July 21, 1951 – August 11, 2014
With Robin Williams passing I thought I would post the first episode of Mork & Mindy, the TV show that solidified his celebrity status. Except Hulu doesn’t have it up for some reason. I suppose I could have tried the Happy Days episode he came from but this series was set in modern day rather than the 1950s. While searching, however, I came across tonight’s offering from the third season. Whenever one of the performers on a show is famous enough there’s the obligatory story (unintentional rhyme) where a character will meet the celebrity playing him or her, and usually there’s at least one joke where they talk about how the two look alike. This episode used that as a gag but also a way for Mork to learn about celebrities and fame.
For those of you who have never seen the show, Mork & Mindy follows the misadventures of Mork, an alien from the planet Ork sent by his boss, Orson, to live among Earthlings and learn more about them and their culture. He ends up in Boulder, Colorado where he rents the room of Mindy McConnell, who learns of Mork’s origins and helps him learn about life on Earth. At the end Mork tries to explain what he learned to Orson by psychic projection. (Mork is shown to have various psionic abilities.) It turns out Mork’s report in this episode is surprisingly fitting considering Williams’ recent passing.
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