MST3K 523 - Village of the Giants

“	"You know, as in tune as Bert I. Gordon was with the Fifties, he just didn't get the Sixties."	”
	— Tom Servo

The Movie

Synopsis

A kid called Genius (young Ron Howard) accidentally invents a substance that causes all animal life to grow. Genius' sister Nancy and her cardigan-wearing boyfriend Mike (Tommy Kirk) see the money-making potential in the substance (dubbed "Goo") and plan to sell it to "make a million bucks".

Unfortunately, a greedy young opportunist (Beau Bridges) and the group of delinquents he hangs around with are inspired to steal the Goo and use it for their own purposes. They soon change their minds and rashly decide to eat it themselves. They grow to gigantic proportions and temporarily take over the town.

Information

• Based on the general idea presented in the H.G. Wells book The Food of the Gods.
• "The Beau Brummels" and Freddy "Boom Boom" Cannon make musical guest appearances,[1] as does the blackmailing hipster boat captain from Tormented (Joe Turkel).
• As the giant teens rampage through residential streets, the Cleaver’s house from TV’s “Leave It To Beaver” and the Stevens’ house from TV’s “Bewitched” can be seen.

  

• Several of the outdoor shots during the showdown between tiny Tommy Kirk and big Beau Bridges were filmed on the "Courthouse Square" set made famous in the Back to the Future series.
• The red-headed dancer is played by Toni Basil, who later became well-known for her 1982 hit song "Hey Mickey."
• The dark haired giant named Rick was played by Robert Random, the overzealous brown-noser in Being from Another Planet.

The Episode

Host Segments

Prologue: Mike and the Bots do their annual workout. As Mike says, "If you can't take 30 minutes out of every year, you don't deserve a hot date!"

Segment One: Mike and the Bots put all sorts of strange items into a juicer before contacting the Mads. Dr. Forrester makes the announcement that they're making cutbacks down in Deep 13, and orders TV's Frank to fire... TV's Frank!? Yep, Frank's been given the ol' heave-ho.

Segment Two: Now that he's fired, Frank lounges around Deep 13 in his underwear, watching TV. Meanwhile, Dr. Forrester interviews Torgo, the former servant of the Master and former pizza delivery man, and hires him.

Segment Three: Frank's taken up refuge in the storage closet in Deep 13 to keep Dr. F from kicking him out. Mike and the Bots pretend to interview Frank so he’ll be eligible for unemployment benefits.

Segment Four: Frank's got his stuff packed, and is ready to go, but not before bidding Mike & the Bots adieu. However, the SOL crew is not that heartless, and sing a song to the former aide, titled "The Greatest Frank of All" (alongside a montage of clips of Frank put together by Cambot). The song energizes Frank, and so begins his plans to oust Torgo.

Segment Five: As Mike and the Bots go through letters supporting Frank, Frank talks to Torgo, telling the goat-legged fellow that he won fair and square, and gives him some advice that will "make Dr. Forrester really happy". Of course, Frank's underhanded scheme gets Torgo ejected, and Frank has his job back - though of course, the little stunt he pulled means that Dr. Forrester is going to have to kill him now.

Stinger: A tribute to the late, great Frank Zappa.

Other Notes

Guest Stars

• Torgo: Michael J. Nelson

Miscellanea

• Unusual credits: "The Greatest Frank of All" is played instead of the usual closing theme.
• "The Greatest Frank of All" montage clips are, as follows: Frank holds live grenade, Frank bounces on the Frank-N-Forcer, Frank's head's been scanned apart, Frank doesn't touch Dr F while high on a Killer Shrew, Dr F smashes Operation Game Frank on the head with a hammer, Chauffeur Frank gets cardboard car broken over his head by Dr F, Frank fries on the Tough Love Seat, Frank spits up the ipecac, Frank gets neck cattle-prodded by Dr F, Trainee Frank gets a shock to the shammies by Dr F, Frank meets Fistie, Frank meets Dr Fist, Frank excitedly sees "Vicki" is on via the TV Guide, Frank sets off the William Conrad Fridge Alert, Frank is a skeleton, Frank works on his Shemp area on the Square Master, Frank flees from the Lawn Baby, Frank gets drowned by the Eye, Ear, Nose, and Throat dropper, Frank & Dr F box, Dr F strangles the horn-blowing Frank, the Cholester-do-all gives Frank a heart attack, and Frank shrugs as Dr F revs up the Deep Hurting chainsaw.

