I was 7 when I first saw Robin on Happy Days. I thought he was very funny and I hoped he would get his own show which he did. His roll as the lovable alien Mork from Ork on Happy Days led to him getting his own TV show Mork and Mindy which was a spin off of Happy Days. Mork and Mindy lasted only four seasons but it also catapulted Robin into movies and the rest is history. I’m lucky I’m old enough to have been here from the beginning of his career to the tragic end of both his career and unfortunately his life. He was probably the only classically trained actor who could make people laugh.

Robin was lucky enough to get into Julliard which is a famous acting and music school in New York City. His room mate was Christopher Reeve. Robin and Chris became best friends. Actually they were more than friends. They were like brothers. While at Julliard, Robin was a mime and often performed outside in Central Park for money. Robin left Julliard in 1976 after only three years. He was 25.

He tried to get acting rolls but he couldn’t so he did stand up comedy. He loved acting and making people laugh so much. However, he had his demons. Even though he was great in the dramas he was in, he always had to be funny. In every interview he did, he couldn’t sit still for very long and he was always funny. In many longer interviews such as Inside the Actors Studio, instead of just being himself and talking about his movies to a group of drama students, he had to be funny and make them laugh.

Unfortunately, as he got older fewer good roles came to him. The last year of his life, he had a new TV show called The Crazy Ones where he played an ad executive. Unfortunately, it was not picked up for another season and was canceled after the first season. I think one of the reasons was people were expecting him to be as crazy and as zany as Mork. Sadly, he was devastated when his show was canceled. To make matters worse, he was suffering from the early stages of Parkinson’s Disease and his last several movies were only released in very select cities and video on demand so most people didn’t get to see them. He felt his career was over. It was rumored he signed on to do Mrs. Doubtfire 2 which was scrapped after his passing.

There will never be another Robin Williams. He was one of a kind. There can never be another Mork and Mindy because no other comedian is as funny as Robin was. He had a sense of humor that was uniquely his. Sorry, I don’t find the new crop of comedians funny. They may be smart people but I think their humor is stupid. These are people like Jim Carey, Will Ferral, Tyler Perry and Rosie O’Donnell to name a few. No offense if you are a fan of these people. Too each his own.