Mork Goes Erk

"Mork Goes Erk"
Mork & Mindy episode
VHS cover of Mork & Mindy Volume 2: Mork's First Christmas/Mork Goes Erk
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 17
Written by	Lloyd Turner Gordon Mitchell
Directed by	Howard Storm
Photographed by	Stephen H. Burum F. Bud Mautino, Meredith M. Nicholson
Production no.	Episode 018
Original airdate	February 8, 1979 (1979-02-08)
Guest stars
Morgan Fairchild as Susan Conrad Janis as Fred 'Fredzo' McConnell David Letterman as Ellsworth
Episode chronology ← Previous Next → "Snowflakes Keep Dancing on My Head" "Yes Sir, That's My Baby"
List of Mork & Mindy episodes

"Mork Goes Erk" is the seventeenth episode of the first season of Mork & Mindy. The episode first premiered on ABC on February 8, 1979.^[1] "Mork Goes Erk" was later released on VHS on January 1, 1998 as part of a two-episode special which also included "Mork's First Christmas,"^[2][3] and on DVD on September 7, 2004 as part of the "Mork & Mindy - The Complete First Season" DVD boxed set.^[4]

In the episode, David Letterman portrayed a Werner Erhard-like character by the name of "Ellsworth" offering ERC or Ellsworth Revitalization Conditioning. Mork (Robin Williams) and Mindy (Pam Dawber) attend one of Ellsworth's trainings at the suggestion of their friend Susan (Morgan Fairchild), where they endure Ellsworth's authoritarian brand of group therapy. Mork points out hypocrisy in Ellsworth's teachings, and exposes him as a fraud. The episode has been placed in a sociological context, and compared to the Erhard Seminars Training or "est" course. The episode itself received mostly positive reviews, and was highlighted as one of the season's best episodes, including "Mork's First Christmas" and "Mork's Mixed Emotions". David Letterman's performance as "Ellsworth" also received good reviews.

Plot

At the beginning of the episode, Mork, Mindy and Bickley (Tom Poston) are all sitting around feeling depressed. Mindy has just learned that Mork's supervisor Orson has arranged for Mork to be transferred to another planet, and Bickley is suffering from writer's block. Their friend Susan comes by to visit, and suggests that they all go and attend a seminar on Ellsworth's Revitalization Konditioning. As the guests arrive at the seminar, Ellsworth nervously asks Susan if all of the attendants' checks are in order. He then lays out the rules for the duration of the training, which includes no leaving and no consumption of alcohol. When Bickley hears this, he promptly gets up to leave the seminar.

The attendants of the seminar are then given Ellsworth's harsh version of reality, which has been compared to the tenets of Erhard Seminars Training. Ellsworth preaches a belief in self-adoration, which he says will get rid of emotional highs and lows. Ellsworth centers this goal around the notion of "finding our own space." He utilizes an authoritarian style of control within the group, as a therapeutic method to solve problems. The other attendees at the seminar are shown to be passive consumers looking for any way to fix their personal issues. Mork begins to question the foundation of the rules of the course, as well as the nature of the philosophical material that Ellsworth has put forth, by pointing out hypocrisy among Ellsworth's own contradictory statements. In the end, Mork wins out over the Ellsworth philosophy by instead calling to mind universal humanistic moral values. Ellsworth dismisses Mork's victory over his methodology, exclaiming: "I've got my Rolls-Royce!"^[1][5][6][7]

Cultural references

David Letterman as Ellsworth, a parody of Werner Erhard in the episode "Mork Goes Erk".^[5]

In a 1982 article in the journal Theory & Society, Lewis & Clark College sociology professor Robert Goldman compared and contrasted Letterman's "Ellsworth" character and his training program to that of Werner Erhard's course Erhard Seminars Training. Goldman noted that the episode spent time: "lampooning Werner Erhard and est-like commercial pop psychologies." However, Goldman went on to note that the inherent problem with "Ellsworth Revitalization Conditioning" was not the training - but Ellsworth himself.^[5]

Ellsworth is seen not just as a parody of Werner Erhard, but also of consumerism: "As the self-help entrepreneur, Ellsworth is portrayed as a walking collection of lifestyle-status points and sign-values...Conspicuous consumption and commodity fetishism define his personality." Goldman explained that the Mork and Mindy episode succeeded in distinguishing between criticism of the Ellsworth training, and criticism of Ellsworth, citing Ellsworth's character traits of: "tyranny, selfishness, open greed, and flaunting of the accoutrements of his vulgar money-making."^[5]

Reception

TV Guide's 2005 book TV Guide: The Ultimate Resource to Television Programs on DVD highlighted "Mork Goes Erk" as one of three "Classic Episodes" of the first season, including "Mork's First Christmas", and "Mork's Missed Emotions".^[7] Matthew Tobey of Allmovie wrote that the episode was most notable because of David Letterman's appearance before he became more well known.^[1] Donald Liebenson of Amazon.com also cited David Letterman's performance as: "an abusive EST-like guru" as one of the more memorable parts of the Season One DVD boxed set, but thought that the highlight of the season was the episode "Mork's Mixed Emotions."^[8] The Dallas Morning News also praised Letterman's performance as a "shady motivational speaker," commenting that the episode was a way for Letterman to hone his "smarminess" before his later work on Late Show with David Letterman.^[9] Jonathan Boudreaux of tvdvdreviews.com described Letterman as "a flakey EST-like guru," and called the episode itself "disjointed."^[10]

See also

References

External links

Find more about Werner Erhard on Wikipedia's sister projects:

Quotations from Wikiquote
Source texts from Wikisource

Images and media from Commons

• "Mork & Mindy" Mork Goes Erk (1979) at the Internet Movie Database
• Mork Goes Erk at Allmovie
• "Mork Goes Erk" at TV.com
• Mork and Mindy Online