Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
The news of Robin Williams’ death hit me hard last night, much harder than I would have expected considering how long it had been—perhaps as much as 15 years?—since I thought of his career choices with anything less than disdain. Why? Well, I held Robin Williams responsible for committing that most unforgivable of actorly sins: That of becoming a parody of yourself. So when I emerged from the subway last night after 30 long minutes spent underground to a flurry of texts and emails about his shocking passing, the first emotion that poured over me was, weirdly enough, one of guilt.
It wasn’t until a few minutes later that I learned that Williams took his own life, but even in those first fleeting moments when I didn’t yet know the cause of his death, I couldn’t help feel like I was part of the problem. Here was a man who, for all intents and purposes, was my very first favorite actor, and I had totally turned my back on him. I was four years old when Mork & Mindy premiered, and I recall having wished that I had been named “Mork” instead of “Mark.” Memories of how obsessed I was with my Mork action figure also washed over me, and as it did, I began to feel ashamed that I had relegated him and his brilliant career to Unfunny Punchline status in my brain.
I dealt with this, as writers tend to do, by attempting to summarize Robin Williams’ life through his career milestones. In doing so, I quickly realized that there was no way to adequately sum up the sheer number of things he had done that had made me laugh. So I spent the next few hours (and, quite honestly, a good chunk of this today) going down the YouTube rabbit hole in search of any and all things Robin Williams. Here are a few things that I brought back that I wanted to share, that reminded me exactly how captivating he was as a performer…
LIVE AT THE MET (1986)
It’s no secret that Robin Williams had a long, tempestuous affair with cocaine. In this remarkable 7-minute segment from his Grammy-winning performance, he marries some incredibly personal and confessional insights about his drug of choice with the kind of improvisational brilliance that was his trademark.
HIS SNL MONOLOGUE FROM 1988
Robin Williams hosted SNL three times in the ’80s, but aside from a brief cameo on the show in 2010, had strangely not appeared on the show since this episode that was filmed on January 23, 1988. His monologue is chock full of boundary-pushing material, and is delivered exactly in the madcap manner that you’d expect. (If this is your bag, check him out as President Ronald Reagan from his hosting duty in ’86.)
“DON’T WORRY, BE HAPPY”
Bobby McFerrin’s song was one of the biggest smashes of 1988, and it’s no small coincidence that heavy rotation on MTV was one of the reasons it gained such cultural traction. Sans the star power of Robin Williams, it’s quite easy to imagine a scenario in which this song became a curio and not a Grammy winning, multi-platinum smash.
GOOD MORNING VIETNAM HIGHLIGHTS
“Did you maybe learn about Vietnam via Good Morning, Vietnam before you actually learned about Vietnam?” This was something my friend Bex said on Twitter last night, and for me, it applies. I was 13 when Good Morning Vietnam came out, and while I certainly knew what Vietnam was, it occurs to me now that I didn’t actually know anything about the circumstances of the war until this movie came out.
IMPROVISING WITH JONATHAN WINTERS ON 60 MINUTES
My first recollection of Jonathan Winters was from Mork & Mindy. I had never seen this 1986 interview that the late Ed Bradley did with Winters for the show, wherein Williams and Winters spend this whole segment riffing with each other and trying to crack the other one up.
MORK & MINDY PILOT
I mean, Mork meets The Fonz? COME ON!
HIS 1998 ACADEMY AWARD ACCEPTANCE SPEECH
I mean, this one is almost too much to bear. On Marc Maron’s 2010 WTF podcast, Williams admitted that this moment of recognition only bought him a week’s worth of time out of being depressed, and he came crashing back down to Earth a few days later when someone called him “Mork.”
PS. If you’re in the mood to watch something of his on one of the streaming services you subscribe to tonight, here’s a complete list of what’s currently available to you at no additional charge than what you’re already paying…
NETFLIX
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen [WATCH]
The Birdcage [WATCH]
The Fisher King [WATCH]
Hook [WATCH]
Jumanji [WATCH]
Popeye [WATCH]
World’s Greatest Dad [WATCH]
AMAZON PRIME INSTANT VIDEO
The Birdcage [WATCH]
Popeye [WATCH]
Robin Williams: Weapons of Self-Destruction [WATCH]
World’s Greatest Dad [WATCH]
HULU PLUS
Hook [WATCH]
Moscow on the Hudson [WATCH]
Mork & Mindy [WATCH]
