For one year , Mork and Mindy was arguably the most successful skill fable TV show ever made . The clowning about an extraterrestrial being and his human good friend turned Robin Williams into a worldwide genius . How did this miracle happen , and why did n’t it last ? To discover out , I let the cat out of the bag to the people who made the show .
I talk to six writers / producer of Mork and Mindy , plus the man who mastermind 59 of the show ’s first 73 episode , Howard Storm . Note : This is the full - length “ unwritten history”version of this clause . If you want to read the much shorter “ tl;dr”version , dawn here . Also , these audience have been slightly condensed and delete for clearness . In some eccentric , freestanding quotes have been combined .
The Birth of Mork
Originally , the astronaut Mork from Ork was just supposed to appear in a strange one - off episode of the 1950s - do sitcom Happy Days . In the original track of the episode , Mork is just a weird pipe dream that Richie Cunningham is having .
My first season on Happy Days was when we did the Mork sequence . Garry Marshall walked in one good morning , all peppy , and he goes , “ Scotty had a great idea ! ” Scotty was his eight - twelvemonth - older boy . “ Let ’s put a astronaut on Happy twenty-four hour period ! ” He walked out of the elbow room .
And we take care at each other like , “ God , that ’s the most ugly idea I ’ve ever heard . ” But he wants to do it , what do you do ? So we drew straws to see who drag the shortsighted straw and had to compose the script . And two actors quit within the first two days of dry run . It was just head for disaster .
[ The original Mork actor ] was the Sheriff of Nottingham from Mel Brooks ’ Robin Hood idiot box show . He take leave . And then , they tried to get Dom DeLuise , and he would n’t do it . Then they remember they had somebody else , and he say the script and passed .
Ronny Hallin , who was associate producer and Garry Marshall ’s older sister , had seen Robin [ Williams ] do a spaceman as part of his [ stand - up funniness ] act . They tag him down , and he came in at noon on Wednesday . The show was shot on Fridays . And they called us down for the most amazing run - through in the world .
We were all there , and we saw one guy wire who embodied all three Marx Brothers , Chaplin , the Three Stooges , and William F. Buckley in the same eubstance . There was an intellect — and so bright and so fast ! But creative . And afterwards , [ Happy Days star ] Tom Bosley pass on a spoken language about fall upon a big comedic talent . Right after the Wednesday afternoon run - through .
The Happy Days cast , it should be said , were tremendously generous in ceding the stage . commemorate , this was a former number one show , and still a top - three show . And they all just , you fuck , embraced this challenge , and provided a showcase for him .
[ After the run - through ] , we live on upstairs and [ rewrite the pilot script . ] We wrote a lot of stuff that became the cornerstone for a lot of the “ runners , ” or repeated jokes [ on Mork and Mindy ] . We used a lot of what [ Robin Williams had ] created on the spot . You would say “ Take a death chair , ” and he would sit down with his head on it instead of his ass . Like , [ Happy Days manufacturer ] Bob Brunner came up with [ Mork ] pledge with his finger . Everyone was firing on all piston chamber that night , believe me .
It was quite an experience to see them try and shape it , and get it down into the time frame that we could air it in . It was straight off placeable that it was just sensational . The guy wire was on fire . Very sweet and quiet and self - effacing .
Mork and Mindy had no pilot episode
Brian Levant :
What they did was , they get hold of clips from that episode of Happy Days . And they did a tear - CRT screen with a pilot that Bob Brunner , the manufacturer of Happy Days , had done called Sister Terri , that Pam Dawber had starred in as a contemporary nun . She was in civilian clothes .
And they throw it to them : “ What happens when this wacky cosmonaut meets this down - to - Earth girl ? ” And that ’s how they sold the show . They never wrote a formal pilot .
Pam and Robin met for the first time when they went to Boulder to shoot the main titles , before the series begin . And as you know , it created a national sentience .
Garry Marshall really had one metrical unit out the door of TV already , and was essay to pull in the other one [ out and go ] into picture show , which he did . But for the first eight episode [ of Mork and Mindy ] , he really shape and guided those . And he was really careful in how he built the character and the family relationship , so whatever manic , awful stuff that was created for [ Mork ] was wrap in this wonderful blanket of manhood . And that became the template for the show .
April Kelly ( writer , time of year one and two ):
He just edit together footage of both of them , sent it to ABC , and said , “ You know , these hoi polloi should be in a show together . ” So there was no buffer . When I was lease , there was not a single hand live .
I started on a Monday , I pitch stories on a Tuesday . They countered with a story they ’d been sustain problems with . I said , “ Okay , I ’ll pen that if you desire ” , and I come favourable reception on the [ outline ] on Wednesday , and I turned in the script on Friday . It was the first script that ever existed of Mork and Mindy .
What was Mork and Mindy about?
David Misch ( author , time of year one and two ):
The character had appear on Happy Days , so we had a general sense on the character . This show was going to have him start over and soil on Earth [ again ] and everything .
I do n’t think there were any thoughts beyond who the dramatis personae was go bad to be , who the characters were going to be , and the basic issue of his eruditeness about life in Earth , and having a kinship with Mindy . And you know , the other fictional character were essentially there to give a grounding to it , to leave him something to play off and to discover new things about Earth each week . But there was n’t , I think , a lot of thought yield to larger outcome .
Ed Scharlach ( author / producer , season one , two and three ):
[ Mork ] came here to ascertain about Earth and the people who know here , and nose up instruct about himself .
That makes it universal . That ’s the journeying that people go on in their lives , learning more and more about themselves . [ Mr. Spock on Star Trek ] was surely an influence there , because that was the era that [ Star Trek ] was on . It for sure had an influence on what we were doing .
David Misch :
Dale McRaven , who was plausibly the main guy behind it [ after Garry Marshall created the character ] was a hands - on guy . And he had a tremendous interest in scifi . And so from the beginning he require to have elements of that , as much as possible . But in the event , it turned out we did n’t do that much [ science fabrication ] .
essentially , Mork had some witching powers , which were not understandably defined — probably because we would make up new ones if it serve our design . He wassail with his digit in the first episode . I conceive that may have been it , actually . He would repoint his finger’s breadth and things would pass off , but it was n’t clearly explain what could befall , or the limits and range of his powers .
Other than that , the chief science fabrication view was just that he come from outer blank space , and therefore was , literally , an alien to our polish . And that was where the comedy came from , of course .
Howard Storm ( theatre director of almost every episode in seasons one , two and three ):
You know , when I take the playscript , it was very clear-cut . He ’s from another planet , and so he ’s someone who [ take ] everything literally . If you said to him , “ Button it up ! ” He would look to button something up , you cognise ? And [ if you said ] “ Go leap in a lake ! ” He ’d look for a lake to jump in . Those kinds of expressions , he took seriously , because he did n’t know any substantially .
I actually got to encounter Robin before the show began , and we schmoozed about it a little . He was very ambitious , and he wanted it to be a pelvis show . He want it to reflect who he was .
He had really done a few thing at that point . He ’d been on a revival of the video series Laugh - In , which had lasted about six episodes . I think he ’d been on some other show , very concisely . Nothing successful . No one had really comment him at that gunpoint .
He knew telecasting advantageously than I did , in all likelihood — but something within me told me that I should tamp down his expectations , when we were speak , that time before the show started . I said , “ You know , I ’m not sure how much of the hip comedy that you love so much is going to get in the show . I ’m trusted you ’ll be able-bodied to interpose some , but it is perish to be , for the most part , a standard sitcom . ” And I think I was ripe . On the other hand , the little [ that ] he was able to shoot is what made the show successful . He was totally responsible for the show ’s success .
This unprecedentedly brilliant soul was dropped into [ our ] laps . And it was like a gift from heaven , and everyone knew it was . The minute of arc he walked out on stage , you could see he was going to be a gigantic star . And basically , I think they just did n’t take vantage as much as [ they ] could have . And it was a conventional situation comedy , with lines that we know Robin could do better than anyone else . But that fact is , a lot of that show could have been done by other histrion — the show would not have been successful , but they could have done it . It was Robin ’s whiz that separated it from being a ceremonious sitcom .
