You gotta hand it to Mindy, every Orkan male she's met on Earth seems to fall for her on some level, be it Mork, Xerko, or the Elder. The latter returns for a visit on his birthday, specifically in the hope of seeing 'The Soft Lapped One' Unfortunately for him, Mindy has taken off for the weekend on assignment for her job at KTNS. All he finds is a scruffy wreck of a Mork who after a day or so without her is jonesing bad for a Mindy fix, the place a shrine to her.
Both of them missing her, Mork reminds the Elder of his earlier (Putting the Ork back in Mork) comment about easily building a new Mindy for Mork if he had to go back Ork, both Orkans setting forth to build a clone of her up in the attic. But while the physical outcome of the Clone is spot on, the personality balance proves problematic resulting in three Mindy clones with very different dominant personality traits (Smart, Athletic, Affectionate) running around with the landlord, Al Klveins on the way to install smoke alarms..
Fortunately for Mork, the Elder has built in an off button of sorts, on the sole of the left foot of the Clones and Mork is able to trick Smart Mindy into raising it, switches her off and stores her in the Armoire. Then does the same with Athletic Mindy, before Mr Klevins arrives. Not impressed by the absence of Mindy, or the state of the apartment, he heads into Mindy's bedroom to install the smoke alarm, the door closing just as "Affectionate Mindy" arrives to out and out seduce Mork.
Trying to keep her out of the bedroom where Klevins is, Mork resorts to his best Charles Boyer accent and mangled romantic lines to lure her to the couch where he finally manages to get her left foot. Unfortunately for him, he doesn't quite manage to get all of her into the Armoire before Klevins emerges. Whereupon Klevins becomes convinced that Mork has murdered Mindy, and grabs the phone to call the police. Only for the real Mindy to return home.
Kelvin then accuses him of having stuffed some other woman in the Armoire, forcing Mork to improvise to stop both of them finding out, extracting the Mop Mindy from the Armoire. With Mindy's help, Klevins is convinced both that that is what he saw and that they are crazy, and departs. Mindy however is not so easily fooled and ignores Mork's attempts to stop her, before opening the Armoire to probably the biggest shock in her 3 years living with him.
While Mork confesses the truth about his "personal pile of perkiness" within to her, a defeated Elder trudges wearily down from the attic admitting he failed, and giving up, only to lay down on the actual soft lapped one's lap and discover her return. Rising up, he confesses that he was wrong, and that it was impossible to capture what made Mindy Mindy, and unique, and would take the three clones (and the aberration that appears at the end) back to Ork with him for further study.
The episode is a riot from the moment Mindy leaves. Harking back slightly to Season 1's 'Mork's Night Out' in Season 1 where Mork's boredom kicks in seconds after being left alone, this time we see that after a day without Mindy he's gone to pieces. Moving from people in general to missing Mindy specifically, was probably another indicator of where the third season was heading with their relationship.
Unkempt, unshaven, and in ratty slobbish clothes he can't stop thinking about her. The place is a mess and covered in (reversible) photos of her, he's replaced the regular window blind with one with her image all over it, and dressed a mop in her sweater and jeans and affixed her face to the head, to converse and dance with her. The sight of Mork dancing with the "Mindy Mop" is like a twisted version of an Astaire routine, and fabulous. His Boyer impressions and that bizarre, hip twisting, arm flailing dance he and Affectionate Mindy do is another high point (and must've been crazy fun to plan/rehearse).
But in truth is this episode is a little personal tour-de-force for Pam Dawber, who is allowed again to stretch her comedic muscles, and display three distinctly different personas, on top of Mindy herself. Smart Mindy is disinterested in anything non-intellectual (including Mork) and poses philosophical conundrums that would give Plato headaches. Active Mindy, an Olympian style athlete, who only wants to wrestle and spar with Mork, and probably most memorably, "Affectionate" Mindy, a feather boa-ed, man eating, "human hickey maker" determined to get into something more comfortable "like skin" and bed ol' "Blue Eyes" Mork.
In addition, throughout the show, Pam Dawber made something of an art form of 'Mindy Reactions', those (frequent) moments where she's faced with whatever weirdness or consequence Mork has dropped in her lap. And after all the good stuff she gets to do as her clones, this episode tops it off with, if not the best, then certainly one of the top two 'Mindy Reactions' of the entire show. As she slams the Armoire shut a fraction of a second after seeing the three versions of herself inside, visibly runs through about a half dozen emotions trying to process it...and then simply asks, tight jawed, "Mork? Where'd ya get the dead Mindys?"
Quite possibly the line that best encapsulates the almost expected anarchy of living with a Mork.
Another little relationship idiosyncrasy appears to be that only Mork gets to make jokes about his Shiksa goddess being a Shiksa, his blank uncomprehending stare off of Bickley's Shiksa-Mat joke about where Mork picked up all the pictures of Mindy unexpected and funny.
