Trivia: When Mike puts on the Manipulator Arms, you can hear Torgo's Theme from 'Manos: The Hands of Fate' for a bit in the background.
Trivia: In the scene where Mike is lifting the Hubble off of the SOL after crashing into it, notice the mechanical arms are named "Manos". "Manos" is Spanish for "Hands" and is also the name of the worst movie MST3K ever did: "Manos: The Hands of Fate."
Trivia: In one scene, you see Crow pick up a chainsaw from Tom's bedroom. You never see him do anything with it after that. This is beacause Grammercy, a small company owned by Paramount, who also put this movie in theaters, took out two scenes. They were the one who told them to put in segments like that to make some kind of a story, but in the end, they took out two or three, completely killing the story they wanted in the first place. Originally, Crow was going to cut through the SoL like he did in one of the first segments.
Trivia: The idea for the movie to be filmed was planned out very early on during the show's run. The original movie plot was supposed to be an original story revolving around the robots and the Satellite of Love, but problems with producer Jim Mallon made writing difficult. And after Joel Hodgson, the creator and original host of the show left, due to 'creative differences' with Mallon, the plot had to be changed. Mike Nelson asked Joel to return to finish writing the original story but Joel politely declined stating that Mike was doing a great job as the host and that he didn't want to have Mike's era as the host overlooked or under appreciated.
Trivia: There was a 'host segment' deleted from the final print of the film. In this segment the Satellite of Love is caught in a meteor shower, forcing Mike and the bots to take shelter in their emergency bunker. The air supply is cut off forcing Crow and Tom to find a way to restore the oxygen before Mike suffocates, while Gypsy performs her own unique version of CPR to Mike. Shortly thereafter Dr. Forrester demands that they return to the theater.
Chosen answer: They sit in front of a big screen -- or rather Joel or Mike sat. The puppeteers crouch down below the row of seats and hold up special black puppets to project the silhouettes. They did do takes for segments of the movies. I imagine it would be painful for the puppeteers to crouch for 90 minutes!
Carl Fink