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Badgerfest t1_j600c1s wrote

To be fair to him, the premise was ridiculous.

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MrFrode t1_j62aqrh wrote

Want to know how it came about? Gary Marshal asked his 7 year old kid if he was still watching Happy Days. The kid said no and he asked why. The kid said there was no space stuff in it and he liked space stuff. The kid suggested Richie have a dream about space men.

And Mork was born

Gary Marshal interview where de talks about Mork

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sk8rlee t1_j6506nf wrote

And, from what I heard, when they were still looking for someone it was suggested that they check out a street performer who was (I think) acting like an alien. The response was 'you want me to hire a guy with a cup off the street?' and he was told 'the cup is always full'. That street performer was Robin Williams.

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DavoTB t1_j62ljd7 wrote

“Garry” was the spelling…

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MrFrode t1_j63lv7k wrote

The sheer F'in hubris, two friggen "r"s? Well not on my watch. No sir.

Sory Gary, not gonna happen.

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QuisnamSum t1_j6013v5 wrote

TIL that "Mork and Mindy" was a spin-off from "Happy days"

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LoneRangersBand OP t1_j601ah9 wrote

I'm pretty sure every 70s sitcom was a spinoff of either Happy Days or All in the Family. Or in rare cases, both.

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[deleted] t1_j607v99 wrote

[deleted]

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falconuruguay t1_j612s0e wrote

Sanford and Fonz was a great show!

So was...

The Life and Times of Grizzly Adam 12

The Love Bug Boat

Josie and the Potsiecats

Captain Caveman and the Charlie's Angles

Jack Tripper John, M.D.

Gopher and the Man

Schoolhouse Rocky!

George Jefferson of the Jungle

The Sonny and Charo Show

The Misadventures of Sheriff Columbo

The Six Million Dollar Dantana

Kotter's Landing

The Bionic Kojak

Card CPO Sharkey

The Bad News Bernstein Bears

Inch High, Private Issac the bartender

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SoggyAd1409 t1_j612vky wrote

I think it was “Jonie Loves Chocolate”

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LoneRangersBand OP t1_j614gsw wrote

Loved Isaac Hayes' soundtrack work on that show.

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DavoTB t1_j62luek wrote

“Who’s the dark chocolate lovin’ chick, that’s a sis, to our guy, Rich?”

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Double_Distribution8 t1_j612sbq wrote

Crazy to think almost all of it exists in the imagination of an imaginative autistic child with a snow globe.

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LoneRangersBand OP t1_j614f7n wrote

Tommy Westphall is responsible for all visual media and probably us.

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rilian4 t1_j60re2g wrote

All in the family had so many that they had spinoffs from the spinoffs. That show still holds the record for most spinoffs from one show.

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Plug_5 t1_j6094gr wrote

Me too and I grew up watching those shows.

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malepitt t1_j5zzu8z wrote

In his prime (1960s-80s) Byner was a real live wire in his own right: mercurial, improvisational, mimic, jokester. Importantly though, always "in on the joke." I think he would have nailed the role, filmed before a live audience, but it might have been "Byner, playing Mork." Williams was a whole new alien species of funny, he *was* Mork

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series_hybrid t1_j60ksmx wrote

I agree. Byner was good, but I don't think this was the role for him.

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Toy_Guy_in_MO t1_j602tig wrote

Wild. I just happened to see Byner on an old episode of The Carol Burnett Show last night and was wondering else he'd done since he was way before my time. I hadn't looked him up so this was a great coincidence. Thank you, Lone Ranger(sband)!

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togocann49 t1_j608k6d wrote

He had his own sketch show called bizarre (also with Bob “super Dave” Einstein)

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Toy_Guy_in_MO t1_j608wjr wrote

I saw that looking at the title link. That's pretty neat. And I probably saw him on TV when I was a little kid, since I watched some of the game shows and stuff he was on, just didn't remember him.

