So this week’s thread is a tribute to Mr. Trace Beaulieu. We did a “favorite Trace moments” thread WAY WAY back, but this is about more than just his huge contribution to our favorite cowtown puppet show. If you have a story about a real-life interaction with Trace, we’d love to hear it too.
One great moment I remember was at the second convention, where, in the middle of the panel with Kim Catrall, he slipped in by a side door, snuck up to in front of where she was sitting, threw a bouquet of flowers onto the table in front of her and dashed out. Great stuff.
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In 1994 when I toured Best Brains, while standing on the “bridge” of the Satellite of Love, in walks Trace. I shouted, “I love you”, no matter my husband was standing right beside me. He smiled, walked over, and I whipped out my plane ticket, which he autographed. Since then, I’ve seen him many times, at Dragoncon, and at Cinematic Titanic events. I always say, “I love you” for old times sake, except for the last time because I thought it, like a bad joke, was getting old.
Just don’t say “I love you” to a picture of Richard Basehart. (Some
females are quite territorial). Hi-keeba!
At the Cinematic Titanic show last year in Royal Oak, I brought my ACEG for the whole cast to sign. It’s a bit beat up, and of course, upon seeing that, both Trace and Mary Jo couldn’t help but bust my chops a little bit.
I have never met Trace, unfortunately, but he brought something very special to MST3K. The show wouldn’t have been what it was without him. I love him, and his unique sense of humor, and I’m glad to name him as one of my favorite people on this earth. :-D
I’ve never had the pleasure to meet Mr. Beaulieu, but he has impacted my life in a rather unexpected way. Besides being an MST3K fan, I am also a comic book fanatic as well. Several years back, Trace wrote a comic called Here Come The Big People. Given my love of Trace’s work on MST3K, I jumped at the chance to pick up a copy when I found it. I didn’t realise it back when I first picked it up, but the people who worked with Trace on that book are Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti, two of the top names in comics today. I’ve had the pleasure of chatting once or twice with Jimmy on Twitter (once when I discovered that they had worked on the comic), and have become a huge fan of him and Amanda as well. It was a surreal, yet pleasant, surprise to find these 3 people whom I admire worked together.
Thank you, Trace.
At a Cinematic Titanic show I decided to bring in a DVD set of “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea” for the cast to sign. Well, Gypsy always had a crush on Richard Basehart and Josh was her original voice in the KTMA days! Anyway, when the DVD set was being signed Frank joked that he liked Walter Pidgeon’s Admiral Nelson better but when I got to Trace he was all ecstatic! He always watched the show as a kid plus he said he had bought a model of the Flying Sub. Oh, I also once brought a copy of ACEG for the CT cast to sign but mine was newer and Trace was impressed by it’s great shape!
Never got the chance to meet him either, but since I missed the ‘favorite Trace moments’ thread last time around, I’ll chime in now. There were many, but I loved how over the course of time he showed you that Dr. F’s penchant for evil was the product of many deep-seeded insecurities and, we learned later, mother-issues. Trace’s commitment – as writer and actor – to the full-fledged development of Dr. Forrester is partly what helped give this silly show real heart. So my favorite moments with him are the ones that are both funny and kind of poingnant, like when his cheesey fake time-machine goes “straight to hell” and he loses it. All-time favorite, though, is his swing choir routine with Frank, when he breaks down at the end during “Send in the Clowns.” An Emmy-worthy moment if ever there was one.
