I was watching “Spider Island” the other day and it suddenly hit me how good of a job Bill did in that episode. Crow’s riff deliveries were lively and sincere, and he was hilarious as flash-dancing Observer what with his animated pounding on the chair (complete with a little adjusting when he accidentally knocked it off-center). Thus, I was wondering what the community thought were great episodes for other cast members. Tell us what cast member excelled in what particular episode. It doesn’t have to be regulars, either. But show your work. Don’t just say, “Brad Keely was funny as the Cake N’ Shake dancer.” What about it took that episode/segment to another level of awesomeness?
I’m going to have to go with evil Mike in episode 611- LAST OF THE WILD HORSES. He’s a little TOO good at being evil. :-)
What would you pick?
And, reminder: Next week we will discuss Mike Nelson’s novel “Death Rat.” You have one more week to get it and read or re-read it. I will be in my office Tuesdays but not Thursdays and yes, this WILL be on the final.
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For Pearl, I go with her interactions and lines with Mike at the beginning and end of Time Chasers. Her delivery of “Yeaaaaah, should go down to absolute zero tonight, that’s why I always wear a sweater” and quick “I’m cold” movement afterwards always gets me.
For Bill as Crow, it really is just his delivery of a few lines at the beginning of Werewolf that I enjoy. “Boy, I sure hated to do that” (after Crow hits Mike with the CLOWN HAMMER) and “Yeah, sure…why not?” (when asked about the Modular Descent Unit). For some reason, I laugh at the vocal inflections by Mr. Bill.
I’ll add more praise for Mike as Mikey from Teenage Strangler. Bill’s angry Crow stands out in Time Chasers when he’s trying to get 1980s Mike Nelson to give up the dairy temp job. All three guys are really good in Prince of Space when Mike is a robot puppet. Mike is so sincerely trying to get out of the wormhole alive and all Tom and Crow can do is barely contain their laughter. When Tom Servo tries to educate Trace’s Crow about MARS, and Crow turns everything into a joke about URANUS, Tom’s frustration and Crow’s total disregard for Tom’s feelings results in instant hilarity.
I think Mike is brilliant in all his “guest appearances” My fav’s are as Hugh Beaumont in LOST CONTINENT and HUMAN DUPLICATORS. But his greatest work has to be as his older brother “Edward” in TIME CHASERS.
Eddie probably represents all the guys who asked Mike to move a couch on a Saturday as mentioned in MIND OVER MATTERS.
And thanks for lighting a fire under my @$$, Sampo. I finally finished DEATH RAT. It only took me FIVE YEARS! The reason why will be explained next week.
Absolutely impossible to choose, but here are a few:
Bill as Phantom of Krankor. He positively nailed this, as if the character had stepped out of the movie.
Bridget as Mr. B Natural for the same reason.
Kevin as Bobo acting as Mike’s defense attorney. He had me rolling from the very beginning. “You’re going to be hearing the word ‘panties’ a lot during this trial…”
Maybe the ultimate performance… GRR, I forget the name of the episode, but Crow is mocking Dr Forrester. So you have Trace playing character who is mocking another character which he also plays. That’s talent.
Snowdog: The Atomic Brain?
And how about Mike’s performance as a chin puppet in the same ep. Mike: “It’s funny.” Crow: “It’s odd and disturbing.”
I was always impressed by Mike’s wide range of characters before he became ‘MIKE NELSON’ on the show (and the few he created afterwards). Notable was Jack Perkins and the divinely silly Dr. Peanut, but also Eddie Nelson, Torgo, Hugh Beaumont, Sorri Andropoli, Michael Feinstein, Winky, Steve Reeves, and that one Observer. I’m surprised post-MST Mike didn’t get more acting gigs, he seems more comfortable on camera when he’s playing a zany, make-up-laden character than when he’s playing “Mike Nelson”.
Kevin Murphy is my favorite MST3k performer, though. The amount of expression he was able to wrangle out of a puppet with basically 2 points of articulation is incredible. I’m hard to pinpoint one great acting moment as Servo, but there are several as Professor Bobo: Bobos’s stint as Mike’s lawyer, Bobo unwittingly making the brain sandwich, Bobo wilting from Pearl’s stare as he attempted to get in bed with her (“I’ll just take this little pillow… and put it right back, fluff it up for you, yes, a nice pillow for the lawgiver, a simple rock will be comfortable enough for the wretched likes of… Bobo…”) Another performer I feel hasn’t shown off his acting chops nearly enough outside of MST.
If they ever get the rights to do a box set of the first 4 episodes of season 8 I hope they produce new material with Prof Bobo and Dr. Peanut for it. (unlikely, since the monkey masks have longs since deteriorated, but.. animated?)
Also: another wonderful performer is Trace Beaulieu. I think his best puppeteering moment as Crow is in 612 The Starfighters when Crow is on hold waiting for tech support. He supports the whole scene through Crow’s frustrated body language, a testament to how expert Trace was with the puppet by this point.
@Zee I totally agree about Dr. Peanut! In 804, when he’s getting snippity about putting together the bomb–I think that might be Mike’s funniest, un-mikelike performance. If only we could turn back (forward?) the clock….
My best friend and I still can’t get over how much Crow looks like Jack Elam when he impersonates him during a skit for “The Girl in Lover’s Lane”. Wearing that Jed Clampett jacket, and his eyes rolling around– just a dead ringer.
I have one more that I did not notice as yet.
Bill Corbet as Crow as Fashionista Critic from Space Children. His over the top outfit vignettes that lead to his diatribe of his personal pain due to Jackie Coogan’s effeminette wardrobe was pure gold.
Trace did a simular bit in Time of the Apes and was terrific and worthy of a silver medal.
