Crow T. Robot
Crow T. Robot | |
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Mystery Science Theater 3000 character | |
First appearance | K00 – The Green Slime |
Created by | Joel Hodgson |
Portrayed by |
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In-universe information | |
Species | Robot |
Gender | Male |
Crow The Robot is a fictional character from the American science fiction comedy television series Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K). Crow is a robot, who, along with others, ridicules poor-quality B to Z movies.
Overview
According to the MST3K storyline, Crow – like his fellow robots
Crow's middle initial stands for "The". In episode #K19:
Crow was voiced by Trace Beaulieu from the beginning of the series through the end of season seven, and Bill Corbett from the eighth season until the tenth season. Corbett's Crow was noticeably more cynical, irritable, and impatient when viewing the bad movies than Beaulieu's Crow had been. Corbett's Crow also occasionally appeared more unhinged than Beaulieu's incarnation. For example, in episode #902 The Phantom Planet Crow dresses as a Solarite (a monster from the movie played by Richard Kiel) and explains: "Have you guys ever noticed how I'll see a movie, snap, lose control of myself, and then decide I'm one of the characters in the movie, and then go out and dress myself up that way?" (Crow having done this before in episode #820 Space Mutiny as a "Bellerian"). He is voiced by Hampton Yount in the 2017 series revival.[2]
Crow's accomplishments during the show's run include:
- Writing several screenplays, including Earth vs. Soup (his seminal work) (seen in one man showtitled "Robot on the Run". In the revival series, Crow creates a sitcom with Tom called Mad Bots, and later he creates a parody Space Opera title Crow T. Robot's World War Space.
- Being an avid member of the Kim Cattrall and Estelle Winwood fan clubs.
- Co-writing a satirical musical called Supercalifragilisticexpiali-wacky!
- During the Christmas episode #321, Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, he wrote a Christmas carol titled "Let's Have a Patrick Swayze Christmas", inspired by his favorite movie, Road House.
- Though everyone aboard the SOL would like to escape, the cause is almost always the desire for freedom, not a result of the slew of terrible B-movies. But, in episode #903, The Pumaman, Crow actually succumbed to the Mads' experiment. He decided this film had finally pushed him over the edge and that he could no longer stand watching the movies. He attempted to run away, hoping to find a satellite where he would be forced to watch good movies, but gave up on his escape attempt after mere seconds.
- In between segments of the movie Werewolf, he unintentionally turns Mike into a "Werecrow."
In the earlier seasons of the show, he often announced "Ladies and gentlemen, Topo Gigio!" in the voice of Ed Sullivan.
During episode 416, concept.
Crow holds the distinction of being the only SOL robot to ever visit Deep 13 (although Tom Servo and Gypsy once visited the alternate-earth version and Cambot is directly connected to the Mads' camera): In episode 615,
In the theatrical film based on the series, Crow distinguishes himself early on by attempting to tunnel back to Earth using a pickaxe. Even he admits the faulty logic employed in this scheme when he examines his calculations: "Well, look at that! 'Breach hull, all die' – I even had it underlined!" / "Well, believe me, Mike, I calculated the odds of this succeeding versus the odds I was doing something incredibly stupid, and... I went ahead anyway."
A running joke of Crow's character throughout the series, particularly in the last few seasons of the Sci-Fi channel's running of the show, is his frequent costume changes into film characters during the host segments. Often Crow has been known to take on the appearance and sometimes the personality of one of the characters in the movie that is currently being shown, usually ending with Mike, Tom Servo, or Joel using Crow's role-playing as a plot device or setup to a joke that mocks the film even more. As previously mentioned, this continuing effect finally was recognized by Crow himself during Episode 902, The Phantom Planet.
Another recurring joke that was more prominent during the earlier seasons of the series – dating, in fact, from the KTMA days – was Crow's apparent inability to distinguish between different types of animal; he would joyfully cry "Kitty!" when an animal appeared on screen, regardless of whether it was at all feline, and regardless of whether it was even cute enough to elicit such a positive response.
In Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Comic, Crow along with the other Bots and Jonah Heston were sent into the comics thanks to Kinga's new invention the Bubbulat-R. While Tom Servo was sent into Johnny Jason, Teen Reporter and Jonah was sent into Black Cat, Crow was sent into Horrific but then the effects of the comic started to make Crow succumb a comic disease called four-color fever and turns into a monster called "the Crow-Keeper" which eventually starts to threaten his relationship with Jonah and the other Bots and Kinga's plan in conquering comic media.
In the season 13 premiere
Crow spoke the final line of dialogue when the original series ended in 1999. ("This movie looks kind of familiar doesn't it?"; Season 10 episode 13: "Diabolik")
Behind the scenes
Crow is a gold-colored puppet composed of, among other things, a soap dish eye cowl, ping pong ball eyes, a split plastic bowling pin mouth, a lacrosse face mask webbing (Cooper XL7-FG), and Tupperware panels for the body. The original puppet for Crow was built by Joel Hodgson in a single night before filming the pilot episode. At the beginning of Season One, the puppet was redesigned and built by Trace Beaulieu, adding a second Tupperware tray to Crow's torso as well as movable eyes. Another version of Crow is used for the theater segments. This version is painted flat black. Of all the bots, Crow was the least changed from his KTMA incarnation to when the series became nationally broadcast. He is the only one who retained his general primary color.
Trace Beaulieu operated Crow in the initial
Many first-time viewers of the series are confused by Crow's appearance during the movie segments. Only the outline of his head can be seen, and (due to multistable perception) it can appear as if Crow is facing toward the viewer. This phenomenon was addressed in The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Amazing Colossal Episode Guide with illustrations comparing Crow to a Necker cube.[4]
At
For the series revival, a new Crow was built with much larger hands, controlled with arm rods, similar to Kermit the Frog, which makes the puppeteering more complicated, so two puppeteers are dedicated to Crow, with Yount controlling the opening and closing of Crow's beak and providing the voice off-camera.
Appearances in other media
- An episode of Futurama entitled "Raging Bender" has the gang visiting the theater, where Fry mockingly riffs on a newsreel intro before being shushed by the silhouette of a rather testy Crow-like robot ironically saying "Don't talk during the movie!"; beside him is a Tom Servo-resembling robot.[5]
- In the Sonic the Hedgehog, issue #52, Sonic is sent into a 1920s variation of Mobius. In searching for the handheld computer Nicole, Sonic does battle with a number of robots, three of them resembling Crow T. Robot, Tom Servo and Cambot.
- In an issue of Star Wars Tales, Crow and Tom (with his cylinder head) are seen in the foreground of a comedic tale written by Peter David, starring a perky Force-using droid. He also appears in Tag and Bink: Revenge of the Clone Menace, along with Tom Servo and Gypsy.
- The June 8 2007 edition of the Cat And Girl comic features Crow as the President of South Vietnam.
- Trace Beaulieu reprised his role of Crow for a brief cameo appearance in two episodes of the Arrested Development, along with Joel.[6]
Crow Syndrome
The "Crow Syndrome" is a frequent joke on the show and
Further reading
- MST3K FAQ: What is this MST3K Thing, Anyway?
- MST3K FAQ: "This is my Bot! There Are Many Others Like It..."
References
- ^ "Subtleties, Obscurities, Odds And Ends". Mystery Science Theater 3000: Frequently Asked Questions. Satellite News. Retrieved 2007-09-15.
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- ^ "Episodes: #801: The Revenge of the Creature". CastleForrester.com. Archived from the original on February 7, 2012.
- ISBN 0-553-37783-3.
- ^ Futurama, episode "Raging Bender" [2.21], 27 February 2000
- ^ MST3K Pops Up in Arrested Development
- ^ Web Site Number 9 MSTing FAQ, question 3.4 Archived 2005-03-08 at the Wayback Machine