Mork Moves In

"Mork Moves In"
Season 1, Episode #3 (#) in series (95 episodes)
Mork begins to settle in to life on Earth, living with Mindy in "Mork Moves In" in Season 1 (ep.#3).
"Mork & Mindy" episode
Guest Star(s):	None
Network:	ABC-TV
Production code:	103 / 1-3
Writer(s)	Lloyd Turner & Gordon Mitchell
Director	Howard Storm
Original airdate	September 21, 1978
IMDB	Mork Moves In
Episode chronology
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"The Mork & Mindy Special"	"Mork Runs Away"
List of Mork & Mindy seasons/episodes

Mork Moves In is the third episode of Season 1 of Mork and Mindy, and also the third in the series overall. Co-written by Lloyd Turner and Gordon Mitchell, the episode, directed by Howard Storm, aired on ABC-TV on September 21, 1978.

Synopsis

With Mork still sleeping in her armoire, Mindy struggles to help Mork find a place of his own to comply with her puritanical father's demands that he get out of her apartment. The more time she spends with Mork however, the more she enjoys herself, the Orkan pulling her out of her dull routine, and is soon wrestling with the strong desire to let him stay, and make her own decisions about her own life.

Plot

TV Guide Ad - Mork Moves In - September 12 1978

Orson wakes Mork up to inform him that The Elders have lost Mork's last report, and requests that Mork uses his Total Recall facility to replay his report to Orson. The report in question picks up in Mindy's Apartment the morning after Mork's sanity trial, with Mindy calling him for breakfast after he's spent yet another night there, opening the Armoire to find him hanging upside down. Seeing her prep for breakfast and asking her if he can help, Mindy tells him he can set the table and he uses his finger to levitate it, wanting to know where she'd like him to set it? Once she gets him to put it back down again, she tells him today they're going to go look for a place he can live. When he asks why he can't stay with her, she says it's because of her father's puritanical attitude. She also says that she's more convinced than ever that they need to keep his true nature a secret and needs to help him be more human, part of which is finding him a job. Something he points out he already has, as an Observer for Ork. But, she says, he needs a job that pays money. Mork looks smug, fetching the wealth he brought with him from Ork, but she points out with some amusement that bags of sand, dirt, and his stone credit card aren't worth anything on Earth.

TV Guide and Mindy's 'Virtue' in danger from Mork

At the McConnell's Music Store, Fred is in full conductor mode, till Cora pulls out his headphones. After exchanging barbs, Cora asks him if Mindy's around yet, and Fred says no, saying she is most likely hanging out with 'that absurd yo-yo'. Highly agitated he tells Cora he's scared to death that it will become something serious between Mindy and Mork, especially as he's already spent the night with her. Cora points out that he stayed in her house, there's a big difference between the two, but Fred feels that's just a first step towards the second and his moving in, and for all she knows he could be over there with Mindy right now. Cora challenges him to pick up the phone and find out. But he says he couldn't do it, it would be violating her trust and he couldn't stoop so low. Cora begs to differ. Fred picks up the phone. At the apartment, the phone rings, and Mindy calls to Mork sitting on the couch to answer it. Which he does, by ringing back at it. Just out of the shower she sticks her head out of her bedroom door and asks him to please get the telephone. Recognizing the term, but not the object he walks in the general direction of the ringing, and tries the toaster, before speaking into the wrong part of the phone. Yelling hello, however is enough for Fred to confirm that he is still at Mindy's apartment, and he grabs his coat determined that no one is going to corrupt his daughter, until she's married.

At the apartment, Mindy is giving Mork a pointer in etiquette, teaching him that a gentleman always helps a lady on with her coat, handing him her jacket. He politely holds it out and she slips one arm into it, as she slides the second one in however he doesn't let go, and ends up with his arms around her, their faces inches apart. Momentarily shaken by his proximity and the sudden moment of tension, she gathers herself and points out that a gentleman also lets go of a lady's coat. At that moment, Fred walks in to see them pressed together, smiling, and loses his cool, demanding that Mork gets his hands off her. Mindy tells him he was only helping her on with her coat, then wants to know what he's doing there. Fred however rounds on Mork as asks what *he's* doing there, and wants the unvarnished truth from him. He regrets that a moment later however, when Mork answers that he spent the night.

