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"Dad's being smothered by a huge loaf of pepperoni-studded brown bread!"
- Tom Servo


The Movie[]

Main article: The Horror of Party Beach (film)

Synopsis[]

Mutated sea creatures wreak havoc in a beach community until a scientist and his dashing young assistant devise a way to track down the monsters and destroy them.

The Episode[]

Host Segments[]

Partybeach3

Observer and Callipygeas bond. Pearl and Flavia, not so much.

Prologue: While Mike tries to explain their present situation, Tom takes a leaf out the book of the Gyuto Monks of Tibet and attempts to harmonize his overtones with the fundamental.

Segment One: Mike marvels at Tom's multi-layered chanting, until he discovers the little robot has some pre-recorded assistance. Meanwhile down in Ancient Rome "Apearlo" and "Brainguyus" attempt to convince a delighted Callipygeas and a suspicious Flavia that they are in fact gods. They "prove" themselves when they communicate with the average-looking man-god, the golden spider duck, and the squat crimson pig living in the stars.

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Mike's trunks are a bit too small

Segment Two: Crow and Tom are in costume for their manly beach dance, but the swimming trunks they've made for Mike to wear are a tad small, in the sense that he's effectively nude.

Segment Three: Pearl and Observer continue try and convince their hosts that they're gods, claiming that they bring the gift of music. They play a short medley of tunes that segues from "Seasons in the Sun" by Terry Jacks to a beef-themed hoedown.

Sodium

Sodium!

Segment Four: Impressed by the extremely up-to-date newspaper boy from the movie, Tom goes one better and offers copies of the S.O.L. Post with to the second updated headlines to Mike, covering his increasing annoyance at the skit.

Closing (Segment Five): Dressed as the Del-Aires, Mike and the Bots reach out to youth of today and sing of "Sodium!", while down in Rome as Brain Guy and Callipygeas increasingly bond, Pearl and Flavia increasingly trade insults.

Stinger: The semi-nude thin guy in full swing at the beach dance.

MST3K cast[]

Regular cast

Guest cast

Trivia[]

  • Michael J. Nelson once called this one of his favorite episodes of MST3K. He said that The Horror of Party Beach (1964) was an especially enjoyable film to riff.
  • Patrick Brantseg is listed as the Set Designer for the first time in the credits. He'll retain that title for the reminder of the show's run on the Sci-Fi Channel.
  • In Host Segment Four, Tom's newspapers have the same two filler article titles which allude to the New Petitions Against Tax and Building Code Under Fire articles common in movie newspapers. One states "Letters of support pour in for new tax" while the other says "Building code delayed by..." with the last word obscured.
  • The movie was billed as "the first horror musical", though the similarly-hyped The Incredibly Strange Creatures... (Experiment #812) had been released the year before.
  • This is the last episode in which "The authors of the First Amendment" would be thanked at the end of the credits.
  • This experiment was the first used during the Mindless Summer series of livestream events. It was shown on August 6, 2021.

Callbacks[]

Quotes & References[]

