| "Three the Hard Way" | |
|---|---|
| Season 4, Episode #4 (#77) in series (95 episodes) | |
 Mork & Mindy's newlywed life takes a sudden turn with a completely unexpected pregnancy, in "Three the Hard Way" in Season 4 (ep#4) | |
| "Mork & Mindy" episode | |
| Guest Star(s): | Robert Donner Tom Poston |
| Network: | ABC-TV |
| Production code: | 404 (4x4) |
| Writer(s) | Richard Rosenstock & Roy Teicher |
| Director | Bob Claver |
| Original airdate | October 29, 1981 |
IMDB 
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Three the Hard Way |
| Episode chronology | |
| ← Previous | Next → |
| "The Honeymoon (Part 3)" | "Mama Mork, Papa Mindy" |
| List of Mork & Mindy seasons/episodes | |
Three The Hard Way was the fourth episode from Season 4 of Mork and Mindy, the 77th overall episode in the series. Co-written by Richard Rosenstock and Roy Teicher, the episode, which was directed by Bob Claver, was shot on September 25, 1981 and premiered on ABC-TV on October 29, 1981.
Synopsis[]
With their one-month anniversary upon them, Mindy is in the full flush of newlywed amorousness while Mork is feeling nauseous and irritable.
Plot[]
Mork and Mindy are back on Earth after their Orkan honeymoon. Still in his nightgown, Mork emerges from what is now 'their' bedroom and heads for the apartment kitchen, Feeling nauseous he knocks back an alka seltzer (powder first, water after) in an attempt to soothe his unsettled stomach. He rapidly pulls himself together when his new bride emerges, very much in the newlywed haze, their one month anniversary having arrived. Kissing and holding hands across the counter, she wonders what you give someone for their one month anniversary? Styrofoam, he answers which is why he bought her a boogie board.
Mindy however as a gift for him. As an anniversary treat for him, she wants him to come to work with her at KTNS, as 'The Hammond Family, of whom Mario and Donna are his favorites, will be there all day. Mork is eager at first, but on feeling another bout of nausea, and not wanting to let her know, he turns her down telling her he has too much to do. Surprised, but accepting she suggests he at least come have lunch with her later, and is taken aback when he snaps at her in a very un-Mork-like fashion.. After apologizing profusely, he promises they'll have a lovely anniversary dinner that night, and accepting that they share their 'Big Kiss' at the door before she heads off to work.
Three The Hard Way Ad - TV Guide - October 1981
As soon as she's gone, it's revealed that Mork has already called 'Dr' Exidor due to how he's been feeling. Exidor making his entry through the window. After examining him, Exidor concludes jokily from Mork's symptoms that he's either turning into Billy Martin or he's pregnant. On hearing that Mork seizes eagerly and excitedly on the latter. Concluding that he has to be pregnant. Something even Exidor thinks is too far fetched. Mork however argues that he and Mindy are the first Orkan and Human ever to have mated with each other, and no one knows what the outcome of that might be, so it's possible. In an unusual display of sensitivity Exidor strongly advises Mork to break the news of a pregnancy to Mindy gently. As he does however, Mork goes into labor, and seconds later, lays an Egg through his stomach, developing a navel in the process.
Later alone, joyful at his child's 'birth', Mork frets over how to break all this to Mindy, while taking the first pictures of his 'baby' on a 'bear' rug. On hearing a chirpy Mindy on her way in he quickly hides the egg as Mindy bustles in, intent on romance and full of ideas of how to spend their one month anniversary night together. Going to pour wine for them both she suggests they get dressed up and go out to do something they've never done before. Like making angels in the snow, ala the movie Love Story. Mork agrees but points out what was sad about that movie was the heroine died before she could ever have a family. An idea he repeatedly tries to interject into the conversation.
However, having spent the whole day with the massive Hammond family, the last thing Mindy is in the mood to talk about is Family. Reminding him that they're young, in love, and newlyweds, all she wants to do is focus on their romantic evening and the two of them. Still, he keeps trying to bring up the subject, until finally she asks why and he tells her he'd like to have a family. Right now. Thinking this is just another of his impulses, she patiently explains that while she wants to have a family as badly as he does, they're really not ready financially or emotionally. Her career is only just taking off. This time, she says, is their time, just for them. Drawing a line under the conversation, she tells him she's going to go get changed, and then they can go for a nice candlelight supper, then perhaps a sleigh ride. Adding suggestively that then they can come home and 'thaw each other out'.
