The Eleventh Day of the Eighth Month

August 11, 2014. Around 3:30PM Pacific Standard Time. I was on Twitter, just looking around. Then I read it. I wish I could forget it. "Robin Williams has died." My first thought: "Please let this be some sick hoax." Dead serious, those were the words that entered my mind.

It wasn't.

I sat there, processing this for about a half an hour, or maybe it was an hour. I know this much. I felt like a piece of me died with Robin Williams that day. I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only one who felt that way. If I just say that we all loved Robin Williams, well, that would be the biggest understatement I've made in three years on Vocal. We all grew up watching his movies, his TV programs, his comedy, you name it. His greatest signature was always his manic energy, that famous fast pace that he would give us in his performance. That pace was often imitated, but it could never be duplicated.

Born on July 21, 1951, Robin McLaurin Williams gave us so much, but like most comedians, he had to branch out in order to get any proper acclaim. His greatest claims to fame include the following:

Mork & Mindy

Two words: Nanu, nanu. That says it all. Every famous comedian has that first breakout series, and in the case of Robin Williams, it was the iconic Mork & Mindy, which co-starred Williams and Pam Dawber. Williams, as we all know, portrayed the iconic role of Mork from Ork, the hilarious alien who lived with the latter titular half, Mindy McConnell (Dawber). The series was actually one of a number of spinoffs of the long running series, Happy Days, with Mork debuting on that show before receiving his own program.

One of the brainchildren of the late, great Garry Marshall, and co-created by Marshall, Joe Glauberg, and Dale McRaven (the latter third of that trio going on to give us another hilarious oddball character: Balki Bartokomous), Mork & Mindy premiered on ABC on September 14, 1978, and lasted just four seasons, though it's still a cult hit. I haven't seen too much of that show unfortunately, and honestly, I'm stunned that on this weekend, it's not featured as the weekend binge on Catchy Comedy.

Good Morning, Vietnam

I finally watched Good Morning, Vietnam on August 12, 2014, one day after Williams' passing. The acclaimed film starred Williams as Adrian Cronauer, an Armed Forces Radio Service disc jockey working during the Vietnam War in 1965, with the film being loosely based on the real life Adrian Cronauer's experiences. It was on that aforementioned date that I finally watched the film in its entirety, and as amazing as it was, the funniest moment of the film was Williams' first broadcast, which sees him reference The Wizard of Oz and imitate Rod Serling--the latter always having me in stitches.

Now this film was listed as a comedy, but it was also dramatic due to the setting. While Williams' comedic timing was the centerpiece, we also saw some dramatic acting from the icon as well, and that resulted in his Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy.

Mrs. Doubtfire

I loved Mrs. Doubtfire; I've seen that film quite a few times. In this 1993 comedy, Williams played Daniel Hilliard, a divorced father who disguised himself as the titular Mrs. Doubtfire, a typical British nanny, in order to spend time with his three children. I loved a lot of things about this film; for one, of course, Williams' comedic abilities. I also loved that Daniel's profession was that of a voice actor, and we see that displayed in the very beginning the film.

The cast was absolutely amazing. Sally Field played Daniel's estranged wife, Miranda, and the children were played by Lisa Jakub, Matthew Lawrence (whose brother, Joey Lawrence, was hitting it big on Blossom at that time), and Mara Wilson (later of Matilda fame). Harvey Fierstein played Daniel's brother, who helped create the Mrs. Doubtfire disguise, and Pierce Brosnan appeared as Daniel's romantic rival of sorts; with this role coming right before he began his run as 007.

Weapons of Self-Destruction

I have to talk about Weapons of Self-Destruction. I had never seen Robin Williams perform stand up comedy. Honestly, I didn't know he did stand up until I saw this on HBO in 2009. I had to watch this, because, well, it's Robin Williams! It's going to be good, and it was absolutely amazing. Williams hit on a lot of the topics of that time; politics, sports (mainly the Olympics, including Michael Phelps' marijuana controversy), and even drugs--it was in this special that I learned about Doc Ellis' no-hitter, which he somehow pitched while he was on LSD.

It was also an eye-opening special, because Williams hit on something that was personal to him: his struggles with alcohol. I actually thought about this when the tragic news hit five years later, and I remember the stories about Williams also struggling with depression. I recall also hearing this while watching PBS' documentary about Robin Williams shortly after his passing--a documentary I watched twice.

Last Works

Williams actually returned to scripted TV in the fall of 2013 in the CBS sitcom, The Crazy Ones. I remember seeing the promo for this show, which starred Williams and Sarah Michelle Gellar, and of course, I watched this thing religiously. To this day, one episode runs in my mind, and it was the one that featured Pam Dawber as a guest star; an epic Mork & Mindy reunion. At times I remember the show fondly, but in other times, I remember it with anger. The reason: CBS axed the show after a full season, and I recall reading that the show's cancellation actually did contribute to Williams' long existing depression.

Williams had four films left at the time of his passing, and of course, I watched all of them. The first one, Merry Friggin' Christmas, paired up Williams with Joel McHale, a very hilarious combination. The biggest one was the third and last installment in the Night at the Museum trilogy, which featured Williams as Theodore Roosevelt. The third film, Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, was released in the near end of 2014, and I remember seeing that film in the theater; it's a miracle I didn't have a lump in my throat while watching. Boulevard was largely released in the summer of 2015, and marked Williams' final starring role and his final on-screen role as well, and Absolutely Anything came out in the UK in August of 2015, marking Williams' final film. All four movies were dedicated to Williams, and in the case of Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, it was dedicated to both Williams and co-star Mickey Rooney, whose passing came four months prior to Williams. Rooney, Dick Van Dyke, and Bill Cobbs all reprised their roles from the first film.

Robin Williams gave us so much in his 63 years in this world, and made us all smile and laugh for so long. However, I have to save this role for last, because it was his best:

Aladdin

Robin Williams gave us so many great contributions, but without question, his greatest one was Aladdin. I love Aladdin with a passion, I loved the entire series, which includes the TV show. It all began all the way back in 1992 with this iconic film, which featured an amazing voice cast that was actually led by Robin Williams as the big, blue Genie. Williams absolutely stole the entire film as Genie, and yes, the centerpiece of that entire performance (as well as the film overall) was Genie's song, "Friend Like Me."

The iconic film spawned a sequel, The Return of Jafar, in 1994, but Williams was not part of it. At the time of the sequel's release, Williams and Disney were at odds--big time, so Dan Castellaneta was brought into voice Genie, giving a very stellar Williams-esque impression. The sequel actuall served as a backdoor pilot for the eventual TV show, which saw Castellaneta continue as Genie, and afterwards, a third film, Aladdin and the King of Thieves, was released in 1996 and served as an overall finale of the film/TV series. In this go-around, Williams, having ended his dispute with Disney, returned as Genie.

Ten years. Hard to believe it's been a decade since we lost such a great talent in Robin Williams. As I said before, we all lost a bit of ourselves in the afternoon of August 11, 2014, but in that time that has passed, we continue to enjoy so much of Robin Williams' projects, and we will continue to do so in honor of one of the greatest talents of all time.