MST3K (912)

912 - The Screaming Skull (w/ A Gumby Adventure: "Robot Rumpus") - Ahh, I haven't seen a Gumby show in a long while. I forgot how cool those used to be. They're imaginative and fun and Gumby's illogical, nude design is neat. The riffing over the short is energetic and vicious. I think the guys really enjoyed this one: shorts are a rarity in the Sci-Fi era and this is their very first (and last) piece of animation. "Pokey left a big surprise in your begonias."

Unfortunately, the fun of the short lasts only six minutes. The rest of the episode is slow torture from a really bad haunted house flick. I could barely pay attention to this slice of tedium. This is the type of film that can't be rescued by funny comments, I don't think. Or, I'm just mad because the movie implied there was a significant risk of death from fright while watching it and the closest I came to the end of my life during this episode was the headrush from standing up too fast after it was finished.

Speaking of the risk of death, I did enjoy Servo's effort to claim a free coffin from AIP in the host segments. The was a definite glint of authenticity in Servo's change of heart when his prank call begins to go not quite as he planned. Also amusing was Mike's unending freak-out over Crow pretending to be a skull.

Useless trivia: on 31 Jan 2004, this episode became the last MST3K to ever air on television.

"That squares my breasts." (6/10)

film d. Alex Nicol (1958)
short d. Art Clokey (1957)
mst d. Kevin Murphy (29 Aug 1998)