Harvey Medlinsky (1931 - June 19th, 2008) was a Director and Producer, who helmed three episodes of Mork & Mindy during Seasons 1 & 2.
Biography[]
Born Harvey Marcus Medlinsky in 1931 in Worcester, MA to Betty and Louis Medlinsky, and brother to sister Hinda. After graduating from Dartmouth College, Harvey joined the army and was stationed in Brooklyn. He spent every night at the Broadway theatre thanks to tickets provided by the USO. Thus a passion and career was born. After the army, he attended Yale Drama School. He began his career as a Stage Manager with "An Evening with Nichols and May." Blessed with a sense of comedy and timing, he became Production Stage Manager and so began a successful association with Mike Nichols and Neil Simon.
He served as Production Stage Manager on major Broadway Productions over the year including Barefoot in the Park (Oct 23, 1963 - Jun 25, 1967) Luv (Nov 11, 1964 - Jan 07, 1967) The Odd Couple (Mar 10, 1965 - Jul 02, 1967) There's a Girl in My Soup (Oct 18, 1967 - Jul 27, 1968) Plaza Suite (Feb 14, 1968 - Oct 03, 1970)
He made an easy transition into directing doing National and London companies of "Odd Couple" and the award winning "Plaza Suite". He directed hundreds of plays with actors like Betty Garret, Jack Klugman, Tony Randall, Don Knotts, Rue McClanahan, Rosemary Harris, and so many more.
For a brief period in the early 70s Medlinsky managed a chain of dinner theatres around the country.
He had a brief marriage (May 20,1966 - 1968) to Christina Crawford, the adopted daughter of screen legend Joan Crawford, and future author of Mommy Dearest, before in 1977, he embarked upon his 31 year marriage to Jill Goldberg, resulting in their son, Jared. [1]
Filmography[]
In addition to directing for the stage, he also directed for television series, "The Bob Newhart Show", "The Betty White Show", "We've Got Each Other" "The Tony Randall Show", "Angie", Who's The Boss" and for HBO the TV Movies of "Barefoot In The Park" and "Plaza Suite" both of which he had worked on, on stage.
Mork & Mindy[]
For Mork & Mindy, Harvey came in to direct two episodes in rapid succession in Season 1, what might be regarded 'The First Kiss' episodes for the lead characters 'the taught' and 'real':
He also returned in Season 2 to helm the Roddy McDowell / Robbie the Robot guested: