Mystery Science Theater 3000 experiment #622: Angels' Revenge.
Original Comedy Central airdate: March 11, 1995.
Part of the second MST3K collection, currently out of print.
This episode holds the distinction of being the last one shown on Comedy Central in December of 1996 before it moved to Sci-Fi Channel the following year. No, I didn't tape it. Why do you ask?
A very blatant rip-off of Charlie's Angels. Six different women and their teenage sidekick Trish (Liza Greer) come together to crack a drug ring after the brother of one of them, singer Michelle Wilson (Susan Kiger), get assaulted by one of the pushers. After much preparation and training, the Angels storm and destroy a backwoods drug processing plant, leading to one of them, schoolteacher April, being kidnapped later. Trish ends up leading the Angels to the drug kingpin's (Peter Lawford, probably drunk out of his mind) hideout, where the obligatory rescue scenes take place. This turkey also features Jim Backus, Jack Palance, Alan Hale, Pat Buttram and Arthur Godfrey in small roles, all on the downswing of their careers, especially Lawford, who sure fell fast after Sinatra kicked him out of the Rat Pack. The Angels never really became big stars, either, aside from Liza and older sister Robin Greer, co-authors of You'll Never Make Love in This Town Again. Embarrassingly bad movie, folks!
On the bridge of the Satellite of Love, Crow is in a panic, claiming he's suffering from amnesia. After a blow to the head to cure it, he realizes he's suffering from Ambrosia, and then, Eric Carmen. Down in Deep 13, the Mads have dressed up as their favorite 1970s relief pitchers: Dr. Forrester is Rollie Fingers (complete with fake handlebar mustache); TV's Frank is Tug "You gotta believe!" McGraw. It seems that Mike and the 'bots are suffering from bad ratings, so Dr. F. turns them into the cast of Renegade. This works...kind of. Next, Crow hosts a reading of his new blaxploitation screenplay Chocolate Jones and the Temple of Funk, which is probably his magnum opus Earth vs. Soup rewritten with "jive" names and language. Mike later comes out dressed as the Fonz, which gets him blown up real good by Crow and Tom Servo. A little later, Aaron Spelling's house passes by the SOL, and...that's all. Afterwards, Mike, Servo and Crow unveil their Shame-o-Meter, which measures things in kiloLawfords, megaLawfords and gigaLawfords. The Mads, now dressed up as Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs, break the Shame-o-Meter.
Not the best episode of MST3K ever made, largely thanks to the host segments, which seemed like everyone was phoning it in for this one. Best Brains was also completing production on Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie at the time this episode was produced, so their attention was understandably divided. This episode was also the first one in which Bill Corbett, the future voice of Crow, contributed jokes. Still, there were many good jokes during the movie, so this one is recommended, but not my first choice to watch or to introduce a newcomer to the show. Watch the movie, skip the host segments.
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