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| "A Mommy for Morky" | |
|---|---|
| Season 1, Episode #10 (#10) in series (95 episodes) | |
 Using his Orkan age machine, Mork reverts to a 3 year old, causing havoc for Mindy who is in the midst of a major decision regarding marriage and motherhood in "A Mommy for Morky" in Season 1 (ep.#10). | |
| "Mork & Mindy" episode | |
| Guest Star(s): | Barry Van Dyke Susan Lawrence |
| Network: | ABC-TV |
| Production code: | 110 (1-10) |
| Writer(s) | Tom Tenowich |
| Director | Howard Storm |
| Original airdate | November 16, 1978 |
IMDB 
|
A Mommy for Morky |
| Episode chronology | |
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| "Mork the Gullible" | "Mork's Greatest Hits" |
| List of Mork & Mindy seasons/episodes | |
A Mommy for Morky was the Mork and Mindy episode from Season 1, also the 10th overall aired in the series. Written by Tom Tenowich, the episode, directed by Howard Storm, was shot on October 13th, 1978 and premiered on ABC-TV on November 16, 1978.
Synopsis[]
Mindy reconnects with her ex-fiancé Dan, who having previously had cold feet, is now intent on marrying and starting a family with her. This unsettles Mork, who also has family matters on his mind after an encounter with the heavily pregnant Sally, leaves him wondering what it would be like to have a mother.
Plot[]
Having already had lunch at a Danish restaurant with him, back at Mindy's Apartment, she is talking with Dan, her ex-fiancé who previously broke their engagement on the grounds he wasn't ready to settle down. Accepting her jibes as earned, he explains to her that his perspective on marriage and especially having a family have completely altered in the intervening period. And he confesses to now being more interested in 'rice' than 'wild oats'. Inviting her out to lunch again the next day, they share a fairly intense kiss at the door before he leaves. As soon as he's gone Mork swings down from the attic wanting to know how her mating went, which she quickly and adamantly corrects to 'dating'. Telling him it went very well and explaining how at one point she and Dan had been pretty serious. Mork takes that as a cue to cheer her up, and grabs her hand to bring her up with him into the attic to show her what he's done with his room.
To go along with his trapeze bed, the place has posters upside down on the wall for him to look at while he's hanging upside down, and a standard lamp sticking out of the wall so he can read in bed. Complimenting him on the job he's done, she goes to sit on the coffee table and sets something off beneath her. Looking down she sees what appears to be a calculator, which Mork informs her is actually an Orkan Age Machine, a machine designed to alter Orkan brain waves so they can achieve any age they want, and it helps them relax. Telling her to give it a go, Mindy points it at him and turns him first into a cootie hating child, and then into a demanding teen who wants the keys to the 'Egg'. Her third attempt brings him right back to an early tribes man version of himself, which surprises even him.
Mork, fascinated by Sally's baby bump
Three weeks have passed when we see Dan and Mindy enter the Music Store, with Dan already making a fresh date for yet another new restaurant with her. As he leaves, Mindy's heavily pregnant friend Sally enters looking for a record. Mindy tells her she looks great, and Sally tells her it's the baby, and she should try motherhood sometime. Mindy replies maybe she will, sometime, she likes kids but doesn't think she's ready to be a mother yet. As they're talking Mork enters and is fascinated by the pregnant Susan and the fact there's a baby growing inside her. When she leaves Mindy tells Mork she envies Sally really knowing what she wants, while Mork says he envies her baby. because it has something he never had, a Mother.
That night, Mindy returns with Dan, and shares another hot 'n heavy kiss with him. She does not see Mork in the kitchen, nor how much this bothers him. Surprised at finding him up, he tells her there is something on his mind, and he couldn't sleep. He has prepared a tub full of hot water to soak in. As she's hanging up her coat she agrees that's what she always does, only to turn around and see Mork shove his head in the tub. Rapidly pulling him out, she gets him on the couch to ask him what's bothering him. He tells her that ever since he met Sally he's had second thoughts about how he was raised, which till now he had thought the best possible way. When she asks how he was raised, he tells her it was by a computer, Nanny-Vac 30. All the 8,000 kids in their warehouse used to just call her Nanny. But after seeing Sally he feels that he missed out on something, Mindy agrees, telling him it was love. When he asks her if she wants to be a mother, she tells him she didn't, but now she think she might. When he happily tells her he'll help, she takes the opportunity to talk to him about Dan...telling him that he's asked her to marry him (again). On edge, Mork asks if she said yes, and is vastly relieved and happy when she says no. But falls into a funk when she tells him she think she's going to. Telling her he is very happy for her, she's alarmed when he shoves his head back in the tub.
