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38-493: [REDACTED] Look up stooge in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. A stooge or stooges may refer to: Straight man , a comedian who feeds lines to another Shill , a confederate or performer who acts as if they are a spectator The Stooge , a 1952 American film The Three Stooges , a comedy group from the 1930s to the 1970s The Three Stooges (2012 film) ,

76-501: A stooge . Typically, he is expected to feed the funny man lines that he can respond to for laughs (and is hence sometimes known as a feed ), while seeking no acclamation for himself. If a straight man unintentionally breaks composure and laughs, it is known in English as corpsing . In vaudeville , effective straight men were much less common than comedians. The straight man's name usually appeared first and he usually received 60% of

114-483: A date with Laverne. Mork returned to Happy Days in the episode "Mork Returns", in which Mork tells Richie that he enjoys coming to the 1950s because life is simpler and more "humdrum" than in the 1970s. Fonzie sees Mork and immediately tries to run away, but Mork freezes him and makes him stay. Mork eventually lets Fonzie go, but not before Fonzie asks Mork to reveal two things about the future: "cars and girls". Mork's response is, "In 1979... both are faster." The episode

152-510: A dream of Richie's. However, when Mork proved popular, the syndicated version was re-edited to show Mork erasing the experience from everyone's minds. The character of Mork was played by then-unknown Robin Williams , who impressed producer Garry Marshall with his quirky comedic ability as soon as they met. Dom DeLuise and Roger Rees were offered the role, but both passed. Richard Lewis and Jeff Altman were considered. When Williams

190-537: A film based on the comedy team The Stooges , a late-1960s and early-1970s rock band The Stooges (album) , their debut album Fuj the Stooge, nickname of 1980s wrestling manager Mr. Fuji given to him by his former protégé Demolition Stooges Brass Band , a New Orleans brass band Stooge sort , a recursive sorting algorithm in computer software Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with

228-413: A man (particularly one as bizarre as Mork), but Fred's mother-in-law and Mindy's grandmother, Cora ( Elizabeth Kerr ), approves of Mork and the living arrangement. Mindy and Cora work at Fred's music store, where Cora gives violin lessons to Eugene ( Jeffrey Jacquet ), a 10-year-old boy who becomes Mork's friend. Also seen occasionally are Mindy's snooty old high school friend, Susan ( Morgan Fairchild ), and

266-431: A new disco arrangement of the gentle theme tune. The characters of Fred and Cora were dropped from the regular cast. It was explained that Fred went on tour as a conductor with an orchestra , taking Cora with him. Fred and Cora made return appearances in later episodes. Recurring characters Susan and Eugene made no further appearances after season one, and were never mentioned again . New cast members were added. Among

304-401: Is an American television sitcom that aired on ABC from September 14, 1978, to May 27, 1982. A spin-off after a highly successful episode of Happy Days , " My Favorite Orkan ", it starred Robin Williams as Mork, an extraterrestrial who comes to Earth from the planet Ork, and Pam Dawber as Mindy McConnell, his human friend, roommate, and eventual love interest. Mork first appears in

342-509: Is from the "future": the 1970s. Mork arrives on Earth in an egg-shaped spacecraft. He has been assigned to observe human behavior by Orson, his mostly unseen and long-suffering superior (voiced by Ralph James ). Orson has sent Mork to get him off Ork, where humor is not permitted. Attempting to fit in, Mork dresses in an Earth suit, but wears it backwards. Landing in Boulder, Colorado, he encounters 21-year-old Mindy McConnell ( Pam Dawber ), who

380-504: Is mostly a retrospective in which clips are shown as Richie and Fonzie try to explain the concepts of love and friendship to Mork. Mork also appears in the first episode of Out of the Blue , "Random's Arrival", as a crossover stunt. Paramount Home Entertainment released the complete series on DVD in Region 1 , in both individual season sets and a complete series configuration, while

418-500: Is upset after an argument with her boyfriend, and offers assistance. Because of his odd garb, she mistakes him for a priest and is taken in by his willingness to listen (in fact, simply observing her behavior). When Mindy notices his backward suit and unconventional behavior, she asks who he really is, and he innocently tells her the truth. She promises to keep his identity a secret and allows him to move into her attic. Mindy's father, Fred ( Conrad Janis ), objects to his daughter living with

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456-555: The Happy Days season five episode " My Favorite Orkan ", which aired in February 1978, and is a take on the 1960s sitcom My Favorite Martian . The show wanted to feature a spaceman to capitalize on the popularity of the recently released Star Wars film . Williams's character, Mork, attempts to take Richie Cunningham to his planet of Ork as a specimen, but he is foiled by Fonzie . In the initial broadcast, it turned out to be

494-467: The Hub Network and various other classic television stations airing on various digital subchannels . The show currently airs on Antenna TV and Rewind TV , and streams on Pluto TV . In an interview with Garry Marshall June 30, 2006, Pat O'Brien mentioned that Mork & Mindy was filmed on Paramount stage 27, the former studio for his infotainment program The Insider . The house from

