Movie: (1980) After discovering that he has inherited super powers, a mild-mannered young professor must do battle with a villain using a mind-control device.
First shown: 4/4/98
Opening: Tom has short man’s disease
Intro: Tom is better; Pearl’s ball is somewhat under-attended, while Observer has Ortega and some buddies over
Host segment 1: Mike offends Shelli the Nanite, so his dry look does not come out well
Host segment 2: Mike has been chosen to be Coatimundi Man
Host segment 3: Crow and Tom capture the mind of Roger Whitaker
End: Crow resigns briefly; while a guest finally arrives at Pearl’s party
Stinger: Puma Man is defenestrated
(378 votes, average: 4.70 out of 5)
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• This is a beloved episode, so beloved that the last time we did a poll of fans to find out which episode they wanted to see released on DVD, this one was at the top of the list. Me, I’d call this one good, not great. The movie is incredibly stupid and reasonably watchable and the riffing is top-notch, but the host segments range from only mildly funny to not.
• This episode is included in Shout’s “Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection: Vol XXIX.”
• Paul’s take is here.
• References.
• A lot of people assumed this movie was somehow a ripoff of the TV show “Greatest American Hero.” After all, the story line is remarkably similar and the flying sequences are practically identical. But the TV show hit the air waves a year after this movie came out. Call it parallel development.
• Watch Pearl’s beauty mark. It moves around quite a bit.
• The intro segment marks the first instance of segments that mention how Observer has begun to develop a, um, personal life outside Pearl’s orbit. In this case, instead of buying into the whole “ball” thing Pearl has going on, he simply begs off because a gang of pals is over to watch “Sliders” (remember “Sliders”?). That’s Beez and Patrick as the pals, and of course Paul as Ortega.
• When Servo hits the theater for the first time, he still has his wig on.
• Of course that’s once again Mary Jo as Shelli, the spiteful hairdessing nanite in segment 1.
• Following segment 2, Mike still has coatimundi hat on, prompting Servo to make a little host segment callback: He quietly says “Bold, Mike” (a reference to the famous barbecue sauce sketch in which he wore the same hat, or one very like it).
• Cast and crew roundup: scriptwriter Massimo De Rita was assistant executive director on “Hercules.”
In front of the camera, Donald Pleasence was also in “Warrior of the Lost World,” Miguel Angel Fuentes was also in “Deathstalker III.” Benito Stefanelli was also in “Secret Agent Super Dragon” and Guido Lollobrigida was also “Operation Double 007.”
• CreditsWatch: Directed by Mike. Intern Scott Bowman begins a six-episode stint.
• Fave riff: “It’s S&M day at the Field Museum.” Honorable mention: “Donald’s only use of the word ‘comb’.”
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My take, in a nutshell:
Hilarious movie, great riffing, poor host segments.
The “Pearl’s ball” segment is my least favorite of the entire Sci-Fi era. Her mugging forces me to fast forward every time.
That said, the movie segments are terrific. All the best quotes have been mentioned.
One of the goofiest movies they ever did which is, of course, a good thing.
I’ll agree that the host segments aren’t the best (although Mike’s delivery on “Little baby short man, we’ll see” kills) but the riffing in this is so awesome that I haven’t even finished laughing from the movie by the time the host segment ends. This is a sublime piece of ridiculous super-hero fare.
“That’s hooman being! Oh, wait…”
“Well, world…get used to being run by Donald Pleasence.”
Every single one of their ad-jingle versions of the theme song.
“Who, me? No, I’m Jewish.”
“Don’t eat saliva? I wouldn’t think of it!”
“I’m still not sensing danger.”
“The Dutch are mean!”
And, of course, although it’s already been quoted, “Hahahaha! No, seriously, you look great!”
Ah, forgot one of my favorite riffs:
Jane: So the dinosaurs died out because they no longer knew how to love, is that right?
TOM: In a wrong sort of way, sure.
What can one say about “Pumaman” other than “Perfection”?
It has everything:
1. A distinctly 70s Euro-trash flavor
2. An Acromegalic, Mayan side-kick who’s more heroic than the hero
3. A villain that wears either skin tight leather jumpsuits, or beautiful sparkling evening gowns
4. Unbelievably embarrassing special effects
5. Donald Pleasence
6. Above all, Mike’s imitation of Donald Pleasence
Fave riff: Mike’s as Donald Pleasence on the mask platform or whatever saying “weeeeeeeeeee”
Beautiful, beautiful movie.
