Mork & Mindy: Dueling Skates

Mork & Mindy: Dueling Skates
ABC
November 27, 1980
Sitcom
DVD
C+

I recorded this episode at the time, but on audiocassette, which is funny considering it's such a visual episode.  In fact, I would've gone with a C but I like the scenery, even if it's probably mostly California pretending to be Colorado.  Mork challenges a skater named Wheels to keep the daycare center from being torn down.  The writing by McRaven & Johnson could be stronger, like how Mork says he might do some kind of time freeze but then he doesn't or even come close to it.  Also, Glenda Faye shows up for just a few lines and then disappears from the rest of the episode.  Note that Mork passes a place in downtown that has a sign "Keep Boulder Pure," ominously suggesting that the white power group from last season is still around.

Bill Morey, who's Mr. Simpson, previously was Mr. Prendergast.  Tom Kindle plays his third unpleasant Mork character, Bozz the sidekick.  The manager of the daycare is now Mrs. Fowler, played by Priscilla Morrill, who was Miss Kalinowski last season.  Oddly enough, Garry Marshall himself directed this one, which he generally didn't do on the shows he created.

Mork & Mindy: Little Orphan Morkie

Mork & Mindy: Little Orphan Morkie
ABC
February 7, 1980
Sitcom
DVD
B-

I'd like to have given this Kalish & Taylor story a B, since it picks up a hanging thread from the previous season (about Mork's citizenship) and it is one of the funnier episodes of this season.  (Though Williams probably deserves credit for the President Jerry Brown solar-powered electric chair joke.)  However, I feel that the Exidor material this season is weak, and obviously I'd rather have had them have Mork & Mindy consider marriage for more than a moment rather than try to figure out who could adopt Mork.  I am pleased by two of the cameos: Judge Baker played by Charles Lane, less than a year after he was a judge on Soap; and Priscilla Morrill as Miss Kalinowski at the adoption agency.

I don't know if the kid Jud was intended to be a successor to Eugene, or if they just wanted to give Noah Hathaway work after his role as Boxey on Battlestar Galactica, but I never saw him in anything except this episode.  (It is worth noting he plays Harry Potter, Jr. in the 1986 movie Troll.)

Welcome Back, Kotter: The Bread Winners

Welcome Back, Kotter: The Bread Winners
ABC
June 8, 1979
Sitcom
DVD
B-

Epstein hopes to get a job through Woodman's niece Kelly (Georganne LaPiere again).  However, Washington unknowingly wins over the owner of the antique store, Mrs. Gladstone Trevors-Smythe (Priscilla Morrill, who among other things played Chrissy Snow's mother).  And of course that's where the job is.  Mr. Kotter shows up to try to make peace between the two fighting friends, but they end up leaving the Horshacks' dinner party to go settle things at the gym.  Again, this episode, written by Morris & Rauseo, is better than I expected.  I really didn't think the season would end on a relatively good streak.

Welcome Back, Kotter in its final season ranges from C- to B-, averaging out to the C+/B- border, so I can't say it totally jumps the shark, although there are definitely lows it never hit before.  I think it could've actually gone to a fifth season, if, one, Kaplan had become a real part of things again (and the backstage drama had died down), and two, there hadn't been yet another year in high school.  The characters were edging into adulthood and it would've been interesting to follow up on that.  On the other hand, the energy and joy of the first season or two, like the dance below, were long gone.  This isn't a perfect moment to end it, but it'll do.

Three's Company: And Mother Makes Four

Three's Company: And Mother Makes Four
ABC
March 24, 1977
Sitcom
DVD
B-

I'm going to go ahead and give this a B-, like Pilot #2 and the British original, although I do think Priscilla Morrill is an improvement over whoever the actress was who played Susan Lanier's mother.  (Morrill was the aunt in the "Summer of the Swans" After School Special, and we'll be seeing her again.)  There's still the basic problem that they think they can keep a secret like this from Chrissy's parents.  That said, the episode is fun, with some of the fun coming from the enthusiastic studio audience, who not only savor the innuendo but make audible remarks like, "Go for it, Jack," and "The mop."

As I mentioned before, I suspect that the cab driver's scene was carried over, but I think both Janet's hair and Mrs. Roper's outfit are different from Pilot #2 and they did indeed have Shera Danese come back as the buxom Barmaid.  This aired on a Thursday, the same night as What's Happening!!, and knowing ABC, the Family Hour, and the late '70s in general, I'm going to guess it was after WH.

After School Specials: Sara's Summer of the Swans

After School Specials: Sara's Summer of the Swans
ABC
October 2, 1974
Children's
DVD
B-

Bob Rodgers's second adaptation of a Betsy Byars novel is better than The Eighteenth Emergency.  In this case, I have read the book (including in the last few months), and it's a pretty good adaptation, although inevitably some things get left out or simplified.  Admittedly the acting and the writing are a little stiff (what fourteen-year-old uses words like "dwindle"?), but nonetheless there are moments that feel genuine, including what it's like to be an awkward adolescent.  Both Chris Knight and Eve Plumb, as Joe and Gretchen, appear (looking not much different than they had a few months before on The Brady Bunch), although his role is much more significant.  The best performance is by 47-year-old Priscilla Morrill as Aunt Willie.  Among other things, she would be Chrissy's mother on Three's Company.  And 2nd Bully Kevin McCarley was the bully Peaches in The Eighteenth Emergency.