Mork & Mindy Boned the Fish When... [Archive] - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

TMC

02-26-2014, 07:44 PM

https://web.archive.org/web/20070225141752/http://jumptheshark.com/

Other Thoughts:

I know, let's name him Mearth. Mindy and Earth. Get it.
I love Jonathan Winters, but it was just too much manic energy in one place with him and Robin Williams.
The crazy reverend guy
Can you say "Cross Breeding?"
When Jonathan Winters was "born" as the baby...downhill baby! The giant egg!!!! And Mork gave birth. Who knew he'd ever win an Oscar.
When Jonathan Winters came on as Mork and Mindy's new baby, the show lost it. This was closely connected to the episode in which Raquel Welch appeared, an all time low.
When Raquel Welch guest-starred as a man-eating alien. (predates Jonathan Winters entrance)
When Mork and Mindy married they jumped the shark.
The first season was solid as a rock. Never missed an episode of hysterical alien trying to understand Earth, while Mindy tried to keep it a secret. The second year started to take this to another level and peaked with the Racquel Welch episode. I say this confidently because it has all the earmarkings of a shark jump. HYPE! followed by APATHY... In fact I never saw this one but remember EVERYONE talking about it before and after it aired. I was a big fan and was ticked off that I missed it. The story was larger than life; some sexy alien kidnapping Mork or something or other. But after this episode no one talked about Mork and Mindy much. Certainly not me. Mork was no longer a confused alien clowning around with Mindys father at the record store. JUMP! Then comes the "FALL-OUT": Mork meets ROBIN WILLIAMS. (remember that "you look just like him!") Mork and Mindy fall in love. ...and of course Mearth.
The first season was brilliant; unfortunately, the actress playing Mindy's grandmother (whose interaction with Conrad Janis was one of the funniest features of the show) died before the second season started, leaving a hole that was never filled. Even more unfortunately, the producers *tried* to fill it with a new neighbor played by the almost painfully unfunny Tom Poston. Jonathan Winters was just the final nail in the coffin: the show had long since jumped by the time he arrived.
This plotline in the show is definitely a argument against longterm cocaine abuse.
As stated before, Mearth was a bit too much. BUT the greatest episode is when Mork joins the KKK. Upon realizing what it was all about from Mindy, he turns all the members into a rainbow of colours. What a positive message. Anyone who read about Robin Williams creativity on the set KNEW he would go on to great things!
Seriously, who would believe Jonathan Winters as a small child? You can just say "nanu, nanu" to the remaining audience.
It jumped shark when it moved to sunday nights and became surreal and when mindy's dad and grandmother left.The producer's realized this mistake and gave Conrad Janis a raise to return in the third season. If the gradmother died before the second season (like someone mentioned) then why did she return for the final season played by the same actress Elizabeth Kerr. Jonathan Winters as Mearth was hilarious. He didn't cause the show to jump shark it already had and it was already too late to save it. See the Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable Shows by Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh for proof of this info (great book! - Jon).
When Winters joined the show, it just plain silly.
This show stank pretty well from the egg toss, "Fly and be free!" PLEASE. This show jumped the minute Mork and the Fonz had a showdown, nuff said.
The birth of Mearth. No show ever jumped higher...or had a harder landing...than that single, defining moment.
How about when the real address of their house (1600 block of Pine in Boulder) was publicized? Brought too much 'real world' into the show and became instant tourist trap.
I think the show jumped the shark when they added the "baby" it was that old funny guy, I forget his name, he was funny, but the idea of having a grown man as a baby was just way to silly. But, I think the show started its way toward the ramp when alot of the people became aware of the fact that Mork was an alien. The fact that Mork was weird and but nobody knew why was great. Once they figured out that he was from another planet, the show losts its magic. Also, people like Mindy's father acting like it was no big deal having a grown man as a grandson was totally absurd....The show had many funny moments and it was one of the more successful spinoffs, right up there with The Jeffersons and The Facts of Life, but it just had to much weirdness about it to last very long....The earth people finding out that you are an alien plotline is a mistake that I hope the folks at 3rd rock don't make. If you see an episode where Mary discovers the fact that Dick is an alien, change the channel and never look back, it's a sure sign that all the creativiity has gone out of the show. Just a warning.
Jonathan Winters was extremely unfunny. He planted an already sputtering show squarely up the shark's ass.
This is the worst spinoff of all time! Mork and Mindy is just plain awful. I can not understand why people actually watched this. First of all, there are more drug refererences in this show than the awful That Seventies Show. The acting makes the entire cast of Three's Company look like Oscar contenders and the whole premise of Mork talking to his unseen supervisor is just silly.
Bringing in Jonathan Winters to play Mork & Midy's baby probably didn't seem like such a bad idea at the time, but even as an 11 y.o. I realized it was the defining moment of when I knew the show was doomed.
No way! NEVER JUMPED!! The addition of Jonathon Winters as Mearth was just a bonus!!! GREAT show, great performers, wish Robin Williams was still doing stuff like this instead of "Patch Adams", "BiCentennial Man", etc, etc.
