Poor Karen Kadler: as Dr. Ellen Peters, she was killed in the most unnecessarily gratuitous way in It Conquered The World so COR-Man could indulge some gross sexist fetish of his. I’ve never checked the unriffed version to see if she got anything useful to do before that part of the story. I’m afraid I’d find out the answer is “No,” and I’d just feel even worse. Oh, well. At least she went on to uh… get emotionally abused (& probably physically abused in some mercifully cut scene) as screechy, unlikable Iris in The Beatniks. Feh.
P.S. - BLUEGRASS BREAK!!
Anyway: who else in the MST3K-verse seemed to land only the most thankless, ill-fated, or just plain pointless/superfluous roles? (Not speaking here about terrible performances OR a performer’s real-life travails. Kadler’s acting was fine, given what she had to work with. And she might’ve had a great life in the non-fictional world, for all I know.)
It’s a bleak movie, for sure. But Ross Hagen did go on to play several guys who won at life, I believe. (Wonder Women and Hellcats being prime examples.) Though he was still Ross Hagen of course. Can’t speak for the other cast members.
You could argue that “J.C.” (Michael Pataki) helps drive the plot (such as it is) of It Lives By Night as the sleazeball sheriff. Even if he still comes to a bad end, he’s important to the story. Same with Sidehackers, of course: in contrast to both the Kadler roles I mentioned above.
There’s something so very sad about the poor dopey clone escapee in PARTS: The Clonus Horror. Everyone who shows him even the teensiest scrap of decency or compassion ends up blown up, murdered, or lobotomized.