There are some curiosities, like Al Klevins...described by Mr Bickley as a creep and a landlord so picky he bounced tenants for having crooked doormats, but one apparently not too bothered about huge structural damage to a floor from a Jeep falling through it 10 episodes previously. So we must guess Mindy's insurance did indeed cover that.
Both of them missing her, Mork reminds the Elder of his earlier (Putting the Ork back in Mork) comment about easily building a new Mindy for Mork if he had to go back Ork, both Orkans setting forth to build a clone of her up in the attic. But while the physical outcome of the Clone is spot on, the personality balance proves problematic resulting in three Mindy clones with very different dominant personality traits (Smart, Athletic, Affectionate) running around with the landlord, Al Klveins on the way to install smoke alarms..
Fortunately for Mork, the Elder has built in an off button of sorts, on the sole of the left foot of the Clones and Mork is able to trick Smart Mindy into raising it, switches her off and stores her in the Armoire. Then does the same with Athletic Mindy, before Mr Klevins arrives. Not impressed by the absence of Mindy, or the state of the apartment, he heads into Mindy's bedroom to install the smoke alarm, the door closing just as "Affectionate Mindy" arrives to out and out seduce Mork.
Trying to keep her out of the bedroom where Klevins is, Mork resorts to his best Charles Boyer accent and mangled romantic lines to lure her to the couch where he finally manages to get her left foot. Unfortunately for him, he doesn't quite manage to get all of her into the Armoire before Klevins emerges. Whereupon Klevins becomes convinced that Mork has murdered Mindy, and grabs the phone to call the police. Only for the real Mindy to return home.
Kelvin then accuses him of having stuffed some other woman in the Armoire, forcing Mork to improvise to stop both of them finding out, extracting the Mop Mindy from the Armoire. With Mindy's help, Klevins is convinced both that that is what he saw and that they are crazy, and departs. Mindy however is not so easily fooled and ignores Mork's attempts to stop her, before opening the Armoire to probably the biggest shock in her 3 years living with him.
While Mork confesses the truth about his "personal pile of perkiness" within to her, a defeated Elder trudges wearily down from the attic admitting he failed, and giving up, only to lay down on the actual soft lapped one's lap and discover her return. Rising up, he confesses that he was wrong, and that it was impossible to capture what made Mindy Mindy, and unique, and would take the three clones (and the aberration that appears at the end) back to Ork with him for further study.
The episode is a riot from the moment Mindy leaves. Harking back slightly to Season 1's 'Mork's Night Out' in Season 1 where Mork's boredom kicks in seconds after being left alone, this time we see that after a day without Mindy he's gone to pieces. Moving from people in general to missing Mindy specifically, was probably another indicator of where the third season was heading with their relationship.
Unkempt, unshaven, and in ratty slobbish clothes he can't stop thinking about her. The place is a mess and covered in (reversible) photos of her, he's replaced the regular window blind with one with her image all over it, and dressed a mop in her sweater and jeans and affixed her face to the head, to converse and dance with her. The sight of Mork dancing with the "Mindy Mop" is like a twisted version of an Astaire routine, and fabulous. His Boyer impressions and that bizarre, hip twisting, arm flailing dance he and Affectionate Mindy do is another high point (and must've been crazy fun to plan/rehearse).
But in truth is this episode is a little personal tour-de-force for Pam Dawber, who is allowed again to stretch her comedic muscles, and display three distinctly different personas, on top of Mindy herself. Smart Mindy is disinterested in anything non-intellectual (including Mork) and poses philosophical conundrums that would give Plato headaches. Active Mindy, an Olympian style athlete, who only wants to wrestle and spar with Mork, and probably most memorably, "Affectionate" Mindy, a feather boa-ed, man eating, "human hickey maker" determined to get into something more comfortable "like skin" and bed ol' "Blue Eyes" Mork.
In addition, throughout the show, Pam Dawber made something of an art form of 'Mindy Reactions', those (frequent) moments where she's faced with whatever weirdness or consequence Mork has dropped in her lap. And after all the good stuff she gets to do as her clones, this episode tops it off with, if not the best, then certainly one of the top two 'Mindy Reactions' of the entire show. As she slams the Armoire shut a fraction of a second after seeing the three versions of herself inside, visibly runs through about a half dozen emotions trying to process it...and then simply asks, tight jawed, "Mork? Where'd ya get the dead Mindys?"
Quite possibly the line that best encapsulates the almost expected anarchy of living with a Mork.
Another little relationship idiosyncrasy appears to be that only Mork gets to make jokes about his Shiksa goddess being a Shiksa, his blank uncomprehending stare off of Bickley's Shiksa-Mat joke about where Mork picked up all the pictures of Mindy unexpected and funny.
There are some curiosities, like Al Klevins...described by Mr Bickley as a creep and a landlord so picky he bounced tenants for having crooked doormats, but one apparently not too bothered about huge structural damage to a floor from a Jeep falling through it 10 episodes previously. So we must guess Mindy's insurance did indeed cover that.