Hat’s off to Mr. Pleasence, from the roles he chose in the 70s and 80s, he obviously knew that acting was first and foremost, a job. He never looked embarrassed, and he always put the same effort into every role, no matter the quality of the movie. My favorite kind of actor.
>86
I don’t recall seeing any explanation for the papier-mâché heads in the unedted version I’ve seen. You only see extended scenes where they’re being made or with Donald talking to them.
Oh, how I wish this episode would get the Shout DVD treatment!!
Definitely my personal favorite, hands down. All the jokes leave me cracking up, no matter how many times I watch it.
“The pyu-may-man, there’s only youuu in my life … ”
“We’re a fun couple!” [A favorite joke in my house]
“Do the hustle!”
“Me? No, I’m Jewish.” (After Tony asks Vidinho if he’s one of the Aztec gods)
… and so many more!
Story time: Back in college, I was taking a television class, and our big assignment was to watch 2 hours each of different types of TV genres (basically my dream assignment). So, of course, MST3k was my choice for the comedy portion. The show was still in reruns on SciFi, and this is the episode I watched when I did my assignment. I’m not sure if my professor really understood the detailed episode synopsis—Roger Whitaker references included!—but he must’ve liked my impassioned argument on how MST3k was one of the best programs on TV enough to give it an A! I was really proud of that assignment :)
Oh, almost forgot: I almost fell off the couch one night when, while channel-surfing, I caught a glimpse of Walter G. Alton in the movie “10” with Dudley Moore. I think that was one of the only other roles he had before quitting acting.
The Final Sacrifice used to be my favorite of the 9th season but now it’s this one. The Final Sacrifice seems actually to try being a serious movie, which (make no mistake) is really funny, but Pumaman is funnier because of its thorough incompetence. There’s not a shred of credibility anywhere in the film except for Miguel Fuentes’s Vadinho. But then every comedy has to have one serious character who’s not in on the joke. Sort of like Ralph Bellamy in His Girl Friday.
I suppose Donald Pleasance puts in some kind of effort, too. He’s far more energetic here than in Warrior of the Lost World where he’s practically asleep in most of his scenes. His bizarre outfits go a long way to destroying his villainous credibility but that’s not Pleasance’s fault.
Otherwise there’s not one thing done right. There’s Alton’s whiny performance; sure, a lot of it was just the script, but I’m sure the script didn’t call for Pumaman to whimper and mewl as hilariously as Alton does when (for example) he’s trying to keep his grip on the facade of the building. At times all Mike and the ‘bots can do is giggle in disbelief at Alton’s snivelling. Sydne Rome is horrible. “Now I’m confused. Now I’m happy!” I know she was in a pile of movies in her day–aside from Pleasance she’s Pumaman‘s only other star. I’ve not seen any of Rome’s other films so I don’t know her quality as an actress; I don’t suppose she really needed to act in a lot of those movies, maybe.
There’s the music, of course. Do the hustle! The utter inappropriateness of almost all the movie’s music to the action makes me think that Pumaman was done as a laugh.
Finally, allow me to say, “PUMAMAN!”
There are two episodes that are just okay to me that for some reason everyone else seems to rave about and this is one of them. The movie is goofy, but the seemingly intentional humor which fails horribly makes the job of BBI seem a bit difficult and strained for me. I like Donald Pleasance, he’s great in everything he’s in including turkeys like Puma Man, but the movie seems to me like an extra bad episode of a TV show like Greatest American Hero or something similar and not great riffing fodder. My other “meh” episode that’s a favorite with many others is, you guessed it, Final Sacrifice. I’ll take First Spaceship On Venus, Hellcats or Outlaw over this episode any day of the week. But, I’ll take any episodes on DVD that Shout! Factory cares to release. There aren’t any I don’t want at all and Puma Man is an amusing if not great episode for me.
Dreadfully sorry, everyone! I forgot the ratings thingy! AGAIN! It’s there now.
I never saw this episode when it aired originally. Years later when I found this site and the discussion board, I heard nothing but good things about this episode. So when I started to build up my DVD collection, this was one of the first ones I received. Unfortunately I am in the minority on this one. I’ve tried and tried, but this one never clicks with me. The only reason I can think of is that I get overwhelmed by the absurdity of it all. Or maybe it’s seeing Donald Pleasance in latex.
