Movie: (1977) A troubled teen finds an alien’s weapon and takes revenge on those who taunted him.
First shown: 5/18/96
Opening: With Mike tied up, Crow and Tom present the “Thunderdome” joke
Intro: Dr. F.’s funding has been cut, so he cuts the SOL loose! But Tom gets the thrusters working
Host segment 1: The SOL picks up Monad, an annoying robot
Host segment 2: The SOL hits a field of star babies — and one of them needs changing
Host segment 3: With the SOL heading toward a black hole, Mike undergoes a terrifying but useful transformation
End: The SOL reaches the edge of the universe and its inhabitants become beings of pure energy. Meanwhile, Dr. F. becomes unstuck in time, has a revelation and is reborn
Stinger: “Faaar out!”
(259 votes, average: 4.62 out of 5)
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• And so we come to the end of another era of MST3K and the departure of MST3K’s powerhouse, Trace Beaulieu. It really is hard to imagine that the show could have become the classic it is without him, and while it did manage to find its footing again after his departure, his absence was keenly felt for a long time. Thanks for everything, Trace.
• As for the episode itself, it’s mostly a winner. As usual when they have a story to tell in the host segments, they do it with brisk efficiency. The sci-fi parodies are everywhere (perhaps preparing viewers — and themselves — for what was to come) and a couple of the segments are classics. The riffing is steady and strong — and they had a LOT to work with. All in all, it would have made a fine farewell episode if the show had not been picked up.
• This episode appears in Shout! Factory’s “20th Anniversary Edition.”
• References.
• Mike writes about the episode and then Paul, Mary Jo and Kevin wrap up the season here.
• Joel Hodgson’s “TV Wheel” was shown immediately following this episode’s debut, so it was kind of a big day for MSTies.
• It had been 10 weeks since the last new episode and, as far as anybody knew when this first aired, there would never be another episode again. As it turned out, we would have to wait eight and a half months.
• In his writeup, Mike explains that the hilarious opening sketch was something that arose from a running gag in the writing room. I actually had an opportunity to use the thunderdome joke recently. Its message is still timely.
• The umbilicus, completely forgotten since about mid-season six, suddenly makes a reappearance and is suddenly a critical connection that determines whether the SOL’s orbit begins to decay or not. (And in the “how does he eat and breathe?” department, what was preventing their orbit from decaying in seasons K through 5?) Mike notices this in his writeup as well.
• I love how Mike does the Star Trek “shirt tug” before he says “Engage!”
• It’s fun to make fun of Kim Milford, who plays Billy, but that becomes more difficult after you find out that Milford died of heart failure following open heart surgery. He was only 37. (Incidentally he did NOT die of HIV, as was rumored.)
• You might recognize some of the background score. It’s the same Richard Band noodling that was also used in the movie in episode 110-ROBOT HOLOCAUST.
• Callbacks: “Roxie!” (Eegah) also “Eegah!” “It was after the Acropolis.” (Robot Holocaust) “Hi, I’m Max Keller.” (Master Ninja I) “It’s the Coleman Francis mountain!” Also a mention of Cherokee Jack. “Robert Ginty” (Warrior of the Lost World). And “Leave the Bronx!”
• I love the riff: “Let’s pop amyls and watch ‘Days.'” I’d assumed he was referring to the soap opera “Days of Our Lives” but a commenter suggested he might be saying “Dazed” as in the movie “Dazed and Confused,” which might also make sense. I previously asked if that line was from something and nobody so far has recognized it.
• Of course that’s Jim as the voice of Monad the perfection-seeking robot. It’s a funny idea but the bit feels a little rushed to me.
• After going several seasons without so much as making mention of it, this episode features not one but two uses of the “hatch” at upstage left. In the past it has been used by Joel/Mike to get to the theater. Now it seems to be a portal into space. Mike also notices this in his writeup.
• The “changing the starbaby” bit is a cute idea (I especially like Mike as the quintessential NASA flight controller guy), but it doesn’t really have a payoff (“put it on a shelf”?).
• The whole “ready for some football” thing became a catchphrase, and long-lived one. it pops up every fall on MSTie social media to this day.
• Obscure riff: “This sucks, I was supposed to headline,” as the characters pull up in a car together. This is reference, as I think I have mentioned before, to the experience many of the writers had as traveling comics working a circuit of comedy clubs in the upper midwest. They tended to travel to the club in one car, with the headliner getting the best seat, etc.
