Monday, June 15, 2009

HOLY DEEP THIRTEEN, BOT-MAN!

"Mr. B Natural"?
or
The Daughter Of The Minstrel?

After writing about a couple of
references made to the Batcave, I visited the IMDb.com to check out other TV shows that mentioned the 1960's series 'Batman'. And I found that the majority of those references came from 'Mystery Science Theater 3000'.

Here's a collection of them:

"The Sidehackers (#3.2)" (1990)
- Crow: Let's go, Batman!

"Catalina Caper (#3.4)" (1990)
- Servo: Meanwhile on Bruce Wayne's stately yacht.....

"The Hellcats (#3.9)" (1990)
- Servo: "If only I could get to my utility belt, Batgirl."

"Cave Dwellers (#4.1)" (1991)
- Servo: Stately Wayne Manor.

"Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (#4.21)" (1991)
- BOOM! POW! CHOKE!

"Hercules Against the Moon Men (#5.10)" (1992)
- Tom: "Tune in next week: same Herc time, same Herc channel."

"The Magic Sword (#5.11)" (1992)
- Servo: (as two people climb up a wall) Looks like the Batman scene, doesn't it?

"The Beatniks (#5.15)" (1992)
- "Gotham City Bank"

"'Manos' the Hands of Fate (#5.24)" (1993)
- "POW! BOFF! SMACK!"

"Operation Double 007 (#6.8)" (1993)
- Servo: (as announcer) What's this? The blind leading the blind?

"Mitchell (#6.12)" (1993)
- Joel: He's talking to Commissioner Gordon.

"The Brain That Wouldn't Die (#6.13)" (1993)
- Servo (impersonating William Dozier's narration): "What's this? Our fanatical physician and his fickle fiance speeding to their country cottage?"

"The Atomic Brain (#6.18)" (1993)
- (A question mark appears on the screen) Servo: It's Prince's new name, isn't it? Crow: No, it's Frank Gorshin's new name.

"Santa Claus (#6.21)" (1993)
- Crow imitates the Joker's laugh.

"Zombie Nightmare (#7.4)" (1994)
- "Is the Batmobile in the shop?"

"Samson vs. the Vampire Women (#7.24)" (1995)
- "I'll be back, Alfred"

"The Mole People (#9.3)" (1997)
- "And Alfred the Butler"

"The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies (#9.12)" (1997)
- As a woman twirls an umbrella, Mike imitates the Penguin's laugh.

"The Horror of Party Beach (#9.17)" (1997)
- Crow: Guest appearance by Commissioner Gordon.

"Girl in Gold Boots (#11.2)" (1999)
- Servo: (Imitating sound effects) Splash, Pow.

"Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster (#3.13)" (1991)
- theme song sung

"Diabolik (#11.13)" (1999)
- Mike sings the theme song.

Those last two may be a problem to splain away, unless there was a TV show within the reality of Toobworld about the Batman, and which just happened to have the same theme song as the TV series from our world. That would also have to serve as the splainin for all the times Crow and Servo imitated William Dozier as the 'Batman' narrator. ("What's this? etc.)

Otherwise we have to assume the robots are also tele-cognizant and thus able to hear the narrators of our TV shows. Tele-cognizance would also be the splainin as to how they know about the visualized sound effects, which only the audience in the Trueniverse should know about.

As for the rest of those MST3K references, either they were about things in Batman's life that were common knowledge to the general public on Earth Prime-Time, or the 'bots had access to secret computer files. Tom and Crow, probably with the help of Gypsy, must have tapped into the files of secret government agency files for information about the working relationship between the Batman and Commissioner Gordon.This could be why the Intersect was created - to cut down on such hacking!

Somehow, they also found out the secret identity of Batman, if they know about Alfred the Butler.

Apparently there's also a 'Batman' reference in the theatrically released "Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie" from 1996, but the IMDb.com didn't supply the actual quote.

BCnU!

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