K16: City On Fire
Movie: During a summer drought, an oil refinery explodes, spreading fire across the already dry land. Look for such stars as Leslie Nielsen and Henry Fonda.... What were they thinking??......
Opening: The Mads get a letter informing them that their grant money has been terminated, because they no longer qualify as mad scientists... merely "mildly peeved researchers."
Host segment 1: Servo and Crow trick Joel into looking into a phony telescope, which leaves him with a black eye. (This segment appears on the MST3K Scrapbook tape.)
Host segment 2: Joel invents a new anti-theft device for purses, called "Hell in a Hand Bag." Joel demonstrates it on Crow, much to Servo's delight. [The "Hell in a Handbag" invention would later be re-used in episode 103- MAD MONSTER.]
Host segment 3: J&TB perform a military-style song, which seems to have little purpose other than reminding the Bots how great Joel is. [A portion of this segment appears on the MST3K Scrapbook tape, and also appeared in the Comedy Central special "This is MST 3K."]
End: Gypsy informs Joel and Crow that she's spent the entire day designing newsletters. Joel displays Gypsy's creations: the Satellite News, the Fan Club Certificate (suitable for framing) and the Fan Club Membership Card. Joel points out that they are available by writing to the MST3K Fan Club.
Special Notes: This film has probably the largest number of recognizable faces of any MST3K experiment: look for Henry Fonda, Ava Gardner, Shelley Winters, James Franciscus, Leslie Nielsen, and many others.
A portion of the legendary "Good morning!" theater segment is included on the MST3K Scrapbook tape, as is the hospital birthing scene.
A commercial advertising Joel Hodgson's stand-up comedy act aired during the original broadcast of this episode, and still exists in many fan copies. Also notice that you don't see any crew members of the SoL before the movie starts.