Trace Beaulieu ( is an American comedian, puppeteer, writer, and actor. He played roles on ''

Mystery Science Theater 3000 ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (abbreviated as ''MST3K'') is an American science fiction comedy film review television series created by Joel Hodgson. The show premiered on KTMA-TV (now WUCW) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on November 24, 1988. ...

'' (''MST3K'')"The (Nearly) Complete List of Credits"
Ward E, ''The Satellite News'' as well as his work with MST3K's successor ''

Cinematic Titanic Cinematic Titanic was a project by ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (''MST3K'') creator and original host, Joel Hodgson. The project involved "riffing" B-movies, in a manner similar to that of ''MST3K''. Joining Hodgson were some of the original '' ...

'' with the original creators and cast of MST3K. Beaulieu briefly attended the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

''Mystery Science Theater 3000''

For the first eight seasons of ''MST3K'' (1 at

KTMA WUCW (channel 23) is a television station licensed to Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, serving the Twin Cities area as an affiliate of The CW. Owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, the station maintains studios in the Pence Building on 8th S ...

and 7 on Comedy Channel/

Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Global through its network division's MTV Entertainment Group unit, based in Manhattan. The channel is geared towards young adults aged 18–34 and carries comedy programming ...

), Beaulieu wrote for the show, operated and voiced the

Crow T. Robot Crow T. Robot is a fictional character from the American science fiction comedy television series '' Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (''MST3K''). Crow is a robot, who, along with others, ridicules poor-quality B to Z movies. Overview Accordin ...

puppet, and played the role of Dr. Clayton Forrester, the head

mad scientist The mad scientist (also mad doctor or mad professor) is a stock character of a scientist who is perceived as " mad, bad and dangerous to know" or "insane" owing to a combination of unusual or unsettling personality traits and the unabashedly amb ...

at Gizmonic Institute. After the season five departure of series creator

Joel Hodgson Joel Hodgson (born February 20, 1960) is an American writer, comedian and television actor. He is best known for creating ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (''MST3K'') and starring in it as the character Joel Robinson. In 2007, ''MST3K'' was liste ...

, the name of Dr. Forrester's company was changed to Deep 13 because Hodgson held the copyright for the word "Gizmonic" and requested that the show refrain from using the word after his departure. At the end of a

truncate In mathematics and computer science, truncation is limiting the number of digits right of the decimal point. Truncation and floor function Truncation of positive real numbers can be done using the floor function. Given a number x \in \mathbb ...

d seventh season, Beaulieu left the series."West Brains: Trace"
''The Satellite News''. Pearl Forrester (

Mary Jo Pehl Mary Jo Pehl (; born February 27, 1960 in Circle Pines, Minnesota) is an American writer, actress, and comedian. She is best known for her various roles on the television series ''Mystery Science Theater 3000''. ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' ...

) replaced him as the head mad scientist and

Bill Corbett William Daniel Corbett (born March 30, 1960) is an American writer and performer for television, film and theatre. He was a writer and performer on the cult television show ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (''MST3K''), for which he voiced the r ...

took over the voicing and operation of Crow.

Work after ''MST3K''

Beaulieu appeared as a semi-regular in ''

Freaks and Geeks ''Freaks and Geeks'' is an American teen comedy-drama television series created by Paul Feig and executive-produced by Judd Apatow that aired on NBC during the 1999–2000 television season. The show is set in a suburban high school near Detr ...

'' as the school's biology teacher, Mr. Lacovara. He also appeared in ''

The West Wing ''The West Wing'' is an American serial (radio and television), serial political drama television series created by Aaron Sorkin that was originally broadcast on NBC from September 22, 1999, to May 14, 2006. The series is set primarily in the ...

'' episode "

Bad Moon Rising "Bad Moon Rising" is a song written by John Fogerty and performed by Creedence Clearwater Revival. It was the lead single from their album ''Green River'' and was released in April 16, 1969 four months before the album. The song peaked at No. 2 ...

". Beaulieu was a writer for ''

America's Funniest Home Videos ''America's Funniest Home Videos'', also called ''America's Funniest Videos'' (abbreviated as ''AFV''), is an American video clip television series on American Broadcasting Company, ABC, based on the Japanese variety show ''Kato-chan Ken-chan Gok ...

