James Lipton discussed Jonathan Winters on MSNBC this morning, and again at Noon. Henry Winkler described in vivid detail and absolute awe, the very first moment Robin performed as Mork to his Fonzie. One of the Seven Wonders of the World, he said.
I was watching at Robin's start, his Happy Days appearances and every episode of Mork & Mindy (twice with re-runs, but no VCR). I had intently studied the Vaudeville-inspired comedy of Ernie & Bert, Grover, Kermit, and the rest of Sesame Street and the Muppets. Robin (and Jonathan) substantially enhanced my understanding and appreciation of that uniquely important root of comedy, Vaudeville and everything that follows from it.
Shortly after Mork landed on ABC, I saw his very live stand-up special,
Live at the Roxy 1978. Having watching that hour, I don't think you can ever look at comedy the same way again. When you know enough about what could be achieved by the bravest comedy before that performance, and then skip ahead to all those who idolized him, who built their comedy on Robin Williams, the magnitude of his impact is crushing. If he had died young instead of his coke buddy, John Belushi, Robin's impact on comedy made in just those first years would still have raised his legend above Andy Kaufman and Bill Hicks combined.
If you consider yourself a student of comedy, that is a lesson you should watch.
At age nine, I had only recently learned that racism and inequality existed. After Sesame Street's vision of harmony, the world was a disappointment - but that time Mork shocked the viewers, having transformed a room of Klansmen under their hoods into people of every color and kind - that was a vision of transcendent goodness. I'm pretty sure I was left weeping at the profundity, as I weep now.
- Dale Coba