There were a total of 12 albums released. During the 60’s, 11. Years later, in 1988, a “Best Of”. And all of them I love to bits. But which one is my favorite?
There’s two.
Sibling Revelry: The Best of the Smothers Brothers
This one which is pretty much like it sounds: a compilation of routines from their albums that are tops. I got the cassette version as a birthday present from a family friend. I don’t remember any other birthday presents I got that year.
It was also my first foray into hearing them. I listened to that a lot. Brought it with me a few months later when I had jaw surgery. Since my whole head was wrapped up in bandages and my eyes swollen, watching tv was out of the question, so I brought things to listen to, this album being one of them. My jaw was also tightly rubber-banded shut to hold things in place, and I couldn’t laugh the regular way. When I wanted to laugh, all that energy had to go somewhere and I convulsed with laughter which shook the hospital bed, and I made weird sounds since I couldn’t move my head. The nurses probably wondered if I was ok 😂.
This is the tracklist of what’s on the cassette version:
Tom Dooley
Chocolate
Laredo
The Saga Of John Henry
Gnus
Crabs Walk Sideways
Mediocre Fred
Mom Always Liked You Best
You Can Call Me Stupid
Jenny Brown
The Military Lovers
I Talk To The Trees
Hangman
Michael, Row The Boat Ashore
I later saw my local library had the CD version which had more routines on it. Needless to say, I checked that out several times until I bought my own copy.
And then at some point I bought the vinyl version. Because that’s the kind of fan I am 🤓
I definitely would recommend this album if you are a new fan.
But it’s easy to say a “Best of” album as a favorite.
The Songs and Comedy of the Smothers Brothers at the Purple Onion
That summer of 1989 I was home recovering from jaw surgery, and my mom mentions that she thinks she has a Smothers Brothers record somewhere.
“Really?!? WHERE?!?”
“Oh, it’s somewhere in the steam trunk”
Although I had my own records when I was little (Sesame Street, Disney, Beach Boys, Elton John), I don’t remember my parents listening to their records. I remember listening to their 8-tracks many many times, and my own. But in ’89 I went through their record collection (Sgt Pepper! Including the sheet of cut-outs!), and lo-and-behold I found the Purple Onion album.
It was a good thing I didn’t know about mom having this record when I was little, because otherwise it would have gone the way of my own records… which is probably why they weren’t brought out often! 😂
Below, my daughter listening to the album on our (then) brand new record player. I am hoping to get a better player later on, because the one I have is 😒.
I love this album, partly for sentimental reasons, but also because it has great balance of routines and songs. One of them, “They Call The Wind Maria”, is my favorite song they sing straight (2nd half of track 4). It has a comedic intro, but once they start singing, they sing it straight.
“Down in the Valley” is also performed straight (again, right after a comedic intro, but this time it’s how people come up to them and question whether or not they are really brothers and if their real name is Smothers 🤣).
And from this album I heard about the famous folk song “Tom Dooley” (track 7) that I had previously never heard of. It was the only routine that I was familiar with, it being the first track from the “The Best of” album. I loved Tom’s intro saying that another group (that I had equally hadn’t heard of – The Kingston Trio) had stolen the song from his brother. I started to listen to the Trio because of this.
Sidenote – Tom Dooley was based on a real person who (according to legend) was innocently hung for the death of his lover. You can begin you rabbit hole journey of the song here, here, and here.
In reality, Tom and Dick would often credit The Kingston Trio for opening the doors to their, and many others, popularity.
Back on track
Below is the playlist of the whole Purple Onion album:
The reasons why this is my favorite boils down to a great balance of straight singing and comedic routines, both done superbly.
Dickie wasn’t established as the straight man yet.
Only the opening routine was recorded at the Purple Onion. Due to technical issues, the other recordings from that performance were scrapped . Most of the album was recorded at the Tidelands Club.
Afterthought – I should have put this part of the challenge after I went through all their albums. Oh well 🙃
If I had done this 30 Day Challenge in 30 consecutive days when I began it two years ago last month, I would not have named this film because it had not come out yet. When Jojo Rabbit was released back in October 2019, I was curious about it. Then I heard comparisons to Chaplin’s The Great Dictator, and I was all in on wanting to see it!
