Sci Fi TV Flashback: Looking back at notable sci fi and fantasy television entries from years past.
What Is It? Mork, from the planet Ork, is sent to Earth to observe the behavior of humans (largely because his superior Orson wants him out of his hands). When Mork arrives, he encounters Mindy who has had an argument with her boyfriend and who confides in the alien thinking he is a priest (because he is wearing his suit backward). When she learns the truth about his origins, she realizes that he is trustworthy and allows him to move into the attic above her apartment and they establish a friendship as he carries out his mission of monitoring humans
Aired: ABC, 1978-82, 4 Seasons Totaling 95 Episodes
Starring: Robin Williams, Pam Dawber, Elizabeth Kerr, Conrad Janis, Tom Poston, Jonathan Winters, Robert Donner
Created By: Garry Marshall, Dale McRaven, Joe Glauberg
Is It Must-Watch Sci Fi? The first season is definitely worth a look with a young Robin Williams at the top of his game. But due to network tinkering, the quality of the show slipped in subsequent years.
The Skinny: Mork & Mindy arrived on the scene in 1978 on the wave of sci fi popularity spurred by the success of Star Wars and gave us one of the funniest sitcoms ever to hit television–for one season at least. During its first year, young comedian Robin Williams stole the show with his anarchic read on the alien character Mork which led to his wild antics and over-the-top improvisations. But the rest of the cast succeeded in holding their own next to the frenetic Williams and helped elevate the show to the next level. Pam Dawber was the resilient as the “straight-man” holding things together, and then there was Elizabeth Kerr as her feisty grandmother, Fred McConnell as her stuffy father, Tom Poston as the grumpy neighbor, Robert Donner as the off-kilter Exidor, and more. This plethora of interesting characters allowed Williams to pinball through each episode bouncing off of the various personalities he was surrounded with and that helped to deliver comedy gold as the show become a surprise hit in its first season.
But ABC mystifyingly decided to tinker with the formula of Mork & Mindy in its second year in an attempt to draw younger viewers (inexplicably ignoring Williams’ mass appeal to the young crowd and the fact that it was the third highest-rated show in its first year). They dropped several of the cast regulars from the first season (including Mindy’s dad and grandmother, Fred and Cora, who were an important part of the cast chemistry) while adding new faces and a different setting for the series. They also cut way back on Robin Williams’ improvisations–a key to the success of the first season–and began to deliver by-the-numbers sitcom stories. This led to a drastic decline in the ratings and an attempt by ABC to undo many of the changes the following year. Fred and Cora were brought back for the third season and deli owners Remo and Jean were dropped from the series without so much as a mention. Still, the show did not return to the glory days of its first season, despite a last-ditch effort to save it by bringing in Jonathan Winters during the fourth year. He played Mork’s son (Orkans age backward) and that led to some good comedy sparring between Willimans and Winters, but the show has lost most of its magic by that point and would be gone by the next season. The first year was definitely its best and counts as a classic in the sci fi and sitcom genres (even though it has not dated well). But because of the network tinkering, overall the show has been relegated to a flash-in-the-pan hit from the past.
Cancelled Too Soon? Possibly. Mork & Mindy proved to be a surprise hit in its first season, ranking Number 3 among all shows that year. But then ABC decided to move it from its comfy Thursday night timeslot between Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley and try to use it as a means to put a dent in the other networks’ lock on Sunday nights (perhaps as a response to the CBS counter-programming against Battlestar: Galactica in the 1978-79 season, more on that at this link). And that may very well have worked if Mork & Mindy stayed with its first season format. But because of the more competitive timeslot and the network tinkering, the show slipped to Number 27 in its second year. It was moved back to Thursdays in its third season and many of the second-year changes were reversed, but the show never made it back into the Top 30. It did stick around one more year which got it to an episode count that gave it an extended life in syndication encore runs. But I am sure many fans of the show would have liked at least one more season of the antics of Mork, Mindy, and all the other colorful characters from the show.
Should It Be Rebooted? No. Sadly Robin Williams took his own life in 2014 and he was an essential part of Mork & Mindy. I’m sure there is some network exec somewhere who knows a comedian that they think can bring this show back to life in a reboot, but it is best to just leave this one alone.
Interesting Fact: Mork first appeared during the fifth season of the popular ABC series Happy Days in an episode titled “My Favorite Orkan” (which was a take on the ’60s sitcom My Favorite Martian). In that ep, Mork attempts to take Ritchie Cunningham back to the planet Ork, but his plan is thwarted by Fonzie. At the end of the episode, it was revealed to be a dream sequence, but Mork proved so popular that he was spun off into his own series. The Happy Days episode was later retconned to show that the encounter with Mork really happened and that he erased everybody’s memories afterward. So does the crossover make that show sci fi as well?
Where Can You Watch It?: The complete series has been released on DVD but not Blu-ray yet. Surprisingly, it is not currently streaming on any of the major services. Even though it aired on ABC, the property is owned by Paramount Television, so perhaps it will show up on Paramount+ at some point. In the meantime, you can catch episodes on YouTube.
Read More About the Show: Wikipedia | IMDb.com.
More Sci Fi TV Flashbacks at this link
CancelledSciFi.com: Keep up with the status updates of all the currently airing sci fi and fantasy shows with our Cancellation Watch posts. And be sure to follow the Cancelled Sci Fi Twitter Site for breaking news and updates.
SciFiTVSite.com: Follow our Sci Fi TV Schedule for all the currently airing and upcoming sci fi and fantasy television shows, and keep up with what is airing/streaming each week with our Weekly Listings.
