3rd Rock From the Sun (TV)
“3rd Rock From the Sun” is the type of sitcom that just shouldn’t work in live-action. Yes, “The Simpsons” has been chugging for 20-plus years on such high-concept chicanery, but with little exception, such broad humor just doesn’t work on TV. And yet, for six seasons, the NBC comedy took a delightfully absurd premise, and mined it for a great deal of comedy and feeling that makes it easily rewatchable.
Created by Bonnie and Terry Turner, “3rd Rock” has a relatively simple blueprint: four aliens land on Earth to study mankind. There was the High Commander, Dick Solomon (John Lithgow), who took up a position as a Physics professor at the local university; there’s the Security Officer, Sally Solomon (Kristen Johnston), a weapon’s specialist who takes on her biggest challenge yet in learning about being an Earth woman; there’s the Information Officer, Tommy Solomon (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), the senior officer tasked with exploring human adolescence; and then, there’s Harry Solomon (French Stewart), the not-so-bright odd man out on the mission who has a transmitter in his head, allowing them to remain in touch with their home planet. Together, the four learn about what it’s like to be human when they find themselves in situations that are alien to them, whether it’s love, death, work, driving a car, or even buying property.
That last sentence is the starting point for every one of the show’s 144 episodes, as the Solomons learn that being human is hard work. The catalysts for their discoveries about human beings are the humans in their life: their alcoholic landlady, Mrs. Dubcek (Elmarie Wendel), and occasional visits by her equally trashy daughter, Vicki (Jan Hooks); Dick’s wickedly sarcastic colleague and love interest, Dr. Mary Albright (Jane Curtain) and their snarky assistant, Nina (Simbi Khali); and a local police officer that gets Sally’s engine running (Don Orville, played by Wayne Knight). These are the main supporting characters in the Solomon’s life, but there are many others: Tommy’s on-and-off again girlfriends August (Shay Astar) and Alissa (Larisa Oleynik); Dick’s students in his Physics class (including Leon, played by Lithgow’s son, Ian); Dick and Mary’s colleagues at the university, Judith (Ileen Getz) and Vincent Strudwick (Ron West), who turns out to be Alissa’s father; and the Solomon’s supreme leader, the Big Giant Head (played by William Shatner, who haves a high-old hammy time). There’s a lot to learn about being human, and a lot that even real human beings need to learn at times, and over the course of their six-year mission, we see as the humans the Solomons come in contact with help this “family” learn about humanity, and how the Solomons also help these human beings learn a bit more about themselves.
In all honesty, I can see someone not really getting into the show the way I did when it was first on, and the way I continue to do so when I rewatch it on DVD; just in terms of the comedic performances at the center of the show (which earned Lithgow and Johnston a combined five Emmys for their work on the series), “3rd Rock” is nothing more than a live-action cartoon. However, that “live action cartoon” broadness to the performances is critical, I think, to the show’s success; if the actors didn’t go as over-the-top as they do, the show wouldn’t have worked quite as well. And it certainly wouldn’t have been able to do some of the stories it, like when Sally thinks she’s dating a gangster, and Tommy acts like a low-level criminal out of “GoodFellas” or “Donnie Brasco.” Or when the Big Giant Head comes to Earth, and behaves like a drunken boor, which let’s face it, who hasn’t felt that way about a boss? Or when Dick meets his match in pompous arrogance when a visiting professor (played by John Cleese) puts the moves on Mary? Or when Harry pretty much does anything, even if it’s simply breathing?
I’ve been watching the series over the past few weeks as I’ve been going to bed, and waking up, and the show remains one of my favorite sitcoms of all-time. What can I say? I love me 22 minutes of canned-laugh lunacy that pushes past normal, human behavior into a world of inspired craziness. Yeah, there’s something to be said for shows like “The Big Bang Theory” and “Friends,” which are downright logical in comparison, but with actors as gifted as Lithgow, Gordon-Levitt, Johnston, and Stewart (who are all given great chances for both broad comedy and down-to-Earth emotion) at the helm, you won’t hear me complaining. Yeah, there are episodes and conceits that don’t really work for me (the post-Super Bowl episode with supermodels, in particular), but when you see these aliens take on their taxes; try and deal with the complexities of romantic relationships; or go to a sci-fi convention, where Harry wants to become an alien Martin Luther King Jr., among many other bizarre happenings, the Solomons are ridiculously fun to watch. Well, for me, at least.