I don't think any show has "jumped' so quickly from one season to the next. I think the show would have exhausted itself within three to four years anyway--even Robin Williams can only do so much to overcome Pam Dawber--and the producers can hardly be blamed for the death of its best supporting actor. However, there were some terrible choices made: those annoying delicatessen owners, the guy who played that insipid Eddie Lebeque on "Cheers" and his forgettable sister (I'm surprised I remember her); and the series-killing Tom Poston (hated him on "Newhart". I also recall an obnoxious miniature John Denver/Nicholas (Eight is Enough/Oliver (Brady Bunch) personage as well. Perhaps, it was good karma that this happened though--perhaps Robin Williams would have been pigeon-holed as a television actor and we would have never experienced "Good Morning Vietnam", "The Fisher King", "Dead Poet's Society", "Good Will Hunting" etc.
Jay Thomas isn't the reason that a show has jumped the shark, but he's a definitive sign that the show has jumped
I got two words: "jay" and "thomas"
Jay Thomas and Tom Poston are death to any show! Conrad Janis & the old lady who played the grandma cracked me up! Then death by Thomas & Poston! Those two suck great big hairy donkey d^cks! Love Johnathan Winters but he was a little too late to save the show. And the whole Pizza place thing blew too.
Never EVER NEVER Absolutely not. It was always a total piece of crap.
When down once Mork and Mindy got together. Mearth was annoying, but occasionally funny.
This is an easy one. The show Mork and Mindy jumped the shark the moment Exodor opened his robe, showed his football jersey, and said that he worships O.J. Simpson.
Jumped the shark in the second season when they replaced the characters of Mindy's father and grandmother in the music store with the kids in the deli. Some of Robin Williams' improvs in the first season were brilliant; after that the show was unwatchable. I didn't stick around for Mearth.
of course, as we all know, the death of deaths was mearth, played by robin william's comedic hero and inspiration, j. winters - but who cares. i mean, c'mon, jimmy page's musical hero growing up was little richard, and thank god we don't hear richard sing on 'stairway to heaven'. anyhow, the death began when tom poston started to be a nice guy. it continued when, of course, mindy and mork started to 'hit it off.' and yes, like i said, mearth ended it all. and shoot, i forgot jay thomas (and his sister Gina) - bad, bad, bad.
I really don't feel this show jumped, I mean how could it with a genius like Robin Williams. Most shows when they add a character go down the tubes fast, but Jonathon Winters was just assume as Mearth.
This show jumped when Paul Lynde guested and his character chopped off Mork's head, put it on a pole and marched around the entire state of Colorado shouting"at last, we will all be cleansed". I mean, what the hell was that about?
After they got tired of the Jonathan Winters "Mearth" character, they introduced a on going storyline that deal with an evil alien invasion..this was the ultimate deathblow! Factoid: The evil alien was the actor from Murphy Brown who played the reporter "Frank"
Mork races a disco rollerskater down the rocky mountains to save a childrens center.
There was one episode in particular that Mork took cold medicine and shrank down to microscopic proportions. (A la Lilly Tomlin/Incredible shrinking woman). He ended up in a parallel world with another Mindy. In fact I think the parallel mini-earth was called Mearth, the name they later used for Baby old guy.
The day Robin Williams was born. He is without a doubt the most over-hyped and under-talented alleged comic EVER. That guy's got the worst case of "Laugh-at-me--I'm so-funny-itis" I've ever encountered. Just a hint that he's involved in a show or movie causes me to run for a book or the radio. Jimmie "JJ" Walker, Gary Burghoff, Conrad Bain, and Donny Most are comic geniuses compared to Mr. Williams. He's NEVER been funny--probably never will be. Don't blame this bomb on Jonathan Winters or Jay Thomas. Now I've got to take a fistful of Tagamets just thinking about him and that crummy show.
Mearth. It jumped the minute he was born and never recovered. This show had a far-out premise to begin with, but this was just waaaaaay to weird to watch.
It jumped, but some things, such as jimi hendrix, cocaine highs, 12 foot waves,orgasms, are not meant to last too long because the intensity is too great. That's how I feel about this show. Of course it jumped. But I feel as though at least Robin Williams knew it, and that's WHY he brought in his hero/mentor/alter ego Jonathon Winters. He didn't exactly improve the show, but robin knew it was over, so why not give a little back to Mr. Winters. I have no inside info on this, but I really believe that it was an inside job, as it were, by robin williams knowing the end was near. It's easy to say he should not have milked it, but back then, he was not in demand, it was assumed that was all he could do. Let's see any of you turn down 50k per episode when a house on the beach cost 200k!
When Jonathon Winters joined the cast. Winters is a very talented man, but his addition to the show took away from the comic genius of Robin Williams.
Jonathan Winters as a kid? Didnt Mork give birth?? Very deviant.
When Jonathan Winters (who is a very funny guy) joined the cast as Mearth, the show took a major nose dive.