Callbacks

• “Coruba!” (Outlaw)
• “What sin could a duck commit in a single lifetime?” (The Amazing Colossal Man)
• "Look in back, it's a picture of the Master and his wife!" ("Manos" The Hands of Fate)
• “I didn’t steal no bike, neither.” (Teenage Strangler)
• “Dang smoochers!” (Attack of the the Eye Creatures)
• “I’m gonna moon you, man!” (The Beatniks)

Obscure References

• "They're dancing near a collapsed star!"

A star may shrink from a (roughly, as an example) 900,000-mile diameter to as small as (say) twenty miles across when it collapses. If its mass is great enough, it may become a black hole. As one approaches any mass the gravitational field intensifies, and, to an outside observer, clocks slow down as gravity increases; therefore, the dancers would appear to move slower. The effect is greatly intensified for greatly compacted bodies.

• Dr. Forrester's parting gift for Frank is an action figure from the Coneheads movie.
• "The extra E is for extra Levine!"

There was a famous TV ad campaign on New York City cable during the '80s for a phone sex line featuring "watersports". The number was 970-PEEE; their slogan was "The extra 'E' is for extra PEE!"

• "Mr. Mojo RISING!"

Excerpt from the song "L.A. Woman" by The Doors.

• "You could learn a lot from a dummy."

During the 1990s, a series of public-service announcements promoting the use of seat belts featured the comical misadventures of a pair of living crash-test dummies, and used the slogan "You could learn a lot from a dummy".

• "Unused footage from The Piano."

The Piano was a 1993 film about a mute woman living in 19th-century New Zealand.

• "I hope that blows up in his face so I don't have to see Willow!"

Willow was a 1988 fantasy movie directed by Ron Howard. It received mixed reviews and was not considered a box-office success, but has developed a following in subsequent years. A follow-up novel entitled Shadow Moon was published in 1995, and it would later be featured on 372 Pages We'll Never Get Back.

• "Mein Fuhrer, I can walk!"

A line spoken by the title character in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. It is the last spoken line of the movie.

• "Hey, Thomasina!"

A reference to the live-action Disney movie The Three Lives of Thomasina.

• "The Million Dollar Ducks!!"

A reference to the live-action Disney movie The Million Dollar Duck.

• "Or Jim J. Bullock?"

Actor Jim J. Bullock is best known for playing Monroe Ficus on the 1980s sitcom Too Close for Comfort.

• "Frank, you haven't been off that couch since Vicki!"

Vicki was a short-lived 1993 daytime talk show hosted by actress Vicki Lawrence.

• "What sin could a duck commit in a single lifetime..."

Paraphrases a line spoken by the title character in The Amazing Colossal Man.

• "Lucas McCain, tha-at's his kid..."

Lucas McCain was the hero of the Western TV series The Rifleman. Johnny Crawford played his son on the show.

• "Howard the Duck, Behind the Green Door!"

Howard the Duck is a Marvel Comics character who became the subject of a notoriously poorly-received movie in 1986. Behind the Green Door was a pornographic film originally released in 1972.

• "...on Acapulco H.E.A.T.!"

Acapulco H.E.A.T. was an action TV series that aired in first-run syndication during the 1990s. It featured Fabio.

• "Hmmm, what to do about Clint..."

Ron Howard's brother Clint is a prolific B-movie actor, and occasionally appears in films directed by his more successful sibling.

• "Darkboy!"

Darkman was a 1990 movie about a disfigured scientist who becomes a superhero.

• "Charlie, they took my thumbs..."

A quote from the 1984 film The Pope of Greenwich Village.

