Mork & Mindy: Mork's Baby Blues

Mork & Mindy: Mork's Baby Blues
ABC
September 30, 1979
Sitcom
DVD
B-

This Misch & Kelly story is an improvement over the last two episodes, with a gold-digger, Kathy Cumberland (Manoff), faking a pregnancy when she thinks Mork is rich.  He wants to do the honorable thing and marry her, not understanding that he couldn't get her pregnant just from sleeping on her couch.  Again, Mork and Mindy are sort of seen as a couple but not quite.  Note that although Mork is still making Nixon jokes (five years after Nixon's resignation), there is a reference to Reagan's hair in this episode.

Carl Gottlieb, who'd written one Bob Newhart Show episode and appeared in another, plays Justice Abbott.  Jim Staahl appears in the opening credits, although his character Nelson Flavor has not yet been introduced.

Soap: Episode 38

Soap: Episode 38
ABC
December 21, 1978
Dramedy
DVD
B

This Harris & Silver episode has some weaker scenes and yet redeems itself.  For instance, Burt and Mary confront each other about their "affairs," and it's marred by Mary's ridiculous thing (which has come up in the past) that she thinks she's fat.  But at least they're finally talking, even if he's still lying (about who the woman was).  And I don't really care about Detective Donohue and Jessica supposedly being in love, but I do like the talking-to Benson gives him.  And the kidnapping thread continues to have too much slapstick and stupid humor, but then there is the literally killer ending of Elaine coming home to die in Danny's arms.  Despite the start and middle of their relationship, this ending is bittersweetly beautiful, especially with the reaction shot of the rest of the family huddling together in their grief.  (Well, not Chuck & Bob who are upstairs working on their mind-reading act.)  The only thread I don't have an issue with is Tim not believing Corinne about the timing of her pregnancy.  Viscuso and Canova work well together, and both characters have views that the audience can relate to.

Greg Antonacci and Frank Coppola are of course back as kidnappers Dave and Mel, but only the latter would return.  This is of course Manoff's final appearance as Elaine, although she would go on to a long-running role as Richard Mulligan's daughter Carol on Empty Nest.  Billy, the Major, Eunice, Dutch, and obviously Chester are absent.

Soap: Episode 37

Soap: Episode 37
ABC
December 14, 1978
Dramedy
DVD
B-

I don't really care about most of the threads in this Harris & Silver episode (Dutch & Elaine scared of spiders on the farm, Burt and Danny dealing with the kidnappers, Detective Donohue telling Jessica he loves her), but it is worth tuning in for the scenes before and during the wedding.  Crystal brings out so many sides to Jodie and the others, particularly Damon, work well with him.

Greg Antonacci and Frank Coppola return as the kidnappers Dave and Mel.  Corinne for some reason is absent, even at the wedding.  Note that, while not technically implied male nudity, Dutch carries out the week's theme by dropping his pants.

Soap: Episode 35

Soap: Episode 35
ABC
November 30, 1978
Dramedy
DVD
B


This Harris & Silver episode contains perhaps the funniest exchange on the series, the "Mickey Mouse's dog was gay?!" dialogue between Jodie and Jessica, showing what pros Crystal and Helmond already were.  (And I think Mary's laughter at the end is Damon's genuine amusement.)

The scene has a more serious side, as both Mary's son and sister want her to talk to Burt, but she's not ready yet.  And Burt tries to let Sally down gently but she gets so upset that he agrees to keep it going.  At the end of that scene, she calmly calls someone to tell them that Burt will soon be a broken man.  Meanwhile, Eunice runs off with Dutch, Chester goes missing, and Elaine gets kidnapped.  Note that the wall calendar by Sally's desk says November.  We'll see if this helps with the timeline later.

Harrison Page, who was on That Girl in two different roles, one of them a policeman, here plays Benson's old friend Deputy Gilmore.  Frank Coppola makes his first of five appearances as Mel and Greg Antonacci his first of three as Dave, who I believe are the kidnappers.

