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Experiment 0417H - Crash Of The Moons


 


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Movie Summary


 Short: General Hospital: 

It involves a person who likes a person but is married to another person, not to mention that the person who the person likes is engaged to yet another person. All the persons are upset about the situation, even though not a single person says anything.


 Movie: Crash Of The Moons: 

Crash of the Moons is another episode in the adventures of Rocky Jones, Space Ranger. Rocky and his cohorts Winky, Professor Newton, Vena, and Bobby try to evacuate the planet Ofecious before it collides with another planet. Queen Cleolanta, the ruler of Ofecious, would rather go down with her planet than leave. The other planet in the collision course is the home of Kwotanda and Bwavarro, and their son, the Little Prince. This movie features effects by someone's second-grade brother, and endless scenes of cutout rockets landing and taking off.

— Mary Jo Pehl

Host Segments


 Prologue 1: 

 

 Epilogue 1: 

 

 Prologue 2: 

 

 Epilogue 2: 

 


Reflections

As the host of The Mystery Science Theater Hour, people approach me all the time and say, "Excuse me, where are the bathrooms?" (You see, it's just this kind of joke writing that makes MST3K the Peabody Award winning show that it is.) Actually, people want to know who that annoying old host is and why, why in heaven's name did we choose him? Well, the secret's out—I'm proud to say that annoying old host is me! Okay, it's not actually a secret. My name's been in the credits as the host since the beginning; it's just that no one ever watched that far. But I kid The Mystery Science Theater Hour.

The idea for the host of the The Mystery Science Theater Hour was born out of the writers' deep and enduring love for a cloying, tweedy septuagenarian by the name of Jack Perkins. Jack is, of course, your warm and affable tour guide through the sun-dappled libraries and the impossibly ladder-cluttered back stages of the cable channel A&E. He is a perfectly tailored, impeccably manicured, impossibly dignified old bird whose on-screen mien suggests an inconceivably rich family and social life. The plangent tones of his voice seem to interact with the complex surfaces of an oxblood wing tip, the sound diffusing and abfusing, becoming ever more amiable, invitingly sagacious. jack is all soft tweed, supple leather, and a whiff of peaty single-malt. Do not get the impression that Jack is stuffy. Far from it. Jack is equally comfortable enthusing on Blue Man Group as Gainsborough's Blue Boy. His knowledge of entertainment is vast, his love for it illimitable.

I met Jack Perkins in 1991 outside the Universal Hilton in Los Angeles. He couldn't have been warmer as he asked me in essence, "Who are you, and what do you want from me?" I told him I had impersonated him on a television show. He told me he had never seen or heard of our show. I explained it. He nodded and looked at his watch. I walked away feeling like a boob. Jack walked away and continued weaving the rich, varied tapestry of his endlessly fascinating life. I imagine he discussed American Buffalo with David Mamet over biscotti and strong coffee. I had a couple of Ice beers and fell asleep in front of Bloodsport III in my hotel room.

Well, we may not be able to share in life's rich bounty with quite the same joie de vivre as Mr. Perkins, but we sure as heck can make fun of him on our puppet show. Jack doesn't have a puppet show. Poor dumb clod. Hey, Perkins, right here, pal!! HAAAA!!! Stupid idiot. Hey, Perkins, I like your crappy restaurant chain, you stupid jerk!! Haa haa haaaaaa!!! Dumb bastard.

Sorry.

I hope my little lucubration on our thought process regarding the selection of a host for The Mystery Science Theater Hour has been helpful. Now, if I could take a moment and explain the makeup procedure.

I would arrive at the Channel 11 studio in Golden Valley fourteen hours before the scheduled start! But all the doors were locked and I wasn't scheduled to start makeup for another nine hours. So I'd go back home and go to sleep. I did this every time we shot, which was six times over a couple of months. I would then return to the studio, where I would be barred entrance until, with enough identification and a dozen or so phone calls, they established my identity and I was grudgingly allowed to pass.

Crack makeup artist Crist Ballas and crack other makeup artist Glen would begin by applying a thick, highly toxic coat of naphtha right to my face, with special attention to the nostrils and mucous membranes in the mouth. Crist claimed it was makeup, but I knew.

Then he would get his specially designed Stinky Glue out of the refrigerator, where he had it chilling, so it was more uncomfortable. Tacky layers of this were then applied directly to my hair until the mistake was discovered and scissors and petroleum distillates were used to extract it. It was reapplied to the perimeter of my huge, expressionless face, and a bald cap was put in place. It was discovered early on that my body is a thermal wonder, able to produce 300,000 BTUs consistently. This played hell with the bald cap, causing unwanted wrinkles, so it was anchored farther down my back (right above my calves) and held in place with several bottles of Stinky Glue. If I lost concentration, my head would snap back alarmingly and union stagehands were hired at great expense to return my head to its normal position.

With the bald cap in place, Grist and Glen were free to begin applying more class-A carcinogens to my face and neck. Rubbery-smelling makeups and pungent suspensions were daubed, blotted, and brushed on. Foul unguents and mephitic salves were poured into my ears and eyes. Latex things were adhesed to me. Finally, I was the host.

I was also very hot. My head was hermetically sealed and I was wearing a thick wool suit. It was the middle of summer and fire hydrants were melting. Luckily, the shoots were only twelve hours long, But we got a lunch break. It was very difficult to eat with all that makeup on, and one afternoon, while eating a chewy hoagie, I discovered I was also masticating my crepe-hair mustache.

But finally the end would come. Getting the makeup off was relatively easy. It was simply pulled off, taking most of my hair with it. The remainder was melted with copious amounts of citrus degreaser (this is absolutely true) that was scooped onto my face and left to sit for twenty minutes. Mmmm. At day's end, my face and back were hairless, red, and stinging. But we had done our puppet show proud.

Looking back on the The Mystery Science Theater Hour, I remember the good times. The hot, stinky, sweaty, poisonous, and sore times. I hope that's how you remember them too.

— Mike Nelson


 
       
 
 
  
 
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