April Kelly :
I wrote one show , and I remember the intro , because I used it for writing course a duo sentence . Mork walk into Mindy ’s theater and her Church Father is there . Mork ’s carrying a picnic field goal , and the father say , “ Hi Mork , what are you and Mindy going to do today ? ” He say , “ Mindy and I are go nit - picking ” . And so the father say , “ I call back you mean picnicking . ” And Mork articulate , “ Now who ’s nit - picking ? ”
So it ’s like , is he an changeling because he says “ nit - picking , ” or does he sleep with exactly what it is ?
It was wonderful , because you had this minor - like being , with a superscript intelligence agency that did n’t always show . And that ’s why Mork could come in with no shoe on , and Mindy said , “ What pass to your shoes ? ” and he said , “ They were eaten by the easygoing sidewalk . ” You know , he walked through cockeyed cement .
For a comedy writer like me , it was nifty , because I could put anything I want down on the paper . Anything . And even if Robin did n’t understand it , you could explicate it to him .
The first time I compose , “ Mork pronounce ‘ heavy sigh’”—which normally you would see that as a stage direction , on a three - television camera script : “ aside , bold cap , “ laborious sigh ” , faithful divagation . ” It ’s a note to the doer that you ’re supposed to go [ ca-ca a sighing haphazardness ] before that line . But I wrote it as Mork saying [ aloud],“looking lamentable , grueling sigh , ” and then keep utter . And it work ! It got a gag . So that became something he would do . He would say things that you would commonly mean of as stagecoach focussing .
The Black Box
Anyone who ever see the show think of the end of the show , which we call “ The Black Box”—because we shot it in a velvet - lined black box . And that ’s where Mork talks to his home planet .
Originally , it was going to be at the start of the show . But then , very chop-chop , we realized in the elbow room , it ’s pretty stupid , because it ’s in isolation . Whereas , if you put it at the final stage , the entire show can be a setup for that concluding joke .
One of them had Mork report back , about prisons on Earth . And so , he was explain it to Orson : “ This is a place where they give you solid food , they give you clothes , and they give you housing . ” And from his point of view , being in a prison house sounds like a pretty damn good deal . So , of trend , from his home plate satellite [ hail the question ] , “ This does n’t sound like penalty . What do they do for pleasure on that major planet ? ” And for pleasure , he key out cigarette - smoke , which makes you sick , make you smell defective , and make you cough . So it sounded like Mork was report [ to Orson ] ass - back .
We never shoot the Black Box the same day we charge the show . The show was shoot on a Friday Nox , and the fall out Tuesday , we shoot the Black Box without an interview . And that was something that started out as a hypothesis that you ’d do it up front [ at the start of the episode ] .
Jeff Reno ( author , season three ):
Often , specially in that epoch , in the 70 ’s and former 80 ’s , a lot of the sitcoms had sort of moral item [ or ] group - hug points [ at the remnant of every episode . ] You always kind of aimed your chronicle at something to be learned by the lineament . And so it was not that unmanageable to remember of stories in the term of , “ What does Mork learn at the end of this ? ” We just happened to put it into words .
The fact is , that ’s how TV work in those day , and it worked for not just our show but many shows . The difference was that on our show , it was neatly sum up at the close of the [ sequence ] , where Mork would talk to his gaffer on the planet Ork , Orson . And Orson would say , “ What did you get word this hebdomad ? ” and Mork would reply . And that either came naturally out of the instalment , or we would have to ram it in .
But I consider for the most part , we were just sample to think of interesting plots , and figured since he was naive and would memorise something each workweek about how Earth make , it would be reasonably dim-witted to do our one - instant summary at the conclusion .
[ Later , Jeff Reno ] and I worked on another show called Duckman . It was an alive show , and at the end of one episode , Duckman ’s married woman say , “ Do you think we ’ve learned anything from this ? ” And he says , “ Yep ! I believe very cautiously about the mistake I ’ve made , and I ’m somewhat certain I can make them all again imprecisely the same way . ” So we , like many people , [ got sick of learning object lesson at the ending of every sequence . ] And of course , Larry David , very magnificently [ articulate that ] “ No hugs , no object lesson ” was his model for Seinfeld .
What was the writing room like?
Jeff Reno :
We sit in the room [ and ] came up with melodic theme together . And usually , one person or one squad would go off to write a script , when the outline was quick . Then there was a fortune of rewriting that went on . And then the calendar week of production , you would rewrite as the week went on , too . And that was always in the room , everyone gathered together .
Some of the “ breakage ” of any case-by-case report might have happened a short turn more with the author who were gon na write the script , and then you ’d run away it by the hoi polloi there . There was no board — you would never put anything up on the board [ and ] outline it together , or thing like that . But , you sleep together , [ it was ] typical of most half - hour comedies at the metre : You ’d tattle things out , and then broadcast the writers off . And then everyone would get back together , when the order of payment came in .
[ The way ] was in reality a slight bit discouraging to me , cause I had just begin , and I was hope for something a bit more carving - edge . With the elision of one other writer , April Kelly — and even she ’d work on schematic sitcoms — everyone in there was a schematic sitcom writer .
We work incredible hour , and we ’d get there at ten and study till four . That ’s rough — and then you got ta go home and take a shower , then come back the next morning . So we were all pretty exhausted . And Robin kept up a busy schedule as well . He would play two , three , four comedy clubs every night , after putting in a full day of rehearsals . So everyone was sort of operating on fume .
as luck would have it , they had a miracle drug back then — I think its craft name was “ cocaine”—and a number of citizenry in show stage business avail themselves . I myself did not partake of that , but as an choice to cocaine , I exhaust immense sum of sugar . So I got fatty and energized .
But in any case , yeah , there were really long hour and fantastic agony over storylines . And like many shows of that clock time and some of this time , at the end of the composition process , you would go over the script line - by - line — the entire script — with everyone . Eight , nine , ten , twelve people in the way , trying to think of laughable parentage for every credit line in the script . So it was a tiring operation . But I think it was the way pretty much all shows were run back then .
My nickname from the two exec producers was the Queen of Ticker . Because whenever a show need some little “ bosom moment ” , or something , they ’d say , “ Hey , could you shed some melody in here that audio like masses should give a shit ? ” And I was would say , “ Okay , I ’ll try . ”
It pissed me off . I always associated that with [ the melodic theme ] that , “ Oh , the missy writes that . ” And I know they did n’t mean that , they just knew I could usually dab - terpsichore and come up with something that sounded , you be intimate , human . I could maybe get at world a little better than them , or something .
You know , it was just a gang of guys . It was probably another ten year before I was on a faculty with another female person , and I hired her . So you ’re in a room with a bunch of scratching , fart guys , and learning more about men than in all probability any woman should ever know .
The filming process
It ’s a tough biz — you’re fundamentally putting on a half - hour play every week , and it requires a flock of work . The stride was just relentless .
[ But ] you did n’t put out a show every week — you would do three or four episodes , and then you ’d have a week off . But what that “ hebdomad off ” consisted of was , working desperately to get caught up , so that you would n’t have to write a show a week . And the whole melodic theme was to have these show done weeks ahead of time , so that they ’re all prepped and ready , when you actually start shooting . And the calendar week you ’re pip your show , you ’re really in your office , wreak on your display for next weeks . And we were just get tight and closer to not being able to get a show on the air . There were a number of weeks where it search iffy .
Howard Storm :
[ There were four cameras , and four main set ] . Originally , it was the sustenance room , the music memory board , and also the attic where [ Mork ] lived . And we had a “ swing ” set , where necessary .
“Pam Dawber never got her due”
April Kelly and I proposed an episode in the first season , where Mindy was sort of agonizing over what she would do with her liveliness . And we find the Son from on in high spirits . They said , “ No , no . Mindy ’s got to be the normal American girl , ‘ cause that ’s how Mork can play off her . ”
And we were thinking : She ’s the alien . She has no line of work , she has no ambition , she has no friends , she evidently never thinks about sex — or anything , other than aver the line,“Mork , what are you doing ? ”
We think , if we give her an real character reference with neurosis and things like that , that would be more fun for Robin to play off . But they did n’t think so . Anyway , Pam Dawber was so attractive a human being , just as a individual , and was so clearly delighted by Robin in every room , that she was just a winning character . And their chemistry was grand , even though no one took our advice on how to change her .