THANKS SAMPO!!!
@ #111:
As you can see from my post at #109, you are not alone. Decent episode, but not a favorite for me either.
Ooooooh, #100 Courteous Martian, ya beat me to it! It’s amazing how often I am able to use that line in everyday conversation. However, my therapist says I am making tremendous progress. Yes, I really am.
Donald Pleasance pronounces “Pumaman” the way he does because he is British. My Brit friend confirmed for me that that is how they pronounce “puma” across the pond. Poo-ma-men. Donald sure does suffer a lot of bald jokes during this episode, which is kinda harsh, really. My fave is, “Excuse me, do you have a cup of BALD?!”
This episode exemplifies what the Sci-fi years are all about; great riffing in the theater and mild-to-crappy host segments. Sometimes they mine some gold for the host segments; most times not though. I guess the short man’s disease opening is kinda funny.
FUN FACT: The actor who played the Indian (“I’m an onion,” aka Miguel Ángel Fuentes) played the Indian companion Cholo in Werner Herzog’s masteriece, Fitzcarraldo, just a few years after Pumaman. Wonder if Herzog cast him based on the strength of his performance here? No, probably not.
“Ahhhh, I’m falling at a ninety degree angle, breaking all laws of physics!! Ahhhhh!!!!”
This episode has quite possibly my favorite MST3K riff:
“Where am I going to get another personal firetruck!”
>108
I’ve seen other films with Sydne Rome in them. She’s not notable other than for the fact that she’s nude in many of them.
For those curious, Sydne does not strip down in the unedited Pumaman film.
now they’re going to boff in the air
Crappy host segments? I guess there’s no pleasing some people. “Worst” (relatively) is the hairdressing one and even that speaks to a fear that I’m sure isn’t mine only, the fear of getting on the wrong side of your barber–er, hair stylist. I actually did manage that once, although with minor consequences, when the guy who was cutting my hair started asking dozens of hair-salony and bewildering questions about how I liked it until I finally got exasperated and told him to stop it. Also I liked that it was a callback to an earlier episode host segment.
“Coatimundi Man” is hilarious and the Roger Whitaker sketch is reasonably entertaining. Not the best but I can name a lot of Comedy Central-era host segments that are worse, if you like.
#117: For those curious, Sydne does not strip down in the unedited Pumaman film.
And Kobras could have just ordered her to do it but didn’t? Not a very enterprising villain. I now remember Sydne Rome not from a movie but from a movie review, Roger Ebert’s half-a-star review of Roman Polanski’s Diary of Forbidden Dreams; among other things he says that even though it features Miss Rome wearing nothing but a table napkin for most of the movie, the movie couldn’t find a distributor for three years, it was apparently that bad.
I meant to mention that “Aztechnology” is also the name of one of the major “megacorps” in the cyberpunk/urban fantasy tabletop RPG Shadowrun.
I like Vedinho and the actor who plays him as well. TheCoreman: Nice comments about Pleasance.
This is maybe the most blatant example of the sidekick being the hero. What did the Pumaman do besides play dead and kill the villain who was trying to escape after his plan had been foiled by the Aztec?
This might come in 2nd behind Soultaker for absurd theology or metaphysics. My parents were philosophy students in college, and I have a keen appreciation for humorous philosophical mistakes, and theological weirdness. In fairness to this film, some might argue that space gods who drop magic belts are no less plausable than space gods who zap virgins to make them give birth to themself.
One my favorite episodes. So much absurdity you coulkd watch it by itself. maybe.
@ “This episode exemplifies what the Sci-fi years are all about; great riffing in the theater and mild-to-crappy host segments.”
I’ve always phrased it gentler than that, but since you came right out and said it I’ll just say that I can’t argue with that. My wife and I both found the host segments in the early years nearly always funny right from their start. Joel’s parent relationship to the ‘Bots was always used to great effect with lots of hilarious comedy premises built on top of that. Once Joel left the host segments were much more hit or miss, it’s like the writers just weren’t sure what to do with them sometimes any longer. When they were great they were still great, but much less often and with much less consistency.