*** (See Cut Scene & Images Below)
A couple of days later, Mork and Mindy emerge from their bedroom at at 2.30 in the morning, Mork insisting that he heard a knock at the door. Mindy is adamant she didn't hear anything, and goes to head back into the bedroom, only for Mork to knock vigorously on the cabinet top. Revealing this to be the beginning of an elaborate scheme. Mystified at the knock, Mindy opens the door to see no one there, and goes to head for bed again, only for Mork to 'discover' a basket left on their doorstep. Alarmed, and thinking it a baby at first, she is amused to see it is 'only an egg'. Mork, affronted, suggesting they not be 'prejudiced', before 'finding' a note and handing it to Mindy to read. Beginning to cotton on to this being Mork's handiwork, she reads out the note, becoming convinced that the 'plea' to look after the egg child is Mork when it directly references her, At that Mindy figures that it's time to ask for an explanation from her new husband and moves to the couch for their standard 'talk'. Taking a seat beside her, he chickens out and goes through a pair of outlandish scenarios involving WASP and Thai families and their wayward daughters, before, at her insistence, and planning to put the Egg in the fridge, he breaks.
Confessing the the truth is, she is currently holding their child in her hand, he tells her how he got pregnant and gave birth to an egg through his stomach. Which, naturally, she doesn't believe for a moment. Telling him that this would be one of his better jokes except for the fact that men don't get pregnant and they for sure don't lay eggs. Something she's sticking to, until he reminds her that she knows he's a test tube baby born without a navel. Something she agrees on. Only for Mork to unbutton his nightshirt and show her his newly developed navel. Stunned to put it mildly, Mindy tries to get her head around the activities and dynamics of how *she* could have gotten *him* pregnant, before duly freaking out.
As she paces through the apartment, Mork follows her, trying to explain that after she said to him the night of their one-month anniversary that it wasn't the right time for them, he went out to try and find other parents for it , but ultimately realized that the ideal parents for it were them. He begs her to let them keep it, and though she's still reeling she tells him of course they'll keep it, she'd love anything they'd made together. When he questions her, she makes the patently false, assertion that she's fine. But he can see she is not. Bewildered by the turn of events, Mindy is visibly upset at the sudden loss of her expectations of motherhood. She sheds a tear, confessing to him that if and when it happened, she hoped and expected that she would be the one to fall pregnant. That she had looked forward to carrying their baby inside of her, feeling it grow, getting weird food cravings, and not being able to see her feet. Trying to comfort her, Mork tries to get her to focus on the fact that no matter how it happened, she is still a parent-to-be, and their child needs her.
Not that she has much time to adjust, Mork points out, as their Egg rapidly grows to the size of a Watermelon.
By the time she emerges from her room the next morning she's shocked, and a little panicked, at finding Mork nesting on an Egg the size of a pterodactyls, in a huge nest. Mork calms her and tries to make her feel more included, by encouraging her to touch the egg and listen to the baby's heartbeat inside, and they spend some time talking about names. Mindy tells him she was thinking if it was a girl she'd like to name it Beth after her mother, and then vetoes some Mork's more outlandish (and monster movie inspired) ideas. She then cautions him strongly that they can't tell anyone about the child, not because she's ashamed of it, but because of the nature of their child's birth being little more than a month after their marriage, they'll risk them being discovered as part alien which in turn will result in Mork's being discovered.
Right on cue, there's a knock on the door. Thought it transpires to be a depressed Mr. Bickley. Panicking, Mork & Mindy try and roll the huge egg across the apartment struggling to get it into their bedroom. Mork stays in the room with it, while Mindy tries to deal with a despondent lovelorn Mr. Bickley who relays to her how his love life has again taken a turn for the worse, telling her how his latest lady love has run off with his father, all while the sound of the egg starting to crack open drifts out to the them. Not getting the sympathy he wanted from either Mindy or Mork, when he briefly appears to urge Mindy to join him the bedroom, Bickley tries to get into the bedroom to find out what's going on, forcing Mindy to head him off at the pass. Suddenly seeing, and disturbed by, the huge nest on the far side of their apartment, and not buying Mindy's lame excuse (Mork's pet condor) explaining it, Mr. Bickley wonders why he bothers coming up to them, and leaves. Closing it she rushes in trepidation to join Mork in the bedroom, hoping whatever comes out doesn't eat their bedroom set, just as the Egg, which has grown even further, starts to crack open, ultimately revealing their full grown senior citizen of a man child.
