The Puppet Master: DVD Verdict Interviews MST3K's Kevin Murphy!

Judge Bill Gibron

March 14th, 2005

There's just something about the voice. The minute you hear it, you are whisked away to the Satellite of Love and you're sitting in the ship's theater, watching cheesy movies (the worst Dr. Forrester and TV's Frank could find) with Tom Servo himself. Though the greatest television series in the history of the medium, Mystery Science Theater 3000, has been off the air now for over a year (Sci-Fi cancelled the series in 1999, but kept it alive in reruns until January of 2004), the cult for the self-proclaimed cowtown puppet show is still as viable as ever. As someone who was there from the very beginning -- the highly vaunted KTMA days -- Kevin Murphy helped usher the inspired television show through the many phases of its existence, turning it into the premier pitstop for every awful film ever made.

From his behind the camera work during the series's start on that local Twin Cities UHF channel to playing Professor Bobo during the Sci-Fi cable network run, Murphy was a writer and occasional director for Mystery Science, as well as voicing the most famous bubble-headed fireplug on TV. With Rhino ready to release another box set of the classic series next month (Volume 7, featuring The Killer Shrews and Prince of Space, is tentatively planned for a April 19th release), Judge Bill Gibron had a chance to sit down with Murphy to discuss the legacy of MST, the newfound popularity of bad movies on DVD, and the overly sensitive citizenry of a certain New England town. In between, the genial, jovial author/performer discussed film criticism, future projects with fellow MST alum Mike Nelson and Bill Corbett, and the advantages of looking at life from a puppet's point of view.

DVD Verdict: Rhino is releasing a new box set next month, so I guess the first question is, how do you feel MST has been represented on the DVD format?

Kevin Murphy: I think Rhino has done a fantastic job. Because there hasn't been any attempt to make the show anything but what it was, which was a pretty simple, slightly clever premise, and sort of a celebration of the low tech side of television and the sci-fi genre world. And, you know, the whole thing is about making fun of bad movies...and they've started putting a lot of the shorts on the DVDs as well, which were one of my favorite things. As a matter of fact, this new DVD collection is gonna have one of my favorites, which is called "Assignment Venezuela." I really don't know where this thing rose up out of, but it's about a...it's an oil company institutional short, you know, industrial short, where this guy...you know, they try to make drama out of the fact that he's going to Venezuela to work in the oil fields.

Verdict: Wasn't that the one where they had a whole long discussion about the Quonset hut?

KM: (Laughs) Yes indeed!

Verdict: It's one of my favorites as well. I'm glad to see it's coming out.

KM: It was never seen on the air, it just never got to it. It was made for a CD-Rom that never happened.

Verdict: Speaking of things of that nature, are there any other episodes or things, personal favorites, that you'd like to see come out on DVD for everyone to share and enjoy?

KM: Well, I'm really glad that, like on this one, that The Killer Shrews is coming out, because that was one of my favorites. And it's got the Brady Bunch dad on it, and you love to see him in an old movie. [Kevin may have been confusing this with Episode 607: Bloodlust!, featured on Volume 1 of the DVD Collection and starring Robert Reed.] And Prince of Space was one of my favorite Japanese movies that we did, and that's on this DVD as well. You know, they've put, in the collections that they've done, they put some of my favorite episodes on them. There's one, and I have to look it up because I'm going to speak wrong for Rhino if I'm not careful, but, you know, a couple of my favorites are like, Space Mutiny, which is one of my favorite films, which they shot on the old Battlestar Galactica sets. They actually borrowed Lorne Greene's muumuus from Battlestar Galactica for Cameron Mitchell and it's such a delightfully cheesy stupid science fiction film that it was absolutely perfect for our show. It was just fun, and funny, and I can't believe that they ever thought it would be a serious movie. It was one of those where I think they thought "Well, I'll do this, and then we'll do four sequels and everyone will want it." But...thank God they didn't.

Verdict: Speaking of which, are there any episodes out there in the long run of the show that you kind of hope that will never see the light of day...

KM: (Laughs hysterically)

Verdict: ... that you'd rather just forget about and move on to something else?

