3rd Rock from the Sun

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3rd Rock from the Sun
Title Shot
Genre	Situation comedy
Running time	about 25:00 (per episode)
Creator(s)	Bonnie Turner and Terry Turner
Starring	John Lithgow Kristen Johnston French Stewart Joseph Gordon-Levitt Jane Curtin Simbi Khali Elmarie Wendel Wayne Knight
Country of origin	United States
Original channel	NBC
Original run	January 9, 1996–May 22, 2001
No. of episodes	139
IMDb profile

3rd Rock from the Sun was an American television sitcom that ran from 1996 until 2001. The show was about a "family" of four extraterrestrials who landed on Earth to observe human beings, while pretending (often awkwardly) to be humans.

The show aired in the United States on NBC. In Britain, the show is either broadcast on ITV2 or Paramount Comedy 1 and in Australia, on the Seven Network and now on Pay-TV channel Fox Classics. In Indonesia the show aired on Jak-TV, a local television station in Jakarta.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Comic style 2.1 Common sources of humor 3 Awards 4 Series finale 5 Cast 6 DVD releases 7 Other media 8 External links

[edit] Plot

The first episode depicts the Solomon family teleporting into the seats of a Nash Rambler. The first discovery they all make is that none of them can swivel their heads 180 degrees and thus cannot lick their backs, apparently a common practice on their home planet. From that point forward, they relatively quickly find places for themselves in human society — they rent a loft apartment in Rutherford, finding that money and identification has been provided for them by their superiors (who are frequently invoked as having a shadowy influence on Earth authorities, shielding the Solomons from the worst effects of their irresponsible actions). Dick Solomon (played by John Lithgow), the High Commander and leader of the expedition, becomes the family provider and takes a position as a physics professor at Pendelton State University. Information officer Tommy (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) has been given the body of a teenager and is forced to enroll in high school (later University), leaving security officer Sally (Kristen Johnston) and communications officer Harry (French Stewart) to spend their lives as thirty somethings hanging out at home and bouncing through short-term jobs. The family often communicate with their offworld (and usually unseen) boss, "The Big Giant Head", (BGH) who apparently only got the job by kissing "The Big Giant Butt". When in human form, "The Big Giant Head" (William Shatner) is an arrogant, alcoholic, sexual predator. His orders are received by Harry, who unexpectedly (and often in inconvenient circumstances) stands erect, his arms stiff (acting perhaps as the antenna), and proclaims: "Incoming message from the Big Giant Head" (originally, Harry did not have a purpose on the mission at all, but it was later revealed that he has a microchip implanted in his brain which allows contact with the BGH. To make himself seem important, he subquently described himself as the "communications officer").

The show derived much humor from the contrast between the outward appearance adopted by each of the aliens and his or her actual, internal nature. Dick, far from being a wise and fatherly figurehead, is arrogant, self-absorbed, petulant, faddish, and often downright foolish. Inside Sally's glamorous form lives the weapons and security officer: uncouth, swaggering, and macho. The oldest of the group was morphed into teenager Tommy, his former wisdom at odds with the strange and often humiliating life in which his teenage persona and raging hormones casts him. Only the oddball of the group, Harry, seems comfortable with Earth — yet he is the most obviously weird of them all particularly when his built-in "radio" function takes unexpected control over his body, relaying orders from the aliens' homeworld in an odd, booming voice (Harry's title is never made explicit, but the other characters often refer to him as "Communicator" or "Transmitter", despite the fact that he almost always receives rather than transmits messages).

Almost all the episodes revolve around the Solomons' difficulty integrating themselves into Earth culture and understanding human customs — often their view of Earth realities is distorted by the fact that almost all of their experience of Earth comes through the media rather than firsthand experience, especially watching television. Details about their alien nature are rarely given and inconsistent, except to reinforce the idea that their former lives were almost barren of emotion and most of the relationships humans have with each other. Their original forms, for example, are described as asexual, with reproduction a matter of sending packets of genetic material to each other in the mail. Lying is almost impossible in their society because of the "Truth Belt". Leaders like The Big Giant Head are unelected and assumed infallible (in fact, it is stated that politicians on their planet are chosen by seeing which one can outrun the "giant fireball"). The upshot is that living in an Earth culture provides the Solomons with an almost intolerable degree of emotional stimulation and conflict, which they are very ill equipped to handle.

