I'm still super proud of this piece I did back in the day, where I interviewed a bunch of the writers of Mork and Mindy, plus the guy who directed most of the episodes: gizmodo.com/everything-y... - ThreadSky

charliejane.bsky.social • 144 days ago

I'm still super proud of this piece I did back in the day, where I interviewed a bunch of the writers of Mork and Mindy, plus the guy who directed most of the episodes:

https://gizmodo.com/everything-you-always-wanted-to-know-about-the-making-o-1745756292

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bepisjones.bsky.social•29 days ago

God, this just perfectly sums up how goddamn unfairly the media world treated Robin Williams. One of the most legendarily adaptable and tuned-in comedians who was clearly entirely prepared for the 21st century's wave of post-nihilistic absurdism was instead forced to be "haha baby alien" until death

bepisjones.bsky.social•29 days ago

Like, knowing in retrospect that he suffered from painful disability for most of his life, was a huge anime/gamer nerd to the point he named his (awesome) daughter Zelda, tried to do films that presented himself as creepy or violent to escape the Mork image, and LOATHED that he ruined VA's lives...

bepisjones.bsky.social•29 days ago

It's just so angering to me that people see him as either "Mork" when he was an edgy adult humorist, or "the Genie," when he was desperate to not be billed as the first celebrity voice actor (knowing that "celebrity voice actor" would become the ONLY voice actor acceptable and ruin the VA business!)

bepisjones.bsky.social•29 days ago

I just really, really, really love this guy. I know he was not in fact Jewish, but he had amazing Jew energy. I know he was not a millennial, but he had total millennial energy. I don't know if he was queer, but he had absolute queer energy.

As for BDE, uh, in all senses yeah that actually is true.

papergreat.bsky.social•29 days ago

Just did a rewatch of Popeye and, while I understand why it didn't further it stardom, between it and Moscow on the Hudson more folks should have realized the depths of his talents early on.

bepisjones.bsky.social•29 days ago

For me what shows his depth was stuff like The Final Cut and One Hour Photo. He was an ACTOR. Not just a funny person who was good at dumb jokes, a man who could be any individual he needed to embody, and a brilliant controller of his face and body. The movies had problems, but they were not him.

papergreat.bsky.social•28 days ago

There's a scene between Philip Seymour Hoffman and Robin Williams in the mostly execrable Patch Adams where you see them raising each other's game, and it makes you wish we could have gotten a well-written drama featuring those two.

princejvstin.com•29 days ago

the only complete Mork and Mindy episode I actually remember well was when Mork made a smart AI to control the house, and of course this does not go well at all...

But I do remember his manic energy, and the "black box" conversations and the weird Jonathan Winters thing.

fourmoyle.bsky.social•29 days ago

📌

ahmadchildress.bsky.social•29 days ago

Shazbot.

lanna.bsky.social•144 days ago

I remember this! But not at the time, I think, a year or so later, and the gifs made me sick because of my vertigo. Still do, so I got about halfway through this time ☹️ but hey better than the last

charliejane.bsky.social•144 days ago

You can always copy/paste the text into a notes app or something so you can read it without seeing the gifs

lanna.bsky.social•144 days ago

I'd probably need someone else to do it for me, but yeah, I'd like to one day finish it. I thought "Why didn't I just I Reading View last time?" Oh cuz the ads weren't the only thing always moving 😅

rakdaddy.bsky.social•144 days ago

I read the first paragraph, and the theme song started playing in my head.

thepeterbriggs.bsky.social•29 days ago

My favorite piece of Mork And Mindy trivia, is that Mork's uniform was made from a red jumpsuit previously worn in "Star Trek" ("The Savage Curtain", S03E22) by Phillip Pine (playing "General Green").

surferboypizza.bsky.social•29 days ago

!!!!! Wow! I was a big fan from Robin Williams first appearance on Happy Days & never knew this! 🤙🏼☮️🏄‍♂️

blackhole.bsky.social•29 days ago

The helmet looks like Michael Ansara’s in The Outer Limits’ episode ‘Soldier’.

thepeterbriggs.bsky.social•29 days ago

Good catch!

surferboypizza.bsky.social•29 days ago

Great article — thank you! My mom sewed a Mork-suit for me the very first Halloween after the character debuted on “Happy Days.” My 6th grade Halloween was the best! Thank you, again, for writing this! 🤙🏼☮️🏄‍♂️

camposova.bsky.social•28 days ago

It's in my storage,but somewhere there is a photoshoot of me, age 4 in 1979 wearing a plaid shirt and a puffy Colorado ready vest because I wanted to look like Mindy more than anything.

berkeleyfarm.bsky.social•28 days ago

That's sweet!

I remember even some of the teachers were saying "nanoo nanoo" the day after the first episode. Hit like a ton of bricks!

cabridges.bsky.social•29 days ago

I missed this when it came out but man, this brings back a lot and abate a lot of questions. I saw the shows when they came out and saw the brilliance and the decline, and had no idea why it seemed like they made all the wrong changes.

charliejane.bsky.social•29 days ago

It's the classic example of killing the golden goose

cabridges.bsky.social•29 days ago

Not “abate.” “Answered.” I’m not sure autocorrect and I speak the same language.

suzanneforbes.bsky.social•29 days ago

ok I missed this at the time and now I am truly excited to read it!

edhind.bsky.social•29 days ago

This is a great piece. Anyone who loved the show, or just sitcoms in general, will find it fascinating.

khadijah.bsky.social•29 days ago

📌

khadijah.bsky.social•29 days ago

Must pin must read in morning nanunanu

rosserford.bsky.social•29 days ago

Oh I needed this!

badbeard.bsky.social•144 days ago

Paging @antihippy.bsky.social

antihippy.bsky.social•144 days ago

Oh I'm reading that

badbeard.bsky.social•144 days ago

daveawl.bsky.social•29 days ago

Rewatching this show was part of my comfort viewing during the pandemic and I really enjoyed that time-travel trip.

mrsftv.bsky.social•29 days ago

Just saw this from the recent repost. Lots of stuff I never knew. I did watch the HBO special and it was one of the first things I got videotaped by a friend who had just bought a VCR. I did see him do a live show shortly after the series ended and he seemed to be glad it was over.

mrsftv.bsky.social•29 days ago

Also, during the stage show one of the fans was dressed as Mork and Robin pointed him out and told him something like "Sorry kid, you're out of a job."

fizzixrat.bsky.social•29 days ago

Nice.

I used to buy my comics one block over from the house they shot for the exteriors of Mindy’s house. (That was the original Mile High Comics store in Boulder.)

kentbrew.bsky.social•28 days ago

Wait ... wait ... we're saying Roger Rees was originally cast as Mork from Ork? 🤩 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Rees

iamjoseph.bsky.social•144 days ago

It's good!

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