Grant Unto Him Eternal Rest his body works differently from other people". The executives were bemused by an incomplete story where one of the main characters was dead, but commissioned the series soon after receiving the full script. In retrospect, Linehan and Mathews noticed that the plot was very similar to that of the "Fawlty Towers" episode "The Kipper and the Corpse". Despite being fans of the show, they only noticed the parallels afterwards, and would likely have abandoned the episode if they had seen them earlier. Kevin Sharkey, who plays the black Donegal priest, was a friend of the writers', and was brought in
The Corpse Vanishes writer Mary Jo Pehl describes the movie as "nonstop boredom and yawns aplenty" and a "low-key quasi-thriller." Like all the other first-season "MST3K" episodes, "The Corpse Vanishes" did not make the Top 100 list of episodes as voted upon by "MST3K" Season 11 Kickstarter backers. Writer Jim Vogel also took a dim view of the episode, ranking it #184 (out of 191 total MST3K episodes). "It’s not the worst movie in the world, although it is very weird," Vogel says, remarking that the low energy level from the riffers makes this an "MST3K" episode likely to bore the audience. The