If you're one of the unfortunate few who have never seen the show, then I'll give you a quick run-down of the original plot: Joel Robinson was your typical technologically gifted janitor at Gizmonic Institute. One day his bosses decided that it'd be fun to rocket Joel into space via a spaceship called the "Satellite of Love" in order to force him to watch bad movies until they found that perfect film that broke his will. Once they found that movie, they'd unleash it on the entire world and take over. Okay, so it's a weird premise, but what can you say? It is, after all, just a vehicle to make fun of crappy movies. Anyway, so Joel gets lonely and, the genius that he is, decides to create a little company for himself. Enter the robots. Robot Roll Call! There's Gypsy, the pseudo-mother-figure of the group who does all the work on the ship; Cambot, the floating camera; Tom Servo, the bubble gum machine-headed ladies' man; Crow T. Robot, the wisecracker; and the mysterious Magic Voice, a female voice that is heard every now and then which seems to be the voice of the ship's computer. And to think he made the bots out of junk just lying around the SOL - what a guy!
The gyst of the show is that the three guys (Joel/Mike, Tom, and Crow) sit through really horrible movies and make fun of them the whole time. The show is the best ever made because if you're like me (and I know I am) and you're caught in a theater with a crappy movie, you don't leave. In other words, you don't get mad, you get even. It is all too often that I watch the thoughtless, regurgitated movies of today and I truly understand how Crow felt during Manos: the Hands of Fate when he said disgustedly, "I'd slap this movie if I could!" This sort of sarcastic wit is what the show thrives on. And just so you don't begin to scream in agony yourself because of the horridness of the movies, MST3K has sketches (host segments) thrown throughout the show to give you a break. These usually consist of bits put together to introduce, further ridicule, and wrap up the movies.
Over the 10 years that the show was on, it went through a lot of cast changes. The changes began after the first season on Comedy Central when the first voice for Tom and Dr. Forrester's first lackey, Dr. Larry Erhardt, Josh Weinstien, left the show. Kevin Murphy then took over as Tom's voice and Dr. Forrester was joined by TV's Frank (Frank Conniff) at the beginning of season 2. Then Joel, the man himself, left the show in the middle of the 5th season and Mike Nelson (who was already the head writer), got the privilege of helming the SOL. Frank left at the end of season 6 (assumed into Second Banana Heaven by Torgo the White). Trace Beaulieu, the voice of Crow and Dr. Forrester then left after season 7, being turned into a Space Baby. Forrester's mother, Pearl (Mary Jo Pehl), became a regular character during season 7 and took over the task of torturing the poor castaways in season 8, explaining that her efforts to raise Clayton had failed and that she'd been forced to kill him. Other additions include the Observer, a.k.a "Brainguy," Bill Corbet, who also took over the role of Crow's voice in season 8. Also added was Professor Bobo, a Planet of the Apes rip-off introduced in season 8, played by Kevin Murphy. So what it comes down to, ironically, is that none of the original cable-access on-screen cast was left in the end. The only one who stuck through the whole shebang was Kevin Murphy, who was a behind-the-scenes man until season 2.
Sadly, the tenth season was the last for MST3K. But as I mentioned earlier, it lives on in the episodes that have been published officially by Rhino and those transferred by the good folks at the DAP. As the folks at Best Brains requested, the tapes (DVDs, and .avis) will certainly keep circulating.
and TV's Frank
