Movie: (1962) A teen girl, her weird-faced boyfriend and her scientist dad discover a cave man living in the desert.
First shown: 8/28/93
Opening: Crow has been frozen to nearly absolute zero!
Invention exchange: Rebuilt Crow is just like new; J&tB presents the Pork-orina, while the Dr. F replaces Frank’s blood with antifreeze
Host segment 1: J&tB consider subtle forms of hell
Host segment 2: The bots alter Joel’s face to look like Arch Hall Jr.
Host segment 3: J&tB discuss why ’60s sitcoms are run by single dads
End: Washing the movie off the bots, Joel reads a letter, Frank gets a fluid change
Stinger: “Fake it.” “That’s what I’ve BEEN doing. Now I’m getting sick!”
(149 votes, average: 4.68 out of 5)
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• We’re in a very good stretch of episodes here. This is another winner, following close on the heels of last week’s gem. Great host segments, great inventions, great riffing. Shtemlo!
• This was one of the first episodes released on DVD by Rhino, in April of ’00.
• References.
• I always wondered what the “porkorina” instrument really was. Commenters informed me that it is a bass harmonica, aka a bass harp.
• Then-current reference: While doing his Cryptkeeper impression, Crow mentions the now-forgotten cable series “Dream On.”
• Callbacks: “Glen was 50 feet tall!” (War of the Colossal Beast), “The Torgo school of fondling,” “To live like the hu-man” (Robot Monster—also a mention of the Robot Monster set) “Durn smoochers!” (Attack of the the Eye Creatures) “He tampered in God’s domain” (Bride of the Monster), “Giant Gila Monster.”
• Segment one, is another pithy, brilliant sketch, one that assumes a certain level of sophistication on the part of its viewers. It’s classic MST3K.
• I hate to tell Joel, but maybe the reason he didn’t see anything in the papers about Charley Weaver dying is that Charley’s real name was Cliff Arquette.
• After having referenced “Last of the Mohicans” with the classic “Stay alive! Whatever may occur! I will find you!” line in the last episode, they go ahead and do it again…and then they do it again!
• The second segment, while not as witty, is a great example of the sort of Looney Tunes silliness they often did well.
• Crow is once again netless following the second segment, as he was in the previous episode.
• There is very little that needs to be said about this travesty of a movie, since it’s been thoroughly examined many times, but it’s worth saying again, as so many have before, that the scenes in the cave, with Roxy’s dad cheerfully suggesting she give in to Eegah’s romantic advances — particularly the horrifying shaving scene — are the very dictionary definition of the term ”icky.”
• This is an episode that launched so many catchphrases, from “Stop saying ‘whee!’ Nobody says ‘whee!’” to “My tires are filled with water!” to “Watch out for snakes!” to “Shtemlo!”
• “Wha happa!” is used twice.
• Joel again invokes Gregg Toland, the cinematographer for “Citizen Kane,” because a shot shows a ceiling.
• Arty reference: Keith Haring.
• Cast and crew roundup: associate producer/editor Don Schneider worked on “Incredibly Strange Creatures,” screenwriter Bob Wehling was an actor in “Revenge of the Creature,” cinematographer Ray Dennis Steckler directed “Incredibly Strange Creatures.” He also appears in the movie as the guy who gets thrown into the pool at the end. Sound recorder Sam Kopetzky also worked on “Girl in Gold Boots” and score composer Henri Price worked on “Incredibly Strange Creatures.” In front of the camera Richard Kiel was also in “The Human Duplicators” and “The Phantom Planet.” Carolyn Brandt was also in “Incredibly Strange Creatures.”
• CreditsWatch: Contributing writer Colleen Henjum becomes Colleen Henjum-Williams. Host segments directed by Joel Hodgson.
• Fave riff: “Sit down, pie face, it’s a long list.” Honorable mention: “That little satchel will be the death of him.” “Poor shovel. Didn’t ask to be in this movie.”
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@100: There is a Mystery Riff, used in this episode and elsewhere, that I’ve wondered about. It’s mentioned in a site that provides footnotes for the references in “MST: The Movie”–the compiler seems genuinely baffled by the “he-hello? hello?” riff that Servo uses just before Cal Meacham enters the empty plane. I hear it a lot, and always assumed it was a Peter Sellers/Goon Show voice, but now I’m not so sure. Anyone know?
I listed Frank’s blood being replaced with radiator fluid as the most evil invention a few months back. Oh, I always think of the riff “Stop saying WEEEEE! No one says WEEEEEE!” whenever this commercial comes up on TV: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saIXzCoGHbU
Oh and count me in as one of those who thinks the sound for the Porkarina was just someone’s voice.
