The issue of inappropriate sexual contact is getting even harder to figure out as Pam Dawber of Mork and Mindy tells the tale of how her costar Robin Williams and his sexual advances as being ‘so much fun’. According to Dawber, Williams would go out of his way to make her blush by doing just about anything he could to get her attention. The only explanation for this besides that it was ‘Robin being Robin’ is that it was the 70’s and times were very different. Dawber admits that Robin would grab her chest, bump against her in a sexual way, and just do anything he could get away with and she took it in stride as he was the kind of guy that meant nothing by it but was trying to get a rise out of her. And for the most part she let him because of who he was and the fact that they had so much fun on the show.
But trying to get away with that now would send a man to jail and ruin their name and reputation until the end of time. But in the 70’s it seems to have been able to get Robin Williams a lot of laughs on the set and make his costar blush a time or two but never think of calling the cops or suing for harassment. Those that read this and think of what must have gone on would no doubt be clamoring that Williams would have been arrested and all but crucified in this day and age but the fact remains that Dawber has already stated that it was fun and all done without any ill intent. In many ways the woman in this matter is the one that tends to set the tone for whether the act is to be condemned or not. It doesn’t make the act right in any sense of the word, and if any male actor was seeing doing this to a woman in this day and age they’d be called on it without question. But if a woman is willing to state that it was fun and that they allowed it to happen without any complaint, well, it’s still not right but it’s also not going to be worth raising a stink over.
Mull that over for a bit, because it might seem like it’s very wrong in one sense. However a woman that says freely that it was fun and she didn’t mind the contact at all loses the kind of credibility that others might want to attribute to Dawber in this case. She’s already stated her peace that Williams did in fact act in this manner with her but she’s also stated that it was just his way and she took no offense. One thing you can say about Robin Williams was that he was very unique, but this meant that he was a bit of a troubled genius. A lot of people might think that Dawber was just trying to save her job by not saying anything, but it’s hard to believe she would’t have brought a contradictory statement forward by now if she had one.
