the second funniest of the sci-fi years, only behind Werewolf. I mean Wharwolf..
Loved the double entendre laced truck breaking scene, and also when Tom says his favorite number is 70.
And of course:
Tom: Gavid Macleod mania. Not reallly Gavin Macleod but an incredible simulation. I laughed cause I remember seeing the Beatle Mania commercials when I was a kid.
And Death does NOT pony up for gas, lemme tell ya…
It took me a few viewings to really enjoy this episode, but I’ve warmed up to it. I LOVE the whole Turkey Volume Guessing Man bit. And I will contend that THIS is the ONLY planet whose destruction Mike is truly culpable for. Stupid monkeys and mutants with thermonuclear devices and nanites destroyed the previous two.
Also, some love for Andrew Prine.
Prine was a busy character actor during his career, appearing in tons of westerns and whatnot, but he put in some of his most memorable performances in some exploitation classics, such as Simon, King of the Witches (1971), The Centerfold Girls (1974), Barn of the Naked Bead (aka: Nightmare Circus) (1974), The Town that Dreaded Sundown (from Charles B. Pierce!, 1976), and Grizzly (1976).
If you love 70’s exploitation or just love weird, off the wall cinema, these are some flicks you should check out.
His appearance in Riding with Death is excusable.
This one always makes me laugh. Hard. The ‘movie’ is a lot of fun. The host segments are great. I loved it when Mike destroyed yet another planet. The other ones are all solid too.
#61
“I will contend that THIS is the ONLY planet whose destruction Mike is truly culpable for. Stupid monkeys and mutants with thermonuclear devices and nanites destroyed the previous two.”
===========================
Correct. And if only Mike had been able to get Clarence Darrow as his attorney he might not have needed a lenient sentencing judge.
I rank this amongst the “very good” episodes. As Sampo noted this splicing together of two episodes from a failed 70s TV series gives them lots to work with, including plenty of riffs at Ben Murphy’s expense. The host segments were a bit uneven for this episode but as Sampo pointed out it did have two classics: Mike as a teppanyaki chef and Crow as “Turkey Volume Guessing Man”.
Very funny episode and one of best of Season 8. 4.5 stars out of five.
some of my fave lines:
“Oh, and Sam…” Tom: ” Don’t wear that shirt.”
“Robert Reed and Tom T. Hall !!!”
Tom: “Woo-hoo, my favorite number!” Mike: “70??” Tom: “Oh yeah, I love 70”
“So he stood perfectly still and hit him with his extremely long arms?”
Interesting that ‘parts’ 3 eps ago brought up feelings of “Joel-ness”, since MSTies I knew in college always cited this one as reminiscent of the Joel era. Probably the similarities to both Master Ninja outings, and the fact that aside from Ben disappearing every 20 minutes, it’s not so much sci-fi as any ol’ action show of its time.
Ah yes, there’s no better recipe for MST fodder than to take ’70s TV and apply just a dash of the ’80s: specifically that flawed logic at the beginning of the great VHS home invasion, that since video tapes were for “home MOVIES”, the best way to release TV shows was to slam multiple episodes together until you had roughly a feature’s worth length of material and…just call it a movie. Ah the joy I felt 2 months ago at finding that first Thundercats “movie” Exodus (the 1st ep with 5 minutes of unaired material, then 2-4 with stuff cut/rearranged, and a 1 minute intro complete with spoilers), for a mere buck. As I recall, “Speed Racer: The Movie” was just a 2-parter with one other random ep tacked on afterward. And that old VHS I rented of “Breeders” (1988) that expressed such excitement that it was “exclusive to home video”; wow, did anyone actually not read between THOSE lines? I may not be old enough to remember any ’70s TV that wasn’t being actively rerun in 1985, but the nature of this ep still sooooooooo takes me back…
I actually did see an ep of Gemini Man, where Ben had to teach some old lady he was bodyguarding to assert herself and prevent a hostile takeover of her company on a boat, or something. The intro and events in the ep emphasized his invisibility having a time limit after which he’ll just become visible again, something that almost doesn’t jive with how it’s explained here.
Favorite 2-part riff:
“Heh. They don’t call me “Carl” for nothing”
“Dammmnn yooOUU CAAAAARRRRLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!”
“So they have thirteen hours to get from Torrance to Long Beach?”
You folks have no idea how much joy that riff fills me with.
Somehow, this has become my favorite episode. For some reason I never taped this one, so when I found out about the DAP this was the first avi I downloaded. I hyped it up in my head but man did they deliver. The guys are just so comedically nimble and comfortable in the theater riffing on this “film”. I’m also a huge fan of the Master Ninja episodes so maybe i have an affinity for failed TV series shoehorned together to make one feature length movie. The movie helps too by having some prime material to riff on: strange characters/actors with odd tics, the bad ADR/still shots with voiceovers to provide vague bridges between both episodes, groovy pant cuffs. And of course, The Elusive Robert Denby. Just a great episode. Now I’m going to take a Pinch Hit, pop in some Deep Purple, and get this secret government project on the road, please accept my Fadeaway Jerk Handshake!