• "Back, and to the left."

A quote from Oliver Stone's film JFK.

• "Ziggy Stardust!"

A reference to the David Bowie album "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars".

• "C'mon, surrender the pink!"

Surrender the Pink is a novel written by Carrie Fisher.

• "Tonight, right here on our stage, a really big show, a big big big big show."

Crow is imitating the popular television variety host Ed Sullivan, who was known for announcing to his viewing audience that he had a "really big show" prepared.

• "We'll probably get drafted by the Cavs."

"Cavs" is the nickname for the Cleveland, OH professional basketball team, the Cavaliers.

• "We hate you Conrad, oh yes we do..."

A re-purposing of a line from the Conrad Birdie fan club song from the musical Bye Bye Birdie.

• Beau Bridges: "What is happening?"

Mike then sings part of the theme tune from the 1970s TV sitcom What's Happening?.

• "Hey, Cthulhu!"

Cthulhu is a fictional evil god that originated in the writings of H. P. Lovecraft.

• "It's going into Charles Bukowski's sink!"

American writer Charles Bukowski had a reputation as a heavy drinker.

• "Hey, an article by William Safire!"

William Safire was a presidential speechwriter for Richard Nixon, and is a longtime New York Times columnist.

• "We'll get us a hostage of our own!" "Terry Anderson!"

Terry Anderson was one of several Americans held hostage by Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon beginning in 1985.

• "Giant steps are what you take..."

A line from the Police song "Walking on the Moon".

• "Oh look, Ed Gein's the driver!"

Ed Gein, a serial killer arrested in Minnesota in 1957, became infamous for making clothing and furniture from his victims' remains.

• "Eldridge Cleavage!"

A punning reference to former black militant Eldridge Cleaver.

• "Etc., etc., etc..."

Famous line uttered by Yul Brynner's portrayal of the King of Siam from The King And I.

• "By this time my son's lungs were aching for air!"

A reference to Sea Hunt, in which Beau Bridges' father Lloyd was a deep-sea diver. This is a frequently used line on the show.

• "That's funny... That kid's dusting crops where there ain't no crops!"

Line from the Alfred Hitchcock thriller North by Northwest which precedes one of the film's most famous sequences.

• "The shamed cast of Terror of Tiny Town..."

The Terror of Tiny Town was a 1938 Western movie directed by Sam Newfield with an all-little person cast.

• "Its like waking up, rolling over and seeing Jim Varney!"

Comic actor Jim Varney was best known for playing the dim-witted character Ernest P. Worrell.

Video releases

• Commercially released on DVD by Shout! Factory in July 2013 as part of Volume XXVII, a 4-disc set along with The Slime People, Rocket Attack U.S.A., and The Deadly Mantis.
  • The DVD includes an interview with Joy Harmon and a theatrical trailer.

preceded by: Season 4		MST3K Season 5					followed by: Season 6
		1993 - 1994
501	Warrior of the Lost World	1993-07-24	509	The Girl in Lovers Lane	1993-09-18	517	Beginning of the End	1993-11-25
502	Hercules	1993-07-17	510	The Painted Hills	1993-09-26	518	The Atomic Brain	1993-12-04
503	Swamp Diamonds	1993-07-31	511	Gunslinger	1993-10-09	519	Outlaw	1993-12-11
504	Secret Agent Super Dragon	1993-08-07	512	Mitchell	1993-10-23	520	Radar Secret Service	1993-12-18
505	The Magic Voyage of Sinbad	1993-08-14	513	The Brain That Wouldn't Die	1993-10-30	521	Santa Claus	1993-12-24
506	Eegah	1993-08-28	514	Teen-Age Strangler	1993-11-07	522	Teen-Age Crime Wave	1994-01-15
507	I Accuse My Parents	1993-09-04	515	The Wild Wild World of Batwoman	1993-11-13	523	Village of the Giants	1994-01-22
508	Operation Double 007	1993-09-11	516	Alien from L.A.	1993-11-20	524	12 to the Moon	1994-02-05