Mindy tells her father its not like it seems, and goes to explain why he's stayed with her, only to realize she can't and tells him it's a secret. Fred bemoans the fact that they never had any secrets before now, and demands to know what is going on. Mindy decides to tell him, but tells him he has to promise not to tell anyone. Fred agrees. And Mindy tells him that Mork is from Ork, another planet. Fred looks at him, and bursts out laughing, telling Mindy she can do better than that. Mindy prevails on Mork to do something to prove it to him. Mork walks to the jug of orange juice on the wicker basket and explains how Orkans evolved to be able to drink and talk at the same time, using his finger to drink the juice. But Fred feels that could just be a trick. The slides of Ork that Mork gives him are too dark to see anything. Fred tells him he's not fooling anyone, everyone knows that aliens have huge bald heads, but Mork points at him and says not always. Fred counters with the aliens are always green. At which point Mork changes the pigmentation of his face to green, freaking Fred out. Fred agitatedly asks him if he's here on vacation or to snatch a body, then regrets it nervous of Mork's bemused reaction. Mindy assures him Mork is from a highly advanced society that's done away with violence long ago. Mork adds that he also likes him. Fred says he likes him too, clapping him on the shoulder, but rather undoes the sincerity when he wipes his hand on his hat and tells Mindy to burn it. He asks Mork if he could speak with Mindy alone, adding quickly he doesn't mean to offend, and its not worth a death ray or anything. Mork is confused and looks to Mindy who mimics behind his back that her father is crazy. Taking it for humour, Mork heads off to his 'room' and goes into the armoire to clean it up. Left alone with her father, Mindy enthuses about Mork, and Fred turns to her with a smile and yells at her to get rid of him.

That evening, after walking all over town, Mindy & Mork have had no luck in finding him somewhere else to live. He suggests he could hang out of the tree outside that night, but Mindy won't allow it, and suggests he'll just have to spend another night in the apartment, looking rather happy at the prospect. But when he heads to the Armoire she says no, now that he's on Earth he should start acting a little more like the humans on it. He agrees and asks where she sleeps, she hesitates and points to her room, answering on a bed, and when he seems to draw a blank notes he has a lot to learn to which he happily agrees to sleeping with her to do so. She makes the suggestion that he try the couch instead. Sending him up into the attic to fetch the old comforter so he can use it, Mork returns with a moose head and an old car horn. He comments that her attic is nice, perfect in fact and asks if he could live there? Her eyes light up and she thinks if they fixed it up, the attic really wouldn't be such a bad place to live, it'd be like his having his own apartment, and a perfect place for him to stay while he's adjusting to Earth. Her growing enthusiasm is punctured however by the reality of her father's reaction, and that he and she are having enough problems as it is. Coming around to join her on the couch Mork asks if there is anything he can do to help with the problems...and Mindy has to tell him he *is* the problem. She confesses that her father made her promise to have him moved out by tonight...or else. Mork is introspective, then tells her he didn't want to cause trouble and gets up to leave.

Moving after him she asks where he's going, that it's cold out and looks like rain. But he says he's in to weather, though confesses he will miss her. As he goes again she stops him and tells him she doesn't want him to go. His appearance in her life has shown her how dull and boring it was then, he's exciting. Mork says he's never been called exciting before and bashfully enjoys it, Mindy assures him he is, he's an ambassador from another planet and important, and if she can help him, that would make her feel important too. But Mork feels that the really important thing is her relationship with her father. He envies her that relationship not having had one of his own. Mindy tries to tell him that she feels it's time for her...but doesn't get to say it as Mork asks her if it's alright if he comes back from time to time to have human lessons from her, and she tells him she feels he already acts more human then most people she knows. When he says he has the solution, she gets excited, only to deflate when he goes to the phone to call her father. She extremely reluctantly gives him her father's number, and watches forlornly as he rings him, and tells him he won't stand between him and Mindy anymore and he wont' be seeing him again. He also suggests it might be nice if he comes over to make up with her.

