Classic Television Thursday #028 – Mork and Mindy (1978-1982)

I’d originally planned to feature an episode of The Outer Limits this week, but that’s going to have to wait until next time, as we instead turn our focus to a more recent classic show.

Here’s what happened: A couple of days ago, while I was talking to my fourteen year old daughter, I made a reference to “Mork from Ork” which was met with nothing but a quizzical look. That’s when I realized that she had no idea what I was talking about. She had, to that point, never even heard of Mork & Mindy.

And of course, there was no reason that she would. After all, we’re talking about a show that ended its run more than 30 years ago, and even though it was a hit back in the day, and even though it did star Robin Williams, it doesn’t get much play or talk nowadays. Even when Williams passed away last year, it was only a footnote in most of his obituaries.

At the same time, we’re talking about a girl who has watched the entire runs of shows like The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Friends, along with a bunch of other classic sitcoms, so it’s not like she has any aversion to them. It was just something that she’d not ever run across. Plus, it really had never occurred to me to introduce it to her.

So at that point I immediately turned to YouTube to see if I could find a clip or two to give her an idea of what the show was like and the charm and zaniness that Robin brought to it. Amazingly, I found much more than that. There were actually playlists that contain what appear to be complete runs of all four seasons!

Unfortunately at that point we were pressed for time, so we only got to watch a short part of the pilot episode, but it was enough, I think, to assure that she (and I, for that matter, since I don’t think I’ve watched the show since it was first on) will be back to pick up where we left off and to go on through the rest from there.

So if you, like my daughter, don’t know the show, or if you’re closer to my age and have fond memories of it, well, here’s your chance to catch up with it. I’m not going to post the playlists here, since they’re very easy to find, but I will give you the pilot episodes below so you, too, can check out this definite classic sitcom.

Enjoy!