Na-Nu Na-Nu,
IF YOU’RE A FAN, you probably know that Robin Williams launched his career, after “Laugh-In,” with a jaw-dropping guest spot as the alien space traveler Mork on an absolutely bonkers episode of “Happy Days” that lead to his spin-off “Mork & Mindy.” But you might not know how close that legendary episode came to flopping.
Funny enough, George Lucas, whose American Graffiti paved the way for
“Happy Days,” is also to thank for Mork. Garry Marshall’s son Scott loved the newly released Star Wars movie and told his dad that “Happy Days” should have an alien episode. Marshall thought it could work – they’d have an extraterrestrial visit Milwaukee, hijinks would ensue, in the end it would all be a dream. Boom, sitcom magic.
Normally on Mondays, the cast would read two scripts, the latest draft of the episode taping that week and the one for the following week so the writers could have time to rework it.
“We read this ‘Mork from Ork’ script and it is absolutely awful, unreadable, terrible, unbelievably bad,” says Anson Williams. “Gary Marshall says, ‘Don’t worry. We’ll fix it.’ Next week, we come in, we read ‘Mork from Ork’ again. It’s worse.”
The whole script hinged on the wacky alien Mork, and Marshall cast … John Byner.
And no, that’s not an alias for Robin Williams. It’s a different guy. “We rehearse Monday; we rehearse Tuesday; we rehearse Wednesday – it’s terrible,” Williams says. “Wednesday, end of rehearsal, this actor quits.”
Thursday was the day for camera blocking, and then it was go-time to film on Friday. Marshall turned to cast for help. “Does anyone know a funny Martian?”
Al Molinaro, the actor who played Arnold (and happened to be from Kenosha), suggested a young man from his improv class, Robin Williams. With two days left before filming and not a lot of other options, they hired him.
“I come in late the next morning for blocking rehearsal,” Anson Williams says. “Every writer is on set, furiously writing things down. … Robin Williams is improv-ing the whole show: standing on his head, ‘na-nu, na-nu,’ all of it. By Friday night, it’s one of the best episodes in ‘Happy Days’ history. The audience can’t stop applauding this guy. The rest is history.”