interstellar travel. He returns to retrieve the ashes of Dr. Forrester (and, incidentally, TV's Frank) from the Gizmonic Institute. Behind the scenes Dr. Forrester and Dr. Erhardt were first shown in episode K07, during the show's original season on KTMA TV23. During this season, and season 1, J. Elvis Weinstein (who was credited under his real name Josh Weinstein) held a dual role as both Dr. Erhardt and the voice of Tom Servo, and he also provided the voice of Gypsy during the KTMA years (replaced in season one by Jim Mallon). Weinstein, the youngest of the MST3K creators, left the show after its first nationally telecast season due to creative differences once the show began being scripted instead of being ad-libbed. His youth and relative inexperience was also said to have rubbed his older co-workers the wrong way. In an interview, he stated the show simply quit being fun for him when they moved from KTMA to The Comedy Channel because it became "a business". Weinstein elaborated on this unpleasant workplace dynamic in an April 2019 episode of Bill Corbett’s Funhouse podcast, wherein he claimed that producer Jim Mallon was openly hostile toward him and insisted on his being paid significantly less than other cast members, presumably because of his age and refusal to maintain a level of “faux humility” displayed by some of his cohorts. External links Mystery Science Theater 3000 characters Fictional mad scientists Male characters in television Fictional scientists in television Television characters introduced in 1988