Mystery Science Theater 3000: TRACK OF THE MOON BEAST

March 29, 2018 1:17 AM - Season 10, Episode 7

"The Riding Moon Creates a Monster" From the depths of space comes a meteor, which konks a guy in the head, causing the most logical thing to happen: sometimes he turns into a lizard and kills people. A fun episode, generally enjoyed by the three main fansites we track. The movie, which contains a character named Johnny Longbow, was actually co-written by Batman co-creator Bill Finger. Episode 1007 is available on YouTube. Premiered June 13, 1999. Six episodes left.

Episode 1007 TRACK OF THE MOON BEAST

Satellite News - Mighty Jack's Episode Review (liked it!) - War of the Colossal Fan Guide (also liked it!) - Annotated MST3K - TVTropes (TVTropes notes this is the fourth MST-featured movie in which a guy named Paul turns into a monster.)

Ah, Mike did this episode's ACEG entry, including these reflections:

Track of the Moon Beast was a film that was heartily recommended by Paul Chaplin, a man who, on occasion, is known to go mad and recommend terrible films to people. We said no to the film, but Paul sprayed us with a knock-out gas of his own design, and then with another gas that wipes out short blocks of a person's memory, and while we were out, asked Sci-Fi to secure the rights to it. I think it turned out well, but it's hard to trust my own memory, as Paul's formula worked on a more general level than I think even he had planned.
I do remember laughing far more than is appropriate at Johnny Longbow's pompous demeanor and especially at his apparent pique over being asked what was in his stew. Perhaps it's best that I'm no longer a comedy writer because, when watching it months later I laughed hard at the following exchange.

Johnny Longbone: "I know what you're thinking. "
Crow: "I'm boring and my slide show eats."

Movie
Daddy-O's Drive-In Dirt
Rotten Tomatoes (Critics N/A, Viewers 0%!) - Wikipedia - TVTropes
IMDB (1976, 2.2 stars)
"A young man is transformed into a hideous "moon beast" due to a meteor fragment lodged in his body."
Directed by Richard Ashe. Written by Bill Finger and Charles Sinclair. Starring Chase Cordell, Leigh Drake and Gregorio Sala.

Notes:
As mentioned above, the Bill Finger in the writing credits there is the same Bill Finger who co-created Batman but was blocked from receiving credit for years. There are parts of his IMDB bio that have issues: although he died in 1974, "He is known for his work on Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), Justice League (2017) and Batman: The Killing Joke (2016)." Perhaps similarly, Track of the Moon Beast was released in 1976.

posted by JHarris (10 comments total)

Back when my husband and I had blogs, our shared URL was johnnysstew.com. (Because of the site name, my husband was often referred to as “Johnny” by internet strangers, which made us laugh.)
posted by tchemgrrl at 3:58 AM on March 29, 2018 [1 favorite]

Your own

Personal

Moon rock
posted by wittgenstein at 6:18 AM on March 29, 2018 [4 favorites]

I recall reading a review of this movie that joked there was a law passed in the 1970s which stipulated every single US state was required to create their own low budget monster movie, and this was New Mexico's entry.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 6:35 AM on March 29, 2018 [4 favorites]

Ah yes, Johnny Longbow. The hero of Agincourt!
posted by Naberius at 8:34 AM on March 29, 2018 [3 favorites]

although he died in 1974, "He is known for his work on Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), Justice League (2017) and Batman: The Killing Joke (2016)."

There's an explanation: after his contribution was finally recognized by DC/WB, he got "Batman Created By" credits on all the recent movies/TV shows alongside Bob Kane. If you look at their "Filmography" pages, there's quite a mess, especially the "Character Created By" listings for "Gotham". And the "known for his work" summary is probably auto-created from the most recent/highest rated/highest grossing/most commented items on his Filmography.
posted by oneswellfoop at 9:58 AM on March 29, 2018 [2 favorites]

I just learned yesterday that there's supposedly a clip out there somewhere of an outtake where Kevin Murphy is complaining about additives in bottled water and asks if he can be sure what's really in the water, and Mike Nelson takes a bottle and starts reading the ingredients label as the recipe for Johnny's stew which makes Kevin crack completely up. Anyone know where to find this video?
posted by Servo5678 at 12:00 PM on March 29, 2018 [1 favorite]

Ah, short notice this time, but here goes!

It's time for MST Club! In about 15 minutes after this comment goes up! It's at https://cytu.be/r/Metafilter_MST3KClub! It consists of two episodes, which this week are 404 TEENAGERS FROM OUTER SPACE and 1007 TRACK OF THE MOON BEAST. Join us, won't you?
posted by JHarris at 3:46 PM on March 29, 2018

confession time: I actually like "California Lady"
it's just as good as anything you would have found on the radio at the time, which also means that it definitely deserved roasting
posted by Countess Elena at 3:48 PM on March 29, 2018 [1 favorite]

Confession time: I actually like "California Lady"
it's just as good as anything you would have found on the radio at the time, which also means that it definitely deserved roasting

Same here, and it also resulted in a host segment that easily makes my top five of all time.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 5:17 PM on March 29, 2018 [1 favorite]

Behind The Music parodies are pretty much always great.
posted by Chrysostom at 6:24 PM on March 29, 2018