My Favorite Martian
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My Favorite Martian was an American television sitcom aired on CBS from 1963 to 1966.
Premise:
A human-looking extraterrestrial in a one-man ship crash-lands in Los Angeles. The ship's pilot is, in fact, from Mars and is now stranded on Earth. A young newspaper reporter, Tim O'Hara, takes the Martian in as his roommate and passes him off as his Uncle Martin. Uncle Martin refuses to reveal any of his Martian traits to people other than Tim, to avoid publicity (or panic), and Tim agrees to keep Martin's identity a secret while the Martian attempts to repair his ship. Uncle Martin has various unusual powers: he can raise two retractable antennae and become invisible; he is telepathic and can read minds; he can levitate objects with the motion of his finger; and he can communicate with animals. He also builds several advanced devices, such as a time machine which transports Tim and the Martian back to Medieval England, as well as a "molecular separator" which can take apart the molecules in a physical object.
Tim and Uncle Martin live in an apartment house run by a congenial but scatterbrained landlady, Mrs. Brown, who often shows up when not wanted. She later dates a plain-clothes police officer, Detective Brennan, who dislikes Uncle Martin and is highly suspicious of him.
Characters:
- Uncle Martin (the Martian), played by Ray Walston
- Tim O'Hara, played by Bill Bixby
- Mrs. Brown, played by Pamela Britton
- Detective Bill Brennan, played by Alan Hewitt
An animated series, My Favorite Martians, was made by Filmation in 1973. To appeal to a younger audience, Uncle Martin was joined by a Martian boy named Andromeda (nicknamed "Andy"), who only had one antenna and thus lesser powers than Uncle Martin. The pair also had a Martian pet named Okey, a sort of bouncing sheepdog with antenna. None of the characters were voiced by the original actors.
The series was also remade as a film in 1999 starring Christopher Lloyd as Martin and Jeff Daniels as Tim. Ray Walston also featured in the film.
External links
- The My Favorite Martian TV Show (http://www.crazyabouttv.com/myfavoritemartian.html) page at Crazy About TV features trivia, a plot summary, cast list, and episode titles for the series.