Occasionally references would be made to specific features of the aliens' abilities and of the aliens' experiences on their own world, which built up a common mythology for the show. The theme of the idiot savant repeatedly resurfaces, since each member of the family makes up for their extreme naïveté with some special skill owing to their alien nature. Though Dick's understanding of physics is weaker than his "son" Tommy's, it is implied that even his basic scientific knowledge makes advanced Earth physics appear rudimentary, leading to Dick's becoming enormously respected in his field despite his childish behavior (a famous clip from the show has Dick reading a passage from A Brief History of Time and laughing hysterically at Stephen Hawking's description of virtual particles). Even so, he is often shown as the member of the family with the least to recommend him in terms of ability, leading them to question his right to his command. Sally, for instance, is depicted as not only having an quite attractive body, but being amazingly physically strong and fit, able to fight and defeat large groups of men much larger than she (even when doing so is unnecessary and culturally inappropriate). Tommy, similarly, has been trained with the ability of near-instant recall and has an encyclopedic knowledge about Earth society, which unfortunately seems useless in terms of helping him make appropriate decisions, but ensures that he remains a straight-A student and that in much of his dialogue he finds himself inadvertently quoting passages from literature or film at length. Harry is most fascinating, since his behavior is bizarre, unstable and borderline mentally retarded even for a Solomon (a condition, it is implied, engendered by the chip in his brain that allows him to communicate with the home planet), yet somehow this mental condition gives him an inexplicable sex appeal for women and makes him the only Solomon with any talent in the arts — Harry often seems to have a knack for all fine arts, including music and theater, but is consistently shown as being an incredibly talented painter, especially as a portraitist and caricaturist, though his inability to verbally articulate his artistic ideas – or, in fact, any ideas – in an intelligent fashion sinks his efforts at making a living through his talent. One of Dick's driving motivations becomes his desire to master drawing, acting, music, or other pursuits -- all of which he fails at miserably -- due to his lack of understanding of how the clearly less intelligent Harry could possibly possess talents he does not.

Each alien became involved with various relationships with humans throughout the course of the series, primarily focusing on Dick's infatuation – at first met with disgust and then, finally, reciprocation – with anthropology professor Mary Albright (Jane Curtin), who shares an office with him (unusual for professors in two almost wholly unrelated departments, though this could be explained by repeated statements that the college is underfunded and of low quality). Much is often made of Mary's angst, insecurity, and neuroses brought on by a lifetime of studying the human condition and the cheerful, childlike naivete displayed by Dick, the primary factor in him that attracts her.

Sally similarly acquires a long-term boyfriend, Don Leslie Orville (Wayne Knight), an overweight and incompetent police officer who becomes attracted to her after several incidents in which he is forced to confront or arrest the Solomons for various crimes. The two generally have conversations while speaking in a manner similar to an old 1930s crime drama.

Tommy manages an on-again/off-again relationship with August (Shay Astar), a reserved "ice queen" teenager portrayed similarly to Cheers' Lilith Sternin (drawing on parallels between Tommy's behavior and that show's Frasier Crane) whose lack of obvious emotion makes her a comforting companion for the easily overwhelmed teenager. Harry is shown as paradoxically being something of a ladies' man and heartbreaker, carrying on a series of emotionally fraught one-night stands despite his lack of any obvious ability at seduction or deception. Some humor comes from the fact that at some point in the show most of the character relationships have been "mixed up" — a strange attraction is briefly shown between Mary and Tommy due to their similar passion for the social sciences and the study of humanity, in which Tommy disturbingly chooses to "step aside" and let Dick pursue her instead. Nina (Simbi Khali), Dick's assistant who primarily serves as his straight man and comic foil, is seen briefly having a fling with Harry. The Solomons' landlady, who is at first merely a source of comic relief, her own bizarre foibles and imperceptivity causing her to be a terrible role model for proper human behavior to the Solomons, ends up becoming an important character who eats Thanksgiving dinner with them annually and whose daughter, Vicki, becomes one of Harry's love interests.

The show famously peaked in popularity around the time that it released a special 3-D episode, relying on goggles available from soft drink bottles. The episode contained an ordinary main plot shot with normal cameras interspersed with cinematic 3-D interludes that relied heavily on CGI and nontraditional camera angles, each one representing an internal dream sequence each of the Solomons have as they one by one succumb to nervous breakdowns over the stress of their lives — Dick conflicted over his desire to be truly human and his fear of losing Mary, Sally over her desire for a life of glamour and power leading to a growing belief she is an unsuitable match for Don, Tommy over his realization that none of his intelligence or knowledge has allowed him any real understanding of humanity, and Harry's visions being typically bizarre and incomprehensible but focusing on his lack of respect and sense of who he is or what his purpose is even relative to the other Solomons.

