Here’s your link for the movie. Show starts at 7:30. Click your clicks then!

Essentially, there’s a Murder Plant, it wants Blood, and it has the voice of Levi Stubbs from The Four Tops. Rick Moranis stars as its hapless keeper/enabler, and there’s a whole slew of guest stars, named in the poster above… or you can wait to be surprised when they show up, that’s fun, too. (This intro is adapted from an earlier post at this link.)

The backstory to this is wild! It all began in 1959, when Roger Corman had a few days and a few thousand lying around…

Now, if you don’t know who Roger Corman is, he was the ultimate moviemaking cheapskate. If he was producing a film and it came in slightly under budget and finished a few days early, Corman was gonna find a way to get a whole ‘nother movie made that fast for that money. So a bunch of people got drunk and wrote a script overnight.

Oh, and it’s also likely that Corman wanted to get one last movie made under old rules that allowed him to not pay actors any residuals when the movie was seen in re-runs and such. Like I said, Corman was the ultimate cheapskate.

Anyhoo, the 1960 release WAS eventually seen by a good number of people on late-nite TV and such. It’s kinda funny (and now in the public domain, so you can watch it all on Wiki for free). Part of the humor is, the movie KNOWS it’s super-quickie junk, it’s not trying its hardest to hide it (like The Blob did). Jack Nicholson has a small part (which one of the guest stars has in the 1986 movie). Jack really wasn’t good at acting just yet!

One of the people who saw it on late-nite TV was playwright/lyricist Howard Ashman. He saw it as a teenager, and it stuck in the back of his mind.

In the 70s, Ashman had a couple of relatively unsuccessful plays under his belt. In 1979, he worked on a musical version of a Kurt Vonnegut novel with composer Alan Mencken; it did pretty well, until they tried moving it from off-Broadway to the biggest theaters. Ashman was eager to work with Mencken again, and he remembered that old cheesy movie; it turned up on cable, they watched it together, and Mencken enjoyed it. “Alan liked it,” Ashman said later, “because it immediately gave him musical ideas. It reeked of the 1960s.”

Those musical ideas are, BY FAR, the best thing in the movie. Ashman/Mencken’s genius with these songs is to do them in a very specific style — that of 50s/60s girl groups, doo-wop and soul tunes. (There’s songs with a more traditional Broadway feel, too, but the movie has that 50s/60s sound at its core.) The play was an off-Broadway smash.

Frank Oz directs the film version, which omits a few songs and adds a few (including “Mean Green Mother From Outer Space,” which was nominated for an Oscar, but lost to ”Take My Breath Away” from Top Gun, because… I dunno). Oz became famous as a puppeteer who performed Miss Piggy, Cookie Monster, and Yoda, among many others. He’s not the greatest at directing humans, but the plant puppet/animatronic here is an impressive piece of work.

The cast includes Rick Moranis, who can sing surprisingly decently, and Ellen Greene, who reprises her role from the stage version. (She has a meek speaking voice and a MAJOR singing one.) The three teenagers who act like a Greek chorus (and sing like the Marvelettes/Vandellas etc.) are Tichina Arnold, Tisha Campbell, and Michelle Weeks; the stunning-voiced lady who starts off “Downtown/Skid Row” is Bertice Reading.

The big star, though, is Levi Stubbs. If you’ve never heard a Levi Stubbs song, you’re in for a real treat. But I think you HAVE heard his Four Tops songs, even if you don’t recognize his name. “Baby I Need Your Loving,” “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)“, “It’s the Same Old Song,“ and what might be my favorite-ever Motown song (although you could pick 25 others and I wouldn’t complain one bit), ”Reach Out I’ll Be There.“

The movie did well enough to make its money back, and got the attention of the people at Disney. If you don’t remember how new Disney animated features were doing at the time, the short version is “not well.” Disney hired Ashman and, at his insistence, Mencken to write the songs for their adaptation of The Little Mermaid. It was a smash. (And basically recycles one song from Little Shop; “Somewhere That’s Green” becomes “Part of Your World.”) Ashman/Mencken would also write the songs for Beauty and the Beast and part of Aladdin (Ashman tragically died from AIDS at the age of 40, and Tim Rice wrote the rest of the movie’s lyrics).

Disney probably would still be a corporate behemoth without the gigantic success of those movies, but they were extremely popular. And it’s all thanks to two oddballs who watched an old Roger Corman cheapie on late-nite cable, and decided, “hey, let’s make a musical about a Murder Plant.”

Works for me.

Here’s the link again, and click your clicks at 7:30. Here’s the upcoming Movie Night Schedule:

November 6: Bad Day at Black Rock. Spencer Tracy faces down some bullying bigots in a teeny California town. Will goodness and justice prevail? It’s 1955, what do you think? With Ernest Borgnine, Walter Brennan, Lee Marvin, and the terrifically-nasty Robert Ryan. 81 tight minutes, folks… that movie RULES. It’s on Archive, so feel free to download it in advance if you like.

