Intro:  I love Tom!  Who doesn’t?!  Tom Servo has probably gone through more changes than any other character in the show, so here’s my salute to everyone’s favorite gumball machine: Tom Servo.

Made Of:  Monkey Barrel, Gumball Machine head, mini-slinky, ventriloquist dummy hands, BOO candy bowl, plastic toy trains.

Full Name:  Tom Servo 

First Episode Appearance:  KTMA Pilot: The Green Slime (known then as Beeper)

Physical Appearance:  Tom Servo started out as a very annoying puppet called Beeper. Beeper was very different from the Tom we know, he was silver, and had a large plastic square-ish dome thing over his head. In the rest of the KTMA, Servo was much like the present Servo and Beeper mixed together. In the early Season 1, Servo looks pretty much like he does in most of the seasons, but with a big white beak, this changed in later season 1, but he continued to have longer arms. Then in season 2, Servo had temporarily had a cylinder shaped head (BBI was worried that it covered too much of the movie). Also in season 1-2 Servo most of the time had white hands, sometimes he had tan hands. In season 3-10, Servo stayed basically the same throughout.

Personality:  In the KTMA year, Servo was played by Josh Weinstein, who started out as the robot named Beeper.  Beeper was a robot that could only communicate with Crow, by means of a beeping noise (sorta like R2-D2 to C-3PO).  He was very unappealing, and Josh decided to change him to a speaking character.  The first Servo had a squeaky Kermit the Frog type voice, and then he adopted what we know as the "been-there/done-that" voice, which, for continuity, was given by Joel installing in Tom his new dynamic mighty voice.  This been-there/done-that take on the character continued through Season One.
     In Season Two, Tom was now played by a totally new voice.  I believe Kevin Murphy greatly improved the character of Tom Servo.  Although I liked Weinstein’s take on the character, it was nothing compared to Murphy’s.  At the beginning of Season Two, Kevin Murphy seemed to try to imitate Josh Weinstein, but about halfway through the second season, he became the Tom Servo we know and love.   He also, even in his first episode (Rocketship XM), improved the puppeteering skills of Servo. Also note, that what I think really made the MiSTies not hate Kevin Murphy on his first outing was that "Creepy Girl" Song in Catalina Caper (of course, there still was the infamous guy who sent Kevin Murphy a huge banner that said "I HATE TOM SERVO’S NEW VOICE!")
     In Season Three, Tom Servo seemed to be the one to make the riffs that seemed almost as if they were made on the spot.  However, these little insignificant comments and such were very funny, and added onto the values of the character.  Also, Kevin Murphy is a pretty good singer, and Tom Servo belts out songs all the time, whether it was during the film or in host segments.  He still seemed to have a forced deep voice, but it made the character come out a bit more.
     In Season Four, Kevin Murphy didn’t seem to try to force a deeper voice, and now Tom, although sounding nearly identical to how he was in Season 2 and 3, was now a bit more relaxed, much like how Trace Beaulieu relaxed his voice with Crow (For that story, click here).  Tom still belted out songs, and made us laugh.  And Tom Servo stayed pretty much this way until Season Eight.
     In Season Eight, Tom had a REALLY relaxed voice, and Kevin Murphy basically just used his normal voice for the character.  Tom’s personality changed a bit, not as much as Crow’s, but there was a noticeable change from his transition from CC to Sci-Fi.  It was very minor though, and also, Tom seemed to sit higher up in the seats in the CC years, than the Sci-Fi years.
     Tom had indeed gone through many changes, some minor, like a slight personality change and sitting position in the seats, some were significant, being voiced by a different person, and getting his head temporarily reduced to a cylinder from the normal round gumball head for a couple of episodes.  Despite the many changes and evolutions, Tom Servo remains an essential and hilarious part of MST3K.