When Mork gave birth to the Alien aka Jonathon Winters, AND he was an adult who is going backwards to infancy!
I was around 12 years old when this show began and remember the first season as being absolutely hilarious (from a 12-year-old's perspective). I even had a t-shirt with Mork's various catchphrases. But the second season started getting a little too earnest and the show changed some characters and plot devises, and it was all downhill from there. It soon become unwatchable. By the time Mearth came along, the shark had digested the show and excreted its waste. By the way, did Mindy ever figure that, since Mearth and Mork aged backwards, in 10 years she was going to be arrested for Paula Poundstone-like lewd behavior with her husband?
Marriage and Mearth!?!? I was only a kid when it was on (and kids can be loyal to a fault) and I thought it was stupid!
Of course it was when Jonathan Winters became the half-alien child ... too structured for Winters to succeed at his own particular brand of comedy. But does anyone else remember a show from the previous season, when Winters played Mindy's uncle in the military? The last minute of the episode were ad lib between Winters and Williams, and were so utterly manic that I laughed so hard I went into labor!
There's an old saying that goes "If it aint broke, don't fix it." Well, the producers of "M&M" did that anyway beginning with the second season. They eliminated Mindy's father and Grandmother and replaced them with two younger characters, who owned the deli.
When Mork went from being a goof and doing a lot of ad libbing and became a father it ruined the show. And who thinks Jonathon Winters if funny?
You wouldn't think a show about a clownish alien would rely on sexual tension, but somehow after Mork and Mindy became an item, it took a lot of the fun away. Or maybe it was just the mental image of a fur-covered Robin Williams in bed with anyone that took the fun away.
When Mork and Mindy's relationship became romantic rather than friendship. Feh. And the baby really ruined it.
Jay Thomas and the pizzeria. Now this jerk was the host of "Who Wants To Marry A Multimillionaire". He ruins Mork & Mindy and then talks trash about Darva Conger?
As in real life, marriage kills all aspects of humor and joy. You can't blame that whole "Mearth" fiasco. The show had long since been entertaining at that point. (By the way, "Mearth" is not a combo of Mindy and Earth. "Mork from Ork" and "Mearth from Earth"! Duh.)
This show jumped when Mork went from being a dream of Richie Cunningham's to being a nightmare for the viewing public. There are only 2 shows that I like as a kid or teenager that I'm actually embarrassed about now - this and Welcome Back Kotter.
I knew they had exhausted all ideas for the program of any value when they decided to "join" Mindy taking a bath. I had that horrible sinking (ha ha) feeling and the rest of the show went down the drain! (I can't stop) they should have just pulled the plug. (oh please, stop me before i pun again.) i miss the first year or so-it was great at that time. I had those rainbow suspenders!
I like this program, and I like Robin Williams, but it was so obvious from the first couple of episodes that they would pull an "I do" eventually. And Jonathan Winters' first appearance (guest star role Before Mearth) was good, but having him do just ONE role isn't good. Maybe they should have gotten rid of the rest of the cast and had Winters and Williams ad-lib--would have been the first WHOSE LINE IS IT ANYWAY? in tv history.
After Mork spawned the irksome Mirth, my smile faded away, never to return. That little plot twist nobody on the face of this earth. I am sure many people have cursed Mirth as long and as loud as I have.
The show jumped big time after Conrad Janis and Elizabeth Kerr got axed--not to mention the actor who played Eugene. Instead we got Jay Thomas and Gina Hecht. The only plus was Tom Poston's role was bigger. I rather enjoyed the Jonathan Winters episode, but by that time the show was too far gone.
The birth of Mearth. I like Jonathan Winters as a comeadian and a actor, but in Mork and Mindy, DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMN.
The arrival of Mearth. It just didn't work. Maybe the whole concept was running short of new ideas by then anyway. Mind you, the 'isn't granny funky compared to the dad' sequence in the early opening titles was one the most obvious and corny cliches going.
Johnathan Winters-- that's what passes for a good idea--Winters as a baby? Worst baby ever...
It jumped when the second season began. And they knew it, too: the third season began with Mindy lamenting something like "I've created an earthling!" They wisely brought Conrad Janis back.
I was about 9 or 10 when the show first aired. (My God, has it been that long?) I remember how I used to laugh until I almost wet my pants (although getting my conservitive father to give me control of the tv was like pulling teeth). I think the show started to assend the ramp when the network shifted timeslots around and the producers changed and/or added characters. However, it absolutly jumped when they introduced the evil alien plotline. If I remember right they even ended the series on a huge low note by loosing the family as they traveled through time.
It didn't for any specific reason, but as I recall, Cpt. Marvel's mentor's name was "Mentor". Like, is that what it said on his driver's license? They could have at least given him a name. "Dave", maybe. or "Jonathan". Yeah, "Jonathan". "Jonathan Mentor".