Pam Dawber , as far as I ’m touch , never , ever got her due . She never got the respect , or the understanding of how significant she was to that show . Because she was capable to wait Robin out , when he went on some kind of tantrum , and do his thing . She would just wait it out , and when she regain enough room to get in there , she ’d feed him the next crease . You experience ? And to me , she was the life of the show . I think without her , Robin had no one to work off of .
Pam was a very square actress , and we would talk about how she was deal with this strange someone that was in her home . She love him , she adored him—[but had to wonder ] how she was die to deal with the external world .
So basically , she was always come up a direction to ensure [ Mork ] did n’t do the haywire thing — to protect him from the outside humankind , and to judge and make him understand what lifespan was really about . And take away some of his naivete . The character was very baby - like , so fundamentally she was call for care of a child .
She was n’t naturally peculiar to begin with . She was a pretty female child . She was a model . She ’d done a TV commercial — I think she was a waitress on roller skate for 7 - UP or Pepsi , or something .
So sometimes , you had to persuade her that looking foolish does n’t make multitude hate you . We had a show where Mork walk in and Mindy has like a mudpack on her face and her hair in a towel . So , Mork walks in and goes , “ Nyaaah ! ” And she was very reluctant to do that . She thought she ’d be in a ratty old bathrobe with her hair in a towel and a mudpack on her face . And that ’s going to make her look unattractive . And when you make your living by being jolly instead of being funny , then it ’s wild to look like that .
I said to Pam , “ You do n’t have to worry about how you appear . If they love you , they will be on your side . ” Like I say , drollery ai n’t pretty . So it was a bit of a passage , but she nonplus where she could hold her own in the tantrum with him . She was always going to be the full-strength man , no matter what . But , she did very well . I ’m very impressed with how she picked it up so rapidly .
Once she ascertain that nobody was say , “ Wow , you did n’t look very attractive there , ” she would throw herself into it . That ’s one matter : If you hold back , if you do n’t really go ball - to - the - paries , then people are n’t indisputable what you imply .
And there was one [ episode ] , where she had just round her nails . So she ’s just flapping her hand , to dry out her nails , and Mork walk in . He think she ’s trying to aviate , adjudicate to lift off . So he runs up behind her , picks her up by her waist and said , “ Fly , Mindy , be gratuitous . ” And she express mirth , and he puts her down , and she says , “ No , I ’m trying to dry out my nails . ” He cull up a towel and try out to serve her dry out her nail , and basically just ruin the manicure . But she play it all real — and that ’s what bring . That ’s what coif him up , and made you like her .
He was a comedy hulk , and nobody else is travel to be able to meet that . I consider the closest you came was Jonathan Winters , and that ’s because Robin idolized him . But being a true homo — look at Richie Cunningham on Happy Days . He play that [ part ] , but everyone have it off him , he was the central point , everything else revolves around him . You look at that , and say , “ That ’s a thankless role . ” But he did it , he committed to it , and they even wrote a show one time where Richie was afraid he was a ho-hum guy . And he was wonderful . And everybody loved him .
I thought she was very strong , she get to be a good distaff character and independent — and [ she ] just hap to have an alien living in her sign of the zodiac .
Did Robin Williams just ad-lib all his lines?
If you want to make one of the writers of Mork and Mindy mad , just play up this myth .
One of our lines when masses asked about advertizement libs [ was that ] we ’d say , “ We ’re up till four in the daybreak writing Robin ’s advertizement libs ” .
He did n’t do extended advertizing libs , but what he did that would be so brainy were these petty thing — a line here and there , a word here or there , a face , a voice — those were the thing that blew people ’s minds . And they may seem very tame now , but at the time , nobody was doing that on TV . Everyone just did the hand as written . And he mostly did , [ but ] he would thrust in little things here and there .
And the other matter is , we stole from him . He steal from many mass himself . And we would go see his deed , and we would cast off in things to the character that were things he have a go at it doing from his enactment . He never objected , he know doing thing like that . So , you sleep with , there was give and take all the elbow room through .
There were articles saying that the writers would just drop a line , “ Robin does his thing , ” and then Robin would just ad - lib for 22 minutes . Which is ludicrous . There was no way that could pass . The writer were write heavy stuff for him .
The vantage I had was that I was an doer , I was a standpoint - up , and I was an improviser . So I had the same background as [ Robin ] did . Only I was n’t as respectable at it as he was — but having all that backdrop , I be intimate where he was coming from . I understood that in dry run , he would climb the wall sometimes . I knew enough , come in , not to attempt to hold Robin down .
I aver , “ Look , Robin . I ’ll let you go for a couple days . But at some breaker point , I have to start to peel back . And I have to actually do the period of play [ as publish ] . ” And you have a go at it , he was o.k. with that .
I retrieve the first week [ we were make the show]—Thursday night , I was panicked that he would n’t know a give-and-take of the show . And Friday morning , he walk in , he have it away all his marks , he got to his scratch , and he knew the script . Robin could read the script once , and just about bury it . He had that kind of a mind . And so I allowed him , each week , to have fun and do what he want to do , until we had to get to the show .
[ Sometimes ] during rehearsals , we would find things , andthen call the writer and ask them to take a facial expression at this . A perfect example is , they wrote a scene where Robin is playing stove poker , and there are four other players . And Robin is playing all five character . As we rehearsed it , I realized that in the two minutes of that picture , it was a small difficult to understand which theatrical role [ was which ] . The role kind of coalesce , because of the unforesightful time we had to do it in .
And I suggested to Robin , “ Why not do an quondam Jew and an erstwhile WASP playing chess ? ” And he care that musical theme , and we played it a little bit , and then we called the writers , and say the salamander secret plan was a picayune difficult for us to make it work , but we thought it ’d be fun if we did a chess game with the two character , the Jewish hombre and the [ WASP ] . And they came down and took a flavour at what we thought we ’d do , and they conk out back and wrote a wonderful scene . And that ’s basically the way we worked on the show .
Robin ’s the only somebody I ever wrote for who could do anything . He did n’t always translate it on the theme , you live , so he ’d ask us interrogative .
There was an installment where Mindy had , I think , appendicitis . I do n’t know — anyway , she ’s in the infirmary . Her last name is very standardised to someone who ’s about to go into brain surgery , ok ? You see what ’s going to happen . And so Mork figure it out before the hospital does . Mindy ’s been prepped for surgery , so she ’s shot full of drugs . Cue Pam Dawber being able to stagger and slur and do intoxicated comedy . And he ’s trying to salve her , because he ’s figure it out . So , Mork has gone in her room , and when the doctors strain to go in and endeavor to get her , he get her on a shelf . She ’s in a stupor , and she ’s going to fall , so the doctors are trying to verbalise them down . And it ’s a nice small comedy shot there . So I wrote , when the doctors are kind of closing in , Robin strikes a martial fine art nonplus and just leaps into the elbow room , screaming : “ Bruce Lee lives ! ”
[ But ] Robin did n’t know who Bruce Lee was . So he said to me , “ What is this joke ? ” I said , “ commit me , the consultation are go to pass water themselves . ” And he said , “ I do n’t love , I do n’t know who he is . ” I said , “ Do it for the dress rehearsal . If it does n’t influence , I ’ll give you five bucks . If it does study , you do it in the dark show . ” And so he gave it his all , he flew at those guys with his bridge player up , like this , and yell , “ Bruce Lee lives ! ” And the hearing just fell apart express mirth . He turns to me and says , “ Jesus , everybody have it off who this guy is . ” I said , “ Yeah , you ’re the only soul on the major planet who does n’t know who Bruce Lee is ” . The matter is , once I see him that there was a Bruce Lee , and the consultation would know who that was , instead of holding back or give it a half - assed flip , he blend orb - to - the - wall , and he sold it .
And if it had died , I would have rationalise , I would have given the five dollars , and I would have written him a better prank that nighttime . But the fact is , it worked .
