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in: MST3K Episodes, Season 1, Directed by Jim Mallon

MST3K 112 - Untamed Youth

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“ Wait…so you’re my grandma, my sister, my mom … did you marry Bill Wyman? ”


The Movie[]

Main article: Untamed Youth (film)

Two sisters passing through a small town fall victim to the corrupt local government. They are arrested on dubious charges and sentenced to work on a cotton farm with other young people. They are exploited and forced to live in inhumane conditions, though they are able to engage in the occasional high-spirited musical number. Eventually, the younger sister is able to expose the corruption and the system is reformed.

The Episode[]

Host Segments[]

Tongue Puppet

Tongue Puppet

Prologue: While fixing Tom, Joel discovers a "computer virus" (or "magnetic tape worm" according to Crow).

Invention Exchange: Joel invents a "never-light pipe" with a sprinkler system activated by a smoke detector which puts itself out whenever you try to light up. Larry and Dr. Forrester realized that children adore puppets and putting things in their mouths, so they've invented "tongue puppets": puppets that you put on your tongue.

Segment Two: Inspired by a background extra's resemblance, Joel and the bots present their tribute to TV's Greg Brady.

Segment Three: Joel considers the question of what Gypsy thinks about.

UntamedYouth

Segment Four: Gypsy is sick and can't stop coughing up synthetic cotton. She starts spitting up other things upon command, including a second Tom Servo.

Ending Segment: Joel and the bots try to comprehend the goofy glasses-wearing guy from the movie. Then they read some letters.

Obscure References[]