• Over several seasons, they’d established Mike’s bizarre ability to “become” other people at times of stress. He became Carol Channing and Kenny G, for example. This strange notion finally pays off in segment 3 when Mike — in one of the most notorious segments of the series — becomes “Star Trek Voyager”‘s Captain Janeway and saves the day.
• The whole Leonard Maltin thing really does point up the fundamental flaw of his rating system. I was once a devotee of his books: buying a new one every September was an annual rite of the fall. And before the arrival of the IMDB (which pretty much made Maltin’s guide superfluous) it was pretty handy. But I always felt his rating system was completely out of whack. The problem, to begin with, was he used a four-star rating system when a five-star system would have served him better. But the bigger flaw in the system was that, for reasons that I felt were never adequately explained, his lowest rating (other than “bomb”) was 1-and-half stars. No film received a one-star or half-star rating, which created a kind of odd star-rating inflation among bad movies. Had he made use of the half-star and one-star ratings, I believe this sort of problem would not have happened (or at least would not have been so acute) and he might not have let himself in for the well-deserved mockery he gets here.
• By the way: in Ward E we have a list of MSTed movies that have been given 2-and-a-half stars by Leonard Maltin.
• The final bit, of course, is amazing; as Mike notes, that’s Trace’s dad (who has since passed away) as “old Forrester.” The final moment of that segment gives me chills every time.
• Cast and crew roundup: Editor Jodie Copelan also worked on “Ring of Terror” and “Night of the Blood Beast.” Special effects guy Harry Woolman also worked on “The Incredible Melting Man.” “Hangar 18” and “Agent for H.A.R.M.” Score composer Richard Band also worked on “Robot Holocaust” (as noted above) and “Being From Another Planet.”
In front of the camera: Cheryl Smith was also in “The Incredible Melting Man.” Keenan Wynn will be seen again in “Parts: The Clonus Horror.”
• CreditsWatch: Host segments directed by Trace Beaulieu. This of course was Trace’s last episode with the show. In addition to his acting and writing credits, this is the last episode he got “art direction” and “set design” credits. Joel Hodgson’s and Jef Maynard’s “set design” credits end with this episode as well. The “additional original music written and arranged by” credit goes away completely. This was Helen Espinoza’s last episode as prop master. It is Beth “Beez” McKeever’s last show as prop assistant (she would get a promotion beginning with season eight). We also bid farewell to: production manager/post-production coordinator Wendell Jon Anderson, production assistant Michael D. Parker, Info Club poobah Julie Walker (assistant poobah Barb Tebben would get a promotion in season eight) and interns Danika King, Ben Mooers and Kelly Schrandt.
• Fave riff: “So they’re just off County Road C goin’ at it, huh?” Honorable mention: “Look! Everyone was sending a sheet of paper to everyone else.”
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Anyone notice that the opening music in Laserblast was also used as the opening music to Robot Holocaust? (Or at least they are very very similar)
Did I mention that the sequence looks great? Because it really looks great. It’s just not all that, y’know, funny? (IMO, YMMV, LOL WTF BBQ POWMIA AFLCIO 90210 8675309.)
Why IS that doornob so high?
I saw this ep in its original airing, and not having been a member of any of the MST forums, I was totally blind-sided by the ending. I remember being stunned and a bit depressed for several days afterward. So, it’s a tad ironic that his has become one of my all-time faves. Mike as Janeway is in the running as one my all-time favorite host segments, especially when he goes into the Tina Turner bit.
A little thing about this film I’ve noticed that I dont think has been mentioned is that in the very first scene, the long distance pan of the desert, the sound effect of the wind blowing is right out of Star Trek the original series. The other point about music from Robot Holocaust being used in this film I think IS actually pointed out by Tom I believe…when he recites narration from RH.
#145 – RE #137 Thigh, maybe they didn’t have IMDB in 1996 and didn’t recognize him?
Let me tell you what we had in 1996. Around that time, I got a Dell 2000 (back when 2000 still sounded slightly futuristic), and it came with a CD-based application that was basically just a proto-IMDB searchable database of movies. It was clunky and crappy and took FORever to return any results, but it prefigured what was to come.
Think about a time when the Internet was so marginal and unpopular that you had to have software apps for that kind of thing, won’t we?
Great episode, loved Crow’s comments about Mike getting high back in the day, the Janeway sketch was hilarious and the 2001 homage was well done. What the hell was happening in the scene with the guy sitting at the table and breaking a glass anyway? And I still use the Beyond Thunderdome joke to this day where applicable. And I agree with others that the alien effects of this movie were really not too bad.