Definitely the second season. The first year was great and Robin Williams was a budding superstar (although the main reason I watched it was Pam Dawber who I thought was a real babe!). But I read some stories where Robin Williams was frustrated in the role and was afraid of being stereotyped. I always suspected that he deliberately sabotaged the show the second and third seasons just to get out of it and to get on with his career.
Robin Williams said he got his inspiration from Jonathan Winters? I'm sorry, (no disrespect to Mr. Winters intended -- he was cool in his hey-day) but that's like... um, like... Uhhh... Oh hell! It's like Robin Williams saying he got his inspiration from Jonathan Winters for crying out loud!!
The addition of Jonathan Winters to the show. Sure, with Robin Williams and Winters in the cast, it should have been incredible. But, the writers left the show up to the two to ham it up, instead of creating plots.
It JTS when Mork somehow became this toddler in his mentality & Mindy has to out for the evening & there is this scene of Mork, looking out the window, crying tears & calling after Mindy. Save the therapy for someplace else, Robin!!
This show really did take a nose dive when M&M got married, but the thing I most remember about the show is at the end when Mork had his little conversation with Orson and he said, "This is Mork signing off from Boulder" and a big boulder fell and landed right behind him. He turned and looked at it and without missing a beat he said, "Boy, I'm glad I wasn't in Buffalo!".
Jonathan Winters is funny in small doses but him playing Baby Mearth on a regular basis sunk the show's credibility altogether! It became downright vomitous from that point on. In fact, a good alternative name for this site might be ' Mork Lays the Egg'!
Don't you think the show really went downhill when they gave birth to Jonathan Winters? The show was going stale. Pam Dawber's gorgeousness and Robin Williams' silliness weren't working anymore. Pam just got to be an easily frazzled sidekick. They needed a new character to save the day, but it just got to damned stupid.
It was bad enough in the final season that Mork & Mindy got married!! But they had an intergalactic child after Mork got pregnant and laid an egg. Then things went from bad to worse when Jonathan Winters emerged as their baby?? (HUH??) It was all over from there.
Mearth! the end of the series as far as I was concerned when he showed up I stopped watching.
People bitching about Jonathon Winters being silly! Uh ---- yeah.......! This show was great. The closest thing to jazz improv a sitcom could possibly come. Complaining about this show taking chances is like hating that Miles Davis started dabbling in rock and roll. It's about the art fools.
This show jumped when Jonathan Winters was added to the cast as Morks baby. As an adult I realize how lame this show was, but even as a child I knew that whole Mearth thing was incredibly stupid. But that wasnt as stupid as mentioning Mork and Mindy in the same sentence with the word art...please.
Let's face it -- Mindy was always meant to be the straight person. When they tried in the second season to let her have some funny lines, it detracted from Robin William's zaniness.
I would say the addition of Jonathan Winters, but it goes back to the whole pregnancy (incubation)in the first place. That whole egg thing? Puh-leeze. I was about 11 and I thought it was stupid!
How the heck could Mindy have laid a seven-foot tall egg? I mean, really, duh. Plus, Mearth was just such a pathetic character that he would have sunk the show if he'd been there all along.
This one jumped when Mork met Robin Williams. "Do you know what Robin means on Ork?" *Whisper* "That's disgusting!"
Man,They drove the bus right off the cliff in the second season with the casting of one Tom Poston. From there, they threw in every character they could get their hands on(Crazy Reverend Guy, Mirth, Nelson Flavor, Remo DaVinci). The first season was in, in my opinion, the best..Pretty much it was all "fish out of water" scripts involving mork observing earth behavior. When they started doing the "goofy gag of the week" shows (Mork playing pratical jokes,the "shrinking" episode, evil alien,Mirth,ect..)Thats when I lost respect for the show and quit watching
M&M Jumped when Fred and Cora left (I remember Conrad Janis played Fred, but not the name of the actress who played Cora). Sure they were brought back, but it was too late. Those annoying new characters where still there. I mean didn't the producers ever hear "If it isn't broke, don't fix it?"?
This show jumped the shark when Jonathan Winters was added as Mork & Mindy's baby. That was so stupid that it was an insult to people's intelligence. When he came onto the show, the show became instant shark bait.
Jonathan Winters as Mearth probably sounded like a good idea at a production meeting, but it just didn't work in the show; he came off much better in his earlier appearance as Mindy's uncle.
Day One..Maybe its just me but I've never found Robin Williams to be in the least bit funny. Hyper,stream of consciousness blather with no hint of cleverness, intelligence, irony..just fast talking blather. I couldn't stand him then and I can stand him less now. There are so many comedians who are so much funnier...and now that he is also schmaltzy and sanctimonious he is more than I can stand..a hyperactive, thinks he's funny phony
I don't think that 'Mork & Mindy' ever completely jumped the shark. Recently I saw the episode where Mork meets Robin Williams, and I must say that Mork (when reporting back to Orson about the disadvantages of being famous) did a very touching tribute to John Lennon- perhaps it should be pointed out that Lennon was assassinated on December 8, 1980, a mere 2 months before this episode originally aired. He also mentioned Lenny Bruce as another star who died too young- I doubt that most young people nowadays would even know who Lenny Bruce is!