*rip*
Continuing from Watch-out-for-Snakes (#62):
Andrew Prine was also the memorably creepy Visitor security chief Steven in the two original “V” miniseries.
Having worked in an optical store, it made me laugh when you mentioned the extended glasses wiping scene. I was always telling people the correct way to clean glasses. Wipe straight across the lens, not in circles or back and forth, and don’t wipe them on your shirt. Use a clean lens cloth or 100% cotton cloth and an approved lens cleaning solution. I’ve had people come in who cleaned their glasses with Easy-Off and scouring pads which of course left them all scratched up. When they complain that they thought the lenses were scratch proof, I have to tell them the difference between ‘scatch-proof’ and scratch-resistant’. Seeing Casey’s boss probably scratching the hell out of his glasses makes me think of all the dipsticks I’ve had to help over the years.
Following up: I asked Bill on Twitter why they stopped doing Daleisms. His reply:
“Hm. Not sure but think it was ‘enough is enough’ first, then later learning we goofed up. Then the tears, screaming, mass firings.”
Great episode. I like Tom’s “Goodbye Sister Driscoll” riff. Slightly obscure reference to The Who’s Who Are You album. Not one of their more famous songs,but I always liked that song and album. I wonder if most the writers are Who fans?
A quote from this episode led to a briefly semi-popular meme. Apparently, a Usenet poster going by “Dinobot” made his signature read “Dinobot has spoken” and followed with the line “My rigid grill structure is bearing down on your unprotected cargo door.” This some how got mutated into people posting “DINOBOT HAS SPOKEN MY RIGID GRILL STRUCTURE.”
Speaking of the truck innuendo scene, “Rigid Grille Structure” is one of those riffs that went on to have an even greater live outside of MST3K circles. I can’t adequately explain the effect it’s had in certain corners of Transformers fandom: the World’s Worst Fanfic archive still has a gallery of banner ads for official Rigid Grille Structure brand…um…protection.
It’s contributors even got voice actor Scott McNeill to say “…my rigid grille structure…” as his Beast Wars Character ‘Dinobot’. The association with that character became so close that when Hasbro recently released a new version of G1 Dinobot commander Grimlock, cross-hatching in his…um…area…made fans wonder if the toy company was actually taking notes…on the wrong things.
But alas, in the one area where it should have been officially acknowledged, Michael Bay dropped the ball…the wrecking ball. It would have been such a great in-joke if the scene with the guy targeting the rail gun on Devastator in ‘Revenge of the Fallen’ had gone something like:
“I’m directly beneath the enemy’s…um…reactor linkage”
(Ship Captain) “I’m sorry, it’s WHAT?”
“Errr…it’s like a rigid grille structure…”
But no, just like the katana-chick in Angel’s Revenge, Mr. Bay had to cut right to the “scrotum”. (Groats)
So what’s the silver lining? Thanks to Michael Bay’s defilement of the greatest toy franchise of all time, “My Rigid Grille Structure”, and all the bots’ other truckin’uendo from this ep is now, officially, subtle. Thanks Mike!
Speaking of trucks I actually met the man who owned the semi and trailer that Sam used and TOUCHED it! The poor guy was bragging about how his semi was used in a movie with big ‘stars’ in it and name dropped Ben Murphy. This occurred in the late 70s. Fast forward to the late 90s and watching this episode and the logo on the side of the truck starts to take on surreal proportions. WHAM! I am laughing my sorry arse off and actually fell off the couch in laughing hystrionics.
Great riffing and a very wild and crazy show to boot. Ben Murphy, Jim Stafford, Murry, Denby, Driscol, Abbie, spotty bhost segs so I give this a 4.8.
One of my all-time favs. For some reason, I’m not a fan of the “Turkey Volume Guessing Man” thing like everyone else. Still, this is one the best of the Sci-Fi era.
“I’m also a free-lance Murray Slaughter.”
“…gently nudging that sweet honey pot of yours.”
“She’s got exploding boogers!!”
…and my all-time favorite riff ever:
“We disguised a bottle a Tripolidene as Junior Samples.”
#47- Thank you for clearing that up for me Sampo, as I had not seen that while perusing the site. You are a gentleman and a scholar.
By the way, I’ve noticed that nobody has commented on one of my my favorite riffs from this episode-
The glass jug of tripolodine is brought out in a holder that very much resembles a pair of suspenders-
Crow: “We disguised the tripolodine as Junior Samples” :grin: :grin: :grin:
Well scratch that last “nobody commented on” statement. I guess I should have typed faster.
Damn you Tim S. Turner.