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BobknobSA t1_j6039px wrote

Was Mork before or after the shark jump?

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Mulchpuppy t1_j606gxf wrote

After. Same season, but separated by about four months.

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CurrentAir585 t1_j606qrr wrote

John was a great comic in his own right, but Robin was the right guy for Mork. Without Robin, that show dies a quick death instead of being the smash hit he made it.

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PM_ME_FUNFAX t1_j604qd6 wrote

I enjoy most shows from the 70s but I just couldn't ever get into Mork, as a character and a series.

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JustMe-male t1_j614or5 wrote

It wouldn’t have been the same with Byner, but I think he could have done a great job in his own right. I would have liked it anyway.

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LoneRangersBand OP t1_j61dy2e wrote

The irony is most people likely would have never known about this episode, let alone Mork, had it not been for Williams. Maybe among TV watchers or Happy Days fans, and at most a mention in some Buzzfeed listicle on 70s sitcoms cashing in on Star Wars.

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No_Dragonfly_1894 t1_j60s7ti wrote

I was such a big fan of the show as a kid...even had a Mork and Mindy lunch pail. Didn't know this!

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a__kitten t1_j696mvg wrote

Did you have the suspenders? I had what i'm pretty sure were a knock-off set of them that i loved. Fake edit: now that i think about it, were there official Mork(tm) supsenders? huh

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No_Dragonfly_1894 t1_j697kzt wrote

Yes I did! A while later I finally wore my mom down and she got me some. Someone stole them shortly after 😖

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Outrageous-Dream6105 t1_j60s7y2 wrote

I mean, it was ridiculous, but it was also a paycheck from a network and you really don’t get many of those chances in a career.

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iluomo t1_j62pcxe wrote

I didn't know that Happy Days was supposed to have Mork from Ork as a character on the show.

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IndependenceMean8774 t1_j61c61f wrote

Why bother accepting the role in the first place if you think it's ridiculous, only to back out a short time before filming? That seems more ridiculous to me than the show's premise. Reject the role outright or at least try it for a few shows before you give up.

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NTGenericus t1_j61d8db wrote

He would have been a great Mork.

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Gary_Vigoda t1_j633wn9 wrote

Bizarre was popular here in Canada. It was sort of Benny hill humour. Sort of racey. He was also good in Transylvania 6-5000.

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Remorseful_User t1_j63na7c wrote

TBF - It probably wouldn't have had a spinoff without William's brilliance.

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Jjagger63 t1_j5zzuj1 wrote

Do you mean Mork n Mindy?

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jxj24 t1_j600evr wrote

Mork was a character in a "Happy Days" episode before being spun out into a new series.

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LoneRangersBand OP t1_j6015q4 wrote

And they had to re-shoot a new ending for his original Happy Days episode for reruns, since the original ended with it all being Richie's dream. The new one added a scene where Mork erased the experience from all the Happy Days characters' minds.

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Jjagger63 t1_j61azne wrote

Oh i didnt know that. I stand corrected.

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Chasingtheimprobable t1_j604p0w wrote

Laverne & Shirley, Morn N Mindy, and I think Joanie loves Chachi all spun off from Happy Days.

Unrelated, but Fraiser is also a spinoff of Cheers

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rilian4 t1_j60ntvw wrote

There were a few more little known spinoffs (I had to look it up) also...

[edit] >Unrelated, but Fraiser is also a spinoff of Cheers

Indeed. Spinoffs in more recent times would be all the CSI shows after the original, NCIS is a spinoff of JAG and has several of its own spinoffs. Law & Order has a few, etc.

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chriswaco t1_j60m7wc wrote

and Happy Days has two parents, sort of:

  1. Love and the Happy Days on Love American Style
  2. American Graffiti (the similarities are many, including Ron Howard and Cindy Williams)
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NickelFish t1_j63r2x3 wrote

Morn was a character on Star Trek Deep Space Nine. Great line delivery, too.

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