Happy Days: Mork Returns

Happy Days: Mork Returns
ABC
March 6, 1979
Sitcom
DVD
B-

What a difference a year makes!  When Robin Williams returns, there's no question that he is one of the hottest new stars on TV.  It's not just in the reaction of the admittedly always hyped-up HD studio audience.  It's also in his looser, hipper, and naughtier portrayal of Mork.  (When Mork temporarily transfers some of his power to Fonzie and then Richie, the audience does not seem to get the "Was it good for you, too?"/ "It knocked my socks off" exchange between Williams and Winkler, who were friends in real life.  And then Mork says something like, "Twice in one night," when he repeats the act for Richie.)

This makes the fact that the episode is a clip show much more bearable, as does the part where Richie recalls the "amazing" things that the Fonz has done.  I wasn't quite sure where we were in the HD timeline, beyond Episode 142 and the 5th anniversary, but I said aloud, "Oh, do the shark-jump.  Do the shark-jump!"  And, sure enough, they showed Fonzie jumping the shark.  I couldn't help wishing that Robin Williams had known at the time how infamous and phrase-making that moment would become in retrospect, but it was fun to watch on my own (twice).

Lorrie Mahaffey, who was married to Anson Williams and played the recurring role of his girlfriend Jennifer, around this time played Ann on M & M.  Seen in archive footage are Ed Peck (as Officer Kirk, and he'd at this point not yet played a bigot on M & M) and Laurette Spang (who played Bosley's daughter in the first Love Boat TV-movie, as well as Inga on Three's Company)

Happy Days: My Favorite Orkan

Happy Days: My Favorite Orkan
ABC
February 28, 1978
Sitcom
DVD
C+

Mork, with a weirder voice and a less pacifist attitude than on his own show, arrives and decides to kidnap Richie, specifically because Richie is average and humdrum.  And in a way, that's a good metaphor for this episode.  As I've said elsewhere, I was a Happy Days viewer but I'm not a HD fan.  Watching this again, seeing how stilted and formulaic it was (yes, even compared to Laverne & Shirley or What's Happening!!), I felt the opposite of nostalgia, more of a comical disbelief.  And then Williams showed up and, while he didn't make everything OK, he did make it better.  He gave to the role, which was, remember, just supposed to be a one-time cameo, little whimsical touches, even if this is not the pop-culture freak that the '70s Mork would be.  (He does slip in an Opie joke, but it's too set-up to be ad-libbed.)  Note that the version on the DVD (packaged with M & M's fourth season) seems to be the original, rather than the later one where Mork has erased everyone's memories of him.

Jerry Paris, who it looks like directed just about every episode of Happy Days, definitely directed this one and "Mork Returns."  Note that this is the 110th episode of the series, from Season Five, when Richie was in college.

Mork & Mindy: Pilot

Mork & Mindy: Pilot
ABC
September 14, 1978
Sitcom
DVD
B-

This hour-long pilot is the first of thirteen episodes written by the show's co-creator Dale McRaven and the first of fifty-nine directed by Howard Storm, who'd written the Henry Winkler episode of The Bob Newhart Show.  And Winkler shows up in a flashback that takes up about a quarter of the screen time.  You see, Mork had been introduced on Happy Days the previous spring and was a big hit.  So here Mork tells Mindy about a later visit he made to '50s Milwaukee, where the Fonz fixed him up with Laverne De Fazio.  Yes, heavy crossover city.  As I've mentioned before, Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley were at the top of the ratings (till Three's Company nudged its way in), so the guest shots would've been a way to draw even more viewers in.  Unfortunately, it adds to the uneven tone of the script.

As for the main show, the characters are established, as are some of their relationships:

• Mork from Ork, with Robin Williams not as wacky as he'd get but still showing a range of comedic styles;
• Mindy McConnell, 21-year-old mostly sensible (except when she lets her thwarted date-rapist drive off with her car!) college student, played by Pam Dawber with warmth and sincerity;
• Frederick McConnell, Mindy's old-fashioned father, given a sense of humor by Conrad Janis;
• Cora Hudson, Mindy's maternal grandmother, with Elizabeth Kerr using some of the insult humor she showed in her Bob Newhart Show cameo;
• Orson, Mork's superior on Ork, voiced by Ralph James but never seen except in shadow;
• Eugene, an African-American kid who quickly befriends Mork, played by eleven-year-old Jeffrey Jacquet in his first of ten appearances.

There are some definite plot holes, putting aside the whole space alien thing.  How does Mork, without any money, manage to get an Earth outfit?  Was it in his luggage?  Did he pick up the rainbow suspenders thing from watching broadcasts of What's Happening!! and emulating Rerun?  How does Mindy get her Jeep back?  Why does Fred agree to help defend Mork when he doesn't like the guy?  How does Mork's hearing come up so quickly?  And so on.  Still, the show is certainly likable and this time I really appreciated all the shots of late '70s Boulder and surrounding scenery.  I'm not sure if I'd have tuned in again if I were an adult in '78, but as a ten-year-old, especially with M & M taking Welcome Back, Kotter's Thursday at 8 p.m. on ABC slot, I happily watched the next week, and indeed the next four years.

Jeff Harlan, who plays Bill, would show up the next year as a Customer.  Dick Yarmy, who had a couple roles on That Girl, makes his first of three Mork appearances, here as Dr. Litney.

The Bob Newhart Show: Clink Shrink

The Bob Newhart Show: Clink Shrink
CBS
January 26, 1974
Sitcom
DVD
B-

Bob counsels a recent parolee, Miles Lascoe (28-year-old Henry Winkler, who had very recently debuted on Happy Days).  Bob and Emily are worried when Miles brings Bob a video recorder.  (Very cutting edge!  Even if it looks like a reel-to-reel audiotape player.)  The episode is more interesting than funny, although Bob trying to speak prison language is amusing.

Russ Grieve, who plays Spike Coolidge, would later be Leo the Private Detective.  (And surprisingly, he played three natives on Gilligan's Island.)  Len Lesser. who's Mr. Schwab, was a Guard on That Girl.  This is the only BNS episode written by Howard Storm, who'd mostly be known as a director, for Mork & Mindy among other things, while his co-writer here, Paul Lichtman was mainly an actor, including on What's Happening!!  And speaking of people switching roles, the director this time is Peter Bonerz, who isn't in the episode much.  He'd go on to do 28 more for BNS, plus a whole lot of other programs.