I think the main reason the host segments became less funny (in my opinion) was that the network more or less forced them to have “storylines” rather than random funny bits. I usually skip ahead when I’m watching the DVDs.
About PUMA pronunciation:
In Ring of Teror the undertaker (in the intro
calls his cat “Pyuma” yet he appears to have
an American accent. And Puma for a cat isn’t all
that bad a name (if that is what its name is).
Yet another reason that the movies should have
the subtitles for the movie and the riffing like
it is in MST: The movie…But I digress.
“If Pumaman is the true religion, I’m going to the dark side so fast!”
Put on a belt…..Get a cape. Did anyone else find this weird?
>126
Not particularly. Most superhero stories in whatever medium they show up in are just as strange. They just usually aren’t as poorly executed as The Pumaman.
In 1980 when The Pumaman was released people were watching Bill Bixby get angry and turn into a green Lou Ferrigno and re-runs of Lynda Carter doing a little spin and suddenly having a swimsuit-like costume on. Even back then putting on a belt and getting a superhero outfit wouldn’t be that jarring.
These days with the kids and their Power Rangers and who knows what else, Pumaman’s transformation sequence is quite tame, but still just as goofy.
In all honesty, Pumaman is one that it took me two or three goes before I came to like it. I did find some of it a chore despite the obvious highlights, and I still couldn’t really say it’s in my own top ten or even twenty.
But it’s very good despite that. Most of all because of Miguel Fuentes’s surprisingly endearing Vadinho, devoted to a lame duck of a god but no less selfless and capable and heroic for all that.
I sure wasn’t the only one to post this link during our action figure discussion a month ago, so how has no one brought it up in this one?!
http://www.figuronomy.com/customcon4/puma-man/index1.php
Said it before, and I’ll say it again: As perfect as Fisher Price Loving Family Dad with Baby-Rocking action and Hannibal Smith’s head is for the part, if I ever attempt my own custom Pumaman, I’ll use Adam Power of the Power Lords as my base figure. Remarkable similarities between the two, um, heroes, despite, or perhaps because Power Lords was such a generic rip off of He-Man and Star Wars.
There was a recent figure of Donald Pleasance’s character from ‘Halloween’, but I think he had a beard that would have to be shaved off, making it impractical for kitbashing any kustom Kobras.
>>>Put on a belt…..Get a cape. Did anyone else find this weird?
Like I said, any sufficiently advanced technology…
One of the best of season 9! I’m not too impressed by the host segments here, but the idiotic movie and gut-busting riffs make for a near-perfect MST3K experience. Five stars.
Aside from the cheezy flying effects and the insipidly catchy theme-music, I think the electronic-voodoo replica heads with wires sticking out and mirror-bending effect is one of the parts that pushes this film into the WTF zone.
If I made a complete favorite riffs list it would be way too long, so a few are:
Newspaper headline “Will there be other victims?”
Crow: “Call our 1-900 number and vote”
Vadinho: “I say put it on”
Mike: “You say pyoot it ooown”
During the hilarious ‘falling at a 60 degree angle’ scene-
Servo: “Ahhh, my moustache makes me fall sideways!”
Crow: “Soundtrack by my little brother’s Casio”
@ OnenuttyTanuki #73
Thanks! I thought i recognized this same actor in Deathstalker, but wasn’t 100% sure it was the same guy.
Peee-yuma, Man!
When I see Donald Pleasance, one of the most delectable screen villains ever in a stinker like this, it brings moot questions to my addled mind, such as:
Vadinho (the actor playing him) could have been Pumaman, not that wimpy noodle hanging from piano wires. Pumas don’t fly. That Vadinho dude’s got screen presence (any relation to Rondo Hatton?) – make the guy another Santo or Blue Demon and they could’ve had themselves a fun @ss-kicking extra butter popcorner.
But, to quote Joel from EYE CREATURES… they just didn’t care.
This one, along with Space Mutiny, goes in the “wildly overrated” bin for me. There are steady laughs throughout, but this episode is nothing spectacular. I give this one a 3.