What a great discussion! I’ve been lucky enough to meet Trace twice, both at Cinematic Titanic shows. The first show was in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and was a birthday present for my wonderful girlfriend and fellow MSTie. I smuggled her new Volume 11 and a replica of the Mike era Cambot I made for her to the show for signing, as well as my own Episode Guide. When we got to Trace, I mentioned that the show was a gift for my girlfriend, and he wished her a happy birthday. When we told him her birthday was actually the 1st of July (the show was the 5th), he gave ne a hard time and recommended I get my dates and times straight. :) We all laughed! And earlier this year I went to the Cinematic Titanic show at the Royal Oak, where I brought a few other things for signing, including my super awesome season one Servo head. It is essentially a white, unpainted, unaltered 80’s version of the Carousel gumball machine, and I had brought it specifically for Josh, but was obviously going to have everyone sign it. When Trace saw it, his face lit up and he exclaimed “It’s an albino Servo!”. Once again, everyone laughed! What a couple of great memories! Thank you Trace, for being one of the funniest guys ever to bless this planet with your presence! :)
Oh, and on a side note, my girlfriend’s mom has the BIGGEST crush on Trace! She missed the Ann Arbor show, so she found him on Facebook, where she professed her undying love for him. He responded almost immediately, telling her she had “made my day!” What a guy, indeed! :D
My Trace story is from a CT performance several years ago. My good friend and next door neighbor (and huge MST3K/CT fan) was going through a bone marrow transplant to fight is incredibly aggressive lymphoma. He couldn’t be exposed to crowds, so could not attend the show. So, my wife and I bought a few items for our friend to be autographed by the crew.
When we got to Trace, who was first in line sitting at the table, and we told him about who we wanted items signed for, he got this choked-up look on his face and was just so sweet and empathetic. He was more than happy to sign and send his best wishes.
Sure, he may be an evil scientist, but he’s a great guy!
Several years back, there was a blurb here at Satellite News about how you could get autographed copies of Trace’s comic “Here Come the Big People.” So I sent in a check for a set of both versions of the comic (different covers/cover artists). When I got the package, it had a note from Trace saying that because one of the covers had sold out, he was only enclosing the remaining one and returning half of my payment. And there in the package was half of my check – he had ripped it in half, essentially giving me the comic for free.
I met him later at a Cinematic Titanic show and told him about this. He remembered the incident and turned to Josh and said, “I ripped this guy’s check in half!” (To which Josh replied, “Yeah, after you stole his identity.”) It was a nice moment and the whole story shows Trace’s fun, generous nature. The guy is pretty much impossible not to like!
I bought his Horrible Rhymes for Belligerant Children book while at the Milwaukee CT show last year to set aside for my 2 year old. I thought it was absolutely glorious for my twisted dad sense of humor.
I had him sign it that night and he asked if it was for me or someone else and I told him it was for my daughter. He was very excited and asked how old she was. I was like “She’s two!” and he looked up from signing and made a few quips of how perfectly evil and delightful it was, almost setting a path to mad sciencedom.
Good times.
My nephew and I went to San Diego Comic Con in 2008 specifically to attend the MST3K 20th Anniversary panel. This was the first time I had ever met any of the stars of MST and they were all so incredibly nice and gratious to all the fans. My favorite moment of the entire trip though was after the Con, while we were sitting in the airport to catch our flight home, Trace walked in, came over to us and said “Do you mind if I sit down with you guys?” Mind you we had just met for the first time a day or two before that. We sat and just chatted for about half an hour until our flight started boarding. Trace was on the flight after ours so we bid him farewell and parted ways. It still brings a smile to my face every time I think about what an amazingly kind act that was for him to take some time to make a lifelong memory for a fan.
Yes- Trace (and the rest of the CT gang) was so friendly and gracious after the 2010 show in Royal Oak, MI. A nice outing for me and my kids, who grew up watching MST. That would be my favorite Trace moment.
I live in Minnesota and I took my girlfriend to see Joel’s “How to Have a Career Like Mine”. We sat near the back and my girlfriend couldn’t help noticing that the guy in the seat behind us looked vaguely familiar. I was pretty sure it was Trace, but she wanted me to ask him. After she got tired of me just teasing her, she turned and asked “Excuse me. This may sound strange, but what’s your name?” He said “Well, what’s yours?” “Kim.” “My name is Trace.” “That’s what I thought.” “Oh. Then why did you ask?” After he was done joining me in teasing her, he posed for a picture with her. She talked about a favorite Crow moment with the “I Love Ken” song from Fugitive Alien II. As anyone who has seen interviews with Trace could predict, he couldn’t remember anything about that host segment. But he was very friendly and casual. When Joel did one of the question and answer segments during the show, Trace came up and joined him. He had some amusing observations about Mystery Science Theater 3000, such as “Crow actually had a much more successful screenwriting career than I did.” Trace is a very fun guy who certainly knows better than to take himself as seriously as his fans take him.
