MST3K: Episode 320 - The Unearthly

I'm watching all of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes in order. More about that can be found here and here.

Episode 320: The Unearthly

First aired: Comedy Central on 14 December 1991
Availability: iTunes, Amazon (Solo DVD), Amazon (Volume 3), Rhino (Volume 3/out of print), Shout (Solo), Best Brains (Solo)

The Unearthly

This is one I missed during its ten airings on Comedy Central. At least, I think I missed it. I don't remember ever seeing it, and I think I would have.

It's a short movie, with the unedited version running 73 minutes. That means they need a short to pad out the episode. And not just one short, but two shorts.

The Posture Pals short was an odd one, about four schoolchildren vying to be the King of Posture, which later became a song by Sting, I think. Anyway, it was ripe for riffing. And riff they did.

The second short, Appreciating Our Parents, was goofy, too. It was about a child learning to appreciate all the things his parents do for him. J&tB has fun with it, too.

From the short: "Bad touch!"

About the movie... I never saw The Unearthly prior to watching this episode. I never made a point to seek out old horror movies, but would watch them if I stumbled across them on the TV. I never happened to stumble across this one, though.

Since I purchased this MST3K episode, I have seen it. Oh, did I mention that I own this episode three times? No? Well, I own this episode three times.

This is the first episode we've covered of which I own multiple DVD versions. I own the out-of-print Volume 3 multi-pack, I have re-released solo DVD, and I have the iTunes release. Part of the whole "collector" thing.

Crow, all blowed up.

Some people like to have complete collections of butterflies. Some like to have complete collections of human bones. Me, I like to have complete collections of Mystery Science Theater 3000 videos. It's not the worst thing to collect. That would be the human bones things, of the items I mentioned.

Back to the movie. Or the episode. Or both.

In the Prologue, before the Invention Exchange, J&tB poked fun at America's Funniest Home Videos. J. Elvis (nee Josh) Weinstein, who played Dr. Erhardt and was the original Tom Servo (leaving after Season One), would later write for that show. As would Trace Beaulieu, who played Dr. Forrester and was the original Crow (leaving after Season Seven).

Tor Johnson

John Carradine

Anyway, as part of the AFV spoof, Crow blew himself up, but was able to confirm who he was by his dental records.

The most famous line from this movie? Tor Johnson's line, "Time for go to bed!" is great.

Let's watch, shall we?

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