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.