It’s Just A Show

Star Force: Fugitive Alien II returns, KTMA-style, to send Chris and Charlotte into black holes, hyperbolic curves, infinite mysteries, historical myths, and national anthems.

Star Force: Fugitive Alien II (Minoru Kanaya & Kiyosumi Kuzakawa, 1978 (tv show)/1987 (film)): MST3K Wiki. IMDB. Watch on YouTube.

We covered Fugitive Alien (part I) in episodes 176 (KTMA) and 177 (season 3).

Our episode on Prince of Space.

Janna Levin: Black Hole Survival Guide was the most useful book Chris read on the topic.

Einstein Online (from the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics) and NASA also have useful pages on black holes.

Cygnus X-1, Messier 87*, and Sagittarius A* are the three obvserved black holes that we mention.

The Event Horizon Telescope.

In case you can't imagine the math function Chris describes, here's a graph.

David J. Silverman: This Land Is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving.

The Smithsonian on the Thanksgiving origin story.

Delish on Thanksgiving.

Mary Livingstone’s poem about two Thanksgivings on the Jack Benny Program, 1939. (Or listen to the whole episode. Though Chris was probably thinking about the episodes that came out around Thanksgiving 1940.)

Canadian Thanksgiving myths.

An alternative lyric.

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We’re back, and Ken’s back, and the plucky crew of the Bacchus 3 is back, as Star Force: Fugitive Alien II throws Chris and Charlotte into the brig, where they talk about puppets, costumes, pussycats, cleavage, and choreography.

Star Force: Fugitive Alien II (Minoru Kanaya & Kiyosumi Kuzakawa, 1978 (tv show)/1987 (film)): MST3K Wiki. IMDB. Watch on YouTube.

We covered Fugitive Alien (part I) in episodes 176 (KTMA) and 177 (season 3).

A national park.

We talked about marionettes in our episodes on Invaders from the Deep and we must have talked about puppets in our episode on Devil Doll, no? Oh, and we talked about H.R. Pufnstuf in our episode on Crash of Moons.

Is there a Puppet Wiki? Of course. Though the Muppet Wiki has more info on Big Bird. And you might want to go to the regular wiki for more info on Señor Wences.

Videos going inside Jim Henson’s Creature Shop and behind the scenes of Netflix’s The Dark Crystal. And how Muppets go outside!

The Northeast Georgia History Center offers a video about the history of puppets.

The British Puppet Guild and the Chicago International Puppet Theater.

Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (Russ Meyer, 1965).

Peaches Christ highlights Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! and interviews Tura Satana in 2005.

Roger Copeland: Merce Cunningham: The Modernizing of Modern Dance was a helpful resource (although not without its flaws).

Merce Cunningham: Common Time, a book which accompanied a museum retrospective, was also fun to read.

The Merce Cunningham Trust carries his legacy forward. They also have a YouTube channel.

Merce by Merce by Paik (Charles Atlas, Nam June Paik, Shigeko Kubota, 1978) is two short films (made for tv) about Merce's work, and includes some of his early experiments with dance and video.

Cage/Cunningham (Eliot Caplan, 1991) is a charming documentary about John Cage and Merce Cunningham’s work together. I wonder if someone has uploaded the whole thing to YouTube?

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Teen-age Strangler is out there not stealing no bikes while Chris and Charlotte discuss forever love, temporary love, parental love, punk rock love, but mostly their love of Mikey.

With the short: Is This Love?

Teen-age Strangler (Ben Parker, 1964): MST3K Wiki. IMDB. Watch on YouTube.

Is This Love? (Unknown, 1957): IMDB. UnMSTed.

KTMA episode 3 has been found! You can find it on YouTube or archive.org.

Doctor Who also found some long-lost episodes.

Talking Pondo: Purple Rain and America’s Sweethearts with Charlotte Wells and Chris Piuma

A note on Reddit about John Humphreys passing.

Jack Douglas: Shut Up and Eat Your Showshoes!.

Butthole Surfers: Lady Sniff. (That’s the one Charlotte couldn’t remember the name of.)

The Dead Milkmen: Punk Rock Girl.

Mojo Nixon: Elvis is Everywhere.

Jello Biafra & Mojo Nixon: Are You Drinking with Me, Jesus? and Love Me, I’m a Liberal (originally written by Phil Ochs).

Jello Biafra running for mayor. More.

Dead Kennedys: California Über Alles

Check out the Chad Mitchell Trio, now without Chad Mitchell!

A local talk show segment about the 60th anniversary screening of Teen-age Strangler in Huntington, West Virginia.

Support us on Patreon and you can listen to a special bonus bit that was cut for time from this episode.

Indestructible Man gets revenge on Chris and Charlotte, who double crossed him by talking about Max Showalter, Lon Chaney, Lon Chaney, Mr. Bulky's, and the Mountain Goats.