But I always have a sad feeling about this episode as I was a huge MSTie when the show originally aired but this was the last new episode I saw for about 12 years. There were just too many cast changes happening too quickly for me and I thought the show had lost its soul. With Joel, Frank and now Trace gone, I just didn’t see how the show could possibly continue. So I never watched any of the Sci-Fi episodes until discovering this site a few years back and deciding to finally give them a chance. I will save the discussion of that for the coming few weeks though.
This is the one and only movie MST3K did that I actually saw in the theater. It was one of the very first of what could be called the ‘Star wars rip-off’ era. And believe it or not, when they blew up that Star Wars sign the audience erupted. Different times. Although Mike makes a good point, there’s just a sign by the road that says ‘Star Wars’?
This was the best Season 7 episode to me. Good times.
I like to think that there was a drive-in theater nearby that was showing Star Wars.
Re-watched this one earlier this week in anticipation of the discussion. My questions from almost 4(!) years ago (time flies :( )still puzzle me:
#61:
And, per the discussion above, I do recall IMDB existing in 1996, however, it wouldn’t necessarily have contained as much information about obscure films that way it does now.
Trace’s final regular performance as Crow was a tour de force. Every line he (and the rest) make while imitating the turtle aliens is fantastic.
And, I noticed the same thing this time that I did four years ago. There were so many call-back jokes. It seemed much higher than normal. I suspect there was a lot of nostalgia flowing through that writing room at the thought that this could be the last time…
. . . .and we’ve reached the end of an era. . . .
With Trace’s departure and with the show’s subsequent move to the Sci-Fi Channel, this is the where the show has its division line. Some people like to divide the show into Joel and Mike eras, but for me the show changed flavors after getting picked up by Sci-Fi and wasn’t quite the same (luckily it was a flavor that I grew to love, but the first part of Season 8. .. .well, we’ll get to that next week…). Trace was and always will be my favorite cast member, Crow is an amazing character, and Dr. Forrester’s and TV’s Frank have a wealth of brilliant moments. As for LASERBLAST as a finale/departure episode:
I love it!
The Host Segments are great, from the “Beyond Thunderdome” opening, to the silly-ass Monad robot showing up in HS#1 and the great bit with the Star Babies in HS#2 (“It went all the way up its back!”). Mike’s transformation into Capt. Janeway is terrifying and quickly descends into madness. It’s great!
And the final moments? Mike and the Bots (even Magic Voice and Cambot!) turning into pure energy and floating out to play at the edge of the universe is a wonderful touch, it sends them out into the infinite without being finite for our characters. The final moments with Dr. Forrester and the 2001: A Space Odyssey homage is one of the reasons I love this show. It’s smart, it’s funny, it’s spot on, and it manages to make me just a little bit sad. . .just a wonderful send off to a fantastic actor and piece of the show. “Oh poopie,” indeed.
As for LASERBLAST itself, I think it is great, a classic episode. The riffing is STRONG and is firing on all cylinders. From the opening to the end credits, I’m laughing endlessly, this is just the kind of cheesy movie I love, corny 70s science fiction-action-drama, with a few recognizable faces (Roddy! Rainbeuax! Keenan! Deezen!!) and stupid special effects (actually those turtle aliens are a lot of fun). This is the best Season 7 episode and one of my personal Top 5 Mike episodes, which might mean it is in my Top 10 MST3k episodes! I Love It!
Cheryl “Rainbeuax” Smith (blonde girlfriend Kathy) is really good in the odd vampire film Lemora: A Child’s Tale of the Supernatural and was also in Caged Heat, Massacre at Central High, and Cheech and Chong’s Up in Smoke.
Dennis Burkley (“are you ready for sum footbaaallll??!!?” Deputy Pete Ungar) had a long career in supporting roles on TV and in movies, but I was most interested to find that he voiced Principal Moss on King of the Hill. Now somebody needs to go find an audio clip of Moss talking about football. . . . . .
This was super-nerd Eddie Deezen’s first role in a movie. He would go on to be in 1941, Zapped!, WarGames, and Beverly Hills Vamp, before starting a long (and still continuing) career doing voice work for various cartoons. He is still a super-nerd.
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RIFFS:
Servo: “The Charlie Daniels Band is now the Charles Band.” ———I think this EVERY time I see Band’s name now!
Servo: “Come down to Milford, free popsicles for the kids.”
Servo: “Music has a decidedly Hawkwind feel to it.”