One thing that both films tackle is the absurdity of Nazism. In different ways.
And as Taika Waititi says in his tweet below: “what better way to insult Hitler than having him portrayed by a Polynesian Jew?”
Chaplin had one set of problems with Hitler, Waititi had another. If you were to make a Venn diagram, both with a lot of overlap. And both played satires of Hitler. And both were brilliant at it.
Both deal with facing a prejudice by a character having prejudices, then meeting someone who having real encounters with people who they were taught were no good, though in Jojo it is more prominent. In The Great Dictator, the Jewish Barber saves Schultz, a Tomanian (German) officer, during The Great War. Later, even after Schultz finds out the man who saved him was not Aryan but Jewish, he orders no one to be assaulted in the Jewish ghetto.
Similarly, in Jojo Rabbit, when Jojo meets the girl, he doesn’t like her because she’s Jewish, but after days go by and they talk, he begins to doubt his prejudice and likes her.
Well, it’s an okay comparison. Not exactly the same, but similar.
Another similar thing is that both films were nominated for Oscars, including Best Picture. But Jojo won one, for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Reviews and Discussions
Below is one of my favorite YouTuber movie reviewers, Jeremy Jahns, as he talks about what he thought of it.
The German version of David Bowie’s “Heroes” (German version also sung by Bowie) is used in both the trailer and the end of the movie. One of Chaplin’s sons, Eugene Chaplin, was a assistant engineer for the regular English-sung album. Eugene’s son Spencer interviewed him on his Chaplin Talks podcast, and Spencer brought that up:
Just finished re-watching The Rink from 1916 from his Mutual period. Watching him on skates is balletic. How does he lean backwards for that long, on roller skates, and not fall down? And how does he do all the other things on skates?
There’s One A.M. with Charlie coming home drunk and does battle with a clock pendulum and a Murphy bed. There’s Behind the Screen where Charlie discovers a woman who disguises herself as a man in order to get a job movies. And the lovely The Immigrant. Among several others. Like, everything…LOL
Really, really difficult to decide. You would think the less films made for a period would make it easier. But nooooooo. We’re talking Chaplin here. It only gets harder with each following era. All of these are superb! I feel like throwing a dart on a list and see where it lands (or where it lands nearest to) to determine which one I like best.
The one I watch the most, so I’m going with it as my answer: Easy Street. Yeah, I know, it’s a cliche answer (at least, I feel it is), but I really like this one. It’s a bit autobiographical (Chaplin grew up on the slums of late Victorian London streets. The more autobiographical he got, the more I loved the film; i.e. Limelight). There’s gang violence in the streets, and Charlie has to temper the ruffians.
Eric Campbell. Now there’s a classic old fashioned bad guy. But I’m getting ahead of myself. And the lovely Edna! I really love the way she is introduced with that angelic light on her as she plays the piano.
Highlights of the film
Charlie literally gaslighting the heavy (Chaplin actually hurt himself with the lamppost. Needed some stitches on his nose. Sacrifice for the sake of the art!), feeling sorry for the woman who he catches stealing food for her large family so he steals more, the cute little kid who scares the police, and the chase at the end where the heavy gets…well, I don’t want to spoil it for you if you haven’t seen it 😉
On Chaplin’s birthday, I usually watch “Chaplin” (the one directed by Sir…err.. Lord Richard Attenborough and starring Robert Downey, Jr), The Gentleman Tramp and/or Unknown Chaplin documentaries, and the ’42 version of The Gold Rush (the re-edited version narrated by and music written by Chaplin himself. It was released on April 16, 1942). Sometimes an additional short film or two.
But this year I watched (or re-watched) some fan-made videos. Â And now I’ll share them here:
Charlie Chaplin Tribute
One of the favrites by my kids is this one, by cldcollector. Great balance of film clips and home movies. Song is Gin Filled Boy by Divine Comedy.
