Out to Launch

Out to Launch
The Thing captures von Wreckenstein with a crane's magnet.
Premiere date	November 3, 1979
Run time	11:35
Music composed by	Hoyt Curtin
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"Out to Launch" is the ninth episode (part one) of The Thing season one, and came as a segment of Fred and Barney Meet the Thing. It aired on November 3, 1979 on NBC.

A new boat at the shipyard is in danger of an attack from a revenge-seeking demolition expert.

Characters

Legend
Character debut	Speaking debut	Ep. debut	No lines	Mentioned

In order of appearance:

Character	Actor
Kelly Harkness	Noelle North
Betty Harkness	Marilyn Schreffler
Benjy Grimm	Wayne Morton
Ronald Radford	John Erwin
Mayor	Unavailable
Clumpley	Unavailable
Manfred von Wreckerstein	Unavailable
Mayor's brother-in-law
Receptionist	Marilyn Schreffler
Cameraman	Unavailable
Music conductor	Unavailable

Locations

• Earth
  • United States
    • Centerville
      • Radford residence
      • Centerville City Hall
      • Shipyard

Objects

• Benjy's rings
• Glow

Vehicles

• Ronald's car
• Von Wreckenstein's tow-truck
• S.S. Seaworthy
• Crane

Music

The score was composed by Hoyt Curtin.

Release

Dates are in order of release:

• United States: November 3, 1979 on NBC

Behind the scenes

• The episode title is a play on "Out to lunch." You're welcome.
• Von Wreckenstein tears the arms off a statue making it resemble the Venus de Milo.
• How a naked woman trying to hide her obvious semi featured breasts got approved is anyone's guess. And to think, the Scooby-Doo movie in 2002 had to have all of the women's cleavage digitally removed.

Errors

• When Benjy runs into the crate to transform, it didn't have all of its sides closed (making for a risky transformation in public), yet when he attempts to transform, four panels drop to the floor.

In other languages

Language	Name	Meaning

Home availability

• Warner Bros. owns the show, while Disney owns the characters, making it difficult to release this episode onto DVD.