The episode where Mork took Mindy to Ork. I saw it on a re-run on the Comedy Network here in Canada...it was a like a car-wreck: so horrible I just *had* to watch.
Hmm...there's this odd buzzing sound right now. Maybe it's something wrong with my modem. No, wait...It's Miles Davis spinning in his grave. Anyway, I remember only hearing about M&M for a year or so before actually seeing an episode, because I had a weekly obligation during its timeslot. All I remember was hearing about how great it was and how it bent the rules of sitcommery and what a genius Robin Williams was, and blah blah blah. OK, I was only 11 or 12 when it came out, so I was going on the testimony of my peers, who were hardly Rex Reeds-to-be, but even still, what a let-down!! Mork and Mindy was so conventional and predictable! Jeez, they had a freakin' alien as a character, but still resorted, more often than not, to dumbass sitcom formula. Even the addition of Mearth was a one-trick-pony. Yeah, he's a fat old guy who is actually an infant. I get it. What else does he do? Oh, nothing? Ok. Mork and Mindy began at a time when networks were trying (sort of) to reshape television. SNL and Fridays were at their peaks, "New Wave" artists were appearing as musical guests instead of Jan and Dean, and really innovative and fringy comics like Robin Williams were invited to help modernize the tube. Unfortunately, RW didn't use the vehicle of M&M to the best of his ability, and simply played by the rules. Whether that was his fault or Network pressure remains to be made clear. I guess it's ultimately debatable, as he's still a celebrity, while the "other guy" from Bossom Buddies, or "Larry" from Three's Company are not. Robin Williams' humour at that time in his life was the funniest he's ever been, primarily because he was completely addicted to coke, and had the boundless energy and frenetic thought patterns of a full-time powderhead. If you've ever caught a GOOD Mork monologue (and there were a few), or heard his "Reality...What A Concept" LP, you know what I mean! I'm not saying it's a good idea to become addicted to cocaine, but since RW has straightened out, he's given us dreck like "Toys" "Patch Adams", and "What Dreams May Come". I know exactly which option I prefer, between his rotting sinuses or my tooth-aches! Enough with the sugar, already!
Was it foreshadowing that Mork "laid an egg"? Sadly, with the age I was at the time, this was my introduction to Jonathan Winters (if you discount the Scooby-Doo guest appearance). It turns out he is VERY funny, but his "birth" meant the end of a great show. Probably just as well, that Mork guy had a lot of good work ahead of him......
They tried to salvage it with Jonathan Winters, but even his tremendous skill could not save it. This trauma has tainted my tv-watching skills ever since...
It jumped with the marriage and careened into the fin with the preposterous "baby". Pity. It did have some redeeming qualities in the beginning.
The show was built around the comic talents of Robin Williams, but I only remember the episodes with Exidor. He was the real star.
I agree, Exidor was the true star of the show. He should've gotten his own spin-off series. By the way, I finally visited Boulder a couple of years ago and couldn't get the Mork and Mindy theme out of my head the whole time I was there!
Definitely when Mearth was born. Can't stand Jonathon Winters anyway, so it was a given for me. He just isn't funny, and dragged Robin William's talent down. But I think that Pam Dawber did that already, so what the hell. To the above poster, were you able to find the house in Boulder? I visited Boulder about 5 years after MAM went off the air, and somehow the person I was with actually knew there really was a house, and where it was... Bizarre to see.. really cute, though. Except for the seven foot tall lumber fence put up and the NO TRESPASSING sign on it. Didn't these people have a clue what they were in for when they allowed their home to be put on national TV?
this show jumped when Mork and Mindy decided to get married.......... the whole chemistry between these two characters was lost after that... The whole plot of the show was completely washed up. But I do have to say that Robin Williams is my favorite comedian, and he is one of those few sitcom stars that rose to stardom. In fact..... the other day , I was in blockbuster and the 22 year old clerk had no idea what I was talking about when I was commenting about how the guy from "one hour Photo" used to be Mork........ he said......"who's Mork?" definitely aged me a few years
The first season of Mork & Mindy was the most brilliantly subversive and off-the-wall program that ever graced the airwaves. However, it was inevitable that the show would jump the shark. Unfortunately, there was just no other way. It had nothing to do with the cast or any of the peripheral characters (although I would agree it hit rock bottom when Jonathan Winters joined the cast as Mearth). The ultimate problem was exactly what made the show so brilliant to begin with...it was a showcase for Robin Williams' improvisational genius with Mork completely misunderstanding everything about humanity and doing everything the Orkian way rather than the way of earthlings. Since Mork was not an idiot, he had to eventually begin to understand humans and their society. That's when the show began to slowly go downhill as Mork became more "normal." He was, in effect, humanized and the show was doomed by its own brilliant concept. The fish out of water grew legs and lungs.
The time when Mindy's dad's house was haunted with the ghost of her mom (who was later channeled by Mork, of course) was creepy city. Who knew Mork was so multi-talented? OK - the episode when David Letterman, as the motivational speaker, kept telling everyone to "sit down and shut up" - makes me wish I had the episode on tape because just thinking of it cracks me up.
When they did it, of course! They went from being playful and funny to being sappy and lovesick, constantly smooching. Ick. Just as bad as Ross and Rachel on "Friends." Hey, let's tune in and watch these two slobber all over each other for 20 minutes!
When Mork laid an egg...literally and figuratively.
I think Mork and Mindy jumped when they got married! It ruined the whole premise for the show! And then to have Jonathan Winters born! That was really dumb! Thats jumping the shark and the getting eaten by the shark!
when Mork's attic was turned into an aluminum cell. The two-episode story was most likely to boost ratings for a new season and rebuild the set. Mork is too human and the Elder (a 7-year old, showing the effects of the reversed aging process) Pbbtht has to retrain him or he'll be painted purple and ostracized. He turns the attic into an Orkan habitat, and brings Mork's pet Beebo (a big ball of hair and SFX). Beebo occasionally 'helped' Mork give his reports for that season. The set change and Beebo sent the series downhill.
Jay (Sign Of The Apocolypse) Thomas joins the cast. Other than the evil one himself (Ted "Lucifer" McGinley) this ass clown is a true harbinger of sitcom destruction.
Jonathan Winters. In a diaper.
Two or three funny episodes the first season then it was just stupid...and I was a kid back then so stupid wasn't necessarily a deal-breaker. Robin Williams is just a human fart cushion. Do not understand why he gets any more attention than Rip Taylor the guy who tosses confetti for example. I have had a laugh or two from the timely use of a fart cushion but without a second act to move on to RW is tedious.
Jonathan Winters as the child conceived by Mork and Mindy was it's sharking moment. First they have a child that's like what 60 years old, and he's actually acting like a child. I had always been a fan of his and even of Gary Marshall, but this was the shows SHARKING moment. it was never the same again! Schazzbutt to them. Nanu Nanu.
As soon as Jonathan Winters joined the cast as their baby, it ruined it from there. They crossed the line from fun to ridiculous.
I actually thought adding Jonathan Winters as a last ditch effort to save the show was a good idea. I think what really killed the show was Mork rollerskating down a mountain, joining the Denver Broncos Cheerleaders and the terrible Raquel Welch episode.
I agree completely with the poster who stated, "The day Robin Williams was born. He is without a doubt the most over-hyped and under-talented alleged comic EVER!!!" The idea of whole show being built around Robin Williams bouncing around, going "Nanu, nanu" is bad enough! But I am supposed to believe that a beautiful (although acting-ability challenged) woman like Pam Dawber is going to fall in love with him, marry him, and have have a baby (or an egg, or whatever) with him is ridiculous at best, reason to reach for the barf bag at worst! Robin Williams is a freak of nature and so is Mork!!! This fact that this show ever poisoned the American airwaves is scary stuff indeed. M & M jumped the shark the second the opening credits started during the first episode. I'll bet the creator of this insult to the intelligence of the American public ate tuna just before having a nightmare about a space alien from Ork. Aggghhh!!
Jonathan Winters - just not a good fit. No better way to put it. Worth a shot: funny guy, worshipped by Robin Williams (and more than able to keep up with him). But just didn't fit.
It not only jumped the shark in the very first episode but also brought "Happy Days" over the shark (that show's second major shark-jump) with it. To begin with, two nights earlier HD had had its season premiere, with the Fonz and the whole gang visiting a Colorado dude ranch. That episode was to be continued the following Tuesday night, right where it had left off---with Fonzie and Richie Cunningham chasing after Joanie in a rescue scene. Then, in M&M's one-hour premiere, Mork goes back in time to visit the Fonz, who's sitting at home in the Cunninghams' living room! Yet, he had been a character in a dream of RICHIE'S! (And if you think THAT's bad, hoo-boy!---Mork also managed to go over and visit Laverne and Shirley in the opener. Oy vay!) And then the following Tuesday, the Fonz is back in Colorado, still trying to rescue Joanie (who was in a cart being pulled by horses who were running about 40 mph after being startled, and she couldn't reach the reins to stop them). This was just totally unbelievable. By the way, you notice that I point out that the first episode was one hour long. I mention this because the next episode I watched was about two months later, and it managed to pack twice as much stupidity into that 30 minutes. Unbelievable.
There was an episode, I can't remember when exactly, but Mindy was kidnapped by some guy and then stuffed. I think that it was a little over the top for a comedy show!
As a child I loved this show and seeing the re-runs I remember even more. Being so young at the time I had no idea about the whole change of cast, I seemed to accept it and move on. I loved Mork and Mindy, I thought they were great together and played off one another so well - I see some feel that Mindy was not what they wanted but I was glad to see such a strong female role-model and, of course, all the assumptions the other characters made about them living together never even registered with me. I felt that, although I loved the character and actor, when Mearth came along he took Mindy's place. Basically it became Mork and Mearth, it also didn't help that the 'child' seemed to hate Mindy... that made a really strong impression on me (and not in a good way). Just have to add that I think Robin and Pam were fantastic together!