Up in his attic, a little more time has passed, and Mindy has gone to speak with Mork. She is on the cusp of accepting Dan's proposal, but feels like she has bitten off more than she can chew. She's worried because she just doesn't know what it would be like to have a child. He in turn is sad because he doesn't know what it would be like to have a mother. When she smiles and tells him at least she has a way of finding out, a light goes on behind Mork's eyes and he jumps across the room, grabbing his Age Machine, telling her they both have a way they can find out. Setting it so he'll regress to 3years of age, for ten minutes. Before she can say anything, he's regressed himself, and launches himself on her with a cry of 'Mama!' wrestling her to the ground, wanting to do it again, showing her his bellybutton and wanting to see hers, she already decides enough is enough, especially with Dan about to arrive any minute, and tries to get the Age Machine off him, only for him to shove it down the front of his trousers.
Naturally Dan chooses that moment to ring the doorbell. Mindy tries to get Mork to take a nap, but 'Morky' isn't tired and is determined to stay up all night and drive 'Mommy' shazbot. She promises him if he takes a nap she'll make him his favourite treat. A Bolgona Sundae. Which he is happy about until he gets distracted by her pearl necklace as 'nice toys'. Giving it to him to distract him, on a promise he'll be quiet, she goes downstairs to answer the door to Dan. Grabbing her coat she goes out the door as Dan comes in, and he asks her what the rush is, as the movie doesn't start for an hour. With little choice, she goes back in, and Dan promptly presents her with a teddy bear, which she assumes at first is for her, until he tells her it's for their 'first born'.
A little unsettled, Mindy tells him she feels that's premature she hasn't even made her mind up yet, to which he replies with a little too much confidence that, she will. While she's distracted, Dan hears 'Morky' singing to himself in Orkan upstairs, and brings it to her notice. She tries to explain it away as squirrels. Dan then proceeds to tell her that when they get married it will be so great...that he can hardly wait for the pitter patter of tiny feet. Hearing more noises, Dan asks her if she's sure they're alone, and she 'suddenly remembers' there's a plumber in the attic. At which point her pearls start to roll down the attic stairs. Pretending they were stuck in the pipes 'he' was working on, Mindy runs up to the attic to speak to the 'plumber', but once up there can't see Mork anywhere...until he jumps out of the storage trunk. Being completely obstreperous with her, spitting her remaining pearls at her, she has her hands full trying to handle him, she manages to get him to be quiet by letting him play dress up.
Downstairs, Dan has picked up the remaining pearls for her, and somewhat patronizingly warns her that when they have kids she can't leave things like that lying around as they'll put them in their mouths. He then proceeds to horrify her by telling her, completely earnestly, that he wants lots of kids...10 in fact. He tries to convince her they are a joy to have around, when 'Morky's wail comes from above. She covers, saying the plumber brought his kid with him, and runs back up into the attic. There she finds a distraught Mork in tears, her Moose Head 'Moo Moo' having 'bitten', she berates Moo Moo for him and soothes away his tears, blowing his nose. She promises she will always be around to protect and care for him, until he's big enough to take care of himself, which checking her watch should be in about a minute. She tells him she has to go back downstairs if he's alright, and he tells her he's a big boy. Finally getting Dan out the door, she turns out the lights. The still childlike Morky swings down looking for her, and finds the place empty and in darkness, hearing a car start he runs to the window and bursts into tears again seeing her leaving with Dan. In mid wail for his Mommy, he turns back to his own age, and watches Mindy go off sadly, for entirely different reasons.
A little while later, Mindy and Dan return, and make a very different and quiet goodbye at the door. Thoughtful, Mindy turns and starts to smile when she sees Mork upside down asleep on the couch the TV going. Turning off the TV she takes off her coat and covers him with it, which wakes him. Groggy he asks her how the movie was, and she tells him they didn't go. They just talked she says, or rather Dan talked and she listened, before telling him she wasn't going to marry him. Mork responding with a not overly convincing 'bummer', and suggests she'll just have to rent babies instead. That, she tells him, was just the point. Dan just kept talking about babies, and never about them. He wanted a family more than a wife. And she wants to be a couple before she's a group.
Going to the kitchen for some milk together, he asks her if his reverting to childhood influenced her decision, and she admits, laughing, that it did show her how hard it was to be a mother. He tells her it's pretty tough to be a kid too, but she made it easy, and that he thinks she's going to make a terrific mother. Deeply touched, she hugs him and they make a toast to motherhood, and chickens with lips.
