There’s no denying the talent (deranged though it may be) of Robin Williams. I can still remember the first time I watched the episode of “Happy Days” entitled “My Favorite Orkan”, where the world was first introduced to the alien Mork. At the time Williams was a struggling stand up comic, but the character proved so popular that he actually spun-off into his own highly successful series. “Mork & Mindy” premiered in September of 1978 and ran until 1982. It delivered four seasons of Robin Williams’ rapid fire delivery and made his career. One minor memory I have of the time came right after the success of the series made Williams a household name. I wandered into a movie theatre that has a movie poster for a film called (are you ready?) “Can I Do it ‘Til I Need Glasses?” It was one of those films that was basically made up of live action joke sketches.

The poster said, “Starring Robin Williams” and had a big picture of him. I went to see the movie, and it was obviously something he had done years before and he was in it for a total of 4 minutes. Ahhh, the power of marketing.

Watching the series as a teenager, I absolutely loved Robin Williams. I thought he was a comic genius and reminded me of the great Jonathan Winters. It wasn’t until about a year later that I found out how much Williams revered Winters, which of course led to his being cast as Mork & Mindy’s son in the show’s final season. It was unfortunate was that the meeting of these two great comics in the series was not that funny and quite possibly led to the cancellation of the series.

In its heyday however, “Mork & Mindy” was one of the funniest shows on the air at the time. To call it wacky would be an understatement, and to this day I still wonder how much of Williams’ dialogue was ad-libbed. Looking back on the series, as great a comic talent as he was (and still is); it is actually difficult to picture him as the Academy Award winning actor he became. The man is an amazing actor, yet it still seems like people view him as a comedian in spite of the incredibly dramatic, and sometimes frightening, roles he’s taken over the years. (“One Hour Photo” anyone?)

Of course, “Mork & Mindy” wouldn’t be “Mork & Mindy” without Mindy, and the casting of Pam Dawber was a good choice. It was one of her earliest roles, and her ‘girl-next-door’ looks and charm were more than adequate to win over all the men of America. I think many of us tuned in as much to watch her as we did Wiliams. Her portrayal of Mindy was such a contrast to Williams’ hyper-kinetic and frenzied approach to Mork, and that gave the series a good balance.

Paramount is following up its releases of “Happy Days” and “Laverne & Shirley”, with a new DVD set of the first season of “Mork & Mindy”, which is fitting. After all, as I mentioned before, the series was a spin-off of “Happy Days” (which many people nowadays seem shocked to learn) and the first episode even features a ‘flashback’ to Mork’s first visit to Earth back in the 1950’s. Of course, this series takes place in modern times (well… 1978) and Mork is back from Ork in an attempt to learn more about our bizarre customs. Its kind if a pre-cursor to “Third Rock From the Sun”, as Mork moves in with Mindy, whom he’s befriended. His attempts to ‘fit in’ are never less than hilarious.

The DVD set spread out all of the first season’s 24 episodes over four discs, unfortunately with no extra features in sight. With all the special guests that found there way onto the series in the first season (Penny Marshall, Henry Winkler, Morgan Fairchild, and yes… David Letterman), some interview footage or commentary would have been great. If nothing else, the madcap performance style of Williams had to have led to hours and hours of unused footage, so outtakes would have been even better.

Normally I would complain more about the lack of extra features, but I really loved “Mork & Mindy” when it originally aired, and though some of the humor is a bit dated, it’s every bit as hysterical today as it was then. I’m thankful enough just to have this series available in any format.

(By the way, a little bit of trivia… Mork’s trademark “Nanu Nanu” isn’t all that original in the realm of alien science fiction. The word (?) made an appearance in the 1953 “Killers from Space.” Hmmm, might they have been from Ork?)

Episodes:
The Mork & Mindy Special
Mork Moves In
Mork Runs Away
Mork In Love
Mork’s Seduction
Mork Goes Public
To Tell the Truth
Mork the Gullible
A Mommy for Morky
Mork’s Greatest Hits
Old Fears
Mork’s First Christmas
Mork and the Immigrant
Mork the Tolerant
Young Love
Sky Flakes Keep Falling on My Head
Mork Goes Erk
Yes Sir, That’s My Baby
Mork’s Mixed Emotions
Mork’s Night Out
In Mork We Trust
Mork Runs Down
It’s a Wonderful Mork
Mork’s Best Friend

Starring: Robin Williams, Pam Dawber
Extras: None
Specifications: Full Screen, Mono
Studio: Paramount
Release Date: 9/7/2004
Region 1
MPAA Rating: NR
Website

We'll give Mork & Mindy: Season 1 a B.