He was quite brilliant in not only developing Doctor Forrester, who could have been just a standard cliche ‘mad scientist’, into a full-fledged character, but also making Crow a wonderfully complex creature one almost believed in despite his having reportedly no experience in puppetry before the show. I also can’t help but notice how good he is at producing quips out of thin air with perfect timing during the panel discussions and such on the DVDs.
He deserves a great deal of praise and my goal is to someday learn how to spell his last name.
Alright. Everyone grab a pennant and chant:
Forrester! Forrester! Doctor Clayton Forrester!
Event the sleepy-eyed guy was rooting for him against TV’s Frank (for a while).
I met the cast at their one Cinematic Titanic show in Ohio; it was in Cleveland back in, I think, 2010.
Trace stood at the front of the meet-and-greet table where the rest of the cast were sitting, so he was the first one you met in line (after Gruber, who was going through the line handing out free t-shirts and fruit). I had him autograph a couple of MST3K DVD sets I brought with me (my mom had him sign a couple of VHS tapes of the show) and after that was done, the line was stalled, so I was just standing next to him waiting to move up to Josh, Mary Jo and Frank, and then finally Joel standing at the other end of the table. Considering this was a meet-and-greet, Trace and I had already met-and-greeted each other during the autograph signing, so now my social awkwardness took over and I found myself standing next to a guy who had brought me countless hours of joy with no idea of what to say to him.
I don’t actually recall if he was the first to start talking or if I was. But one of the DVD sets I’d brought to sign was the Volume 10 set in its original form, which included the recalled DVD of “Godzilla VS. Megalon.” I’m guessing I felt the need to make conversation and made some comment about how, growing up, it always blew my mind that MST3K riffed Godzilla movies, as aside from MST3K itself, Godzilla movies were some of my favorite forms of entertainment. I’m fairly sure Trace seemed pleased/amused that some kid watching MST3K in the ’90s could also be a huge fan of one of the movies they were riffing.
Somehow, then, the subject of Gamera came up; I think Trace brought it up, actually. From there, the idea of a Godzilla VS. Gamera movie was mentioned, and I commented that it seemed a shame to me that Daiei/Kadokawa Pictures, the studios that created and now own Gamera respectively, could never strike a deal of Toho to do a Godzilla/Gamera crossover film. Trace then insisted that Toho owned the rights to both Gamera and Godzilla, and that it was some kind of internal dispute or something that was keeping a crossover movie from being made. I told him that I was fairly sure he was mistaken and that two different companies owned each character, but he was fairly insistent that Toho owned both and that there was some other reason that a Godzilla/Gamera movie had never been made.
After attempting to politely re-assert my nerdy correctness once more, I gave up after a further rebuke from him and said “Huh, maybe you’re right…”
It wasn’t until later that I entertained the possibility that Trace could tell that I was a huge rubber suit-monster movie nerd and was doing that specifically to rile me up, sort of a real life version of those fake motivational posters that feature a picture of Gandalf, a quote from Yoda and attribution for the quote listed as Dumbledore. I have no way of knowing if he was trying to troll me or if he was genuinely confused, but either way, I can now say, with just a bit of exaggeration, that I got into an argument about Godzilla with Trace Beaulieu. Either way, I treasure the memory!
Nerdy disagreements aside, he was as nice as could be, and exceptionally easy to talk to. Heck, with my social anxiety problems over the years, it’s actually kind of a big deal to me that I was able to “argue” (in a good-natured way!) with him without feeling negative or self-conscious. Strange as it may sound, that meant a lot to me, and I hope I can catch the CT crew one last time before they hang up their touring shoes at the end of this year. God bless Trace and the whole MST3K gang.
