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Kevin Murphy Interview

MST3K Collection, Vol. 6

MST3K, The End

Sound Directory

We here at MSTies Anonymous are very fortunate to have had the opportunity to interview Kevin Murphy, who, as you already know, wrote for Mystery Science Theater 3000 throughout its run on television and played the roles of Tom Servo and Professor Bobo. Major props go to Matt A. and Rhino Video for facilitating this interview for us. The following is a transcript of former MSTies Anonymous of Colorado Potentate and co-founder Noah's interview with Kevin Murphy. Enjoy!

KM: Hello Noah! You’re on the air!
NS: Kevin, how are you?
KM: I’m pretty groovy, how are you?
NS: I’m doing pretty well.
KM: Good!
NS: It’s such an honor to speak with you, ahh…
KM: Well it’s an honor to speak with you as well, Noah.
NS: Really…(laugh)…I’m sure.
KM: Well you’re the MSTies Anonymous guy, right?
NS: Uh well, I’m one of the co-founders actually, yeah.
KM: All right, well you know…you’ve been keeping the dream alive for…
NS: As best we can, as best we can…
KM: …the strange twisted puppet dream that was Mystery Science Theater.
NS: Yes. (laugh) So I’m going to attempt to ask you some questions that you hopefully have not been asked a thousand times by raving MSTies...
KM: (laugh)
NS: ...and then your job will be to tell me how unsuccessful I’m doing.
KM: Okay, I’ll do that.
NS: (laugh) Okay. So, God, it’s been almost…it’s been over five years since MST3K has sort of gone and, so with all the time since, what do you feel is the most important thing that you took away from doing the show?
KM: From Mystery Science Theater?
NS: Yeah.
KM: Um, well let’s see…the most important thing I took away, I gotta say, is that it is really hard to put a good TV show on television. That’s one thing. And I also gained this appreciation, which I think I knew in my head, but with all these movies that we saw, all these horrible movies, I had realized (and a couple of people had told me they realized it by watching the show) that it’s amazing that any good movies get made at all.
NS: (laughs)
KM: It really is. It’s a minor miracle, so when I see good movies I really applaud for them, and I’ve softened up, you know, on the Academy Awards and all because you know, there’s some crap that gets through, but generally it’s a minor miracle that any good movies get made. So that’s probably the biggest insight I learned out of the whole thing.
NS: Yeah, I work on some film myself and it’s… to get anything of quality, it is so difficult.
KM: Oh it’s just, it’s so expensive and it’s so political and it is so life-consuming that a lot of people, this is the one biggest fault I’ve found in independent filmmakers, is that they were happy even if they were able to finish the film. At that point they didn’t even care or even know whether it was good or not.
NS: Right.
KM: They were just happy to have finished it, that was the accomplishment. So to make a good film is truly a miracle.
NS: So do you have any interest in doing TV or maybe film, or are you preferring radio and print?
KM: Um, what would I say…that radio and print are much less violent cultures. People don’t lie to your face. You know? That’s one of the nice things. Not in general. But yeah, you know, I’ve always tended to be like…like Al Pacino said in the last Godfather movie, “ Every time I try to get away, they pull me back!” And so I’ve found myself being attached to, in modest ways, to one television production or another. And I’ll never get out of it ‘cause I really love making television. It’s one of my passions. You know, I got lucky enough to get a sort of reputation, as weird as it is, in the TV world, so…and I try, like I said, my real objective is…I don’t want to attach myself to anything that I think is mediocre, or stupid, you know? Or mind-numbing. Joel Hodgson used to say, “Television should be nutritious.” And I’m all for nutritious TV shows.
NS: Definitely. Well, you know, the humor of MST3K was very much rooted in the Midwest. Do you see that flavor of comedy anywhere else on television today?
KM: Um…you don’t see a lot, do ya? I like it when something’s regional. You know there’s not a lot that comes from the Midwest right now that I would be able to recognize. But I really love it when humor has an oddly regional flavor to it. You know South Park has this particularly Colorado quality to it that is…if you’ve lived around there and met some of those kids who go to the high schools in the far-flung Denver suburbs…you know, there’s some really nicely weird people out there. And Napoleon Dynamite had this particularly regional flavor to it as a movie, and I absolutely loved that movie. And people have look at me sideways for saying that and I say, “That’s because you’re not a kid anymore.” You know, this is the movie that really speaks to the 12-year-old boy in all of us. Not Spiderman, it’s Napoleon Dynamite.
NS: That’s right! So, Napoleon Dynamite…tell me some of the other sort of best and worst films that you’ve seen recently.
KM: Oh, the worst one is easy! I had a lot of fun with doing a panel with a local library group…people were asking the best and worst films of the year and uh, Sky Captain [and the World of Tomorrow] is my pick for just about the worst film that I saw last year. It was just so morose and so stiff. And I saw it on DVD just to give it a shot before I completely shit-canned the thing, and it was worse on DVD! Suddenly, you know, all of the digital magic that they’d done? Suddenly you could see it was just Gwyneth in front of a bluescreen with a big hat on and, you know, I don’t need that in my life…I don’t need to remember something like that. So, that’s one I could do without. Completely. And like I said, as far as film comedy goes, Napoleon Dynamite just struck my heart because, you know, I was a pretty geeky guy in high school and I tried to rise above it but…I think it teaches us to be proud of our geeky roots and not be ashamed of them, you know? Especially when Napoleon does his bizarre flailing, convulsive dance on stage at the end of that movie, it was…he’s a hero now, you know? It’s a wonderful thing.
