Role
According to the MST3K storyline, Gypsy takes care of the higher functions on board the Satellite of Love. She needs to use most of her computing power to handle this responsibility, which generally makes her appear slow-witted when dealing with others. The episode #207: Wild Rebels briefly demonstrated a much brighter Gypsy when the demand on her systems was temporarily reduced. (She also made a quick appearance in the theater during this experiment when someone mentioned Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, on account of her oft-stated fascination for that show's star, Richard Basehart.)
As the show progressed, she became a more frequent participant in the host segments, and appeared more intelligent, even attempting to sit in on an experiment during one of the Hercules movies, Hercules and the Captive Women. But she begged out after a few minutes when she "realized there were these things" she had to go take care of. Gypsy is a big fan of Richard Basehart; her brain was once X-rayed, and found to contain RAM chips and a photo of Richard Basehart. She is also a notary.
In season six, the show introduced a device usually referred to as the Umbilicus, although in some episodes it was referred to as either the Umbilicon or the Umbiliport. The Umbilicus was a long tether that connected the Satellite of Love to the underground lair Deep 13, and allowed objects to be sent back and forth between Mike and the mad scientists who had stranded him in orbit. In its first appearance on the show, in episode #601: Girls Town, the Umbilicus was directly connected to Gypsy's snake-like body, with objects being sent or received through her mouth. The receiving station was later changed to an oven-like hatch on the bridge of the Satellite of Love.
Gypsy also developed an independent Bohemian feminist side to her personality, beginning with the Creeping Terror episode during the Mad Scientist's "coffeehouse poseur" experiment, when she sang, "You, the middle-class white male, are my personal oppressor!" Eventually, as the series went on, she penned her own cabaret-like one-woman show, "Gypsy Rose Me!" (a reference to burlesque performer Gypsy Rose Lee).
After the Satellite of Love crashed into the Earth in the final episode of MST3K (#1013: Diabolik), Gypsy is not present with Mike and the Bots in their shared apartment. Tom Servo is seen reviewing a "ConGypsCo Annual Report", and the guys reflect on their failure to have taken up new corporate mogul Gypsy on her public offering.
During KTMA episode #6, Gamera vs. Gaos, Joel claimed to have tried to program her voice to resemble Kim Carnes, but messed it up. In a sketch in episode #13, SST: Death Flight, Gypsy was uniquely voiced and operated by a woman (Faye Burkholder). In episode #409, The Indestructible Man, Gypsy swapped voices with Magic Voice in the opening host segment.
In the Season 1 pilot, Gypsy managed to uncoil herself; which revealed that she is at least 50 feet long. Joel explained that he just kept making her longer and longer compulsively when he built her (comparing it to, "When you start connecting paper clips, you get hooked on it...").
Read more about this topic: Gypsy (Mystery Science Theater 3000)
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