20+ Out Of This World Facts About Mork & Mindy

1. The Show's Inspiration

As most of us already know The Mork & Mindy show is a spinoff series that followed an episode of Happy Days.

In the Happy Days

episode, an alien named Mork visits Milwaukee. But what a lot of people don't know is that the episode was actually inspired by The Dick Van Dyke

show episode called “It May Look Like a Walnut.” That show’s director, Jerry Paris eventually became the director of Happy Days

and he decided to make another successful extraterrestrial episode!The producer of Happy Days

, Garry Marshall had a son who was obsessed with the Star Wars

franchise and became obsessed with the “My Favorite Orkan” episode. The young boy eventually asked his dad to put a spaceman on TV.

2. The Original Morks

Dom Deluise was one of the few actors Happy Days

producers had lined up to play Mork. Dom and fellow actor Roger Rees had both signed up to be guests on the show.But, in the end, though, they both backed out for different reasons. Of course, their decisions to back out were great things because we ended up with Robin Williams as Mork- and we wouldn't have it any other way.Richard Lewis was also considered for the role, but he later admitted that the Williams was a better fit for the role.

3. Only One Auditon

It was Garry Marshall’s sister who discovered Robin Williams. The pair were actually in the same acting class. Robin was eventually brought in for an audition and was cast on the spot as Mork after impressing the producers!Robin Williams was reportedly the only alien to audition!During the audition Williams was told to take a seat, so he literally sat on his head in the chair! I guess aliens aren’t accustomed to the use of chairs- there's little wonder why Robin got the part!

4. An Unknown Casting

Despite Robin Williams being immediately cast as Mork, his co-star didn’t know that she had been signed onto the project. Pam Dawber was also at the beginning of her acting career and she had a contract with ABC at the time.While she starred in a pilot episode of a show called, Sister Terri

but it ended up being binned. The pilot eventually ended up being spliced with shots of Mork’s Happy Days

episode.When Dawber found out she had got a leading role on the show, she was shocked, to say the least.

“I hadn’t auditioned, I hadn’t met, and I knew nothing and who in the hell is Robin Williams?'”

5. Random Location

Typically when a show's script is being written out, the creators have a rough idea of where the show will be based in.Well, this didn’t happen with Mork & Mindy

and in fact, not a lot of thought was put into the process of choosing a setting.As the producers were writing up a description of their new show, Marshall suggested Boulder, Colorado.Why? Because that's where his niece went to school. I suppose that's a good enough reason!

6. Faking It

Because Robin Williams was such a funny guy, a lot of us think he naturally was ad-libbing his lines.A lot of people speculated that William's improvised the majority of Mork’s lines and actions and the writers would leave his lines blank. But this was far from the truth.Williams never actually improvised his own lines.According to one of the writers, David Misch said:

“We’re up until four in the morning writing Robin’s ad-libs.”

I guess he felt insulted by the suggestion that they were all from Robin Williams.

7. Heavily Censored

These days TV isn't as heavily censored as it once was.But back in the early years of TV, networks use to do a lot of censoring.Reportedly,

an episode of Mork & Mindy

was censored after a character said she was pregnant.While the word “pregnant” doesn’t seem like much of a problem, back then it implied a character was sexually active and was censored. The topic of sex was a touchy subject at the time.Instead, the line was changed to “Mork, I’m having a baby.” Let's be honest, this sounds better.

8. Visiting Mork & Mindy's House

The house crew used for the exterior shots in Mork & Mindy

was an actual house in Boulder, Colorado which was located on 1619 Pine Street. While the inside scenes were filmed at Paramount studio the iconic house itself was real. Mindy even used the real-life address on the show!Thankfully, 38 years later, the house still stands. You can actually go visit it and it's currently valued at $1.9 million! Does anyone want to buy a house?The McConnell’s Music Store was also a real place based in Boulder on Pearl Street Mall, but it's now an Athleta store.

9. A Cartoon Voice

When someone says cartoon voice, you can't help but think of Robin Williams. But in this case, we're not talking about him!Ralph James who voices Orson, the man who sent Mork to earth to observe human behaviour and has done a lot of voiceover work during his career.One of his most popular roles was the voice Mr Turtle in the Tootsie Roll Pops commercial. He also performed in Pink Panther

cartoons and Looney Tunes.

Now that's impressive.

10. Don't Tell Them

Robin Williams wasn't actually told that the show had been cancelled.The show finished in the summer of 1982, but no one directly told Robin William this.“I found out the show was cancelled by reading it in Variety.”But the funny thing is that this was the same magazine that Dawber found out she was hired as Mindy!Williams explained went on to explain:

“In Hollywood, that’s like reading your own obituary: ‘You’re dead, good luck!”