This is a favorite of mine, as well. Particularly because my friend Brian and I watched it on TV one day after not having seen each other for a while. After the thwarted hijacking, and Stafford drives by, the line “Help! They hijacked me again!” killed us both.
As others have said, I can’t figure out what Denby’s plan is. Why blow up the jet? And why the race car? His plan is certainly elusive, I’ll give him that.
Wahhoo!!!waahbzzzzzzzzzzT
The turkey jokes got a little thin after a while, but I thought the episodes worked. The ADR to link the two episodes (I mean, parts of the movie) was pathetic and justly riffed. Sure would have been nice if they had mentioned dubbed in Denby’s name early on so it would have made it flow better.
But then, the Brains didn’t notice that Driscoll changed his appearance THREE times (in the sequence from the pilot, he was played by Richard Dysart (the Dice-Hearted!), then by Dr Heywood Floyd, then Floyd got himself a mustache!) Of course, the Brains may not have realized it was the same person.
Gee, I wonder why Ben Murphy never became a big star… :roll:
On the whole, a pretty good episode.
#23 – This episode is the first in the William Sylvester trilogy of Sci-Fi era episodes.
Although merely playing a supporting role here, William (You make me feel so real) Sylvester also starred in Devil Doll and Gorgo. Add Ben Murphy’s star turn in Being from Another Planet and you’ve got another best-selling DVD box set. Thank you, Shout Factory.
Alternately, SF could put Riding w/ Death, San Francisco International, Stranded in Space, and either one of the Master Ninja episodes together to make a “Made-for-TV-Madness” themed set.
“Sam – I’ve been blown to several thousand pieces, but I must finish these patent papers!”
Saw this on a MSTie review site:
The guys who brought us the “Six Million Dollar Man” (Harve Bennett), the original “Outer Limits” (Leslie Stevens), and “NYPD Blue” (Steven Bochco). All inspired by a story from H.G. Wells… and THIS was the best they could come up with?
Truer words never spoken…
Not to sound odd or anything, but upon my current viewing of this episode I can’t help but notice Ben Murphy’s ample buttocks. I guess Mike and ‘Bots kind of noticed this too, in the riff:
“Why am I so full-hipped for a guy?”
I think there’s also a riff about Sam, “Wearing his sister’s jeans.”
I remember once seeing a western movie titled “Riding With Death” on television. It’s about a cowboy going from east to west, contending with the elements, mutinous ex-cohorts, and trying to find a pioneer-woman’s lost graves. Later, I find out the movie done by MST3K is actualy a two part trucker scifi, which sounds really funny, too.
MST3K Weekend Discussion Thread Suggestion: 2 Part Movies (The others being the two Master Ninjas in Season 3 and Cosmic Princess in Season 0.)
A great episode. The movie is so utterly inept; you can’t do much worse than a horribly stitched-together failed 1970’s show pilot. The 70’s attempts at coolness are profoundly lame and goofy. I never thought that Master Ninja would appear well edited but this entire production easily trumps it. The producers clearly didn’t care if the plot made any sense; they just slapped some scenes together to get it done. The utterly inexplicable shots of Abby are of course the most grievous example. Did they expect the audience to buy that Intersect had hidden spy cameras hidden at every point on the globe (or at least every dingy, redneck saloon), capable of capturing every filmable angle? It’s also quite amusing that it claims to be based on an H.G. Wells novel (this is even less convincing than Village of the Giant’s similar claims).
To expand on #28, Iggy Pop’s Brother’s, point, the new energy crisis, a drastic need to find independence from “foreign oil,” and the re-emergence of swine flu, each referenced in this episode, serve to remind us of how cyclical history is.
As for my favorite character in “Riding with Death,” it’s tough because everyone in this film is obnoxious. However, I think that Cupcake (aka Tina) is head and shoulders above the rest because at least as a double agent she is the only one merely pretending to be a braindead hick, as evidenced by the scene where she suddenly drops her drawl for a more cold, calculating tone. Furthermore, the fact that she is willing to let the disgusting trucker kiss her (I refuse to imagine anything further happening) in the name of evil espionage shows that she has major guts. Since we see her make a (presumably) successful escape, I envision a future where she jets off to some exotic location, loses the shag haircut, and plots further trouble for our dimwitted cast.
“keep on trucking, peace, Ben Murphy”
Gotta love it when newly-invisible Sam is unwrapping the bandages from around his head…and there aren’t any air holes. :roll:
Oh yeah, about the energy-crisis-as-illustrated-by-these-random-shots database seen right after the back-story database: I’m genuinely curious about the car that “hit a unicyclist”. Just what WAS that fifth wheel in back? Some attempt at generating extra charge for an experimental hybrid battery? Was such a thing actually tested in the ’70s? Its appearance in stock-footage would imply that the producers weren’t willing to waste any money constructing even something that cheap looking, so it must have existed somewhere outside of the show.
