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in: MST3K Episodes, Season 2, Episodes with shorts, Directed by Jim Mallon

MST3K 210 - King Dinosaur

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“ Without ENERGY! COME ON! ”
- Joel


The Short[]

0210s1
Main article: X Marks the Spot (short)

Careless driver Joe Doakes dies in a traffic accident and finds himself on heavenly trial for his vehicular misdeeds.

The Movie[]

Main article: King Dinosaur (film)

A scientific expedition is sent to a recently discovered planet believed suitable for human habitation.

Information[]

  • With only 5 credited actors (four on-screen and the narrator), King Dinosaur is tied with The Screaming Skull for the film with the smallest cast of any film used on Mystery Science Theater 3000 (though King Dinosaur contains additional people in stock footage).

The Episode[]

Host Segments[]

Kingdinosaur

Beat poetry

Prologue: Joel and the Bots read beat poetry.

Pocketscience

Pocket science

Invention Exchange: The Bots debate if beat poetry has to rhyme. The Mads interrupt for the experiment; Dr. F is fixing the elevator and Frank is preparing for his hat party. Frank pushes a button. Dr. F feels great pain soon after. He declares he is his own invention, the Pocket Scientist. Joel accidentally creates his as well... the Incredibly Stinky Sweatsocks.

Joey

Joey the Lemur

Segment Two: Crow ponders if he is suitable for judging the man from the short. He goes off into a legendary soliloquy in which he decides to change the world, celebrates life, learns to think for himself, and ends up making suggestions such as "Put a drop of vanilla behind each ear and smell like a cookie all day!". Then he tells the audience to do it themselves as he's giving up.

Segment Three: It's Joey the Lemur, the Gilbert Gottfried of the animal kingdom! The Bots try to sing a song extolling the virtues of the lemur. It's not particularly convincing, but it sure is weird.

Segment Four: "The Emotional Scientist" sketch, featuring Joel as Albert Einstein. He protests, complaining about the dumb costumes and his inability to get the accent right. The Bots try to go on without him with Crow as Madame Curie, but they realize the futility of the whole thing. Joel consoles them, and rejoins them for one final try.

Segment Five: Crow laments the Robert L. Lippert films he has been forced to watch in lieu of better cinema. Joel demonstrates the theremin and the key role it played in many of Lippert's films and ends up getting much too fascinated with it. The Bots read a letter as this ensues. Dr. F uses Frank's head to push the button... only for him to do it again because it ended up turning the episode back on as well.

Stinger: Ralph faceplants following a fight with gators.

Obscure References[]