11. Was Getting Too Crazy

Because producer didn't know that the show would only last 4 seasons, they created a draft of season 5.In the final episode of season 4, Mindy and Mork were stranded in a prehistoric time after they had used a pair of time-travelling shoes.So, season 5 would have picked up from there. The script even included the pair travelling through time to meet historical figures like Ben Franklin and President Lincoln!

12. Turned Into A Cartoon

Once the show ended, a cartoon was created to bring back the show's beloved characters.The show was an hour long which was called Mork & Mindy/Laverne & Shirley/Fonz Hour.

The show ran from 1982-1983 and was a Saturday morning animated show which featured Mork and Mindy as teenagers in high school, voiced by Dawber and Williams!Mork even had a space dog which was named Doing!

13. Reunited In

The Crazy Ones

After the show was cancelled, and the cartoon didn't pan out, Robin Williams and Pam Dawber parted ways.It would take 31 years for the pair to be reunited on TV once again.Robin Williams was cast to star in a new TV show for CBS called, The Crazy Ones,

while the show only lasted one season, it was memorable for many Mork & Mindy

fans.In one episode of the show, Pam Dawber made an appearance as a love interest to her old partner’s character, Simon Roberts!Pam said it was “like slipping into an old shoe” and Williams simply replied, “Fits somewhat more loosely.”

14. An Appearance On Star Trek

If you're a fan of Star Trek, then you may have noticed Mork's spacesuit on the show. The suit made its first appearance on Star Trek: The Original Series.

It was the same red suit worn by Colonel Green in one of the final episodes of the show in 1969. The suit never left the Paramount studio, which would eventually produce both shows!Mork also used a similar greeting to Mr Spock’s salute!

15. Happy

Days

Spin-offs

We all know that Mork & Mindy

was a spin-off of Happy Days

but it wasn't the only spin-off Happy Days

saw.There were actually 7 spin-off attempts but only two were memorable, the other memorable spin-off being Laverne & Shirley.

At the end of the Mork episode of Happy Days,

the whole thing was a dream. However, it was later explained that Mork erased everyone’s memories and returned to earth in 1978.

16. A Very Different Name

We all know and love Mork & Mindy

, but it turns out the show almost had a different name.The show's creators wanted their uncasted girl to have a name that started with an M and this left a lot of possibilities available to them. Marshall came up with the name Melissa and Marlo but those names didn't really work with Mork. They eventually came up with the name Mindy which worked better in the title!

17. No Pilot

A lot of shows start off with a pilot episode, however, because the story was made with recycled material from Sister Terri

and Mork’s Happy Days’

episode, there was never an official pilot made. That fake pilot only ended up costing the studio $63, a lot less than the typical $400,000.Everyone loved Robin Williams' appearance in Happy Days

and the network saw potential in him, which is why they decided to give him his own show!Pam Dawber mentioned that this is what made the show so special.

18.

Mork & Mindy

In 3D

Since the show was about an alien living in America, it makes sense that the show's creators wanted an episode to be 3D!After three seasons on the air, Mork & Mindy

‘s ratings started to decline and the producers wanted to try a few things to get people interested in the show again- especially since it would be their last season.The show's producers decided to make Part 3 of the season 4 finale in 3D.But in the end, the episode was aired in 2D as it was already well known that there wasn't a fifth season.

19. No Padding

Pam Dawber isn't the type of woman you can push around and she made it clear that wouldn't do anything if it didn’t do anything for her character, or if it made her feel uncomfortable. So, when Garry Marshall told the actress she should wear a padded bra to “fill out her role,” she said no.However, she did feel intimidated to be acting next to the Robin Williams and admitted that she felt like she was too boring for the show.One critic told her:

“Marie Osmond clone with no comedic timing and the appeal of cold margarine.”

20. Trading Cards

Back in 1979, fans of Mork & Mindy

could get their hands on trading cards which were based on the show. The cards were made by Topps Baseball card company and they even had scenes from the show printed on them.On the back of the cards, fans could read facts about their favourite cast members!On card number 31, it read that Robin Williams favourite actor was Peter Lorre and that William's knew all the lines to the film Casablanca.

21. Name The Baby

There was a national contest to name the baby on the show, which was another attempt to get people interested in the fourth season.In the last season of the show, Mork and Mindy are married and are having a child together which hatches from an egg.Their son was played by Jonathan Winters played their son. Since Orkans aged backward, it was an appropriate choice. They let

the public decide the name of the baby, even though they had already picked the name Mearth. 

22. Paid In Clothes

Whenever someone makes a guest appearance, the actor gets paid with money. But this didn't happen for William Shatner! Shatner was brought in for one episode dressed in a bathrobe. The actor agreed to do the mini role but only if they provided him with a $2,500 suit. The executive producer, Brian Levant later said:

“That’s what we paid him. We couldn’t put him in an Enterprise uniform, so we put him in a bathrobe, holding a bottle of champagne.”

So there you have it, everything you'll ever need to know about Mork & Mindy.

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