Can't believe this one isn't already in the "They Did It" category. Remember when the love interest finally sparked on Mork & Mindy? Almost as bad as Rachael and Ross. We got to spend the next season watching them slobber on each other.
When ABC moved it to Sunday. ABC was the top network at the time with sitcoms scheduled most nights. "Mork & Mindy" was part of the powerful Thursday night line-up that finished off crime dramas on NBC and eventually brought the aging-but-still-popular dramas on CBS. CBS had had a virtual lock on Sundays. When Rob Reiner and Sally Struthers left "All In the Family", ABC execs smelled blood in the water. Bunkers loyalists, however, weren't ready to bail out on their hero, even without arguments that kept them tuning in. CBS countered by adding "One Day At a Time" and "The Jeffersons", still ratings winners, to help bolster ratings for fading "All In the Family" and staggering "Alice". ABC blinked, returning "Mork & Mindy" to the position where it flourished. It never regained the monstrous ratings it once knew, but with NBC virtually out of the picture, "Mork and Mindy" was part of a line-up that forced CBS to prematurely cancel "Barnaby Jones" and bring to a close TV's longest-running crime drama, "Hawaii Five-0".
I read about a quarter of the responses, and no one mentioned the Mork From Ork episode. Mork (Robin Williams) was a great character, although definitely from left field. However, in the episode Fonzie defeats Mork in a show of mental power that was so ridiculous it completely destroyed whatever credibility that show had as being a slice of reality in the 50's. After that, you knew you could expect anything, even if the premise was going to be "out of this world".
This show was AWFUL from Day One. Robin Williams can be taken only for about 90 minutes total. That is why his movies are only hits about every 5 years apart. After one movie it takes 5 years for him to wear thin again. The father and grandmother were specifically written off to appeal to the younger viewers. Of course this helped to "tank" the show. This just helped to prove it wasn't "Just" a Robin Williams vehicle but an ansemble cast. Pam Dawber while not a "Great" comedic actress never got enough credit. She is capable of giving a good comedic reading if giving the chance.
This show jumped the shark when they got married and Mork gave birth to Jonathan Winters, the show wasn't funny after that.
Well, this could be either new kid in town or birth - when Jonathan Winters showed up as Mork's baby on Mork & Mindy. What a quick demise.
The first season of "Mork and Mindy" was terrific. Right from the start, it was strong. So strong in fact that ABC network execs decided to fix it! Idiots! The show put the skis on at the very beginning of the second season. The move to Sunday night and the replacement of the father and grandmother characters with "youthful" characters. The Exidor character was hysterical. And I seem to be one of the few who actually liked the addition of Tom Poston. Poston was great in his appearances on "The Bob Newhart Show" and later in his regular role as George on "Newhart". I liked Mork working on Poston's character to get him to enjoy life again. Exidor and Poston couldn't help bad writing though. I'm guessing that writers from the first season were either fired when they rejected the ABC exec's "fix it 'cause it ain't broken" changes, or ended up quitting because of the changes. The storylines got weird and clunky. Mork wasn't as wild anymore. Something just wasn't working anymore. The show jumped the shark when Mork and Mindy got married. The producers and writers knew the series had gotten bad and decided that they needed to come up with something to give the show a "spark". That spark turned out to be the addition of Jonathan Winters and Mirth. It was an interesting idea. A "concept" which had merit, but which, in the long run just didn't work. At that point, the show fell straight down into the shark's wide open mouth. Oh, and in the original airing of the "Mork From Ork" episode of "Happy Days", it was indeed explained away as a dream of Richie's. At the conclusion of the episode, the doorbell rang and there was Robin Williams as another character asking for directions. When this episode was re-ran later in the same season, that concluding moment was re-filmed. (By that point it had been decided that Mork was so popular with viewers that he would get his own show the following season.) In the re-filmed sequence, Robin sill rings the doorbell at the end and still asks for directions. When the Cunningham's close the door, the new bit is put in which shows Mork outside the Cunningham house - this wasn't a look-alike (to the alien in Richie's dream) after all... it was really Mork from Ork! It's too bad the execs had to mess with the show after the first season. It could have gone on for quite some time longer than it had.