'' from 1998 to 2007."Brain Scan: Where Are They Now?"
, ''The Satellite News''. In 2002, he was the head writer, producer, and host of the pilot episode of the

Animal Planet Animal Planet (stylized in all lowercase since 2018) is an American multinational pay television channel owned by the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks unit of Warner Bros. Discovery. First established on June 1, 1996, the network is primarily dev ...

show ''People Traps''. He has since starred in the 2010 computer game '' Darkstar: The Interactive Movie'' as first officer Ross Perryman. In 2013, he reprised his role as Crow for a brief cameo appearance in two episodes of the fourth season of ''Arrested Development'', along with Joel. In 2015, Beaulieu appeared as ART in the Yahoo! original comedy series, ''

Other Space ''Other Space'' is an American science fiction comedy streaming television series created by Paul Feig for Yahoo! Screen. Set in the 22nd century, it follows the dysfunctional crew of an exploratory spaceship who become trapped in an unknown un ...

''. Outside of acting, Beaulieu also wrote the script for the one-shot comic book ''Here Come the Big People'', published by

Event Comics Event Comics was an American independent comic book publisher founded by veteran artists Jimmy Palmiotti and Joe Quesada. The company published during the years 1994 to 1999, at which point it was contracted to form the Marvel Knights imprint for ...

. In 2010, Beaulieu completed work on a children's poetry book, ''Silly Rhymes for Belligerent Children'', a dark, twisted, humorous collection illustrated by

Len Peralta Len Peralta is a Cleveland-area graphic artist, illustrator, cartoonist, and podcaster who is known for zombie-themed caricatures and collaborations with nerd celebrities. His Geek a Week project, which involves weekly podcast interviews over t ...

. In 2014 Beaulieu released a musical short film entitled ''The Frank'' with the original MST3K cast, including Bill Corbett, who assumed the role of Crow after Beaulieu left MST3K. (

appears in ''The Frank'' only as a voice-over, while a stand-in wears Joel's trademark red jumpsuit;

Michael J. Nelson Michael John Nelson (born October 11, 1964) is an American comedian and writer, most known for his work on the television series '' Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (''MST3K''). Nelson was the head writer of the series for most of the show's origi ...

performs the same voiceover in the color version of "The Frank" available as a DVD extra.) Beaulieu appeared on Ken Reid's ''TV Guidance Counselor'' podcast on June 16, 2016. Beaulieu is currently the co-host of the comedic podcast on the Last Podcast Network, ''Movie Sign with the Mads'', with Frank Conniff and Carolina Hidalgo where they discuss current and classic movies.

''Cinematic Titanic''

On October 30, 2007,

announced he was starting a new series—distributed on DVD—with the same "riffing on bad movies" premise as ''MST3K''. Called ''

'', it featured several former ''MST3K'' cast and crew members: Beaulieu,

J. Elvis Weinstein Joshua Stuart "Josh" Weinstein (born May 21, 1971), known professionally as J. Elvis Weinstein, is an American writer and performer, best known for his roles as Dr. Laurence Erhardt and the original puppeteer and voice for Tom Servo and Gypsy (My ...

Frank Conniff Frank Conniff Jr. ( ;) is an American writer, actor, comedian and producer, who is best known for his portrayal of TV's Frank on ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (''MST3K''). He is the son of journalist and editor Frank Conniff. Early work Al ...

and

. ''Cinematic Titanic'' completed its final tour on December 30, 2013.

"The Mads Are Back" tour

Since 2015, Beaulieu has joined his former MST3K co-star

TV's Frank ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (abbreviated as ''MST3K'') is an American science fiction comedy film review television series created by Joel Hodgson. The show premiered on KTMA-TV (now WUCW) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on November 24, 1988. ...

") and gone on tour as "The Mads Are Back", riffing older

B-movies A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicized bottom half of a double featur ...

in front of live audiences. In the midst of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, Beaulieu and Conniff moved the show to a ticketed livestream format, offering monthly live-riffs of movies, including some they had previously screened on tour such as ''

Glen or Glenda ''Glen or Glenda'' is a 1953 American exploitation film directed, written by and starring Ed Wood (credited in his starring role as "Daniel Davis"), and featuring Wood's then-girlfriend Dolores Fuller and Bela Lugosi. It was produced by George We ...

'', ''

The Tingler ''The Tingler'' is a 1959 American horror film produced and directed by William Castle. It is the third of five collaborations between Castle and writer Robb White, and starring Vincent Price. The film tells the story of a scientist who discover ...

'', and ''Walk The Dark Street''.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Beaulieu, Trace Living people American puppeteers American male television actors American television writers American comedy writers American male television writers Writers from Minneapolis University of Minnesota alumni Screenwriters from Minnesota Year of birth missing (living people)