The Dance of the Censors

Is there a way of me trying to tell you that I’m currently doing a season of Raquel Welch films, without sounding like a dirty bastard? Maybe I could say that I highly recommend her 1967 film Fathom, a Bond pastiche which she is fantastic in, and which avoids every single Mary-Goodnight-shaped mistake you might worry they would fall into. My feminist credentials duly restored, I also recently watched the double-length Mork & Mindy episode “Mork vs. the Necrotons”, broadcast by ABC on the 18th November 1979. This was broadcast during sweeps week – the period where the viewing figures set the advertising rates – and featured Welch as Captain Nirvana, one of the evil alien Necrotons. I’m sure they didn’t do anything too exploitative and over-sexualised, did they? I can only presume that teenage boys across the land had a confused sexual awakening directly in front of their parents, leading to an awkward evening all round. Truth be told, “Mork vs. the Necrotons” is a mixed bag of an…