MST3K 614 - San Francisco International

614 - San Francisco International
Air/Release Date	November 19, 1994
MST3K Director	Kevin Murphy
AKA	San Francisco International Airport
Movie Director	John Llewellyn Moxey
Year	1970
Cast	Pernell Roberts Clu Gulager Beth Brickell Van Johnson
Preceded by	613 - The Sinister Urge
Followed by	615 - Kitten with a Whip

“	"You know, people are gonna hate you for quite a while after this, Davey."	”

The Movie

Main article: San Francisco International (film)

Synopsis

The security chief of an international airport in San Francisco deals with problems big and small with the help of local law enforcement and other staff members.

The Episode

Host Segments

Crow and Servo debate politics

Mike as Urkel

"I gotta say, I've never been a big Urkel fan..."

Prologue: Crow and Servo hold a political debate on politics, moderated by Mike. Politics is a loose description of the subject.

Segment One: The Mads are very manly construction workers. Mike and the Bots do the old board slapstick routine.

Segment Two: Mike is Urkel! It's funny!Frank, Dr. Forrester and Santa Claus laugh along with the bots.

Segment Three: Mike’s still Urkel! It's still funny. Pitch shows up to laugh, along with Jan in the Pan.

Segment Four: Urkel is still funny. Santa Claus, Nuveena, Huggy Bear, and Rooster join in the laughter. Everyone is enjoying themselves... until Torgo shows up.

Segment Five: Mike and the Bots ponder the film and determine that David Hartman is extremely ugly. Letters are read, including one of an image of Crow found in ancient cave etchings. Dr. F’s ears have become hideously large.

Stinger: "My job, my way," smug Pernell Roberts says.

MST3K cast

Regular cast

• Michael J. Nelson - Mike Nelson
• Trace Beaulieu - Crow T. Robot / Dr. Clayton Forrester
• Kevin Murphy - Tom Servo
• Frank Conniff - TV's Frank
• Jim Mallon - Gypsy

Guest cast

• Mary Jo Pehl - Jan in the Pan
• Kevin Murphy - Santa
• Paul Chaplin - Huggy Bear / Pitch
• Patrick Brantseg - Rooster
• Bridget Jones - Nuveena
• Michael J. Nelson - Torgo

Trivia

• Unusual credits: Santa Claus is credited as having been played by "K. Kringle" rather than Kevin Murphy.
• This episode was ranked #99 among backers of the Bring Back MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 campaign in the Top 100 Poll.
• At the time of the original broadcast, the running "Urkel" gag of the Host Segments was not well-received. Fans online expressed displeasure at the repetitive nature of the bit and at the lack of jokes. While this may have been deliberate satire on the part of the MST3K writers, reaction was decidedly mixed.
• At one point during his Urkel imitation, Mike says "What'chu talkin' 'bout, Willis?". This was the catchphrase of a young African-American character (Arnold Jackson, played by Gary Coleman) on the TV sitcom Diff'rent Strokes.
• At the time of its production, this was the episode with the largest cast. During Host Segment Four, most of the regular performers and writers (excluding writer Mike Dodge and contributing writer Colleen Williams) appear on camera, though not together (Frank Conniff does not appear on the SOL, and Mallon, Brantseg, Jones, and Pehl do not appear in Deep 13).

Callbacks

• "Shut up Iris." (The Beatniks)
• "Laaaa-da-da-daaaa" (The Starfighters)
• "Megaweapon!" (Warrior of the Lost World)

Obscure References

• "And that's the truth - pffft!"

Catch-phrase of the young girl character "Edith Ann" played by comedian/actress Lily Tomlin. She initially appeared on the TV series Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, and has since become one of Tomlin's most enduring characters.

• "He's got to get to his Lust in the Dust audition."

Tab Hunter played the lead role of Abel Wood in Lust in the Dust.

• "I know Yngwie Malmsteen!"

Yngwie Malmsteen is a Swedish heavy metal musician.

• "I'm sleeping with Herb Caen."

​Herb Caen was a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1938 until his death in 1997. He worked for the San Francisco Examiner from 1950 until 1958. Caen is credited with creating the word "beatnik." His columns are still reprinted in the Chronicle.

• "Tsk, tsk, Lucas Tanner!"

Lucas Tanner is a television show starring David Hartman that ran from 1974-1975.  Hartman portrayed the title character, a former baseball player and sportswriter that became an English teacher.

• "We don't allow hippies, or anyone else to start fights at this airport." "Except Jackson Browne."

Singer and songwriter Jackson Browne was accused of domestic violence while he was in a relationship with actress Daryl Hannah.

• "All of a sudden this dirty-looking, long-haired creep with a guitar on his back..." "Shawn Phillips?"

Shawn Phillips is a Texas-born folk musician who played alongside other noted talents such as Donovan and Eric Clapton. The "made-for-TV hippie" in the movie does bear some resemblance to him.

• "The answer, my friend, is blow it out your ass!"

Parodies a line from the Bob Dylan song "Blowin' in the Wind".

• "Hey, more Reba!"

A callback to Episode 610, in which the Mads promote their new country music radio station by listing the artists it plays, including repeated proclamations of "more Reba!". Nancy Malone bears a vague resemblance to Reba McEntire in the shot, especially her hairstyle.

• "I think I see some Israeli commandos."

A reference to the 1976 rescue of hostages by the Israel Defense Forces at Entebbe Airport in Uganda.

• "Jeez, ever since Vatican II, these guys..."