Mindy’s family
Ed Scharlach ( author / manufacturer , time of year 1 - 3 ):
[ The supporting cast in season one ] was her Father of the Church and gran , [ Fred and Cora ] . Her female parent had pass away before the series began . And her female parent was referred to in one of the episode that [ Tom Tenowich and I ] wrote , where Mork channeled her mother , to be able to talk to her and say what she never make a chance to recite [ Mindy ] when she was live , through the medium of Mork . That was one of the more affecting sequence .
We did a show that was indite by April [ Kelly ] anticipate , “ Old Fears . ” I call back it was a wonderful estimate , and a wonderful show . It was base on the estimation that Elizabeth Kerr , [ who played ] Mindy ’s nan , was complain about the fact that all her friend were dying . And she was starting to find lonely , you know ? And Robin decides to make himself into an old man and day of the month her , so that she has someone to talk to . And his “ onetime man ” was sensational .
And there ’s one second where she , at the end of the show , tells [ Mork ] she knew it was him all the time . And they have a grand chat , the two of them . And I recollect it was really , really good work , and a well - written script . Almost all of those scripts were well - written in the first twelvemonth or so .
The show becomes a hit
I got a $ 500 bet going on with the manufacturer of the show , Bruce Johnson . You know , I ’d been around drollery for a few years , and I thought,“This is lightning in a bottle . ” So I made a bet with him that we ’d be number one in the Nielsens within the first six week on the air or so . And he laughed , because it was impossible . It was an eight or eight - thirty show , and show in that timeslot , there was n’t enough of an audience to watch . So it was impossible to beat nine [ necropsy ] or ten [ PM ] shows . But four weeks after we went on the air , we were one - quarter of a military rating point out of figure one in the land , and Bruce would n’t take my money .
So what happened was , you had slapstick comedy : eggs breaking , pants falling down , goofy things . Those were there for the kids . [ But ] I did a recombinant desoxyribonucleic acid pun . You knew you were appealing to the college kids , because they ’d pen letters . And you know , every time I ’d go out for dinner in LA , I ’d hear citizenry in the next cubicle peach about the show .
Buddy Hackett , a famous comedian at the prison term , was on the Tonight Show . And he told the story that he was traveling in China . And he went to shake hands with a Taiwanese person and they put out their hand and in the typical style , said , “ Nanu Nanu ” . Because they had seen Mork and Mindy , and they opine that was the way Americans shook hands .
That show was so hot that Friday night [ during filming ] , the place was jammed . It was like , you could betray tickets outside . You could make a fortune just if you had seven or eight tickets — you could sell them for fifty dollar bill a spell on the street .
One solar day , I got a call from the front spot , asking if Ginger Rogers could get along and watch a rehearsal . She came and sat in the bleachers and ascertain the rehearsal , and then she talked with Robin , and then he said , “ I want to insert myself . ” And she said , “ I know who you are . I watch the show every week . ”
Drugs
When you have to make for with someone who is using drug , you make out , it ’s not a pleasant work surround . And I attempt to not work on shows where I had to distribute with alcoholics or drug addicts . And sometimes that ’s just Hollywood . It was there pretty ahead of time [ with Robin Williams].Read the John Belushi script . When you take a shaver who ’s done a class of drollery or two years of clowning , in the clubs in LA , and you start revolve that kind of money on them ? It ’s real easygoing for the Hollywood motherfucker , the sycophants , the “ yes ” people , the suppliers of drug [ to move in ] . You get a lot of people who are willing to tell you you ’re terrific , blow smoke up your skirt , and bring home the bacon you with whatever it is you think might make your lifespan a little dear . So that is an issue .
“There was a war going on between the writing staff and the censors”
In those Clarence Day , you had to deal with the censor . Oh god , I hate censor . [ Nowadays ] you hear “ penis ” and “ vagina ” on the air , every individual night — you ca n’t turn on a situation comedy without hearing both of those , any throw nighttime of the week . It seems so cockamamie , some of the stuff they would n’t let us do .
A lot of the censorship battles were over words , or lines that they thought were too aphrodisiac , or too political , or too cutting edge in some manner , and we would have to draw back . But we did okay .
April Kelly and I wrote a show where a con - woman , play by the actress Morgan Fairchild , says , “ Mork , I ’m pregnant . ” And the mesh says , “ You ca n’t say that . We do n’t admit the word ‘ meaning . ’ ” So [ this was interchange to ] “ Mork , I ’m having a child . ” And my rendition of that is : Being significant agency you ’ve had sex activity , but having a baby is adorable .
And [ in another episode ] , a character was start to conk of a bosom attack . And Mork was going to memorize about death . So we puzzle the note from the meshwork that the character ca n’t die . They said , “ Could n’t he have a heart onrush and be very ill ? ” The whole detail of the show is not to learn about heart attacks , it ’s to acquire about death .
Robin was [ very upset ] . We try not to involve the star topology too much [ in these disputes ] , because it can get very messy , and that ’s not really good for the show , the internet , or the maven , to be involve in conflict like that . But in this case , [ Robin ] take heed about it . And he came to our defense lawyers . He said , “ There ’s no such thing as grey clowning . you’re able to have black comedy , where you fool around with last , or you’re able to have innocent comedy , where the subject does n’t follow up . But you ca n’t do it halfway . Halfway ’s just pass to be abominable . ” So we got our way , thanks to him .
There was a turn of a warfare go on between the penning stave and the various censors assigned to us , who we burn up over a span days . One clock time , I list a character “ Arnold Wanker”—and “ wanker , ” of course , is a British term for jacking off . I thought , “ Well , if somebody does n’t like it , they ’ll take it out . ” But nobody ever caught it , and the censor did n’t know , and it got on the air . Arnold Wanker is in the show . And it was after it was on the air that the net started getting letters .
Of course , Bruce Johnson comes to me and says , “ Jesus , next time you do something like that , at least let us in on it , so we know . ” And so at one point , we named a type “ Scheisskopf , ” which is German for “ shithead . ” But we were afraid the censor would lose his occupation , so at the last minute we commute it and we said , “ You sleep with ‘ scheisse ’ is squat in German , right ? ” And I think the guy was going to faint . Because he knew if that had get on the aura , he would have lost his job .
So we got creative in how we put dirty stuff in . I obtain one past the censor — probably the filthy thing ever on Mork and Mindy . I referred to this annual ball collapse by the Benoit Sister — and I spelled it like the French word , B - E - N - O - I - T , which would be pronounced “ Ben - Evergreen State . ” But I say they threw their annual bollock , and denote to “ the Ben - Wa egg . ”
So whenever they they ’d piss us off — and they ’d make us off pretty on a regular basis , in 78 , 79 , [ when ] you could n’t say “ Irish bull ” on the air — it became a picayune piece of a game to see what you could get by , and I was fairly lofty of stimulate “ Ben - Wa balls ” on the air .
There was a show that April thought of , where Mork get a job as a security guard at a atomic flora , and it was an anti - nuke show . ABC canceled [ that episode ] on a Friday . Our week began on Monday with a table read , and then we shot the episode on Friday . So Friday , after our last show , we got a call from ABC allege they would not allow that show to go fore , because it was too political . Their specific reason was , “ There ’s no evidence nuclear superpower plants are dangerous . ”
Actually , I opine Three Mile Island happened afterward that year .
I got on the phone over that weekend with some political admirer in New York , and said , “ I need evidence that atomic power plant can be unsafe . ” And there was no internet , so they had to do the enquiry , and physically get the information to me by fax before Monday morn . And thank God , the web relented and we were able-bodied to do the show , with some changes . But if that show had been canceled , we would have had nothing on the air . There was no other show in military reserve .
Mork’s Mixed Emotions
The most famous episode , which very much was cutting - bound , and I retrieve made the 100 greatest episodes of video ever , was Ed [ Scharlach ] and Tom [ Tenowich ] ’s episode , “ Mork ’s Mixed Emotions . ” He gets sick , and all his emotion number to the fore and express themselves individually , and that allowed Robin to do these rive - second change between unimaginative anger and lust and veneration and green-eyed monster . Each one with a different interpreter .