Soap: Episode 34

Soap: Episode 34
ABC
November 23, 1978
Dramedy
DVD
B

The best scenes in this Harris & Silver episode are the ones of female-bonding, from Mary and Elaine doing mudpacks together to Carol's wedding shower.  And speaking of showers, Mary doesn't buy Burt's story about a plane landing in the road, especially since she notices he showered before he came home.  Jessica admits that, looking back, she thinks Chester cheated on their honeymoon, but she encourages Mary to talk to Burt.  Meanwhile, Tim works for Burt's construction company but quits after one day, Chester thinks he's Marlene Dietrich, and the Flanderization of Danny's intelligence begins, with his plan to hire midgets to work in four-foot-high office space.

Soap: Episode 33

Soap: Episode 33
ABC
November 9, 1978
Dramedy
DVD
B-

Susan Harris co-wrote this episode with Stu Silver, his first of fifty-two Soap episodes.  Generally, I like it, with the best scene this time being the one where Corinne and Jessica eat popcorn and talk about the former's pregnancy.  Jessica is surprisingly pro-choice, saying that if Corinne doesn't want to have a baby she shouldn't, although she does guess that Corinne wants to.  Corinne does, despite Tim's unemployment.

Meanwhile, Jodie gets the last of his belongings from Dennis and ends up punching his ex out when Dennis calls Carol a slut.  Danny and Elaine are now very lovey-dovey, and Bob gets away with a Devil in Miss Jones reference.  Chester is home and still amnesiac, so Eunice thinks he should be committed.  (Yeah, that worked out so well with Burt.)  Dutch tries to say goodbye to Eunice but gives in when she begs to run away with him.

The weakest thread is that Mary's professor (Lee Bergere in his last appearance on the show) keeps coming on to her and ends up on top of her on the couch.  Burt walks in and jumps to the wrong conclusion, but instead of talking to them, he goes out, gets drunk, and ends up at Sally's apartment.  She has him stay the night.  If they had to do this plot, couldn't they have given a more plausible reason for Burt to not confront Mary than uncertainty?

Soap: Episode 32

Soap: Episode 32
ABC
November 2, 1978
Dramedy
DVD
B

This episode has two good dramatic scenes and a proto-Golden-Girls scene, but I can't give it a B+ because some of the other scenes are weak.  One of these is another hospital scene, where Chester still has amnesia and the doctor finds it funny.  Also, the Sally being in love/lust with Burt thread doesn't really work, especially knowing her motivation.

One of the dramatic scenes is Elaine explaining to Danny why she's a bitch (not that she puts it that way).  The other is Burt talking about how his father was never a success.  As for the GG-like scene, it's Susan Harris having four female characters sit around the kitchen table, eating junk and talking about sex.  Meanwhile, Jodie meets Carol's father, "Boomer" David (Michael Conrad, who was Mr. Trevesco on The Bob Newhart Show), and tells him "The Princess is pregnant."  Boomer is nice to Jodie's face but tells Carol to never bring "the faggot" home.

The Major, Chuck, and Bob are absent.

Soap: Episode 31

Soap: Episode 31
ABC
October 19, 1978
Dramedy
DVD
B-

This is the last of the episodes co-written by Jordan Crittenden.  Dutch comes back for a very brief reunion with Eunice, confirming Billy's theory that everyone in the family is crazy.  Tim moves in with the Tates.  Chester emerges from his surgery with a memory loss.  Mary's professor, Anatole Martins (Lee Bergere in the first of two Soap appearances), tries to flirt with her.  Dennis is unhappy to hear that Jodie got Carol pregnant and wants to marry her.  And Danny and Elaine hesitantly try being nice to each other.

