I was glad to finally see a more maturely written episode of this series with a more complicated plot-line, juggling three or four different story lines. Perhaps this is due the use of a different writer, Paul Wolff, who seems to have only done one episode of Highway to Heaven. This is why I gave it a rating of 9.7, not because the story-line is that great (it's not bad at all, by any means) but rather because of these several sub-plots. This style of show writing is used way more often these days in modern TV series, still nothing new for 1984 however.

Also, as noted in the notes to this series, Jonathan reveals to Mark that he dies of lung cancer from smoking. However, at least form the stand-point of the DVD release, this little tid-bit is not written into the episode at all, only the episode preview before the opening credits. This does further make me believe, as others had commented previously, that there has been several scenes cut by A&E for its syndication. Which is what we have here for the DVD release, the syndicated AND trimmed showings of the entire series.

This is one of the episodes that is among my favorites for this series. True, it does not revolve around the love story that the women viewers just want to see only, but in fact, this one speaks soundly of Vincent's philanthropic and therapeutic concern for another who is an outcast as well due to his appearance.

Charles' rather severe physical deformities may leave the more estrogen loaded viewers' delicate sensitives offended, but I found it endearing, and indeed moving in how he has learned to accept his appearance, and thus accept his self and begin to really live.

I have a large admiration for Vincent's solid feeling ethic and his strong noble interior. As a vehement protector of what is dear and just in his world, this episode demonstrates how words can heal as well as harm. Shame on the viewers that love Vincent but dislike the episodes that deal with him actually USING his noble nature and humanity that they think they admire him for. The series was about WAY more than the 'love story' plot angles.

It is too early in the run of this series to have such a lackluster episode. It is almost as if the writer, Dan Gordon, could not decide between a serious vein and a comedic story and as a result fails miserably at both. Perhaps it may even be better for me to avoid episodes done by the same writer, though since he has been credited with 30 some-odd episodes, I'll give him more of a chance before I make that call.

Furthermore, even though this episode is over 20 years old, it seems really dated in its naivety in how it portrays the elderly trying to recapture a spirit of lost youth during the scenes where they "suit up" in their former TV costumes from the 40's to "save the day" and end up looking like complete doddering fools in their comical Will Rogers and Tonto attire. Is this how Dan Gordon really views old age? Perhaps now, 20 years later, he has a little more personal familiarity with his own age, and a more realistic view.

As an ending comment, though this relates more the the DVD release of the first season, it seems whomever put this DVD set together did a poor job with little, or more likely, no work at all on cleaning up the video. This episode particularly was so dark and off-contrast that I could not distinguish at times between Victor French and the black actors. Even though it was largely shot indoors, at times all I could see where teeth and eyeballs, and if I didn't know better, someone, somewhere, was not overly concerned with how this might come across as.

My verdict - what a raging disappointment! At least wait until later on in the series run to use fillers, not in the first five episodes of the first season! Wow what we have learned in the years since about how to capture ratings!

This was a good episode, which really became good at the end. The last scene, where Arthur (Barret Oliver) is on his death bed and Jonathan comes in as he is dying, really moved me in how it was done. Jonathan tells him to keep looking at the moon, as he is going 'home', and then the camera slowly zooms in on the moon almost had me in a tear or two. It kind of redeemed the slow build up of the rest of the story.

Also I was looking at Arthur and kept thinking to myself, who is this kid and where have I seen him before. Then it dawned on me, that's Bastian from The Neverending Story! That movie had been released that same year, and I must say his acting seemed to be better in this episode. I also remember seeing him in an episode of Twilight Zone, the 80's version.

I'm enjoying catching up on my favorite, but largely unseen, nostalgic series and other films from my childhood in the 80's.

Ha! I loved this episode and is perhaps the justification for me buying the season one dvd set and I can see why it was named by TV Guide as one of the greates episodes in television history. Is perhaps one of the best episodes of the first season.

It is also funny to watch Pam Dawber (Mindy) several times try not laugh as Mork is spazzing out, and I can only wonder how many takes were used to finish the filming of this episode. It is my understanding that Robin Williams was allowed, and indeed encouraged, to ad lib the majority of his part.

Great stuff!