532-470: The 50th episode produced. When Paris moved on to direct Happy Days , he introduced Mork in a similarly atypical season-five episode, titled "My Favorite Orkan". In it, Richie tells everyone that he has seen a flying saucer , but no one believes him. Fonzie tells him that people make up stories about UFOs because their lives are average, or "humdrum". While Richie is home alone, Mork walks in. Mork freezes everyone but Richie with his finger, and says he

570-611: The Ork Back in Mork". Several supporting characters were added to the lineup. Joining were Lola and Stephanie, two children from the day-care center where Mork worked. Also added was Mindy's close friend Glenda Faye Comstock (Crissy Wilzak), a lovely young widow on whom Nelson develops a crush. Wilzak lasted one season as a regular. When these ideas failed to improve ratings, many wilder ideas were tried in an attempt to capitalize on Williams's comedic talents. The season ended at number 49 in

608-429: The core of the series; however, ratings did not recover. For the third season, Jeanie, Remo and Nelson were retained as regulars, with Jeanie and Remo having opened a restaurant. Nelson was no longer into politics, and wore more casual clothes. Mindy's father and grandmother returned to the series. The show acknowledged this attempt to restore its original premise, with the third season's hourlong opener, titled "Putting

646-547: The end of each episode, Mork reports to Orson what he has learned about Earth. These end-of-show summaries allow Mork to humorously comment on social norms. Mork's greeting is "Na-Nu Na-Nu" (pronounced / ˈ n ɑː n uː ˈ n ɑː n uː / ), with a hand gesture similar to Mr. Spock 's Vulcan salute from Star Trek combined with a handshake. It became a popular catchphrase at the time, as did "Shazbat" ( / ˈ ʃ æ z b ɒ t / ), an Orkan interjection that Mork uses. Mork says "KO" in place of "OK". Mork & Mindy

684-518: The four seasons are available in Regions 2 and 4 . The Region 1 DVD of Season 1 was from Paramount alone; subsequent releases in Region 1, as well as international Season 1 releases, have been in conjunction with CBS DVD . In Australia, only the first three seasons were individually released, followed by a complete series boxset December 17, 2014. In 2020, Via Vision Entertainment obtained the rights to

722-486: The much older Winters. Winters had previously appeared in a Season 3 episode as Dave McConnell (Mindy's uncle and Fred's brother). It had previously been explained that Orkans aged "backward", thus explaining Mearth's appearance, and that of his teacher, Miss Geezba (portrayed by then-11-year-old actress Louanne Sirota ). After four seasons and 95 episodes, Mork & Mindy was canceled in summer 1982. The show ended at 60th place at season's end. Actor-director Jerry Paris

760-530: The new supporting characters were Remo and Jeanie DaVinci ( Jay Thomas and Gina Hecht ), a brother and sister from New York City who owned a new neighborhood deli where Mork and Mindy now spent a lot of time. Also added as regulars were their grumpy neighbor, Mr. Bickley (who was occasionally seen in the first season, and ironically worked as a verse writer for a greeting-card company), portrayed by Tom Poston , along with Nelson Flavor (Jim Staahl), Mindy's snooty cousin who ran for city council. The show's main focus

798-440: The pilot episode of Mork & Mindy , Orson tells Mork that he is assigning him to study the planet Earth. Mork remembers that he has been to Earth before to collect a specimen (Fonzie), and adds that he "had to throw it back, though. Too small." Fonzie and Laverne (of Laverne & Shirley ) appeared in the first episode of the show. In this segment, Mork relays to Mindy his trip to 1950s Milwaukee, where Fonzie sets up Mork on

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836-412: The possibly insane Exidor ( Robert Donner ). Storylines usually center on Mork's attempts to understand human behavior and American culture as Mindy helps him to adjust to life on Earth. It usually ends up frustrating Mindy, as Mork can do things only according to Orkan customs. For example, lying to someone or not informing them it will rain is considered a practical joke (called "splinking") on Ork. At

874-433: The ratings. Despite the show's steady decline, ABC agreed to a fourth season of Mork & Mindy , but executives wanted changes. The show began to include special guest stars this year. At the beginning of the fourth season, Mork and Mindy got married. Jonathan Winters , one of Williams's idols, was brought in as their child, Mearth. Because of the different Orkan physiology, Mork laid an egg, which grew and hatched into

912-549: The series, and released a complete series box set December 16, 2020. December 16, 2020 For its first season, Mork & Mindy was nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards : Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for Robin Williams. The program lost to Taxi , and Williams lost to Carroll O'Connor for All in the Family . Mork & Mindy was syndicated by Paramount beginning in fall 1982, to low ratings. By 1983, most stations that owned

950-529: The show is located at 1619 Pine Street, just a few blocks from the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder. This was also used in the show as Mindy's actual address in Boulder, as shown in the episode "Mork Goes Public". The same house was used for exterior shots on the series Perfect Strangers , in Episode 21 of Season 5, "This Old House", in which the show's main characters, cousins Larry and Balki, remodel

