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.