NS: Yeah, that film, as sort of a college-cult film is really gaining a lot of notoriety.
KM: Yeah, well everybody knows that guy, and that was delightful. And it really spoke how uncomfortable it is to grow up, that’s what I liked about it. So that’s my top pick. And you know, I tend to like the freaky…I wouldn’t call them freaky…the foreign and the independent films, the ones that are sort of breaking new ground, and I really loved The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind even though it had Jim Carrey in it. I liked Michel Gondry and I like Charlie Kaufman and I like what they…finally they did something that was not as self-conscious and neurotic as Charlie’s other films have been at times, and I quite liked that film. That was great fun, and one that probably should have gotten more notoriety than it did.
NS: Well it did get the Screenplay [Academy] Award but...
KM: That’s true! Maria Full of Grace was a terrific and harrowing film, I really loved that…um…that was great fun. Uh, boy, you know I’ve sort of put last year out of my mind now.
NS: (laugh)
KM: I sort of put it on the shelf and forget everything really quickly. That’s one of the problems in being in your mid-to-late forties. The memory starts…you can only have so much room and then you have to download everything else onto an external hard drive or something…
NS: Well those are getting cheaper, so you’re in luck…
KM: It’s true…it’s true!
NS: When you’re watching, let’s say, Sky Captain or I, Robot or something…
KM: (laugh)
NS: …do you ever find the character of Tom Servo sort of creeping out of you? You know, snippets of song? Or Anthony Newley?
KM: It’s interesting. Whenever I feel like being subversive there’s a little bit of Tom Servo that starts to surface. I really have to amp it down at the movie theater but I’m not nearly so controlled at home. When I see something that is just disgusting me…everybody who watches TV with me knows that they have to ask me to shut up after a little while. And I’ve learned to control that pretty well, but movie theaters I still remain one of those people who says, everyone around you is paying 7 to 10 dollars, depending on where you live, so just shut up and let them enjoy the film, whether you do or not.
NS: Yeah. So what projects are you currently working on that you’re really excited about?
KM: Well, I’m furiously working on getting another book in print. I can’t tell you more because I’ve got a couple of different ideas that are still in the stage of being seen by publishers, so I have to be extra super secret about those things. My old cohorts Mike Nelson and Bill Corbett and I have sort of vaguely banded together under the name “The Film Crew”.
NS: Right..
KM: …and I believe we’ll be doing some commentary for National Public Radio starting later in the year and hopefully, we’re talking to Rhino Home Video about doing a few DVDs where we would add film commentary to some of their…um…”select” movies. Which means, you know, sort of crummy movies, and the reason that we do that is that you see most film commentaries and it’s a director trying to talk about a film that, you know, isn’t necessarily very good and they always get very serious and self-important and tell in-jokes, and their not necessarily entertaining or funny. So we thought it would be rather ground-breaking to create DVD commentaries that are actually funny and add to the entertainment value of the film. You know, it’s all about value-adding in today’s economy! So we’re adding value to these otherwise valueless, or low-value, um, properties here.
NS: Gotcha. Yeah, I don’t know if you’ve seen on The Onion, their “Commentary Tracks of the Damned” feature?
KM: (laugh)
NS: Every so often they do a “Commentary Tracks of the Damned” and that’s quite funny.
KM: Yes, it’s delightful.
NS: So, um, here’s a question for you. If…God forbid…but if there’s ever a sequel to the god-awful remake of The Planet of the Apes…
KM: (laugh)
NS: …have you considered asking Tim Burton for a role in that?
KM: Um…well if he does it, I think they should actually graft ape fur to his head and his face and drag him out into the street and make him never take it off again. That would test his dedication to doing some sort of sequel to that movie. That was a movie where I came out shaking my head and saying repeatedly, “What the hell just happened?” So I would be willing to get a picket sign and actually protest the studio that put out such a sequel, so you can count on me for that, at least. But you know, I’ve had my time in a monkey mask, and that time is over, my friend.
NS: (laugh)
KM: If you’ve ever worn a monkey mask for a living then you’d know. (laugh)
NS: (laugh) Great. Well, Kevin I really appreciate the time you’ve taken to talk to me today and um…
KM: Oh, it’s my pleasure!
NS: …just keep up the good work and thanks for all you do for comedy and all that stuff.
KM: Oh you’re very welcome, and thanks for talking to me.
NS: No problem.
KM: All right, take care.

Be sure to check out Kevin Murphy's website at AYearAtTheMovies.com!

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