Some random thots that floated to the top of my consciousness during a recent viewing of this episode:

Maybe I'm missing some fine point of locust-vs.-grasshopper anatomy here, but did the big bugs lose their ability to hop as well as fly? Why are they bothering to blunder through the army's defenses, for instance - when one jump at that size would have landed them atop those nearby Chicago mountains?

Also, since when are locusts carnivorous? Why don't they just start stripping the nearby forests and farmer's fields?

Quite the car-phone setup Peggy Castle has there. Did that technology actually exist in the 1950's? And if so, am i correct in assuming that most of her book royalties are going to keep up the payments?

Is it just me, or is Peter Graves taking this destroy-the-monsters thing a little casually? A research entomologist with an entire government lab at his disposal, and he's taking suggestions from what looks like the local exterminator! (And how hard a job does Peter have, anyway? I have a feeling the Raid people could whip up a pretty decent Giant Bug-B-Gone in the time it takes Our Hero to get his hand out of the aquarium!)

Actually, I feel a little sorry for Mr.Graves. No, not for being in the film in the first place (I'm assuming blackmail was involved) but for not realizing the possibilities. C'mon, Peter, you're reciting lines like "It was giant locusts that killed Frank!!", camp it up a little! Instead he just stands there with teeth gritted, like he's enduring the Chinese B-Movie Torture. Paging John Carradine!

And finally...the first host segment ('Peter Graves Goes to School at the University of Minnesota, by Crow T. Robot') is absolutely hilarious. Everybody's favorite robotic screenwriter decides to illuminate the Biography host's formative years: "Hi. I'm Peter Graves, and I'm in the right class."

Something was blanked out during the opening credits of the movie, presumably by Best Brains rather than the original film maker. The line was “Copyright MCMLVII by (blanked out) Pictures Corporation.” I wonder why it was blanked?

As no-one else has posted any lines from this, I get to do lots!

“Whoa, is this a flashback to previous credits?”

Opening scene on an empty road
“So is something gonna happen?!”

Police officer on car radio: “Hello, I’m at Ludlow!”
Crow (as cop): “It’s really dark!”
Cop: “The whole town’s destroyed!”
Crow (as cop): “It’s really neat!”
Cop: “Everybody’s gone!”
Crow (as cop): “I’m lonely.”

Mike: “She’s got her radio tuned to the Marching Band station!”
Tom: “All Sousa, all the time.”

Two soldiers stand about just looking at each other
Mike: “Now this is an improv that really went nowhere.”

“Guys, this is so not Illinois!”

Cut back to the two soldiers – one of them speaks
Crow: “That’s my line – finally remembered.”

Colonel: “We don’t know.”
Tom: “On account of the fact that we’re not very smart.”

Audrey: “A town of 150 people doesn’t just disappear.”
Colonel: “This one did.”
Tom (as Audrey): “Yes, but in general they don’t disappear, that’s my point.”

Audrey: I’d like to place a person to person call, please, to Mr Norman Taggart.”
Tom (as Audrey): “Me being one of the persons, of course.”

“Let me show you a giant crouton we’re working on.”

Ed’s deaf-mute assistant ‘signs’ something to him
Mike (as Ed): Frank, that’s filthy! I should wash your hands out with soap.”

Ed: “Makes me realise what a sheltered life we scientists really lead.”
Audrey: “Sheltered? Look what happened to Frank.”
Tom: “Yeah, watch this … HEY FRAAAAANK!”

“Hey, this is even worse than that other stuff that we didn’t know what it was!”

Frank waves his arms about as the giant locust attacks him
Mike: “He’s signing ‘Arrrggghhh!’”

“What would Mitchell do right now, huh?”

The giant locusts attack
Tom: “Just get a giant screen door!”

Ed: “Locusts follow a leader.”
Crow: “His name’s Larry.”

Audrey: “Looks pretty bad doesn’t it?”
Crow: “No, you look fine!”

