Mork & Mindy: Alienation

Mork & Mindy: Alienation
ABC
December 3, 1981
Sitcom
DVD
C+

This Kout & Zateslo story is a good example of an episode that is more interesting than entertaining:

• Mork and Mindy tell Mearth about his heritage and he's so unhappy that he runs away;
• He's taken in by a cult that's more satanic-looking and less-hippie-ish than the cults shown on sitcoms of the mid to late '70s;
• John Larroquette and Richard Moll, less than three years before Night Court, are the two cultists with speaking roles, the former the leader, the latter menacing but a little child-like;
• Mearth in the end embraces his heritage and experiments a little with his powers, making me wonder how this compares to Tabitha on Bewitched, although of course she stayed a baby for a couple seasons, while Mearth is practically a kindergartener at this point;
• We see that Mork's attic bedroom has been converted into Mearth's room;
• Mearth meets Orson during Mork's report;
• Williams refers to James Watt and Hill Street Blues, pulling us further into the '80s.