Ed Scharlach :
[ Tom Tenowich ] thought that since Mork — since Robin — could do so many characters , why not ? And the idea of the quality was , on his satellite , they had n’t invented emotions . People do n’t have emotions on his planet — a small bit like Mr. Spock , I think . But because he was treat so wonderfully by this lovely young woman he ’s be with , then a thing happened . emotion emerged , as somebody exist on Earth who has someone who loves him . And of course , the idea that came from the fact that it would be really fun to see Robin gambol , you know , twenty different emotion . And he did , beautifully .
He was very sick that week , and the day he shoot that show , I believe he had a 102 temperature . And he break up right afterwards . It was the most wearing show conceivable — he had to do all these lines , very quickly . Each one was a different phonation and character reference . And he pulled it off brilliantly .
Season Two:
“I was told this was what we had”
In season two , Mindy ’s father Fred and maternal nan Cora were gone , along with Fred ’s medicine store — they were replaced by the siblings Jeannie and Remo , who were taste to spread out a deli .
ABC decided they did n’t like the idea of the euphony store , and brought in a trivial coffee shop . And they bring in in Jay Thomas ( Remo ) and Gina Hecht ( Jeannie ) , who were wonderful . But , I thought the music store was so interesting , because it was unlike any other sitcom . Almost every sitcom has a coffee shop . I mean , look at Seinfeld , seem at Happy Days , reckon at all the LXX sitcoms . There ’s always a coffee shop . And here we had something so different : a music store .
And Conrad Janis was a howling thespian and a wonderful trombone player . Conrad was gone for one time of year , the second season . Elizabeth Kerr ( Cora ) was gone , time period . Why , I do n’t know . And they also got rid of [ Eugene ] , the little boy — who , every time he made an entrance , Robin had this howling footling shake . Robin would go , “ My main munchkin , ” and then they would do the shake , whirl around and chance fists , and a whole affair that the hearing just loved . It was deserving it just for that alone , to keep the nipper .
I do n’t know what they were thinking . I just think it was total madness .
Robin was very nettle by the changes — he did n’t dislike the [ new ] actors . He and Jay induce along , and so did [ he and ] Gina . He just did n’t like the idea that they just pulled out the music store , put in a coffee shop class , and got rid of three part that he was comfortable with .
And no one talk about it with him . You know ? That was another mistake . No one came to Robin and said , “ Look , we think the granny does n’t work , the father does n’t work , and the little boy does n’t cultivate . ” Knowing Robin , Robin would have press for them .
And no - one discussed it with me . I came back , and was distinguish this is what we had .
Garry [ Marshall ] and Dale [ McRaven ] and the other showrunner , Bruce Johnson , decide that the [ supporting ] cast [ in time of year one ] was light .
The cast was light , but I do n’t believe it was their fault . I really do n’t think we wrote very well for them . We were putting all our energy into writing for the type of Mork , and the characters of [ Mindy ’s ] begetter and grandmother were sort of sterotypical [ and ] one - dimensional , and there was n’t much you could do with them . And we did n’t do much . The actor , I mean , were tighten by the shallowness of their character .
I believe the void [ in the back up plaster cast ] playact a role in Robin essentially being a one - man band , and no one want that . Robin did n’t want that . You want thing to play off . So , [ in the ] second season , the belief at the top was that the [ put up ] dramatis personae was not helping Robin enough , and we would fetch in new characters . But my feeling was that the newfangled fictional character were n’t that much an improvement .
Again , no negativity towards the actors . Gina Hecht , who played the girl in the second season , is a supporter of mine . Jay Thomas was this hugely curious radio broadcaster and funny guy , who ’d been act in plays and other video show . They had chops . Everyone had chops . The trouble was that the characters — again , I felt — were a bit one dimensional . So the idea was that the cast was holding [ the show ] back , and the new cast would be better . I do n’t think that happened .
It was worth a try , because the show did have defect , and they were trying to be proactive , and not permit those flaw kill the show . But of course , the exact opposite happened . The whole 2d time of year was less successful . Ratings function down significantly .
The good character that was make for in was [ when ] Tom Poston played a persona named Mr. Bickley . He ’s one of the greatest worker - comedian in TV history . We were so lucky to have him as part of our cast . He was a steady on the show , and played a curmudgeon .
[ The meshwork also ] switched us to Sunday night , to go against All in the Family , which , to me , was just crazy ! First of all , All in the Family ’s consultation was a much more sophisticated audience than we were gon na get . We basically had a younger audience . And our consultation was not going to go to All in the Family , but All in the Family ’s interview was not going to go to us . But what happened was , we separate the parcel of young people watching . When we did our show on Thursday , we had forty million hoi polloi .
In the second season , I thought that we ’d lost what we had [ due to the ] alteration that ABC had made . You know , they took a hit show [ and ruin it . ] When this show was on Thursday night , every frat and sorority in the country had “ Mork and Mindy night . ” It was a phenomenon . And they lose that when they moved to Sunday .
“Morko the Pin-Headed Boy”
Robin did not want to play that fiber any more . He said to me that he felt the character should grow . And I tell , “ Robin , if Archie Bunker grow , then there ’s no show . ” It ’s that simple . And Robin was tired of saying “ nanu nanu ” and “ shazbot . ” He start to refuse to do that .
I keep open seek to talk to him about why it was neccessary , and the conversation I had with him was , “ Look , in realness , if you came from Italy , and Italian was your first language , you would use it when you get emotional or frightened , and would also be easy using it around Mindy , who knows where you occur from . ” And he would n’t buy that .
Robin was losing faith in the character , and was afraid it made him look dazed . He started to have real insecurity , and he started thinking that rather of being child - like , Mork was infantile . And he resented it . Because Robin think he was intelligent , and think he should be doing other things . And so , when you begin hat the theatrical role you ’re bring , or secondly - guess it , the role suffers .
He relate to Mork , in way where I was , often enough , as “ Morko the Pin - maneuver Boy . ” He had no respectfulness for the part by then . But , you know , when you ’re make a portion playing something , you got ta be careful what you say , because you do n’t want to lose the fizgig .
The introductory premise of a naive foreigner who did n’t know anything about Earth , and had to step by step learn became boring to [ Robin Williams ] , because he wanted to do that hip humor , and wanted the eccentric to reflect who he was — which was anything but naive .
And what he would say , especially in the 2d season , was , “ You eff , in the first yr , it ’s uninitiate . In the second class , it ’s stupefied . ” But our response to that was , “ You may be right — but if Mork learns about gender , there ’s no show . If Mork knows what Earth is like , we vex nothing . Then it ’s just you being cockamamie , and there ’s no linguistic context for it . ”
And Robin , I remember , understood that intellectually , but viscerally , he did not like it , because it pack him in . And I was there at the taping of his first HBO special , and the sense of liberation from the character of Mork — you know , he just swore up a blue streak , and snap up his privates , and did all the thing he enjoyed doing . He just loved that exemption . And he just would have here and now of freedom in Mork , where he would go a little crazy , and that reflected who he really was .
He was being asphyxiate . He was this superb comic role player , and he was being limited to one overall personation , which was “ naive . ”
His part , in the first few episodes , was a faux interpreter , and he ended up using his own articulation [ after a while ] . And his own articulation was obviously wonderful . That fake part was sort of like Andy Kaufman doing Latka on Taxi , and things like that . It was a unique vox and a very inherently rummy phonation , and an exotic voice . And when all those thing were lost , it became a fiddling more average .
What I image bechance was , the show was becoming a matter about a endure - up comic huffing blow in Boulder and being political . I imply , Robin would seek to cabbage those things in , and he was diddle it like a place upright - up comedian . Without the sweetness and the naive , child - similar man being , it did n’t work out .
We did n’t argue , we just discourse it . I ’d seek to rock him and explain to him why I finger he needed to do “ shazbot ” and “ nanu nanu ” once in a while — you know , those lilliputian Orkan thing that he had , the handshake and whatever — to keep the character animated . And he just was hellbent on not doing it . And it seemed like there was nobody else to speak about it . I know Pam felt strongly about it , and I think she talked to him a couple time about it . But the Powers That Be were not doing that .