My life-size Crow puppet is signed by him (and Bill). Yeah, Trace is pretty awesome.
I’ve met Trace twice: once at Gateway 3 in St. Louis in 2001 and later at a Cinematic Titanic show in Austin in 2009. As has already been said, he’s a really nice guy. Actually, all of those guys are really friendly. Except, perhaps, for Frank, who is very stand-off-ish.
He asked me if if got my Gizmonics Institute shirt from Joel (I didn’t). I was so star-struck that I could barely respond.
I also met Trace at Gateway 3 in 2000 where he and Frank signed my SOL model. Poor trace must have been up for a while because he signed a photo for my sister with “I’m very tired Cay. Love Trace.”
when i watch the CT verions of santa claus conquers the martians last christmas time, i loved the part when trace was talking about the B-52 (when the B-52 was taking off). my dad was in the air force and he was a B-52 Nav and i was around them a lot when i was a kid. thanks mst3k/rifftrax/ct for all the wonderful joy you have brought me over the years.
Met him along with the other CT cast mates at a live show in 2009 in Seattle. I remember after the show, he was standing near the restrooms with his wife (I presume), and I could help myself, I walked past him and said “I really enjoyed the show!” He said thank you. I remember a crew member got annoyed that I walked up to Trace like that, and in hindsight is was likely rude of me to approach him while he was possibly having a convo with who I think might have been his wife, but, either way it was cool to exchange brief words with him. I also spoke with Mary Jo during the autograph session.
One of my favorite Trace jokes during a particular panel is from the Crow Vs. Crow panel where Trace joked a bout a fan in the audience cosplaying as TV’s Frank. The “fan” he pointed to, was actually Frank Conniff.
Sadly, I have no Wonderful Encounter With Trace Beaulieu Stories — you lucky, lucky people — although I hope to bring one home from the CT show at Arlington Cinema & Drafthouse next Friday night.
Just in case there’s anyone on here from the DC area who’s going to those shows, my friend and I will be at the Friday night (May 31) late show, where they’ll be riffing a crusty old Roger Corman stinkburger called Wasp Woman.
Drop me a note if you’re going to be at Wasp Woman; maybe we can make a party out of it.
There’s a reason I picked the name I use on here. Trace’s Crow is my favorite TV character. Trace is funny and a really nice guy. I met him at a meet-and-greet at a CT show in Somerville, Mass. (I had them all sign a CT cast picture). I didn’t really converse with him that much: I had NO idea what to say, but he did notice the shirt I was wearing, which is one I got from this site’s Café Press – it’s the “On life-long quest like Sinbad. Shot myself out airlock. Never returning. Ham in fridge — Crow.” (one which I actually suggested). :) He read it and chuckled, and I said, “Remember that” and he said, “Yeah” – which he probably might actually have not have, heh.
Anyway, I just love his Crow and his Dr. F, they really were the heart of the show for me (along with Joel). And I do think Bill is funny, but that was not the “real” Crow. ;-) (That was Timmy, I think).
Definitely end of an era at the end of Season 7. :(
I have always been impressed with his impressions. I will never forget his Peck in Space Travelers, or his Bela Lugosi.
So Joel was the…imagination? On topic: While Bill (eventually) proved that Crow could be someone other than Trace’s vent stick, there could never be another Dr. Clayton Forrester.
Never was lucky enough to meet him but I was actually thinking about this the other day, “Who is my favorite MST3K person?” It was obvious to me that as much as I love Joel, Mike, Kevin, Frank, Bill and Mary Jo, Trace was the obvious front runner. With his various voices and that funny high pitched giggle that’s ever present during the riffing, he’s the one that puts the most smiles on my face.
In a perfect world (and no offense to Bill who did a great job stepping in as Crow 2.0 or Mary Jo who was wonderful as Pearl) Trace would have been there all ten seasons.