988-480: The show rested it in summer, when weaker programming tended to air. Few stations renewed the show a few years later. By 1987, the show aired in only a handful of TV markets. However, the expansion of cable television broadened its reach. Nick at Nite reran the show from March 4, 1991, to November 27, 1995. The show also aired on Fox Family Channel in the late 1990s. From 2008 to 2011, the show aired in marathons on SyFy . It has aired in subsequent years on MeTV ,

1026-430: The take. This helped take the sting out of not being the laugh-getter and helped ensure the straight man's loyalty to the team. Abbott and Costello , one of America's most popular comedy duos of the 1940s and 50s in radio, film and television, began as nightclub performers when the straight-faced Bud Abbott contrasted against the bumbling Lou Costello ; Abbott, unusually, allowed Costello a larger paycheck to keep him on

1064-490: The team. Women can play the role, although they are often described as a "comedic foil." Examples of noteworthy female foils include Margaret Dumont , who often performed with the Marx Brothers in their films, Bernardine Flynn up against Art van Harvey on Vic and Sade , Marian Jordan against her husband Jim on Smackout and Fibber McGee and Molly , and Pam Dawber , who performed with Robin Williams on

1102-860: The television series Mork & Mindy . Selena Gomez plays the comedic foil to Steve Martin and Martin Short on the television series Only Murders in the Building . The role is still found today in sitcoms and several Japanese comedy anime , where they are known as tsukkomi . Prominent sitcom characters illustrating this role include Jim Halpert from The Office , and Ben Wyatt from Parks and Recreation . Some notable tsukkomi characters include Shinpachi Shimura and Toshiro Hijikata from Gintama , Himeko from Sket Dance , Saiki Kusuo from The Disastrous Life of Saiki K. , Mio Naganohara from Nichijou , and Tadakuni from Daily Lives of High School Boys . Mork %26 Mindy Mork & Mindy

1140-517: The title Stooge . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Stooge&oldid=1247958213 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Straight man A straight man with no direct comedic role has historically been known as

1178-562: Was Robin Williams's first major acting role. Scripts were shorter than on Happy Days , with notes specifying, "Robin will do something here", to let Williams improvise. However, his improvisations often had to be replaced with pre-written "ad libs" scripted by a large team, due to Williams's true ad libs being unsuitable for a general television audience. The series was extremely popular in its first season. The Nielsen ratings were very high, ranking at 3, behind Laverne & Shirley (at 1) and Three's Company (at 2), both on ABC , which

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1216-510: Was asked to take a seat at the audition, he sat on his head, and Marshall cast him on the spot, later wryly commenting that Williams was the only alien who auditioned. Mork & Mindy is set in Boulder , Colorado , in the then-present-day late 1970s and early 1980s (as opposed to the Happy Days setting of Milwaukee in the late 1950s and early 1960s). Mork explains to Richie that he

1254-428: Was dreaming. There is a knock on the door, and, much to Richie's dismay, it is a man who looks exactly like Mork, except in regular clothes, asking for directions. When production on Mork & Mindy began, an extra scene was filmed and added to this episode for subsequent reruns . In the scene, Mork explains to Orson that he decided to let Fonzie go, and was going to travel to the year 1978 to continue his mission. In

1292-477: Was inspired to create the character of Mork after directing an episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show , titled "It May Look Like a Walnut", in which Van Dyke 's Rob Petrie has a dream in which he believes the Earth has been surreptitiously invaded by walnut -eating aliens who steal humans' thumbs and imaginations. Series creator Carl Reiner had written the episode, which was the 20th in the show's second season , and

1330-430: Was moved from Thursdays, where it outrated CBS 's The Waltons , to Sundays, where it replaced the canceled sci-fi series Battlestar Galactica . The show then aired against two highly rated shows: NBC 's anthology series titled The Sunday Big Event , and CBS 's revamped continuation of All in the Family , titled Archie Bunker's Place . The second season saw an attempt to seek younger viewers, and premiered

1368-426: Was no longer on Mork's slapstick attempts to adjust to the new world that he was in, but on the relationship between Mork and Mindy on a romantic level. Also, some of the focus was on Mork trying to find a steady job. Because of the abrupt changes to the show and time slot, ratings slipped dramatically (dropping to 27th place). The show was quickly moved back to its previous time slot, and efforts were made to return to

1406-419: Was sent to Earth to find a "humdrum" human to take back to Ork. Richie runs to Fonzie for help. When Mork catches up with him, he freezes everyone, but finds himself unable to freeze Fonzie because of The Fonz's powerful will. Mork challenges Fonzie to a duel : finger vs. thumb. After their duel, The Fonz admits defeat, so Mork decides to take Fonzie back to Ork instead of Richie. Richie wakes up and realizes he

1444-408: Was the highest-rated network in the U.S. in 1978. The show gained higher ratings than Happy Days , the series that had spawned it, at number 4. However, network management sought to improve the show in several ways. This was done in conjunction with what is known in the industry as counterprogramming , a technique in which a successful show is moved opposite a ratings hit on another network. The show

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