Recap / Mystery Science Theater 3000 S03 E06: Time of the Apes

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Film watched: Time of the Apes

This is one of the nine Sandy Frank films that had been satirized twice on the show: once as an episode of the KTMA season and again in the third season of the nationally broadcast version. The film itself is a Sandy Frankenstein monster of five episodes of a highly obscure Japanese TV series of the same name.

The Comedy Central episode is available in the Gizmoplex here, and on the MST3k YouTube channel here.

KTMA Host Segments

• The Mads ask the Crow and Servo where Joel is, but Joel's not here.

Segment 2

• Crow and Servo try to find Joel around the satellite, but Gypsy finds one of Joel's jumpsuit. They conclude that Joel is floating in space naked.

Segment 3

• Servo recounts the facts while Crow wears the jumpsuit. They soon think about some changes around the Satellite but hear pounding from outside.

Segment 4

• Joel seemingly appears on the bridge, but turns out to be Cambot playing tricks. Servo tries to show Crow that it wasn't Joel, but get other footage behind them; soon, it gets meta.

Segment 5

• Crow and Servo think about life without Joel, but the two get sentimental. Meanwhile, a figure swings around the Satellite.

The KTMA version of Time of the Apes has examples of:

• Artistic License – Space: It should go without saying that floating outside of a satellite completely naked is a bad idea, and that Joel should not have survived four and a half seasons longer than this episode. MST3K, however, was never one to go for scientific accuracy, so repeat to yourself, "It's just a show."
• Continuity Nod:
  • When the first earthquake in the movie occurs, Servo immediately shouts Gamera!
  • After the humans freeze, Servo quips that they look like Crow from the episodes where he was frozen to be their Christmas "tree".
    Servo: They look like you, Crow.
    Crow: Let's not talk about that, okay?
• Companion Cube: Crow predicts that the ship's toaster could become this for Joel if they choose to keep him out of the SOL. Given that Servo refers to said toaster as "Lucille", it seems that "she" was already this to Servo.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Two major ones:
  • This episode is the only time Joel was absent, and Tom and Crow riff the movie by themselves.
  • Parts of the film are visible through Servo's head, as opposed to the completely opaque silhouettes of the later seasons.
• Formula-Breaking Episode: This was the only episode where there was no human present in the theater with the 'bots during the film.
• Mind Screw: In one host segment, Cambot makes it look like Joel is back inside the satellite, which successfully fools Crow, but not Servo. When a confused Crow asks Servo about what had happened, Servo reveals that their current scene was also an illusion before it cuts back to...themselves.
• Shout-Out: Like the season three version, there were plenty of references to Planet of the Apes. There was also a notable amount towards The Monkees.
• Stock Footage: Used by Cambot to fool Crow to think Joel returned. Interestingly enough, that shot of Joel is from the first aired episode ever, Invaders From the Deep.
• What's a Henway?:
  Gypsy: I found [Joel's jumpsuit] in a pod bay!
  Crow: What's a pod bay?
  Servo: Oh, about two pounds.
  (Losing Horns play)
• Who's on First?: When the mads ask the bots for Joel:
  Dr. Erhardt: Get the boss!
  Crow: You mean Bruce Springsteen?
  Dr. Forrester: Nooooo!
  Servo: Boss Hogg?
  Dr. Erhardt: Nooooo!
  Crow: Boss Tweed?
  Both Mads: Nooooo!
  Servo: Bossy the Cow? (both Bots moo)

The Comedy Central Segments:

• Joel and the 'Bots play tee ball, with Tom being the tee and Crow sporting a baseball glove as his head-web. Things get dangerous when they put the ball through the window...

Segment 1/Invention Exchange

• Joel invents the cellulite phone to inspire people to lose weight; it includes a speed-dial to Richard Simmons, and gradually inflates if you order unhealthy food. The Mads have started a daycare center, and as Dr. Forrester introduces Time of the Apes, he sees that Frank's invention, Miracle Baby Growth Wonder Formula, really works.

Segment 2

• Tom answers the question "Why Doesn't Johnny Care?", doing so by narrating over footage from the film.

Segment 3

• The SOL crew dramatize the Scopes Monkey Trial, with a cameo appearance by a mail-order cardboard cut-out of Judge Wapner.

Segment 4

• During a fake news show, Crow leads a video salute to simian fashion, portrayed by clips of the ape soldiers and the Commander.

Segment 5

• Joel leads everyone in a rendition of the Sandy Frank Song, then reads a letter from a teenage New Mexican who wishes the Mads never had to push the button. The Mads are uncertain on who should change the giant baby. For this one episode, the letter-sender gets their wish; the baby pushes the button.

The Movie:

The not-at-all suspiciously familiar Time of the Apes focuses on Johnny (who doesn't care), Caroline, and Catherine, (Masaaki Kaji, Hiroko Saito, and Reiko Tokunaga) two children and a woman visiting an experimental cryogenics laboratory when an earthquake strikes. After taking refuge in cryogenic freezers, the trio awaken in a future populated by anthropomorphic apes, who hunt them down as intruders. Along the way, they befriend an affectionate younger ape named Pepe (Kazue Takita) and a human survivor named Gōdo (Tetsuya Ushio), who help them return to their appropriate time.

