How will you remember Jonathan Winters?

I remember he was Robin Williams’ inspiration, from the time Williams was small. When Williams started becoming famous, he was invited to visit Jonathan at his home. A TV crew followed them around. Robin and Jonathan were just chatting, and of course it turned into comedic improve. It was freaking HILARIOUS! It’s where Robin W broke out with “A mime is a terrible thing to waste!”

Oh WOW! Thanks for sharing those clips!

Sort of the poor man’s Rodney Dangerfield.

I didn’t think he was particularly original or funny. I doubt I’ll miss him at all.

He was an amazing comic.

I remember his days in Hartford at the Institute of Living up on Butler 3. I worked there later, while I was in college. Some of my fellow workers use to play card games with him. I wore out his album from the 1960’s, “The Wonderful World of Jonathan Winters.” A great but twisted mind for comedy.

Jonathan Winters and Robin Williams were on Mork & Mindy together.

He made a guest appearance at least once. Wasn’t he Mork’s dad?

@Dutchess_III Jonathan was Mork’s son Mearth. Orkian babies were old looking when born and got younger.

Oh, that’s right @Tropical_Willie! That’s crucial. Can’t fathom how I forgot that! :)
That was a GREAT show!

A great, great loss to the world of comedy. Proud to say I once directed Mr. Winters in a TV commercial (I use the word “directed” quite loosely because Winters did whatever the hell he wanted). In another thread I shared this experience.

I saw Mr. Winters recently on a short-lived cable series called “The Green Room,” a living room-style setting in front of a live audience in which 4–5 comedians of different generations sat around chatting and riffing and tearing each other up on a variety of topics including, of course, the art of comedy.

Winters sported cane and didn’t look well, but he was as funny as I remembered him from the ‘50s when my parents introduced used kids to him via record albums.

One of the topics that show was how upbringing affects a comedian’s style, and Winters talked at length about his unhappy childhood and early manhood. One of his lines was both very funny and terribly said. He said that when he was overseas (in World War II) he was the only soldier in his unit who received “Not-Care Packages.” He added that when he got back from service, he was in the attic looking for his collection of dolls (dolls!), and couldn’t find them. When he asked his mother what had happened to then, she told him she had thrown them out because she expected him to return from the War. If it’s true, I can’t think of a crueler thing for a Mother to say to a Son.

I’ll aways remember Mr. Winters as one of the great comedic geniuses I discovered in childhood. He, along with others of his generation including Bob Newhart, Nichols and May, and Shelly Berman helped inform my love and appreciation for mature, intelligent comedy.

Never heard of the guy.

Johnathan Winters had an original comedic style.
In his heyday in the earylier times were halarious.
I remember him in Mork and Mindy too,funny.
By that time he was stating to age.
He could always be counted on to make us laugh. A skill learned.
Thanks for informing us of his passing, I did not even know that he was still alive?

Here Raggie

Part 2

The baby in Mork & Mindy had me in tears with laughter as a kid, but I remember him best in It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, one of my comedy faves…RIP big man.

I’d forgotten about that! Jonathan Winters in a giant diaper!!

I always think of him reciting this on Letterman:

I miss dancing with you, feeling your cheek next to mine. Looking into your eyes, holding you ever so close. Hoping the orchestra will never stop playing and pretending all along that it was just us on that big dance floor, sort of like Astaire and Rogers.

I miss dancing with you because for those few hours I felt you were mine. People don’t dance like we used to. Our music said something. The lyrics, the words, the singers, the musicians; everything blended into one incredibly beautiful evening.
We all looked good so clean, so innocent; every cent I had went into that evening. God, it was worth it, just knowing I’d be dancing with you!

You always looked so pretty. I know you didn’t have a lot of dresses, but you made them look different. I always felt so dumb in the same dark suit. The only thing that made my clothes different was my tie. I always had about six different ties.

I miss dancing with you. That perfume you wore. How many times we’d bump into another couple and the girl or the guy would say, ‘Gosh, what is that perfume you’re wearing!’ You’d laugh and say, ‘Don’t you remember? I work at the perfume counter at Rike’s?’

I miss dancing with you because it was never just another dance. It was like the great ball in the greatest ballroom, held only once a year and only for very special people. You were special. You’re still special. How proud I was to have you as my partner for all the dance. Every guy on the floor couldn’t keep his eyes off you as we turned this way and that. Even the girls would remark, ‘She is incredibly beautiful, isn’t she?’

Oh God, I miss dancing with you! Why did it have to stop? Hell, you know as well as I do- it’s ‘cause I paid you to dance with me. I have no regrets. Nobody ever saw my left sleeve was empty. Who would dance with a one-armed guy? Wherever you are, you’ll be happy to know that I finally got an arm, but I still miss dancing with you.

When I look back, you were wrong, you know, to charge me for all those dances. But I guess it’s all kind of worked out. Mom wrote me that you and your husband were at the symphony, in the front row, and that somehow the harp fell over on you and broke your back.

You know something. I still miss dancing with you.

That Jonathon Winters and Robin Williams interview had me lmao. He was a real talent.

His role playing of aged women (grandmothers) was groundbreaking. Many of his innovative comedic bits show a degree of creativity rarely seen on television today,

Instead of cleverly written sitcoms in which actor’s improvisations elevated the humour and terrified the censors who lived in fear of offending an executive from the show’s sponsor, we are offered unscripted examples of stars for a day showing their worst behaviour for an audience with low expectations. The sponsors get a guaranteed audience who will accept nearly any advertisement of any product (no matter how useless or overpriced). Reality TV is cheap to make (no writers, no professional actors) with no redeeming social value. Our “News” shows have become contests between groups of talking head with supposedly different viewpoints that carefully avoid challenging viewers to think or ask questions.

When Jonathan Winters or Robin Williams were on TV, you never knew what was going to result. On live specials the effect was even better and more scary for the network censors who had to risk dead air if they pushed the button to cut the feed if sometime was said that might have pushed the envelop of the day. Today the programs feed us predigested trash with nothing to challenge our imaginations,

Be interested to know which dumb fucks GA’d @ragingloli‘s utterly pointless post.

I watched his movie Certifiably Jonathan on netflix last night. There is a scene form an old TV show where Jack Paar hands him a stick and lets him work. Within seconds he turns it and himself into many roles. Fantastic. I found it. April 1964