As time went on the show began to intersperse concrete references to the aliens' nature and their homeworld which played a role in affecting the show's plot. They usually described their original bodies as "gelatinous purple tubes" that lacked sex organs or most of the forms of physical definition that humans possess. For instance, individuals in their species are so near-identical to each other that the Solomons were unaware of the concept of race or ethnicity and had never invented one for themselves, leading to them to attempt to "choose" one (a source of humor since the Solomons all appear quite white), eventually deciding that they are Jewish because of their surname, which they had taken from a trucking company. Occasionally the Solomons would encounter or think they encountered other extraterrestrials — Dick once becomes frantic when he misidentifies snowflakes as "brain-sucking parasites" (which Harry calls "Albino Brain Chiggers" in a fit of hysteria), for instance, but the most long-lasting such gag was the Solomons' belief that Jell-O is an offshoot of a hostile amorphous carnivorous species they have often encountered, prompting them to go into hysterics whenever they see it served and attempt to destroy it. The name of the Solomons' home planet (if it indeed has one) is never revealed throughout the course of the series, in the show's dialogue it is referred to as simply "The Home Planet." It is located in the Bard Spiral galaxy on the Sephius-Draco border.

Major twists in the plot, such as the various season finales, tended to involve contact with the Solomons' home planet, involving their superiors' ongoing disapproval at the Solomons' antics and their becoming a "laughing stock" among their peers. The first season finale, for instance, featured a message that the Solomons' mission was a failure and demanding that Dick be recalled and replaced with a more competent commander. The newcomer, also played by Lithgow and showing off Lithgow's ability to act against himself in a classic evil twin plot, proved to be a criminal who falsified the message in order to gain control of the Solomons' mission and use his technology to conquer the planet. After the Solomons dispatched him with the help of another alien agent who turns out to be Dennis Rodman (capitalizing on the joke comparing Rodman to an alien commonly made in sitcoms at the time), a genuine message came from the home planet allowing Dick to stay but ordering that he take a wife, as his romance with Dr. Albright was the apparent source of much of his emotional instability. Dick's wife, played by Roseanne Barr, acted as a foil for the other characters, being a newcomer even less versed in the ways of humanity than they, as well as an ironic take on her portrayal as the title character in Roseanne, portraying a "perfect", subservient woman.

The Big Giant Head makes his first appearance in the fourth season, played by actor William Shatner. (Many critics view this was the point in the series the shark was jumped, though hardcore fans generally disagree.) His desire to review the team's results and performance is soon forgotten, as the newly corporeal alien is quickly distracted by all the vices his new flesh affords. However, he took advantage of Vicki Dubchek while she had been arguing with Harry over having a child and slept with her. The next day, the Big Giant Head left after Vicki discovered she was pregnant. Because of his alien biology, the child was born within a day and was named Eric Travis. The child appeared totally human, but Vicki wanted to spread the news that he was half-alien, so the Solomons first tried to kidnap the child, but then tried to kill the reporter Vicki had called in. They were happy to find out the reporter didn't believe Eric Travis was half alien. Vicki left for Orlando. The Big Giant Head would return twice, the first was to take Vicki and Eric back with him, revealing that he and the Solomons were alien. When Vicki found this out, she happily screamed, "I'm gonna be queen of the freakin' universe!" The next time he returned, he revealed that he was Dick's father, making Dick's full name Dick Head.

During his first appearance (part one of the fourth-season finale), The Big Giant Head tells Dick of a bad experience he had once on an airplane, and Dick exclaims that the same thing happened to him some time earlier. This is a fictional crossover to the Twilight Zone episode "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet." Shatner appeared in the original television version; Lithgow appeared in the movie remake some 30 years later.

This was actually the second reference to the Twilight Zone incident. In episode 12 of the first series, Frozen Dick, Dick and Mary are seated in a plane which is about to take-off for Chicago. Suddenly, Dick goes berserk, looks out the window and shouts "Oh my God! Out there! There's something on the wing!". Mary's assurance that "it's an engine" doesn't seem to calm him down. They end up driving, of course.

In the sixth and final season, viewers didn't tune in nearly as much as in the preceeding years due to poor storylines and a newly assigned timeslot. Joseph Gordon-Levitt left the series as well this season as a primary character and, instead, became a recurring character only appearing in about half the season's episodes. The writers "hit the wall" and episode storylines continued to nose-dive, resulting in out-of-character antics such as Mary's and Don's on screen kiss. The show never recovered.

