Geeks of the Week: The RiffTrax Guys
14 Aug
It’s weird for me to think of Michael J. Nelson, Bill Corbett, and Kevin Murphy as “The RiffTrax Guys”, because I grew up with them as fixtures of my Saturday morning television routine on “Mystery Science Theater 3000″. By the time I was a regular viewer, the show had moved to SciFi and was hosted by Mike Nelson, with Corbett (“Brain Guy” and Crow T. Robot) and Murphy (Professor Bobo and Tom Servo) pulling double duty as live action characters and voices of Nelson’s bot companions. Once the show ended in 1999, the guys went their separate ways, reuniting in 2007 to form The Film Crew, a straight-to-DVD series in which Nelson, Corbett, and Murphy provided mocking commentaries for B-movies. They put out four films before moving on to create RiffTrax.
Michael J. Nelson
Michael J. Nelson grew up in Illinois and Wisconsin before moving to Minneapolis, Minnesota after college. He worked as a waiter at T.G.I. Friday’s to support his stand-up comedy career. He was offered a job on “Mystery Science Theater 3000″, then a local cable show in Minnesota. Hired to type up the suggestions thrown out during riff sessions, he was invited to make comments of his own. His suggestions were so funny that they immediately promoted him to staff writer and later made him the head writer during the move to The Comedy Channel. When creator Joel Hodgson decided to leave the show to pursue other interests, he chose Nelson to take over the hosting duties because he was quick on his feet and looked good next to the bots.
After “MST3K” went off the air, Nelson wrote several books, including a novel called Death Rat!, and wrote the copy for Charles S. Anderson’s series of pop culture art books: Happy Kitty Bunny Pony, Goth-Icky, and Love Sick. He recorded humorous alternate commentaries for several classic movies, including Reefer Madness, Night of the Living Dead, House on Haunted Hill, Plan 9 from Outer Space, Little Shop of Horrors, and Carnival of Souls. He was appointed Chief Content Producer for Legend Films, which eventually spawned RiffTrax.
Mike with the bots [found here]
Bill Corbett
Bill Corbett grew up in Brooklyn, NY and attended Yale College and the Yale School of Drama, where he received a BA and a MFA in playwriting and screenwriting (respectively). After moving to Minnesota, he joined the crew of “MST3K” as a staff writer and occasional bit player. When Trace Beaulieu left the cast, Corbett took over as the voice of Crow T. Robot and began appearing on-screen as Pearl Forrester’s minion The Observer (aka Brain Guy).
After the end of “MST3K”, Corbett wrote the screenplay for Meet Dave (originally Starship Dave), starring Eddie Murphy. He wrote several plays, including “The Big Slam”, “Hate Mail”, and “The Stuff of Dreams”. Corbett was a contributing writer to NPR features “The Prairie Home Companion” and “All Things Considered” and taught playwriting and screenwriting at several schools, including Kenyon College in Ohio.
Corbett as “Brain Guy” [found here]
Kevin Murphy
Kevin Murphy was born in Illinois and attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After college, he worked the Madison PBS affiliate, WHA-TV, and worked behind the scenes on Jim Mallon’s horror film, Blood Hook. Murphy followed Mallon to Minneapolis station KTMA, where “MST3K” was conceived. Murphy became a writer on the show and took over voicing Tom Servo’s voice when J. Elvis Weinstein left the series. He appeared in small on-screen roles and played Professor Bobo during the show’s SciFi years.
After the show’s cancellation, Murphy wrote a book detailing the year he spent viewing a different theatrically-released film every day. He does movie reviews for NPR’s “Weekend Edition Sunday” and writes the “Bottom Shelf” Column for Total Movie Magazine.
Murphy as Professor Bobo [found here]
There is still time to buy tickets to RiffTrax Live: Jack the Giant Killer (Wednesday, August 17th)
* Image found here
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