Star Debuts

The Garry Marshall special had a great bit on Mork. They hired another actor (John Byner) who just wasn't making the character work, Marshall said he only wrote the episode because his son was really in to Star Wars o he figured a space man would do the trick. He said Williams was spotted by an agent ON THE STREET in downtown LA busking/miming whatever -
"You want me to hire a guy who is passing a hat on the street?" Marshall said. The agent said "It was a very full hat."
Williams improvised 90 percent of his lines, the rest is history.

This man was the original Mork from Ork but walked away from the role

 

First episode of The Wonder Years, and then the rest of that season.

Still, decades later, there hasn't been a show that followed the Super Bowl that got the whole country talking the way The Wonder Years did.

 

Don't underestimate the influence of HBO. Probably one of the biggest boosters to Garth Brook's popularity (and record sales) was his series of HBO concerts. They brought the manic energy of his stage performance into millions of living rooms, and you could see him interact with the audience and mug for the camera a damn sight better than you could live. To a lesser degree this was true for Madonna. I think that she had a higher profile and trajectory on her own than Brooks did, but it is hard to overstate the impact of the camera showing her stage show and that of her backup singers and dancers. She brought her crotch grabbing, pelvic thrusting sexuality into countless middle class homes. I still marvel to this day at those performances. On my best day I could not have kept up with her aerobic dance pace, let alone sung (at all, panting would have been more like it) while doing them. She was doing high exertion dance while singing at almost studio quality. Blew me away.

 

I wonder whatever happened to Jennifer Lawrence and Brie Larson from the "Bill Engvall Show" and "Raising Dad"? They had so much promise.

 

The first time I saw JLaw was "Winter's Bone", and she punched her ticket to better things with it. She was 19, and she flat carried that movie. Oscar and Golden Globe noms.

 

Kat Dennings is Saget's other daughter in "Raising Dad." Not a huge star, but she's done well for herself.

 

From playing second fiddle to one of the Blue Collar rednecks to becoming one of the A-list of Hollywood actresses ... not a bad leap.

 

I remember seeing JL in a "Cold Case" episode. I really liked that show. And a very young Jena Malone in an episode of "Homicide" about bikers that concluded with closing music from the Pretenders.

 

I never knew that Byner was the original choice for Mork on that "Happy Days" episode. I've been familiar with Byner's work for years and, if you take Williams out of the equation, he's one guy I think could have been good in that role. Of course, not nearly as good as Williams and it probably wouldn't have led to a spin-off, but Byner would have been OK.

 

When I first saw Ed Norton in this movie I was stunned. To see him dominate Richard Gere was amazing.

 

Stephen Wright on Carson was very big for Boston comedians.

 

Julia Roberts in Mystic Pizza.