Here are my top five, in episode order:
• 102- THE ROBOT VS. THE AZTEC MUMMY–Josh’s puppetry and voice work is great in the segment where Tom Servo faces down the demon dogs … and soon regrets it.
• 103- MAD MONSTER–But his work in the “Tom hits on a blender” sketch is even more impressive. Josh never had the chance to get as comfortable with the puppet as Kevin did later (and the early puppet was much less expressive) but he did a lot with what he had.
• 104- WOMEN OF THE PREHISTORIC PLANET–Clay & Lar’s Flesh Barn–showing off his considerable musical talent, Josh give us the first original song on the national series, with guitar accompaniment.
• 105- THE CORPSE VANISHES–The classic “Joel gets a haircut” sketch would be considerably less hilarious without Josh’s comedy stylings.
• And let’s not forget one of his greatest moments for MST3K happened off-camera: it was Weinstein that spotted struggling comedian Michael J. Nelson and suggested he be hired!
Those are mine. Note that I did not include any KTMA moments. I’m sure other will, however…
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He did co-write the “Love Theme”.
The “Tongue Puppet” IE is so funny.
Josh never really grew on me on the show, and I think it’s mostly because I never really cared for the voice he used to portray Dr. Erhardt. High nasally voice just make my skin crawl. That said, I love his delivery when he describes the cast in THE CRAWLING HAND: “…and the guy from the hamburger helper commercials.”
For Tom Servo, I gotta mention ROBOT MONSTER, with all of the “dum de dum de dum. Excuse Me!” moments while the “monster” is walking around.
“Hi, I’m Tom Servo.”
*woman screams*
Moon Zero Two- Dr. E has the Linda Blair toothpaste dispenser and says, “Your mother flosses in Hell!”
For me, it’s hard to judge his MST3K performances, because as one person has already pointed out, his Doctor Earhardt persona was deliberately grating, while his Tom Servo has just been so thoroughly eclipsed by Kevin Murphy’s that I can’t go back and watch the season one episodes without thinking that Tom’s got the “wrong” voice.
Which is why one of the truly pleasant surprises of Cinematic Titanic has been discovering just what a great performer he really is. His delivery is just spot-on for every riff, and he has what I consider to be their best two “skits” (the theme song for the two young lovers in ‘The Oozing Skull’ and the fake Josh in the helmet in ‘Doomsday Machine’.)
So I have plenty of love for Mr. Weinstein, but it’s all coming in his new stuff. Which is, I hope, taken as the greatest of compliments…who doesn’t want to hear that they just keep getting better? :)
What John Seavey said (#6): he nailed it PERFECTLY!
What astounds me the most about him is that he helped start the show and was on the national broadcast when he was 18 years old. I look at myself (17) and go “Man, what am I doing?” It’s pretty mind-boggling, and the man gets major respect and admiration points from me for doing it.
I think my favorite Josh-Tom line is from 104 when they’re dealing with the doomsday satellite: “Literary doomsday? Isn’t that when your library fines exceed the price of the book?”
I agree with #6 and #7; he’s the reason I bought Doomsday Machine:
“A gumball machine head on a robot? I’m sorry; that is lame.”
(Okay, I would have bought it anyway. :mrgreen: )
While the KTMA episodes might not have been as well circulated as the Comedy Central and Sci-Fi Channel episodes, his riffing in K06 (“Gamera Vs. Gaos”) is gold, given all the celebratory comments over his new MIGHTY VOICE. Hearing Josh say “Tom Servo!” in the theater in that sly way never gets unfunny.
101- THE CRAWLING EYE: The very first skit for the national series is fun, if only to hear Dr. Erhardt talk about the trouble he encountered while trying to avoid onlookers (AND the canine antiperspirant demonstration, too).
103- MAD MONSTER: The blender skit, as previously noted, is wonderful.
106- THE CRAWLING HAND: Dr. Erhardt’s horrified reaction to Joel’s safety saw is quite humorous.
109- PROJECT MOONBASE: Josh had great comedic chemistry with the others – and that could be seen in the quarrelsome “Commando Cody” skit as well as the SPACOM infomercial skit.
