It was something I didn't know.
On the latest episode of the Thought Spiral podcast (Test Show #82 available here) Josh "Elvis" Weinstein reveals why he left Mystery Science Theater 3000. He had excellent reason to go. For one thing, I don't know what the minimum wage was in Minnesota, but he wasn't paid much more than that. He got paid a fraction of what the others got--he said $200 a week. I'm not sure if he meant that literally. If so, he was making minimum wage. He was the only one who didn't get a share of the company. Joel Hodgson and Jim Mallon were responsible for this outrage.
Weinstein left the show, went to Hollywood and was the most successful of any of them.
Weinstein said that part of his conflict with older cast members was that they thought they had finally found their thing. Weinstein thought the show would be the first of many things for him. It wasn't going to be his life from then on.
I had always thought that the others were trapped in the vortex of MST3k. Much like the fellows trapped in the thing with the robots, they were were unable to escape. After it went off the air, they did Rifftrax and Cinematic Titanic which are exactly like Mystery Science Theater. But it seems they were happy with this.
Listen to the podcast. You'll also hear a discussion of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice.
Weinstein made me feel better about having never been a wunderkind.
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