Tom Servo is a fictional character from the American science fiction comedy television show Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K). Tom is one of two wise-cracking, robotic main characters of the show, built by Joel Robinson to act as a companion and help stave off madness as he was forced to watch low-quality films (Tom and the other bots, Crow, Gypsy, and Cambot, are made from parts that would have otherwise allowed Joel to actually control the film). At least during the Comedy Central era, he was somewhat more mature than his theatre companion, Crow T. Robot. Tom, more often than the others, signals the need to exit the theater to perform host segments.
Overview
Tom Servo is a red puppet that has a gumball machine (Carousel Executive Snack Dispenser) for a head, a body composed of a toy "Money Lover Barrel" coin bank and a toy car engine block, and a bowl-shaped hovercraft skirt (a Halloween "Boo Bowl") instead of legs. His arm assembly (according to the 1998 MST3K Official Bot Builders Booklet Workbench Edition) is from a Mr Moonie doll. Mr Moonie (sometimes known as "Seymour Bunz" or "C More Bunz") was a gag doll popular during the time of filming, usually found suction cupped to people's car windows to moon other drivers. The doll would drop its pants and moon people when a rubber bladder was squeezed. The entire assembly, including the rubber bladder, were kept intact when installed into Tom's barrel body. The hands were apparently from a clown or hobo doll figure, but are now made from a mold. The springs were custom made by a local manufacturer, which were attached with glue to the wrists and arms. His arms would spring up and down whenever the clear balloon inside was gripped by Kevin, as shown in pictures from The Colossal Episode Guide or The Scrapbook tape. The Patrick Swayze Christmas segment shows Kevin in the puppet trench working Tom Servo with bladder in each hand. Although it was as though the arms were never really functional as arms, a point that is commented on occasionally throughout the series, they actually do move up and down due to the Mr Moonie doll bladder inside Tom, and can be seen moving up and down in a fair few episodes as early as season 2. His shoulders are made from the front of an Eveready Floating Lantern. Because Servo's head is transparent, chromakeyed images appear projected through it, and thus a second puppet was built for use in the theater segments, entirely spray-painted black. This black Servo also appeared in a host segment in episode #609, The Skydivers. Tom moves about by hovering. In seasons one through ten he is unable to hover much higher than the ground, however in season eleven (and briefly in the film version) he is capable of hovering at apparently any height and with great agility. In episode #413 Manhunt in Space it is revealed that Servo suffers from red-green colorblindness.
Servo's appearance has changed over time. In the pilot for MST3K, the robot who would become Servo was named "Beeper," who just spoke in beeps that only Crow could understand (similar to R2-D2 and C-3PO from the Star Wars films). He was an all-silver robot vaguely shaped like the ultimate Servo, with funnel-shaped shoulders, silver rubber tube arms, a plastic flowerpot for a hoverskirt, and a small fishbowl for a head. He was renamed 'Servo' after a vending machine called the Servotron. The character was absent in K01: Invaders from the Deep, but re-appeared again for the remainder of the KTMA series as the now-familiar Servo puppet with the gumball machine head in K02: Revenge of the Mysterons from Mars.