KM: (Still laughing) Oh...there are lots of those, believe me. You know, the Coleman Francis films were just so dreary. We did have fun with them, but I just don't enjoy watching them, because the films are so creepy. You know, I'd say just bring on your worst, because I'm not ashamed of any of the ones that we did. But the Coleman Francis ones were, of course, the most difficult to get through. Everybody always loves Manos: The Hands of Fate which is on the MST Essentials DVD, and, believe me, that film was so damn hard to get through, just to make it into a funny show, and we worked really extra hard in order to make that anywhere close to funny. It comes off as...it truly is one of the worst films ever made.

Verdict: The funny thing is, and that leads me to my next question, are you surprised that some of these films, Manos being one of them -- I know there was a recent release of The Day the Earth Froze and The Magic Voyage of Sinbad -- these movies are getting legitimate, full big time DVD releases without the MST commentary. People are taking them seriously. Does that surprise you at all?

KM: Well, this is part of the DVD world. People are rediscovering things that were, you know, withering away on faded videotape. And now they look fresh and clean. In some cases I'd say it is actually a good idea, cause this guy who did The Day the Earth Froze, Aleksandr Ptushko, who did these Russian Finnish films -- look at what he did and the times he did it, with the money he had. He did some pretty amazing stuff -- some amazing effects. It's almost like a student piece. It's interesting to see what he was able to do with little or no money. In that case, I think it's good.

Now, doing a major theatrical... someone just re-released The Giant Spider Invasion, the Bill Rebane film? I think it's in a Collector's DVD. And it does stun me, but people, I think they just love it because they tend to do what we did, only they do it themselves. They bring it home and make it their very own. Last year, I think it was, I was at the Wisconsin film festival and I introduced The Giant Spider Invasion, just the film, in its pristine form. And it was a packed house. It was standing room only to see The Giant Spider Invasion. So, it shows you that there's a real hunger for this sort of badness out there.

Verdict: Obviously, founded by the show that you all put out there, so I think, you know, that's your legacy and your curse...

KM: Yeah, I think we're partly responsible. I know there are a couple of film critics who just absolutely despise us for what we have done. Not only did we make fun of sacred cinema, but we got people to like bad movies instead of good movies.

Verdict: Well, is there anything in the canon of films that you made fun of that, looking back now in retrospect, that you feel bad for taking on?

KM: Well...only because I think that we were unkind...there was a movie that we did called Time Chasers, which is a perfectly dumb film. And it was actually great fun to do. We make fun of the people of West Rutland, Vermont where the thing was made, and we really sort of, you know, really dig into them and I think we embarrassed a few of the citizens of West Rutland. I mean, Servo at one point, just yells out "Go to hell, Good Citizens of West Rutland Vermont" and I think that was probably a little bit strong (snickers). But the movie got what it deserved.

After a while, we realized that we probably shouldn't make fun of, like, the physical features of people who can't help it. Except in the case of someone like Joe Don Baker. He deserves everything we throw at him.

Verdict: And of course, for his attitude after your skewering of him...

KM: (scoffs) Ahhh...empty threats from a fat man don't scare me too much.

Verdict: Is there any film that you wish you could get another crack it. You look back at and say, "Gee, we weren't mean enough to that. We should have been harsher?"

KM: (laughs) Actually, no. I think we were sufficiently harsh on a lot of the films we did. We had one film where somebody took us to task ...we had heard back, second hand, that Joe Dante, who was a fan of our show, got really angry because we did the movie Marooned, which fell into PD [public domain] for a short while, so we were able to get our mitts on it. I guess that was a very influential and important film in his career or something like that and, you know, poor guy he was just simply wrong. It was perfect for us, and it was probably the biggest celebrity film that we got our mitts on at the time. I was very happy to do it.

Verdict: You're currently working as a critic for NPR, and you also had the very well received book A Year at the Movies. Do you see a connection between being a robot making fun of movies, and being a critic, sitting and actually writing critical commentary about films?

KM: Well, I've never tried to pretend that I'm an actual film critic. I actually call myself, if anything, a "professional audience member." And NPR calls me a commentator, which I'm a little bit more comfortable with. Anybody can be a commentator, but I think you have to be pretty sharp to be an actual film critic. And, although there's a lot of film critics I like...and so I end up being the same thing that Tom Servo was, which was I look to represent the audience rather than the filmmaker. The whole premise of the book is that somebody needed to write a book from the audience's point of view, and sort of commiserate on what's wrong with the modern film world and where are the alternatives to the modern film world that can, perhaps, make it better. So, I always try to be a champion for the audience. I have my opinions, not everybody agrees with me. I've made some people angry and that's it. But people should know that I'm trying to speak for, to speak from the point of view of the audience.

