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by R.J. Carter Published: August 8, 2007
Fans of Mystery Science Theater 3000 may remember Murphy and Corbett from their tour of duty as the voices of Tom Servo and Crow, the smartass robots who accompanied Mike Nelson aboard the Satellite of Love, watching the best of the worst movies that sci-fi had to offer. MST3K went off the air a few years ago, but the boys are back in town with a whole new twist on the same great gag. Now billing themselves as The Film Crew, Murphy, Corbett and Nelson are now doing DVD commentaries for films that desperately cry out for them -- with hilarious results. I cornered the guys at their Archon table between fan signings, where they were taking donations for Doctors Without Borders and chatting about anything and everything. The-Trades: How hard is it to get the rights to these films that nobody wants? Kevin Murphy: Well, we're lucky in that respect because the four films that we chose for the first flight here were all public domain. The-Trades: So nobody is going to come out and say, "Hey, I'm the star of that film and finally I can make some money on it." Kevin Murphy: I don't think anybody would want to cop to any of these films. Bill Corbett: Yeah, these films are orphans, and deservedly so. Kevin Murphy: I think Peter Graves has a whole slew of films in his background that he probably wants to forget about.
Kevin Murphy: Look in the backwaters. Look under rocks. There's usually dead fish floating around. No, we looked a lot in places like Sinister Cinema, which is a great resource for some of the cheesiest films ever made. Sometimes they're lovingly restored, sometimes they have the only copies of these films available anywhere. So I recommend it for people who like the old and weird. Bill Corbett: They're unusually good prints for things that have not seen the light of day for decades. Kevin Murphy: Yeah, for films that haven't... I don't think "Wild Women of Wongo" has had a print struck since probably the early sixties. The-Trades: What gave you guys the idea to provide this type of running commentary, obviously launching with the MST3K sensibilities, that has carried over into The Film Crew series? Kevin Murphy: Bill and Mike and I have been working together, doing various things, and this was almost like a mandate. It seemed that there was always a demand for what we were doing here, and so when the opportunity to actually put out a line of DVDs came up -- a much simpler, more streamlined way with much slighter fiction -- we were happy to do it, because the thing I think we enjoyed the most with Mystery Science Theater was making fun of the movies. So this is really getting down to that. Bill Corbett: We also liked the idea that it was simpler, more manageable, and we could weave it in with the rest of our lives a little more. The-Trades: And you're not stuck with just the SF genre now. Kevin Murphy: True. There's only one in this first lineup, just one sci-fi movie. Bill Corbett: And that's loosely put... ping-pong ball-eyed aliens. The-Trades: What kind of things do you say about Mike Nelson when he doesn't go out on tour with you? Kevin Murphy: He's got other fish to fry, I suppose. Bill Corbett: Yeah. He's way down in San Diego, and I think he's actually a crab fisherman. Kevin Murphy: That's what he does now, I believe: he fishes for crab. The-Trades: One last question: I noticed you're taking donations for Doctors Without Borders for signed photos of yourself. Is there a personal connection? Kevin Murphy: I just think it's a great organization. It's people who just simply shut up and get down to work. I'm always uncomfortable with people paying money to buy a picture of me... Bill Corbett: Especially that picture, really. Kevin Murphy: Yeah. I just never liked doing that, so I thought I could do some good at a time when it's absolutely necessary. |
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