[edit] Comic style

Third Rock uses comic elements which are strikingly unusual in modern North American television comedy, yet drawn from established sources. Clowning techniques, all with a long pedigree in European theatre, are employed throughout the several seasons of the show. Mime, slapstick, speaking in rhyme and role reversals are employed, giving this science fiction comedy a solid anchoring in more venerable clown traditions, such as the Commedia dell'arte. (One of the show's most famous moments is when Dick's evil twin traps him in an "invisible box" that Dick tests with his hands and finds to be seamless, leading him to the agonized cry, "My God! He's turned me into a mime!") In the well established style of clown parody, the aliens repeatedly ape the behavior patterns, mannerisms and speech style of humans in various walks of life and much humor is derived from their ability to be more like their target human than the original. Relationships between the characters are similarly familiar from theatrical and circus comedy performed in Europe during the past few centuries. Usually, whenever Don and Sally are in the same room and speaking to one another, their conversations revert to a rather silly, pseudo-film noir dialogue.

[edit] Common sources of humor

• The aliens experiencing human emotions, such as rejection, jealousy, and infatuation, for the first time and reacting in an unduly flamboyant manner.
• The aliens' inability to define the word "alien" in context (as in "illegal alien").
• The aliens interpreting figures of speech literally.
• Conversely, the aliens misusing figures of speech, often by unintentionally altering a word so the expression sounds vulgar or peculiar. (for example, in the episode "Dick the Vote", Sally tells Officer Don that Harry "threw his head into the race;" and when Dick is performing an experiment to see what happens when the "spit hits the fan")
• The aliens' inability to differentiate between what is said and what is meant (missing sarcasm, for instance).
• The aliens' inability to distinguish fiction from reality when discussing Earth society and culture.
• The aliens' inappropriately mixing levels of social interaction, acting inappropriately formal in intimate moments, or vice versa.
• The aliens' interaction with science fiction and fictional depictions of the idea of aliens -- Harry becoming offended at what he considers to be negative, anthropocentric depictions of alien life at a Star Trek convention, for example. Once, Dick walked in on Tommy watching Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, at which point both started laughing and Tommy said "This is what they think space is like", to which Dick replied "If it was that exciting, I never would have left!"
• The aliens' naivete allowing them to make offensive generalizations about Earth culture that, ironically, prove for them to be true — Sally discovering that sexual wiles can act as a form of mind control over all men, Tommy discovering that high school popularity is a simple inverse correlation with intelligence, Dick discovering that any responsibility can be avoided by lying, etc.
• The aliens' being taken by total surprise by regular, everyday occurrences, thanks to their recent arrival on Earth -- becoming sick, having to pay income tax, being summoned for jury duty, the end of the school year, etc.
• A running gag in which Vicki Dubcek keeps mistaking Dr. Mary Albright for being a medical doctor due to her title.
• The aliens' naive nature causing others in their lives to make wild misapprehensions about the nature of their abnormalities — repeated speculation among his colleagues that Dick is a foreign immigrant or a drug abuser, or by Tommy's teachers that he is a victim of child abuse; an episode where Sally's masculine behavior fools a gay man into believing she is a transsexual, etc.
• The aliens misusing Earth appliances or household items (a form of prop comedy), a recurring gag being Harry taking upon himself the task of testing whether devices or substances are dangerous by using them to harm himself (testing whether bleach is toxic by ingesting it, pressing a hot iron against his chest, etc.).
• The aliens have a re-occurring fear, brought up by screaming and huddling, of gelatin dessert, having in the past dealt with a carnivorous alien beast that looks like it.

[edit] Awards

In 1997 3rd Rock won the most Emmy Awards (5 from 8 nominations) for a television series:

• Outstanding Lead Actor — Comedy Series — John Lithgow
• Outstanding Supporting Actress — Comedy Series — Kristen Johnston
• Outstanding Costume Design — Series — "A Nightmare on Dick Street" — Marguerite Derricks
• Outstanding Choreography — "A Nightmare on Dick Street"
• Outstanding Sound Mixing — Comedy Series — "A Nightmare on Dick Street"

John Lithgow received an Emmy Award nomination for "Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series" for each year the show was broadcast, winning in 1996, 1997, and 1999. Accepting the 1999 award he said "Many wonderful things have happened to me in my life, but the two best are 3rd Rock and my family."

[edit] Series finale

After Mary sees Dick change Liam (a malevolent alien played by John Cleese) into a monkey, Dick reveals his true identity to Mary. The Big Giant Head finds out and tells them that their mission is over. Sally helps Don realize what it means to be a police officer and Dick leaves Mary forever.

