The Giant Gila Monster
From MST3K
| 402 - The Giant Gila Monster | |
|---|---|
| | |
| Air Date | June 13, 1992 |
| Movie Director | Ray Kellogg |
| Year | 1959 |
| Cast | Don Sullivan, Fred Graham, Lisa Simone, Shug Fisher |
| Preceded by | 401 - Space Travelers |
| Followed by | 403 - City Limits |
Contents |
The Movie
Synopsis
A small town in Texas finds itself under attack from a hungry, 50-foot-long gila monster. No longer content to forage in the desert, the giant lizard begins chomping on motorists and train passengers before descending upon the town itself. Only Chase Winstead (Sullivan), a quick-thinking mechanic, can save the town from being wiped out. [1]
Information
- This was one of two features produced by an independent company in Texas and meant for release as a double feature. The other feature was The Killer Shrews (1959). Unlike many such features produced in the South, these films received national distribution.
- Ken Knox, who plays disc jockey Horatio Alger "Steamroller" Smith, was a real disc jockey working at radio stations in Texas owned by Gordon McLendon, the uncredited executive producer of this film.[2]
The Episode
Host Segments
Prologue: Crow and Tom Servo are 'The Thing with Two Heads.' At first they hate it, but then they realize they’re "The Odd Couple 1999." But just when they begin to get into it, Joel nips it in the bud.
Segment One (Invention Exchange): Frank announces Dr. Clayton Forrester's death! It turns out Dr. F isn’t really dead, but very mad at Frank. Joel has a radio with a tuner that only picks up channels from old sitcoms and movies. The Mads demonstrate their Renaissance Festival punching bags.
Segment Two: Joel has turned a spare closet into a teen pavilion/barbershop as seen in the film. Crow and Tom keep calling Joel a "stupid jerk" instead of a "soda jerk" and being generally naughty. After they order a "Blue Floyd" (a drink made with ice cream, malted milk, and Barbicide) Joel becomes fed up with them and their antics. Then Gypsy shows up and the whole set falls down.
Segment Three: The crew celebrates the classic drunks, and Crow asks, "When did public intoxication stop being funny?", discussing drunks such as Crazy Guggenheim and Dean Martin. Then Joel and the bots act out vignettes of different types of drunks, which ends up turning into an after-school special.
Segment Four: "Servo on Cinema" looks at Ray Kellogg’s "Leg Up" blocking technique. Joel and Crow cannot resist butting, or should we say, legging in.
Segment Five: The rock group Hee-La rehearses until Crow asks, "Aren’t we just doing the same stuff we did when we were SpiDorr?" The first letter is from a little girl who thinks Crow’s name is 'Art.' The second letter says, "'Dear Joe and Bots: I just like the way Tom Serbo sings, my favorite robot is Crow, but Joe is funny too.' And it’s signed...TV’s Frank?!" Frank celebrates his short-lived victory in Deep 13 as Dr. F looks on in disgust.
Stinger: Drunken old Harris gags on sody pop at the soda shop
Other Notes
Miscellanea
- The letter calling Crow "Art" references back to Jungle Goddess, specifically the "My White Goddess" sketch that referred to Crow as "Art Crow" at the end. That sketch and this letter later became the source of the running gag of Pearl Forrester constantly referring to Crow as "Art".
Obscure References
- “Hava la gila! Hava la gila!” - refers to the song Hava Nagila
- “Bad movie? You’re soaking in it!” - refers to a series of Palmolive dish detergent commercials featuring Madge the manicurist [3]
- "NEW YORK CITY?!?" Servo: "Get the rope."
Refers to the Pace salsa commercials popular at the time, where the cowboy cook was using salsa from New York City and not "authentic" salsa.
| preceded by: Season 3 | MST3K Season 4 | followed by: Season 5 | ||||||
| 1992 - 1993 | ||||||||
| 401 | Space Travelers | 1992-06-06 | 409 | The Indestructible Man | 1992-08-15 | 417 | Crash of Moons | 1992-11-28 |
| 402 | The Giant Gila Monster | 1992-06-13 | 410 | Hercules Against the Moon Men | 1992-08-22 | 418 | Attack of the the Eye Creatures | 1992-12-05 |
| 403 | City Limits | 1992-06-20 | 411 | The Magic Sword | 1992-08-29 | 419 | The Rebel Set | 1992-12-12 |
| 404 | Teenagers from Outer Space | 1992-06-27 | 412 | Hercules and the Captive Women | 1992-09-12 | 420 | The Human Duplicators | 1992-12-26 |
| 405 | Being from Another Planet | 1992-07-24 | 413 | Manhunt in Space | 1992-09-19 | 421 | Monster A-Go Go | 1993-01-09 |
| 406 | Attack of the Giant Leeches | 1992-07-18 | 414 | Tormented | 1992-09-26 | 422 | The Day the Earth Froze | 1993-01-16 |
| 407 | The Killer Shrews | 1992-07-25 | 415 | The Beatniks | 1992-11-25 | 423 | Bride of the Monster | 1993-01-23 |
| 408 | Hercules Unchained | 1992-08-01 | 416 | Fire Maidens of Outer Space | 1992-11-16 | 424 | Manos: The Hands of Fate | 1993-01-30 |
