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Mork & Mindy - The Third Season
When I went back to school in the fall of 1979, I was well eager to sport my new duds. That's because I had my brand new rainbow suspenders and a store-bought button or two to attach. Yes, Robin Williams as Mork from Ork was the closest thing to Elvis we kids had in those days, and I couldn't have felt cooler bringing his look as if it were my own. Are kids these days so pathetically innocent? I doubt it, most now are probably content to try smuggling guns or Robitussin into class, but about 30 years ago, Williams was a cultural force to be reckoned with. Pam Dawber was pretty darn cute, too.
I'm happy to say I'm not wearing rainbow suspenders anymore, yet I continue to carry a torch for Dawber. In a similar manner I - and maybe you - will view Mork and Mindy: The Third Season, which comes out in a four-disk set featuring all 22 episodes. Were we really so innocent that Williams' PG-rated, coke-fueled lunacy was the apex of Television comedy? Of course not, it's just that Big Media hadn't relaxed its standards to the nearly-naked-mutilated-corpse levels that today we find exercised on CSI, etc. Furthermore, Reality TV was limited to a few highbrow documentaries on Public Television, so the kind of inspired, off-the-cuff-and-off-the-script weirdness of Williams was a revelation.
Such innovation is close to trite, now, and Mork and Mindy hasn't aged too well. By Season Three plenty of satellite characters were entrenched: Jay Thomas as Remo Da Vinci, Tom Poston as Mr. Bickley, Amy Tenowich as Lola and the consistently upstaging Robert Donner as Exidor (among many more). For a show that was spun out of a single jump-the-shark character from another sit-com, the addition of these (and later other characters, Jonathan Winters as Mearth, for instance) only seems, in retrospect, like a desperate intrusion. What was wrong with Mork and Mindy's unrequited love and the shameless mugging of Conrad Janis?
So what are Mork and Mindy up to in Season Three, anyway? The usual non-linear, random stuff from sitcoms of yore. Mork challenges a championship roller-skater to a duel, or befriends a crazy man who thinks he's Peter Pan, or seals himself into a glass tube out of insurance scam fears, or animates appliances to upbraid a crooked repairman, or takes on some muggers in defense of Cora. A thread carries through, the old unrequited love thread, which comes to a head by the season finale, but mostly on display are a series of somewhat thin plots that allow Williams to do his thing, and allow Dawber to be extremely likable.
Obviously, the point of the show is to showcase Williams' talent, and there are bright spots in every episode. The season premier features Mork trying to act human, becoming an unctuous leisure-suit-wearing cheeseball who offers Mindy's dad Fred a drink - 'Campari and Tab? It's incredible!' before we get to see Mindy in an Orkan suit (also incredible). Later in the series Mork does an impromptu turn as a TV gossip columnist, which allows Williams the chance to turn the improv up to 11. Also, don't miss the wonderfully 'meta' episode Mork Meets Robin Williams for some split-screen thoughtfulness. As sit-coms go, Mork and Mindy was better than most, with a truly invigorating star and plenty of laughs. But it also had dorky plots, a few really generic extras, and the 'reporting to Orson' motif - allowing writers to justify their work with some faux philosophizing - that never went beyond being a tired gimmick. '80s nostalgia buffs and Williams fans that weren't turned off by most of his work post-Patch Adams will enjoy this treat, but needn't rush out and buy it.
The DVD
Video:
Back in the days before widescreen HDTV we had to watch shows in the ancient fullscreen 1.33:1 ratio that is presented digitally mastered on these disks. Aside from a little film damage here and there, the episodes look as fresh as when they were broadcast, but sharper and clearer than on your old CRT monitor. Enjoy those bad early-'80s colors, Mindy's oak-infused apartment and her ribcage-high casual slacks like never before.
Sound:
Dolby Digital English 2.0 Mono Audio delivers every na-nu na-nu with clarity and punch.
Extras:
Mork and Mindy: The Third Season comes in a slightly thicker-than-normal four-disk-sized keepcase with a flipper in the middle. Packaging maintains that some episodes may have been edited and that some music has been changed. Hard to tell the difference, so your enjoyment probably won't be affected. That, however, is as far as it goes in terms of any form of extras, inasmuch as these things deviate from the bare minimum of including all the episodes on disk. Certainly some form of documentary or commentary - hell even a slideshow of promotional materials - would be nice.
Final Thoughts:
Television situation comedies come in three categories; all time classics, pop phenomena or total duds. Classics are usually phenomena, but the inverse isn't always true. Classics, also, age well, but Mork and Mindy - mostly a pop phenomenon - has taken a few lumps over the years. Mork writing focuses mostly on (old) timely jokes (Rula Lenska anyone?) and stock character types like Mindy's drunken boss, at the expense of compelling plots or complex personalities that are found in modern TV shows. But this pop success also has a warm beating heart, Williams' at times still brilliant improvising and awesome comic timing, plus the ultra-cute Pam Dawber. That's a few healthy pluses for a show that with any two other principals would have sunk like a stone. As Mork and Mindy is probably shown quite frequently on cable TV, and by season three was already on the downside of the arc, this DVD is not an invaluable add to your TV nostalgia collection. Die-hard fans may need it, but if you don't have cable and crave a little comfort TV from your youth, Mork and Mindy: The Third Season plunks down happily in the Rent It category.
www.kurtdahlke.com
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