Mork & Mindy | |
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![]() First season title card | |
Genre | |
Created by |
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Starring |
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Theme music composer | Perry Botkin Jr. |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
No. of seasons | 4 |
No. of episodes |
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Production | |
Executive producers |
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Producers |
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Camera setup | Multi-camera |
Running time | 22–24 minutes |
Production companies | |
Release | |
Original network | ABC |
Audio format | Monaural |
Original release | September 14, 1978 – May 27, 1982 |
Related | |
Mork & Mindy is an American television sitcom that aired on ABC from September 14, 1978, to May 27, 1982. A spin-off after a highly successful episode of Happy Days , "My Favorite Orkan", it starred Robin Williams as Mork, an extraterrestrial who comes to Earth from the planet Ork, and Pam Dawber as Mindy McConnell, his human friend, roommate, and eventual love interest.
Season | Episodes | Originally aired | Rank | Rating | ||
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First aired | Last aired | |||||
1 | 25 | September 14, 1978 | May 10, 1979 | 3 | 28.6 (Tied with Happy Days ) | |
2 | 26 | September 16, 1979 | May 1, 1980 | 27 | 20.2 | |
3 | 22 | November 13, 1980 | May 14, 1981 | 49 | — | |
4 | 22 | October 8, 1981 | May 27, 1982 | 60 | — |
This section needs additional citations for verification .(October 2012) |
Mork first appears in the Happy Days season five episode "My Favorite Orkan", which aired in February 1978 and is a take on the 1960s sitcom My Favorite Martian . The show wanted to feature a spaceman in order to capitalize on the popularity of the recently released Star Wars film. [1] Williams' character, Mork, attempts to take Richie Cunningham back to his planet of Ork as a specimen but is foiled by Fonzie. In the initial broadcast, it turned out to be a dream of Richie's. But when Mork proved popular, the syndicated version was re-edited to show Mork erasing the experience from everyone's minds. [2] [3]
The character of Mork was played by the then-unknown Robin Williams, who impressed producer Garry Marshall with his quirky comedic ability as soon as they met. Dom DeLuise and Roger Rees were offered the role but both passed. [4] [5] Richard Lewis and Jeff Altman were considered. [6] When Williams was asked to take a seat at the audition, he sat on his head and Marshall cast him on the spot, later wryly commenting that Williams was the only alien who auditioned. [7]
Mork & Mindy is set in Boulder, Colorado, in the then present-day late 1970s and early 1980s (as opposed to the Happy Days setting of Milwaukee in the late 1950s). Mork explains to Richie that he is from the "future": the 1970s.
Mork arrives on Earth in an egg-shaped spacecraft. He has been assigned to observe human behavior by Orson, his mostly unseen and long-suffering superior (voiced by Ralph James). Orson has sent Mork to get him off Ork, where humor is not permitted. Attempting to fit in, Mork dresses in an Earth suit, but wears it backwards. Landing in Boulder, Colorado, he encounters 21-year-old Mindy (Pam Dawber), who is upset after an argument with her boyfriend, and offers assistance. Because of his odd garb, she mistakes him for a priest and is taken in by his willingness to listen (in fact, simply observing her behavior). When Mindy notices his backward suit and unconventional behavior, she asks who he really is, and he innocently tells her the truth. She promises to keep his identity a secret and allows him to move into her attic. Mindy's father Fred (Conrad Janis) objects to his daughter living with a man (particularly one as bizarre as Mork), but Fred's mother-in-law Cora (Elizabeth Kerr) approves of Mork and the living arrangement. Mindy and Cora work at Fred's music store, where Cora gives violin lessons to Eugene (Jeffrey Jacquet), a 10-year-old boy who becomes Mork's friend. Also seen occasionally are Mindy's snooty old high school friend Susan (Morgan Fairchild) and the possibly insane Exidor (Robert Donner).
Storylines usually center on Mork's attempts to understand human behavior and American culture as Mindy helps him to adjust to life on Earth. It usually ends up frustrating Mindy, as Mork can only do things according to Orkan customs. For example, lying to someone or not informing them it will rain is considered a practical joke (called "splinking") on Ork. At the end of each episode, Mork reports back to Orson on what he has learned about Earth. These end-of-show summaries allow Mork to humorously comment on social norms.