Soap: Episode 30

Soap: Episode 30
ABC
October 12, 1978
Dramedy
DVD
C+

This is another episode Harris wrote with Crittenden, but I don't know if it's his fault that the current storylines are less appealing to me than the ones from the first season.  My least favorite is the Taming of the Shrew thread with Danny and Elaine.  Meanwhile, Burt's secretary Sally (Caroline McWilliams, who would be a different character on Benson) starts coming on to Burt and Danny.  Jodie proposes to Carol, who's hesitant because she knows that Jodie doesn't want to have sex with her again, although he says he'll try.  (And she makes a Schwarzenegger reference.)  Tim's mother dies.  Eunice confesses her feelings for Dutch to Jessica.  And Dr. Kanter (Ron Rifkin in his first of three Soap appearances) tells Jessica that Chester has a brain lesion that caused him to act violently and he'll need to operated on.

Policeman #2 Jeffrey Kramer had been on M*A*S*H and would be again.  Fred Iwasaki returns as the Japanese Chef and gets a line this time.

Soap: Episode 28

Soap: Episode 28
ABC
September 28, 1978
Dramedy
DVD
C+

Harris collaborated with Jordan Crittenden on this and the following three episodes, but I'm not sure if it's his fault I couldn't really get into this.  The two main flaws are in the Dutch-Eunice thread and the Elaine-living-at-the-Campbells thread.  With the latter, basically Elaine is obnoxious and the Campbells get annoyed.  With the former, you've got lines like "too bad I'm not a rapist" and Dutch and Elaine bonding over being made fun of as children.  I do like Jessica topping Mary's news about Carol's pregnancy, and I like Tim and Corinne's wedding, including Corinne and Benson reminiscing over her childhood.

Ian Wolfe makes his last appearance as Father Juniper.

Soap: Episode 27

Triangle

Soap: Episode 27
ABC
September 21, 1978
Dramedy
DVD
B-

Dutch and Chester escape from prison and then people keep disappearing into the Tate basement.  Between these two events, Danny marries Elaine and her father cuts her off completely, and Carol tells Jodie the rabbit died.  (I'm pretty sure from the audience reaction that this is a reference to Crystal's flop movie Rabbit Test, which had been released the previous April.  By the way, Doris Roberts, who's Mrs. Flotsky on this show, was Crystal's mother in that.)

Tim Rossovich returns as the Bodyguard and Rene Levant as the Prison Guard.  Florence Halop, 55 at this point, plays Elaine's Aunt Esther, who's confused as to why a black man is at the wedding.

Soap: Episode 25

Soap: Episode 25
ABC
March 28, 1978
Dramedy
DVD
B+

Carol asks Jodie to live with her, shortly before Dennis shows up.  His wife has left him and he's realized he still loves Jodie.  Father Tim tells Corinne he's leaving the priesthood and wants to marry her.  (Eunice has to leave the room because she's laughing too much.)  And Mr. Lefkowitz wants Danny to marry Elaine in three weeks' time, or else he'll kill Danny's family.  Mallu confesses his love to Jessica, who pretends to be teaching Mallu the Hustle when Chester walks in.  And the jury finds Jessica guilty, although Rod Roddy, in one of the best cliffhangers ever on TV, tells us that Jessica Tate did not kill Peter Campbell, but one of these five people did: Benson, Burt, Chester, Corinne, or Jodie.

I got chills watching and hearing that in '82, but at least I didn't have to wait months to find out the answer.  (I think it was just the weekend, since Soap aired every weekday in syndication.)  Assuming you already know, I won't put spoiler space as I talk about the plausibility of each:

