ROBIN WILLIAMS WALKED INTO AN AUDITION, WAS TOLD TO SIT DOWN, AND IMMEDIATELY SAT ON THE CHAIR UPSIDE DOWN. HE GOT THE PART IN UNDER A MINUTE. Two actors had already turned down the role. Dom DeLuise passed. Roger Rees passed. Garry Marshall needed someone to play an alien on Happy Days and nobody wanted the gig. Then Marshall’s sister mentioned this guy she’d noticed in an acting class that Penny Marshall was taking. Some comedian nobody had heard of. Robin Williams walked into Garry Marshall’s office. Marshall said, “Take a seat.” Robin flipped upside down and sat on the chair with his head where his butt should be. Marshall later said he gave Robin the part because “he was the only alien to audition.” But here’s what I didn’t know until recently — the show Mork & Mindy never actually had a real pilot. They literally spliced together Robin’s footage from Happy Days with scenes from an actress who’d never met him. Pam Dawber found out she was starring in a new series when her agent saw it announced in Variety. “I hadn’t auditioned, I hadn’t met, and I knew nothing,” she said. “And who in the hell is Robin Williams?” Seven months later, the show premiered and beat Happy Days in the ratings.
Robin Williams, the Chair, and the Audition That Changed Television Some casting stories feel too perfect to be true, but…