HuffPost Article on MST and Deprrssion

The official MST3K Facebook page linked to a fantastic article on The Huffington Post about how MST helped a woman deal with and even survive depression. It echoes a lot of my feelings for the show and my own struggles with depression, and is a fantastic read. Pleas check it out!

How "Mystery Science Theater 3000" Alleviated My Deprrssion.

521 - Santa Claus

No, Lupita!

What do you get when you mix Santa Claus, kids movies, Mexican film, and Satan? Pure, family friendly, holiday movie insanity. You also get a classic episode of MST3K. Well, classic for most, since it seems I’m among the few who doesn’t outright love this episode. Not that there isn’t a lot to love. But this is one of the rare occasions where the movie outshines the jokes made about it.

Santa Claus is by far one of MST’s strangest, most memorable, and most entertaining movies. It begins in a castle in the sky, as Santa Claus plays an organ while stereotyped children from different countries and regions from the world help to make his toys. This is even stranger and more gloriously insane on film than it is to read. And that’s all before the Devil gets involved! Well, a devil, a red-suited and flamboyant demon named Pitch. Pitch is ordered by Lucifer to stop Santa from spreading joy throughout the world, and proceeds to manipulate children to help ruin Christmas, including trying to get three boys to kidnap Santa, and to convince the poor and desperately adorable little girl Lupita to steal a doll. Can Santa and the forces of good and presents triumph over as effete and prancing a menace as Pitch?

A better question is, can Mike and the Bots be more entertaining than the movie? It’s a weird, creative, and fun film in the way only mad-genius kids movies can be. It operates on childlike logic and imagination, such as how Pitch is threatened with having to eat chocolate ice cream as punishment, and has a decent budget to bring it to life, and enough wrongheaded ideas to make some parts unintentionally hilarious (the racially stereotypes as hell kids singing and making presents) and terrifying (the clockwork reindeer. Eek!) It’s weird enough to provide perfect fodder for Mike and the Bots. But oddly enough, it’s not quite bad enough to make good fodder either. They suffer through some of the weirder parts, sure, like the creepy instruments at the castle and the windup reindeer. But frankly, this movie, with is gorgeous sets, fun performances and all around weirdness, make for better entertainment that the riffing. Often, Mike, Tom, and Crow are just reacting how damn strange the film is.

But, that does have the added benefit of adding to the “hanging out with friends” aspect of MST that I love. We’re watching all the wackiness unfold right along with the crew of the SOL. It’s almost a very Joel-esque Mike episode (I think this movie actually might’ve made a better Joel episode, and Santa Claus Conquers the Martians might’ve made a better Mike episode). When the jokes come less like professional comedy writers and more casually, like friends watching a movie, I think the show is strongest. To me, it’s what separates the greatness of Season 8, where Mike and the Bots make each other laugh a lot, with Season 9, where it does feel very practiced and a bit more rigid. So, this episode, which really does feel like you’re watching the madness for the first time with some funny friends, instead of writers who’ve seen this movie eight or nine times, stands out in its delivery and presentation, but maybe not so much in how consistently funny the jokes are. That and Mike is still new in front of the camera, being only 8 episodes into his time as host, and he’s still adapting, still very genial and not at the casual, snarky heights he would reach. The host segments aren’t bad, but not great either, though the song, “Have a Merry Christmas…If That’s Okay”, is a standout, with its capitulations to enjoying the holidays however you want, in the most 90s, politically-correct way, such as “perhaps your religions doesn’t include a time called ‘lent’/but whatever your religion is, we support you 100 percent!” That it’s sung in earnest makes it even more fun, and would be a joy to carol. And we also get longtime writer Paul Chaplin’s debut as Pitch, and while he’s played many characters on the show, his soft-spoken, Midwestern delivery make Pitch his best and one of the show’s best recurring movie characters.

So while, for me, the riffing isn’t consistently great, the movie is consistently entertaining. What I’m saying is, this episode is like a 7 out of 10. Worth watching, just not a personal fave of mine. But it is a great way to MST up the holidays.

Episode in a Riff:

“Is this weird enough for ya, kids? How does this make you feel about Santa?” -MIke

Random Asides:

-I actually saw part of this movie on a Spanish language TV channel somewhere around middle school, tuning in to the part near the end when Santa is being harassed by Pitch and chased by a dog. I was more than curious to discover it was featured on MST.