• Benson could've possibly killed Peter because he is fond of Jessica and to a lesser extent Corinne, and he might've done this out of protection.  Still, I just can't see Benson committing murder.  Going over and beating up Peter, or at least devastating him with a put-down, sure.  If he had been guilty, then his scene where he promises, with few words, to take care of the family if Jessica is jailed, is less touching and more Machiavellian.
• Would Burt kill his own son?  Yes, he killed Johnny Dallas, but that was in self-defense.  Burt was thrilled to have both his sons in town after not seeing them in years.  Also, we saw Burt discover the body and he was devastated by grief for weeks.  Furthermore, that was the night that he finally made love to Mary again and he celebrated the next morning by making pancakes.  Not exactly the behavior of a murderer.
• Chester seems not to have known that Peter was having an affair with Jessica, although he could've been pretending that he didn't find out until after Peter's death.  Would he have been upset enough about Peter shacking up with Corinne that he'd have killed Peter to defend the honor of his far from virginal daughter?  Unlikely, but possible.
• Corinne did threaten Peter and she certainly had motive enough.  Of the five, she's the one I probably would've put my money on, although she likely didn't expect her mother to be sentenced for the murder.
• Eunice said of Jodie, "Please, the man couldn't even kill himself."  I suppose it's possible that Jodie used the date with Nurse Nancy as a cover to kill Peter, but then why would he admit skipping the date?  And what's his motive?  Hypothetically, he could've been dating or wanting to date Peter (there's no proof one way or the other that Peter wasn't bi and he would fit the stereotype of an "anything that moves" bisexual, which was particularly strong in that era), but it's hard to imagine that going on at the same time that Jodie was planning to get a sex change as a way to hold onto Dennis.  Of the five, Jodie is the least likely suspect after Burt, although I may be influenced by how sweet and likable Crystal is in the role.

Tim Rossovich again plays the Bodyguard and, without any lines, manages to have a funny moment with Jodie.

Well, I enjoyed the first season much more than I expected.  Perhaps enough time had passed, or maybe seeing it in context with other shows of its era helped.  Also, I know that the last season is weaker, so maybe I'd forgotten how good Soap could get in the early days.  In any case, except for the misstep of the "Elaine rapes Danny" episode, I gave out mostly Bs, in a B- to B+ range.  It's one thing for Three's Company to average a B in its six-episode first season, but this is really impressive.  I don't recall if Season Two is this good, but I recall some threads and moments I liked.

Soap: Episode 21

Rebecca Balding

Soap: Episode 21
ABC
February 21, 1978
Dramedy
DVD
B

Corinne continues to stalk Tim, this time to his remote mountain retreat, although he does admit he can't get over her.  And the even more dysfunctional relationship of Danny and Elaine moves to the next level when he takes her home, hoping that meeting his family will scare her off.  The best scene here is the trial scene, from Mallu's assistant Carol finding "suicidal homosexual" Jodie adorable to Jessica's entrance and subsequent behavior.  Unlike nurse Nancy, Carol would be around awhile (Rebecca Balding would return eighteen times) and definitely impact the course of the show.

Ian Wolfe, who previously was the Monsignor, makes his first of two appearances as Father Juniper.  Tim Rossovich makes his first of three appearances as Elaine's Bodyguard.

Soap: Episode 17

Soap: Episode 17
ABC
January 17, 1978
Dramedy
DVD
B

Ingrid spends a lot of the episode gloating over Jessica's arrest.  Elaine takes Danny to talk to her father, Charles Lefkowitz (Sorrell Booke in his first of four Soap appearances), and we find out (though Danny doesn't yet) that Lefkowitz wants Danny to marry Elaine.  Howard Hesseman (briefly appearing onscreen with his future co-star Gordon Jump) plays Jessica's lawyer, Mr. Franklin, who refuses to continue since he's sure the case can't be won.  Congressman McCallam is being blackmailed.  And Burt thinks he can make himself invisible.

Susan Harris returns as Babette, this time answering Jessica's questions about prostitution.  Lee Weaver, who plays the Sergeant, would be Gus on Mork & Mindy.  Billy, Corinne, and the Major are absent.