Cut Scene: The Hammond Family & Mork and Mindy's Baby[]
In this cut scene from the episode, designed to fit between the scenes of Mork's first attempt to break the news to Mindy of his having given birth to 'their egg', and actually breaking the news to her, Mork, in the wake of Mindy's reaction to the idea of having a family at this point, goes to see the 'All American Hammond Family' that Mindy had invited him along to meet the day before at KTNS.
Featuring long time sitcom/character/voice actress Maggie Roswell as the imperious doyenne of the family, 'Donna Hammond', Mork meets her, brother Mario (along with some of the other Hammond brothers, Joey, Dickie and Lumpy) to ask if they will take his baby...only to change his mind when he sees what they're actually like behind the scenes.
When Mork tells Mindy (after breaking the news to her) that he tried to find other parents for their child later, this is the moment he is referring to.
Maggie Roswell in Mork and Mindy
Continuity[]
The Previous Episode "The Honeymoon" ended on an apparent cliffhanger with Mork and Mindy flying home back to Earth after spending some time on Ork. The Episode ended with Mindy nearly hitting a meteor. When this episode picks up, Mork & Mindy are safe at home and it is the 1 month anniversary of their marriage.
Goofs[]
- Mork claims he never had a belly button, but it was directly referenced and seen in Season 1's A Mommy for Morky and then seen again in Season 2's Mork in Wonderland, Part 2.
Trivia[]
General[]
- Robin Williams first took notice of Jonathan Winters when he heard his stoic father laughing at Winters' comedy routine on television. Williams considered Winters his idol and mentor. Winters had previously appeared as Fred's brother in season 3, but he was brought back to ensure Williams stayed at the top of his game.
- Mindy reveals that her choice of a name for the child if it's a girl would be 'Beth' after her mother, Elizabeth. Given Garry Marshall's avowed plans for Mindy to fall pregnant and for them to have a second child, it is likely that it would have been a girl and this would've been the child's name.
- This was Mr Bickley's (and Tom Poston's) last actual appearance in the show, though he would be mentioned again in Pajama Game II, and there was a scene with him cut from the episode (see Episode Page for more info).
Pop Culture[]
- Mork's southern accent, is directly referenced as speaking like a character from a Tennessee Williams play, whose female characters often riffed in an emotionally distraught and ornate fashion.
- The Hawaiian singer/entertainer Don Ho and his hit Tiny Bubbles are referenced after Mork takes his seltzer for his stomach, and will be referenced again in I Don't Remember Mama.
- The Hammond family that Mindy is working with all day at KTNS and who are Mork's favorites, are clearly riffs on the oft mentioned Osmond family, but a way to say they have them without actually saying they have them, with Donna and Mario Hammond being gender flipped versions of Donny & Marie Osmond, as the Cut Scene Shows.
- Mork says he has to send a letter of condolence to Morris the Cat's mother. Morris the Cat being the advertising mascot for 9Lives brand cat food.
- Exidor tells Mork he's either pregnant or turning into Billy Martin Martin was a renowned American Baseball player and Manager, managing the New York Yankees 5 times, and notorious for his behavior and mood swings.
- When Mindy comes home with a great idea for their anniversary evening, Mork questions what could be more fun than their 3 week anniversary's Andy Warhol's 3D Hamlet, doing an impression of Warhol' quoting Hamlet's 'Oh what a rogue and peasant slave am I?! ' This is a parody of the soon to be (at the time) reissued Andy Warhol's sex and gore filled 3D Frankenstein .
- Mork can't wait to tell Mindy and Omni Magazine about the new arrival. Omni contained articles on science, parapsychology, and short works of science fiction and fantasy. It was published between October 1978 and 1997.
- Mork suggests that Mindy put on her Prom dress and he his Mr Peanut outfit heading out for their romantic night. Mr Peanut being the advertising icon of Planter's Peanuts.