November 13: 61*. Softspoken Roger Maris and brash Mickey Mantle find they have more in common than they expected as they both chase Babe Ruth’s single-season home run record. With Barry Pepper as Maris, Thomas Jane as Mantle, and directed by mega-baseball fan Billy Crystal.

Remember, start tonight’s show at 7:30 at this link! See ya then!

Despite an all-time final-day comeback to win the American League Central Division title, the 2006 Minnesota Twins season didn’t end in as positive a manner. But one thing that cannot be taken away from the ‘06 campaign: it produced perhaps the most hardware-heavy season in franchise history.

Justin Morneau: AL MVP

• The Canadian sensation put up this line to take home top-of-league honors: 157 G, 661 PA, 97 R, 190 H, 37 2B, 34 HR, 130 RBI, .321 BA, .934 OPS, 140 OPS+, 4.3 bWAR. Was this a 100% deserved MVP? Ehhh…David Ortiz, Travis Hafner, & maybe even resident MN 1B-coach Grady Sizemore had pretty compelling cases. But it’s not like Morneau has to give it back.

Johan Santana: AL Cy Young

• This is one that the voters got exactly right—no one eclipsed ’06 Santana: 19-6 W/L, 233.2 IP, 245 K, 2.77 ERA, 162 ERA+, 1.00 WHIP, 7.6 bWAR. In what should have been Johan’s third straight Cy Young Award, there’s a case to be made he could have double-dipped as AL MVP considering that WAR total.

Joe Mauer: AL Batting Champion

• A .347 batting average was tops in the Junior Circuit. This was the first time a backstop brought home the batting bacon since Ernie Lombardi (.330 BA) did so for the Cincinnati Reds in 1942. 2006 was Mauer’s third season in the bigs—and his second functional campaign (missing almost all of 2004 due to injury)

Torii Hunter: Gold Glove

• Ho hum—just the sixth consecutive gilded glove-trophy for the CF-er.

Four incredible individual performances that render 2006 memorable 20 years hence despite the ALDS thud.

The Milwaukee Brewers closed out the World Series which means it’s officially time to move to the offseason. After back-to-back championship runs by the big bad Dodgers, it was a small market finale in 2026, providing hope to fans of teams in the Central divisions. Sure, the Brewers also have the best collection of young, cost controlled talent in baseball, including a behemoth likely Cy Young winner who throws 105 MPH for six innings at a time, but somehow the Brewers are still an underdog story.

The Twins will be looking to emulate the success of the Brewers and Rays, something more easily said than done, but their own collection of young talent is nothing to scoff at. There are pretty clear holes for a team that has missed the postseason in five of the past six seasons, but they are also ones that are relatively easy to fill. Wherever they go, it will undoubtedly be an eventful offseason.

November 2: Free Agency Begins

Technically, free agency is already underway, but players aren’t eligible to sign with new teams until November 6th. Players on the 40-man roster are also eligible to be traded again. Players and teams with contract options must also make those decisions by this deadline. Teams must decide whether or not to extend Qualifying Offers to free agents by this point as well.

Twins Players Impacted:

• Free agents: LHP AJ Minter, LHP Taylor Rogers, C Ryan Jeffers
• Josh Bell: $10M mutual option with $1.25M buy out
• Joe Ryan: $13M mutual option with $100K buy out (Ryan is still controllable via arbitration for 2027 either way)
• Ryan Jeffers: QO decision

November 9-12: GM Meetings

These are typically quieter than the Winter Meetings in December, but with the owner lockout looming on December 1, the Winter Meetings are likely to be cancelled anyway, making this much more significant especially when it comes to trade discussions. Last time there was a lockout, there was a flurry of moves at the GM meetings, not the least of which being Byron Buxton’s long-term extension to stay in Minnesota.

November 17: Rule 5 Protection and QO Deadlines

By the 17th, MLB teams will have to add players to the 40-man roster if they want to protect them from the Rule 5 Draft. The Twins don’t have any glaring prospects to add to their list this year, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see one or two. Players also have to decide whether or not to accept the qualifying offer by this day. Jeffers will be a unique case of the QO system, so long as the Twins extend him one.

November 20: Non-tender Deadline

Teams must decide whether to offer contracts to their arbitration-eligible and pre-arb players by this date. You don’t have to agree to a specific contract, just tender a contract with the final figure to be decided at a future date either via negotiation or the arbitration process. There’s typically of flurry of deals around this date for teams that prefer not to settle salaries in court. The Twins announced deals with all of their arbitration-eligible players on the deadline last year.

