September 14, 1978: “Mork & Mindy” Premieres

September 14, 1978: Mork & Mindy premieres on ABC. Robin Williams had already debuted the character of Mork From Ork on an episode of Happy Days, but as something of a villain. But the alien -- or, rather, Robin -- caught the public's imagination, so he was brought back. From here on out, Mork was, however silly, a hero.

He'd better be, because Mindy was played by Pam Dawber, who later married Mark Harmon, a.k.a. Leroy Jethro Gibbs of NCIS.

If you're a Star Trek fan, Mork's red Ork uniform may look familiar. It was worn by Philip Pine as the Excalbian simulation of 21st Century Earth tyrant Colonel Green in the episode "The Savage Curtain." Paramount Television had a habit of recycling costumes and equipment, to save money.

Mork arrives on Earth in an egg-shaped spacecraft. He has been assigned to observe human behavior by Orson, his mostly unseen and long-suffering superior, voiced by Ralph James, but with references to him being fat, clearly a swipe at Orson Welles. Orson has sent Mork to get him off Ork, where humor is not permitted.

Landing in Boulder, Colorado -- one of the few places in America where Mork wouldn't be considered especially weird -- he encounters Mindy McConnell. When Mindy notices his unconventional behavior, she asks who he really is, and he innocently tells her the truth. She promises to keep his identity a secret, and allows him to move into her attic.

Mindy's father, Fred (Conrad Janis), owns a music store, where Mindy and Fred's mother, Cora (Elizabeth Kerr) also work. In a twist that would later be used on Margaret Cho's sitcom All-American Girl, the grandparent is more in touch with current trends than the happily old-school parent.

Fred objects to his daughter living with a man, particularly one as bizarre as Mork. But Cora approves of Mork and the living arrangement. Mindy and Cora work at Fred's music store. Mork and Mindy try to hide the truth that Mork is an alien, but Fred and Cora eventually find out, and accept it in the vein of "That explains everything." Also seen occasionally are Mindy's snooty old high school friend, Susan (Morgan Fairchild), and the possibly insane Exidor (Robert Donner).

Mork's greeting is "Nanu-nanu," and his handshake is basically the Vulcan salute from Star Trek, sideways. When he needs to use a profanity, he says, "Shazbot!" As with Star Trek's Spock, much of the show is about Mork watching humans and learning from them, but while Spock's reactions, and others' reactions to him, were occasionally funny, the humor was laid on very thick with Mork. It worked: The ratings were good.

In Season 2, the show dropped Mindy's father and grandmother, and added Tom Poston and grumpy neighbor Mr. Bickley, and Jim Staahl as Mindy's cousin, Nelson Flavor, who ran for City Council and lost. The goose that laid the golden egg was wounded: The ratings never recovered, not even in Season 3, when the relatives were brought back and the new friends were reduced to minor characters.

So the producers got desperate, and got Mork and Mindy married at the start of Season 4. This threw in a quirk: Fred said, "You'll be Mrs. Mindy... Mork doesn't have a last name!" It's later revealed that he took Mindy's last name, and became "Mork McConnell." And then Mork became a mother, laying a giant egg (Don't aske me: I don't know, and I don't want to know); and, when it hatched, it having already been established that Orkans aged backward, out came an old man acting like a baby. Of course, the man cast as the baby -- whom Mork named "Mearth," calling it a combination of "Mork," "Mindy," "Ork" and "Earth" -- was Robin Williams' great comedic inspiration, Jonathan Winters. As has so often been the case, before and since, a marriage and a baby not only did not save a show, it doomed the show.

The Season 4 finale, a three-parter, showed an alien villain named Kalnik, played by future Murphy Brown castmember Joe Regalbuto, pursuing Mork in order to kill him. Seeking protection, Mork publicly "comes out" as an alien. It doesn't help, and, in desperation, Mork and Mindy time-travel to hide from Kalnik. The show was canceled, thus ending on a "permanent cliffhanger."

Robin Williams became one of the biggest stars in Hollywood, and made millions of people laugh. With Billy Crystal and Whoopi Goldberg, he hosted the Comic Relief TV specials to raise money for aiding homeless people. He made Tonight Show host Johnny Carson laugh so hard that Carson made him the last comedian he invited, on his last full show on May 21, 1992.

Williams had been to the Julliard performing-arts school in New York, where he became close friends with future Superman actor Christopher Reeve. When Reeve was paralyzed in 1994, he credited Williams showing up at the hospital and making him laugh with helping him cope.

The one person he couldn't seem to bring joy to was himself. He struggled with depression, and when he was diagnosed with Lewy body dementia in 2014, he couldn't handle it, and committed suicide. His widow, Susan Schneider, wrote an article about his condition, titled "The Terrorist In My Husband's Brain."

Ralph James died in 1992, Elizabeth Kerr in 2000, Robert Donner in 2006, Tom Poston in 2007, Jonathan Winters in 2013, and Conrad Janis in 2022. As of September 14, 2022, Pam Dawber, Morgan Fairchild, Jim Staahl and Joe Regalbuto are still alive.

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September 14, 1978 was a Thursday. Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida, an ill-fated candidate for the Republican nomination for President in 2024, was born.

These Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Detroit Tigers, 4-2 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Graig Nettles hit 2 home runs, and Reggie Jackson went 1-for-4, in support of Ed Figueroa. It was his 15th win of the season, on the way to becoming the 1st, and still the only, Puerto Rican pitcher to win 20 games in a season.

* The New York Mets beat the Montreal Expos, 7-6 at Shea Stadium. Ed Kranepool hit a pinch-hit 3-run home run.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Chicago Cubs, 11-5 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Mike Schmidt went 2-for-2 with 2 walks.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 7-4 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. Willie Stargell went 3-for-4 with 2 RBIs. Lou Brock did not play.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Boston Red Sox, 4-3 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Carl Yastrzemski went 1-for-4.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Baltimore Orioles, 4-3 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Robin Yount went 2-for-3 with a home run, a walk and 2 RBIs. Rookie Paul Molitor did not play. Eddie Murray went 0-for-3 with a walk.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Oakland Athletics, 5-1 at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City. George Brett went 1-for-4 with a walk and an RBI.

* The California Angels beat the Texas Rangers, 16-1 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. The Angels scored 13 runs in the top of the 9th inning. Lyman Bostock, Brian Downing and Rick Miller each had 3 RBIs. Just 10 days later, Bostock was shot and killed in a case of mistaken identity.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Cincinnati Reds, 8-1 at San Diego Stadium (later renamed Jack Murphy Stadium and Qualcomm Stadium). Dave Winfield went 3-for-4. Pete Rose went 2-for-4. Johnny Bench went 1-for-4.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Houston Astros, 2-1 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the San Francisco Giants, 4-1 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Jim Bouton was the winning pitcher for the Braves. It was his 1st win in 8 years, completing a remarkable comeback. I have a separate entry for that event. Willie McCovey did not play.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Cincinnati Reds, 8-1 at San Diego Stadium (later renamed Jack Murphy Stadium and Qualcomm Stadium). Dave Winfield went 3-for-4. Johnny Bench went 1-for-4. Pete Rose? He went 2-for-4, and probably didn't notice that Bouton was pitching that night.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Houston Astros, 2-1 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Seattle Mariners, 6-5 at the Kingdome in Seattle.

* And the Minnesota Twins and the Toronto Blue Jays were not scheduled.