Was Mork & Mindy a spinoff of Happy Days?
Mork & Mindy grew out of one odd Happy Days episode. Here's how a 1978 alien guest spot launched Robin Williams' hit spinoff series.
You're flipping through classic TV reruns and land on Fonzie, in his leather jacket, facing off against a fast-talking alien in a 1950s diner. If that seems like a strange scene for Happy Days, it was. It also launched a hit series. Yes, Mork & Mindy was a spinoff of Happy Days. Here's how one odd episode made Robin Williams a star.
Yes, and here's the quick answer
Mork & Mindy grew out of a single Happy Days episode. "My Favorite Orkan" aired on ABC on February 28, 1978. It was the 22nd episode of the show's fifth season and its 110th overall. In it, Robin Williams played Mork, a visitor from the planet Ork. The title nods to the 1960s sitcom My Favorite Martian.
ABC gave Mork his own show quickly. Mork & Mindy premiered on September 14, 1978, less than seven months after his first appearance. It ran on ABC until May 27, 1982.
The spinoff link is about more than one shared character. Happy Days stars appeared in the new show, Mork went back to Happy Days for a return visit, and the two series even tied in the ratings. But it all started with one strange episode about a space alien in 1950s Milwaukee.
The episode that started it
In "My Favorite Orkan," Mork lands in Milwaukee planning to take Richie Cunningham back to Ork as a human specimen. Fonzie foils the plan, and Richie stays on Earth.
The episode's ending changed over time. When it first aired, the alien visit turned out to be Richie's dream, which made sense for a show set in the 1950s. By the summer of 1978, Mork had his own series coming that fall, so the rerun got a new ending. In the new version, the stranger really was Mork. He reports to his superior, Orson, who sends him to 1978. That sets up Mork & Mindy.
The idea came from the movies. According to Dave Itzkoff's biography Robin, as cited by Wikipedia, producer Garry Marshall took his son to see Star Wars. Afterward, the boy asked for a Happy Days episode with an alien in it. Space was popular in 1977 and 1978, and Marshall went along with the idea. His son's request ended up changing TV history.
How Robin Williams got the part
Williams wasn't the first choice. According to Itzkoff's biography, as cited by Wikipedia, Roger Rees was supposed to play the alien but quit suddenly during a hard production. Other accounts name different actors who were considered or dropped out, so that part of the story isn't settled.
Sources also differ on who suggested Williams. One account says Al Molinaro, who played Al Delvecchio on Happy Days, recommended Williams, his fellow acting student, and that Penny Marshall recognized the name. Garry Marshall has also given the credit to casting director Ronny Hallin. Both versions get repeated, and neither has clearly won out.
The audition story is more consistent. When Williams was asked to take a seat, he sat on his head. He was quickly hired.
The script needed help. Anson Williams, who played Potsie, has been quoted as calling it "like the worst script in the history of Happy Days." Robin Williams improvised Mork's personality on set, and the writers rewrote the script around him. According to The Hollywood Reporter, as cited by Wikipedia, a contract for Mork & Mindy was signed four days later. That's how one guest role became a series.
From guest spot to series
Moving Mork to his own show meant moving him through time as well as space. Happy Days was set in Milwaukee in the mid-1950s and early 1960s. Mork & Mindy took place in Boulder, Colorado, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when the show was actually on the air. The shows explained the gap within the story: Mork tells Richie he's from the "future," meaning the 1970s.
The two shows stayed connected. Henry Winkler and Penny Marshall guest-starred in the Mork & Mindy pilot, so Fonzie and Laverne were part of the new show's first episode. That gave viewers a familiar way into the new series. The crossover worked in the other direction too. Mork came back to Happy Days in the sixth-season episode "Mork Returns," which aired March 6, 1979, partway through Mork & Mindy's first season.
Rise and fall
The first season was a big hit. Mork & Mindy finished third in the Nielsen ratings for 1978–79 with a 28.6 rating, tied with Happy Days. The spinoff was doing as well as the show it came from.
Awards followed. The first season earned two Primetime Emmy nominations. One was for Outstanding Comedy Series, which went to Taxi. The other was for Williams as Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, which went to Carroll O'Connor. The show won the 1979 People's Choice Award for Favorite New TV Comedy. Williams became famous fast and appeared on the covers of Time, TV Guide and People.
The ratings didn't last. The show fell to 27th in season two with a 20.2 rating, then to 49th in season three and 60th in season four. In the fourth season, the producers made big changes. Mork and Mindy got married, and comedian Jonathan Winters joined the cast as their child, Mearth. The changes didn't bring the audience back.
ABC cancelled the show late in the production of season four. The last episode, "The Mork Report," aired on May 27, 1982, and Robin Williams directed it.
The show lasted four seasons, which is a long run for a spinoff that started as a dream sequence in a 1950s sitcom. The idea came from a boy who had just seen Star Wars, and the actor was hired after sitting on his head at an audition.