Depending on how nice of a keyboard Mike had back in the day some of the higher end keyboards had features where you could record a sound and then ‘play’ that sound on the keyboard.
Another great episode. The last of my Top 3 (along with Bride of the Monster and Sinbad). I consider this the pinnacle of MST.
So much to love about this episode – the Porkerina, Richard Kiel, Arch Hall Jr, Wilma Flinstone’s mom.
My favorite lines in this movie have to do with Arch Hall Sr’s bag…
Victim of his own fashion sense
That purse will be the death of him
Bag’s all bungied down, it’s not going anywhere…ah, the good life
Other favorite lines
I’m dead, don’t smoke (anyone else here old enough to remember seeing that when it first aired?)
*This* will keep the wolves away
Ok, I won’t shoot your dad, geez
Can you just take our order please?!
He knows women and she’s going to want that purse
Hey, you’re supposed to drive away from him
I’ve come close to being burned out on this epi, but after a break, it’s back in rotation.
The one thing that has always bugged me about this movie is why did they dub all of Kiel’s “dialogue” with Arch Hall Sr?
Here’s a great picture of Arch I ran across a few weeks ago… http://archhalljr.com/yahoo_site_admin/assets/images/PC220169.355103258_std.JPG
I always thought “Hello hello” is a Hercule Poirot reference.
Eegah… one of the worst films ever made, and one of the best episodes of Mst3k. ;P I always did feel bad for Eegah at the end of the movie though. :/ eh. This episode is a classic.
Just can’t watch that shaving scene. Ugh.
The rest of the movie is fantastic, though.
Watch Out For one of my all time favorite episodes, a former #1 fave that is definitely still in my top 5. I think EEGAH is a fairly terrible movie, but you can’t say it’s uninteresting. The shaving scene, the dune buggy, Arch Hall’s songs and face, and big ol’ Richard Kiel, the movie’s not dull, that’s for sure. Of course there’s the famous offscreen “watch out for snakes” that has become part of my lexicon, I use it every time I go hiking or camping, and pretty much any opportunity I can. By the way, my avatar photo up there is Arch Hall Jr. from THE SADIST, which is a movie I absolutely recommend (as others have on this thread), as Arch is actually pretty terrific in that role. The cinematography in that film was done by Vilmos Zsigmond, his first feature film, before he would go onto prominence by shooting great movies like Images, The Long Goodbye, Deliverance, Close Encounter of the Third Kind, The Deer Hunter, Blow Out, and Real Genius…
But all that is neither here not there, back to EEGAH: The riffing is fantastic, the Invention Exchange is classic (“I’m late for my ice dancing lessons..”), HS#2 is only okay, probably the weakest point of the whole episode, but I let it slide as it’s a goofy skit, but the surrounding Host Segments are great, with HS#1 being one of my all time favorites in the show. Here’s what I wrote back in March 2011 in the “Favorite Movie-Related Host Segments” Weekend Discussion thread:
–
“In #506 EEGAH!, Host Segment #1, Joel is stitching Crow up a shirt (or, I guess he’s just using him as a mannequin?) and Servo has a pin-cushion head and they discuss the subtle forms of hell, culminating in the classic exchange,
Joel: “Then there’s the times the country rallies together to beat back hell, like the time when we as a nation said “no” to Yahoo Serious.”
Crow: “I remember that. All of us, together, drawn inexplicably to the slobbering mouth of hell, and then suddenly, somehow, by some unseen force, rescued in the nick of time, like Moses and the Israelites.”
Servo: “Now who in creation is powerful enough to do that?”
Crow: “Gee, Davey, do you think it was, God?”
Joel(smiling): “We’ll be right back.”
For my money, that’s one of the best Segments they ever did, full of wry wit and the normalcy of the setting, with Joel fixing a shirt along with the Bots help, just sells it. I don’t know why it appeals to me so much, but it’s one of my favorite things ever (doesn’t hurt it’s from one of my favorite episodes ever!).”
–
An all time classic! EEGAH!
RIFFS!:
Crow: “Is that a real poncho or a Sears’ poncho?”
Joel: “SORRY ABOUT THE FACE!”
(close up of Arch Hall)
All 3: “AHH!!”
Arch Hall: “Roxy, it’s me, Tom!”
Joel: “I know, that’s why I’m screaming! Ahh!”
mystery voice: “WATCH OUT FOR SNAKES”
Servo: “Who said that?” ————Servo would go on to say “watch out for snakes” no less than 6 times over the rest of the episode..