The ending scene features the aliens singing their national anthem in their Rambler and disappearing back to their home planet. Later, in syndication, an additional coda was added: Dick returns (in the nude) and abducts Mary (who had just had her memory erased, and was thus very confused).

[edit] Cast

• John Lithgow as High Commander Dick Solomon. He is head of the expedition to Earth but is often the most child-like member of the group. Much of the behavioural or societal based troubles faced by the crew in their mission whilst on Earth are frequently sourced out of some juvenile act perpetrated by Dick, troubles which in turn are forced to be overcome by the entire troupe with a great deal of reluctance.
• Kristen Johnston as Security Officer Lieutenant Sally Solomon (Dick's "sister", but sometimes introduced as Tommy's sister earlier in the series, and, on one occasion, claimed to be his "mother", although never Dick's "daughter" and certainly not his spouse -- failure to clarify the exact relationship between Tommy, Harry and Sally led to humorous confusion whenever either Harry or Sally attempted to act as Tommy's guardian). Sally was chosen to be "the woman" because she apparently lost some sort of contest; while the alien species is described as asexual, Sally seems to have a harder time trying to figure out womanhood than the others do manhood. She filed a request to be made male early in the mission, though later decided she liked being a woman.
• French Stewart as Communicator Harry Solomon (Dick and Sally's "brother", and either Tommy's "brother" or "uncle")
• Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Information Officer Tommy Solomon (Dick's "son", yet the oldest member of the aliens). Gordon-Levitt left the series (after the fifth season concluded) as a primary character, only appearing as a recurring character in about half the episodes of season six. He doesn't regret the decision.
• Jane Curtin as Dr. Mary Albright (at times, Dick's girlfriend)
• Simbi Khali as Nina Campbell (Dick and Mary's administrative assistant) (Only appears in the opening credits seasons 4 - 6).
• Elmarie Wendel as Mrs. Mamie Dubcek (the Solomons' loose, carefree landlady) (Only appears in the opening credits seasons 4 - 6).
• Wayne Knight as Police Officer Don Leslie Orville (at times, Sally's boyfriend) (Only appears in the opening credits seasons 4 - 6).
• Shay Astar as August Leffler, Tommy's girlfriend (seasons 1 - 4)
• Larisa Oleynik as Alissa Strudwick, Tommy's girlfriend (seasons 4 - 6)

The names of the male Solomons are a play on the expression "every Tom, Dick and Harry". Officer Don realizes this, but is assured that this is a coincidence, and "not a calculated attempt to appear normal", as Harry says. Sally's name is also implicitly chosen because of its commonplace nature as well, and was possibly chosen to match Harry's name in a reference to the film When Harry Met Sally. As for the name "Solomon", they say that they took it off a truck that was driving by.

[edit] DVD releases

All six seasons of 3rd Rock from the Sun have been released on DVD by Anchor Bay Entertainment.

Season	Release Date
	Region 1	Region 2	Region 4
1	July 6, 2005	May 17, 2004	November 9, 2005
2	October 25, 2005	June 21, 2004	November 9, 2005
3	February 21, 2006	August 30, 2004	February 8, 2006
4	May 2, 2006	October 25, 2004	July 6, 2006
5	August 15, 2006	January 24, 2005	February 7, 2007
6	November 14, 2006	January 24, 2005	February 7, 2007
Complete Box Set (Seasons 1-6)	TBA	October 25, 2004	TBA

[edit] Other media

A tie-in book, 3rd Rock from the Sun: The Official Report, was released in 1997. Its pages are printed in black and white; however, there are several glossy coloured pictures in the centre pages featuring various cast members on the show.

The book is essentially a report of their findings during their stay on Earth (although in Dick Solomon's foreword, he states that the report has been requested too early). Primarily a source of humour, the book includes such features as "What to do if you encounter Jell-O", a fan biography of Katie Couric written by Harry, and Sally's version of a Cosmo quiz.

Despite the report's being set within the fictional world of 3rd Rock, there is a foreword written by Lithgow himself in which he explains how he was "abducted" by the 3rd Rock producers and forced to work on their production. There is a post-it note attached to the foreword, apparently written by Dick Solomon, stating that he doesn't know why the foreword is there, but that Lithgow is an Earth actor who appeared in "some helicopter movie." A black and white picture of the 3rd Rock cast and crew is also included at the end of the book.

[edit] External links

• Episode guide
• Anchor Bay official website for the 3rd Rock releases on DVD
• 3rd Rock from the Sun at the Internet Movie Database