#130:
I’d say that any technology that centers around ineptly-sculpted gold masks (what did they do, get a big block of gold and then take a chainsaw to it?), equally ineptly-sculpted papier-mache heads with pointless wires stuck on them, and circuit boards straight out of our own 20th century can’t really claim the descriptor of “sufficiently advanced,” interstellar travel or no. I’m reminded somewhat of the aliens from Stephen King’s The Tommyknockers–their technology is more advanced than ours, strictly speaking, but they themselves barely understand it, and it’s cheaply cobbled together out of found objects. And on the subject of the costume: some may find snug bodysuits and tights undignified, but what kind of allegedly god-like aliens dress their human champion in khaki slacks that I could easily get at Ross for ten dollars? Really, god-like aliens? Really?
I alwys found it interesting that Pumaman can fly but Batman can’t. True, Batman has taken up basejumping, and Pumaman flys by having a spaz attack that would give any self- respecting geek fits of jealousy, but still… I’m sure glad that’s Cheryl Ladd’s Dept, the complaint line must ring 24/7
#135:
Well, being advanced enough to be indistinguishable from magic isn’t the same thing as being advanced enough to be indistinguishable from cheesy special effects. :-)
Wait, I’m pretty sure I said that wrong.
Oh well.
An excellent point none the less
A bit late, but oh how I love this episode. Definitely one of my favorites in Season 9 (basically tied for 1st place with Final Sacrifice) and in the Top 10, maybe Top 5 overall. I’m also going to try something new and begin a “Things I learned from this episode” portion since a single weekend thread wouldn’t nearly cover everything over the whole series.
Movie:
* I actually like the premise of this movie, even if it is just a blatant Superman ripoff, both because of the idea of an Aztec superhero and the idea that the mantle is passed down between father and son for centuries are pretty original for their time.
* As mentioned back in the thread for Deathstalker, Vadihno is the same guy as one of the spoiled princess’s guards near the beginning of the movie. Even if he’s not the best actor, he’s hard to miss after you first spot him.
* As funny as the episode is, it’s Donald Pleasance who makes it worth watching multiple times. While his characters don’t make my favorite villains in MST’d movies (that spot goes to Lodac from Magic Sword), but he’s definitely my favorite actor to play an antagonist.
* A while back I started keeping track of references to Lord of the Rings in these episodes, this one has inspired one for references to Archie comics (which I still read even though I’m 27).
Favorite riffs:
“Aaaah! I’m falling at a 60-angle, breaking all the laws of physics!” – Mike
“So pumas are suicidally depressive mouth-breathers?” – Crow
“Don’t let them net me!” – Servo
Host Segments:
* I never watched “Sliders,” mainly because it didn’t air out where I lived. Shame, too, it looked interesting.
* At first I thought a coatamundi was the thing that The Tick adopts for a pet and calls “Speak.” Still haven’t figured out what it really is…
* I LOVE the Roger Whittaker segments. They’re so random and Kevin does such a great job that they cap off the episode as a great one.
Favorite line: “For all things that looks like a replica of the head of Roger Whittaker!” – Mike
Things I Learned from this Episode:
* Pumas have perfect aerodynamics no matter how they’re posed when they fly.
* Pumas are suicidally depressive mouth-breathers.
* The goal of every great hero is to be left alone.
* Villains always have a “conveniently”-placed escape hatch, no matter where they are.
* Setting up a pinata based on a real-life person is half the means of taking over their mind.
* Don’t mess with Shelly.
#139
The ‘Tick’ question you mention. I believe it was a Capybara
Must be difficult finding the Chosen One when your method is to throw Americans, excuse me, americans, out the window!
So, Kobras are a Puma Man’s deadly enemy?
“Believe it or not/this movie’s still on/it should have ended two hours/ago!”
I have to say something favor of this movie. I think some of the special effects were well done. I like seeing Puma Man rip apart cars and metal doors. It’s pretty neat when Puma Man pulls up that steel trap door at the end of the movie.
I also liked the ‘dry look’ sketch because the nanites were so underused as to be nearly forgotten after season 8. Even if we have to assume that their establishing motivation in 801 of wanting to conquer the world/universe/digiverse/etc. was just Crow’s ‘differentness’ making him blurt out nonsense, there’s no reason to forget what we actually saw of them, so it was nice that one individual nanite besides Paul’s Ned could get a recurring appearance. The fact that Shelly debuted in my favorite S8 ep simply adds to making this the first experiment of S9 that I found truly spectacular. Even if it was all for a contrived pun taken literally, that only worked because they just moved on without overplaying it.