Charlie Chaplin – Filmography/Montage/Tribute (Moby)
https://youtu.be/IyymymDfwUk
This one uses Moby’s Run On. Â The beat remains pretty constant throughout the whole video. Hard for me to listen to the song without picturing the video in my head :D.
Charlie Chaplin // Birthday Tribute (2012)
This one I just found today. Â It was made on his birthday 5 years ago, and somehow I haven’t seen this before. Played it several times today. Reeeaaalllly like it. Song is Light Surrounding You by Evermore
Chaplin, put to the music of Penguin Cafe Orchestra
This is something I wrote about here, but I’ll share again in this post. I’m a fan of Penguin Cafe Orchestra, and while listening to the song, Perpetuum Mobile, I pictured the building of Chaplin’s Studio from How To Make Movies. And I matched it up, and, OMG, it strangely fits.
Start the song when How to Make Movies gets to “Hollywood, Cal.”. Ends as Charlie skips off into the background after trying the lemon. Rather fun I think.
So ,there we are.  Hope you  enjoyed those little bits of Chaplin delight C|:=:)
The above video was created by tumblr user tooru-book, and it’s clips from various television and movies that Robin played in: Mork and Mindy, Seize the Day, Moscow on the Hudson, Flubber, Aladdin, Toys, The World According to Garp, and others.  The song is Florrie’s “Too Young to Remember”
I like watching this one when I want to see something of his, but I know that if I start watching Mork and Mindy, or a movie, it’ll end up being more than just a few minutes, lol
Today marks the anniversary of the first episode of Mork and Mindy, one of my all time favorite tv shows.
How it started
It was inspired by Garry Marshall’s (creator and executive producer for Happy Days) son who saw Star Wars and wanted to know about an alien being put on Happy Days. And Jerry Paris (who directed many episodes of Happy Days) remembered an episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show (which he sometimes co-starred as Rob Petrie’s neighbor, Jerry Helper), “It May Look Like A Walnut” where Rob thinks a walnut eating alien has invaded Earth and taken over.
Out of that came the idea of Mork from the planet Ork. There was a casting call and one of those to respond was Williams, who entered the room using a helium type voice and sat on his head. Here is Marshall telling how he was introduced to Williams:
Marshall gave him the role right away because “he was the only alien who auditioned”.
In the Happy Days episode “My Favorite Orkan”, Richie sees a UFO, but none of his friends believe it. Here is part one (Mork shows up at 4:25):
Part 2:
The creation of Mork and Mindy
The episode was a hit, so when coming up with a new show idea, he remembered Mork, and an actress named Pam Dawber.
Set in (what was then) present day, Mork from the planet Ork is sent to Earth by Orson, his superior, as an observer of Earth customs and also so he would not be a bad influence on Ork. A sense of humor, as well as all other emotions, are banned on Ork “for the good of the race”. And Mork meets Mindy, who had just had a rough experience with her boyfriend who drove off in her jeep.
An unexpected hit
Very few people gave the show much of a chance before the first episode aired, but afterwards, it was a ratings smash, with an average of 60 million people watching, nominated for 2 Emmys and winning Golden Globes and People Choice Awards. And it was ranked #3 for the 1978-79 season, sometimes weekly beating the show that gave it’s start, Happy Days. (Many years later Williams won Nickelodeon TV Land’s “Most ‘Out of This World’ Character” for both 2005 and 2006.)
The show would run into problems with censors. Robin would slip in things, sometimes in another language. The studio would have a censor who spoke 4 languages to the set to prevent him from causing trouble. And the network messing with what made it a hit to begin with.
For many fans of my generation, the show plays a big part of our childhood. And a week ago I finished re-watching the whole series (a few of us on tumblr were all doing the same thing, ending the series at the same time), and it was a wonderful stroll down memory lane. Oh, did I say stroll down memory lane? I mean a skipping-break-into-a-frantic-run-so-fast-I-get-dizzy down a 5 lane interstate highway (look out for that car!!).