113- THE BLACK SCORPION: Josh really seemed to have a great time with the mutant Mads skits and it showed.
Thanks for everything, Josh Weinstein!
The “Tom hits on a blender” skit shows just how different Tom Servo’s personality was when Josh performed him. Kevin’s Servo would never hit on a blender. In fact he disowned his own mother when she put out for a nickel (Village of the Giants). If Josh were handling Servo in that same scene I’m sure we’d get a different response.
My favorite moment is when Tom says “You can look me in the bulb and say that?” in #102 – THE ROBOT VS THE AZTEC MUMMY. As the Episode Guide says, Josh is really “inside” Tom Servo at this point.
There’s also the weird little dances he makes Servo do during the musical bits, his Servo is more physical, in some ways, than the cerebral Murphy-version.
Incidentally, I am one of those who was introduced to the show on tape, and my “source” showed me Weinstein-era episodes mixed in with Murphy/Conniff episodes. It actually took a while before I noticed any difference.
I was introduced to MST through season 1, and I will always have a deep fondness for that season and Josh’s Servo. The episode was “Robot Holocaust” with the final Commando Cody short…
“Oooooh, right in the plywood!” That line sold me on the show, but more was to come.
“We use men to breed with us to make future warrior women.”
TOM: Cool!
“Then we dispose of them.”
TOM: Oh.
“And he has nothing to say about this?”
TOM: I think he’d highly recommend it!
For my money, Josh was probably the most solid performer of the original trio, and the best at improv. His cover when he sneezed in the middle of a theater segment (one of the Commando Cody bits, I forget which) is beautiful. “That stirred up my ROMs real bad.” (Though Joel has an unexpectedly good improv moment there too: “You’re not supposed to do that!” I loved the early tone of “the bots are more advanced than Joel realizes and he’s not anywhere as in control of them as he thinks”.)
But yeah. Early on, it felt like the “science” was played up more, and it seemed like a good chunk of that was, if not Josh’s doing, then seemingly focused around him.
(And yes. Hitting on the blender is an undeniable classic bit.)
This one’s easy for me, because Josh is responsible for my becoming a fan of this show!
I had flipped channels past MST3K several times during its first season, always pausing just long enough to say, “What the…?” But then —
The film was ROBOT MONSTER and the only marriageable couple left on the devastated Earth was getting married. Joel said, “It’s an Armageddon weddin’!” And Josh said, “Armageddon married in the morning.”
Now, nobody who loves wordplay as much as I (all of us here?) do is going to keep flipping channels after that. Armageddon married in the morning. Wow. I’d never dreamed there could be TV show that could unexpectedly collide ROBOT MONSTER with lyrics from MY FAIR LADY.
Anyway, that was it. My long love affair with MST3K commenced from that moment, and I owe it all to Josh’s Tom Servo. I loved Kevin’s as well, don’t get me wrong … but, as they say, you never forget your first time.
“Tell him I’m smoking . . . “
Would it be rude to say there aren’t any good moments?
To fully appreciate Josh’s talent you need to see the KTMA episodes. Not only does Josh have a superb talent for improvisation, but his wit is amplified by an uncanny knowledge of pop culture and current events of the time. When I was 16, 17 and 18 years old I didn’t know jack **** about any of that stuff, and here’s this guy my age who is wise beyond his years. Joel and Trace are witty and knowledgeable too, but they’re a lot older, so the fact that Josh can hang with them so effortlessly is quite impressive. Although they started writing scripts and tightening up the show during the first season on The Comedy Channel, they temporarily lost much of that looseness from the KTMA season and they seem a little stale and clinical by comparison.
To see how brilliant Josh is you don’t have to go any further than the riff from “K13 – SST: Death Flight” featured in the MST Scrapbook during the evacuation to the back of the plane: “Everybody form two lines…Love Boat on the left and Fantasy Island on the right.”
Or in “K09 – Phase IV” during the ant footage: “It’s just walking around looking for something a hundred times its weight to lift.”
