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.

August 11, 2014: The Suicide of Robin Williams

August 11, 2014: Robin Williams, one of the greatest comedians and comic actors of all time, commits suicide at his home in the San Francisco suburb of Paradise Cay, California.

He had been born in Chicago on July 21, 1951, and had made his name as a standup comic in San Francisco, and also in Los Angeles, before making it big in 1978 with an appearance on Happy Days as an alien, and following it up with a spinoff sitcom, Mork & Mindy. He made some classic comedy films, and proved himself as a dramatic actor as well. Sometimes, he was able to do both in the same film: The World According to Garp, Moscow On the Hudson, Good Morning Vietnam, Dead Poets Society, Awakenings, The Birdcage, Good Will Hunting. He even played 2 Presidents: Theodore Roosevelt in the Night at the Museum films, and Dwight D. Eisenhower in The Butler.

But he suffered from depression his whole life. It's been said that all great comedy is a response to suffering. Other comedians have committed suicide, including Freddie Prinze, Richard Jeni, and, possibly, Lenny Bruce. No matter how many people they make laugh, they can't cure the sadness within themselves. It's what leads so many of them to take drugs. Unlike Prinze and Bruce, Robin was able to get clean. But it didn't stop the inner pain.

An autopsy showed that he was afflicted with both Parkinson's disease and Lewy body dementia, the latter described by his widow, Susan Schneider, in the title of an article she wrote as "The Terrorist In My Husband's Brain." I suppose it was too much for him -- or maybe he wanted to spare his family the pain of his decline, thinking it would be less painful for them if he died all at once. We'll never know if that was the right choice.

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Here's what I wrote at the time, in my original blog, the usually sports-themed Uncle Mike's Musings, and I'll let it stand as the rest of this post:

In the immortal words of Mork from Ork, "Shazbot!"

Robin Williams is dead. He was found at his home in the San Francisco Bay Area. It appears to have been a suicide, following decades of struggles with alcohol, drugs and depression. He was 63.

He was one of the funniest men alive, until he wasn't.

He didn't really have a connection to sports. Although the opening montage to Mork & Mindy did show him and Pam Dawber on the goalposts at the University of Colorado's Folsom Field.

And there was the scene from Good Will Hunting, when the characters played by Robin and Matt Damon discussed love and Game 6 of the 1975 World Series.

Then there was this riff, imagining if golf had never been invented, and then, instead of 500 years ago, an insane Scotsman were to invent it now.

In his 1st appearance as Mork, on Happy Days, he told Richie Cunningham (Ron Howard) that Ork wanted an Earthman. This being late 1950s Milwaukee, Richie was afraid Mork was going to kidnap Hank Aaron of the Braves. And Mork said, "No, we'd have to trade the whole planet for him," before saying it was going to be Richie.

That show was already a generation in the past. And Hank Aaron, thankfully, is still alive. Robin Williams is dead.

Mel Brooks and Tony Bennett were on Johnny Carson's 1st Tonight Show, 52 years ago; they're still alive. Robin Williams was on Carson's last; he's dead.

Too many good people have died this year. As much as anyone, including my father, who died a few weeks ago, Robin Williams made me laugh.

Thank you, you nut.

*

UPDATE: Since then, Hank Aaron and Tony Bennett have died. Robin's family had him cremated, and scattered his ashes over San Francisco Bay.

A 2019 episode of the YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History was advertised as George Carlin, played by "Nice" Peter Shukoff, against Richard Pryor, played by rapper Valin Zamarron, a.k.a. ZEALE. The episode turned into a "battle royale," with Gary Anthony Williams playing Bill Cosby; comedian Jackie Tohn playing Joan Rivers; and "Epic" Lloyd Ahlquist playing Robin Williams.

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August 11, 2014 was a Monday. These Major League Baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Baltimore Orioles, 11-3 at Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore. Derek Jeter, in his last season, went 1-for-4 with an RBI.

* The New York Mets beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-3 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves, 6-2 at Turner Field (now Center Parc Stadium) in Atlanta.

* The Miami Marlins beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-5 at Marlins Park (now LoanDepot Park) in Miami.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Detroit Tigers, 11-6 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Chicago Cubs, 3-1 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Oakland Athletics, 3-2 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City.

* The Tampa Bay Rays beat the Texas Rangers, 7-0 at Globe Life Park (now Choctaw Stadium) in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. How many Rays pitchers does it take to pitch a 3-hit shutout? Apparently, 4: Drew Smyly (7 2/3rds innings), Kirby Yates, Joel Peralta and Grant Balfour.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Houston Astros, 4-2 at Minute Maid Park (now Daikin Park) in Houston.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Colorado Rockies, 4-3 at Petco Park in San Diego.

* The Seattle Mariners beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 11-1 at Safeco Field (now T-Mobile Park) in Seattle.