Helicopter pilot puts on his sunglasses cooly,
Joel: “Yeah, sure “Four”, whatever, man. ahhaha”
Joel: “Howard Hughes!”
Servo (about Arch Hall): “Looks like a Cabbage Patch Elvis.”
Joel (also about Arch): “I got it, he looks like the bat in Ferngully!”
Servo: “Stop saying “wee!” nobody says “weeee!””
Joel: “This guy went to the Torgo school of fondling..”
two lizards onscreen,
Crow: “What are they doing?”
Joel: “Telling secrets, honey.”
Joel: “Why don’t you just cut the string that holds the beard on?”
Joel: “Eegah’s gonna do whippets!”
Crow: “You got a chorus pedal in that purse?”
(tires squeal)
Crow: “Watch out, it’s a foley artist!”
Servo: “Quit bogarting that joint, Floyd.”
–
WATCH
OUT
FOR
5/5
Here’s my take on the Porkarina. Now I may be adding 2 + 2 and getting 5 but it is my theory. MST’s Porkarina most likely is a voice sampled on a syn manipulated appropriately. But the instrument that it is based on is the bass harp. My logic for this theory: who of the Best Brains would actually know how to play an actual base harp so they substituted a sampled voice.
@ #77: According to The Annotated MST under the Robot Monster entry, Josh Weinstein said that it’s another one of those inside jokes that they included because it made them laugh; not because it referenced anything in particular.
And speaking of The Annotated MST, Sampo you forgot to post a link to the Eegah references.
I can’t believe I forgot about the amazing host segments.
#1 is probably my most favorite host segment ever. Best line – “The day this country went self-service was the day that hell began to bubble up and flood the earth.”
#3 is great too — love that they are making Jiffy Pop. I always wanted to get that as a kid. I think I did try it once and it wasn’t very good.
@111: I don’t think I’ve had Jiffy Pop since the invention of microwave popcorn. You’re right, it wasn’t very good as I recall.
The thing that made me laugh hardest in this episode was when the scene cut to a shot of a girl sliding down a pool slide and they all made a huge squealing sound. But I also liked, “We can just break off chunks of my hair five pounds at a time and burn it.”
Months ago, I was doing a site check on a pending residential development. As the developer drove me and my coworkers cross-country, they were talking about how the guy’s Hummer powered through the sand. In my head I was imagining the guy saying, “My tires are filled with water!” Then, as we got out and walked towards a pond, the guy actually called out, “Watch out for snakes!” I just about fell over holding in the laughter.
I love this one because it has horrible music in it. Always fun with the bad music.
What was the final quote?
“There were giants…”
Joel: “That’s way out of context!”
Definitely a classic episode, despite the loathsome aspects which we are familiar with. The songs are memorable, if not that good. It’s all worth it for the catchphrase “Watch out for snakes!” Good advice, I actually ran into a wild snake a few weeks ago and had to keep my distance and not disturb it.
Thanks Sitting Duck @110! Knew somebody would have the answer…AT LAST!
Way in the minority, but the loathsomeness of the movie outweighs any benefit of the riffing. It’s shot badly, has bad acting, and contains that creepy cave scene with nothing between Eegah and the audience but a soiled bathmat. I just… can’t.
This episode is great, especially when the mummies start fighting about who looks more like William S. Burroughs…not much to add here, but:
Eegah! Eegah! Bonk Bonk on the Head!!
5 stars, first ballot Hall of Famer.
So many iconic moments…..”watch out for snakes”…..”whee!!!”…….”I love you Vicki”….the shaving scene…..Arch Hall Jr (and Sr.).
Joel, Kevin and Trace are in top form throughout. This really is as good as the show gets.
I’ve tried, but I just don’t get this episode. So many references that I just don’t get and the riffs just don’t fire for me. A lot of it is probably to do with the film for me. Just dire.
watch out for snakes.
Eegah fails the Bechdel Test. There is no instance of two females conversing, with Roxy being the only speaking female through most of the film.
Crow falling apart seems more like something that would have happened to Mike (though we are kind of in that overlap period).
While others are repulsed by Arch Hall Jr’s. face, it’s his pompadour which I find to be especially off-putting.
Though HS #2 was overall hilarious, I particularly loved Gypsy as the patronizing nurse.
Then current reference: Once again Crystal Pepsi.
Can anyone identify what the oven in the living room actually was?
Veering a bit off-topic, but can be seen as connected to the Widower Dads in Sixties Sitcoms. I recall this little aphorism stating the antonym for Adventure is Mom. Anyone know who happened to say that?
