Mork & Mindy: Mork's Best Friend

Mork & Mindy: Mork's Best Friend
ABC
May 10, 1979
Sitcom
DVD
B-

This is the only Mork script written by Simon Muntner, who'd done seven for M*A*S*H.  It has Mork adopting a caterpillar, mourning it, and then finding it's transformed into a butterfly.  Meanwhile, Exidor shows up and now believes in reincarnation.  The best scene here is the funeral, with a grumpy (of course) Mr. Bickley, and Williams doing his best George Jessel; it's clear that Dawber is having a very hard time holding in her laughter, and even Williams almost breaks up a couple times.

George Pentecost plays his middle of three Mork roles, as Herman the mortician.  Both Janis and Kerr are gone and sadly wouldn't be back the next season.

Mork & Mindy in its first season gets an almost equal number of C+s, B-s, and B's (seven, nine, and eight respectively).  At its best, it offers Williams's improv pushing against but not breaking the sitcom structure, with some sweet and mildly romantic moments with Dawber, their chemistry good from the beginning.  The guest stars are a mixed bag, although I can see why Poston and Donner kept being asked back.  Overall, this was a show that worked, not on a Bob Newhart Show level but better than it should've been.  Then the network got its hands on it and changed the winning formula.  I still watched of course, and it may be that Season Two is better than I remember, but it will at least be different.