* And the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Boston Red Sox, the Chicago White Sox, the Cincinnati Reds, the Cleveland Indians, the Los Angeles Angels, the San Francisco Giants and the Washington Nationals were not scheduled.

May 22, 1992: Johnny Carson's Last "Tonight Show"

May 22, 1992: Johnny Carson hosts The Tonight Show for the last time, after 30 years. Well, 29 years, 6 months and 21 days.

The show had begun on NBC in 1954, and Carson had hosted since 1962. His announcer and sidekick had been Ed McMahon from the start. His bandleader had been Carl "Doc" Severinsen since 1966. He started out broadcasting from NBC's headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York, and had taped from NBC's studios at Burbank, California since 1972.

He had scaled back from 90 to 60 minutes per show in 1980, and from 5 days a week to 4 and then to 3. Still, his influence, especially his ability to turn a young comedian from an unknown to a star by bringing him onto the show, was undimmed. In a special issue in 1989, celebrating the 50th Anniversary of broadcast television, People magazine named Johnny Carson the Number 1 TV personality of all time.

There were tributes and parodies. In the 1970s, DC Comics imagined The Midnight Show Starring Johnny Nevada -- the capital of Nevada is Carson City -- broadcasting from Superman's hometown of Metropolis, and they even poked fun at Johnny's propensity to go on vacation. (He did it himself: In the 1980s, noting that the President was at his ranch again, Johnny said, "Ronald Reagan spends more time in California than I do!")

In 1983, Jerry Lewis played a Carson-like figure in the film The King of Comedy, with Robert De Niro as a young comic who commits a crime in order to become a star on the show. In 2019, the film Joker had De Niro playing the Carson-like host, with Joaquin Phoenix taking the young comedian-criminal role. Both films gave the late-night show a multi-colored curtain, like Carson used.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, on Saturday Night Live, Dana Carvey played a naughtier-than-usual Carson, with Phil Hartman as an even harder-laughing, even more obsequious, McMahon.

People wondered when "The King of Late Night" would retire. Comedians who had guest-hosted for him jockeyed for position. Joan Rivers -- correctly, as it turned out -- became convinced he wasn't going to pick her, and left, getting her own late-night talk show on Fox, and it tanked. She never appeared on The Tonight Show again. Eventually, even before suggesting that he might retire, Carson anointed Jay Leno as his successor, leading David Letterman, whose show followed Tonight on NBC, to make a deal with CBS, to go head-to-head with Tonight once his NBC contract ran out in 1993.

In 1991, his Carson's son Ricky, a photographer, was killed in a car crash. At the age of 66, depressed over the loss of his son, hearing of Letterman's deal with CBS, seeing the success that The Arsenio Hall Show was having with younger viewers, and with his contract running out, he decided not to negotiate a new one, and retired.

Leading up to his last show, he showed one old clip a night, from fan balloting of his best moments. Number 3 was his 1968 "Copper Clapper Caper" with Dragnet star Jack Webb. Number 2 was his 1984 duet, impersonating Willie Nelson, with Julio Iglesias, on the song Willie and Julio then had on the charts, "To All the Girls I've Loved Before." Number 1 was the 1965 demonstration of Ed Ames, then playing Native American chief Mingo on the TV Western Daniel Boone, throwing a tomahawk at an outline of a cowboy, and having it land in an uproar-inducing position.

The night before his last show, he had his last guests. Comic actor Robin Williams congratulated Johnny on his timing: Two days before, the Dan Quayle-Murphy Brown controversy had happened. Three weeks before that was the South Central Riots in Los Angeles. Robin was his usual hopped-up self, cracking everybody up, including Johnny.

Johnny's last musical guest was Bette Midler. He had helped make her a star after her first album in 1973, and she had become a favorite of his. She sang "You Made Me Love You" while sitting next to him. And onstage, while the camera cut back and forth between her there and Johnny at his desk, both of them with tears in their eyes, she sang "One For My Baby (And One More for the Road)."

That was on Thursday night, May 21. On Friday, May 22, there were no guests. Johnny said some nice things and showed some old clips, including of long-gone legends. Among these were the last TV appearances of Judy Garland, Louis Armstrong and Jack Benny. At the close, he mentioned his children, including Ricky, and his 4th and last wife, Alexis. He thanked Doc and the band, he thanked Ed, and he thanked the fans, concluding with, "I bid you a heartfelt good night."

Johnny Carson died on January 23, 2005. He was 79 years old.

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May 22, 1992 was a Friday. Actress Anna Baryshnikov, daughter of dancers Mikhail Baryshnikov and Lisa Rinehart, was born on this day.

Football was out of season. One game was played in the NBA Playoffs: The Utah Jazz beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 97-89 at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City. Karl Malone scored 39 points.

