Bad foreign accents, putrid story, and a girl with a cat's brain! Also, very sadistic old lady in this one. All in all, it's very awful!!

Agreed. The most flat-out repulsive movie I've ever seen (bearing in mind that I still can't quite bring myself to watch 'Manos') :P

And, okay, I realize the concept of 'technical advisor' doesn't really apply here in Z-movie land...but didn't anybody stop to consider the relative size difference between a cat's brain (or a dog's, for that matter) and a human skull?

To distract myself, I spent awhile trying to guess which of the 'au pairs' was sleeping with the director at casting time. Not the one that gets the cat's brain, is what I concluded. (I figure the one that gets her eye clawed out could have been persuaded it was necessary to suffer for her Art.)

The SOL skits are great, though. For some reason the concept of 'Weather Servo Nine' just strikes me as screamingly funny. And the bit with Magic Voice was really clever - did she ever talk back to any other film narrators? (C.Francis in 'Beast of Yucca Flats, for example?)

I disagree. While the Host Segments you mention were pretty good, the rest were a tad mediocre. The Invention Exchange in particular showed that they had run out of ideas for the Invention Exchange (notice there are no Invention Exchanges after this episode). Loved the Juvenile Delinquency short, though.

You're right - that should probably have been 'the SOL skits I can remember are great...' (I'm prepared to defend 'Weather Servo Nine' to the death, though. "Boy, is it ever COLD out here! Is space supposed to be this cold?!")

As for the Invention Exchanges, the Colossal Episode Guide claims that they didn't so much run out of ideas as realize that the IEs were inspired mainly by Joel Hodgson's (prop) comedy style and thus not relevant in the Mike Nelson years.

I liked the sketches this time around. "Love Letters" was sort of silly, but the Invention Exchange was campily entertaining, and interesting in that Trace Beaulieu imitates his own character. Weather Servo Nine was fun, Mike's chin puppet was nicely brief enough to be a cheap joke, Magic Voice and the narrator were hilarious, and Hank Kimball--the Fugitive was priceless, especially for those who have seen "Green Acres."

My stinger’s missing!!! According to the ACEG, there’s a stinger at the end of this episode – just like all the other episodes – but I have nothing at the end of the credits! D’you think I should I demand a refund? ;-)

Great lines:

Juvenile Delinquents short

Jamie: “How’s Dad?”
Mom: “How did you know?”
Mike (as Jamie): “He’s always been my dad.”
Mom: “He’s resting now.”
Mike (as Mom): Or he’s dead – it’s hard to tell with him.”

Tom (singing): “Torn between two peer groups.”

Movie

“Miss Marple arrives.”
“Murder most goofy.”

“She’s the Battleaxe Potemkin.”

“Could you tell me where my accent is from?”

“When you get close to an accent, let us know!”

Anita screams.
Mike: “That’s Spanish for ‘aaaagggghhhh!’”

Nina: “Bea, come with me.”
Tom: “What will we bea-come?”

Mike: “Did Prokofiev do the music for this?
Crow: “Yes, Ernie Prokofiev.”

Best bit of the movie: the “she’s old, she’s old, she’s so dang old” vs “They’re young, they’re scared” music.

“I’m looking for the Manos set.”

“And she floats gently to her death.”
“So much for the landing on your feet theory.”

“Time elapsed … just take our word for it.”

Nina: “Bea, don’t talk like that.”
Mike: “Been meaning to tell you that the whole movie!”

“Hey, voice-over guy! I’m tryin’ to work!”

As I understand it, all the commercial tapes of this episode are missing the stinger. Maybe they'll correct that when and if they issue a DVD.

Must've been tough work, Callie, sitting through Bea's 'Cockney' accent. ("You're all from Nebraska! Cut it out!")

According to the Colossal Episode Guide, the 'operetta'-style riffs - "There's a girl/on the roof/and she thinks/she's a cat" etc. were a big disappointment to the writers involved - not nearly as funny onscreen as they'd expected.

Wow, they must have been totally hysterical with laughter when they wrote those bits, then, because I thought they were really good!

I thought the guys did a good job of riffing Bea's accent, bearing in mind that they couldn't have been as aware as a Brit would be of how truly awful it was!

Narrator: “He has grafted a living animal’s brain into this newly dead body.”
Mike: “What a knuckleknob!”

Narrator: “This is one of the doctor’s mistakes – a monstrosity, an animal’s brain grafted to a human body.”
Tom: “In retrospect, an obvious mistake.”
Narrator: “It fears and obeys only one master.”
Tom: “Tony Orlando.”
Crow [as Hans]: “Boss, was I really a mistake like the man said?”
Mike [as Dr Frank]: Oh no, you were a little miracle!”

“Prelude to the Afternoon of a Sexually Aroused Gas Mask.”

“Going uphill is hard when you’re dead.”

Nina: “If we could get the car ...”
Mike [as Bea]: “... we could go for a drive!”

During the credits:
“I’m just gonna be charitable and say: I hope all those people were forced to do this film at gunpoint.”