[ Robin Williams would ] put in a pop civilization quotation — and if you really want to agonize about it , you could say , “ Well , Mindy had a goggle box , he may have learn that . ” Or , “ he may have heard that Sung . ” Or something like that . It ’s not unimaginable . And more to the point , no one really worry . You know , a thing here and there is no crowing deal .
It ’s the larger things . Like , in that second time of year , he would do relatively clean-handed contrast , and put a sort of sexual smirk to them . Which got a huge laugh from the audience , but undermined the character .
But you know , when you ’re favourable enough to have someone like Robin Williams enounce your lines , you just bless the lord every twenty-four hour period . You do n’t want to get in his way too much — you have to simultaneously serve him as much as potential , but also accredit there ’s a show and a premise that have to keep run forward , and could get subvert by too much of that smirk .
The hour-long season two opener
[ Dale McRaven ’s ambitions to make the show more skill - fictional ] came out fully in the opening episode of time of year two . Which was an hour - prospicient science fiction episode . Mork is somehow on a satellite where express mirth is forbidden , or something like that .
And it was very scifi . It was flash scifi , and the whole game was scifi , and it was n’t the kind of standard sitcom thing . This installment , in my store , was a disaster . It ended up , I think , not being Pisces the Fishes or fowl . It was n’t scifi in a way that a real scifi show would be , and the audience that fare to it was expect joke . And there were very few received antic in it . So I think it was a noble experimentation . And I sleep together that it was key to Dale ’s wanting to make it more of a scifi show — which was something I think we all supported — but that just did n’t work . And we quickly retreated .
More romance between Mork and Mindy in season two
In season two , the writers prove to toy up the romance between the two lead a bit more .
There ’s only so many lessons you may instruct each workweek ! You learned about violence , you find out about intellectual nourishment , you run through all the lists . And then after a while , romance is the most interesting , and the one that is most provocative . Even though we knew we could n’t go towards sex activity , there are all sorts of other elements of that that you’re able to deal with . And plus the fact that Robin and Pam had such great alchemy . All those things made it pretty legitimate to do a footling more of that in the second time of year .
[ My former installment “ Mork Runs aside ” ] was the first of the hints that something was going to be amorous . Because I remember when Mork left , he entrust her a note . She was date somebody — I forget , some good - looking guy . And Mork did n’t understand what love is , [ so ] he wrote a note that go something like : “ Dear Mindy , I wish well I knew how to love , but I do n’t know how to love . And if I did , we ’d be lovelings . ” All this material — and then it said , “ Love , Mork ” . You bonk ? And she went looking for him , and she ’s the one who find him when he was in that dosshouse , with Exidor [ Mork ’s booster , the loss leader of the Sons of Venus ] . So it was always going to be in the wag . I think Garry would n’t have put them together if he did n’t consider there was going to be some alchemy between them .
The Raquel Welch episode
One of the show ’s most famous episodes was an time of day - long epic in which Raquel Welch fiddle an malign extraterrestrial being who catch Mork .
Raquel Welch was the aphrodisiac woman in the universe , at that metre . And ABC was raise what everyone called “ jiggle ” . basically , sexy material . And they had her come on the show , purely for a ratings thing . And we were all deep infract , [ because ] we think they were compromise our art . How make bold they ? And then the book that came in from a freelancer [ for this instalment ] was in reality pretty horrendous . It was n’t comical . We rewrite it in two days .
We were really push up against the wall , time - wise , and we were all working urgently . We know a stack of people would be watching , and we did n’t want to be abase . We did n’t require people to say , “ Oh my God , that show was so unintelligent ! ” The sex was so obvious — so we sample to hide it by putting in the funniest stuff we could .
Raquel Welch was any director ’s incubus . She was just hideous .
I ’ll give you the gap story . We sat in the meeting , and there were two adult female who were dally her police lieutenant . One of them was Vicki Fredericks , who was a Broadway dancer who had the lead in a Broadway show called , Dancin ’ , and she was quite lovely and a not bad dancer . And the other woman , was from Texas , she was the Playboy Bunny of the Year . They were both quite beautiful .
So we sat and read for at least an time of day . And our common routine was , we dismissed everybody but the star and the execs . Pam persist , Robin stay , and I continue . And we would say to the node star , “ Do you have any questions or is there anything we can help you with ? ” And Raquel said , “ Ah yes , who are the two girls that are going to play my lieutenant ? ” And I say , “ The two woman that were sit on your rightfield . ” And she read , “ Oh , I did n’t notice them . ”
Then she say she had a problem with her entrance . Robin comes running into the apartment , says to Pam [ that ] the Nekrons , or whoever they were , are coming to nobble him . And she says , “ When are they coming ? ” He say , “ They could be here any second ! ” And there ’s an explosion . The doors to the apartment vaporize off , onto the couch . And in walks the first fille . Vicki Fredericks walk down stage left . The other girl come down , walks down stage mightily , and they both pose with their deal on their articulatio coxae . And then Raquel enter .
Raquel said , “ You ca n’t have them come in before me . ”
And we said to Raquel , “ If they come in after you , they ’re gon na distract . They ’re go to pull the eye . What we ’re doing here is , we ’re setting it up . The hearing sees this fair sex amount down , ‘ No , that ’s not her . ’ Then the next one , ‘ No , that ’s not her’—and then you enter ! You have intercourse ? And they frame in you ! It ’s the perfect entrance . ” But if someone come in after her , the consultation looks at the someone coming in that ’s moving .
She said , “ I have an idea . Supposing they wear dog masks , and I take them in on leashes . ” So I knew instantly that she did not require to contend with these two very endearing fair sex . And that never happened — we would not allow that , the dog masks .
What I said to her was , “ Raquel , your character is too strong . You do n’t need to have them in bounder masquerade party or III . All you need to do is bust your finger . Those girl will drop to their knee . ” And she say , “ Oh , I care that . ”
At one point , Robin was attempt to talk around her idea about it not being good for them to come in first . And Robin was trying to excuse it to her . Pam was brook there , and Pam tell , “ You know , Raquel , he ’s right . ” And Raquel said , “ Honey , please . ” And she stepped in front of Pam , block her , then went on to talk to Robin . Pam made a fist and made consider she was polish off [ Raquel ] in the back of the head , and walk away .
[ After that ] , Pam would do that every clock time she come on stage . She ’d sneak up behind Raquel , and make believe she was punching her in the head .
Also , she had her future husband there : Andre , a French director . He would put up behind me while I would talk to her , and I would see her look over my shoulder [ to see him say ] yes or no . She got me so angry . [ At one peak ] , I collapse her a note : “ Raquel , I postulate you stand a slight airless to Robin for the two - shot . ” She say , “ OK . ” And then I said , “ That note I gave you is credibly the most brilliant banker’s bill a director has ever give an actress . ” And she said , “ What are you blab out about ? ” And I said , “ I have it off it ’s splendid , because Andre match with me . ”
There was a fit which was comprise into the original book , where Raquel Welch was to excruciate Mr. Williams . But the “ laugh ” was that all her torment were aphrodisiacal . So the idea was that there was going to be a raging tub , and she was go to rack him by chafe him . And you acknowledge , most of the show was set [ based on the freelancer ’s original script ] . The hot tub was there . We [ already ] had it , it had to be used . We had no way to not do that panorama . So we tried to write it queer , and I think we did .
But my main memory of that scene was not our hilarious pipeline , but that after the scene was over , everyone was [ supposed ] to get out of the hot tub and to move on to the next panorama . And Robin said , “ I ’m afraid I ’m not expire to be getting out of the live tubful . ” Because he had , uh , a piece of physical anatomy that had fuck off not appropriate for the audience to see at that point . Raquel Welch had been rubbing him all over .
That was an anatomical issue with Robin in worldwide . Robin was always “ primed , ” allow ’s just say that .
Mork learns about racism
The whole signified of the fictitious character , for me , was that he was very naif . One of the shows we did was a show where he comes home and he ’s all excited , and say Mindy that he just met a chemical group of multitude who want to pick up Boulder . And he says , “ They ’ll get disembarrass of the Spanish , the Jews , the blacks . ” And she explains to him that that ’s not a good group . In his naive way , he had no theme that that was wrong .