One game was played in the Stanley Cup Playoffs: The Chicago Blackhawks beat the Edmonton Oilers, 5-1 at the Northlands Coliseum, completing a 4-game sweep of the Clarence Campbell Conference Finals. But they would be swept themselves in the Stanley Cup Finals, by the defending Champions, the Pittsburgh Penguins. This would be the Hawks' only Finals appearance between 1973 and 2010.

And these Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Milwaukee Brewers, 10-9 at Yankee Stadium. The Brewers scored 5 runs in the top of the 8th inning to tie the game. In the top of the 14th -- meaning they were still playing when Carson went on the air -- Greg Vaughn hit a home run to win the game.

Robin Yount went 0-for-2 before leaving the game due to an injury. Paul Molitor went 2-for-7. For the Yankees, Kevin Maas, Danny Tartabull and Charlie Hayes hit home runs, while Don Mattingly went 2-for-7 with 3 RBIs, and Matt Nokes went 0-for-3, but with 4 walks.

* The New York Mets lost to the San Francisco Giants, 7-6 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Anthony Young started for the Mets, and pitched well, but the bullpen blew it. This was early in a stretch where Young went 27 straight decisions without a win, including this game and several other no-decisions, many of which saw him pitch well but be betrayed by his defense or his bullpen.

* The Montreal Expos beat the Atlanta Braves, 7-1 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal.

* The Oakland Athletics beat the Boston Red Sox, 5-3 at Fenway Park in Boston. Rickey Henderson went 3-for-4 with a stolen base and 2 RBIs.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Cincinnati Reds, 8-2 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the California Angels, 5-3 at Camden Yards in Baltimore. Cal Ripken went 1-for-3 with a walk.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Minnesota Twins, 6-3 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit.

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Chicago White Sox, 6-2 at the new Comiskey Park (now Rate Field) in Chicago.

* The Houston Astros beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 3-1 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.

* The Texas Rangers beat the Kansas City Royals, 10-7 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. George Brett went 0-for-4.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Chicago Cubs, 2-0 at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego. Andy Benes pitched a 3-hit shutout, outpitching Greg Maddux. Tony Gwynn was injured, and did not play.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 6-4 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Barry Bonds went 2-for-4 with a walk and an RBI.

* And the Seattle Mariners beat the Cleveland Indians, 2-1 at the Kingdome in Seattle. Randy Johnson outpitched Scott Scudder. Ken Griffey Jr. went 1-for-4.

January 17, 1929: Popeye Debuts

January 17, 1929: Popeye the Sailor Man debuts, in the King Features comic strip Thimble Theatre. He was drawn by Elzie Segar.

The sailor, with his perpetual wink, corncob pipe, tiny biceps but huge forearms, proved to be so popular that, in 1933, Max Fleischer made cartoon shorts about him. Borrowed from the comic strips would be his penchant for eating spinach, which gave him super strength; his skinny girlfriend, Olive Oyl; his infant ward, Swee'Pea; and Bluto (sometimes named "Brutus"), the big, bearded rival of Popeye for Olive's affections.

As it turns out, spinach does little for building muscle. It is, however, good for the eyes, making me wonder why Popeye always had one eye closed. And Popeye never married Olive Oyl, so, given the mores of the time, like Batman with his sidekick Robin, Swee'Pea was always his "ward," never his "son," natural or adopted.

Only once has the character been filmed in live-action, in 1980, directed by Robert Altman, starring Robin Williams, with Shelley Duvall as Olive Oyl. The film tanked, and no live version of Popeye has been attempted since. Nevertheless, the character remains popular, still appearing in comic strips and cartoons.

In 1982, a Popeye game appeared in video arcades: The character can punch things thrown at him to gain points, but, if he doesn't punch them, and gets hit by them, he "loses a life." He can only punch Bluto after punching, and thus "eating," a can of spinach. In 1987, the sitcom Full House premiered on ABC, and Dave Coulier played Joey Gladstone, a comedian whose impressions included Popeye: "Well, blow me down! Uck uck uck uck!"

*

January 17, 1929 was a Thursday. Baseball and football were out of season. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. There were 4 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 1-0 at Madison Square Garden. Though relatively new then, this was the building that would eventually be known as "The Old Garden," replaced by "The New Garden" in 1968.

* The New York Americans played the Montreal Maroons to a tie, 0-0 at the Montreal Forum. The Maroons folded in 1938; the Amerks, in 1942.

* The Montreal Canadiens played the Toronto Maple Leafs to a tie, 1-1 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* And the Boston Bruins played the Detroit Cougars to a tie, 1-1 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit. The Cougars became the Detroit Falcons in 1930, and the Detroit Red Wings in 1932.

This was a big day in hockey for another reason, although it wouldn't be known for many years: Jacques Plante was born, and would go on to become a Hall of Fame goaltender for the Canadiens, as well as the 1st goalie to regularly wear a mask.