- Mindy suggests they copy 1970s Love Story, where the lovers played by Ryan O'Neal & Ali McGraw frolic in the snow, playing football, making out and making snow angels.
- When Mindy opens the door in the middle of the night, and sees no one there, Mork suggests it could be Claude Rains who played The Invisible Man in the classic 1933 version of the movie
- Mindy says nothing in her life has prepared her for the fact that Mork's egg is their child, not even all The Twilight Zone's she's watched. Pam Dawber would herself lead a Twilight Zone episode 'But Can She Type' in 1985. in the 80s incarnation of the fantasy anthology show.
- Mork tells Mindy she doesn't sound convincing when she says she's fine, comparing her statement to current First Lady Nancy Reagan's denial that she spent too much money on dishes, after she spent $209,508 on a new state dish service for 200 people for the White House in 1981.
- When the baby kicks inside the egg as Mork's nesting on it, he jumps off rapidly asking Mindy if she's related to Bruce Lee. The second reference to the martial arts master and movie star after Mork's Health Hints
- In talking one way to the Egg, Mindy comments that she feels like Sheri Lewis without her puppet Lamb Chop
- Mork explains the sound of the Egg cracking open to Mr. Bickley as him listening to his The Exorcist soundtrack referencing the classic horror movie and it's star Linda Blair once again.
Quotes[]
- Mork: *heavy Southern accent* I feel so naus...eous. Oh My stomach feels like cat drool on a dog lip. Yet this Selzer.will be an eraser on the blackboard of life. It shall help! Why am I talking like a character in a Tennessee Williams play?
__________________________
- Mork: That's it. That's it!! I'm preggers! I've got a bun in the oven..
- Exidor: Nonsense!!! And that's ME saying it!!
__________________________
- Mindy: We are going to get all dressed up and we're going to go out and do something we've never done before!
- Mork: Oh that's fine Mind, you put on your Prom Dress and I'll put on my Mr Peanut outfit
__________________________
- Mindy: Do you know what time it is?
- Mork: Mind I swear I heard something.
- Mindy: Mork, I didn't hear anything
- Mork: *knocks surreptitiously on the wooden partition* There it is again!
- Mindy: Who could it be at this hour?!
- Mork: Maybe it's a Jehovah's Witness with a Watchtower with the Late Scores?
__________________________
- Mindy: What?! Wait a minute! Well you mean...? Noooooo! You mean...? *points to bedroom* When you and I were...? When...? And I...? And then you...?! And here IT is?!?!?!
- Mork: You should work for Readers Digest, Mind
__________________________
- Mindy: Noooo no no no no no! No!! No. Oh No! I....I have to sit down. Oh nooo. Alright. Assuming that I am not dreaming. And that *points to the egg*..is...our...child. What is THAT going to BE?!
- Mork: I dunno Mind but he's going to have his own affirmative action plan!
__________________________
- Mindy: Well of course we'll keep it Mork! I mean I'd love anything you and I made together.
- Mork: Mind, you weren't too crazy about that bookcase.
__________________________
- Mork: Min...Mind is something wrong?
- Mindy: Why would you say that?
- Mork: Well I've never seen anyone grit their back before.
__________________________
- Mindy: *aghast at the size of the Egg Mork is sitting on* What is in that egg?!
- Mork: *calmly* I dunno Mind but I hope it's healthy
- Mindy: I just want to know if its a boy, girl or pterodactyl!
__________________________
- Mork: *about the egg* Why don't you talk to it?
- Mindy: *feeling embarrassed* Oh I don't think so.
- Mork: C'mon now, Mind, you talk to your plants including that Little Wandering Jew. *Yiddish voice* Vere are ve today? I dunno!?
__________________________
- Mindy: We'll be right there! We're not decent!
- Mr. Bickley: I don't want to see you I want to talk to you!
- Mork: What...what will we do, Mind?
- Mindy: The bedroom!!
- Mork: Not now! We have company Mind!
- Mindy: I meant the Egg!!
Image Gallery[]
Cast[]
Main Cast[]
- Robin Williams as Mork
- Pam Dawber as Mindy McConnell
- Conrad Janis as Fred McConnell (credit only)
- Elizabeth Kerr as Cora Hudson (credit only)
- Jonathan Winters as Mearth McConnell
