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in: MST3K Episodes, Season 4, Directed by Jim Mallon, Season Premieres

MST3K 401 - Space Travelers

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“ No, it was TONY FRANCIOSA!!! ”
- Tom


The Movie[]

Main article: Space Travelers (film)

A group of astronauts are stranded in outer space after an accident. They must work with the ground crew to save their lives before they deplete their oxygen supply.

Information[]

  • This film won the Academy Award for Best Special Visual Effects, making it the only Academy Award-winning movie to ever be used on Mystery Science Theater 3000. The film was also nominated for Best Cinematography and Best Sound.

The Episode[]

Host Segments[]

Spacetravelers

Joel and the Bots reenact scenes from the movie

Prologue: The Great Crowdini attempts to escape, hanging upside-down, from a set of chains while a cannon is pointed at his head. Crow then loses the key.

Segment One (Invention Exchange): Crow reveals the secret to his escape: chewing his own head off. Dr. F chastises Frank for reading Variety, but Frank points out that the decline of Bruce Willis' latest film is a blow to evil everywhere. Joel presents the Dollaroid, a camera that puts pictures on money. The Bots point out its uselessness. The Mads present their Tissues with Faces, allowing you to blow your nose on famous faces in ridicule. Pat Buchanan might be nothing to sneeze at... until pepper is added to the equation.


401-tissue

Tissues with Faces

Segment Two: The SOL crew lists the ways the space program has influenced everyday life. Some of them are kind of a reach.

Segment Three: Joel and the Bots reenact a scene from the movie, with Crow in the Gregory Peck role. He starts going crazy by switching into his David Janssen impression, and Joel drags him away for some quiet time.

Segment Four: Joel contemplates what would happen if one of the SOL crew had to sacrifice themselves in space. The Bots rain on his parade, pointing out that an oxygen shortage would only be a problem for him.

Segment Five: Joel fakes out Gypsy while playing fetch before demonstrating a magic trick for Crow and Tom, "Find the Finder of Lost Loves". The Bots end up frustrated and confused by his pop culture references. The crew then reads some letters before Gypsy returns with a lot of balls. The Mads are unimpressed with it all.

Stinger: Gene Hackman contemplates a pill.

Obscure References[]

  • "The Last Boy Scout has dropped out of the top five!"
The Last Boy Scout is a 1991 action movie starring Bruce Willis and Damon Wayans.
  • "Remember The Return of Bruno!"
Return of Bruno is a musical album recorded by Bruce Willis in 1987.
  • "Do what *I* do."
This is a quote from the Amazing Discoveries infomercials.
  • "Is this some kind of joke? Am I some kind of clown? Do I amuse you in some fashion?"
Tom is paraphrasing Joe Pesci in Goodfellas.
  • "The one-armed man is chasing me, I need a drink!"
A reference to David Janssen's role on the 1960s TV series The Fugitive.
  • "Is he related to Lillian Hellman?"
Lillian Hellman was an American playwright best-known for The Children's Hour.
  • "Pig Pen, this is Rubber Duck. I'm gonna put the hammer down!"
A quote from one of the spoken-word segments from the song "Convoy".
  • "That's the Estes Saturn V!"
A reference to the model-rocket manufacturer Estes Industries.
  • "Charles Rocket!"
Charles Rocket was an American actor. He was notorious for having been a Saturday Night Live cast member during the poorly-regarded 1980-81 season (in which he was the anchor for the Weekend Update news segment), and for being fired after uttering an obscenity on the air.
  • "Before this decade is out, we will make a boring movie called Space Travelers!"
A reference to a 1961 speech in which President John F. Kennedy vowed to put a man on the moon.
  • "The calls are coming from inside NASA!"
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".
  • "Hey, the Residents!"
The Residents are an art and musical group who perform wearing various costumes, including eyeball masks, and whose exact individual identities are a closely guarded secret.
  • "Three boys in plastics bubbles!"
The Boy in the Plastic Bubble is a 1976 made-for-TV movie starring a young John Travolta. It was riffed by RiffTrax in 2010.
  • "Seka? On the ship? Bucka-WOW!"
Seka (born Dorothiea Ivonniea Hundley) is a retired porn actress, most active during the 1970s and '80s.
  • "...sittin' around the lake, mountains come out of the sky..."
Joel is quoting the Yes song "Roundabout".
  • "I am Iron Man!"
Joel is quoting the Black Sabbath song "Iron Man".
  • "Why don't you solve your little problems and light this candle!"
Joel is quoting Alan Shepard from the 1983 film The Right Stuff.
  • "Like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel..."
Beginning lyrics to the song "The Windmills of your Mind" from the movie The Thomas Crown Affai.
  • "The President will issue an appropriate statement..." "And then he'll throw up on the Japanese prime minister."
A reference to an infamous event that occurred on January 8, 1992 during a state dinner in Japan, when then-president George H.W. Bush vomited on the Prime Minister of Japan Miyazawa Kiichi, then passed out.
  • "Ape law!"
Reference to the Planet of the Apes science-fiction media franchise.
  • "Now there are Men Without Hats."
Men Without Hats are a Canadian new wave and synth-pop band, originally from Montreal, Quebec.
  • "No, but I read Final Exit, and it's gonna come in handy."
Final Exit is an extremely controversial book which has the stated aim of providing a how-to guide to suicide for terminally ill people.
  • "Celia." "You're breaking my heart."
"Cecilia, you're breaking my heart" is a lyric from the 1970 song "Cecilia" by Simon & Garfunkel.
  • "Breathe deep the gathering gloom"
This is the first line of "Late Lament", a poem written by Graeme Edge, drummer for The Moody Blues. It is spoken at the end of the song "Nights in White Satin".
  • "There's a bright golden haze on the meadow!"
The first line of the song "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'" from the musical Oklahoma! written by Rodgers and Hammerstein. The lead male character Curly McLain sings it at the beginning of the first scene.
  • "Always with the negative waves!"
Quoting Sgt. Oddball (Donald Sutherland), a 1940s proto-hippie tank engineer in the World War II film Kelly's Heroes.
  • "Are you talking to me?"
A reference to an SCTV skit in which Peck and other unlikely actors are starring in the film Taxi Driver (in which the line appears).

