NA-NO, NA-NO
KITMAN, MARVIN
On Television NA-NO NA-NO BY MARVIN KITMAN The surprise hit of the TV season is Mork and Mindy (ABC, Thursday, 8 p.m.). It is one of the few shows intelligent people are not ashamed to admit they...
...Conehead was driving-Connie says, "There is no such thing as a flying saucer...
...As Mork would say: "Oh, great remorse...
...Mork on Lifeline could consult a distinguished but boring medico about a hangnail and have his whole physical examination right on camera (Oh, deep embarrassment...
...Did anyone identify with W. C. Fields...
...Where are we from...
...This was followed by a sing-along: "See the weasel...
...Well-mannered Orkians sit on their heads...
...It is Mindy who seems to me to come from another planet...
...Indeed, likeability is the new currency in TV land...
...It also explains why Bonnie Franklin, Mackenzie Phillips and Valerie Bertinelli of One Day at a Timeare considered major comics, and why Dawber probably will be as well...
...This is a very original premise, especially considering that it was thought up by Gary Marshall and family...
...At the rate he's going, Robin Williams will probably be extinct by next summer...
...Conehead have taken the names Fred and Joyce to be less obvious on earth...
...At this point you may be asking yourself why Mork and Mindy should be seen...
...And as the earthling girl who befriends an alien, she fusses about and makes all kinds of whimpering sounds...
...No matter...
...It is one of the few shows intelligent people are not ashamed to admit they watch...
...All of these were created by a highly complicated technological process known as Marshall Moronics...
...The peppy grandmother-with her smart-aleck remarks-is similarly out of Margie...
...Funny things can happen when their cultures clash...
...You may be wondering how, out there in the distant galaxies, he was able to see and hear all the old television series and commercials...
...The Conehead family saga was retold the night of January 10, on a NBC special, The Hest of Saturday Sight Live, Part I. Coney, or Connie, complains to her parents that some of the kids at school think she is strange...
...She has to eat 50 times her weight just to stay alive...
...The only things he should keep away from are sitcoms...
...question...
...TV shows and commercials thus have a life after they are cancelled...
...Judging by his scripts, that is exactly what he is doing some nights...
...He is an unbelievably fresh talent and an authentic comedian...
...As social commentator Robert Klein once observed: "She has the metabolism of a hummingbird...
...Look at Henry Winkler, Fonzie on Happy Days, who is on his way to becoming the new David McCallum (now there's a "whatever happened to...
...Mork is living proof of this...
...The trouble with Mindy, and the majority of all sitcom stars today, is that they want people to identify with them...
...And the Robin Williams on ABC is only the tip of the iceberg...
...A good agent would yank him off the show once this season ends...
...Add to this an undistinguished supporting cast and it makes for a heavy drain on a comedian's batteries...
...Although unlike the Coneheads, Mork makes no bones about his origins and is proud of his emigre status, he too is in the process of assimilating...
...These were funny people, masters of delivery...
...What a Mr...
...Did anyone identify with Groucho Marx and his ridiculous walk or absurd facial expressions...
...Then 1 would like to see him on Meet the Press, because I never see Meet the Press anymore...
...I have seen it myself maybe 11 or 12 times already-such is my pursuit of duty and love of scholarship)-and I am now prepared to offer my balanced opinion: Loved him...
...I think I may cv en luiv c heard him one morning on the old Long John Nebel all-talk radio show on WMCA, home of UFO studies...
...But his carrying the whole series is cause for concern...
...They drink their Tang or orange juice through their fingers, which, excusably, also burp...
...is not a bad idea...
...Things could be a lot worse...
...Even toned-down, Williams is a one-man show on Mork and Mindy...
...Rodgers imitation he did on his last HBO production...
...They are trying to pass...
...He is right out of My Little Margie, one of those castrated father types regularly seen on TV in the '50s and '60s...
...TV comedy today is filled with characters who aren't funny and have nothing funny to say, so they concentrate their efforts instead on trying to be "likeable...
...WILLIAMS' situation is particularly critical because Mork and Mindy is going to burn out faster than most...
...How about Charlie McCarthy, or Fred Allen, or even Bob Hope...
...But she is absolute zilch??a clone carved out of cold mar-gerine...
...Without him, I'd rather watch a test pattern...
...In fact I'm sometimes convinced ihat he really exists...
...Margie, played by Gale Storm, was the first sitcom heroine on speed...
...The possibilities are endless...
...TV has a way of burning out original talent through overexposure...
...France," he replies...
...The sitcom is about Mork, who has moved in with Mindy in Boulder, Colorado...
...hated her...
...The program is too good...
...Even upon arrival in his egg, his mind was filled with American ideas and concepts, such as "surfs up" and "gusto...