While the show makes me feel like a kid again, I also am able to appreciate the characters more. Robin is still awe-inspiring, but Mindy is equally amazing. From the get-go she stands up for herself when her boyfriend tries to attack her, then later dealing with her loving but over protective father, and being patient and understanding with Mork though she isn’t afraid of setting him straight. And later standing up to Mork’s boss, Orson.
It was great to see both Robin and Pam together earlier this year on The Crazy Ones:
My 7-year-old watching an episode of Mork & Mindy. Here, it’s Dr. Morkenstein (anyone got a tissue for the ending?!?)
It’s also great to see younger generations watching and becoming fans. One of the youngest is my 7 year old daughter who loves watching it with me.
Thanks to Robin (wherever you are!) and Pam (you’re awesome!) for making many people’s childhoods funnier.
Mindy consoles Mork who is stressed out about his uncontrollable emotions.
I am currently going through all of the Mork and Mindy episodes chronologically, currently in season 3. I had previously jumped around with my memory overloading on hilarious scenes that I haven’t seen in 3 decades.
So far my top favorite is “Mork’s Mixed Emotions”. It is a great episode to see how many different types of characters (in this case, emotions) Robin Williams goes in and out of and back in again at the speed of light.
It’s Mindy’s birthday and she is planning a special night out, just her and Mork. Meanwhile Mork had a nightmare and has trouble dealing with confusing emotions from it (Orkans are banned from having emotions) and, afraid of what they will do to him, he locks them up. Unsuccessfully.
It really is hard for me to watch this without laughing, and I have seen it several times in the last couple weeks. Really liked him using a Peter Lorre imitation for the voice of Fear. Very clever. Though there is a bit of a dark second in the restaurant scene… if you blink you’ll miss it but I got a little lump in my throat when I saw it.
Also I must no forget the amazing Pam Dawber who plays Mindy. Her actions and reactions to what Mork does andd says are always a treat. Â The reaction to the disco guy in the record store always makes me giggle.
There are plenty of other great episodes to see that are hilarious. Pretty much all of season 1 is top stuff. I might just write a review of each episode for the whole series. At some point. There’s a total of 91 episodes (or 95 depending on how you count) so that would take some time to accomplish. But you never know ;).
Last Monday, my daughter and I were sitting in the living room, she on her laptop and me reading or playing a game, I don’t remember which. Â Then she says “Robin Williams died.” The news hit like a ton of bricks. Â I was dazed, confused, and saddened.
Wait, Wait…What?
I hoped that it was a hoax (like Bill Cosby’s rumored death a few years ago).  So I immediately checked the internet.  The more I read, the sadder I got.
Shazbot.
Suicide. Due to severe depression. A nasty arch-nemesis.
Robin in his Orkian uniform.
My first memory of Robin was on “Mork and Mindy”. One of the earliest life memories I have, actually. (I’m just old enough that it seemed like Robin always was and always would be around.) I was 5 when the show started and I don’t remember exactly when I started watching it. Â I do remember watching when it went into reruns. Â I watched a number of sitcoms, both old and new, and if I missed those it wasn’t a real big deal. Â I miss Mork & Mindy and it was “Oh no! I have to wait another 7 days (or) 23 1/2 hours until it’s on again! Heavy sigh!”
I’ve kind of viewed him as a distant, crazy, but lovable uncle.
I was a big fan of the show. While The Dick Van Dyke show is my favorite sitcom, Mork & Mindy is tied in second place with The Cosby Show as my second favorite. Back when I watched the reruns, I was visiting one of my happiest types of stores (BOOKS!) when I came across the novelization of the pilot episode of Mork and Mindy. I snatched it up and read it in just a couple days,  It was hilarious to read, and funnier to watch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hk-jJ2VRnt8
The show probably also helped me be more interested in how and why people behaved the way they do. Â At the end of every episode, Mork would telepathically report back to his boss, Orson on the planet Ork about what he had learned about Earthlings that week.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdOxzI6YNwE
A couple of my personal favorites are “Mork’s Greatest Hits” where Mork deals with the town bully:
http://youtu.be/1DDlor1n0gQ
And when Mork naively joins racists in “The Night They Raided Mind-ski’s”
http://youtu.be/rzR-KgJ_nDM
Since that sad Monday, I have watched a lot of the show again. Â Sad to say that I had not watched the show in several years, but when rewatching it, it made me feel like a kid again, remembering characters and catchphrases (“KO”, drinking with his finger, and Mearth! RIP Mr. Jonathan Winters! Also Tom Poston !). Â And it surprised me how much I remembered as an episode would start rolling.
