MST3K 1104 - Avalanche

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“	I'm not forgetting YOU, Danny from the last movie...	”
	- Jonah, acknowledging the reappearance of Steve Franken

The movie

Main article: Avalanche (film)

An ambitious land developer ignores safety warnings about his new ski resort and chalet, causing an avalanche. After the avalanche is over, peril plagues the survivors.

Information

There is brief female nudity in one scene, which Tom and Crow censor by playing with remote air drones in the theater to obscure the actress' private parts.

The episode

Host segments

Prologue: Crow and Tom work through their series idea "Mad Bots", a spoof of "Mad Men".

Segment One: Jonah does have notes for their idea. Kinga and Max are interrupted by Ardy down in Moon 14, where the video liquids are held. For the Invention Exchange, the 'bots create the Mouth Vacuum, a vacuum cleaner that runs on sucking power from your mouth, negating the need for electricity. It doesn't really work out well for Jonah, as he spits up all of the trash that he vacuums with the Mouth Vaccum. The Mads introduce The Don La Font-aine 3000, which takes any phrase and changes it to a movie title with a corresponding font.

Segment Two: Crow and Tom profess their admiration for actor Rock Hudson's "girl-capturing" abilities, dressing up as his character. Jonah's attempt to talk about 70s light fixtures is stopped by their hero worship, only for Jonah to tell them that they're worshiping the wrong person.

Segment Three: While Jonah and the Bots are playing Marco Polo, Kinga prepares to meet with her internet boyfriend, magician Neville LaRoy (played by Neil Patrick Harris). After singing "Our Love Is on Wings (You Can't See)", Kinga suggests they meet in person, but he turns her down because he loves her “too much to do that.”

Segment Four: Jonah and the Bots decide to claim various monster/disaster movie names to stop the flow of bad monster movies spawned by Sharknado. Kinga and Max attempt to claim some with Kinga angry that her tech had been hacked.

Segment Five: Gypsy sings "Aloha", a medley of various snow-themed lounge songs, wowing everyone.

Stinger: The police officer wrecks his car, destroying the store front and striking a pedestrian.

Obscure references

The Don La-Font-aine 3000

The name of The Mads' invention is inspired by Don LaFontaine (1940-2008), a long-time voice-over artist who provided the narration for many, many movie trailers.

"Rock Hudson - Down... Down..."

A paraphrase of the song "Rock Lobster" by the musical group The B52s.

"Mia Farrow, oh boy, I hope Ol' Blue Eyes doesn't catch her with Rock Hudson or it's lights out for these two ring-a-ding-dings."

Tom is mimicking the vocal style of Frank Sinatra (whose nickname was "Ol' Blue Eyes"), who had been a romantic partner of Mia Farrow. Sinatra was notoriously jealous, and often showed up on the sets of movies she was making to make sure she was staying faithful to him.

"Somewhere in these mountains, Roman Polanski is hiding from extradition."

Roman Polanski fled the United States in 1977 to avoid jail time related to him drugging and then raping a 13 year old girl. He has never returned.

"Mia Farrow as Mike Nesmith."

Mike Nesmith is one of the original members of the Made-For-TV rock & roll band The Monkees. His signature look included a wool hat that he wore almost constantly on the show.

"Go that way, really fast -- and if something gets in your way, turn!"

Jonah is quoting the 80's teen/ski movie Better Off Dead.

"Feels like I'm wearin' nothing at all! Nothing at all! Nothing at all..."

A reference from the tenth season episode of The Simpsons "Little Big Mom", specifically to Ned Flanders talking about his skintight skiing outfit.

"Dance your cares away! (clap clap) Worries for another day! Let the music play! (clap clap) Down in Avalanche!"

A slight re-wording of the theme song to the 1980s HBO television series Fraggle Rock, produced by the Jim Henson Company. The opening credits begin with a long tracking shot of the camera following the Fraggle character Gobo into Fraggle Rock.

"It's Log, it's Log, it's big, it's heavy, it's wood! It's Log, it's Log, it's better than bad, it's good!"

A jingle that plays in a commercial for a fictional toy "Log" which sometimes plays in between episodes of the first two seasons of The Ren & Stimpy Show.

"Dear Trip Advisor..."

A reference to the website TripAdvisor.com, where people post reviews of hotels and resorts where they stayed, which often can be fairly nit-picky.

Behind the scenes

MST3K cast

Regular cast

Jonah Ray - Jonah Heston
Hampton Yount - Crow T. Robot
Baron Vaughn - Tom Servo
Felicia Day - Kinga Forrester
Patton Oswalt - Max (TV's Son of TV's Frank)
Rebecca Hanson - Gypsy / Synthia
Tim Ryder - Bonehead #1
Zach Thompson - Bonehead #2
Joel Hodgson - Ardy

The Skeleton Crew

Har Mar Superstar (Bandleader), Tony Bevilacqua, Matthew Compton, Denver Dalley, Jason Fabus, Charlie Erickson, Andris Mattson, Amanda Mndr Warner, Josiah Steinbeck

Guest cast

Neil Patrick Harris - Neville LaRoy

MST3K crew

Main article: List of MST3K Crew#Season 11

Directed by Joel Hodgson & Robert Cohen

Production

Goofs

Callbacks

"We want to hear California Lady!" (Track of the Moon Beast)