The Second Vatican Council (also known as "Vatican II") was held from 1962–1965 and resulted in significant modernizations of the Catholic Church's doctrines and rituals.

• "All the church will do is move this guy to another parish."

A reference to the Catholic Church's long-standing policy of reassigning priests accused of sexual misconduct.

• "Sounds like the Avengers are here!"

A reference to the 1960s British TV series The Avengers.

• "I can't wait 'til Reagan fires us."

In August 1981, the air traffic controllers union PATCO went on strike demanding shorter work weeks and improved conditions. President Reagan, citing the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, ordered them back to work. Ninety percent of the controllers refused. 11,345 striking air traffic controllers were fired.

• "He looks like Dr. Zaius. He even has the Dr. Zaius suit."

A reference to the Planet of the Apes series character Dr. Zaius, played by Maurice Evans.

• "They should have gotten Schneider to do this."

Schneider is the building supervisor on One Day at a Time, a sitcom from the late 1970s and early '80s.

• "Megaweapon!"

Megaweapon originally appeared in Warrior of the Lost World, used in Episode #501.

• "Guess we better slow that Mustang down."

A reference to the R&B song "Mustang Sally" written by Mack Rice and popularized by singer Wilson Pickett.

• "Chain link! Julie! Pete!"

A reference to the three leading characters - Linc, Peter, and Julie - from the TV series The Mod Squad.

• "Torn between two airplanes..."

A reference to the pop song "Torn Between Two Lovers".

• "Suddenly... I am Starbuck."

Starbuck is a character in the television series Battlestar Galatica.

• "I was on the 12th level of Dungeons & Dragons, now there's blood on my knife!"

This is a mash-up of a reference to the actual pen and paper role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons and the anti-D&D made-for-TV movie Mazes and Monsters. The film features a young Tom Hanks playing a young man who'd had a psychotic break and begun to believe himself to be his Mazes and Monsters character, eventually leading to him stab a man, then sobbing in a phone booth about the blood on his knife.

• "Ooh, he's got Palmolive hands!"

A reference to the dish detergent Palmolive, frequently advertised to soften skin.

• "Serum - the new CD from Rush."

A reference to the Canadian rock band Rush.

• "Pablo Casals is in the back seat."

Pablo Casals was a preeminent 20th century Spanish Catalan cellist.

• "Pufnstuf, help me!"

A reference to the children's television series H.R. Pufnstuf.

• "Davey, you're gonna meet a guy in a black robe who wants to play chess with you..."

A reference to the Ingmar Bergman film The Seventh Seal, in which a knight who has just returned from the Crusades plays chess with the Grim Reaper in an effort to forestall his (and others) fate.

• "I did it all for Jodie Foster!"

A reference to John Hinckley Jr., who attempted to assassinate then-President Ronald Reagan for reasons stemming from his own unhealthy obsession with actress Jodie Foster.

• "But dogs told me to do it!"

A reference to serial killer David "Son of Sam" Berkowitz, who claimed that he killed his victims on orders from his neighbor's dog.

• "Um, Lloyd Bridges is replacing you when we go to series."

Indeed, Pernell Roberts was replaced by Bridges for the short-lived, six-episode television series version of San Francisco International Airport.

• "Now stay tuned for The Name of the Game!"

The Name of the Game is a TV series that ran from 1968 to 1971.

• "Sounds like King Friday music!"

A reference to the Mister Rogers' Neighborhood character King Friday XIII.

• "He had an awesome dream!"

A reference to the Lionel Richie song "Say You, Say Me".

• "We've gotta close the beaches!"

A reference to Steven Spielberg's 1975 film Jaws.

• "You're gonna high-tail it as fast as you can, down the main concourse to the men's room..." "Joe Orton will be there."

The posthumously published diaries of British playwright Joe Orton revealed that he was fond of anonymous sexual encounters in public restrooms.

Video releases

MST3K DVD Cover

• Commercially released on DVD by Shout! Factory in March 2015 as part of Volume XXXII, a 4-disc set along with Space Travelers, Hercules, and Radar Secret Service.
  • The DVD includes the Ballyhoo Motion Pictures feature Sampo Speaks! A Brief History of Satellite News.

External links

• IMDb: San Francisco International (mst3k episode)

preceded by: Season 5		MST3K Season 6					followed by: Season 7
		1994 - 1995
601	Girls Town	1994-07-16	609	The Skydivers	1994-08-27	617	The Sword and the Dragon	1994-12-03
602	Invasion USA	1994-07-23	610	The Violent Years	1994-10-08	618	High School Big Shot	1994-12-10
603	The Dead Talk Back	1994-07-30	611	Last of the Wild Horses	1994-10-15	619	Red Zone Cuba	1994-12-17
604	Zombie Nightmare	1994-11-24	612	The Starfighters	1994-10-29	620	Danger!! Death Ray	1995-01-07
605	Colossus and the Headhunters	1994-08-20	613	The Sinister Urge	1994-11-05	621	The Beast of Yucca Flats	1995-01-21
606	The Creeping Terror	1994-09-17	614	San Francisco International	1994-11-19	622	Angels Revenge	1995-03-11
607	Bloodlust	1994-09-03	615	Kitten with a Whip	1994-11-23	623	The Amazing Transparent Man	1995-03-18
608	Code Name: Diamond Head	1994-10-01	616	Racket Girls	1994-11-26	624	Samson vs. the Vampire Women	1995-03-25