Mike: “I think it’s more like a sort of Mike Oldfield, McHenry Spring, Rick Wakeman, Keith Emerson, Gentle Giant, Autobaun, Kraftwerk, Synergy kind of thing.” ———he mentions a couple other people/bands, but I can’t make/figure out what he’s saying exactly.
Servo: “Looks like Trent Reznor ran out of gas. Poor guy.”
Crow: “Robert Smith is in a good mood today.”
Mike: “Stop reading my thoughts. Are you reading my thoughts?!”
Crow: “Help! A giant bong is attacking me!”
Crow: “Get em off me! Get em off. . . Oh, it’s just my sheet.”
Servo: “His mustardy shorts don’t help.”
Mike: “C’mon, let’s pop Amyls and watch Days.” —-as in “Of our Lives,” the popular soap opera.
Crow: “Another slice of life here Mike, just you revving the highway, your Dixie Drake tapes…”
Mike: “This guy has put more rolled up towels under more doors….”
Crow: “Sunny day. . .got a pleasant buzz going. . . .huh, Mike? Huh? hehehe…”
Mike: “Hey Spicer, I’m here for the dope.”
Crow: “Ah yeah. . . .you do a lot of wacky-tobaccy, Mike? Huh, a lot of Mary JANE? Jokey Smokey?”
Servo: “I’m a dumb scrawny cracker.”
Crow: “When you first saw this you laughed so hard you spilt your bong water, didn’t you Mike?”
Servo: “I’m going to drink the hell outta this Coke.”
Crow: “Lyle Swann’s motorcycle from Timerider!”
Mike: “Wow! Albert Belle really did cork his bat!”
Mike: “Think of all the dope I can smoke with this!”
Servo: “Please sir, we’ve seen Laserblast.”
Mike: “When a movie starts showing you parts of itself, you know you’re in trouble.”
Crow: “It’s Coleman Francis Mountain.”
Mike: “I am sooooo baked.”
Mike: “Ah man, those brownies must of been looooaded.”
Crow: “Don’t even pretend, Eddie.”
Crow: “I just feel like you might not be ready for sum football.”
Servo (as Roddy McDowall): “Smoked many a great doobie with this.”
Mike: “Oh no, his car turned into a Sedan and crashed and exploded!”
Mike: “This movie is comprised solely of 2nd-unit footage.”
Crow: “You’re right, this data proves I’m a woman.”
Mike: “Robert Ginty was a better kisser!.”
Crow: “Tonight on a very special Simon and Simon.”
Crow: “Temperature gauge is running hot. Wonder what that. . . . . oh.”
Mike: “You know I should tell you about my ass, gas, or grass policy.”
Crow: “He’s like a lucid Dennis Hopper.”
Servo: “You might not believe this but I grow my own Mary Jane!
Mike: “Camera rigg on the side of the van.”
*honk*
Servo: “Hey! You got a camera ring on the side of your van!”
–
the whole end credits bit with the Leonard Maltin film guide ratings is great, I particulary love:
“John Schlesinger’s Oscar winning thriller Marathon Man, on par with Laserblast.”
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this is a CLASSIC and important episode of MST3k,
5/5 turtle aliens agree
:turtle: :alien: :turtle: :alien: :turtle:
Great episode, even the host segments. The diaper change is a close second to the legendary Janeway appearance; I forgot these were all in the same ep. What sells the Janeway bit is how the bots’ horror is mollified by how calm and self-confident the new Mike is, a true leader. All the same things they were saying to try to sell us Mrs. Columbo as a Starfleet Captain.
When this first aired, I remembered the night scene of Kim Milford blowing up (laserblasting) Roddy McDowall in a station wagon, and little else. Themovie itself has a lot going on, however. It’s too bad the characters who have any depth (the Sheetcake Girl, the Turtle Aliens, Roddy McD, his buddy Dr. Gertrude Stein, crazy Keenan Wynn, Scary Thin Mom) are all meaningless to the plot.
We are left with misunderstood loner Billy, who we find out, has no endearing features, yet another movie where the supposed ‘hero’ is just a jerk. But also like other bad movies,everyone else is even less appealing! Stoned corrupt cops, stupid sheriff, bland-as-white-toast girlfriend, federal vested mystery man, who talks very condescendingly to everyone in town, despite the fact that he is impotent, and DOES NOTHING but poke around the desert in slacks. The only way we know he’s from Washington is that he drives a cadillac and carries a briefcase.
