Tom Servo

Tom Servo
Played by	Josh Weinstein (1988-1990) Kevin Murphy (1990-1999) James Moore (website)
Firstappearance	K00 - The Green Slime (although technically the now familar Servo puppet appeared as early as episode K02 Revenge of the Mysterons from Mars)
Latestappearance	1013 - Diabolik
Location	Satellite of Love
Charactertype	Regular

Tom Servo is one of two robot cohosts built by Joel Robinson to act as a companion and help stave off madness as he was forced to watch low-quality movies by the Mads on Mystery Science Theater 3000. He is somewhat more mature and cynical than his companion Crow T. Robot.

Overview

In the unaired 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 #K02: Revenge of the Mysterons from Mars Servo's head was replaced with the now-familiar gumball machine used throughout the series.

Personality

Servo's personality changed slightly through the series. In the early years, Servo was somewhat pompous and even arrogant towards the other characters. Gradually, these traits softened, and although Tom let his pride get the better of him on several occasions (meaning basicly whenever there was Host Segment), he also showed more thoughtfulness towards others, though not necessarily tact. Tom was also easily rattled on several occasions, often letting his temper get the better of him or showing little patience, especially after being teased by Crow. He is highly intellectual and often shows deeper and a more complex level of thought than the other Satellite residents. This is highly shown in the episode The Undead, when he scored the highest on the Observers' I.Q. test, even scoring higher than one of them. He says that he just, "tests well." This is shown to be true, when Tom is taken to the Observers' planet: he can't read any mind but his own, the "brain" he carries is actually an olive, and to boot, he steals of their silverware.

When Gypsy tried to understand Tom in Monster A-Go Go, he simply said, 'Nobody does. I'm the wind, baby!'

However, Servo also has an inferiority complex about his size and shape, being insulted when called "stout" and often altering his form in attempts to improve his body or make him seem more imposing. Oddly, he did not have a complex about appearing in drag, which happened often when a female role was required for a sketch role and Gypsy was not available. On one occasion, he even declared, "In this outfit, I feel like a total fem. You know what? I don't have a problem with it." Even with this fact, Servo considered himself to be quite a ladies' man; his past loves included a blender, The Creepy Girl, and even his "sister" Gypsy.

Servo also enjoyed singing, especially after Kevin Murphy took over as puppeteer. He frequently sang songs to objects of affection, such as Tibby and the The Creepy Girl, and on one occasion even tamed an enraged gorilla with his fine baritone voice.

In addition, Servo has red-green colorblindness , and is the owner of a red toy car which he has used to run Crow over on several occasions, an extensive underwear collection , and a large number of duplicates of himself .

Behind the Scenes

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.

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 U.S.A. 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.

Pop Culture Appearances

Tom Servo also appeared in the Cops-style Star Wars spoof "Troops" as a droid purloined by Jawas. Star Trek: 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.

Tom also appeared in the Futurama episode Raging Bender alongside Crow, shushing Fry and telling him that it's not polite to talk while a movie's on.

External links

• A page with instructions for building a Tom Servo
• A guide to the different heads used on the Tom Servo puppet