The Comedy Central version of Time of the Apes has examples of:

• Air-Vent Passageway: Lampshaded when Joel remarks that air vents in movies always seem to be large enough to allow someone to sneak through.
• Bad "Bad Acting": Joel blowing his lines during the longer sketches works to the show's advantage by having him play the incredibly dry, wooden narrator of the crew's playlet version of Inherit the Wind:
  Joel: [expressionlessly] Hello, this is our dramatici-ized pa-ageant of the Scopes Monkey Trial, a pivotal interpretation of law which has a very thin connection to today's film.
• Black Site: The "Why Doesn't Johnny Care?" segment seems to indicate that Johnny is part of an AKIRA-style top secret government project experimenting on children. Which is also part of Bell Labs.
• Cardboard Pal: A cardboard cutout of Judge Wapner (of The People's Court) the crew got in the mail.
  Joel: (in the theater) Fly, Judgie, fly! (tosses the cutout away)
• Dung Fu: MST3K + movie full of apes = Foregone Conclusion
  Servo: (as the Commander) Uh, I'd wash that hand if I were you. That's my throwin' hand.
• Educational Short: Servo narrates a short titled "Why Doesn't Johnny Care?", which teaches the viewers precisely that as a parody of educational shorts.
• Ending Fatigue: Invoked by Joel.
  Joel: She passed out from the sheer length of the film!
• Fake-Out Fade-Out: Related to the above, Joel and the 'Bots begin to leave the theater whenever the film does this near the end.
  Servo: (annoyed) How many endings are we gonna get?!
• Gallows Humor: After the UCOMM UFO shows Gebar how he accidentally killed his own family:
  Joel: (as the UFO flies straight up without doing anything else) Hurts, don't it? BYE!
• Irish Cop: Tom plays the cop who arrests John Scopes as one of these (as usual).
• Lame Pun Reaction: Joel shushes (and threatens to dismantle) Crow for making a joke about "recess monkeys".
• Padding: Invoked by Joel during the Ending Fatigue.
  Joel: (Stage Whisper) Keep stretching! Keep stretching!
• Public Service Announcement: A parodic example about why Johnny doesn't care. Crow mimics the sound of a movie projector, and as he grows louder, Tom begins warbling his voice out of sync, until Joel smacks Crow, prompting Tom to resume talking normally.
• Reality Warper: Segment 2 makes out Johnny to be a pint-sized one of these, much like "It's a Good Life"; raised in an underground lab where everyone is terrified of what might happen were he to fully understand the power he wields.
• Running Gag:
  • "Why doesn't Johnny care?"
    Servo: Do you care? Because a mind like Johnny's is a terrible thing to unleash.
  • Jokes about how the Commander is basically Colonel Sanders as an ape in a pimp suit.
  • Jokes about ape hygiene and red butts.
  • UCOMM's UFO.
    Johnny: It's a Flying Saucer!
    Crow: Yeah, why don't you stick out your thumbs and hitch a lift?
  • "Silence!" being followed with "...of the lambs!"
  • The Sandy Frank song.
• Shout-Out:
  • To Gamera and Planet of the Apes.
  • Joel says "Beware the Balrog."
    Tom: Isn't that from Lord of the Rings?
  • Thanks to Pepe peeping out of a hole in the ground:
    Servo: It's Caddyshack! No, wait, that's Pepe.
  • "It's the Daleks!" "EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!"
  • Crow says "If I could... just reach... my utility belt!"
  • During a wide shot of the footbridge:
    Crow: Prepare to meet Kali in Hell!
  • M*A*S*H is referenced a few times.
  • When Gebar rants about how long he's been hunting Godo:
    Joel: I guess he's waiting for Godo. (Beat) GOD-oh.
  • "Go-Go-Godo, watch him go-go-go..."
  • During the Aesop:
    Katherine: We couldn't live in such a strange place.
    Tom: Strangers in a strange land.
    Crow: She's not gonna start singing Ebony and Ivory, is she?
  • The apes' outfits are compared to Prince and Oscar Wilde.
  • "And what about Scarecrow's brain?"
  • Segment 3 is one big shout-out to the Scopes Monkey Trial and its dramatic adaptation, Inherit the Wind.
    Joel: [monotone] Playing the part of Honorable Judge Harry Morgan will be this cardboard cutout of Judge Wapner we got in the mail with the voice of me, F. Lee Bailey.^note Trial attorney F. Lee Bailey, disbarred in several states, formerly provided the page quote for Amoral Attorney.
  • Tom mocking the Anvilicious speech by Katherine has him finish, "This is the message, Paul."^note As in Paul Schaffer invoked
• Shown Their Work: For those old enough to have been subjected to the actual Bell Labs shorts in school, the "Why Doesn't Johnny Care" segment is spot-on.
• Stylistic Suck: Joel's expressionless, monotone performance as "F. Lee Bailey".
• Viewer Gender Confusion: Invoked. The 'Bots have a hard time determining Pepe's gender.
• Wrong Turn at Albuquerque: Invoked verbatim by Joel on Godo's fate.