Appearance
Cambot is only seen during the "Robot Roll Call" portion of the opening credits, often with his name reversed, presumably to imply he is shooting his own image in a mirror. His appearance was changed with almost every reshooting of the opening credits.
In the original KTMA season, Cambot was depicted as a robot operating a separate camera. Season 1 Cambot was a modification of the KTMA Gypsy, with an integrated camera, whereas later Cambot incarnations more closely resembled television recording equipment. In episode #507, I Accuse My Parents , Gypsy presented a drawing that depicted the Satellite of Love's crew as her "ideal family"; in the drawing, Cambot's torso was shown as a long and snakelike tube, not unlike Gypsy's.
Midway through the fifth season of the series the opening was once again reshot, and Cambot was again redesigned, this time with a more compact shape, becoming a round hovering ball with a TV camera vidicon sensor for an eye. He would keep this form for the remainder of the series, although the color scheme was changed during MST3K's switch from Comedy Central to the Sci Fi Channel (becoming blue instead of gray).
With the relaunch of the series with Season 11, Cambot underwent another drastic redesign, now appearing much more like a giant lens now with mock studio lighting camera reflectors. He appears to be attached to the ceiling by some kind of long mount.
Overview
Cambot acts as an audio-visual conduit between the crew of the Satellite of Love and their observers. He also joins Joel, Mike, Crow T. Robot, and Tom Servo in the theatre when a movie is shown, and records the cast watching the film. Although a number of episodes depict the cast reacting as if traumatized by a particularly bad movie, Cambot suffered a severe reaction only once, weeping when several security cameras were systematically destroyed by the hero in episode #620: Danger!! Death Ray . (This was signified by a watery effect over the screen image). Another rare case of Cambot interacting during a movie segment came in episode #202: The Sidehackers , when Cambot added a mock ESPN scorecard on one side of the screen during the movie's race scenes.
Cambot also frequently provides music, video clips, and other enhancements to host segments. When Joel or another character requests to see through "Rocket Number Nine" (the ship-mounted camera that allows the crew to see the ship's exterior and anything in its vicinity), it is Cambot who provides the image. During the first seven seasons, when Joel or Mike would read fan mail sent to the show, they would request Cambot to put the letter on "still store," freeze framing on a close-up of the letter.
Cambot was voiced a single time during the original KTMA run by Kevin Murphy.
At the end of Season 7, Cambot was shown joining his fellow crew-members ascending into pure energy at the end of the universe. When the Satellite of Love crashed on Earth in the show's final episode, it is not specified whether Cambot survived the crash (although one could assume that he is the one filming the final scene). Cambot was not mentioned in Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie . Cambot is revealed to have survived the crash in the Netflix revival of the series.
Mystery Science Theater 3000 is an American science fiction comedy film review television series created by Joel Hodgson. The show premiered on KTMA-TV in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on November 24, 1988. It then moved to nationwide broadcast, first on The Comedy Channel/Comedy Central for seven seasons until its cancellation in 1996. Thereafter, it was picked up by The Sci-Fi Channel and aired for three more seasons until another cancellation in August 1999. A 60-episode syndication package titled The Mystery Science Theater Hour was produced in 1993 and broadcast on Comedy Central and syndicated to TV stations in 1995. In 2015, Hodgson led a crowdfunded revival of the series with 14 episodes in its eleventh season, first released on Netflix on April 14, 2017, with another six-episode season following on November 22, 2018. A second successful crowdfunding effort in 2021 produced 13 additional episodes shown on the Gizmoplex, an online platform that Hodgson developed which launched in March 2022. As of 2023, 230 episodes and a feature film have been produced as well as three live tours.
Crow The Robot is a fictional character from the American science fiction comedy television series Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K). Crow is a robot, who, along with others, ridicules poor-quality B to Z movies.
The Amazing Colossal Man is a 1957 American black-and-white science fiction film from American International Pictures. Produced and directed by Bert I. Gordon, it stars Glenn Langan, Cathy Downs, William Hudson, and Larry Thor. It is an uncredited adaptation of Homer Eon Flint's 1928 short science fiction novel The Nth Man. AIP theatrically released it as a double feature with Cat Girl.
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Joshua Stuart "Josh" Weinstein, known professionally as J. Elvis Weinstein, is an American writer and performer, best known for his roles as Dr. Laurence Erhardt and the original puppeteer and voice for Tom Servo and Gypsy on Mystery Science Theater 3000.
Joel Robinson is a fictional character featured in the American science fiction comedy television series Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K). He was portrayed by series creator Joel Hodgson. If counting the locally-produced episodes, Joel Robinson is the show's longest-tenured host with 107 episodes on television. He also returned as an occasional host in the online Season 13.
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GPC, formerly Gypsy, is one of the fictional robot characters on the television series Mystery Science Theater 3000. She is larger and less talkative than the other robots. GPC normally only appears during the show's host segments and introduction, but briefly took a seat in the theater to watch the movie in episode #412. She only delivered a couple of "riffs" – partially because she took the movie and what the 'boys' were saying too literally, and left after realizing how bad the movie was. Along with the other robots, GPC was designed and built by series creator Joel Hodgson. She was named Gypsy after a pet turtle his brother once owned, as the robot's size and ponderousness reminded him of the turtle.
Trace Beaulieu is an American comedian, puppeteer, writer, and actor. He is known for his roles on Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) as well as his work with MST3K's successor Cinematic Titanic with the original creators and cast of MST3K.
Mighty Jack is a tokusatsu science fiction/espionage/action TV series. Created by Japanese effects wizard Eiji Tsuburaya, the show was produced by Tsuburaya Productions and was broadcast on Fuji TV from April 6, 1968 to June 29, 1968, with a total of 13 one-hour episodes. The music for the episodes was done by Isao Tomita and Kunio Miyauchi.
Mitchell is a 1975 American action film directed by Andrew V. McLaglen, written by Ian Kennedy Martin, and starring Joe Don Baker as an abrasive police detective. The film was released in the United States on September 10, 1975 by Allied Artists Pictures Corporation.
The Sidehackers is a 1969 American action film about motorcycle racing with a twist. Each motorcycle has a sidehack, in which a passenger rides and tilts to one side or another when going around curves. The credits thank the "Southern California Sidehack Association"; sidehacking is also known as sidecarcross or "sidecar motocross racing".
Gemini Man is an American action-adventure drama series that aired on NBC in 1976. The third television series based on H. G. Wells' 1897 science-fiction novel The Invisible Man, Gemini Man was created to replace the previous season's The Invisible Man using simpler and less expensive special effects.
Crash of Moons is a 75-minute 1954 American science fiction film, consisting of three consecutive episodes of the television series Rocky Jones, Space Ranger, edited into a complete story.
Future War is a 1997 American direct-to-video science fiction film about an escaped human slave fleeing his cyborg masters and seeking refuge on Earth. It was lampooned in a 1999 episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.
Jonah Heston is a fictional character featured in the renewal of the American science fiction comedy television series Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K). He is portrayed by actor/comedian Jonah Ray.