Mork's greeting is "Na-Nu Na-Nu" (pronounced /ˈnɑːnuːˈnɑːnuː/ ) along with a hand gesture similar to Mr. Spock's Vulcan salute from Star Trek combined with a handshake. It became a popular catchphrase at the time, as did "Shazbat" ( /ˈʃæzbɒt/ ), an Orkan interjection that Mork uses. Mork says "KO" in place of "OK".
This series was Robin Williams' first major acting role. Scripts were shorter than on Happy Days, with notes specifying "Robin will do something here" to let Williams improvise. [8] However, often his improvisations, due to unsuitability for a general television audience, had to be replaced with seeming ad libs that were actually scripted by a large team. [9]
The series was extremely popular in its first season. The Nielsen ratings were very high, ranking at 3, behind Laverne & Shirley (at 1) and Three's Company (at 2), both on ABC, which was the highest-rated network in the U.S. in 1978. The show gained higher ratings than the Happy Days series that had spawned it, at 4. [10] [11] However, the network management sought to improve the show in several ways. This was done in conjunction with what is known in the industry as counterprogramming, a technique in which a successful show is moved opposite a ratings hit on another network. The show was moved from Thursdays, where it outrated CBS's The Waltons , to Sundays where it replaced the canceled sci-fi series Battlestar Galactica . The show then aired against two highly rated shows: NBC's anthology series titled The Sunday Big Event and CBS's revamped continuation of All in the Family titled Archie Bunker's Place . [10]
The second season saw an attempt to seek younger viewers and premiered a new disco arrangement of the gentle theme tune.
The characters of Fred and Cora were dropped from the regular cast. It was explained that Fred went on tour as a conductor with an orchestra, taking Cora with him. Fred and Cora made return appearances in later episodes. Recurring characters Susan and Eugene made no further appearances after season one and were never mentioned again.
New cast members were added. Among the new supporting characters were Remo and Jeanie DaVinci (Jay Thomas and Gina Hecht), a brother and sister from New York City who owned a new neighborhood deli where Mork and Mindy now spent a lot of time. Also added as regulars were their grumpy neighbor Mr. Bickley (who was seen occasionally in the first season and ironically worked as a verse writer for a greeting-card company), portrayed by Tom Poston, and Nelson Flavor (Jim Staahl), Mindy's snooty cousin who ran for city council.
The show's main focus was no longer on Mork's slapstick attempts to adjust to the new world he was in, but on the relationship between Mork and Mindy on a romantic level. Also, some of the focus was on Mork trying to find a steady-paying job.
Because of the abrupt changes to the show and time slot, ratings slipped dramatically (dropping to 27th place). The show was quickly moved back to its previous timeslot and efforts were made to return to the core of the series; however, ratings did not recover.
For the third season, Jeanie, Remo, and Nelson were retained as regulars with Jeanie and Remo having opened a restaurant. Nelson was no longer into politics and wore more casual clothes.
Mindy's father and grandmother returned to the series. The show acknowledged this attempt to restore its original premise, with the third season's hour-long opener titled "Putting the Ork Back in Mork".
Several supporting characters were added to the lineup. Joining were Lola and Stephanie, two children from the day-care center where Mork worked. Also added was Mindy's close friend Glenda Faye Comstock (Crissy Wilzak), a lovely young widow on whom Nelson develops a crush. Wilzak lasted one season as a regular.
When these ideas failed to improve ratings, many wilder ideas were tried, in an attempt to capitalize on Williams' comedic talents. The season ended at number 49 in the ratings.
Despite the show's steady decline, ABC agreed to a fourth season of Mork & Mindy, but executives wanted changes. The show began to include special guest stars this year.
