“ | (College student Lewis Moffitt (played by 41-year-old George E. Mather) gets off the phone with his girlfriend)
" Aw, she's the ginchiest. Life does begin at 40." |
” |
- Joel (as Moffitt) |
The Short[]
- Main article: The Phantom Creeps (serial)
Chapter Three: "Crashing Timbers" - Dr. Zorka plots to protect the secrets of his destructive powers.
The Movie[]
- Main article: Ring of Terror (film)
A medical student must face his greatest fear as part of a fraternity initiation.
The Episode[]
Host Segments[]
Prologue: The Bots trick Joel with a fake movie sign.
Invention Exchange (Segment One): Dr. F turns Frank into a giant Human Operation game board, while Joel presents Pin-Bolus and turns his inner organs into a pinball game.
Segment Two: The SOL crew presents the Old School, a college for the elderly based on the old-looking "students" in the film.
Segment Three: Joel demonstrates robotic anatomy for his class by autopsying "Mr. Hoover". The Bots are disgusted.
Segment Four: Joel dispenses RAM chips for naming good things about the movie, and the crew expresses relief, only for the Mads to drop a short on them!
Closing (Segment Five): The crew complains about the short and the idea that Dr. Zorka would tempt a chauffeur to help in his world domination plans, which inspires Frank to write a song about this idea: "If Chauffeurs Ruled the World".
Stinger: "Weird. Yeah, I guess that is the word for it. Weird."
Cast[]
- Joel Hodgson - Joel Robinson
- Trace Beaulieu - Crow T. Robot / Dr. Clayton Forrester
- Kevin Murphy - Tom Servo
- Frank Conniff - TV's Frank
- Jim Mallon - Gypsy
- Alexandra Carr - Magic Voice
Trivia[]
- This is the only episode of the series (to date) in which the short is presented after the movie..
- This also the only episode to begin with movie sign immediately after the theme song, though this is a prank by Tom and Crow.
- Servo still has his "haircut" from the previous episode.
- This episode was the first to air during Turkey Day '91.
Callbacks[]
- "Chili peppers…" (The Side Hackers)
- "It’s the Power Station." (Robot Holocaust)
Obscure References[]
- "Mommy! Mommy! Don't ever look at me!"
- Frank is imitating Dennis Hopper in Blue Velvet.
- "Centerville, a real great place to raise your kids up."
- This refers to a scene from Frank Zappa's 1971 film 200 Motels when the musicians are strolling through a town during a psychedelic trip.
- "Look for...the Union Label..."
- Referring to a jingle from a series of old commercials for the International Ladies Garment Workers Union. One such commercial appears in the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special, which became a RiffTrax presentation.
- "Hey, Lyndon LaRouche's brother! He just bought drugs from the Queen of England!"
- Lyndon LaRouche was an American political activist and perennial third-party presidential candidate, known for his bizarre, conspiracy-obsessed worldview (such as his claim that Queen Elizabeth II was involved in the international drug trade) and the cult-like movement that grew up around him.
- "Hey, check it out, Bob Dobson from the Church of the SubGenius!" "The Almighty Bob!"
- A reference to the satirical pseudo-religious movement the Church of the SubGenius, whose "prophet" is named J. R. "Bob" Dobbs.
- "It's Joe Franklin!"
- Joe Franklin was a talk show host who had a New York-based TV talk show that aired from 1951 to 1993.
- "What's the name of the book?" Crow: "Tropic of Cancer..."
- Tropic of Cancer is an erotic novel by Henry Miller, one of several that tested American laws on pornography in the 1960s.
- "It's like there's two separate personalities trying to gain control!" Crow: "Glen AND Glenda!"
- Glen or Glenda is a semi-autobiographical drama film about cross-dressing that was written, starred in, and directed by Edward D. Wood Jr.
- "She looks like the model for Resusci-Annie!"
- Resusci-Annie is a lifelike mannequin used to teach CPR.
- "My legs are old...my teeth are grey..."
- Paraphrasing a line from Monty Python's Life of Brian spoken by a "feeble" old man who hides Brian and his fellow members of The People's Front of Judea from Roman soldiers.
- "Tell em Brunhilda!"
- Brunhilda is a shield-maiden/Valkyrie from Norse legend. She featured prominently in the Richard Wagner Opera The Ring of the Nibelung, usually portrayed by a very corpulent woman like Rag Doll in the film.
- "These are baked yams. A Miss Karen Finley sent them over!"
- Karen Finley is a controversial performance artist who once produced a piece entitled "Yams Up My Grannie's Ass".
- "Rattle rattle rattle thunder clatter boom boom boom..."
- This comes from a jingle in ads for the Car-X chain of auto repair shops.
- "It's Divine, the early years!"
- Divine was the stage name of performer Harris Glenn Milstead, who was famous for his heavyset drag persona featured in John Waters films.
- "Let's see...'Become Jack Weston'?...No problem!"
- Jack Weston was an American actor who usually played comedic roles (similar to Tiny in the this film) due to his heavyset appearance.
- "Merv Griffin? What are YOU doing here?"
- "Get that cat outta here!"
- Both references to the comedy film The Man with Two Brains.
Behind the Scenes[]
Movie Edits[]
Ring of Terror had several scenes trimmed in order to fit within the desired time slot.
- The end of the beauty contest (showing the two older judges voting for Alice Lund) has been cut, as well as a scene in which Tiny announces his vote for Rag Doll Milford (surprising the other judges).
Video Release[]
- Released on DVD by Rhino Entertainment in June 2007, as part of The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection, Volume 11 along with the episodes Horrors of Spider Island, Tormented, and The Indestructible Man. The set went out of print sometime by 2010. Shout! Factory re-released the set in June 2019.
- DVD special feature includes the MST3K Video Jukebox Vol 2 and Lugosi Creeps: Making A Sinister Serial featurette (the latter only on the Shout! re-release).
- Digitally available through Shoutfactorytv.com, Youtube, Amazon Instant Video, iTunes, Vudu, and VHX.
External links[]
preceded by: Season 1 | MST3K Season 2 | followed by: Season 3 | ||||||
1990 - 1991 | ||||||||
201 | Rocketship X-M | 1990-09-22 | 206 | Ring of Terror | 1990-11-03 | 211 | First Spaceship on Venus | 1990-12-29 |
202 | The Side Hackers | 1990-09-29 | 207 | Wild Rebels | 1990-11-17 | 212 | Godzilla vs. Megalon | 1991-01-19 |
203 | Jungle Goddess | 1990-10-06 | 208 | Lost Continent | 1990-11-24 | 213 | Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster | 1991-02-02 |
204 | Catalina Caper | 1990-10-13 | 209 | The Hellcats | 1990-12-08 | |||
205 | Rocket Attack U.S.A. | 1990-10-27 | 210 | King Dinosaur | 1990-12-22 |