With the short: Undersea Kingdom, chapter 2!

Indestructible Man (Jack Pollexfen, 1956): MST3K Wiki. IMDB. Trailer. Watch on YouTube.

Undersea Kingdom, ch. 2 (B. Reeves Eason & Joseph Kane, 1936): IMDB.

KTMA episode 3 has been found! You can find it on YouTube or archive.org.

Demon Squad: Tooth and Claw (Thomas Smith, 2026). Our episode on Demon Squad.

We talk about Crash Corrigan in our episode on Attack of the Giant Leeches.

Our episode on Catalina Caper.

Sixteen Candles (John Hughes, 1984).

Niagara (Henry Hathaway, 1953).

A review of Undersea Kingdom which will help you identify Lon.

The Phantom of the Opera (Rupert Julian, 1925).

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Wallace Worsley, 1923).

The Wolf Man (George Waggner, 1941).

The Mountain Goats: Rotten Stinking Mouthpiece. (Some of the lore about the movie presented here is not accurate, but that’s OK.)

I Only Listen to the Mountain Goats.

Mr. Bulky’s. (See also Grandpa Joe’s.)

R.E.M.: Cuyahoga.

We tried the candy in our episode on The Green Slime.

Support us on Patreon and you can listen to a special bonus bit that was cut for time from this episode.

Atlantic Rim lurks in the depths, waiting to see if Chris and Charlotte are drift-compatable enough to nagivate Kickstarters, notorious movies, mockbusters, Guillermo del Toro, and garage bands.

Atlantic Rim (Jared Cohn, 2013): MST3K Wiki. IMDB. Trailer. Hopefully on YouTube in a few weeks.

The Kickstarter, in the unlikely event that this is the first you’re hearing about it.

A reminder about some of the things Mike has said in the past, and Mike’s apology.

Demon Squad: Tooth and Claw (Thomas Smith, 2026).

Listen to Charlotte on Fiasco Family Movie Night talking about rom-coms!

Dances with Wolves (Kevin Costner, 1990).

The Twilight Saga: New Moon (Chris Weitz, 2009).

North (Rob Reiner, 1994).

Love by Design (Jared Cohn, 2023).

Naughty by Nature: Hip Hop Hooray and O.P.P.

A profile of The Asylum.

The Asylum have put a bunch of their films on YouTube, because why not.

Pacific Rim (Guillermo del Toro, 2013).

Pacific Rim: The Black.

Ellen McClain’s casting is intentional.

Bruce McCullough remembers a sketch. Or, I guess technically, multiple sketches, but the first one is the best.

Support us on Patreon and you can listen to a special bonus bit that was cut for time from this episode.

MST3K: The Web Series (a.k.a “The ’Bots Are Back”) hit our web browers in 2007, about halfway between the end of MST3K’s original run and the beginning of the Netflix seasons. MST3K: The Comic hit comic book stores right before season 12 dropped. Both experiment with MST3K in new formats, but one is significantly more successful than the other. Chris and Charlotte investigate.

MST3K: The Web Series was quickly taken offline, but you can find it on YouTube.

MST3K: The Comic was published by Portland’s own Dark Horse Comics. It ran for six issues, and was collected in a trade paperback.

Homestar Runner began in 2000. When the MST3K web series came out, they were up to sbemail 183.

MST3K: The Comic mostly riffs on:

Henry Nilsson: A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night.

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Attack of the Giant Leeches feeds off Chris and Charlotte as they discuss creature features, leeches, surgeon’s sutures, Crash (as Crash), and Crash’s ranch.

With the short: Undersea Kingdom, chapter 1.

Attack of the Giant Leeches (Bernard L. Kowalski, 1959): MST3K Wiki. IMDB. Trailer. Watch on YouTube.

Undersea Kingdom, ch. 1 (B. Reeves Eason & Joseph Kane, 1936): IMDB.

King Kong vs. Gozilla (キングコング対ゴジラ) (Ishirō Honda, 1962) is but the first.

King Kong on Wikizilla.

MST3K has been sold.

MST3K: The RiffTrax Experiments on Kickstarter.

An article in Variety about the upcoming episodes.

We talked about Atlantis in our episodes on Beyond Atlantis and Hercules and the Captive Women.

We’ve mentioned Hee-Haw in a few episodes, including Prince of Space and The Deadly Bees.

And we talked about Hummel figurines in our episode on Demon Squad.

Our episodes on The Killer Shrews and The Leech Woman.

This Podcast Will Kill You: Leeches.

A video about leeches from Deep Marine Scenes.

Ancient leech fossils.

A PBS video on medicinal leeches.

An article about a medical leech farm.

Leeches and osteoarthritis.

Leeches and biodiversity research.

An Australian hiker with advice on leeches.

A web tour of Corriganville.

Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla (William Beaudine, 1952).