And, let me vent that it is a little painful to see some classic cars get destroyed for such a waste: the aforementioned Ford XL, Deezen’s sweet rebuilt Chevy (’57?) and the Cops’ cool Matador. Why, Megaweapon? Why?
In conclusion: “I hope that device has a shirt-buttoning feature.”
This is a pretty good episode. Very funny host segments and good riffing. Sure, the movie is pretty vapid, but it’s very riffable. Highlight in the short seventh season.
Oh, and what the was the casting director thinking when he was given the part of a bully and he decided to cast Eddie Deezen?! Ten out of ten for originality, but minus several million for good casting…
GET LOUD COME ON GET PROUD THE SOUTH IS GONNA DO IT AGAIN
I certainly don’t mean to imply that IMDB didn’t exist in the mid-1990s. I don’t know if it did or didn’t. However, in those halcyon days, the Internet was just not mainstream. It was possible, for example, for Microsoft to sell people a CD app containing a bunch of data about movies, since those customers weren’t accesssing the Interwebs through their excruciatingly slow dial-up connections but maybe wanted to know how many crappy movies Keenan Wynne appeared in.
I graduated high school in 1996, and I am pretty sure I did not use the Internet EVEN ONCE during my four years of high school for any function that I would definitely use it for today, such as research and what-not. Even as an undergrad, a lot of my research was done in the stacks. That all had changed by grad school.
Keep in mind, during this same era you could still pay good money to join the Sierra Network (not sure if that was its name) and others of its ilk, services which basically adumbrated, in lame-o form, most of the features people access through the general Internet these days (multiplayer games, chat rooms, etc. etc.).
Information on Laserblast was only included in the extremely limited edition, 200-disc version of Microsoft’s Encarta CD-ROM encyclopedia.
This episode is LOVED by my GF,me, and all my kids. Laserblast, like Boggy Creek II (or whatever they called it), Time Chasers, Wild Rebels, Manos, I Accuse My Parents, EEGAH, Puma Man, and a host of others was made to be riffed. A PERFECT marriage. Staying power. Love the stoned cops, the tacky ’70’s people- I never tire of this. And, of course- ROLLIN ON THE RIVER!!!
Shameless self-promotion: I actually went through the iOS app of Leonard Maltin’s reviews* and made a list of ALL the MST3k movies he reviewed, then made a Tumblr post listing them from “BOMB” to 3 stars (no 3-1/2 or 4 star reviews showed up). My name links to it.
I started on a list of all the movies they mentioned in the “better/worse than Laserblast” bit, but I don’t recall how complete it is, and haven’t made a post about that.
* Yeah, it’s redundant compared to IMDb, but it’s nice for someone like me who A: Likes reading movie reviews, and B: Has an iPod touch instead of an iPhone, and can’t get to the Internet to use IMDb or Wikipedia just anywhere.
“Keep in mind, during this same era you could still pay good money to join the Sierra Network (not sure if that was its name) and others of its ilk, services which basically adumbrated, in lame-o form, most of the features people access through the general Internet these days (multiplayer games, chat rooms, etc. etc.). ”
And yet in many ways, they were simply precursors to facebook.
I met Eddie Deezen once. He was a really nice guy.
I like this episode. It has some good moments.
After this episode, all of the original players, the ones in front of the camera, are all gone. That’s too weird for me. It’s as if 8-10 are a spinoff of MST3K; I rarely watch them. But I have decided to watch 8-10, again, with you all, and attempt to find the few things I do enjoy in a handful of those eps, paying attention to the positives and straying away from pointing out the negatives. I don’t dislike change, but I do dislike messing with perfection.
It does make me wonder though, if MST was still on, would we be on our 5th or 6th host/cast by now?
All I can say is that at this point, it`s hard NOT to make a ‘Dukes Of Hazzard’ reference.
Laserblast passes the Bechdel Test. The key moment occurs when Cathy and Fanny talk about how crappy the birthday party is.
In the Star Baby HS, when Mike says that one of them has the ship, I originally misheard the word ship. Let’s just say that the diaper changing aspect helped reinforce the misperception.
@ #145: IMDB has existed since 1990, though obviously it wasn’t the resource it is today. Unless you meant that maybe they didn’t have access to IMDB, since Internet access was nowhere near as prolific as it is now.
Dan in WI #148: So let me get this straight. Chuck is the cool kid who torments Billy yet he hangs out with Eddie Deezen.
I think it’s more the other way around. The “cool” kids often have a following of wannabe sycophants.
pondoscp #170: After this episode, all of the original players, the ones in front of the camera, are all gone.
