# Two Trivial TV Questions
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-trivial-tv-questions/2096
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [July 21, 1999, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-trivial-tv-questions/2096 "1999-07-21T01:30:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 21, 1999, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-trivial-tv-questions/2096/1 "1999-07-21T01:30:00Z")
Two minor questions about TV shows.
On _Mystery Science Theater 3000_ I saw an episode in one of the latter seasons where Crow was conducting an archeological expidition on the spaceship and found evidence of a lost civilization. Mike and Tom reminded Crow that he had lived on the ship for five hundred years and had found evidence of his own self. But my understanding was that the Satellite of Love had been launched by the mad scientists and Joel built Crow and the other robots. Was there an episode that changed this origin? And don’t bother telling me “it’s just a show, I should really just relax.”
On _The Simpsons_ there was a flashback episode hosted by Troy McClure. He was asking trivia questions and one was about two characters on the show who had died; Bleeding Gums Murphy and Dr Marvin Monroe. I remember the episode where Bleeding Gums died, but what was the episode where Marvin Monroe died?
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### Author:  [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 21, 1999, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-trivial-tv-questions/2096/2 "1999-07-21T01:43:00Z")
OK about MST3K: In the last Comedy Central episode, Dr. F lost his funding and set the SOL adrift. To make a long plot line somewhat shorter, Mike and the Bots wound up at the End of the Universe, were transformed into Beings of Pure Energy and escaped from the ship to explore the universe. This would have been a nice series-ending plot.
When Sci-Fi picked up the series, they had to pick up the backstory where it left off. As pure energy, Mike _et al_ tooled around the universe for several hundred years as pure energy. Actually, crow returned to the ship early and “redecorated”. So he was waiting there for several hundred years before Mike and the rest were drawn back into the SOL and returned to their corporeal forms for some unknown reason. Crow had changed a bit in those centuries: not just a new voice but he didn’t recognize Mike and forgot about even watching movies for seven years. He suddenly remembered everything after that archaeoloical dig turned up artifacts that jogged his memory. _whew_
As for the Simpsons, let me check my _Complete Guide to the Simpsons_ and get back to ya…
A total loser,
Alphagene
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### Author:  [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 21, 1999, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-trivial-tv-questions/2096/3 "1999-07-21T01:58:00Z")
OK my book has nothing of the Doc. But the alt.tv.simpsons FAQ ( [http://www.snpp.com/guides/lisa.html](http://www.snpp.com/guides/lisa.html) ) says:
> [@](#):
>
> Doctor Marvin Monroe, a character much-disliked by some of the writers, passed away quietly sometime during the season, his death marked only by the appearance of the Marvin Monroe Memorial Hospital in 2F20.
Ep 2F20 was “Who Shot Mr. Burns (Part 2)”
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### Author:  [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 21, 1999, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-trivial-tv-questions/2096/4 "1999-07-21T18:06:00Z")
I also have heard that Harry Shearer, the voice of Dr. Marvin Monroe, hated doing the voice. I think it hurt his throat to do it for an extended period of time.
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### Author:  [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 21, 1999, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-trivial-tv-questions/2096/5 "1999-07-21T21:06:00Z")
Thank you. My sleepless nights are at an end.
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### Author:  [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 21, 1999, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-trivial-tv-questions/2096/6 "1999-07-21T23:00:00Z")
No problem, there’s no such thing as a trivial TV question in my opinion. As Homer Simpson says, “TV is a boy’s best friend. It gives so much and expects so little.”