Mork & Mindy: The Wedding

Mork & Mindy: The Wedding
ABC
October 15, 1981
Sitcom
DVD
B

This Eisenstock & Mintz story has Mindy breaking the news of the engagement to her grandmother, father, and stepmother.  Cathy still doesn't know Mork is an alien (I don't think she ever finds out), so she doesn't understand Fred's objections.  Mindy is stubborn and her father gives in, despite his misgivings.  Orson on the other hand punishes Mork by turning him into a dog.  Mindy still wants to go ahead with the wedding.  Everything works out, although Mindy is very surprised to hear that the honeymoon will be on Ork.  And the episode ends with another "To Be Continued."  Despite the obstacles, this doesn't feel as sad as the previous episode, if not as joyful as you'd expect a wedding episode to be.  M & M clearly love each other and are definitely ready for "for worse," but I hope they have some "for better" soon.

James Staley, who plays the Reverend, previously was Stu Scully.  I'm assuming Stephanie Dizon is Stephanie Kayano under another name, or it's just a coincidence that they found another plump Asian girl with the first name of Stephanie to play Stephanie from the daycare.  (She doesn't have any lines, so I can't be sure.)

Mork & Mindy: Mork's New Look

Mork & Mindy: Mork's New Look
ABC
January 1, 1981
Sitcom
DVD
B-

April Kelly wrote this story where Fred considers plastic surgery, after watching 10 and feeling like he's too old and unattractive for his wife.  (The age difference between Fred and Cathy of fifteen years is indeed that between Janis and Fabares.)  Mork also wants to change his appearance, to Fred's!  It's a bit far-fetched the pace at which appointments are made and surgery planned in this episode (not unlike when Janet Wood considered a boob job), but otherwise it's a good episode, with Williams's ad libs sharper than they sometimes are this season.  Note that there's a reference to an urban cowboy bar with a mechanical bull; the Travolta movie (released the previous June) had more of an impact on ABC sitcoms than I'd realized.  The weird thing here is that 10 actually came out in October of '79, yet the McConnnells act like they're seeing it in first release.

There's a scene set at the Da Vincis' restaurant, but Remo appears without Jean.  Amy Tenowich and Stephanie Kayano return as Lola and Stephanie.  And, yes, that's 31-year-old Ilene Graff as the Receptionist; she'd return as Tracy in the last season.

Mork & Mindy: A Mommy for Mindy

Mork & Mindy: A Mommy for Mindy
ABC
January 3, 1980
Sitcom
DVD
B+

So M & M moved back to Thursdays at 8 p.m. (with Soap still at 9:30) and they brought back Conrad Janis and we all lived happily ever after.  Well, not quite but I do remember being happy seeing Mindy's dad return, although disappointed that Grandma didn't accompany him.  As an eleven-year-old who'd lost my mom at age three, this episode probably made me cry then and it certainly did just now.  In fact, as a middle-aged adult I can relate more to Mindy waking up from a dream about her mother's death, and how helpless that kind of renewed grief feels.  Dawber plays it well, and Williams offers both comfort and humor, so that it's also a really sweet moment between them.  The scene of Mindy talking with her father is also good.  Kudos to writer April Kelly as well as the cast.

Mindy's father has been gone about eight months, and he returns as a newlywed, with Cathy (35-year-old Shelley Fabares).  Mork is thrilled by the idea of having a mom (although she's his POSSLQ's stepmother if you want to use 1980 census terms).  Fabares was of course a TV veteran and she does well with the role, although she's not given much to do and is more of a catalyst.  She'd return twice more.

And welcome to the '80s.  It will be as strange and twisted a journey as the '70s.