Not quite. Jim Mallon is still Gypsy until about halfway through Season 8.
Sitting Duck #172>
Thing is I wasn’t the cool kid in my school days. While I might have attempted to latch on during the school day, I got the brush off real quick after hours. I sure wasn’t riding around town with the cool kids like Deezen was with Chuck.
Actually depending on you count the KTMA season, Josh was the original Gypsy. He did double duty that year. So that character was the first to be recast.
#166 – I think I got about 200 discs with that computer. Those were different times.
One of three MST movies I saw in real life. MAROONED – theater. LASERBLAST – VHS rental. ATTACK OF THE THE EYE CREATURES – Girl friend’s parents’ kitchen one Christmas.
LASERBLAST – One of the all time great episodes on so many levels. It’s like a drug. I can’t stop watching it.
Two and a half stars to SAMPO for the apostrophe correction above.
The kitchen episode mentioned above was 40 years ago but I can still remember her parents wondering just what their daughter had dragged home for Christmas. I guess failure was an option.
There must have been a subplot involving Secret Government Agencies, which explained Keenan Wynn’s craziness and the who/what/why of the Man In Black, which got cut so the movie could fit in the MST3K timeslot. Maybe this subplot was so gripping and thoughtful and well-acted that Leonard Maltin was moved to award the entire movie 2-1/2 *s. Can anybody who saw the unMST3Ked version confirm?
Before LASERBLAST finally aired back in 1996, I remember that Comedy Central was HEAVILY promoting it (but not exactly as the final episode) along with the premiere of Joel’s THE TV WHEEL. This TV spot, narrated by our friend Penn Jillette, used to play often, or at least it ended up on a couple of my videotapes and I saw it a lot. Either way:
http://youtu.be/hqxkrnytkec
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It’s not MST3k, but I wish we could do an Episode Guide entry for THE TV WHEEL. It’s really really funny and unique and I treasure my videotaped copy. (What do you think, Sampo? SAMPO??)
I asked Eddie Deezen on facebook once if he saw the MST3K treatment of Laserblast. He said it was better than the movie itself, and called MST3K one of the best comedies ever.
I love the turtle aliens. I kinda wonder what they were saying. Subtitles? “That’s me! I admit it!”
“The South’s Gonna Do It Again” by Charlie Daniels. I rather like it.
I noticed that after the car explodes, Eddie first hugs the party hostess, tugs at her, then uses her as a shield…I don’t exactly know, but it’s hilarious.
A great episode, and a poignant one, and I’m gonna enjoy reading about the next phase.
So many highlights of this excellent episode!
Billy and his “tortured” background: “Boy, if there was ignorant talk radio in the 70’s, I sure would agree with it” and “I think we’re supposed to like him because he has a van.” “Every time I come close to not hating him, I see those feet on the side of his van.”
The turtle aliens: “Er, yes sir, we’ve seen Laserblast.”
Eddie Deezen getting tossed around like a rag doll and trying to look menacing waving his scrawny arms around: “Don’t even pretend, Eddie!”
The “ready fer sum football” sheriff: “Now we have to watch him unfurl his pants.” I say this line to my fiancee and always bust out laughing because “unfurl” is used almost exclusively for flags, which are about the size of this tubbo’s underwear.
And all the pot jokes at Mike’s expense.
Trace got the best sendoff possible. Thank you for the laughs, Trace.
Speaking of Star Wars, I saw Corvette Summer a few weeks ago starring Mark Hamill and had Kim Milford in it. He played the leader of a crime ring (or something) and I thought he was essentially what Mark Hamill’s character would of be became if he went bad.
I finally got to see the Laserblast episode not so long ago. For some reason, my favorite part is Eddie Deezen and that other guy dying in that slow moving torched car. I wonder if that makes me a bad person.
Despite the sad ending, I think the movie illustrates the one thing you didn’t see to much in Joel’s episodes, which was the cheesy 1970s movies.
Movies that encapsulated the crazy vibe of the last half of that decade pop culture vibe with its disco music and colorful business suits. Mitchell is the only one I can think of right now. But Mike got a lot more of them in his run.
This movie was (of course) entirely made of second unit shots.
I also loved the effect of the cop’s belly honking the car horn. Ludicrous…
And also also: Is the Janeway impression meant to be making an anti-Janeway statement? I am not too familiar with the Trek-related genre. Irregardless (heh), Mike looked lovely.
