Robin Williams. Yesterday. 08:05. That’s when I heard he had passed on. If I was being totally honest, I had a feeling this was a tragedy. I want this to be a celebration so here is where Robin fits into my life.
I grew up in the 70s. That means we had black and white televisions with big cathode ray tubes. Google them if you are confused. For some reason, my memories of Sesame Street are always in colour. That might be because I received a 5 foot tall big bird as a present when I was six. The sheer anarchy Sesame Street brought into a Dublin living room was a joy. Could it be matched?
Of course it could.
The mid 70s brought colour TV into the Daunt household and Kermit the frog, Anchor of Sesame Street News, was given his own show. Age had began catching up on me so it was hard to decide who i wanted as my role model. Kermit was a bit too clean cut for me. Fozie bear did tell jokes but i had to settle on Animal. His grunts struck a cord and I craved the rock and roll lifestyle. In my adult years, my loving family thought some of my haircuts were closer to Beaker. I love my family.
Cultural Anarchy. That’s how I rocked and then the Alien arrived. Mork from Ork was like nothing i had ever seen. It would be another 16 years before the word improv was fully understood by me but Robin had entered my life. In latter years i watched all his films. They were great but for me, they never had the raw energy of Mork. When i went back and watched the original pilot of Mork and Mindy, it was as good as i could remember. You will never view your right forearm in the same light once you have seen his date with Leverne. Some people tried to say it was a children’s show. No. Children could love some of its anarchy but it’s themes were adult. Mork was here to observe us humans so go figure.
That could sum up Williams himself. He was here to observe us and show up how pretty silly we are. It was during TV interviews that the spirit of mork could be seen. Yesterday, I went back and found his Parkinson interview from 2002. It lasts 22 minutes. There were tears of joy and mourning as I watched. Thank you Mork for helping big bird, Kermit and Animal take me from childhood into Adulthood. Thank you Robin for helping adult me remember the joy of childlike anarchy. I’ll miss you.
