Having both an unhealthy obsession with classic pin-up style, which is coming back, and Mystery Science Theater 3000, which lives on forever, I've decided to combine my two lusts and create yet another series, this one based around pin-ups of the lovely ladies that starred in the b-movies MST3K skewered so hilariously. I will be taking on every single one of the relevant episodes, in order, because I have problems. Enjoy!
The series begins here.
Admiral King, to Irene Tsu's character, Linda: "We all have friends on Cosmos 3. We're all deeply concerned."
Joel: "I'm so concerned I felt compelled to touch you."
Okay, one woman. Singular. Arthur C. Pierce's original script was titled The Prehistoric Planet, but "Standard Club of California Productions Inc." decided to add "Women of" to the title in order to get horny mid-60s teens into the theater. A few brief scenes were filmed of unknown actresses, lounging about half-naked, but those didn't even make the US release. So what you get instead is three females aboard a futuristic spaceship, which crashes onto a womanless planet that turns out to be Earth. Dun dun dun.
And yet...
Known simply as crew member "Sally" in Planet, Frei was a model who made her debut as one of the 17 fembots in 1964's Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine. She then made a few -- very few -- TV appearances, and culminated her career with a bit part in 1980's Coming Home. After that she disappeared.
As Lt. Karen Lamont, Merry Anders didn't get to do too much in Planet except keep Paul Gilbert's incredibly annoying and piggish Lt. Red Bradley away from Sally. However, Anders had a career that belies the anonymity of that role: by the time she agreed to do this junk, this model-turned actress had already been a contract player for Fox for over a decade, leaving to attempt TV stardom with leading roles in forgotten sitcoms like It's Always Jan and the small-screen version of How To Marry A Millionaire (along with future star Barbara Eden!). Not long after she escaped this Prehistoric Planet (movie), she landed her best-known role as Policewoman Dorothy Miller in the late-Sixties, hippie-hating reincarnation of Dragnet. She left showbiz in the early '70s to become a Customer Relations coordinator with Litton Systems. She retired from Litton in 1994.
Still acting today, New York-via-Shanghai's Irene Tsu began as a dancer on Broadway in Flower Drum Song and The World of Suzie Wong, and parlayed that into a forty-year TV career, with the occasional notable turn in Airport '75 and John Wayne's The Green Berets. (Trekkie Alert: She also had a bit part in the Voyager episodes "Favorite Son" and "Author, Author.") She gained extra attention, however, for letting Frank Sinatra exchange glances with her for a while sometime during 1970-71. If you know what I mean.
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