Scott Kimball
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Mork & Mindy - The Complete First Season
Studio: Paramount
Year: 1978-1979
Rated: NR
Length: 10 hours, 35 minutes
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audio: Dolby Digital English Mono
Closed Captioned in English
Special Features: None
SRP: $30.00 USD
Release Date: September 7, 2004
In 1978, a giant egg dropped out of the sky and landed in Boulder, Colorado. From it hatched an odd man with with a manic personality, wearing a red and silver space suit. His name was Mork (Robin Williams). A misfit on his home world of Ork, he was sent to Earth with an assignment: observe the customs of Earthlings and report back to his Orkan leader, Orson.
Mork is befriended by a lovely young record store clerk named Mindy (Pam Dawber), who takes him in and lets him stay in the attic above her apartment.
This is a fish really out of water story, as Mork tries to fit in with humanity, week after week.
I must say that, as a ten year old in 1978, I was a huge fan of this show. I made it a point to watch it every week, and would howl with laughter at Robin Williams’ antics. Somehow, Mork & Mindy doesn’t have the same effect on me as it did back then. Either my sense of humor has grown more sophisticated, or the show is simply too dated to be funny anymore. I think it’s more of the former than the latter. Sure, I chuckle at it now and then, but I’ve lost the need for knee-slapping guffaws.
In the interest of full disclosure, I viewed the following episodes for this review:
The Mork & Mindy Special
Mork Moves In
To Tell the Truth
Mork’s Mixed Emotions
Video
Mork & Mindy is in its original aspect ratio of 1.33:1.
The picture is surprisingly sharp, for the most part. There are a few scenes that seem a bit soft and grainy, but it seems a fault of the original photography and not of the transfer. There are no obvious signs of sharpening or compression artifacts.
Colors are dead on and deeply saturated. Contrast is excellent, blacks are strong while maintaining detail in the shadows. Whites are bright, without blowing out the highlights.
Blemishes on the prints are surprisingly few and far between, given the age of the show, at least on the episodes that I viewed.
Audio
The episodes include the original monaural track. There’s not a lot of low end, here, but the dialog is very clear. Music doesn’t sound bad, either. The sound seems to be free of hiss or other artifacts of age. I wouldn’t expect any better from source recordings of this age.
Final Thoughts
There are no special features in this set - only the original 24 episodes from the original season. The audio / video quality in this set is very nice, so if you’re a fan and a child at heart, $1.25 per episode would be money well spent.