Mork getting Orkfaced with Mindy

Hanging up, he has a few words the irate Fred said to him over the phone to ask her about, but as Fred is coming over he says he'd better leave. Sad, Mindy hugs him, and Mork notes her softness commenting that he could get to like that, but heads for the door and his coat. But she stops him again, saying he can't just go like that, and suggests they have a toast and that she break out the bubbly...or in her case the Ginger Ale as that's all she has. The toast each other as the nicest alien either of them has ever met. Both of them take a sip, and as he walks to the sofa with her Mork adds a sudden spontaneous 'and the softest' to her description of her, before taking another sip of the Ginger Ale. A moment after that he has a a quick outburst of Orkan, native dance moves, squealing and a Tarzan cry as he lands on the couch beside her, and smiles normally. Startled she asks if he's alright and he lucidly replies certainly before taking another sip of soda, talking like a toddler and pouring the drink over his head. Another sip and he moves into slow motion, his words coming out similarly as he says he thinks he's getting 'bezurb' (drunk) the carbonation hitting his blood stream and making him 'Ork faced'.

A fresh outburst happens with every swig he takes, spinning dancing, yelling, till he ends up on his face. Mindy takes the chance to grab the can from him, and he flips himself over the back of the couch and chases after her and ends up dancing with her. Laughing and enjoying the madness, Mindy tries to wrestle him to the couch, saying she needs to find a way to sober him up, only to find herself entirely sober as her father calls her name from outside the door. Panicked she desperately stops Mork from running to answer the door, and diverts him up into the attic, hushing him as she lifts up the attic stairs. Calming herself she opens the door to her father, who says he's been thinking about how he acted and says he was out of line and wants to apologize. She smilingly tells him he doesn't have to, in fact he doesn't' have to say another word and tries to usher him out. But he not only doesn't go, but comes in and takes his coat off. She pretends she's tired, it's late and she's ready for bed, until he notices it's 7.30. As she notices the stairs coming back down, Mindy grabs him and pivots saying on the other hand there's no rush for him to leave, guiding Fred rapidly to the couch as a Russian ushanka, bathrobe and sunglass wearing Mork staggers down the steps . Trying to keep him from looking around at the swaying and then collapsing Mork, Mindy smiles fixedly while her father goes on about knowing he's overprotective about her boyfriends, but Mork is a yo yo. She can do nothing as her father turns and comes face to face with the drunken Mork, and has to try and calm her father down as he demands to know what he's still doing there, and accuses her of lying to him and breaking her promise. She denies that vehemently, and Fred taking a step towards her backs straight away again, as Mork growls at him warning Fred off Mindy, like a protective dog.

Mindy admits maybe she did break her promise, but argues that Fred bullied her into that promise in the first place, and tells him he's just not going to do it anymore. Saying what she was feeling earlier but didn't get to say to Mork, she realizes its time for her to stand on her own two feet, and tells Fred she's 21, a grown woman, has her own apartment and if she feels like it she will keep an Orkan in her attic. Fred issues an ultimatum, him or Mork, and she warns him not to make her make that choice, but he intends to make her. And she chooses Mork. Walking to the door she opens it and wishes her father goodnight. He warns her if he goes he's never coming back, but she holds firm, and he walks out. As Mork wanders to and jumps on the couch the door flies open again and Fred comes rushing back in, tells her never is far too long and they make up, just as Mork sobers up. He's happy to see that they have made up. Bewildered by his sudden sobriety, he explains to Mindy that Orkan 'drunks' only last a few seconds. When she tells him he was gone for a good five minutes, he concludes he really must've tied one on! Fred wants to know if this means that Mork is still staying there tonight? And Mindy gives him a firm yes, but that nothing is going to happen, does he believe that? And he says he does because he trusts her. But he doesn't trust Mork and is going to stay over.