-I love Crow flailing around

-I love how expectant Frank is of a gift from Dr. Forrester. What’s even better is how half-assed Dr. F’s gift is. Even better than that are the gifts on the SOL. A 1991 drug IV handbook! I have a feeling the prop department just threw together what trash they had. And who the heck is Steve Alamo?

-Servo is Jewish. Canon now.

-This episode aired on Christmas Eve of 1994. That would’ve made a great gift for any family! Not mine. They’d put up with me and this show for about 10 minutes!

-Damn, this is a goofy, weird, and still kinda cute movie. I like the detail about Pitch the demon having to eat chocolate ice cream as punishment. It’s that kind of kid logic that really makes a kid movie.

-Why does the newspaper headline read “Spirit of Christmas Invades America”? Is it some sort of aggressive foreign power?

-It’s snowing in space at the end, and the SOL has a chimney, because duh.

-Rene Cardona directed a ton of films, including cult classic “Night of the Bloody Apes”, and producer Guillermo Calderon produced Ep BLANK Robot vs Aztec Mummy

-From watching the making-of doc on the DVD, it looks like a few scenes were left out of the MST cut of the film. I wonder if any of them explain the origins of the disappearing flower and how Merlin got involved with Santa?

-The climax of this movie involved Santa being chased up a tree by a dog. That’s a pretty lame climax for such a colorful and creative film.

-Santa has visited like five people by night’s end

-Have a Merry Christmas, a Happy Hannukah, a great Kwanzah, or whatever day, holiday, or anything you’re celebrating! Thanks for sharing it and some MST with me. 

6 Favorite Riffs

Additional Links:
Satellite News review 

404 - Teenagers From Outer Space

TORCHA!!!

Ah, memories. This was about the 4^th episodes of MST I ever saw. Those late middle school nights, staying up until 3 (before it was easy to do as a teenager and then difficult again as an adult) to wonder what this newly discovered, glorious show would bring me. And Teenagers From Outer Space is…a movie called “Teenagers From Outer Space”. It’s one of those quintessentially-titled MST movies. And it lives up to its promise.

Poor Derek just doesn’t fit in with the other teenagers from outer space. He doesn’t enjoy being part of a strictly oppressive society, and doesn’t want to submit Earth to the horrors of the Gargon, his people’s main food source that are literally, I’m not kidding, actual lobsters that grow big via unconvincing special effects. So he escapes from his shipmates and into Anytown, USA, and meets the lovely Betty. She shows him the joys of a liberated Earth life, like swimming at a friend’s and renting a room. But thuggish co-spaceman Thor is out to bring Derek back and leaves a trail of skeletons in his wake, and more of Derek’s people may be arriving soon with more lobster-based special effects. Will Derek be able to defend the planet he adopts as home?

A better question is, “Seriously, lobsters?” And the answer to that is, “yes, as well as teenage romance, death by death ray, and melodramatic B movie acting a-plenty.” Teenagers From Outer Space is about as pitch perfect as a movie gets for MST, and Joel and the bots knock this one out of the park. I love this episode as much now as I did on my first viewing 20 years ago (God, I’m old.) The silly jokes like Servo, as the movie’s music swells, beginning to sing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”. The clever ones like, “Moses, Moses” from Joel when a disintegration ray lights up a tree. And the ones I just get upon seeing it for the umpteenth time, like the, “It’s Andrew Wyeth Valley!” from Joel upon one of the million shots of a California valley. Then there’s the running gags, from using “TORCHA” to Joel and the bots giving characters random songs in their heads, and maybe my favorite, muffled screams from help coming from any car trunk in sight.

This movie is just great, it’s silly as all hell, totally serious, has entertainingly melodramatic acting (Derek is wonderfully awestruck by Earth, Betty is wonderfully sincere, and Thor is wonderfully psychopathic.) The pace is fast, people die by death rays, and hell, the movie even manages to wrap up the story on earth and the plot threads from Derek’s home planet neatly at the end. The movie is funny and enjoyably bad on its own, and then Joel and the Bots get in on it. It’s not quite like what I imagine it would’ve been like seeing this movie as a kid at a 50’s drive-in and making fun of it with friends all the while, but it’s damn close.