Gotta go with Trace’s performance in the last Comedy Central MST episode, LASERBLAST, in which they reenact the ending of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Very melancholy and seriously poignant. “Oh, Poopie.”
+1 for Kevin as Bobo Defense Attorney at Law. “Some folk do. Some folk do” gets me every time.
Bridget as the Witch in Undead. Her gasping for air during her out of control changes cracks me up.
Beez as Steffi. The way she dangles the fruit snack in front of Brain Guy is priceless
Paul as the Observer who is insulting Mike while takes notes on him. He has such a great mix of weariness and repulsion in his voice.
Another vote for Bill as Phantom of Krankor.
Mary Jo for the facts of life speech to the Space Children
Trace for his Gregory Peck impression.
And Mike as Torgo is my all time favoite performance and on-going gag.
Trace in anything is good, esp him and Frank in the Johnny Long-torso bit.
Beez as Steffi had perfect timing… “no…no bark!”
Mary Jo in the Comedy Central days was hit-or-miss; but in the Bobo/brainguy era she was awesome every time. The aforementioned “Overdrawn” episode being the crowning glory. I lost it when she crossed her eyes and said “ka-ching!”
Mike Nelson as Perkins was bizarre enough to be great every time, esp. see the Turkey Day marathon bumpers when he gets drunk and tries to seduce Mr. B.
My FAVE performance is Paul Chaplin as observer, when he is observing Mike in person, and describing out loud why he is repulsed by his existence. Paul made a great observer.
Mike in the opening sequence to Devil Fish, talking about having his identity stolen.
Mike as “Lord of the Pants” in Jack Frost.
I have read them all and “liked” some, but i gotta go with Eddie and Evil Mike. oooooh, Mike. But i do love you all. :-*
I am assuming you mean guest shots and not regular roles.
Hmm, Mike does a great job on the guest shots, so it’s a little hard to pick.
So we’ll list ALL of my favorites!!
Torgo (Forever Torgo)
Evil Mike!
The Cosmic Hugh Beaumont (especially when he goes crazy in The Human Duplicators)
Glen Manning (he’s more interesting in War of the Colossal Beast, oddly… )
Morrisey (“Did I mentioned I cried?” )
Kathryn Janeway(“I’m in charge of 148 people aboard this ship, 144 of which we never see, but sometimes, I’ve got to rock!” )
Adam Duritz of Counting Crows!
Michael Flatley, Lord of the Pants, er, Dance!
Jack Perkins (especially when he comes onto Mr. B Natural in Night of the Blood Beast)
and (a cheat, but I don’t care) Little Mikey and his llama. (“You got any matches for Mikey?” )
And, of course, Beez as Steffi. Wish she came back more often – Pearl has too many two year olds attending her, so she needs someone grown-up to keep an eye on things. :-) Besides, I can see her coming up with her OWN films to torture Mike and the bots. Stay strong, Steffi!
And as for Paul (who of course took over the role of The Actor when Mike took over as host), hmm, never much a fan of Ortega, so I will go with his turn as Observer observing Mike and unable to hold back his disdain and hatred.
But Paul’s finest moments must be as Pitch the Devil, especially in the Halloween episode (“Well, I’d like to thank my new clients, the cast of Friends, and thanks also to Mike Ovitz for finally coming in with me, and of course, Pat Buchanan” ). No political comments, please… :heh:
First time post but I thought I should give a shout out to Joel’s performance as the Master in Manos. Joel tries the whole evil master thing only to get easily exposed by the bots. Even when he tries Joel still can’t help shake his nice guy aura!
Mike has so many great ones but I would also have to go with him as Captain Janeway. His impersonation is spot on and just a little disconcerting. :)
Its hard to pick out my favorite performance by the bots but Trace’s Crow doing his one man play of Peter Graves at the University of Minnesota, of course Peter Graves is always great riffing material!
There are so many to choose from, but Servo’s poignant song dedicated to Tibby the turtle in the first Gamera movie has always been a favorite with me and my friends, we can still recite the entire song from memory. Murphy’s singing performances are in general quite good. I think Frank may have been the best actor on the show though, he went all out in his segments. I can’t remember the episode but his hosting some kind of tea party was hilarious, there are many more. The William Conrad Fridge Alert never fails to crack me up.
So many!
The first one that came to mind was Tom and Crow in the Magic Voyage of Sinbad. At the end when Joel has the catfish puppet. First, them trying to figure the thing out, then their horror when it knows their name. And it’s adorable how Joel is playing with Gypsy (and how she keeps trying to eat it)
@Smirkboy – Yes, Mike as Hugh Beaumont! The hilarious thing about that was Hugh was completely different in each appearance because they were exaggerating how he seemed in each film. That makes Duplicators Hugh’s outburst so much more crazy and schizophrenic: “Does my wife greet me at the door wearing Saran Wrap and stiletto heels? No! she’s got a warm pie in her hands—What good does that do me?!”
@Fart Bargo – I’ll definitely second the fashionista one. “So Coogan wore some goofy outfits in the film; can’t we leave him with just a shred of dignity? / No, Mike. We can’t. I’m hurting. I’ve got to lash out. And we’re gonna SIT HERE and see this thing through. NEXT. CARD.” Classic Bill.
Maybe I’m just a sucker for a musical, but my vote goes to Kevin Murphy and “Creepy Girl” from Catalina Caper.
Kevin Murphy channelling his inner Granny in “The Leech Woman”. JEEEEEEEEEEEEDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mike as the cowboy selling his BOLD barbeque sauce (It’s BOOOOOOOOOLD!)
Joel when he is dressed as the soldier with the big bird hat on Cave Dwellers.
Frank hosting the tupperware party, spilling things on Clay and flop-sweating.