Post #23 brings to mind my own linguistic pet peeve on how some people use the word penultimate as if it meant super-de-duper ultimate instead of next to last.
@ #100: Assuming you’re still around, I Accuse My Parents.
Favorite riffs
Harriet, the cattle are smoking again.
The Old Indiana Jones Chronicles.
It’s Lawrence of Pasadena.
Would the gentleman beside the pool please discontinue the song, and watch out for snakes.
Rat Patrol, in three or four colors.
Dad can wait. This is a blast!
Fun’s over. We’re going to die now.
Do you think we’ll freeze to death before the jackals get us?
I’ve heard enough. I’ll go beat him senseless.
Poor shovel. Didn’t ask to be in this movie.
“Smell all you want.”
But take all you smell.
I didn’t know Senator Packwood was so tall.
Calling all units. Domestic in progress by the canyon.
“You’re funny, Mr. Miller. Real funny.”
I’m going to kill you last.
“Worry isn’t a feeling that I have.”
It’s more nausea.
“He even tried to kill us.”
But basically he’s a good egg.
BTW Sampo, you really need to re-enable the editing feature.
My favorite testament to the “quality” of this film: Arch sings a bunch of songs about girls who aren’t his love interest.
I always thought the “watch out for snakes” line was funny was because we hear it when there are no actors on camera. One of the comments here said it was because it was a random voice. To me it sounds like Arch Hall Sr, the dad character saying it. So… which is it for you? Is it funny because it’s random/unknown, or because it’s a line delivered with no one on screen?
To my ears, Arch Hall Sr is also clearly doing the voice for Eegah’s various grumbles/mumbles in the cave. Shtemlo!
What my daughter saw she saw!
I wonder if “watch out for snakes” just appears to be delivered by nobody because of cropping the film to 4:3 aspect ratio. I agree with @125 that it sounds like Roxy’s dad to me.
Lisa H. of The Banner? Will you be wearing plaid to the show tonight? I’ll try not to clash.
The “Watch out for snakes!” line is bad ADR (additional dialog recording). ADR is usually amusing because you can play the “what problem did the filmmakers think they were correcting for with this ADR” game. In regards to Eegah, I’m at a loss as to why Arch Sr. thought that line needed to be there at that point in the movie. Maybe he thought audiences would recoil at Arch Jr.’s cavalier approach to life in the desert? If so, that’s funny in itself, since it points out Arch Sr.’s lack of awareness of EVERY OTHER PROBLEM with his film that audiences would recoil from.
Off topic, sort of: I recently rewatched Alien. Yaphet Kotto’s line “Ash is a robot! He’s a go****n robot!” is another classic case of bad ADR. Yeah, we GET that he’s a robot. Normal people don’t have milk for blood…
Segment one, is another pithy, brilliant sketch, one that assumes a certain level of sophistication on the part of its viewers. It’s classic MST3K.
A 70’s-80’s pop-culture analysis, a sarcastic movie-specific gag, and another 60’s-70’s pop-culture analysis. Yeah, think this was a week Joel directed the host segs. :)
(Okay, will someone PLEASE put the freakin’ Edit button back on the board??)
“Do you think we’ll freeze to death before the jackals get us?” should be on a T-shirt. Was it on one of those that Satellite News did for the catch phrases? I don’t remember.
“Watch out for snakes!”
… and for a time, it seemed that everything would be O.K. Sure, the desert had its perils … but they were known perils, perils that could be quantified and avoided. Snakes could be watched out for. Tires could be filled with water to let them glide effortlessly across the vast sandy ergs. Prehistoric giants living in caves lined with dead people could be shaved … wait, WHAT?
And the snakes … laugh.
A bass harmonica, eh? I always thought it was just Kevin grunting into a microphone.
“I don’t know why but I wish he’d pistol whip him!”
And we’re off to the races with a very special episode for me. The first one I managed to own on home video, and the first Joel episode I could honestly say I watched start-to-finish. I love this one, but I remember my dad, who is something of a fan too, never liked this one after his initial viewing. Whenever I’d suggest watching MST3K, he’ll always say “as long as it’s not ‘Eegah’!”