Miniatures were usually Trace’s department at CC, right? Would Beez have been responsible for Mike’s desert-scalp/scape, or someone else?
“PUMA MAN–n’s friend…”
There is so much wrong with this film that it just makes me upset like several other films out there.
Though my mood is pretty much to do with ‘the gods.’ They lost the darn mask, they are powerful…why can’t they just get it back? They are about as lazy as Padme Amidala deciding not to fight to live for her twin children (sorry that came out, but when your own Mom battles cancer with chemo and radiation for close to a year and dies…well, Padme just gave up compared to the hell my Mom endured hoping to get better).
It’s pretty sad about Donald Pleasance. I saw the Twilight Zone episode he did where he was a professor…and I thought to myself, “So he CAN act!” When the majority of your knowledge of someone is through movies like ‘Puma Man’ and ‘Warrior of the Lost World,’ you can pigeonhole some people pretty quickly.
Though they never did explain just how Kobras knew what to do with the mask. It was also pretty confusing about all the people being thrown out of windows: Was that Kobras’ men doing it, or was that the Aztec trying to find THE Puma Man.
Though also, this film has one of the worst closing lines-EVER!! I shivered just now remembering Tony’s last words.
I did wonder what a sequel would be like, if they pulled a Bryan Singer and made “Puma Man Returns.”
I consider this to be a “minor classic”, a show that’s very good but falls just short of representing the very best of MST3K. The riffing is great, the movie is bizarre and whacky beyond description, and the host segments are decent. But I consider it to only be the third or fourth best ep of Season 9, behind Werewolf, Hobgoblins and MAYBE Final Sacrifice. In that regard, it’s a little overrated in my book.
“Vadhino: Put it on!
Tony: I’ll be killed!
Vadhino: Put it on!
Crow: …and then get killed!”
Probably my favorite episode ever. Ridiculously cheesy episode with disco fighting, random self-employed firetruck guy, rear projection flying, and make-them-up-as-you-go-along super powers.
“Pleasence: PYUMAMAN, I AM ORDERING YOU…I AM ORDERING YOU…..
Crow: …a fajita, is that alright?”
“He was playing with mommy’s lipstick.”
CLASSIC
And I’m still waiting for the darkier, edgier “Pumaman” reboot. I wonder who they’ll cast as a moody, conflicted Tony with a tragic past who screams in anguish as he kills his enemies…and yet still manages to be totally inept.
#144:
Since I’m guessing that the movie didn’t intend for us to think that Vadhino was a serial killer, it seems likely that it was Kobras’s men who were throwing guys out windows to their deaths. Even when Vadhino threw Tony out of a window, he didn’t throw him all THAT many stories, did he? Even if Tony hadn’t been Pumaman, he probably wouldn’t have DIED from the fall. Gotten banged up pretty good, sure, but not died.
>>>>Though also, this film has one of the worst closing lines-EVER!! I shivered just now remembering Tony’s last words.
Yeah, what kind of sicko suggests that a woman let him get her pregnant THE FIRST TIME he has sex with her, huh? ;-)
Puma Man, Puma Man
Does whatever a puma can
By his belt, he does rise
That’s the stupid way he flies
Look out, here’s comes the Puma Man
From the TV Tropes Hypercompetent Sidekick entry: “Vadinho from Puma Man is a Badass Normal who constantly hand-holds the nominal superhero Tony through the adventure and displays power and badassery in such quantity that you wonder why he needs Tony at all.”
@ #49: I always thought that was the point of the show, watching and mocking bad movies.
@ #64: The original radio version of the Green Hornet wasn’t so overshadowed.
The Roger Whitaker host segment is cute. I have no idea who he is even after looking him up and I guess that is point. But that is the only segment that did very much for me. The movie riffing was okay but the movie itself was a bit too goofy and thus distracting.
Favorite Riffs:
Newspaper headline “Fourth american [sic] killed in just a few days. Will there be other victims?” Crow “Call our 900 number and vote.”
Jane “So dinosaurs became extinct because they no longer knew how to love each other. Is that correct?” Tom “In a wrong sort of way, sure.”
Crow “Soundtrack by my little brother’s Casio”
Crow as Pumaman to Vadinho “I’ll go mess up and you save me.”
Tom “He’s the kind of guy who’d stick his tongue on a frozen flagpole twice.”