A:  Man, there were so many.  Here’s what pops into my mind: UNTAMED YOUTH, being our first non-science fiction film, was a friggin’ blast.  LEECH WOMAN had me laughing from one end to the other.  Mary Jo Pehl put out a joke that still makes me laugh, although it didn’t make it into the show: when the old woman first drinks the pineal juice, at the first glance of her as a gorgeous young woman, Mary Jo said, “check out my shit!”  I laughed for days.  Then there was BRUTE MAN, with Rondo Hatton as the Creeper.  We’d fix on things in movies and repeat them endlessly, laughing like howler monkeys, and in BRUTE MAN there was an old man who seemed the bitterest, most misanthropic joyless old fart who ever lived.  We impersonated him for years.  DEATH STALKER allowed us to express all of our bilious hatred for Ren Fests, and damn did it feel good.  But of all, from end to end, SPACE MUTINY was a delight.
       On the other side of the coin, INVASION OF THE NEPTUNE MEN was hell.  It was grim, hard to look at and pointless.  We had no handholds.  OVERDRAWN AT THE MEMORY BANK just plain hurt, and it hurt to see Raul Julia in such a horseshit role.

Q (Forrest):  Is there a certain MST3K’d character, or moment, in any film on MST3K, that still pops up in your mind even today?

A:  Yep. “Rex Dart, Eskimo Spy.”

Q (Forrest):  A lot of movies seen in MST3K have terrible songs (for example “Vicky”
from Eegah or “Night Train to Mundo Fine” from Red Zone Cuba) and of all these terrible songs, which one did you think was the most painful?

A:  Hey! I liked “Night Train to Mundo Fine!”  However, the pop song in POP PEOPLE, I don’t even know the name, I think we called it “Idiot Control Now” in our parody, or sometimes “Hideous Patrol Now” and once, “Billy in the Low-Down.”  “California Lady” in TRACK OF THE MOON BEAST was wretched, but we made the best of it.

Q (Forrest):  What was the most rewarding part about playing Tom Servo?

A:  Truly, it was working with Trace, Joel, Mike, M.J., Bill and Jim, as well as Patrick Beez and Toolmaster Jeff Maynard on set, in the trenches, in the heat of battle, struggling to get this crazy mess finished on time, which we always did, laughing all the while.

Q (Forrest):  If you could make one last episode of MST3K, what movie would you use?  And why would you use this movie?

A:  PLANET OF THE APES.  I don’t think I need to explain.

Q (Forrest):  Can you tell us anything about your current writing projects?

A:  Nope.  The easiest way to jack up a work in progress is to talk about it.  Suffice it to say that I look forward to getting paid to have fun again.

Q (Forrest):  What do you prefer writing about, the “experience” approach like in A Year At The Movies, or writing movie reviews?

A:  I love writing for NPR, since they give me such a wide berth.  I’m not required to simply write movie reviews, I get to write about the experience, about what irritates me or gives me joy, in the watching of movies.  Writing about show business bores the hell out of me.  Either view ’em or do ’em, the rest is just marketing.  That said, writing A Year at the Movies was a dream job and immensely satisfying.  Travel and writing, that’s just heaven.

Q (Forrest):  BBI said that there was some thought about having a totally different robot instead of Crow from the switch from Comedy Central to the Sci-Fi Channel.  But ultimately, that was nothing anyone could imagine.  What character ideas did you have for the thought of replacing Crow?

A:  I don’t remember having any serious discussions about creating a character to replace Crow.  The harder job of course was moving on beyond the brilliant Trace Beaulieu.  I think Bill Corbett was handed the toughest assignment ever given to anyone ever at Best Brains, taking over the role of a well-known and well-loved character.  And I think he did it beautifully.

Q (Forrest):  If MST3K was ever put back on television, would you want to do it again?

A:  Loaded question.  I’d consider it.  At a certain point, bringing a team back together is like trying to re-live an experience, and that’s a dangerous illusion.

Q (Forrest):  There’s a handful or references within MST3K’s rich history that only few people on Earth would understand.  Do you recall any these references that you used in MST3K, if so, can you tell us anything behind that/those reference(s)?

A:  To repeat, “Rex Dart, Eskimo Spy.”  An exercise in pure silliness.  It made sense to no one outside the writing room.  However, we’ve all looked at a character or a person and assigned our own idiosyncratic name to them.  That’s just what we did, and we made him the star of a MANNIX-like action series.

Q (Forrest):  What’s the funniest thing you’ve ever seen in your life?

A:  Can’t pin that down.  Here’s a few: Comedian Dana Gould on a good night.  Certain brief moments of Peter Sellers in the PINK PANTHER MOVIES.  Basil Fawlty in full panic.  My brother pretending to slip on the ice.

Q (Forrest):  Who would win in a fight?  Pitch the devil or Trumpy (from Pod People)?

A:  Trumpy, hands down.  Pitch is a pin-dick wimp.

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