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Tom Servo is a fictional character from the American science fiction comedy television show Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K). Tom is one of two wise-cracking, robotic main characters of the show, built by Joel Robinson to act as a companion and help stave off madness as he was forced to watch low-quality films. He is somewhat more mature and cynical than his companion Crow T. Robot.
Overview
Tom Servo is a red puppet that has a gumball machine (Carousel Executive Snack Dispenser) for a head, a body composed of a toy "Money Lover Barrel" coin bank and a toy car engine block, and a bowl-shaped hovercraft skirt (a Halloween 'Boo Bowl') instead of legs. His arms are a pair of small white ventriloquist's dummy hands on the ends of springs that are not really functional as arms, a point that is commented on occasionally throughout the series. (Oddly, though, some episodes feature Tom with objects already in his hands, raising the unanswered question of how they got there.) His shoulders are made from the front of an Eveready Floating Lantern. Because Servo's head is transparent, chromakeyed images appear projected through it, and thus a second puppet was built for use in the theater segments, entirely spray-painted black. This black Servo also appeared in a host segment in episode #609: The Skydivers.
Servo's appearance has changed over time. In the pilot for MST3K, the robot who would become Servo was named "Beeper," who just spoke in beeps that only Crow could understand. He was an all-silver robot vaguely shaped like the ultimate Servo, with funnel-shaped shoulders, silver rubber tube arms, and a small fishbowl for a head. He was renamed 'Servo' after a vending machine called the Servotron. Sometime between the pilot and episode #K03: Star Force: Fugitive Alien II Servo's head was replaced with the now-familiar gumball machine used throughout the series. (MST3K archival site mst3ktemple.com presents a substantive argument that this replacement was probably done before or during episode #K01: Invaders from the Deep, based on an analysis of related set and costume changes.*).
In Season 1 on the Comedy Channel, he was given a red color, longer black tube arms, squared white shoulders, a different hoverskirt, and a gumball machine with a large, white beak. The beak was changed back to silver later in the season, and by Season 2, the black tubing used for his arms was replaced by a pair of small silver springs. This physical form was kept throughout the remainder of the series, except for a brief flirtation (during episodes #205: Rocket Attack USA and #206: Ring of Terror) with a slim cylindrical gumball-machine head to try to reduce the screen area Servo's head obscured. It was introduced as a "haircut" that Joel gave Servo, but was quickly abandoned.
Servo's voice and personality also changed during the show's early years. While Josh Weinstein operated Servo during the KTMA season, Servo spoke rather slowly with a squeaky voice, and was somewhat immobile during host segments but oddly very active in the theater. In episode K06, Weinstein switched to a lower voice that Servo repeatedly proclaimed as his new "MIGHTY VOICE!" When Weinstein left at the end of Season 1, Kevin Murphy took over Servo's operation and tried to match Weinstein's Servo voice and personality, but gradually developed a somewhat new Servo sound and character (though Murphy has a fairly deep voice himself). This was explained as tinkering by Joel. During Murphy's tenure, Servo took many opportunities to showcase his excellent singing. He also has an extensive underwear collection (as seen in The Movie), as well as a large number of duplicates of himself that he made in episode #420: The Human Duplicators (also seen in episode #1004: Future War, and episode #1013: Diabolik).
Whenever a member of the cast is required to dress in drag for a sketch, Servo usually does the honors. This is both because of the dichotomy of women's clothes amusingly contrasted with puppeteer Murphy's strong baritone voice and because, in Murphy's words, "Servo looks better in a dress than Crow."
Other appearances
Tom Servo also appeared in the Cops-style Star Wars spoof "Troops" as a droid purloined by Jawas. Deep Space Nine is also known to contain a reference to Tom Servo's Used Robots in the directory to the station's Promenade business area, though it is unlikely that this reference ever appeared onscreen.
References
- The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Amazing Colossal Episode Guide (1996), ISBN 0553377833.
- The Official Mystery Science Theater 3000 Bot Building Booklet (1998), Best Brains, Inc., ISBFE 05557143431.
- Satellite News: The Official Mystery Science Theater 3000 Web Site
- The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Scrapbook VHS, Best Brains, Inc.
- Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie DVD (1996), ISBN 6305078246.
- Mystery Science Theater 3000, episode #K02 (Revenge of the Mysterons)
- Mystery Science Theater 3000, episode #K06 (Gamera vs. Gaos)
- Mystery Science Theater 3000, episode #201 (Rocketship X-M)
- Mystery Science Theater 3000, episode #205 (Rocket Attack U.S.A.)
- Mystery Science Theater 3000, episode #206 (Ring of Terror)
- Mystery Science Theater 3000, episode #1004 (Future War)
- Mystery Science Theater 3000, episode #1013 (Diabolik)
External links
"Tom Servo"