Verdict: Do you enjoy writing more, or performing more, or is there a real difference between the two?

KM: There's a real difference...performing...depending on what it is, performing can be a lot of fun. Mystery Science Theater was ideal for me because I got to be a puppeteer, so they didn't have to see my ugly kisser on the screen, which I think is for the benefit of all human kind. I either wore a monkey mask, or I had a puppet, which was fine. It was better that way. People don't recognize me on the street, which is also fine by me, and a puppet is able to get away with things that humans can't get away with, which is one of the delightful things about being a puppet. I used to love when we'd do interviews on those press junkets, and the interviewers would end up asking questions of...I think it was Bill Tush from CNN who stopped himself in the middle of a question and said "My god, I'm asking a question of a puppet." So that was wonderful. That part of performing was really fun.

Writing is a lonely business. It seems to be a riskier business because you're putting your own...I mean, when you write books...you're putting your own ego on the line there. So you have to be ready for that. The kind of TV writing we did (on MST) is one of my favorite things in the world to do. Writing TV comedy is just a blast! It's just one of the greatest things I've done. Especially with the Mystery Science Theater staff because they were all very smart, very funny people and we'd just sit down for days on end and try to make each other laugh. I mean, that's about as good a job as you can get.

Verdict: On a couple of recent DVD releases, Mike (Nelson) has done some commentary tracks, both sort of serious and sort of humorous, for some old films. Have you ever been approached to do commentaries for DVD and if so, would you do it?

KM: Well, as a matter of fact, I think we're...Mike, Bill Corbet, and I formed this little, I guess it's the TV equivalent of a garage band. We call ourselves The Film Crew [visit their wonderful website] and we're hoping to expand what I did on [NPR's] "Weekend Edition Sunday," and I hoping that three of us will be on "Weekend Edition Sunday" sometime later in the year. We've been talking to Rhino recently about doing film commentary on some of their DVDs. Because, you know, we're not the directors of the film, we're not stars. What we'd have to offer is a film commentary track that's pure entertainment. A lot of people, they watch these things, I think they get a little bored after a while. Our job would be to make the film commentary actually funny, and entertaining, and worth listening through all the way through.

Verdict: As someone who had to sit through all the commentaries on the Ultimate Matrix Collection to write the review...

KM: (interrupts, laughing) Oh...jeez!

Verdict: Yeah, I know. I totally understand.

KM: Don't you get tired? I mean...wouldn't you like to have... instead of listening to the Wachowski Brothers quoting philosophers and...

Verdict: Actually, they had the philosophers themselves...

KM: Oh! Did they have Cornel West on there?

Verdict: Yes they did.

KM: Oh jeez, you know, he's thoughtful and all, but he can get really tedious. So, you know, wouldn't it be a whole lot more fun to get a comic on there?

Verdict: Indeed. Actually, the better track was where they had the three critics commenting, going through the first film saying how wonderful it was. But then, when they had to go through Reloaded and Revolutions, their interest level dropped immediately...

KM: Absolutely (laughs)

Verdict: Final question Kevin. If you were in charge of making a single DVD, you can pick the film and you can pick the extras, what would your dream DVD be?

KM: Wow! (thinks for a moment). Boy, that's, that's a great question. I'd have to give that some thought there. Boy, what pops out in my mind right away, when I think of a film that I'd love to...I think of this in terms of a film I'd really like to own and I'd watch over and over again. The Godfather series has been done pretty...darn...well. Lawrence of Arabia is still one of my favorite movies and that's one that I'd love to see preserved for High Def. You know, when High Def comes out? I would love to own a copy because it's all...it's all photography. I mean, people forget how gorgeous and amazing photography can be. So if someone did a David Lean collection, and did it on High Def -- I don't care if it's Blu Ray or HD-DVD or whatever the hell you put it on, as long as it's available -- and they go back to the original prints to make it, and really do an appreciable job then, yeah, then I can die happy.

For more information on Kevin Murphy, A Year at the Movies and Mystery Science Theater 3000:

http://www.mst3kinfo.com/
http://www.ayearatthemovies.com/