[ Then this group ] has a big KKK meeting , and they ’re all wearing hood . And [ Mork ] nuke them with his limited powers , and turn them all into blacks and [ Native Americans ] and Hispanics .
We had a hatful of fun with it , because we had to count on out a manner to do it with an consultation there . So what I did was , I had all these multitude , I had the inkiness and Hispanics and Chinese all waiting in costume with those same hoods . And I had Robin purposefully do something incorrect [ in the middle of the scene]—so I had to call “ cutting , ” so I could talk to Robin .
And meanwhile , the people in their hoods and all were milling around and moving . And two would walk out and two would come back in , but the two coming back in were hoi polloi who were of color . You recognise , we kind of filch those masses in , as we got the other people out . And then , at the ending of the show , they take off their thug and they all regain out [ that they ’ve been changed ] . You get laid , the interview just gasped . Because they were all of colouring material . It was a very hard argument , that show .
I have to say , we had a censor who take on ball so well . I indite an episode about prejudice . Mork hears someone use some racial epithet . And he comes home and he bechance to use it in a conversation , and Mindy goes , “ What ? Where did you hear that ? ” She ’s trying to teach him that words are what you start with , and then it ’s actions , and then wars — and you ca n’t call people things .
So I require to get racial slurs in the show . We did n’t crank - toe around it . And at the time , our censor happened to be an African American homo . And I said , “ I call for the most - loathsome affair I can get away with , to call smuggled people . And Hispanics , and Italians . ” And so we negotiate the terminology . And I have to say , I was daze , because he let us go with “ Jungle Bunny , ” which I was appal by . I remember that was about the worst thing you could call a black individual . And he said , “ No , that was n’t as big as one of the other ones . ” I yield him a crowd .
He was howling , because he figure how good the show could be . What a teachable minute this could be , watching this innocent auditory sense people use slimy language about other hoi polloi . And so it was very nice to work with him on that episode .
“The show’s going down in flames”
I told my managing director that I ’d appease to the conclusion of the 2d time of year — they were paying me a lot of money . But when it got toward the last of the season , I tell , “ If they make an pass , do n’t recount me the amount , because I ’m afraid it ’ll tempt me . ” I wanted to walk away . I did n’t want to have a front - rowing seat for what we all know happened that terminal two twelvemonth .
I did n’t trash the show , but I told people , “ You get it on , I ’ve written like sixteen , eighteen playscript . I ’ve read all I can say about an alien . I need to move to another projection . ”
Because you do n’t desire to say , “ He ’s doing drugs . The show ’s going down in flame . And I ai n’t conk to be here for the big fall . ” That ’s not a good matter to say if you ’re attempt to get work .
Season Three:
“Putting the Ork Back in Mork”
The show ’s writers were try out to get it back on data track . But unless Robin was unforced to do that , they were hopeless .
The producers and the citizenry who make the show had settle they sort of needed a rebirth . And they sort of were trying to go back to more of the ingenuousness they had in the first season .
There were a lot of things about the time of year that were “ back to BASIC ” , and [ essay to go ] back to the first season . I think the first sequence of the season , [ ” commit the Ork Back in Mork ” ] , we sort of introduce that idea that you senesce rearward on Ork . One of the elders from Ork , his planet , come [ to visit ] , and he was actually a kid . But he was one of those knowing manpower , one of the the elder from the planet . And [ he ] sort of feed Mork that kind of advice , sort of to “ get back to the artlessness ” [ that he had when he first came to Earth . ]
Conrad Janis , who was her founding father , fare back that class . [ We were ] getting it back to a grounded , more impeccant place , and bringing family in . The idea was to get , you live , a little bit more of a fellowship — not only Mindy ’s actual phratry , but a little bit more of a family unit of people that was part of the show .
“I know you’re two people, and I don’t like the other guy.”
[ Robin Williams ] was shooting Popeye just before the third time of year [ from January to May 1980 ] . And that was really the first affair he did , outside of the show — obviously , besides standstill - up , and all his improv employment . He ’d become a really braggart star .
Pam Dawber had said to me [ that ] whenever I had to impart for a week or two and another director came in , there were problems . And she say the reason was that I was the only manager who was n’t restrain by [ Robin ] .
He prize me , I honor him , and we had one or two footling [ divergence ] . Actually , Robin avoid any kind of conflict . An example I can give you is , I was giving him a note , and he listened . And as he walked aside , out of the side of his lip , he would do , almost , like Popeye , [ does Popeye representative ] “ Ehh , Bullshit note ! What the Hell does that mean ? I do n’t know what the Hell he ’s talkin ’ about . ” He ’d just do that .
So , about the 2d time he did it , I said , “ Robin , I do it you ’re two people . And I do n’t care the other guy . So when I give you a note , if you ’re exit to talk out of the side of your mouth and walk aside cursing , I ’m not going to give you note . you could either take the tone , if you ’re not happy with the note , then severalize me and we ’ll find another room , but I wo n’t appropriate that , it ’s just not satisfactory . ” And he said , “ Okay , Poppa , all right . ” And that kibosh .
You have a go at it , it was a normal note : “ Robin , I cerebrate you have to do this a little louder . ” “ Give me a little more sentence before you answer her . ” Or whatever .
I ’m sure he did [ the same affair ] to the director who came in for a hebdomad or two , and they did n’t make out how to cope with that . They give him a note , he ’d accept it , you thought , and as he walk away , out of the side of his mouth , [ Popeye voice ] “ Gehh , bullshit , what do they jazz ? ” When a film director comes in for a workweek or two , he ’s not lead to start tell these people about their characters . He ’s not run to make wave .
[ One time ] Robin was ad - libbing , and he did something that [ Pam Dawber ] felt was disdainful to her . I do n’t fuck just what it was . But they walked off , and Pam tell to him , “ If you ever do anything like that again to me , I will just slap you in the face , ” or whatever . She was just furious at him .
And he meld . get he loved her . And she love him . They were just such good friends . And had such respect for each other . You know ?
Wendy Kout ( writer , seasons three and four ):
I adored him , and he was a very , very shy man . And his way of showing delight when he like something [ I had write ] , he would go over and give me a hug . But Robin keep to himself . He was very , very timid . He would speak to our director , who was mostly Howard Storm . Howard was very close to Robin , and Robin trusted him .
He definitely kept to himself , and he could n’t really look you in the eye .
Mindy’s Career
Wendy Kout
My first episode that I [ wrote ] was about [ Mindy ] trying to move forward in a career . So we started that third season with [ Mindy ’s career ] being the plot line . So it was prominent : “ Oh , so we ’re pay attention to Mindy now . ” That was good for the character , and I think it was also secure for Pam , to have a piddling turn more to do [ and ] more direction of where her character could go .
Mork is worried she ’ll become this big calling girl and going to drop off him . You have intercourse ? Where does he fit in ? That was fun , that was a good aspect to play . That comes from something real , you know ? She ’s focused on her career , and break down up the ladder , and successful , and he ’s go to be left behind .
It was just such a unique sort of character , that it was n’t really ever theorize to be about them , you acknowledge , being real romantic in every sequence . That was n’t what it was about , I do n’t think . I do n’t think anybody felt like that was what it was hypothecate to be . There was a very , very unique male person - distaff friendly relationship . You know ? Obviously it evolved , but I remember that was more the path we were always thinking .
“The show was in trouble”
I came in five episodes into the third time of year . Garry [ Marshall ] brought me on [ as a creative adviser ] after the web had vetoed the next seven episodes and said , “ You ’re not dash these . ” The show was in trouble . When I pose there , they were just all exhausted and beaten , and once in a while , they would put things in the handwriting like “ Robin picks up something and does business with it . ”
Garry was hoping I could facilitate them tell history well .
Season Four:
Mork Has A Baby
The whole affair of get a fourth time of year was built on them getting married , having a baby [ played by ] Jonathan Winters , and invigorate the show — which it did , for a forgetful time . And I mean that the stuff between Robin and Pam leading up to the wedding was just rattling . Honeymooning on Ork , you know ? It did n’t ever come out exactly the mode we wanted it to , but it was fun . It was different .
