Having previously survived being riddled with bullets, the Gill-man is captured and sent to the Ocean Harbor Oceanarium in Florida, where he is studied by animal psychologist Professor Clete Ferguson (John Agar) andichthyology student Helen Dobson (Lori Nelson).
Helen and Clete quickly begin to fall in love, much to the chagrin of Joe Hayes (John Bromfield), the Gill-man's keeper. The Gill-man takes an instant liking to Helen, which severely hampers Professor Ferguson's efforts to communicate with him. Ultimately, the Gill-man escapes from his tank, killing Joe in the process, and flees to the open ocean.
Clint Eastwood briefly appears as a scientist
Unable to stop thinking about Helen, the Gill-man soon begins to stalk her and Ferguson, ultimately abducting her from a seaside restaurant where the two are at a party. Clete tries to give chase, but the Gill-man escapes to the water with his captive. Clete and police arrive and when the creature surfaces, police riddle his body with bullets and Clete saves Helen.[1]
Information
Look for a young, uncredited Clint Eastwood in his first screen appearance as the goofy white-coated lab assistant who does the silly mouse gag in the lab scene with the monkey. [2]
You might recognize one of the two young men who, near the end of the movie, see Helen lying unconscious on a riverbank, go to investigate, and get killed by the Gill Man. One of those guys is Bix Dugan from The Girl in Lovers Lane.
The Episode
Host Segments
First appearance of Professor Bobo
Prologue: After 500 years, of being pure energy, at the end of the universe, Mike, Tom, Gypsy, Cambot, and Magic Voice are forcibly teleported to the SOL. Crow is already there, after being bored of being pure energy after the first 5 minutes, but he seems different somehow, and he doesn't remember Mike. Suddenly, the SOL is about to crash into the Earth. Mike is able to avoid a collision, but horror awaits when Mike and the bots contact Earth, and a talking ape answers!!!
Segment One: After lots of screaming, Professor Bobo and Dr. Peanut explain that Earth is "a planet where apes evolved from men". Bobo then sends a bad movie to the SOL crew because, oddly enough, it's "Ape Law".
Half man, Half Octopus
Segment Two: Tom and Mike try to repair the SOL’s engines with a little help from the Nanites. Crow still seems different somehow, and Mike can't let it go.
Segment Three: An angry Star Wars-esque alien demands to speak to Servo, who has been dealing contraband vanilla pudding.
Segment Four: Crow may be different, but at least he knows how to make a nice cup of espresso.
Segment Five: The bots have tracked down information of Mike’s descendants, and they learn that virtually all of Mike's decendants intermarried with apes, despite Mike's fruitless pleas, to deny it. Then they learn who The Lawgiver is - Pearl Forrester! She reveals that she never got around to raising Clayton Forrester (after his transformation into a baby in the previous episode) better than last time, smothered him with a pillow, and had herself cryogenically frozen.
Pearl returns as The Lawgiver
Stinger: John Agar swims softly and carries a big bull prod.
The Kingston Trio is an American folk/pop music group that gained popularity in the '50s and '60s with tunes such as "Tom Dooley" and "Charlie on the M.T.A.".
"And the John Birch Society meeting comes to an abrupt end!"
The John Birch Society is an extreme right-wing American political organization.
"Now at Sears, Jeanne Kirkpatrick lingerie."
Jeane Kirkpatrick was the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations during the first term of Ronald Reagan's presidency.
Soyuz 7 was a 1969 Soviet space mission that ended (like most USSR missions) with a dry landing on the steppes of Kazakhstan. The reference might have actually been meant for "Liberty Bell 7", Gus Grissom's 1961 Mercury program flight that experienced a spacecraft hatch malfunction upon splashdown off the coast of Florida. Although Grissom survived, the prematurely blown hatch allowed water to flood the spacecraft, which sank and was not recovered until 1999 (thus it was still missing at the time this episode first aired).
"Show me the way to go home..."
In Jaws, this is the song the three men sing while sitting around the table on the boat.
"Esther Williams didn't age too well."
Esther Williams was an Olympic swimmer who went on to star in a series of surprisingly popular swimming-themed movies (known as "aquamusicals").