Anyone know?
SciFi actually dusted off Gemini Man in the early 90’s. Along with a lot of other short lived series that had never been rerun before as part of the “SciFi Collection”.
Curiously, they never actually showed the pilot episode, which must have confused a lot of people!
Did any other studios shamelessly repackage their busted pilots and canceled series the way Universal did?
And one more thing…
http://www.benmurphyfans.com/
Speaking of repackaged TV, whenever I try to explain the “Transformers Generation 2” cartoon to someone who’s seen this episode, I tell them to picture Abby doing her monitoring schtick as a more obnoxious CGI framing effect every single time a shot changes in the original TF cartoon. “And now, through the magic of the Intersect-Space-Cube, Riding With Death: Generation 2” (Not that TFG2 makes any sense whatsoever in hindsight; every youtube clip has comments like, “Just what the hell IS this? A DVD menu?”)
The whole thing of setting it 10 years in the future of the ’70s even evokes memories of those few TF eps that mention the Soviet Union reairing in the ’90s. What with the 20th anniversary of The Wall coming down, that and “South-Berlin?” seems even more poignant.
Though perhaps Abby’s appearance at the monitor for what was likely a brief scene in some other episode getting spread out over several days here is even more evocative of Space Ghost; I mean how that shot of Moltar springing a lava trap with his death-panel for two seconds of the multi-part story must have gotten over 20 hours total screen time from being used as the control room in likely every episode of Coast to Coast.
It also reminds me of a Powerpuff Girls ep in which Mojo Jojo’s back-story database shows off some footage from a previous ep that it shouldn’t have had.
BLOSSOM: “Okay, wait a minute; how did you record all this? You had cameras set up all over the world?”
MJ: “Well…uhhhh…YES, but never mind…”
Sorry if I’m going off-topic, but I just loves it when security/monitoring cameras go in for dramatic close-ups and zip-pans that even Uatu’s sensors couldn’t pull off.
#87- I misread and thought you said Cupcake was a “doable agent,” which I was in full agreement with!
You know, at the beginning of the movie, just after Mike’s riff “World’s most difficult math problem”, we see this black round thing with a projection thing on the front.
My first thought was “Cambot!”
During the bar scene where Buffalo rares back, cheering himself on for “his” victory over the two troublemakers, Bill Corbett exaggerates the moment by adding his own “wahoo-ing” and making Buffalo very loudly and uncontrollably pass gas. It was timed so perfectly, Kevin Murphy couldn’t contain his own laughter, making it all the more hilarious but then Mike’s line immediately after gives an opposite treatment of Buffalo, making him out to be very sophisticated with an erudite, “Now wine and tapas for everyone!”.
HG Wells….Hud Gomer wells
#91:Gorn Captain…
Thanks for the link to Ben Murphy’s webpage. Holy cow!…say what you want about him, but he certainly doesn’t seem to have any trouble staying employed! Just checking out his TV appearances alone, he’s been one BUSY actor ever since 1968.
“Lucky guy…he’s about to find out I’m Ben Murphy.”
“Keep on truckin’…peace…Ben Murphy.”
Just finished watching this one. And oh what fun it is. Great riffing through out…the guys seemed to be having a lot of fun, too.
My favorite scene(s) is whenever Abby is watching the incoherent goings-on via some kind of live feed. The riffing is great…particularly when they refer to her druged-out appearence.
Which brings me to: this mash up of episodes of Gemini Turkey is as full of plot holes as anything in MSTdom. Just for starters: why is Abby able watch I’m Ben Murphy and you’re not and co. in her lair, but yet Intercept (there’s a football pun in there) can’t even manage to bug the exclusive (sic) Robert Denby’s trailer phone. Come on!
And Buffaloed Bill running into Gemnini Murphy again in another espionage situation (with the apparently not so efflusive Robert Denby no less) is a coincidence that would surely make even the ghost of Nabokov smile…(and since it is such an outstanding coincidence, why doesn’t it make Ben Man suspicious?)
The stinger is one of my favorites of all time.
And, yes, I like Turkey VGM…the host segs are pretty good in this one and it is impressive how Bill does the great OZ’s speech to Dorothy et al at the end…
Favorite riff (during the credits): (I’m paraphrasing, kind of)”For some strange reason this movie tested well with elderly black women and hispanic lesbians.”
and: “Why don’t you just kiss him already.”
A
So this was at least the second MST3K bad bad baaad movie to star someone from 2001: A Space Odyssey (the first being Gary Lockwood from The Magic Sword and Kitten With a Whip (uncredited, evidently)…
Classic episode. The credits riffing was particularly sharp. I particularly loved Kevin’s summary of the ‘Executive Story Consultant’ credit – did they actually have to employ someone specially to tie these 2 episodes together so badly?