"Please Don't Feed the Buzzards"February 22, 1983
B-
“Hey everybody, I found a new script! And this one’s funny!”— Tom Servo talking about a treasure map on the Catalina Caper episode of Mystery Science Theatre 3000
Lenny is back and we can laugh again! (Then we can cry because it's McKean's last appearance as Lenny until reunion shows and such.) In Andy Goldberg's only and Cheryl Alu's second of two L & S scripts, Lenny and Squiggy find a treasure map and soon they and Carmine and Frank are wandering aimlessly in the desert, fighting, drinking, and bonding. The episode doesn't make a lot of sense, although by Season Eight standards this is icily logical, and the chemistry is good. I laughed a few times and smiled a lot, and that heavy weight lifted off my chest for twenty minutes.
Shipping notes, a mirage of Rhonda as a harem girl makes Lenny drool, but he does say goodbye to Laverne before returning to the desert, presumably for the next forty days and nights. Also, it felt completely in character for Squiggy to use Lenny as a pack-mule and drink all the water when he lets Lenny have all the peanut butter. Family notes, a drunk Frank says Squiggy is the son he never wanted, which Squiggy says is what his own father said, while Carmine's anecdote about his dad makes him sound poor but joking.
Wayne Powers has his third of four L & S roles as Gus.
:D Told you it was good! Pretty much the only good episode of the season.
ReplyDeleteThere's so much good here - Lenny blurting out that they've "died and gone to Venus." The classic "I wasn't whining!" exchange. Lenny telling Laverne that it was OK that her dust bunnies were on display because they were "like family." Squiggy complaining about the "TV Generation" because Laverne went to beat her rug instead of talk to them. Carmine is funnier here than he is all season and Frank is great too.
Well, I still don't think anything in Season Eight will get a B from me, but this is definitely an oasis in the post-Shirley desert. Lenny is adorkable in this episode. ("What hats?") And, yeah, Carmine and Frank got better material than they've had in a long while.
DeleteHe really is! An we'll have to see!
DeleteIt shows how good MMK is that he could shift from David St. Hubbins back to Lenny (and the Lone Wolf jacket). I could maybe see one of the last four episodes getting a B-, but not a B. Still, I didn't see "Perfidy in Blue" coming, so who knows?
DeleteThe fact that he was doing both at the same time says volumes. There's a reason he got all of those nods for BCS.
DeleteHe once described Lenny as his second state, though, so I imagine it's easy for him to go into him at the drop of a hat!
I'm not sure there are any that'll meet that criteria. You're in for some doozies!
Drop of what hat? :-D I haven't seen everything MMK has done, especially in recent years, but I always enjoy him when I do.
DeleteI wonder if he missed Lenny after he left the show. He obviously still has much affection for the character.
And, yeah, I just watched another doozy, sigh.
Oh man, if you want recs I can give you recs.
DeleteI know David said he was sad because there's so much Lenny and Squiggy stuff they wanted to do that they didn't get to do. They were looking for other mediums to do the characters in so, in his words, people wouldn't be "stuck looking at us with our thinning pompadours."
Y E P. Season 8 in a nutshell.
Also hee!
DeleteIt would've been interesting to see what they didn't get to do. Season Eight is full of doozies.
DeleteI still want the release of the forbidden Lenny and Squiggy stand-up stuff where every other word out of thier mouths was apparently the F-word.
DeleteDid they actually record that? Have you ever listened to the "Lenny & the Squigtones" album? It's on Youtube and has some good comedy between the songs. (My favorite part is when MMK breaks character as Squiggy says he's Lutheran.)
DeleteAnd now I'm imagining canonical dialogue with the F-word interspersed, like Squiggy asking "Without her, what the f***ing good are you?" and Lenny saying, "F*** yeah," when Shirley says they all had a pleasant time at the fancy restaurant.
This I don't know, I just know Michael and David and everyone around them said they were stunningly filthy and GM's big question about hiring them was "can they be funny and clean?"
DeleteI LOVE THAT ALBUM. I keep hoping someone will release it legally on CD/MP3, the only copy anyone has was lifted from the vinyl and is cribbed from the youtube version.
HAH!
Yeah, I've heard that story about Garry. (I haven't got up to L & S in the GM book yet.) It is a fun album, and they must've been a delight in concert.
DeleteOh man, I bet!
DeleteI hope you like GM's autobio!
Shrug, he honestly doesn't provide much insight into L & S, other than it made him unhappy but Penny & Cindy were very talented and very immature.
DeleteReminds me of David saying back in the day if you went into Gary's office you'll see Mork & Mindy stuff, Happy Days, etc. but no LAS stuff.
DeleteI think Penny was the most candid, but that's my POV
I've read Cindy's book, but she didn't go into much detail either. Garry was still pretty bitter about LAS in 2012 (the year of his book).
DeleteYep! Out of all of them, Penny was the most honest about her faults (and she only mentions Michael once, literally once).
DeleteOnly once? How is that possible? Then again, I don't recall Cindy mentioning dating David in her book, so I doubt Penny was going to say, "Michael and I had an unbelievable onscreen chemistry, which my brother blocked every chance he got." Still, you'd think she'd mention the party where she had "Lenny & Anthony" perform, as well as some show anecdotes.
Delete