Title:MST3K: Pod People By: N/A Released by: Rhino/Best Brains Inc. Released on: Rating (out of 10): 10 Date: 01/31/2002
Kevin Murphy, Joel Hodgson, Trace Beaulieu
Joel and the 'Bots skewer Simon Piquer's Pod People
Over the course of the history of cinema, there have been many epic and monumental films created. Movies that touched our hearts, inspired thought, terrified us, made us laugh, made us cry, made us understand what it was to be human…this is not one of them. Well, okay, maybe this one did terrify some folks—but I’m betting it wasn’t in a good way.
Fortunately for us cinephiles, we had the crew of the Satellite of Love to make viewing these monstrosities a bit easier. For the uninitiated, Mystery Science Theater 3000 (or MST3K for short) was a small local show that blossomed into a full-fledged cult phenomenon and spent most of its 11 seasons running nationally on Comedy Central and the Sci-Fi Channel.
The show’s premise is a simple one—a man (originally creator Joel Hodgson, who was later replaced by head writer Mike Nelson) is beamed aboard the Satellite of Love by the evil Dr. Clayton Forrester (Trace Beaulieu) and forced to watch bad movies from all over the world. Forrester’s plan is to find the one film so terrible that it will sap the will to live from mankind, allowing him to take over the world. Unfortunately, Forrester’s plan never quite works out—sure, the movies are awful, but Joel builds himself some robot buddies out of spare parts aboard the ship. These robots—inimitable chick magnet Tom Servo (Kevin Murphy), wisecracking smart aleck Crow T. Robot (Trace Beaulieu and later Bill Corbett), sweet and innocent Gypsy (Jim Mallon, later replaced by Patrick Brantseg) and the rarely seen Cambot—keep Joel and Mike company on their endless trip around the planet.
Crow and Servo fulfill an even more vital role, helping the guys endure some of the worst films ever made by offering up a steady stream of wisecracks, improvised dialogue, and pop culture-tinged observations that make watching these awful films far more fun than they should be. We’ve all talked to the TV or theater screen on occasion, but these guys are really good at it. The humor covers the spectrum, from childish retorts, recurring gags and lines from one episode to another, to the really smart and biting sarcasm that many of us only wish we could think of. In short, there’s a little something for everyone—and I’m not joking when I say that MST3K was one of the smartest and funniest shows to ever appear on television.
That’s right—was. In 1999 the Sci-Fi channel aired what would be the last episode of the venerable series, saddening millions of Mysties (the name for fans of the show) worldwide. However, MST3K lives on, thanks to rabid fans who circulate taped copies of the old shows, and Rhino Video, who’s slowly but surely releasing the episodes on video and DVD.
Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s move on to episode # 303, an unmercifully hilarious skewering of J. Piquer Simon’s (who also directed the awful Cthulhu Mansion) Pod People.
Pod People (which was shown in some markets as The Return of E.T.) is perhaps the most schizophrenic film ever made—a fact not lost on Joel, Tom, and Crow. There are essentially three different stories happening here—all at once—and none of them seem related. Is this a movie about a Renaissance Faire reject poacher and his Lorne Greene look-alike partner (Frank Brana) who are trying to steal some bird eggs? Is it a film about the most talentless rock group in history and the meaningless lyrics that populate their breakthrough single Hear the Engines Roll Now (aka Idiot Control Now)? Maybe it’s a film about little Tommy who likes bugs and lives in the woods with his weird mother and gruff, booze-swilling uncle?
Ha! You’re wrong on all counts! Well, sort of… To be honest, Pod People is the story of lovable alien Trumpy, a small man dressed up in a gorilla suit with an aardvark mask on his head. Think of Trumpy as a cross between Alf and E.T.’s dumber, uglier younger brother and you’re on the right track. E.T. could make his finger light up, bikes fly, stuff like that. Trumpy has the amazing talent of making a Simon game turn into a cheesy electronic jukebox and for making things fly around the room in some really lame looking stop motion film technique. If I was Tommy (and thank god I’m not…) I’d feel slighted.
The film opens up with some really cheesy looking modified home video footage of various people encountering a monster. The monster we see here is never in the film, of course, but who cares? We also get our first chance to experience the ‘soundtrack’—three or four new age-style notes played repeatedly on what appears to be a Casio keyboard. Servo does a nice bit poking fun at the soundtrack and new age musicians from the Bay Area, and we’re off and running.
Soon, we’ve met all of our disparate characters (including the greasy looking lead singer of that inane band, the one who gets the film’s most quotable line—after wrapping another take of the classic Idiot Control Now song, he’s asked how was it. He replies by making an ok sign with his fingers while melodramatically proclaiming ‘it stinks!’) and thankfully, they’re all starting to get picked off one by one. It’s not by our buddy Trumpy, instead, it’s by a look-alike alien who might be his mother, or might have just happened to spend his winter in the same stretch of forest—we never really know.
This, of course, all leads up to the big climax, where Tommy and Trumpy, our two star-crossed lovers, realize that they’re truly from different worlds and that their burgeoning relationship wouldn’t be allowed to flourish on this planet—or any other, hopefully.
This is a particularly fun episode because the film is bad (but not unwatchable like some of the films they riffed ala Red Zone Cuba) yet lends itself to being made fun of quite well. There are lots of jokes at the expense of the Renaissance Faire guy (including someone repeating Huzzah! each and every time he’s on the screen) and a recurring gag that has Joel, Crow, and Servo calling out random names whenever someone on the screen does it (which culminates with Servo or Joel saying ‘chief?’ and Crow answering with ‘McCloud?’)
The rest of the film is filled with the usual observational humor, riffs on continuity gaffes, and of course, the host segments.
Host segments are the two or three times that the guys get to come out of the theater (after a commercial break) and do a little skit on something from the film. The two segments here are really good—the first involves Joel rocking out his own rendition of ’Idiot Control Now (complete with nonsensical lyrics about feeling the wind in his eyes) backed up by Crow, Servo, and Gypsy who all donned some very stylish maid of honor dresses/prom gowns.
The second segment has Joel, Crow, and Servo planning to get rich by writing some new age Yanni-style power chords on their wall of keyboards. Crow comes up with a chord guaranteed to get them a record deal—all while eating a sandwich with his free hand.
The episode finishes up with Joel and the ‘bots singing the bittersweet ’A Clown in the Sky’--ah, I’m getting all misty just thinking about it…
At any rate, if you’ve never seen an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (and shame on you if you haven’t) then Pod People is an excellent starting point. It’s a bad film made funny by the hilarious observations of Joel and the fellas, and will prepare you for more difficult fare—like the legendarily bad (and hilarious) Manos: The Hands of Fate and various Joe Don Baker monstrosities like Mitchell. Huzzah!