RE: “Is the Janeway impression meant to be making an anti-Janeway statement? I am not too familiar with the Trek-related genre.”
Maybe not anti-Janeway, but a nice enough impression of the character and Kate McGrew (did I spell that right) herself.
Yeah, Janeway’s not well-liked amongst Star Trek fans because of how inconsistent her personality was. Kate has gone on record saying that Janeway likely had a mental disorder.
I used to watch VOyager, they had a few good episodes here and there, but the thing that got me was the fact that Janeway seemed to cause more chaos through her decisions. Not only did she get her crew stuck 80 years from home, she would do things like help the Borg defeat an alien species who were destroying them, then the Borg would go on assimuliating species. One guy tried to kill the whole crew after his civilization was destroyed by the Borg because of Janeway’s decisioin.
Again, about this episode, you got to love the 1970s vans they had.
As per my posts circa 116, this movie had a special significance to me even before it became a legendary MST episode. Possibly the best sendoff episode, both for Trace and the series (even though the series returned). Hilarious riffs, and a movie full to bursting with WTF. Almost every element of the film begs for an explanation that never arrives. From bizarrely high doorknobs and flesh colored houses, to energy weapons that turn you into a homicidal reptile with a doorbell in your chest, and aliens that arbitrarily come and go, sometimes running at the sight of an airplane and then hovering over the center of town while one of them shoots our protagonist in full view of at least two witnesses. Few other films suffer so much from lack of exposition. Marvelous episode. Thank you Trace.
When I saw Joel’s “Riffing Myself” show, he was asked what was his favorite episode he wasn’t on. His reply: Laserblast.
I’ve always imagined that disconnecting the Umbilicus was not itself responsible for the SOL’s orbital decay, but rather that it was the final stage of the shut down process since Deep 13 has remote control.
The episode is one of my rainy day episodes that I can put on and enjoy whether I’m fully paying attention or not. And as someone who spent a bunch of time in the desert during my teenage years, it speaks to me on a fundamental level.
So, whose reaction, upon looking at the below link, was something like “They made Laserblast into a series?”
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zI9Dm3WodDY/T3M1GLsk3_I/AAAAAAAAKgA/OCQOt1Ojupk/s1600/photontvseries.jpg
I wonder if Dr. Forrester’s star baby transformation will be the origin of his daughter in the reboot?
@ #182: Who knows. I think it can be reasonably argued that Voyager was the beginning of the end for the Trek franchise’s credibility.
@ #189: Only one way to find out.
Love this episode, as I do most of the ones riffing 1970s movies. It was such an awful decade for good films, but conversely, it was a GREAT decade for terrible ones. Main character Billy looked and acted like most of the boys in my high school back then, but I agree it’s harder to laugh at Kim Milford knowing he died at such a young age after heart surgery. Did you know he was a decent singer? Not great, but pretty good. https://youtu.be/rKrvUPJ4yGo
Lotta good riffs, most of the smoking dope ones, also “It’s Coleman Francis Mountain.”
Before I get to my thoughts on the episode itself, I want to ask if anyone’s Shout! Factory DVD of this plays improperly. Watching it tonight, right at the commercial bumper before the second Host Segment, the audio and picture get WAY out of sync and remain that way for the rest of the episode. It was very distracting, but I can’t remember if it was like that the last time I watched the disc and I’m wondering if it could possibly have been the DVD player.
Anyway, I’m afraid this episode didn’t have the opportunity to affect me the same way it did the long-time fans, because I didn’t get fully with the show until late in Season 8. But if the show had ended here, it couldn’t have gone out much better than with ‘Laserblast’. The nonsensical yet colorful movies are always the most fun to watch and this one has so many elements crashing into each other that it couldn’t help being a classic.
Now I’m looking forward to the start of season 8 and the first opportunity I’ve had in years to see the episodes in order!
Fave riffs
[Static shot of desert] And, action! — Cut, beautiful!
Mike, this is how I’ve always pictured your room. Am I far off?
Flesh is a nice color for a house…
[Billy opens door] There’s a dozen naked teenage girls in there; that’s what happens at these teen parties!
I’ve come to where the flavor is but nothing’s happening.
I’m not sure that’s quite as sarcastic as it used to be.
But then, *I* wouldn’t go anywhere near a teen party for fear of being labeled little better than one or two steps above a pedophile just for, y’know, LOOKING at teenagers. Perhaps I’ve seen too many episodes of Law & Order: SVU, but still, better safe.