The episode concludes with Morks report to Orson, this time hanging upside down from his new bed. He reports on the phenomenon of mothers, and Orson tells him 80 bleams previously, they tried that as part of a nostalgia craze, but disagrees with Mork that the old ways are the best, and Orkan ways are far more efficient. Mork asks him about his childhood, being held, cuddled, and Orson recalls that the computer did all that. Mork explains that on Earth a mother does all that, and far far more, for her entire life. And she does it without being paid, not because her work is worthless but because it's priceless. Before he goes he asks if Orson can tell him a bedtime story, but Orson admits he doesn't know any.
Trivia[]
Orkan 'Facts'[]
- It was not established that Orkans age backwards until Season 3.
- Children on Ork when they are first hatched, are reared in vast numbers in warehouses by computerized machines, in Mork's case Nanny-Vac 30. Later information (after it's established Orkans age backwards) indicates they then move to the equivalent of retirement homes before they emerge from senility.
- Orkans have Age Machines designed to alter Orkan brain waves so they can achieve any age they want, even regressing them to a primitive state and it helps them relax. Mork's Age machine which would come into play again during Season 1 in Old Fears and again in In Mork We Trust. The full abilities of the age machine is never quite established, as in this episode and In Mork We Trust they appear to change only mental age, yet in Old Fears it seems capable of also aging an Orkan physically too.
General[]
- Mork, when regressed to childhood, clearly references and deliberately shows Mindy his belly button. The first of several times it was shown, despite it being claimed in Season 3 that he had no belly button prior to laying Mearth's egg.
- A clip of Mork putting on his fireman's helmet was used in the show's opening credits sequence.
- A still from this episode appears in The Mork Book of Orkian Fun.
- Mindy's engagement to Dan must've occurred sometime in the three years since she finished High School, given she was said to be 21 at this point, and may have been a contributory reason as to why she dropped out of College the first time around.
- Another step in Mork's emotional 'evolution' as he exhibits unhappiness/proto jealousy at being overlooked in Mindy's favor for Dan.
- When Mork is a 'teen' in the attic with Mindy, William's dialogue has been re-dubbed and the new words clearly don't match what he originally said.
Pop Culture[]
- Dan, Mindy's ex, and wanna be again, fiancé, is played by Barry Van Dyke, the son of TV and Movie Legend Dick Van Dyke. Barry Van Dyke would go on to play Lt. Dillon in Galactica 1980 the short run spin off of Battlestar Galactica in which he would play the best friend of the now grown 'Boxy'. The original child version of Boxy, Noah Hathaway would himself appear in Season 2's Little Orphan Morkie
- The posters on Mork's wall are of Star Wars (in the days before it was A New Hope) and Close Encounters of the Third Kind both of which had come out in 1977, and played a part in the creation of Mork as a character.
- Mork references the cult show Fantasy Island and does a quick impersonation of Hervé Villechaize ' who played Tattoo in the show.
Quotes[]
- Cora: *to Sally* Have you put in a request for a boy or a girl?
- Fred: Well Cora what difference does it make? With a mother like Sally that baby is going to be beautiful either way.
- Sally: Well what a lovely thing to say! Just for that if its a boy I'm going to name him after you.
- Cora: Fascinating! I a boy named Weiner!
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- Mork: Do you want to have a baby someday?
- Mindy: Well, you know, I didn't think I did but...I think I might, yeah.
- Mork: *shifts close to her* How 'bout tomorrow?
- Mindy: *laughs* Mork it isn't that easy.
- Mork: I'll help!
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- Mindy: You see, Mork, Dan has asked me to be his wife.
- Mork: Dan?! That guy you've been eating around with?!!
________________________________________________________________________
- Mindy: You must've fallen asleep while watching TV.
- Mork: If I was asleep, then the TV was watching me.
- Mork: A toast.
- Mindy: To motherhood?
- Mork: To chickens with lips.
- Mork: On Earth, babies aren't grown in test tubes, they're grown in something wonderful called a mother.
- Orson: That's the old fashioned way, Mork. 80 bleems ago a few of us did it up here too, as part of a nostalgia craze.
- Mork: Sometimes I think the old ways are the best way, Orson.
- Mork: Orson, when you were a baby, don't you remember being held and cuddled, taken for walks?
- Orson: ManaVac-26 did that.
- Mork: But on Earth a mother does it. And she does all sorts of other nice things for her children for her entire life. Oh, it's a warm and wonderful thing. *Orson: How much does she get paid?
- Mork: Nothing.
- Orson: Is it because her work is considered of no real value?
- Mork: No, because it's considered priceless.
- Mork: Orson, one more thing. Can you tell me a bedtime story?
- Orson: I... don't know any.
- Mork: Too bad. Goodnight, your immenseness.
Image Gallery[]
Starring[]
- Robin Williams as Mork
- Pam Dawber as Mindy McConnell
- Elizabeth Kerr as Cora Hudson
- Conrad Janis as Fred McConnell
- Ralph James as Orson