I actually watched Master Ninja when it aired and enjoyed it. It had Sho Kosugi in it. Therefore it’s better than that David Hartman vehicle.
It was a David Hartman vehicle, right?
Favorite Clu film was the tour de force ‘Into the Night’. What other movie has music legends David Bowie and Carl Perkins in a knife fight to the death? And cameos by 90% of Hollywood.
In that case, Hamster van Passenger for sure!
His son directed, IIRC.
I feel like Return of the Living Dead is peak Clu.
SFI is steadier in the laugh department. Plus, you get Nuveena, Pitch and Torgo in the host segs. So that earns my vote.
Though they were in different segments in MNI, Clu Gulager and Claude Akins can both be seen in Don Siegle’s version of “The Killers” (which, granted, isn’t as great as Robert Siodmak’s classic, but still, Clu and Claude… which sound like the name of a comedy team)
I just saw Claude in the original ‘Night Stalker’ movie. I mean that one with Kolchak. That man appeared in anything and everything. Sheriff Lobo forever.
You’re a dancer! Dance!
You’re an actor! Act!
San Francisco International is one of my all-time favorite episodes, though the Urkel sketches wear on you after the 50th viewing - sure all the casts’ great characters show up, but they don’t really get to do anything. And Clu is the best non-ironic part of the movie (Tab Hunter close second). He’s so mellow and affable. I genuinely love his line delivery of the response when Pernell Roberts tells him “you know one of these days you’re going to have to tell me how you did all this”:
“Well I can’t tell you that, that - that’s police work. Secret police work.”
The relentless riffing on the wimpy kid in SFI is hysterical. I think I realized later I’d seen him in a terrible Disney movie they used to show in school, which somehow made it funnier to me. SFI is one of my fave eps of all time.
SFI for me. The nose wheel may be mushy, but Clu is a solid stack of doughy guy! And there’s something about his delivery that makes it seem like he just wandered in from a Mamet play.
That closing segment with the stolen plane is a SCREAM!
The rest of the episode is terrific, don’t get me wrong, but it feels like that sequence is what the rest of the episode was building to, and in spectacular fashion.
Yes! This exactly! Another example of this is from Last Clear Chance, where after Frank Jr. is killed and Alan is grieving, Officer Hal tries to console him. Mike goes “Y’know, son, 40% of all accidents…” and Tom responds “OH SHUT UP, WILL YA?!” I laugh so damn hard every time at that moment.
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
I’m watching Santo in the Treasure of Dracula (again again again), but I’m gonna have to revisit Last Clear Chance today. As MST3K shorts go, it’s just too damn good.
Gotta go with San Francisco International, especially since he’s in over half the film, unlike Master Ninja I where he disappears after the first half (for obvious reasons). Plus he has an AWESOME moment when he rescues Ross Edwards’ wife. Honestly a badass moment.
It’s the opposite for me — while both are full of those 70s made-for-TV clichés, I find MNI more plodding and dull. Those in SFI don’t seem to overstay their welcome.
Teddy Eccles was all over TV in the '60s and '70s. He was in everything.
Even MST’s favorite soap General Hospital!
(idk why that posted twice but whatever)
I watched San Francisco International last night for the first time. I have to say that I enjoyed it but not as much as Master Ninja.
It could be that I’ve just seen Lee Van Cleef squint at people more so I’m more familiar with those riffs…
I like San Francisco International because it brings me genuine pleasure to see him playing a nice guy. I honestly and unironically enjoy the scene where he tells that douchebag ranting about the hippie to basically bugger off.
I do love Master Ninja I though. I actually own the show on DVD because silly 80s action shows are very much in my wheelhouse.
I love the self-importance and desperate attempt to make the eco-system of the airport sound like a hub of excitement. Oh, I’m positive that you can make a great show about the world of an airport but a new runway is a deeply misguided stake for this story. And I love it all the more for it.
“No, no…too dumb!”