There’s another one from Death Flight when one of the passengers is trying to calm everyone down by saying something like “it’s safer to fly in a plane than to cross the street” and quick as a whip Josh throws out “not when you’re plunging toward it a 10,000 feet per second.” And Josh is knocking this stuff out all through the KTMA season totally unscripted. At the age he was, I find that amazing!
I regard Josh as the great unsung hero of MST3K. Allthough Larry was too similar too Dr. F. and didn’t have nearly as good a chemistry with him as Frank did, Josh’s depiction of Servo was just as good as Kevin’s in my book.
Moments/quips:
“Meanwhile at the cody institute for people who allmost die every week…”
The way he said “Funny Crow” when Crow ridiculed Tweeky for having useless arms and a stupid bubble head.
The way he went on about being a babe magnet who would be getting mango juice rubbed all over him (wouldn’t that made him short circuit and rust?) when he got back to earth.
The whole mighty voice thing, and how it failed to stop the demon dogs from “disgracing themselves” on him.
Tom Servo’s presence and riffing in Robot Monster and Phase 4, two of my favorite episodes (and I don’t just mean favorite pre-Kevin episodes, I mean favorite episodes period).
Servo going on and on about what a babe the female lead in Phase 4 is (I agree), and how the ants wanted her for being a babe. Also outstanding was Servo (and Crow’s) contempt for the monster being a bunch of ants and the super scientist’s inability to deal with them.
My favorite thing that Josh did was during Fugitive Alien, when, during a discussion of magnetic fields, Servo started to sing a parody of Strawberry Fields Forever.
Alas, I’ve only seen two Josh episodes. “Women of the Prehistoric Planet” and “The Crawling Hand”. So…uh…I guess those are my two favorites. :roll:
Crawling Hand I haven’t seen in a while so I’d have to watch that again to remember any specific lines.
But in WPP I liked when Servo said, “Rectum – damn near killed ‘im.”
And also, “Kill your brother. It’s the only way to re-enforce the director’s white male reality.”
The deadpan way he said, “Oh my God – how horrible – to be killed by a plush toy.”
“Oh, man evolved from Tang, right.”
And when the main female character says something about Tang’s mother, Servo says, “Yeah, and your mother swims after troop ships, lady.”
As mentioned by #9 above, I, too, liked the line from Doomsday Machine about a gumball machine head on a robot being lame. :wink:
I shall have to get more MST3K eps with Josh to really see how his Servo fares compared to Kevin’s, so Sky may be hearing from me! :mrgreen:
i totally agree with #17, to really see Josh shine, you have to see the KTMA episodes and remind yourself “this was before anyone ever did anything like this…this is complete improv”
Aside from what has already been mentioned, one Josh moment that got me, and still haunts me even though i havent seen the episode in years is Josh singing “Hu-ma-noid Woman” at the credits of the namesake movie…it just has a way to get stuck in my head every once in a while.
can I say writing for “Freaks and Geeks” :?:
It’s Clay and Lar’s Flesh barn.
#21: It wasn’t worth K11 Humanoid Woman’s episode to get that anchor on you. Also in that episode, Tom Servo raises his head in the Tag segment and that raises the grade of the segment from F average to D average alone.
& also in Fugitive Alien, at the end of the movie, Joel goes ‘I don’t miss Crow that bad.’ and Tom Servo goes ‘I knew you wouldn’t.’ That was a great touch, there.
Also, it’s interesting that somebody would leave a show because they didn’t like how it was being run… that would take guts, too, even if it was just about something like scripting, which I think wouldn’t be worth leaving, although I could see it happening, I guess.
I think Josh gets short shrift because he was part of the experiment before they really got into their groove. Not to say that the early eps aren’t worth it, but the riffing got sharper, faster, and more frequent as the show went on. Ragging on Josh (like I used to fall victim to when I first really got into the show) is a lot like saying you hate Pete Best. He just wasn’t around long enough.
All that poorly said, these comments do make me want to give the early episodes another shot…
For those with the DVD, check out the “boiling oil” scene in “Women of the Prehistoric Planet”. Tom’s bemused “Ooh, shame, what a pity” as the rookie schmuck falls into the boiling stuff just as everyone knew he would gets me every time.