  • "At least it’s a Warner Brothers picture."
Warner Brothers is one of the largest film studios in Hollywood. Untamed Youth was an independent production distributed by Warner Brothers, so Joel's optimism is somewhat misplaced.
  • "Sounds like it’s going to be one of those teensploitation things."
Exploitation films are movies that capitalize on a current trend in pop culture for commercial success.
  • "It’s like he’s playing football against Claude Rains University."
Claude Rains (1889-1967) was an English actor best known for starring in the title role in 1933’s The Invisible Man.
  • "It’s like the Stephen King book Children of the Dirt."
Stephen King is a horror novelist who wrote the short story "Children of the Corn" about a small Nebraska town taken over and terrorized by a cult of children who worship "He Who Walks Behind the Rows." In 1984, it was made into a movie starring Linda Hamilton.
  • "She died and nobody knew her name!" "She should've died at Cheers, that way everybody would know her name."
References lyrics in the theme song for TV sitcom Cheers.
  • "I'm going to send you on an errand." "To Mt. Pilot? I'll go get my one bullet."
A deputy quite resembles late actor Don Knotts who played character Barney Fife, a well-meaning but bumbling sheriff's deputy on the sitcom The Andy Griffith Show, which took place in the fictional town of Mt. Pilot. He frequently boasted that he only needed one bullet in his revolver.
  • "Don’t ever play chicken with cop cars. You’ll never win."
"Chicken" is the colloquial name given to a contest wherein two people in cars race toward each other to see who will lose their nerve first and swerve to avoid a collision.
  • "Works every time."
References the longtime slogan for Colt 45 malt liquor used in ads from the 1980s featuring actor Billy Dee Williams.
  • "Is that the primordial soup?"
"Primordial soup" is the colloquial name for the theory that the early oceans on Earth contained vast amounts of simple chemicals and compounds. When electrified by lightning or simply excited by sunlight, these chemicals would group and form amino acids, the simplest building blocks of life. The theory was first proposed by Russian biologist Alexander Oparin in 1924.
  • "Hey, there’s a girl in my soup". "Don’t worry. She won’t eat much."
There's a Girl in My Soup is a 1970 comedy film starring Peter Sellers and Goldie Hawn. The follow-up quip mirrors an old joke (with multiple punchlines) in which a restaurant patron complains about a fly in their soup, with the waiter responding "Don't worry, it won't eat much".
  • "It’s the Maytag repairman. He does look lonely."
Maytag is a manufacturer of home appliances. The Maytag repairman (nicknamed "Ol’ Lonely") debuted in advertisements beginning in 1967, initially played by Jesse White. The ad campaign inferred that Maytag appliances are so reliable that a repairman's services were rarely needed.
  • "Meanwhile, at Mount Vernon..."
Mount Vernon is the name of George Washington’s plantation, located near Alexandria, Virginia.
  • "Just for snoring too loud."
Refers to a legendary murder by noted Texas frontier outlaw John Wesley Hardin (1853-1895).
  • "Her name was Peanut."
Ventriloquist/comedian Jeff Dunham has a purple puppet named Peanut, whom he often introduces by saying, "He’s a woozle, and his name is Peanut."
  • "Green Acres?"
Green Acres is a TV sitcom that ran from 1965 to 1971. It starred Eva Gabor and Eddie Albert as former city dwellers who try to adapt to life in the rural town of Hooterville.
  • "Looks like Tom Waits’ hometown."
Tom Waits is a goateed, gravelly voiced singer-songwriter who has also appeared in bit parts in several films.
  • "Somewhere out there is the Ark of the Covenant."
The Ark of the Covenant, according to Judeo-Christian tradition, was the ornate chest that carried the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments, Moses’ original scrolls, a jar of manna, and Aaron’s rod. In the 1981 sci-fi film Raiders of the Lost Ark, it was discovered in the ancient Egyptian city of Tanis.
  • "Oh, I hope it’s not the Von Trapp family. I hate them."
The Trapp Family Choir (or Trapp Family Singers) was an Austrian group of singers whose story became a 1959 Rodgers & Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music and the famed 1965 film of the same name.
  • "Hey, it’s the body snatcher pod wagon."
Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a 1956 science fiction film based on a 1955 novel by Jack Finney. It involves alien invaders who create duplicates of people which emerge from large vegetable-like pods.
  • "Lou Gossett Jr. will be out here to chat with you a little later."
Lou Gossett, Jr. is an actor who starred in the acclaimed miniseries Roots which takes place during the era of enslavement in the United States.
  • "The original cast of The Dirty Dozen."
The Dirty Dozen is a 1967 movie about a group of Army convicts trained to kill German officers during World War II.
  • "Cubby. –Gregor. –Annette. –Hoppy. –Mabel. –Mabel. –And Mabel."
Cubby O’Brien and Annette Funicello were Mouseketeers on the original version of the TV show The Mickey Mouse Club, which aired from 1955-1959.
  • "And if you land on Free Parking, you get it back, which is great."
In the Parker Brothers game Monopoly, one of the board spaces is labeled Free Parking, meaning no rent can be earned there and no property built. While not a part of the official rules, many people play a variation wherein all taxes (and sometimes fees or fines) collected during the gameplay are placed in the center of the board and then disbursed to whoever lands on Free Parking.
  • "... spend the rest of your time in the county klink."
Television character Colonel Wilhelm Klink, the inept commander of a German POW camp on the sitcom Hogan’s Heroes, was played by the late actor Werner Klemperer. Klink is also a colloquial term for jail.
  • "Hey, look! It’s Greg Brady!"
On the TV sitcom The Brady Bunch Greg Brady was oldest of the male children; he was played by Barry Williams.
  • "Hey, it’s Blond Lemon Jefferson."
Blind Lemon Jefferson was a blues singer and guitarist called "Father of the Texas Blues."
  • "Ixnay on the umpbay and rindgay (sic)!"
An example of Pig Latin.
  • "Trollop fight!"
Trollop is a slang word indicating a woman of poor moral character. It comes from the word "troll," which originally meant "to wander."
  • "Hey, it’s Lenny and Squiggy school."
A reference to two characters on the TV sitcom Laverne & Shirley; Leonard "Lenny" Kosnowski, portrayed by Michael McKean, and Andrew "Squiggy" Squigman, portrayed by David Lander.
  • "Greg couldn't even get a suite on the Love Boat"
The Love Boat is a comedy/drama television series set on the luxury cruise ship S.S. Pacific Princess. Crow is likely alluding to the episode "Who Killed Maxwell Thorn?", in which Robert Reed and Florence Henderson appeared as Mike and Carol Brady.

Callbacks[]

Behind the Scenes[]

MST3K cast[]

Regular cast

Notes[]

  • As with most of the riffed movies, Untamed Youth was altered to fit the TV format and had a few scenes trimmed slightly to fit within the desired time-slot.
  • According to the Amazing Colossal Episode Guide, this episode earned the show one of its first negative reviews, which appeared in the magazine Gorezone. The reviewer objected to Joel and the bots riffing over Eddie Cochran's song.
  • The episode was screened by Joel Hodgson as part of the #MakeMoreMST3K​: Livestream #II. He was joined by J. Elvis Weinstein and other members of the new casts.
    • During the livestream event, Weinstein claimed that this had been the first episode during which the writers had felt compelled to consume alcohol in order to produce material. He and Joel identified cans of Mickey's Big Mouth as the beverage of choice.
  • With this episode, the MST3K "Fan Club" becomes the "Information Club" in the end-of-show announcement.
    Gypsy's first appearance in the theater

    Gypsy's first appearance in the theater

  • In this episode, Gypsy enters the theater for the first time in the national series. Joel calls her in to produce cotton in response to Tom Servo’s query about what real cotton feels like.
  • This episode marks the first time a duplicate Servo appeared onscreen.

Goofs[]

  • In the fourth host segment, the tubing around Gypsy's upper lip comes loose and falls off.

Video releases[]

MST3K DVD Cover

MST3K DVD Cover

Gallery[]

References[]


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