Episode in a Riff:

“I’ve got a headache this big and it’s got this movie written all over it.” - Joel

Random Asides:

                                                                                              

-The history behind the making of Teenagers from Outer Space is far more interesting than the movie itself. For starters, the director/writer/editor/”I really want to grip” Tom Graeff made the movie on an even-shoestring-for-the-50s $14,000, split town to avoid paying back people who helped financed the movie, including “Thor” actor Bryan Grant and his wife, “Hilda” actress and ex-German citizen Ursula Pearson, and later tried to change his name to “Jesus Christ II”. Oh, and he and “Derek” actor David Love were lovers. It’s like a sadder version of that episode of Mission Hill “Planet 9 from Mission Hill” and would make a far more interesting movie than the one that ended up on MST3K.

-Too bad that the Rhino DVD doesn’t have the MST Hour wraparound segments. Luckily, my old VHS does!!!

                                                                                     

-This was the first episode I managed to record the full intro to, which included a scene of Joel and the Bots watching Godzilla vs. Megalon. Imagine my young mind being blown seeing that in the opening credits for the first time!

-Tom’s hands are pink. Weird.

-How many shows begin with two robots being electrocuted? It’s the little things that make you wonder just what can happen, and make the possibilities of the show seem infinite.

-I loved report card invention exchange since I went to a private school (albeit not a s fancy a one as their report cards). Ugh, report cards… Thank God I’m not a kid anymore

                                                    

-There’s a real playhouse-TV playfulness the Joel era has I love.

-Unfortunately, ventriloquism would have to wait for Jeff Dunham to make a true comeback

-Ah, when people referred to the 90s as “The 90s”, like it was the hippest of present times

-Joel and the Bots sing the classic Kirk/Spock duel music about 12 minutes in.

-Betty has to be one of the finest 50s babes to appear in one of their movies.

- There sure are a lot of hicks in southern Cali.

-I love the Reel to Real segment, from the points to Joel slowly going crazy. I think having to be on a fake TV show on a space ship in a TV show is driving him crazy. The skit reminds me a lot of my first place. Only instead of free rent and a hot chick, I had cheap rent and depressive loneliness

-After playing Fallout, all I can think of seeing the 50s setting is “When do the bombs fall”?

-I adore the cheesy death special effects! The pool death with the smoking water is especially memorable.

-So…did the aliens not notice all the towns and stuff nearby when they landed? And why didn’t they just take Thor’s gun when he was passed out? And then Derek speaks English but doesn’t read it and why on earth am I questioning a movie called “Teenagers from Outer Space’?

-As the MST3K Info review points out, there’re a lot of characters singing in this one. “It’s the New Zoo Review”, “Cuz I’m a Sex Shooter”, “Shook Me All Night Long”, “White Wedding”…Why? Who cares, funny!

- Little things like Tom leaning in towards Grandpa and whispering to him are great touches. When the silhouettes physically interact with the movie, it’s a nice extra spice to an episode.

-Thor racks up a body count fast!

-We have not one, not two, but three Monty Python references in this one!

-I think they did the space snacks thing just to be goofy

-Man, every performance in this movie is committed, no matter how goofy or cheesy.

-The tension in the doctor’s office scene is pretty decent.

-Derek’s “if only there was enough time!” dramatic line reading is great B-movie acting.

-So.. how did they do the lobster effects? Puppet a dead lobster with green screen/projection?

-The skull turbo ship bit is kinda weird, but cool. I remember it more for the anticlimax than anything.

-An hour or so in, there’s a little moment where Crow mutters to himself, “she’s cute”. I like little bits like that that slip in as if they’re watching a movie instead of reciting lines. It’s a little touch that adds to the “hanging out with friends” aspect of the show I love, and something I think the Joel era excels at.

-Not sure if this is one of the ones where they add a tint to the black and white movie, but it seems a tad blue tinted

I love the “look to this day, young graduate” ending, ends on a high, positive, fun note that leaves me wanting more episodes, as opposed to the more bitter endings like in monster a go go and that one where mike says “yeah and the children are all insane”. Them finding more goofiness in the duct tape jumpsuit bit at the end just adds more fun

-The part in the end where Tom is doing his photo shoot and they say, “dinner, Mr. President, tonight? Why, sure!”, you can see the phone Tom is talking into is just duct taped to a stick!

-The letters, especially ones like this from a little kid, are really more of the Joel era than the Mike. It’s  a nice touch that I like. 

-Contributing writers are Jim Mallon, along with someone named Colleen Henjum. Who?

-This episodes ends, leaving me sad it’s over but, happy to have seen it and gotten to watch more!

 

6 Favorite Riffs

Additional Links

MST3K Info review for this episode 

Annotated MST for this episode