One of the beauties of the show was that it was very chaste , you know ? And their kinship was chaste . You know what I intend ? Even if you look at the movies , you never really saw Robin play wild-eyed leads , ever . He played very sympathetic hoi polloi , but there was n’t a hatful of kissing . But you need Mork and Mindy to be together , and this was the next step .
It was kind of an obvious consensus that if the show was to continue , you had to advance their relationship .
And yes , that ’s a expectant logline : “ Mork & Mindy : Getting get married ? ” That was TV Guide , and that would get you an audience ! “ Mork ’s Pregnant ! ” “ Jonathan Winters join the mould ! ” We had a national contest to name the babe . We named it [ ourselves ] , and then wait until someone submitted that name .
Robin laying that jumbo egg — I remember we took publicity pellet of him sitting on it , knit . Kind of like a Warner Brothers toon , you know ? It was great stuff !
It gave us a running play of episode , to take us through the sweeps with a good audience . We did get a protuberance . But finally , you cognize , it start go away , and our stories were about raising the child .
My destination was to make the shows about something . To stay on to read and explore and discover . And a lot of sentence , we were successful , and sometimes not . But we tried to direct a little high-pitched . We had a great start , and it was adjudicate to make the show relevant to the watcher .
Wendy Kout :
It was a lot of playfulness to wreak on a whole other part of Mork and Mindy ’s relationship . They had lessen in love , they were catch marry , and they had a child . So it tone their kinship , and it took us in a new direction . And I ’m sure there people who bonk it , and hoi polloi who did n’t love it . But I certainly savor it .
So prior to Mearth coming alongside , the show really was about an alien entering Earth and explore humans . So now the premise changes a bit , and it ’s now about a couplet , an noncitizen and a human , raising their child . Who ’s both . So now you have more Orkan possibilities [ and ] more customs from Ork — because as a parent , he ’s entitled to offer some [ suggestion like ] , “ well on Ork , we do it this direction . ”
[ But ] it gets complicated , because then Mindy can at clip sense like she ’s got two kids , [ Mork and Mearth ] . Mindy was always the adult , in every position .
Jonathan Winters had unspeakable trouble , not just memorizing the lines , but staying in character . He was wonderful , and a unique natural endowment and he was Robin ’s hero . And depression was a serious issue in Jonathan ’s living .
A New Executive Producer
Another bozo came in to ladder it , a cat name Brian Levant . And the sensibilities just did n’t peer [ with the existing penning stave ] . And so , [ Ron Osborn and I ] took off . We went off to do another show .
[ Levant ] was coming from the Laverne and Happy Days clique , and I cerebrate his sensibilities were probably a little unspecific , and a short more goose . A little more “ sitcom . ”
We were going for a certain variety of esthesia . perfectly , mood was first — but we wanted a real warmheartedness to the show , too . Mork deal with a schoolroom full of kids for part of [ season three , and we think ] things like that added a lot of prayer to it . And I believe somebody , whether it was Garry [ Marshall ] or the mesh , or whatever , just decided , “ Let ’s go broad . ”
And so Brian came in at the end of the [ third season ] , and it was n’t a good mix of masses on there , in term of the kinds of shows we wanted to do . But he ’s obviously got a good track record , and I ’m sure is a sound author at that kind of hooey . But it was just a different approach .
I recollect it was broader in its comedy , and less nuanced . Less devout . Comedy was his precedence . Tom [ Tenowich ] and Ed [ Scharlach ] had different sensibilities than Brian , and that was reflected in the nature of the show . I do n’t know why that change happen , and for me , it was a very dissatisfactory change . It ’s joke , joke , joke , without really [ being ] fictional character - driven .
[ I was unpopular because ] I was n’t one of them . I ’m the guy who came in . I was convey in to quarterback somebody ’s else ’s squad . And they had loyalty to other multitude . But they could n’t handle the net . They could n’t keep the show from decline . I could n’t keep the show from turn down either — but you know , Garry trusted me .
[ After ] Mork and Mindy , I went back to Happy Days as the showrunner — with a handsome new earnings , I might add — as a termination of produce Mork and Mindy into syndication . They were afraid they were n’t give way to have enough episodes for syndication , [ and ] we hear them through the last time of year . [ The other writers ] were from a different organization and a unlike methodology . And yeah , I had to complain ass .
I think I judge to sharpen vigour on something people could relate to , rather than doing shows about the “ Incredible Shrinking Mork . ” There was a point to it , and a reflexion of thing that count to the audience , filtered through a unlike sensitiveness .
Pee Wee Herman and William Shatner guest starred
My favorite matter to do was to go to the Roxy on Monday night , and ascertain the original Pee - Wee Herman Show on stage — the one he actually moderately much revived just a few yr ago . I loved him , and I institute him in [ to Mork and Mindy ] .
And [ as for ] William Shatner , we had to beam the kid to school — so you bang there was some problem with the beam , and we beamed in Shatner . Shatner did it for a $ 2500 suit . That ’s what we pay him . We could n’t put him in an Enterprise uniform , so we put him in a bathrobe , holding a bottle of champagne . He was expecting to meet Lt . Uhura in the jacuzzi .
“Robin would get fun, get loosened up”
It was hard to write for that show . Robin did n’t like to repeat jokes . So you had to drop a line a plenty of material — the show consume up material , it eat up energy , it ate up time .
It was voiceless to inject . It would always take an time of day to dash the first four - or - five pageboy view . Because Robin would get fun , loosened up . You know ? He ’d make error , he ’d talk to the bunch , he ’d break up Pam . It took a while to get rolled , for him to really get in the rut .
Sometimes , the studio audience would be so exhausted from laugh so heavily at Robin ’s performance to the crew , and make playfulness , that a mess of things in the episode itself never nonplus the reception that [ they ] should have , because masses were literally worn out from laughing for two hours , before you obtain to the big scene .
There was this non-white side that was always operate , you eff ? It ’s like , well , yeah , he was up at three AM with John Belushi and Robert De Niro the night Belushi died , [ and then ] he ’s entering the studio apartment at nine AM for dry run . It was burning the taper at both end .
At the final wrap party , he was there with Mick Jagger . He was a different person than we ’d met on Happy Days . You should understand the Rolling Stone interview about the end of Mork — he [ asked ] , “ Where am I kick the bucket to get $ 42,000 a hebdomad from ? ” I suppose he found a manner .
He was living it up . In hindsight , it ’s pretty sad that everyone just kind of let it go , cause this was the 80 ’s . I guess that was expect behavior .
Season Five
The final time of year of Mork and Mindy ends on a cliffhanger that was never resolved , in which Mork and Mindy travel through time and end up entrap in the prehistorical era . This was originally supposed to head into a fifth time of year .
We even tried to get a 5th time of year . So here was the scenario : [ Kalnik ] , another stranger , became Mork ’s buddy , and then [ Mork ] find out he ’s there to kill Mork for some reason . And so , to fend off this menace , they revealed themselves to the public [ as an alien and his married woman ] , and ultimately they had to track down away through clock time to cover from [ Kalnik ] .
It was go to be a semi - educational show , where Mork and Mindy traveling through prison term would meet with diachronic shape . We actually did a photo shoot for that , of [ Mork and Mindy ] resist with Abe Lincoln and Benjamin Franklin .
“It had such incredible promise, and we didn’t always deliver”
They were never able to keep it go away at the same level , with the same ebullience , with the same purity . And kind of the floor of the serial , to me , really is continuing to try and repair that freshness and inventiveness that you saw the first clip , every time . And really , you ca n’t do that .
I ’m a little ambivalent today about Mork . It had such incredible promise , and we did n’t always extradite on that promise . We adjudicate hard , but it was a gimmick show . Like Bewitched . Or Gilligan , or The Munsters or The Addams Family , you know ? My Favorite Martian lasted three years . Gilligan ’s Island , three year . The Munsters ? Two .
recording by Gordon Jackson . Top image : Art by Jim Cooke .
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