Mork and Mindy. Photo from Robin Williams Fan Site.

By Randal Hill
Guest Columnist

In the late 1970s, TV’s “Happy Days” shone a spotlight on the fictional middle-class Cunningham family. The show was a ratings smash, and the writers loved the high-paying work it brought.

But things changed one day with an unexpected visit from Garry Marshall, the show’s creator. Marshall strolled into the writers’ office and proclaimed how Scotty, his 8-year-old son, had suggested the possibility of having a spaceman visiting the Cunninghams.

Garry then smiled, departed the room and left behind stunned silence.

Writer and story editor Brian Levant recalled, “We looked at each other like, ‘That’s the most horrible idea I’ve ever heard’.”

But the boss obviously wanted a script that would please young Scotty, and the boss is always the boss. Right?

A story concept was quickly created for inclusion in a forthcoming “Happy Days” episode. That broadcast, which involved a dream sequence involving Ritchie Cunningham (Ron Howard), featured an appearance by Mork, a goofy alien from the planet Ork who wanted to whisk Ritchie back to his home planet for study. Several actors — including Dom DeLuise— were offered the Mork role, but nobody showed interest.

What to do?

Ronny Hamlin, Marshall’s older sister and an associate producer on “Happy Days,” had recently seen an unknown stand-up comedian named Robin Williams present a “spaceman” bit as part of a manic stand-up routine at a local comedy club.

Hamlin felt that Robin would be perfect as mega-weirdo Mork, and Williams was consequently summoned to the writers’ office.

Brian Levant recalled the meeting as “the most amazing run-through in the world,” with Williams reminding writers of the Marx Brothers, Charlie Chaplain and the Three Stooges rolled into one screwball. “The guy was on fire,” Levant claimed later.

When Williams made his appearance in a “Happy Days” episode during the program’s fifth season, viewers embraced his ditzy alien character, and it was quickly determined that he deserved his own TV show. The result was “Mork and Mindy.”

Williams was brought together with ex-model newcomer Pam Dawber to play Mindy, Mork’s friend and eventual love interest.

During the show’s three-year run, an ongoing myth had Robin Williams ad-libbing all his lines on “Mork and Mindy.” The reality? During rehearsals, he could be a whirlwind of brilliant improvisation. But when the cameras rolled, Williams always stuck to the script.

At the end of each show, Mork reported to Orson, his Orkan superior, to explain what he had learned on Earth that week. Here is where the writers could really offer silliness for the viewers. Consider, for example, this conversation:

Mork tells Orson about the punishment of being sent to a prison on Earth: “This is a place where they give you food, they give you clothes, and they give you housing,” Mork explains. Orson declares, “This doesn’t sound like punishment. What do they do for pleasure?” “People smoke cigarettes,” explains Mork. “They make you sick, they make you smell bad, and they make you cough.”

“Mork and Mindy” deserves a special place in TV history!