But this is pretty much the perfect Joel episode. There’s really not a single joke that doesn’t land or a premise that overstays its welcome. Everyone is rightly repulsed by the shaving scene, but at least it gave me a line to use whenever I encounter a disturbing scene in another movie:
Servo: Joel, Joel, I’m being punished for something, I know it!! What could I have done?! I DIDN’T ASK TO SEE THIS MOVIE!!!
someone awhile back mentioned/questioned about how much the residents of the SOL bathed – questionable! but the bots did have that “wash n’ wax” day way back when, can’t remember which epi… but then there’s this one too, where they just gotta wash the “eegah!” off of themselves. hilarious! every time! (servo: “uh… we don’t -have- hair!” (collectively) “YAHHHHHHHHHH!!!”)
season five opens a bit “cool” for me, but this one rocks. i imagine i’ve myself been called “weird-faced boy” a time or two behind my back… so i hafta sympathize with the odd, weird bridge this movie makes of fifties-to-sixties reeeallly low-grade, low-budget b-movie scifi. one of those “catalog classics” i never would have seen if it weren’t for mst3k… :)
There’s an extensive interview with Hall fils in the Medved’s “Fifty Worst Films”, and yes that is Hall pere improvising the bad ADR. Kiel was just starting out at the time, and didn’t have the professional actor-delivery yet that he lent to Human Duplicators.
The clarity with which we hear “Shtemlooo…” still cracks me up, though, along with Servo’s reaction–Btw, what IS “Shtemlo” Yiddish for, anyway?
I assume the AEG considered it too obvious a reference to point out, but “I am William Burroughs…I am William Burroughs” is a reference to the 70’s “To Tell the Truth”, where three silhouetted contestants would all come out claiming to be the same notable person. (And at the end of the game, would the real William S. Burroughs please stand up?)
You kids…C’mon!
And even though we finally cleared up the Firesign Theater “H-hello?” references after four years a few episodes ago, can we at least add it to the basic FAQ at the top so we stop asking? Closure, y’know.
I notice the ADR stuff a lot more these days. Even in movies that are a lot bigger, you can hear them put in stuff and you wonder if it was supposed to be there or they just have to explain something because the movie editing wasn’t going well.
“I have raman noodles and brown mustard. That’s it.”
You know, Crystal Pepsi tasted very much like Sprite to me.
While a good episode with some top-notch riffing, it’s not among my favorites. Too oily.
It’s a stereo radio.
Econo Lodge, but why?
I ask myself that every night when I go to work.
One other thing that I forgot to mention. Among all the other great lines, is this one right after the intro as Crow’s recovering from his absolute-zero attempt:
Joel: Okay Crow, you’re all set.
Crow: Yeah, if you ignore the massive structural damage and my complete lack of any resale value.
Joel: Yeah, I was ignoring that…
The Vic Mizzy machine was one of the better inventions, especially when they did a parody of “Holiday For Shoestrings”.
“Tequila.”
Er, I mean “Strings”. “Shoestrings” was a Looney Tunes short.
COMPLETELY off MST, but on-topic for ADR – if you’re a fan of Dr. Strangelove you probably already know this trivia, but for everyone else – when Major Kong is reading off the list of contents of the emergency package on board the bomber, he gets to the end and says (something like), “Shoot, a fella could have a pretty good time in Vegas with all that stuff.”
If you watch his lips, though, Slim Pickens actually mouths “Dallas.” The line was ADRed to “Vegas” due to President Kennedy’s assassination, which had taken place while the movie was filming.
Where? Thought it was supposed to be from Flash Bazbo.
https://youtu.be/upQuq4HsA-8
Arch Hall Jr: My combo’s going to be there tonight. Man, they swing!
Joel in lecherous voice: I’d like to meet your combo.
yahhh! good one! knew that, but always fun to re-discover those tidbits (albeit that along with maybe the “pie-scene” got nixed too because of jfk’s assasination – no way to cherry-coat that, though i have a tough time imagining that scene in the movie – sellers’ “strangelove” just getting cut off at that line – “mf! i can valk!”)…
now, just to sort of kind of complete the “six-degrees” (or only the two in a circular-pattern here within the new MST3K universe), if you didn’t see it, check out adam savage re-creating stanley kubrick’s “the shining” table-model maze that jack nicholson broods over…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAGu2TPt_78
and there’s at least one whole other viddy of adam building/figuring out the damned thing… and now it’s part of the official kubrick touring set! -and- it’s open-source, if you want to try to build your own lol (i wonder how many others have gone through all the effort to completion by now).
if you haven’t tuned into the “tested” website/youtube vids, you’ve got a looooot of fun new viewing ahead of you – it’s like “mythbusters 2″/ILM-model-moking training goodness!
mythbusters and mst3k, heroes for the ages!
Nice! I was hoping the comment section would still be open for this! I have a good item worthy of being archived in this discussion:
http://mstiecast.com/post/145913972140/episode-76-arch-hall-jr-interview
MSTieCast Episode 76: Arch Hall Jr interview! Fascinating details begin not even five minutes into this episode! A must listen for the “Eegah!” fan!