This will be potentially the most intriguing time for roster decisions in Minnesota. The Twins have a number of high-profile players who could be removed from the roster.

Twins non-tender candidates: Royce Lewis, Bailey Ober, Trevor Larnach, Matt Wallner, Tristan Gray, Cole Sands, Anthony Banda

All of November: Awards Season

Various awards are announced throughout the first few weeks of November. Here is the complete list.

• November 1: Gold Glove winners
• November 2: HOF eight-person Contemporary Baseball Era ballot
• November 2: Silver Slugger finalists, BBWAA finalists (MVP, Cy Young, ROY)
• November 6: Platinum Glove
• November 9: Rookie of the Year
• November 10: Manager of the Year
• November 11: Cy Young, Reliever of the Year, All-MLB teams, Hank Aaron Award, Comeback Player of the Year
• November 12: MVP
• November 16: 2027 HOF Ballot
• November 17: Silver Slugger winners

December 1: CBA Expiration, Lockout Begins

The big, scary deadline finally arrives after Thanksgiving. When the current collective bargaining agreement expires, the owners are widely expected to initiate a lockout, preventing any team-initiated games, training, or transactions. This only affects players on the 40-man roster, as minor leaguers are not yet considered MLB employees and are not governed by the same rules.

Minor league trades, signings, and transactions can still take place without a MLB CBA in place, but those will still be slow coming as the types of players who typically sign minor league deals only do so once it’s clear a 40-man roster spot isn’t coming their way. That, of course, can’t happen until teams sign or trade for better options on the market, so things usually come to a standstill.

I’m of the opinion that, despite what the owners would like you to believe, they’re in a worse negotiating position than the players as they really need the positive momentum of the last half decade to keep up.

To that end, I largely avoid politics and stick to baseball here, but given the tenor of this conversion it is a very relevant point. So here is your warning to skip the next two paragraphs if you don’t want that in your baseball diet…

There is a current window in the American economy and political system that allows billionaires and private equity firms to act with near impunity thanks to, inarguably, the most corrupt and easily influenced president in American history. With the midterms around the corner and a general shift in the American psyche against the ultra-rich, that window will close within the next half decade.

These billionaire owners want to sell now while franchise values are high and the 1% controls more of the economy than ever. If there is a prolonged labor stoppage, they lose that negotiating window by trying to build back brand equity and customer trust. For the first time maybe ever, the rich, old billionaires have to operate on a much tighter time table than the players do. That’s why they are pushing so hard for a salary cap and using MLB’s official channels to push their propaganda. Nothing will provide a short-term spike in franchise value like controlled labor costs. There is absolutely merit to finding ways to reign in the increasingly high spending of the Dodgers and the Mets and raising the floor for our beloved smaller market franchises, but a blanket cap system is not the solution.

Also, to be clear, the owners don’t have to lock out the players, but after the 1994 World Series was cancelled due to a players strike, the owners have chosen this route in every CBA negotiation since.

Events Likely to be Postponed or Cancelled

Due to the lockout, the following will likely be either postponed or cancelled altogether. Maybe we’ll all be surprised and the players union and owners make an agreement early on, but neither side tends to negotiate in earnest until we’re at risk of games getting cancelled. Once an agreement is reached, most things below will get rescheduled, but something like the Rule 5 draft could be skipped altogether.

• December 7-9: Winter meetings
• December 8: MLB Draft Lottery
• December 9: Rule 5 draft
• January 8: Arbitration figures exchanged
• January 15: 2027 international signing period opens

The Twins and all of their minor league affiliates have been done playing for a month now, but the Arizona Fall League is in full swing, and a handful of Twins minor leaguers are still playing. For those who don’t know much about the AFL, it is typically not a place where you see top 100 prospects dueling on a nightly basis. The Twins send 8 players each season to team up with minor leaguers from 4 other MLB organizations, mostly consisting of players who dealt with injuries during the summer and didn’t play as many games as the team hoped for.

The pitching side has been a struggle as left-handers Cesar Lares and Ross Dunn have struggled to get outs, and Brian Zeldin has had limited opportunities, throwing just 2.1 innings across 5 appearances. Lares and Dunn are continuing to recover from major arm injuries that cost them the entire 2025 season along with a good portion of the 2026 season.

Lefty reliever Cleiber Maldonado has been a bright spot in a small sample size. After missing the entire 2025 season while recovering from elbow surgery, Maldonado made his return in July. He posted a 12.60 ERA, walking 16 batters in 15 innings but showed off impressive stuff, striking out 23 and running impressive whiff rates. In 4 AFL appearances, he has allowed 2 earned runs in 4.1 innings while striking out 7 and walking 3. Maldonado was playing well as a 20-year-old southpaw in Single-A before the elbow injury, and he is showing good signs this fall as the Twins hope for a breakout in 2027.