DVD Review: Mork & Mindy - The Third Season

Mork & Mindy was an instant hit. The premise of the show was pretty straight forward: set in contemporary America, instead of the mid-fifties setting of Happy Days, Mork's wacky sense of humor had made him a misfit on his own planet; His shoot-from-the-hip style had led him to poke fun at his people's leader, Orson. Hoping to understand such a foreign concept, the humorless Orkans sent Mork off to Earth to study humans and learn more about their crazy customs and traditions. Orkans had been studying humans from afar for years but they hoped having one of their own among Earthlings might answer many of their questions once and for all. Mork arrived in Boulder, Colorado via a human-sized eggshell. There he met a pretty girl named Mindy McConnell (Pam Dawber), who worked in a music store owned by her father, Frederick (Conrad Janis).

The comic strength of Mork & Mindy was in having him look normal but react strangely in almost every situation possible. He took every human custom and turned its on ear: wearing a suit backwards, sitting in a chair upside down and drinking with his finger. Of course, everyone around Mork thought he was a harmless cook. Mindy, knowing Mork's true alien origins tried her best to school him in the proper way to act. Given the comic timing of Robin Williams, this was dependably funny stuff.

Unfortunately, during season two the shows producers got away from the comic stunts that made Mork so lovable and axed both Mindy's father and her cool, sassy grandmother Cora (Elizabeth Kerr) from the series, opting instead for really weird gimmicks that just didn't seem necessary. Viewers were introduced to Mork & Mindy's crotchety old neighbor Mr. Bickley and the sackcloth-and-ashes street prophet Exidor (Robert Donner), who got way to much screen time. Season Two was very uneven and the show fell from number three to twenty-four in the Neilsen ratings.

Going into season three with ratings dropping, Mork & Mindy producers returned to the physical comedy/"human vs. alien" traditions that made the show a success in the first place. The second season's hour-long premiere was aptly titled, "Putting the Ork Back in Mork, Parts 1 & 2," as it could be Mork's last day on Earth when an ancient Orkan elder--who looks like a ten-year-old boy--arrives with orders that Mork must return to Ork for "forecycling" because he had picked up too many Earthly ways. This seemed to be the producers trying to bring the show back to its original premise. Mork wasn't going to get too Earthly; he had to stay a good deal Orkan for the whole thing to work. Mindy's father and grandmother Cora were also brought back for season three which helped rejuvenate the shows comedy.

Some of the best episodes of Mork & Mindy: The Third Season are: "Mork's New Look," when Mork decides a facelift might be just what he needs, in "Mork Meets Robin Williams," it's funny to watch Robin Williams play off himself. Episodes like this make me remember how great his comedic timing truly was, before he got mired in bad film roles. In "Old Muggable Mork," when Cora gets mugged she and Mork devise a plan to get even with the thief. It's in episodes like these that Mork & Mindy got back to the fairly mindless humor that made the show a success. However, Mork never recaptured some of the 'alien' personality he had during the shows first season and the show suffered for it.

Mork & Mindy: The Third Season contains all of the seasons 21 episodes. The DVD is presented in full screen format and the audio is Dolby Digital English mono 2.0 and the picture is crisp and clear. Unfortunately, Mork & Mindy: The Third Season contains no special features.