Overview: Bizarre television comedy with Robin Williams as Mork from Ork, who is an alien hatched from an egg, sent to investigate Earth and report back to his superiors. As an outsider, Mork is unfamiliar with human customs and often questions some of the strange traditions that we take for granted. Much of the humor relies on Williams' unique comic voices and mannerisms. The show was perhaps most famous for Mork's saying, 'nanoo nanoo.'

DVD Verdict: In 1978, 'Mork and Mindy' was a ratings smash. However, the network changed the format and nixed Mindy's father (Fred) and grandmother (Cora) as one means of 'retooling' the show, which simply proves the suits don't even know when success sits on their lap! But I digress. Season 2's ratings were said to have plummeted, which prompted the network to bring back Fred and Cora (YES!!!), but having rewatched season 2, the episodes are riotously funny and with the usual moralizing messages we gen X'ers grew up on... and promptly forgot to follow, but who said anyone was perfect?

In this season, we are treated to some of the series' best wit to date: Starting with the premiere episode, Mork takes a cold medicine that shrinks nasal membranes and he in turn shrinks to nothing because Orkans are nothing more than membranes... it was an hour long special. This episode freaked me as a child and still retains much of its power - even special effects were surprisingly successful and hold up rather well overall, even if there is a 'fluidity' problem with some of the zooming close-ups. That's how it was made, as was said by another it was not a DVD defect. And the moralizing over the energy crisis is also an interesting non-plot point for the first 5 minutes of the story.

Later we get to meet Mork's vile enemies - the dreaded Necrotons. Show this to a non-fan, it'll hook 'em right away. And not just because Raquel Welch stars as the main Necroton and proves she really is a considerable actress and not merely a body with an incidental brain attached... but because of the jokes; many of which come out of nowhere yet whose relevance are staggeringly funny. In 1980, Robin Williams' lines and improv combined with the smiley-faced boxers had me laughing; re-watching it again yesterday had me laughing for far, far more reasons.

Another highlight to this season is when Mork is lulled into television commercials - it is another high point and extremely well written episode.

Never mind that Robin Williams and Pam Dawber play against/with each other extremely well. Even if the low-point episodes are less than special (namely the rehash of the season 1 episode where Mork has to deal with the immigration people... and the clip show featuring the temporary return of Fred), Robin and Pam put in top rated performances, with dialogue to ensure you'll be laughing in hysterics, and I don't say that lightly.

True, I missed Fred and Cora, but I know they will return. But the suits, for once, had a point and season 2 really contains a high number of gems -- even with the ditzy politician and deli owners who migrated from New York. They were never the same, but they weren't bad. But as we all know, Fred and Cora were the best sidekicks.

While the DVD quality / images look a bit soft (there's plenty of film speckles) it doesn't detract. Color saturation is beautiful and the episodes are fairly spaced amongst the 4 discs. The packaging is cheaper, but considering how season 1 wasn't entirely profitable, what counts most in a DVD (the level of compression in the episodes) was retained. However, I am highly grateful that they kept with the 4 disc format! This is a Full Screen Presentation (1.33:1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs, but does not come with any Special Features.