  • "Oh, another Afrikaner beach movie!"
Afrikaners are the descendants of early Dutch settlers in South Africa. They formed the major support for the racist policy of apartheid.
  • "Sturgis: a city on the move."
A reference to the South Dakota city that holds the famous annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.
  • "Fear of intimacy, exciting and new..."
Sung to the tune of the theme from The Love Boat.
  • "Spandau Ballet goes on a fishing trip"
Spandau Ballet are a music group whose fame peaked in the 1980s. They are best known for their hit song "True".
  • "The monster gets up and immediately puts on 'Metal Machine Music'."
Metal Machine Music is an album by Lou Reed. It consists of 64 minutes of guitar feedback.
  • "Oh, I am so Twila Tharp...!"
Twila Tharp is a New York choreographer and dancer, who often uses pop music in her work.
  • "I want my Peter Allen records back."
Peter Allen was a songwriter and performer who came out as gay following his divorce from Liza Minelli.
  • "Lloyd Bridges has not aged well."
Lloyd Bridges starred in the TV series Sea Hunt as Mike Nelson, a free-lance scuba diver and former Navy frogman. Sea Hunt is the source of the riff "By that time, my lungs were aching for air," which was frequently used on MST3K.
  • "Look out, Ted Kennedy's drivin' home!"
United States Senator Ted Kennedy (who had a reputation for drinking heavily) drove his car off a bridge on Martha's Vineyard, which resulted in the suffocation/drowning death of Mary Jo Kopechne, a passenger in his car. His actions immediately following the accident (such as making no attempt to rescue Ms. Kopechne, and wearing a neck brace at a press conference) were widely criticized for being self-serving and disingenuous. The incident was a continual source of controversy throughout Kennedy's long political career.
  • "Mother Angelica is on!"
Mother Mary Angelica was the founder of the Eternal Word Television Network, which broadcasts Catholic-themed programming. She hosted a talk show entitled Mother Angelica Live.
  • "It's a human thing!" "You wouldn't understand."
A riff on a famous line ("It's a black thing; you wouldn't understand.") from the Spike Lee movie Do The Right Thing.
  • "Someone set The Second Sex to music."
The Second Sex was written by Simone de Beauvoir and is considered a major work of feminist literature. The "folk song" being sung here ("Oh hard is the fortune of all womenkind . . .") is "The Wagoner's Lad", a folk-song often sung a capella by Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia.
  • "The Ipswich Women's Club presents Shirley Jackson's 'The Lottery'."
"The Lottery" is a famous short story in which a woman is stoned to death. The Ispwich Woman's Club is an old English social club. Additionally, "The Batley Townswomens' Guild presents the Battle of Pearl Harbour" is a sketch from the 11th episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus in which a group of suburban ladies in a field batter each other with handbags in a melee that is meant to represent the air-sea Battle of Pearl Harbor.
  • "I just saw Rent!"
Rent is a long-running stage musical about young people in New York City struggling with romance, sexuality, illness, and their finances.
  • "They're headed to the Laverne De Fazio convention."
Laverne De Fazio is the name of Penny Marshall's character from the TV sitcom Laverne & Shirley. She speaks with a heavy New York accent.
  • Beef: It's What's for Movie Sign."
This line and Observer's references to various beef dishes in Host Segment Three are inspired by a television commercial from the era that was sponsored by the American Beef Council. It featured suggestions for various recipes that contain beef, and had a rustic-style score similar to the music that Observer and Pearl play. It concluded with the slogan "Beef: It's What's for Dinner".
  • "Tonight on Roar..."
Roar is a short-lived action/adventure series which aired in 1997 on Fox. It was created by TV producer (and former teen hearthrob) Shaun Cassidy as an attempt to capitalize on the popularity of the sword-and sorcery series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess. It stars Heath Ledger as a young Celtic chieftain fighting Roman invaders in Ancient Ireland.
  • "I'm Margaret Chase Smith, running for Senate..."
​Margaret Chase Smith was a Republican politician from Maine, and the first woman to serve in both the House and Senate.
  • "Baby Bop is a prowler!"
Baby Bop is one of the secondary characters from the children's show Barney & Friends. She is a large green dinosaur.
Referencing Billy Idol's hit song "Eyes Without a Face".
  • "The birth of a media empire!" "Rusty Murdoch!"
Jokingly placing the kid as a young Rupert Murdoch, founder of News Corp.
  • "This proves it! Worms play pinochle on your snout!"
Referring to a verse from a morbidly humorous song about burial and decomposition known as "The Hearse Song".
In the 1970s and 1980s, a series of commercials were run for Reese's Peanut Butter Cups featuring situations in which two people, one eating peanut butter and one eating chocolate, collided. One person would exclaim, "You got your peanut butter on my chocolate!" and the other would exclaim, "You got your chocolate in my peanut butter!" They would then sample the mixture and remark on the great taste, tying in with the slogan "Two great tastes that taste great together."
  • "The monsters win the pennant! The monsters win the pennant! The monsters win the pennant!"
On October 3, 1951, broadcaster Russ Hodges delivered the famous live description of Bobby Thomson's "Shot Heard 'Round the World" home run to win the National League pennant for the New York Giants: "There's a long drive... it's gonna be, I believe... THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT! THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT! THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT! THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT! Bobby Thomson hits into the lower deck of the left-field stands!"
  • "And oh how they danced/The little children of Stonehenge."
Lyrics from the song "Stonehenge" by the band Spinal Tap in the movie This Is Spinal Tap.
  • "Is Dear Abby running 'Please, God, I'm only 17' again?"
Dead at Seventeen” by John Berrio is a poem that was frequently reprinted in the syndicated newspaper advice column Dear Abby. It is written in the voice of a reckless teenage driver who has just suffered a fatal car crash. "Please, God, I'm only 17" is the last sentence.
  • "The music's coming from inside the radio!"
The babysitter and the man upstairs is an urban legend that dates back to the 1960s about a teenage girl babysitting children who is harassed by a series of anonymous telephone calls wherein she is told to "check the children." She eventually calls the police, and, after tracing the next call, they tell her, "The calls are coming from inside the house."