At the beginning of the fourth season, Mork and Mindy got married. [12] Jonathan Winters, one of Williams' idols, was brought in as their child, Mearth. Because of the different Orkan physiology, Mork laid an egg, which grew and hatched into the much older Winters. [13] Winters had previously appeared in a season 3 episode as Dave McConnell (Mindy's uncle and Fred's brother). It had been previously explained that Orkans aged "backward", thus explaining Mearth's appearance and that of his teacher, Miss Geezba (portrayed by then-11-year-old actress Louanne Sirota). After four seasons and 95 episodes, Mork & Mindy was canceled in the summer of 1982. The show ended at 60th place at season's end.
Actor-director Jerry Paris was inspired to create the character of Mork after directing an unusual and memorable episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show titled "It May Look Like a Walnut", in which Van Dyke's Rob Petrie has a dream wherein he believes the Earth has been surreptitiously invaded by walnut-eating aliens who steal humans' thumbs and imaginations. [16] Series creator Carl Reiner had written the episode, which was the 20th in the show's second season and the 50th episode produced. When he moved on to direct Happy Days , Paris introduced Mork in a similarly atypical season-five episode titled My Favorite Orkan. [16] [17] In it, Richie tells everyone he has seen a flying saucer, but no one else believes him. Fonzie tells him that people make up stories about UFOs because their lives are "humdrum." Then while Richie is at home, Mork walks in. He freezes everyone with his finger except Richie and says he was sent to Earth to find a "humdrum" human to take back to Ork. Richie runs to Fonzie for help. When Mork catches up to him, he freezes everyone, but finds himself unable to freeze Fonzie because of The Fonz's famous and powerful thumbs. Mork challenges Fonzie to a duel: finger vs. thumb. After their duel, The Fonz admits defeat, and Mork decides to take Fonzie back to Ork instead of Richie. Then, Richie wakes up and realizes he was dreaming. There is a knock on the door and much to Richie's dismay, it is a man who looks exactly like Mork, except in regular clothes, asking for directions.
When production on Mork & Mindy began, an extra scene was filmed and added to this episode for subsequent reruns. In the scene, Mork contacts Orson and explains that he decided to let Fonzie go, and was going to travel to the year 1978 to continue his mission. In the pilot episode of Mork & Mindy, Orson tells Mork that he is assigning him to study the planet Earth. Mork remembers that he has been to Earth before to collect a specimen (Fonzie) but he "had to throw it back, though. Too small."
Fonzie and Laverne of Laverne & Shirley appeared in the first episode of the show. In this segment, Mork relays to Mindy his trip to 1950s Milwaukee where Fonzie sets Mork up on a date with Laverne.
Mork returned to Happy Days in the episode "Mork Returns" in which Mork tells Richie that he enjoys coming to the 1950s because life is simpler and more "humdrum" than in the 1970s. Fonzie sees Mork and immediately tries to run away, but Mork freezes him and makes him stay. He eventually lets him go, but not before Fonzie asks Mork to reveal two things about the future: "cars and girls". Mork's response is, "In 1979... both are faster." The episode is mostly a retrospective in which clips are shown as Richie and Fonzie try to explain the concepts of love and friendship to Mork.
Mork also appears in the first episode of Out of the Blue , "Random's Arrival", as a crossover stunt.
Paramount Home Entertainment has released the entire series of Mork & Mindy on DVD in Region 1 in both individual season sets and a complete series configuration, [18] while the four seasons are available in Regions 2 and 4. The Region 1 DVD release of season 1 was from Paramount alone; subsequent releases in Region 1, as well as international season 1 releases, have been in conjunction with CBS DVD.
In Australia, only the first three seasons were released individually followed by a complete series boxset on December 17, 2014. In 2020 Via Vision Entertainment obtained the rights to the series and is releasing a Complete Series boxset on December 16, 2020.
DVD name | Episodes | Release dates | ||
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Region 1 | Region 2 | Region 4 | ||
The Complete First Season | 25 | September 7, 2004 | October 29, 2007 | September 19, 2007 |
The Second Season | 26 | April 17, 2007 | April 7, 2008 | March 6, 2008 |
The Third Season | 22 | November 27, 2007 | September 1, 2008 | September 4, 2008 |
The Fourth Season | 22 | December 9, 2014 | TBA | TBA |
The Complete Series | 95 | December 9, 2014 | December 15, 2014 [19] | December 17, 2014 [20] December 16, 2020 [21] |
For its first season, Mork & Mindy was nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards: Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for Robin Williams. The program lost to Taxi and Williams lost to Carroll O'Connor for All in the Family .