Newsreader: “The screech increases in intensity until it reaches ear shattering proportions.”
Crow: “Sounds like Mariah Carey.”

During the locust/military battle
“They got Jiminy – get ‘em!”
“Whoops, I’m sorry – lemme clear the shot.”
“Hi, I’m gonna sneak in here to say hope you’re enjoying the show.”

“It’s that darned kid on a pogo stick again!”

Ed wears a gas mask
“Trumpy, hi!”

“He just polygraphed the sandwich – he needs real help.”

(My favourite line)
Soldier at observation post, looking out of the window at a stone statue in the garden: “I’m hiding from a lion!”

“Alright, I’m gonna polygraph my tie.”

“That’s a postcard!”

“Get off the postcard! They’re gonna blow the postcard!”

You got almost all the good lines...

Crow: "We're gonna get some 'Raid', right? We're gonna get a reallyreally big can of 'Raid', right?"

Mike (during the battle) "C'mon! We should not be losing to grasshoppers here, people!"

Servo: (as Ed and Audrey flee the attack on Frank) "Hey, Diane Arbus! You got a camera! Why dontcha take a picture?" (I always thought he had a really good point!)

Ed: “Locusts follow a leader.” Crow: “His name’s Larry.” - Larry, Darryl, and Darryl reference?

"when one jump at that size would have landed them atop those nearby Chicago mountains?"
and
“Guys, this is so not Illinois!”


Its not just crappy movies who do this folks. My family was watching "Pearl Harbor" the other day. They showed an airforce base on Long Island, where my parents and I are from, (it really was there) at what is now Hofstra University, where both of my parents went to college. So, we know the area pretty well. The scene featured a man from Long Island (Alec Baldwin). In the background are MOUNTAINS! THERE ARE NO MOUNTAINS ON LONG ISLAND, YOU MORONIC MOVIE PRODUCERS! You have a HUGE budget, yet you chose to film an airforce base that chose that location in part, becase it was flat, and you have a honking great MOUNTAIN in the background. Guys, this is so not Long Island!

You all forgot the one line that still cracks me up when I here it. When Graves is giving details in his warning about the giant bugs, Mike adds, "They've gotten hold of firearms and they're drunk."

And how could you folks forget this great line from when the grasshoppers were drowning: "It's got to be a trick! There can't be that many lady grasshoppers in Lake Michigan!"

Rhino had a really wierd lapse in concentration when they packaged this one on DVD. The case says Joel is on this one, and the theme at the menu is from Joel's seasons, yet we all know that MIKE is in this episode! What happened?

Oh, interesting thing: When Graves and friend put on their gas masks, I couln't help shouting "TRUMPY!", and then Servo said the same thing!

I'm Peter Graves and I like this episode.

You are WAY out there, man, WAY OUT!

A fair episode, the film takes its sweet time to get going (and really, it's not THAT bad a film aside from the cheesiness).

I would have liked some more Peter Graves jokes that didn't have to do with "Biography."

True, but how many other kinds are there? I sure can't come up with many.

Well, Mission Impossible. Like, "Remember, Ed, if you are eaten by giant locusts, the secretary will disavow any knowledge..."

And I was waiting for, "So, Audrey, do you like gladiator movies?"

Or, at some point, start saying "He learned too late that man is a feeling creature, and because of it, the greatest in the universe."

It's in reference to It Conquered the World.

My dad noticed this one.
I think one of the bots makes a comment about a Buick, then shortly later we see that Audrey's car is a Chevrolet.

The locusts are eating a lot, but where are they hiding? In a forest. A tasty, tasty forest.

If machine gun fire kills the locusts toward the end, then why wasn't the army more successful earlier?

Missed MiSTing opportunities.

Colonel: Okay men, into the woods!
*sing theme from Into The Woods*

When the locusts were climbing on the postcar... errrr... "buildings", I was expecting some kind of '60s TV Batman riff.

Jim Phelps: The Early Years