Callbacks[]

Behind-the-Scenes[]

MST3K Cast[]

Notes[]

  • The middle button on The Satellite of Love bridge console, used for connecting to the Hexfield Viewscreen, changes from green to purple in this episode.
  • Marooned was mentioned by Joel at the end of Episode #201 as an alternative to the depressing way that the episode's film, Rocketship X-M, ended. Dr. Forrester responded "We couldn't get it!". The Film Ventures copyright on Space Travelers is dated 1991, well after Rocketship X-M first aired. Marooned was also previously referenced by Crow in the opening moments of Episode #310.
JnT

James Franciscus (top) & Tony Franciosa (bottom)

  • Throughout the movie, Crow keeps referencing James Franciscus as the Finder of Lost Loves, only to be corrected by Tom (with increasing frustration each time) that Tony Franciosa was the star of that series. This plays into Joel's shell game in the final segment.
  • The crew at Best Brains recounted a story In The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Amazing Colossal Episode Guide entry for this film about meeting comedian Dennis Miller backstage after watching a taping of Miller's short-lived late-night talk show. Miller's only comment to them was that they shouldn't have riffed Marooned and that maybe they were "losing their touch".
  • Beginning with this episode, Frank is credited as "TV’s Frank".
  • The James Franciscus action figure that Joel pulls out in the closing segment appears to be Magneto from Toy Biz's X-Men line of action figures from 1991, and the Burl Ives action figure seems to be one of Baron Harkonnen from the 1984 film Dune.
  • Frank's issue of Variety (and the references that it prompts) tend to indicate that this episode is set (or was produced) in mid-to-late January of 1992. The Last Boy Scout was released on December 13th, 1991 and it remained in the top 5 until the second week in January of the following year.
  • Re: Dr. Forrester's tissues invention, comedian Geechy Guy did win 10 times on Star Search, setting the record for most appearances. He was defeated in 1990 by Taylor Mason, a "damn ventriloquist". In 1993, Guy set the Guinness World Record for most jokes told in one hour (676). Forrester also refers to comedian Rick Ducommun, who - in addition to his comedy career - had a small role in The Last Boy Scout.
  • This episode aired third during Turkey Day '92.

Goofs[]

  • A riff about Gregory Peck being back in Mackenna's Gold implies that it was released following Marooned/Space Travelers. However, it had been released six months earlier.

Video Releases[]

SPACETRAVELERSDVD

MST3K DVD Cover

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