...Peculiarities and all, I find Mork a completely believable character...
...It explains why NBC gave us Joe Namath in the Waverly Wonders...
...it reminds me much more of the Conehead family, who make occasional appearances on NBC's Saturday Night Live...
...What ABC has not explained-perhaps to keep viewers from becoming unduly frightened-is that TV signals, after they have left the set and gone through our ears and brains, ascend to the ozone and just stay there...
...Another possibility is for Mork to live with a truly average American family, like the Coneheads...
...Beldar, after all, is a lot more real than Mindy's father, being an instructor in a driving school...
...Williams has a wonderfully glib mum-bo jumbo patter that is reminiscent of the early Al Kelly...
...Well, the reason is the performance Robin Williams gives as Mork...
...Willie will be jealous but understanding, and Buddy and Nancy will develop a rivalry for Mork's affections when he falls in love with Annie (Quinn Cummings...
...she asks Beldar (Fred...
...Noway," Connie says...
...A Marshall Moronics clone was in the cards for this season, and better Mork and Mindy than "Lenny and Squiggly-" Some seasoned sitcom critics contend that M&M is a rip off of My Favorite Martian, the mid-'60s hit...
...He could read the Beverly Hills phone directory and make you laugh...
...The Coneheads, you will recall, are also from outer space-the planet Remulac, to be precise...
...The Williams we see there would, if he were a movie, be rated "R"-he is fairly dirty-while the Williams on Mork and Mindy is a dependable "G...
...True, the script calls for her to be a wimp-one of those wholesome-as-a-maraschino-cherry type girls...
...Marshall is the man responsible for Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley- the blockbusters of the mid-'70s-and numerous mutants...
...With her out of the way, Mork could come back next season with a series called "Mork and Mork," or "New Mork...
...Doug will be wise and patient...
...After listening to Poppa Conehead recount how their flying saucer landed in Lake Michigan-Mrs...
...If you don't care to have this information, exxx-cccuseme...
...Home Box Office's On Location show explores his talents much more deeply...
...The two could have weighty talks about the relative merits of Remulac as opposed to Ork...
...He takes my breath away with his timing, control, presence, gestures, and double-talk...
...Mindy-supposedly the normal one-is a typical American girl...
...In fact, Mork's first appearance was in an episode of Happy Days last season (his historic debut was rerun as a special on ABC January 15...
...We, in turn, could have little romantic interludes between Connie Conehead and Mork...
...Mind you, I'm not complaining...
...Mork on Family (ABC, Thursdays, 10 p.m...
...I have gone into so much detail for those of my readers who are culturally disadvantaged and have not kept up with Saturday Night Live...
...Today I'm going to teach you how to say 'trash,'" he told the kiddies...
...At the end of each hour he could leave, knowing the family had begun to better understand itself...
...the writers on the show might just as well be xeroxers...
...Still, familiar as Mork is with American culture, certain strong ties to his home planet prevent a wholly smooth adjustment to earth life...
...In short, for a star of a hit, it is usually all over by the end of the series, which usually means by the fifth year...
...But I don't buy that...
...The Americanization process- whereby all nice children are turned into rotten brats-has been completed Beldar terminates his birds and bees lecture, "Just do you're homework, and tell everybody your from France...
...Kate will be wise and understanding...
...The problem is that Pam Dawber plays her as a wimp...
...Not surprisingly either, for there are only so many variations possible on the theme of a fellow from outer space landing in an average American town...
...Mindy's father, played by Conrad Janis, is not much better...
...Here is how it works: A bunch of Marshall's relatives (his father, his sister Penny, his brother Tony) clone around the swimming pool until they come up with an idea, which then becomes an immediate success because it is from the Happy Days people...
...Born on the planet Ork, he came to the United States in an egg...
...If only, for instance, Wimpy-I mean Mindy-could be sent to summer camp...
...And they talk funny, using expressions like shazzbot for doo-doo...
...Put it in the microwave oven...
...Sing 'Pop Goes the Weasel.'" He did everything on that show, including an impersonation of a Russian diplomat...
...I myself have been thinking about a few paths of escape for Williams...
...One of them is an alien, and all the indicators point to Mork...
...she is clearly trying to act...
...He was a fat slob with an ugly red nose...
...and Mrs...
...It would be a tragedy if Robin Williams sank into the Orkian sunset simply because he once fell out of the sky into the company of an unimaginative set of earthlings...
...What comedy is all about, however, is laughing...
...There is a formula for the phenomenon: E= MC2, the big bomb...
...It has been in a steady decline since its second episode...
...From the fantasy shows he could move on to the real world programs...
Vol. 62 • January 1979 • No. 3