My favorite Trace moment was with Crow getting carried away as Orville Redenbacher in Godzilla v. Megalon. His screaming “I’m the God! I’ve got the keys to the kingdom!” cracks me up to this day. I think he was the geeky heart of the show and after he left, I figured the show was truly done and I never even watched the Sci-Fi episodes until just a few years ago. Sadly I didn’t get to talk to him much during the signing line at the one CT show I have attended, I am hoping to hit one more before they hang it up.
So, who would be the pancreas of the show?
In this world of one-dimensional super villans, Dr. Forrester is the kind of mad scientist I can actually relate to.
My Trace story is from ConventioCon I. I was at the table getting cast autographs when Trace noticed that I was wearing a C-3PO belt buckle. I told him I’d gotten back in 1978, that my brother Bri had gotten an R2-D2 buckle, and that Bri had gotten tired of it and given it to me, so now I had both.
Trace’s reply: “You luck!”
Favorite Trace moment #2 – In September 2011 I travelled to Minneapolis to see Cinematic Titanic perform three shows in three nights at the Parkway Theater. By this time I had met Trace a couple times, but I never expected what happened on that trip. For the second show I was joined by my friend who lives in Minneapolis and who had actually been able to watch MST on KTMA. As we began to enter the theater a voice behind us said “Hey, don’t let that guy in. We’ve had trouble with him before.” When I turned to see who it was I saw a grinning Trace standing right behind us. We stepped into the theater and I introduced my friend to Trace. Trace stayed an chatted with us for 15 minutes or so before he had to head back stage to get ready for the show. I hate to admit that, I think because my friend was there, I acted way too nonchalant, like this happened to me all the time. When Trace left I immediately wished I had been a little more respectful. When I had a chance to see Trace again at the meet and greet after the show I was trying to think of a way to apologize, or at least explain that I realized I had acted a little too cool for my own good. When he reached him in line he stood up, shook my hand and my friend’s and immediately showed he hadn’t even noticed what I was concerned may have offended him. He is truly a cool person.
Back when they would put small signed squares in with orders of the CT DVDS I got one of everyone except Trace and the last one I got was a second one of Josh. I figured I would get it sooner or later when I ordered the next DVD, but the next one had a postcard of all of them, no signed little picture. So I looked at the order receipt and saw a phone number and called it to see if I could speak to someone about getting the Trace pic. signed.
Like everything today I thought I’d get a recorded message, not a real person. But I talked with this very friendly woman who despite my Ma. accent said she’d send one right out. After hanging up the phone I saw that her last name was the same as Traces and I thought wow that must’ve been Traces wife or daughter. This is my favorite part, when CT came to Boston I stood in line to get some stuff signed and when I got to Trace I asked if ( said first name of woman/girl I spoke to—) she was his wife or daughter. He had this horrified look on his face and Josh heard me as well and they both looked at each other and I explained to them I was the guy who called for the picture. And he said oh your that guy, I was there when you called and it was his wife that took the call. I proceeded to say I didn’t realize that any of them worked the phones or stuff like that, and he said they had a really small operation working there. I then told him I had a really small operation and asked if he would like to see the scar, he said ah, no thanks. But the next day I was replaying it over in my mind and thought, asking him if that was his wife or daughter made me sound like a stalker or something and with the Ma. accent he was probably even more confused. I felt bad putting him on the spot like that, but will always remember what a cool and gracious cat he and how nice his wife was dealing with me.
Sorry this was so long.
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Never met him in person, but bought his comic from him when he was still sending three copies (each with a different cover). He had moved around that time, so it took a *long* time before he got back to me with the goods, but the apologetic letter that accompanied them more than made up for the wait.
You can see it here:
http://bit.ly/13TKPdV
Also got one of those little signed “pictures” from Cinematic Titanic when I placed my first order way back when…
I met Trace at the first MST3K convention. He graciously posed for a picture with me. He’s awesome.
Never met Trace, but was thrilled when he showed up in the Oval Office in a guest role on my 2nd favorite show,”The West Wing”.