When you think about it (“So don’t think about it.”), one’s own teenage years is the only time when one can, legally, have sex with teenagers. So parents who discourage their teenagers from having sex with teenagers are robbing them of…uh…well, I’m probably in enough trouble just for saying what I’ve already said.
When someone posted a couple episodes ago that there was a bit more B&MJ writing in Season 7 with the main crew busy on the Movie, I wasn’t sure.
Until I watched this again on Old Netflix (I keep forgetting I ever saw itI), and, um, yeah:
Apart from the easy Mike & Bill “Woohoo, 70’s wakin’ and bakin’..” jokes that didn’t need to watch the movie too carefully to make, I’m guessing this one was pretty heavy on the gal-riffing, because males don’t necessarily think skinny women are EVIL…Oh, they may not be our particular tastes, but sue us, we just don’t have this burning righteous resentment of injustice that skinny women deserve to be punished! on this earth for the crime of being skinny.
I’m pretty sure any comic with a working Y-chromosome would be royally creeped-out by the sheer bloodthirsty concentration of “Eating-disorder psychology” anorexia jokes that pop up every time the skinny mom or skinny girlfriend so much as show up on screen. (“I’m sorry I called you fat!”)
Yeah, MJ, y’know those complaints you were making a while ago about “Males’ stereotypical perceptions of female comedy”?–Okay, here’s something…
I don’t understand the ending. Something about Trace… and his dad… what happened?
Hey Idiot, I mean EricJ (194),
They all made fun of everybody. Everyone made fun of everyone, including themselves, including people/characters they liked. It’s what they did, during and after Joel era. Please stop telling how much you don’t like Mike, Bill, Kevin, Mary Jo, Bridget, etc. WE GET IT!! Please, for the love of God, just go away. And I’m sorry to the rest of you for feeding the troll. But that square bugs me, he really bugs me!!
#195: The Trace ending is a riff on the ending of the movie 2001, which in my opinion doesn’t make much sense anyway.
Don’t worry; Kubrick and Clarke didn’t think it made much sense, either.
The way the aliens departed, and then returned, implied (to me) that they left the weapon and pendant behind because they presumed that no one but the dead green guy from the beginning could use them. Then they learned that Billy was using them too, so back to Earth to take the weapon and pendant with them this time and, of course, kill Billy. Yes, in the end, Billy got jack. If only he’d tried to Be A Hero instead.
Officer Unger? Really? What writer uses the name “Unger” unless trying to make some sort of “Odd Couple” reference? Shrug.
Aside from the likes of us, I’d imagine that very few people recall this 40-year-old film. Someone could do a re-make of it (explaining all the inexplicable stuff) and almost no one would realize that it was a re-make. Because if one must do a re-make, at least re-make a film no one’s ever heard of to begin with, because then it’s practically a brand-new film. Or re-make a “bad” film but make it “good.” All the world knows that “Plan 9 from Outer Space” is “one of the worst movies ever made.” It’s instant name recognition (although not a synonym for bad and evil badness like “Battleship Earth”). Re-make Plan 9 as a reasonably “good” movie and the filmgoers will flock, yes, flock, I tell you. Or not.
Okay, here’s my view of the situation:
The blaster & pendant were recovered from an alien crash landing by the U.S. government. Both stayed in storage until somebody got a hold of it and figured out how to use it, as in you needed the latter to use the former. He stole it and started blasting, and the more he used it, the more the gun brought out his evil nature and mutated him into the sort of alien that created it.
The gun being activated set off a signal warning the turtles that the gun was intact. They’re given the job to go to Earth and put things right. Meanwhile, agent BillBixbyDavidBirney is sent by the Feds to recover the missing material. The aliens reach the original guy first and zap him, but don’t realize the gun & pendant are still intact. They leave, and Billy finds the gun & pendant and the whole thing starts all over again.
BillBixbyDavidBirney arrives, still on the trail of the original guy, and finds out that Billy now has the gun. He sets out after him, but he’s too late, again. The aliens return, zap Billy and the gun, and BillBixbyDavidBirney has to clean up the mess.
Oh, and Kennan Wynn worked for the agency that handled all the alien stuff, along with other black ops. But, he became unreliable for the job (either alcoholism or Alzheimer’s), so they let him go, knowing that his ravings wouldn’t be believed. BillBixbyDavidBirney visited him to check if he remembered anything worthy of note, and to make sure he was still considered a nutty old coot.
And if anyone wants to use this stuff for some fan fiction expansion of the original story, it’s all yours.