Other memories were watching Aladdin. Â When I first met (face-to-face) my future ex-husband in the mid 90s, we went to (what was then) Disney-MGM Studios and then to a special showing of Aladdin. Years later when it was released onto DVD, it was on our wedding anniversary, which also was the anniversary of our first date from the previous year. Â Had to buy it. It didn’t matter if we already had it on VHS.
Another memory was when I was playing Battlefield Vietnam on my computer.  You had the option of putting mp3s in the game, so whenever I turned on the in-game radio, it would play whatever I put in the game.  Somewhere along the line I had downloaded all the bits of Robin behind the mic from “Good Morning Vietnam”.  For some reason, there was no noise when playing it in-game.  I had turned up the volume rather loud and didn’t hear anything.  So I thought “Okay, not working” and continued to play the game.  Was in it a couple minutes when, all of a sudden I heard screaming through my earbuds “GGOOOOOOODDDD MOOOORRNNING VIETNAAAAAMMM!!!!“, and I almost fell out of my chair, both from shock and from laughing so hard.
The last thing I watched of his was when Pam Dawber guest star on “The Crazy Ones” just a few months ago. For some reason I had not gotten into watching the show but meant to, but when I happened to turn on CBS that night, and saw Pam and Robin in a scene, the kid in me just shouted for joy and I made my daughter watch it, and quickly explained the whole significance of them in a tv show together. Which was probably the reason why she told me about his passing.
Depression
A few years ago I was told by one doctor and two counselors that I showed signs of mild depression.  Of which I don’t dispute.  While I have never felt suicidal, I have had plenty of moments of feeling like “things don’t really matter. why bother even trying? It’s just a waste of time”.  I have done better recently. But I have felt for many years that loving to laugh which began with Mork and Mindy, the Peanuts comics, and the Dick Van Dyke Show when I was a little kid, to later becoming a fan of just about every classic comedian from Charlie Chaplin to the Smothers Brothers (especially Charlie and Tom & Dick), protected me from going to those type of deep black holes of despair that Robin had trouble escaping.
My copy of the Mork and Mindy book published 1979 that I’ve had for about 30 years. Â And the most recent issue of Time, a cover that I was hoping not to see for at least 20 years :'(
There’s an essay contest going on at TheCelebrityCafe.com and the prize is volume 3 of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour tv show from the 1960s. (If you don’t know who they are, check out their website).
I wrote a short essay on one of my favorite routines they did on the show called “Lessons and Morons”:
Today marks the anniversary of the first episode of Mork and Mindy, one of my all time favorite tv shows.
afterwards, it was a ratings smash, with an average of 60 million people watching, nominated for 2 Emmys and winning Golden Globes and People Choice Awards. And it was ranked #3 for the 1978-79 season, sometimes weekly beating the show that gave it’s start, Happy Days. (Many years later Williams won Nickelodeon TV Land’s “Most ‘Out of This World’ Character” for both 2005 and 2006.)
Last Monday, my daughter and I were sitting in the living room, she on her laptop and me reading or playing a game, I don’t remember which. Â Then she says “Robin Williams died.” The news hit like a ton of bricks. Â I was dazed, confused, and saddened.
Other memories were watching Aladdin. Â When I first met (face-to-face) my future ex-husband in the mid 90s, we went to (what was then) Disney-MGM Studios and then to a special showing of Aladdin. Years later when it was released onto DVD, it was on our wedding anniversary, which also was the anniversary of our first date from the previous year. Â Had to buy it. It didn’t matter if we already had it on VHS.