That look he gave me last year at a CT show where I tried to compliment J. Elvis (who was sitting beside him in the autograph line), and it came out all wrong and back-handed. I think he hates me to this day. It haunts my dreams.
My wife and I went on a tour of Best Brains in September of 1993. As we took the tour, we met several cast members. When we met Trace, he was carrying a drill for doing some set work (I would imagine). After he chatted for a while, he parted with these words which I’ll always remember: “Well, I’ve got to go now. I’m going to drill a peephole in the wall of the ladies’ rest room!”
Sadly I’ve never met him. There are so many great moments on the show with Crow. One of mine is during Gamera when Crow makes all the Tibby jokes and his verse in the Tibby song.
#38
The (possible) allusion by Trace to the Porkys movie finally gives some
sort of rationalization for wasting several hours once watching it. Btw,
the appearance of Cisse Cameron in Porkys II is the surprising raison d’etre
(hey Gomez, that’s French!) for seeing that film.
Haven’t met him personally, but he gets a crowning moment in Cinematic Titanic’s Alien Factor DVD wherein he provides a riff that not only brings down the house but infects the other riffers with uncontrollable laughter for several seconds too.
*As the sheriff’s deputy is done talking to one of the ladies in the cast.*
Trace: “Wow, that was a date! I was on an actual date! Hahahaha~” *The deputy suddenly looks down.* “Uh oh…”
When I read that Trace was leaving I felt like Don McLean when he heard that Buddy Holly died. Luckily I have no songwriting ability.
Trace – from Killer Peck to Charles Nelson Reilly. I carry a little bit of Crow T. Robot inside me. Like Woody Allen and Humphrey Bogart in PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM. He’s always there when I need him.
Something touched me deep inside….
Not quite on topic, but were any of you ecstatic about seeing Trace and Joel on the new season of Arrested Development? Really, it did my heart good to see cult shows sticking together
#43- I was thrilled. Me and GF looked at each other,saying, “everything ties together now”
AR is a great, clever show- like MST. And Ronnie appeared in EP 523.
I loved the Trace riff on Starbucks in AR as well.
Perhaps my new Favorite Trace moment.
During a screening of This Island Earth while I was getting some Info Club newsletters signed he pointed to my MST3k The Movie t-shirt(the kind of lame one which is just the planet logo with “THE MOVIE” in red letters underneath) and was just like “Yeah Alright!” I felt like the most hardcore badass MSTie in Southern California that night. Sadly all of my MST shirts disintegrated due to me constantly wearing them in the 90’s.
I was always disappointed that Trace never did more work in front of the camera post-MST3k. He always gets a great reaction when I’ve screened Freaks and Geeks for people. Smashing into that kid in the cafeteria is such a perfect, hilarious moment. I know being the “wacky neighbor” is a very bad thing in the MST3k World, but you know Trace would have done it amazingly in any sitcom.
One day whilst I was careening about the highway on a pair of borrowed roller skates, Mr. Beaulieu gently pulled up along side of me in his Bently and suggested that an automobile might be a wiser mode of transportation. And while this incident never actually happened, it just goes to show, don’t we?
I don’t see a “reunion show” ever happening. They tried to do one in 2008 for the 20th anniversary, and Jim Mallon put a stop to it.
@ #29 – I think that’d be Jan-In-The-Pan(creas)
I ordered a copy of his comic from way back, “Here Comes the Big People”. I was maybe 12 years old at the time, and I recall sending in a hand-written letter along with the check (this was before PayPal was a thing) and when I got the comics in the mail, he had autographed both; on one book he noted “thanks for the nice letter!” and on the other (which, in the cover art, was a cartoon rendering of Dr. F in the background as a little cameo) where he wrote “I like this cover art best!”
I hadn’t thought about that til just now, but it was incredibly cool to have a little sort of personal exchange with a person whose work you liked, way back before Twitter etc made it commonplace.
I always crack up when Trace would blert out an OVER the top Scream, like when Crow would catch on fire – that take real talent to let yourself go & express ones self as such.