A scientist preserves his wife's head after she has been decapitated in an accident. He seeks a new body for her, despite her objections.
The Episode[]
Host Segments[]
Mike in riff training
Prologue: It’s Mike’s first day on the SOL and the ‘Bots have been giving him training on the finer points of riffing. Sid Melton = Little Monkey Boy.
Invention: Mike’s first invention is the Gutter-bumbershoot, an umbrella with a gutter system. The Mads are not impressed. In Deep 13, Dr. F invents the Dream Buster, which allows him to pop the balloons of bratty children from a safe distance. Mike and the Bots are unimpressed, as Dr. F manhandles Frank.
"I'm your mother now, Frank!"
Segment Two: The Bots aid Mike in attempting to gain control of the ship and get back to Earth. He ends up cutting the cheese compressor line. Gypsy hollers, "That's not cheese!"
Segment Three: It's craft time as Mike and the Bots are making hats for Jan in the Pan, the bodiless lady in the film. Included in the hats is a Crown Roast Hat, to help give the illusion of height, and the Lazy Susan Hat for use at dinner parties.
Segment Four: When discussing the depressing nature of the film, Mike is compelled to tell an embarrassing childhood story about a walk-a-thon. The story includes a long walk home, an ice cream cone and a locked bathroom door.
Segment Five: Mike and the Bots don’t read letters because none are addressed to Mike, and they are visited by Jan in the Pan. She has an incredible sense of humor until Mike offends her. In Deep 13, Dr. Forrester decides to lop off Frank's head.
Stinger: Unpleasant Stripper: "Who's to tell me to blow if I don’t want to?"
Tom says the bots had Mike watch The Beast of Yucca Flats in preparation for this film. The Beast of Yucca Flats would be an experiment the next year.
Mike's other training film was Night of the Lepus. While they never riffed on it during the show's run, Mike would be back later to riff it for RiffTrax.
In this episode, we find out the reason Tom has to be carried into the theater: there's an air grate just outside the entrance that he can't hover over. Mike has to go back and get him after he comes in the first time.
Along with the new host, Mike, the episode premiered not only a new intro, but also a new doorway sequence. Of interest is the fact the intro contains scenes of Mike and crew on the SOL that were not on this or any of the latter episodes, such as Mike consulting a repair manual when Servo malfunctions and Mike bound and gagged after his arrival on board. These were likely filmed as filler seeing Mike had no prior host segments yet under his belt and were made to fill gaps in the introduction.
"Marc Singer walks up in a loincloth! What do you say?" "Uh... 'N-Now I know why the show is called V!'."
Marc Singer is an actor known for his role as Mike Donovan in the original incarnation of the V franchise, in which a human resistance battles the Visitors, humanoid lizards disguised as humans who seek to take over the world for their resources. The "loincloth" is likely in reference to the film Beastmaster, which stars Singer and in which he wears a loincloth.
"He's not a gaffer, he's a Gee-Aye-Effer!"
General Aniline & Film, also known by its initials "GAF", is a company that once produced View-Master toys and reels from 1966 to 1981. Henry Fonda starred in a series of View-Master toy commercial where he would pronounce the company's initials in the same manner Mike would mock.
(deep voice) "But for Joseph Green, there would be another film."
A parody of NFL Films oft-used phrase: "But for the Green Bay Packers would come another season."
"Never should've eaten at Jack in the Box."
A then-current reference to the 1993 Jack in the Box E. coli outbreak which occurred when E. coli originating from under-cooked beef patties in hamburgers infected 732 people. Four children died and 178 other victims were left with permanent injury including kidney and brain damage.
"License plate? A boot? Tricycle wheel? This man was a bottom feeder!"
A reference to the "shark autopsy" scene from Jaws.
[Tom buzzes when Dr. Cortner touches the patient's brain.]
A reference to the popular electric board game Operation.
"It's Gnip Gnop."
Gnip Gnop (ping pong spelled backwards) is a toy/game released by Parker Brothers in the early 1970s.
"Luke, join me or star in Corvette Summer!"
Corvette Summer is a 1978 film starring Mark Hamill. Also a reference to the perceived downturn of Mark Hamill's career following Star Wars.
"You taste like Vince Edwards."
Vince Edwards starred as the hotheaded young brain surgeon in the 60's TV medical series Ben Casey.
"Sylvia Plath, RN."
It's unclear why this Sylvia Plath riff was made, as the woman in question more closely resembles Diane Arbus (see below). It's possible that the Brains were getting their "women artists who committed suicide" mixed up.
A reference to fast-food franchise A&W Restaurants, which in 1963 introduced The Burger Family; a Mama Burger, Papa Burger, Teen Burger and Baby Burger.
Sister Bertrille is the main protagonist of the TV series The Flying Nun. The riff here is playing off of Jan's head wrap, which resembles a nun's cornette. This riff is also a reference to the 1969 B-movie They Saved Hitler's Brain, which also features a living head being kept alive.
[Rough voice] "Boss, you've broken the goofy meter again!"
Clutch Cargo is a cartoon from 1959 well-known for its lack of animation. Characters speech was animated by splicing in footage of the actors performing their lines over the spaces their characters' mouths would occupy.
"It's the Diane Arbus cafe."
Diane Arbus was a photographer famous for images of people on the fringes of society, hence the reference to the sleazy strip club. One of Arbus' most famous photos features Eddie Carmel, the giant in this film.
"So, are you a goer? Ay? Ay? Nudge, nudge? Know what I mean?"
(Jan: "I'm only a head...") "...That can't say no..."
"I Cain't Say No" is a song from the musical Oklahoma! ("I'm just a girl that cain't say no / I'm in a terrible fix...")
"Heh, heh, heh, have you seen Frankenhooker?"
Frankenhooker is a 1990 film about a scientist who kills hookers and uses their parts to revive his fiance's head.
"I love this place!"
A reference to one of Burger King's ad campaigns from the early 1990s.
"Maybe she could get work in a Peter Gabriel video."
Jan in the Pan looks similar to Gabriel in a sequence in the video for his single "Sledgehammer".
"The calls are coming from inside the house!"
"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".
"Now he's going to write 'piggy' on the wall with his stub."
During their crime spree, the Manson Family wrote this and other things on the walls using their victims' blood.
"And now, Mel Blanc makes his move." "You're goin' out with me, varmint!"
The creepy guy vaguely looks like Mel Blanc, the actor who provided voices for most of the Looney Tunes characters, including Yosemite Sam.
"Pasties and a g-string, beer and a shot..."
Tom is singing the chorus of "Pasties and a G-String" by Tom Waits, off his 1976 album Small Change.
Gallery[]
Production slate
Oh, they mean the BRAIN that wouldn't die. The end!