The episode ends with a hungover Mork giving his report to Orson. Orson's voice going right through his head. Mork admits to getting bezurb the night before, and Orson reminds him he's supposed to be observing, not getting Ork faced. He asks him how his sand supply is holding out and Mork tells him that on Earth all its worth is kitty litter. Of his important discoveries this week he notes that Trees are Green on Earth, a black liquid (coffee) that sells for 3 dollars a pound, and it takes Two to Tango. But Orson asks if he didn't find out something really important? And Mork bashfully admits yes, reminding Orson of that girl he spoke of last time, and telling him that she did something very nice for him. Defending him against her father, something he considers a very brave and kind thing to do. He confesses to Orson that he thinks he may be getting feelings for her. But Orson reminds him that emotions are hazardous to his health, and warns him off playing around with them. Mork straightens and tells him not him, Orson can count on him, and signs off.

Trivia

Orkan 'Facts'

• Orkan's have a 'Total Recall' facility.
• Orkans sleep hanging upside down, like bats
• Mork can levitate objects with his finger.
• Sand and dirt is what's used as cash on Ork, while credit cards are carved from stone.
• Frizbat is the Capital of Ork

General

• This episode was actually the first episode filmed, as the script for The Pilot, by Dale McRaven was actually written and filmed several weeks after 'Mork Moves In'.
• Fred discovers Mork is an alien.
• The difficulty Mindy has in finding Mork a place to live in Boulder happens to accurately match the shortage (and expense) of accommodation in the town at the time the show was filmed.
• As Mork heads for the door, Mindy stops him telling him 'I don't want you to go' and will do and say exactly the same thing, in the exact same spot, 3 years later when he plans to leave after failing to convince her to marry him. in Limited Engagement.
• A few bloopers from this episode appear on the season 4 DVD set. In a 1979 interview with Starlog, Pam Dawber said, "I'm supposed to be having this big fight with my father, saying things like, 'You mean I have to choose between you and Mork?' And I'd look over at Robin and he'd just be hanging there, soaking wet, with those glasses on, clinging to this oversized moose head. I cracked up three times in a row. The audience loves it when that happens. We just stop and start over."
• This episode was adapted in Mork & Mindy, a novelization by Ralph Church which also included stories from The Mork & Mindy Special and Mork Runs Away.

Pop Culture

• Mork takes his first swing in the show at Richard Nixon, referencing Orsons' and The Elders having lost his first weeks report as being them pulling 'A Nixon' in a 'losing the tape' Watergate style
• Mork also takes a swing at the current U.S. President Jimmy Carter's prominent teeth, saying if he had been there when the Elders had used his microwire report to floss their teeth they would've lost the entire file
• After calling 'Lights, Camera, Action' the traditional Hollywood movie set prep for filming, Mork calls Orson 'CB' a reference to the legendary director Cecil B. DeMille.
• Mork remarks of his credit card, "I don't leave home without it." This is a reference to a famous American Express ad campaign.
• This marks the first time that Cora calls Fred a "wiener." According to the movie Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of 'Mork & Mindy,' prior to the show Elizabeth Kerr appeared in a popular commercial in which her catchphrase was "You're such a wiener!"
• Mork says, "It's not easy being green." This is a reference to a song sung by Kermit the Frog on Sesame Street and The Muppet Show.
• Fred asks Mork, on discovering he's an alien, whether he came down to snatch a body, referring to the alien invasion movie (and McCarthyism parable) Invasion of the Body Snatchers
• When Mindy suggests she break out the 'fake' champagne, Mork does an impersonation of the distinctively voiced variety show host and bandleader, Lawrence Welk whose style was known as as "champagne music", with the 'lovely Lemon sisters' doing a rather anachronistic version of the Rolling Stones 'I Can't Get No Satisfaction'.
• As part of his first outburst, Mork does a full on Tarzan movie cry as he runs to the couch to join Mindy.
• Mork protests when Mindy takes away his ginger ale, telling her 'Don't take away my Gusto', in a reference to the Schlitz Beer commercials. Schlitz Brewery was the basis for Schotz Brewery where Laverne & Shirley worked.
• When Mork gets drunk, he references The Wizard of Oz by exclaiming he's melting.
• When he dances with Mindy it's to a speeded up rendition of Rock Around The Clock, a huge hit for Bill Haley & The Comments.
• Mork yells out Stairway to the Stars as Mindy hoists him up into the attic on the staircase, a reference to the much recorded big band oriented popular song by Matty Malneck, Frank Signorelli & Mitchell Parish from 1934.
• Mork sings a snatch of 'Feelings' the 1975 hit by Morris Albert, when telling Orson during his report that he may be getting them for Mindy.

