MST3K #419: The Rebel Set

Mystery Science Theater 3000 experiment #419: The Rebel Set, with a short, Johnny at the Fair.
Originally aired December 12, 1992.
Part of the 12th MST3K collection, still available at Amazon.

One of my favorite episodes from season four. It was also one I was hoping would make it to DVD, as my VHS copy, taped from Comedy Central with two other episodes, was eaten by a VCR a long, long time ago.

Johnny at the Fair sees the title character and his parents go to the 1947 Canadian National Exhibition, where they get separated. We follow Johnny as he takes in the sights, meets Joe Louis at a baseball game, and has a run in with none other than the Hellzapoppin' boys themselves, Olsen & Johnson, who fail to make the kid laugh. After a long day, Johnny's parents find him, and it's time to watch the fireworks...which he immediately falls asleep after they start. Who could imagine the fireworks that went on after the family went home!

The Rebel Set really doesn't live up to its title, despite the first half of the movie being set in a ultra hip 1950s coffee house with jazz music and poets. Three losers, a struggling actor, a terrible would-be author, and an apparent mama's boy, are recruited into the coffee house's owner in a plot to rob an armored truck. They all take a train to Chicago, and perform the dirty deed during a four-hour layover in the Windy City, which remarkably now has large hills and mountains. On the train going back home, things quickly go awry. The ringleader disguises himself as a priest, the writer becomes extremely paranoid, and soon enough, people start dying. The actor deduces what's going on, and has it out with the "priest" after a long chase scene on and off the train, but ultimately takes the fall for the crime.

During the episode, Crow is super excited when his ordered "Co-Starring with Scott Baio: YOU!" records come in the mail. Joel and the 'bots also discuss what they would do with a four-hour layover in Chicago, even though some of their plans are pretty far out, and would be impossible to do, depending on where exactly their layover will be at (O'Hare or Union Station). They also have a writing workshop using the Merritt Stone method, despite Stone's non-appearance in the film, and the insistances of Joel and Crow that he is. This later causes Tom Servo's head to explode, and TV's Frank has a similar meltdown down in Deep 13.

Highly recommended episode.