Mork & Mindy was syndicated off network by Paramount beginning in the Fall of 1982, to low ratings. By 1983, most stations that owned the show rested it much of the year running it only in the summer, when weaker programming tended to air. Few stations renewed the show a few years later. [ citation needed ] By 1987, the show only aired in a handful of TV markets. With the expansion of cable channels available, the show began airing on cable. Nick at Nite reran the show from March 4, 1991, to November 27, 1995. [22] The show has also aired on FOX Family Channel in the late 1990s. From 2008 to 2011, the show aired in marathons on SyFy. [23] It has aired in subsequent years on Me-TV, the Hub Network and various other classic television stations airing on various digital subchannels. The show currently airs on Rewind TV, and streams on Pluto TV.
In an interview with Garry Marshall on June 30, 2006, Pat O'Brien mentioned that Mork & Mindy was filmed on Paramount stage 27, the former studio for his infotainment program The Insider .
The house from the show is located at 1619 Pine Street, just a few blocks away from the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder. This was also used in the show as Mindy's actual address in Boulder, as shown in the episode "Mork Goes Public". The same house was later used for exterior shots on the series Perfect Strangers in Episode 21 of Season 5, "This Old House", where the show's main characters, cousins Larry and Balki, remodel a home for a fix-and-flip in hopes of huge profits. Often mistaken, it was not the house the cousins moved into with their wives during the final two seasons. In addition, it was used in three episodes of Family Matters as Myra's house. [24] [ unreliable source? ][ original research? ]As of July 2016 [update] , the house was valued at $1.9 million, with a last sale date of 1974 for US$80,000 (equivalent to $415,000in 2019). [25]
Arthur Herbert Fonzarelli, better known as "Fonzie" or "The Fonz", is a fictional character played by Henry Winkler in the American sitcom Happy Days (1974–1984). He was originally a secondary character, but was soon positioned as a lead character when he began surpassing the other characters in popularity. To many, Fonzie is seen as the epitome of cool and a sex symbol.
Happy Days is an American television sitcom that aired first-run on the ABC network from January 15, 1974, to July 19, 1984, with a total of 255 half-hour episodes spanning 11 seasons. Created by Garry Marshall, it was one of the most successful series of the 1970s. The series presented an idealized vision of life in the 1950s and early 1960s Midwestern United States, and it starred Ron Howard as Richie Cunningham, Henry Winkler as his friend Fonzie, and Tom Bosley and Marion Ross as Richie's parents, Howard and Marion Cunningham. Although it opened to mixed reviews from critics, Happy Days became successful and popular over time.
Laverne & Shirley is an American sitcom television series that played for eight seasons on ABC from January 27, 1976, to May 10, 1983. A spin-off of Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley starred Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams as Laverne DeFazio and Shirley Feeney, two friends and roommates who work as bottle-cappers in the fictitious Shotz Brewery in late 1950s Milwaukee, Wisconsin. From the sixth season onwards, the series' setting changed to mid-1960s Burbank, California. Michael McKean and David Lander co-starred as their friends and neighbors Lenny Kosnowski and Andrew "Squiggy" Squiggman, respectively; along with Eddie Mekka as Carmine Ragusa, Phil Foster as Laverne's father Frank DeFazio, and Betty Garrett as the girls' landlord Edna Babish.
The idiom "jumping the shark" is pejorative and is used to argue that a creative work or outlet appears to have reached a point where it has exhausted its core ideas and is introducing new creative ideas that are discordant with its core nature. The phrase was coined in 1985 by Jon Hein in response to a 1977 episode from the fifth season of the American sitcom Happy Days, in which Fonzie jumps over a shark while on water-skis.
Jonathan Harshman Winters III was an American comedian, actor, author, television host, and artist. He started performing as stand up comedian before transiting his career acting in film and television. Winters received numerous accolades including two Grammy Awards, and Primetime Emmy Award as well as a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960, the American Academy of Achievement in 1973, and the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 1999.
Garry Kent Marshall was an American screenwriter, film director, producer and actor. He began his career in the 1960s as a writer for The Lucy Show and The Dick Van Dyke Show until he developed the television adaptation of Neil Simon's play The Odd Couple. He rose to fame in the 1970s for creating the ABC sitcom Happy Days, and went on to direct the films The Flamingo Kid, Overboard, Beaches, Pretty Woman, Runaway Bride and The Princess Diaries, and the romantic comedy ensemble films Valentine's Day, New Year's Eve and Mother's Day.
Pamela Dawber is an American actress best known for her lead television sitcom roles as Mindy McConnell in Mork & Mindy (1978–1982) and Samantha Russell in My Sister Sam (1986–1988).
Cynthia Jane Williams was an American actress and producer, known for her role as Shirley Feeney on the television sitcoms Happy Days (1975–1979), and Laverne & Shirley (1976–1982). She also appeared in American Graffiti (1973) and The Conversation (1974).
Out of the Blue is an American fantasy sitcom that aired on ABC during the fall of 1979. It is chiefly notable as having featured a Mork & Mindy crossover, and for the debate surrounding its status as a spin-off of Happy Days.
The Fonz and the Happy Days Gang is an American animated science fiction comedy series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and Paramount Television and originally broadcast during the Saturday morning schedule on ABC from November 8, 1980, until November 28, 1981. It is a spin-off of the live-action sitcom Happy Days.
Leonard Weinrib was an American actor, comedian and writer. He is best known for playing the title role in the children's television show H.R. Pufnstuf, Grimace in McDonaldland commercials, the title role in Inch High, Private Eye, the original voice of Scrappy-Doo on Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo, Hunk and Prince Lotor on Voltron, and Bigmouth on The Smurfs. He also was the voice for Timer in the "Time for Timer" ABC public service announcements in the early 1970s.
Warren "Potsie" Weber is a fictional character from the sitcom Happy Days. He was played by Anson Williams. Anson also played the character in several other shows; he appeared in guest appearances on Love, American Style and Laverne & Shirley.
Richard J. Cunningham is a fictional character played by Ron Howard in the 1970s TV sitcom Happy Days. He is the second son of Howard and Marion Cunningham, the brother of Joanie Cunningham and Chuck Cunningham, and a friend of Fonzie, Ralph Malph, and Potsie Weber. Richie was the original lead character, but was supplanted by Fonzie when that character's popularity came to dwarf that of Richie and the other characters.
"Mork Goes Erk" is the seventeenth episode of the first season of Mork & Mindy. The episode first premiered on ABC on February 8, 1979. "Mork Goes Erk" was later released on VHS on January 1, 1998 as part of a two-episode special which also included "Mork's First Christmas," and on DVD on September 7, 2004 as part of the "Mork & Mindy - The Complete First Season" DVD boxed set.
Laverne & Shirley, also known as Laverne & Shirley in the Army, is an American animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and Paramount Television broadcast on ABC from October 10, 1981, to November 13, 1982. It is a spin-off of the live-action sitcom Laverne & Shirley with the titular characters voiced by Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams and was loosely based on the 1979 two-part episode "We're in the Army, Now" in which Laverne and Shirley enlisted in the Army.
Mork & Mindy/Laverne & Shirley/Fonz Hour is a 1982–1983 American animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and Ruby-Spears Enterprises in association with Paramount Television, featuring animated versions of characters from the live-action sitcoms Mork & Mindy, Laverne & Shirley and Happy Days (Fonzie), all part of the same franchise. This Saturday morning series lasted for one season on ABC.
Ralph James Torrez was an American voice and character actor who lived in Los Angeles County, California.
This is a list of episodes from the sixth season of Happy Days.
"My Favorite Orkan" is the 22nd episode of the fifth season of the 1970s television sitcom Happy Days, making it the 110th episode overall. It is notable for occurring during the shark-jumping season of the sitcom's run, as well as introducing Robin Williams to a larger audience. The actor's popular appearance in this episode led to the spin-off series Mork & Mindy, which was based on his character.
In the original cut of the episode, Mork is just a weird dream that Richie Cunningham is having