Quotes

• Mindy: Well today is going to be a big day! Today we're going to find you a new place to live!
• Mork: Why can't I continue living with you?
• Mindy: Well because my father is a conservative, puritanical, ummmm....
• Mork: Nerd!
• Mindy: You got it!

______________________________

• Mindy: You know, I still can't get over this, I'm sitting here having breakfast with a being from another planet!
  Mork: What a coincidence. So am I.

______________________________

• Fred: You're wretched!
  Cora: Go ahead, Freddy, whip me with your words!

______________________________

• Fred: I could never bring myself to stoop so low.
  Cora: Oh Freddy, you underestimate your potential.

______________________________

• Fred: Get your hands off that child!
• Mindy: Daddy he was just helping me on with my coat! What are you doing here?!
• Fred: Me?!? *turns on Mork* What are you doing here?! Now I don't want any stories or any excuses! I want the plain, unvarnished truth!
• Mork: I spent the night.
• Fred: Couldn't you have varnished it just a little?

______________________________

• Mork: I guess it's time to hit the old coat-rack then.
  Mindy: Oh Mork, not the armoire. I mean, you're on Earth now, you might as well start acting a little more like it, right?
  Mork: True. Where do you sleep?
  Mindy: On a bed. Boy, have you got a lot to learn!
  Mork: Good, I'll sleep with you. I'm always willing to learn!

______________________________

• Mindy: Oh Mork could you go up into the attic for me and get the old comforter ?
• Mork: KO
• Mindy: That's O..K.
• Mork: You Thank.
• Mindy: Thank You
• Mork: You're Welcome.

______________________________

• [Mork calls Fred]
  Mork: Mr. McConnell, Mork here... No sir, that's not quite right, I'm the son of a test tube.

______________________________

• Fred: *oblivious to Mork's drunken presence* Y'know honey I'm sorry if I'm a little over protective about you and your boyfriends, but this Mork, I mean he's a yo yo! He's some sort of a creature from outer space!
• Mindy: *seeing Mork rise up right behind them* Ohhh...I know that's a strike against him *puts her hand on Mork's head and shoves him back down again* But he's really not that different, you should just take a y'know... a closer look at him...sometime. *Mork crawls around to the side of the couch Fred is sitting on*
• Fred: Oh is that so?! Well maybe you should take a really close look at...*turns and comes face to face with Mork* YAHHHH!!"

______________________________

• Mindy: So in other words what you're asking is, that I choose between you and Mork?!
• Fred: Right!!
• Mindy: Well don't force me to make that choice Dad.
• Fred: I'm forcing you!!
• Mindy: *jaw tightens* Mork, stays!

Image Gallery

Cast

Starring:

• Robin Williams as Mork
• Pam Dawber as Mindy McConnell
• Elizabeth Kerr as Cora Hudson
• Conrad Janis as Fred McConnell
• Ralph James as Orson