Mork & Mindy

The comic phenomenon that is Robin Williams was first fully unleashed on the world with this hilarious syndicated TV series.

Created as a spin off from an, admittedly, quite silly episode of Happy Days, this series charts the course of an alien, Ork, (Williams) as he investigates the planet Earth for his superiors back home.

What could have been an absolutely laughable disaster is transformed by Williams into an absolutely laughable success, from drinking with his finger and talking to plants, to his wild dances with Mindy, the woman who unwittingly welcomes him into her home, and reporting back upside down with his fingers in his ears, Williams keeps us laughing from start to finish off every episode.

This series blows away most of the comedic films Williams has done in his career, with the exception of Good Morning Vietnam, and should always be remembered as the ultimate comic performance from Williams.

I remember the late summer of 1978, working to save enough money to go back to school. Many days were long and difficult. My friends and I left behind by those that had their finances lined up for classes, were always looking for something to do to take our minds off of what we thought were big issues at the time.

Along came this wacky television show with a guy on it that was absolutely nuts. A bunch of us would get together every Thursday night to see what he would do next. We would laugh our heads off at this crazy show and we wouldn't think of missing one. Mork and Mindy was a bright spot in our day in day out lives.

In one of the weirdest spin off from Happy Days, Mork (Robin Williams) is from the planet Ork. He is sent to Earth by Orson who is frustrated with his irreverent humor. At the end of each episode, Mork reports to Orson about the lesson he learned. Orkans drink with their fingers, sit on their heads, and age backwards. Mork lands outside of Boulder, Colorado and finds Mindy McConnell (Pam Dawber) abandoned by her date. He tells her about his extraterrestrial origins and becomes her flatmate. Her father Fred owns a music store in the first season which he ran with his sharp-tongued mother-in-law. Mr. Bickley (Tom Poston) is Mindy's grumpy downstairs neighbor. The second season has New York siblings Remo (Jay Thomas) and Jean DaVinci (Gina Hecht) as their restaurateur friends. Nelson Flavor (Jim Staahl) is Mindy's pompous cousin. Exidor is Mork's crazy friend with imaginary followers. The most insane and inspired choice is Mearth (Jonathan Winters), Mork's newborn in season 4, after his wacky performance in season 3 as uncle Dave.

This is simply a Robin Williams original. He makes this show. The show really only works with him on the screen. Pam Dawber is cute but she is overmatched. Of course, almost anybody would be overmatched. She has a tendency to laugh at Robin's jokes and do a lot of aww-schucks. The constant changes to the cast are not helpful. The DaVinci siblings didn't do the work that the show had hoped. Nelson Flavor and Exidor are my favorite characters. There is nobody like Jonathan Winters but by the fourth season, the show had no viewers and Robin Williams had better opportunities on the big screen.

MORK AND MINDY was hilarious during its first season, but the producers and the network got so full of themselves over it, they decided "let's improve on perfection!", and naturally, they destroyed the show doing so.

Season 2 was no longer the least bit funny, and season 3 with Jonathan Winters was so absurd (and actually tasteless if you think about it) that the series sank like a stone. None of the "new" supporting characters had any charisma, and the producers' "feel good" decision to start sermonizing to the viewers was as poor a decision as has ever been made in television.

Bottom line: Buy the first season on DVD and enjoy it. Pretend the rest of it didn't happen.

Anyone who was ever a fan of the late Robin Williams has fond memories of Mork&Mindy. Another spinoff from Happy Days where a confrontation between spaceman Willlams, Mork from the planet Ork and Fonzie proved so popular Williams got his own show.

As Mork,Williams was on a mission from his planet to report on Earth and its inhabitants. He chose Milwaukee as his base and every night he reported to his leader Orson. He lived with Pam Dawber, all American girl who was at great pains to explain what this weird person was doing.

In this show we saw Robin Williams open that amazing book of comic tricks for the world. Williams was a genius no doubt, right up there with Chaplin and Keaton. Sad he was such a depressed and tortured soul in real life.

Those reruns are still popular and timeless. Check the show out and sample the first taste the world got of Robin Williams.