There are three points to consider here. One would be mindy falling in "love" with this childlike idiot alien to begin with. If that wasn't bad enough, the fact that mork had become pregnant with Jonathon Winters. That's a little hard to swallow. But what really made me think this show was leaving soon, was the episode in which mork has shrunken down to sub molecular dimensions, and gone in to a "dream land".. trippy, but ultimately nonsensical. I will admit that i'm imposing plausibility to a show about a hairy alien that emerged from an cosmic egg, but the "shrink" episode is obviously a cry from the writers, beckoning to the audience "We're completely out of material"
If it ain't broke, don't fix it! Boy, did ABC ever drop the ball on this one. (Or whoever was responsible for giving it an overhaul.) I remember watching this as a young adult and enjoying it immensely through the first season. Pam Dawber was just fine as the straight person; I liked her character. RW was fresh and funny ... and I ADORED Exidor, especially the episode that introduces him. Then the second season (with that godawaful Raquel Welch eppy), ABC somehow got the crazy idea that the show needed to be more provocative. So they took a charming, simple (and highly successful) little show that kids and adults could enjoy, and turned it into bad T&A. It's like they were trying to make another "Three's Company" (and one "Three's Company" is one too many). The ratings plummeted, and ABC learned its lesson and tried to return the show to some semblance of its original format. I seem to recall some eps after that being OK, but it was never the same. (Thank-you to the poster who mentioned the "down side of fame" eppy, where Mork spoke of John Lennon; that gave me a chill at the time, very well done.) My first big disappointment of M&M was having Exidor marry Georgia Engel (eeewwwwwww), who I would like to nominate as the female Ted McGinley, man, she is LAME. After that, I agree with other things mentioned above -- Mork and Mindy marrying, Jonathan Winters, none of that worked. Recently I saw episodes from the first season for the first time in years. While it doesn't make me laugh as much now, I still say the first season was a sweet and charming show with simple little life lessons. ABC should've left it alone; it was a great show for kids.
This show jumped when ABC decided to move the show to Sundays. And the Season 2 opener: "Mork in Wonderland?" What the hell were they thinking? They sapped the show of its fun and tried to revamp it for no reason. YOU NEVER TAMPER WITH A HIT! Robin Williams and Pam Dawber struggled for the remaining three seasons, but ABC did its damage in the fall of 1979. Garry Marshall should have sued the ABC executives.
The showed definitely jumped when there was an actor switch for Robin Williams because he was the funniest part of that show.
Mork & Mindy jumped the shark after the first season. In that first season you had one of the greatest sitcoms of all time. The strength of the first season was that you had ONLY ONE eccentric character, and that he was placed in the middle of normal everyday American life in the 1970s. It was the counterbalance of how Mork saw life in Boulder--from a totally different perspective than the earthling characters--that made for brilliant writing and great comedy that first season. The way Mork and Mindy's father played off each other was like the relationship between Archie Bunker and Meathead in All In The Family. Then, they ruined the whole show in the second season by bringing in other eccentric characters like the unfunny Exidor, and took away Mindy's father. It would be like replacing Mike Stivic in All In The Family with another person just like Archie Bunker! You didn't need ANOTHER eccentric character like Exidor (and others that followed.) You already had Mork. It ruined the whole premise of the show. Then they really nailed the coffin shut with Jonathan Winters as the baby. The audience fled in the second season and by the third it was already a disaster that couldn't be fixed. Thank God Robin Williams went on to do greater things in the movies.
The show went down in flames once Jonathan Winters was added.
M&M actually jumped BEFORE it was even on the air! Mork's first appearance on the dreadful Happy Days was an unmitigated disaster and presaged the god-awful crap to follow. Robin Williams is unbearable, not funny at all. At least Mindy was a hottie. The best character on the show was the loony Exidor - they should have spun off a show about him and deep sixed M&M. Somebody ought to tie an anvil around Robin Williams neck and drop him off a bridge!!!
the "birth" of jonathan winters. this was ridiculous. second to this abomination was the romance and subsequent marriage of mork and mindy. one can hardly call it jumping the shark...come on, we all saw it coming from the first episode. but the "baby"...good grief, THIS was just plain stupid.
The commenter who said that they should have made a show out of Exidor must be a member of the "Friends of Venus!" OK seriously, obviously Mearth was the JTS moment of M&M. I like the idea that was said earlier: Mork & Mindy should have basically kept the "Mr. Ed" formula- The show should have been about Mindy trying her best from keeping everyone (including her own family) from knowing that Mork was actually from another planet. Mork's own eccentricities would make that naturally problematic, and this would have at least guaranteed there would be at least 3-4 seasons of this particular formula. I'm not saying that Mork should have stayed in Mindy's attic, but I really think they ran out of situations to put Mork in. it was obvious that Mork and Mindy would hook up eventually, but they could have teased this a little bit longer! I remember an earlier episode (Season 2 or 3) where they mentioned Mork and Mindy getting together. The crowd went NUTS with cheers! But when the Season opening actually came where Mork was rehearsing his proposals to Mindy, it wasn't the same excitement anymore! I liked seeing Mork bounce off other eccentric individuals, but they should have used this sparingly. M&M is still one of my most favorite shows of all time!
This show is the classic example of what happens when you try to fix something that isn't broken. The first season was brilliant. Robin Williams is one of the most creative comedians of all time. His mork character's reactions to everyday Earth experiences were priceless. Then some genius at ABC decided to make Mork more sophisticated. When Mork was no longer perplexed by the goings-on of earthlings, the show jumped the shark. Too bad.