Memorable Quotes[]

[The opening titles are accompanied by surf rock]
Servo: A-hehehehe! Horror!
Crow: Yeah, the only horror at Party Beach is Cindy's cheese dip!
[During a driving scene]
Mike: Nude driving: a new fad among the teens.
[Over the "Additional Dialogue by" credit]
Mike: What is "additional dialogue", anyway?
Crow: Oh, things like "Hey you!", "Get off that!", and "Why not?"
Crow: Sturgis: a city on the move!
Crow: I bet that would be good with drawn butter. Of course, I'd eat my own head with drawn butter.
[A man in a t-shirt and Speedo-type swimwear jumps into the frame, sickening Mike and the 'bots]
Crow: Men should not have bikini areas!
[Young beachgoers perform the "Zombie Stomp" dance]
Mike: I'm starting to agree with the Taliban militia: dancing should not be allowed.
[The guitarist of the band sings while rolling his eyes back into his head]
Crow: MY SKULL!
[A baggy-eyed monster with a head fin and hot-dog-like mouth protrusions emerges from behind a rock]
Crow: Whoa! A creature whose face is 80% eyebag.
Servo: So, radiation has a sense of humor!
[On the beach, the biker-gang leader fights lean Hank]
Servo [as Biker/Johnny Mathis][singing to "Chances Are"]
Chances are
That I'll kick your scrawny ass...
. . .
[Eventually, the gang leader relents and offers Hank his hand]
Mike [as Gang Leader]: You have defeated me, sir; you and your noble band of choreographers.
[The monsters attack an all-girl slumber party]
Mike: [They] don't even know what panties are, yet they feel compelled to raid.
Servo: Every male of any species has the biological urge to panty-raid.
[A grocer's sign in the background reads "Look Polish"]
Mike: Wait— "Look Polish?"
Servo: Huh?
Mike: It's—it was right there in the shot is was somethi—see? It says "Look Polish"!
Servo: "Look Polish"!
Crow: Or maybe it's "Look! Polish!"
[Dr. Gavin, daughter Elaine, and others are examining a severed monster arm when they hear a noise]
Elaine[whispering] I hear something.
Servo [as Elaine][whispering] He's coming! Look Polish, everyone!
Tom: What are we looking at and why are we looking at it?


Tom:I generally had a positive impression of white people before this movie.
[The time of day has been changing]
Tom: Uh, meanwhile later yesterday afternoon, I guess ... 

Video releases[]

Partybeachdvd

MST3K DVD Cover

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