  • "Down, there, Raymond Carver, this must be a short!"
Raymond Carver was an American short story writer most active in the 1970s and 1980s.
  • "Arthur McGee and Molly."
A reference to the radio series Fibber McGee and Molly.
  • "Wow, it looks like a Gino Vanelli concert."
Gino Vanelli is a Canadian rock singer and songwriter.
  • "It's Crazy Guggenheim!"
Crazy Guggenheim was a character from The Jackie Gleason Show played by Frank Fontaine.
  • "Are you George Bailey? Oh, sorry, wrong film."
George Bailey (played by James Stewart) is the main protagonist of the 1946 film It's a Wonderful Life.
  • "Hey, it's Elton John in hell."
Elton John is known for his outlandish costumes.
  • "Come on, let's go talk to Hamlet's dad."
Referring to the ghost of King Hamlet from William Shakespeare's play Hamlet.
  • "Now over there is Mick Jagger's cloud. Stay off of it."
Mick Jagger is the lead vocalist of The Rolling Stones.
  • "Yeah, he did a favor for Sinatra once."
Possibly referencing the kidnapping of Frank Sinatra Jr..
  • "You just omitted the body of the letter, eh?"
A line from the Marx Brothers movie Animal Crackers.
  • "If you know who I mean." "Hitler? Uh, no, he drove a stick."
Adolf Hitler was the leader of the Nazis during World War II.
  • "I love Fibber McGee and Molly."
Another reference to the radio series Fibber McGee and Molly.
  • "Okay, thank you, Mr. Spock."
Possibly joking about the detailed, analytical lectures Spock makes on Star Trek.
  • "He was higher than Judy Garland."
Judy Garland was an American actress best known for playing Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz. She suffered from addiction to a wide variety of narcotics through her career and died from a barbiturate overdose at the age of 49.
  • "Fifteen years..." "On a dead man's chest."
A lyric from the song Dead Man's Chest.
  • "Tony Danza forensics."
Tony Danza is an American actor.
  • "The Brady house. Built tall and strong."
A reference to the series The Brady Bunch.
  • "Are you a man or a mouse?" "Put some cheese down there and you'll find out."
A reference to a line from Groucho Marx.
  • "They just discovered Grizzly Adams."
John "Grizzly" Adams was a famous California mountain man. He was known for training and capturing wild animals for menageries, zoological gardenss, and circuses.
  • "Aw, they taped over The Beatles' Berlin tapes."
Referring to The Beatles' 1964 world tour.
  • "Lions and tigers and bears, oh my."
A line from The Wizard of Oz.
  • "The owl footage is not what it seems."
A reference to the series Twin Peaks.
  • "It IS the Waldorf salad though."
A quote from the Fawlty Towers episode Waldorf Salad.
  • "Arr Jim boy. Arr."
An imitation of Robert Newton's portrayal of Long John Silver in Disney's 1950 film adaptation of Treasure Island.
  • "If it bends it's funny, if it breaks it's not."
Line from the Woody Allen film Crimes and Misdemeanors.
  • "He jumped right out of Paul's chest."
A reference to the chest burster scene in Alien.
  • "But first a recipe from my pal, Ed Herlihy."
Ed Herlihy was the prototypical news reel announcer; parodies of news reels are invariably done with Herlihy's distinctive, upbeat delivery. He was the the announcer for Kraft Television Theatre, one version of which was created to promote Cheez Whiz through recipes done on the show.
  • "Now where is that tall tower?"
Alludes to Charles Whitman, who shot 46 people, killing 14, from the central tower at the University of Texas at Austin on August 1, 1966.
  • "Two seagulls, Gertrude and Heathcliff."
Referring to a joke by Red Skelton.
  • "Thrill to the most exciting fight of the Precambrian Era!"
The Precambrian Era was Earth's earliest and longest time period that ended approx. 540 million years ago, in which life predominantly lived in the sea before any complex terrestrial animals (like the reptiles in the film) appeared.
  • "He was on the cover of Tarkus!"
Tarkus is a 1971 album recorded by British progressive rock group Emerson, Lake & Palmer that features an illustration of an armadillo with tank treads on the cover.
  • "Whoa, trombone. Must be seventy-six of them. I think there's a hundred and ten cornets right behind."
"Seventy-Six Trombones" is a song from the musical The Music Man. The first two lines read, "Seventy-six trombones led the big parade/With a hundred and ten cornets close at hand".

Behind-the-Scenes[]

MST3K Cast[]

Regular Cast

MST3K Crew[]

Notes[]

  • This episode aired eighth during Turkey Day '92.
  • Elliott Kalan, the Head Writer of Season 11 and 12 of Mystery Science Theater 3000, has identified this as the first episode of the series that he ever saw and also his favorite episode.
  • As with most of the riffed films, King Dinosaur was edited to fit within the desired time-slot by trimming several scenes. Footage removed from this film includes:
    • The cold open narration describing a rogue planet taking up orbit around the sun.
    • Part of the rocket launch and the narration of the trip to Nova, described as taking months to complete.
    • A scene where the explorers wonder if they've gotten lost.
    • Scenes of Richard and Nora returning to the ship for supplies while Pat remains with Ralph as he recovers. During the return trip, Richard and Nora stop to take pictures of "Joe" before bringing him back to camp.

Callbacks[]

  • Upon seeing the opening credit "Lippert Productions", Joel and the Bots dredge up memories of other Lippert films they've been forced to watch, including Rocketship X-M and Lost Continent.

Goofs[]

  • Dr. Forrester and Frank fail to announce the titles of the short and the feature, referring to them as a safety film and a Lippert masterpiece respectively.
  • Joey the "lemur" is actually a kinkajou, a member of the raccoon family. The lemur is a primate. The two are easily confused with each other, as they have several traits in common. They both have big eyes that are common in primarily nocturnal animals. They also both have prehensile tails, and they both climb trees.

Video Releases[]

Kingdinodvd

MST3K DVD Cover

Gallery[]

References[]

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