Josh’s Roland Gift impression in “Crawling Hand” is also a sure-fire laugh-getter.
Man. I want “Untamed Youth” on DVD so bad. It’s an overall fine episode, with great riffs, and let’s be honest. Mamie sure is easy to watch. Tom’s taking advantage of a malfunctioning Gypsy is fun, as is the bit in the theater just before that… “It’s like fluffy pudding! Yeee!” Plus the whole power-trip Mr. Tropp is on leading to the running gag about wheelbarrows… heheheh.
#17 Satan’s Jockstrap: “Although they started writing scripts and tightening up the show during the first season on The Comedy Channel, they temporarily lost much of that looseness from the KTMA season and they seem a little stale and clinical by comparison.”
I’ve been saying that about, oh, large chunks of seasons 3 and 4 for a while, but I guess I’m in the minority. There was a time where MST lost much of its “casual” feel, and I missed that. Season 5 got the groove back though.
As Cornjob and others have said, Josh’s work in SK and S1 really doesn’t get enough love and it’s amazing how quick he was at getting sharp lines during the KTMA days when they were hitting the ground running. I had the pleasure of meeting him at CT Live in Minneapolis a few weeks ago. Super nice guy and I got to relate to him my first and fave moment of his Servo: In the Crawling Hand, right as one of the characters throws a glass/plate at the floor, with confident deadpan delivery Tom says: “People tryin’ to put us down.” lol He had a great bit with Gruber at CT Live called “KADD – Only the best parts.” Grube would say a song/artist and Josh would do a vocal impression with guitar, one after the other just cranking ’em out effortlessly aa Grube could name them. Anyways, I’ll always have a soft spot for the “sleazy radio DJ” version of Servo and it’s great to see and hear Josh with CT. Now I just gotra get off my duff and rent Freaks and Geeks off Netflix.
Also, I never knew Josh discovered Mike for the show. Hey, Jim. Looks like the headstrong 18 year old you butted heads with back in the day kind of out-produced you on that one, huh?
never realy liked josh,but the one thing i do remmeber is clay and lar;s flesh barn.and also when servos voice goes through puberty.lmbo
Don’t under estimate Josh. He even at a young age proved that he had what it takes to get the job done. Josh’s riffs are as sharp as the ones on later seasons. His work on CT is top notch.
It’s probably becoming monotonously apparent to all of you that I am a serial under-appreciator of many things. I know it must be a drag. I now add J.E.Weinstein ( I assume he picked the inititals deliberately ) to the list. I need to circulate down some more Josh-era tapes and see if I can’t evolve my opinion if not actually change it… I started watching in real time around the turn of the 1st season, and I have never seen a Josh ep without thinking how much better Frank and Kevin would have been.
But I am willing to admit that this may be a reflection of the overall quality of the program and not a crit of Josh per se. Again I need to watch some more.
As for CT, I’m sorry to say he is no more or less funny than anyone else there(IMHAAAANOOATCT).
Hmm, the only episode I’ve seen with Josh is Women of the Prehistoric Planet and all I can really say is I like him as Dr. Ernhardt far more than as Servo.
Rewatching the K tapes made me realize how good he was (and still is with CT) when MST3k was still learning how to walk. Phase IV is a damn good episode (all those stupid ant-puns).
I’m one of those folks who didn’t particularly care for Josh on MST, but have come to love him in CT. His delivery is fantastic, especially in “Legacy of Blood”. Sardonic as hell, on right on the money.
I totally agree with Rowsdower 17. While I’ve never thought much of Josh’s MST work (the blender sketch and the Flesh Barn excepted), I personally think that he has been the strongest of the CT riffers. His work on MST was good..for a teenager. His work on CT is great by any standard. I’m a convert!
I think in an episode in the KTMA season where Crow dreams he’s torturing Josh and Trace has a funny moment…the fact that Josh groans when they have to watch ‘A Planet of The Apes Christmas’ over and over again.
Does that actually exist? The ‘Star Wars Christmas Special’ was pure horror enough.