Mork's Mixed Emotions
Aug. 19th, 2014 01:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwynnegaLast weekend I got sucked into watching a late-night Mork and Mindy marathon on cable. I remembered some of the episodes they showed (notably the one where Mork tries to convince Mindy to marry him with a frenetic song-and-dance routine), but I wasn't clear whether I'd ever seen some of the others. I remember being a huge fan of the show's first season (I was thirteen), but I may have tuned out for awhile and tuned back in for the final season (in which Mork and Mindy get married, and Mork gives birth to Jonathan Winters (!)).
Yesterday I did some poking around the Internet and discovered this episode, which I'm pretty sure is my favorite of the whole series. I was surprised how thoroughly I remembered it, considering it aired in 1979 and I hadn't seen it since. My guess is that I'd taped it on my dad's VCR and watched it a bunch of times. The episode mines the trope of the unemotional space alien and what happens when his suppressed emotions boil to the surface. There couldn't have been a more perfect premise for Robin Williams' improvisatory talents. (The voice of Mork's fear sounds just like Peter Lorre.)
In some ways Mork and Mindy hasn't aged particularly well; it can be dated and corny (and the job of most of the supporting cast was, simply, to keep a straight face). But Williams' performance cuts through all that.
Yesterday I did some poking around the Internet and discovered this episode, which I'm pretty sure is my favorite of the whole series. I was surprised how thoroughly I remembered it, considering it aired in 1979 and I hadn't seen it since. My guess is that I'd taped it on my dad's VCR and watched it a bunch of times. The episode mines the trope of the unemotional space alien and what happens when his suppressed emotions boil to the surface. There couldn't have been a more perfect premise for Robin Williams' improvisatory talents. (The voice of Mork's fear sounds just like Peter Lorre.)
In some ways Mork and Mindy hasn't aged particularly well; it can be dated and corny (and the job of most of the supporting cast was, simply, to keep a straight face). But Williams' performance cuts through all that.