Soap: Episode 15

Soap: Episode 15
ABC
January 3, 1978
Dramedy
DVD
C-

This was a hard one to grade, for a reasons I'll get to.  First I want to note where we are in the timeline.  Burt says it's been three days, which I assume means since Peter was killed, although it could be just since Tinkler told them that they were all suspects.  News of Corinne's evening arrest appears in some newspaper that is read in Ecuador, and Corinne's real mother is so upset that she immediately flies back to America.  She leaves behind Corinne's father, Randolph.  (No last name given but I think Jessica and Mary's maiden name was Gatling, unless that was just the last name of their cousin the governor.)  Randolph only appears in this one episode and presumably disappears in the jungle.  He's played by then 50-year-old Bernard Fox, who as Dr. Bombay is one of the few surviving members of Bewitched.  Confusingly, Corinne's mother Ingrid Swenson (sometimes Svenson in the credits) is played by 45-year-old Inga Swenson, who'd be German rather than Swedish on Benson's spin-off.  She must warp time slightly, because Corinne's bail is supposed to be set the next day, but it's daytime in Ecuador and seemingly nighttime again when she arrives.  Or maybe the judge was still out of town.

"Meanwhile," the Campbells and Dallases react to Corinne's arrest, and Burt's mental illness seems to begin in this episode, growing out of his grief for Peter.  There's a sweet scene that doesn't advance any plots but shows the bond between Mary and Jodie, which is good considering how much has happened to distract her since his suicide attempt.  There's also a nice scene where Jessica reluctantly agrees to tell Billy what's going on rather than keep sheltering him.

And there is a scene that seemed messed up to me watching it in 1982 and has certainly not improved with age.  Danny wants to talk to the crime boss (Mr. Big's employer), Mr. Lefkowitz.  He breaks into the mansion but ends up in the room of  Elaine Lefkowitz (Dinah Manoff).  She understandably pulls a gun on him, but then when he pulls off his ski mask, she sees how cute he is and then proceeds to rape him.  It's not as ugly as it sounds, but it is unpleasant, especially since it's played for laughs.  Pointing the gun at him again, she tells him to strip and makes it clear that he's going to have to have sex with her.  He thinks she's kidding, but she's not.  He worries about his performance under the circumstances, but he goes along with it, since he has no choice.  (There are also guards out in the hallway and vicious dogs on the lawn.)  Everyone remembers Luke & Laura but this predates that rape-leading-to-love arc by almost two years.  It is, unlike on General Hospital, never called a rape and Danny is not exactly seen as a victim, probably because he's a man.  (It'll be Elaine's "shrewishness" that will be the problem later.)  The rape is of course not shown, just what leads up to it.

I decided to just look at this episode in isolation, not count what happened afterwards.  So, while the scene is tasteless, at least Elaine is here at least not presented as a sympathetic character.  And the rest of the episode is generally solid, probably a B.  So a C- is fair, although I could see going as low as a D- if its impact on the future is taken into consideration.

The Major is absent, but Susan Harris herself does a cameo as Babette, the hooker who claims to be a travel agent who offered a guy "a trip around the world."  (I did not get that joke at 14.)

Welcome Back, Kotter: Sadie Hawkins Day

Welcome Back, Kotter: Sadie Hawkins Day
ABC
November 18, 1976
Sitcom
DVD
B+

This Eric Cohen script, based on a story by Joyce Gittlin and Steve Clements, who'd write another for WBK, is my favorite so far, even though I do have a couple complaints. which I'll get to.  First off, it's a hilarious episode, some of the humor coming from over the top things like the Hustle lesson that sweeps Mr. Woodman into it, and some of the humor coming from real and relatable adolescent moments.  I particularly like how Mr. Kotter keeps trying to get through to Vinnie, including telling a story about his friend Bonzo Moretti's sister Betty, and finally it sinks in.  I don't like Vernajean threatening Freddie to get him to go to the dance with her (particularly since they almost got married a year before).  And I think the thing about Judy being really unattractive is getting old.  That said, I was very impressed with this episode and it shows that the series was by no means getting stale in its second year.  And, yes, it was a good week for Travolta.

Eighteen-year-old Dinah Manoff, who would co-star with Travolta in Grease, and of course go on to Soap and Empty Nest, plays Charmaine, one of the girls who tries to ask Vinnie to the dance.  (A pre-It's a Living Wendy Schaal is another of the girls.)   Paula Victor, who was Mrs. Della Vella on The Bob Newhart Show, plays the often referred to but never previously seen Miss Fishbeck.