In memoriam Phillip Piuma (1978–2026).

Support us on Patreon and you can listen to a special bonus bit that was cut for time from this episode.

Happy Gamuary! This year Gorgo roars as Chris and Charlotte discuss Irish kaiju, Irish stereotypes, Irish playwrights, Irish boxers, and walking through London.

Gorgo (Eugène Lourié, 1961): MST3K Wiki. IMDB. Trailer. Watch on YouTube.

We began celebrating Gamuary way back in 2018 with our first episode on Gamera vs. Barugon.

Also, we don’t mention this, but there is an earlier film that is arguably the first UK kaiju movie: The Giant Behemoth (Eugène Lourié, 1959). Same director as Gorgo.

Leonard Maltin: Leonard Maltin’s 1998 Movie & Video Guide.

Leonard Maltin’s homepage. Someone on Letterboxd posts all his reviews, including his review of Gorgo.

Ógra.

Rodan (Ishirō Honda, 1956).

Coliemore Harbour in Dalkey, Ireland.

Get your replica boots. Or the replica slippers.

Chris talked about Samuel Beckett and Waiting for Godot on a recent episode of The Spouter-Inn.

Samuel Beckett: Waiting for Godot. Endgame. Krapp’s Last Tape. Happy Days. Not I.

See also (or search for) Beckett on Film.

Not I (Anthony Page, 1973) starring Billie Whitelaw.

We discuss John Ford and John Wayne some more in our episode on Last of the Wild Horses.

The Quiet Man (John Ford, 1952).

Cher: If I Could Turn Back Time.

And a related ad.

The Caine Mutiny (Edward Dmytryk, 1954). That one scene.

Gordon Lightfoot: The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. And an example of a later live version.

Waiting for Gorgo (Benjamin Craig, 2010).

Support us on Patreon and you can listen to a special bonus bit that was cut for time from this episode — and our holiday special!

Happy holidays! Look, we got you a Munchie! Put it in a box and everything. And we also got you an episode of Chris and Charlotte talking about Munchies, Munchie Strikes Back, Dom DeLuise, Jennifer Love Hewitt, and the late great Loni Anderson.

Munchie (Jim Wynorski, 1992): MST3K Wiki. IMDB. Trailer.

Support us on Patreon and listen to our holiday special, all about the Edvard Grieg musical biopic Song of Norway (Andrew L. Stone, 1970). (You probably don’t want to watch the movie itself.)

Grieg is the composer behind In the Hall of the Mountain King — and much more!

Get ready for Fiascomas! A new little daily podcast about holiday movies, running between Christmas and New Year’s, by the friends who bring you Hubrisween!.

Our episodes on MST3Kon and Cry Wilderness.

Munchies (Tina Hirsch, 1987).

Munchie Strikes Back (Jim Wynorski, 1994).

Love Hewitt: Heart of Glass.

We talk about The Bastard (Lee H. Katzin, 1978) in our episode on SST: Death Flight.

A Prince for Christmas (Fred Olen Ray, 2015).

Phantasm (Don Coscarelli, 1979).

The Classic Erich Wolfgang Korngold. (Yes, he used a different pseudonym for this.)

Kevin Kutchaver.

Little Miss Millions (Jim Wynorski, 1993).

Judy Tenuta in 1990, uh, being weirdly topical for today.

Support us on Patreon and you can listen to a special bonus bit that was cut for time from this episode — and our holiday special!

The Dead Talk Back, but maybe you’d rather hear Chris and Charlotte talk about true believers, ice cream sales, safety plans, public service announcements, and The Grateful Dead.

With the short: The Selling Wizard.

The Dead Talk Back (Merle S. Gould, 1957/1993): MST3K Wiki. IMDB. Watch on YouTube.

The Selling Wizard (Unknown, 1954): IMDB. UnMSTed.

MST3K has just uploaded The Christmas That Almost Wasn’t, which we covered last year, for the holidays.

The Body Is a Shell (Merle S. Gould, 1956).

Peter Ballbusch: The Body Is a Shell.

Edgar Cayce.

We talk about H.R. Pufnstuf or whatever in our episode on Crash of Moons.

The New York Times on The Body Is a Shell.

Clips of Dickory Doc.

An article about ice cream getting popular.

The relevant fountain pen by Ensso is no longer in production, but here’s a review. (Chris has the black one.)

OK, but what if everyone jumped at the same time?

International ShakeOut Day.

Gas mask drills in World War 2.

1950s civil defense drills.

An example of a tsunami drill.

MST3K PSAs: riffing a news reel and pretending there’s an emergency on the SoL.

Stuff You Missed in History Class on The Sisters Fox.

If you missed the news about the talk to your dead grandma through AI thing...

The Grateful Dead (with John Oswald): Greyfolded.

Support us on Patreon and you can listen to a special bonus bit that was cut for time from this episode.