How 3rd Rock from the Sun Teaches Us to be Human 25 Years Later

[TMC]

https://www.pastemagazine.com/tv/str...he-sun-legacy/

Few sitcoms in history have garnered such acclaim—only to be virtually forgotten about—as 3rd Rock from the Sun. Running for an impressive six seasons on NBC when it debuted 25 years ago on January 9, 1996, 3rd Rock followed the lives of four aliens sent to Earth on a mission to find the essence of the human experience, posing as best they could as a typical family in suburban Ohio.

Over the show’s original run of 139 episodes through May 2001, 3rd Rock accumulated a glut of awards including eight Emmys, two SAG awards, and two Golden Globes for the strength of its writing, cast, and the tender humanity that drives the series. The show was created by veteran show writers Bonnie and Terry Turner, the husband-and-wife duo responsible for some of comedy’s funniest moments on the likes of Saturday Night Live, Roseanne, and That 70s Show. 3rd Rock also featured a strong cast composed of both legends and fledging stars, along with a wealth of comedic possibilities inspired by the show’s central premise; when writing solely about the human experience you’ll basically never run out of material. With all this in mind, it begs the question of how a show with near universal acclaim can feel virtually erased from the classic sitcom canon. In the never-ending marathon that quarantine has become, it is high time to revisit such an otherworldly series.

At the center of the family unit is Dick Solomon, the group’s high commander played by John Lithgow. After an already rich career in film and drama, Lithgow added nuance to his role as the pompously incompetent commander-in-chief who takes up a job teaching confounded college students as a masters-level physics professor at the local Pendleton University, located in the fictional town of Rutherford. In his first major role, a baby-faced teenaged Joseph Gordon-Levitt inversely plays the family’s oldest and wisest member as Tommy, the Information Officer. In his role, he is forced to go through the trials of puberty and public school in order to provide a deeper understanding of what makes humans tick. Lieutenant and security officer Sally—played by Kristen Johnson, also known as Lexi Featherston who fell out of a window in the penultimate episode of Sex and the City—is a highly-decorated combat specialist and military and the sole woman of the group. On the bottom of the family hierarchy is French Stewart portraying Communications Officer Harry, also referenced as “the one with the transmitter.” Half his headspace is taken up by a chip that allows him to connect with the family’s alien overlord (a.k.a. The Big, Giant Head) on their home planet, which causes him to flail around and stick his arms out like antennae when receiving transmission. Both Sally and Harry are relegated to the roles of listless 20-somethings, bouncing around between dead-end jobs and whatever schemes they can get into for the day.

Rounding out the cast are the unsuspecting humans that the Solomons take a liking to. The family rents a cramped and dated attic apartment from the free-wheeling Mrs. Dubchek, as they try to establish a personal connection with their landlord while simultaneously trying to distance her from knowing about their mission. Dick shares his office at the university with Dr. Mary Albright, a PhD of Anthropology. As portrayed by Jane Curtain (who is comedy royalty as one of the premiere members of SNL, and known as “Queen of the Deadpan”), Mary plays the one straight character surrounded by nonsense, and becomes a central power in how the family comes to learn about the core of human connection.

Mary also helps Dick discover his primal instinct of lust and infatuation upon their first interactions, as the normally collected Dick begins tripping over himself in order to impress her, a power dynamic she is keenly aware of while he is trying to logicize his first experience with feelings of longing and romance. Their relationship begins to blossom as Mary starts taking an interest in this man unlike any she’s met before, but them getting close leads the rest of the family to fear the possibility that Dick could spill their secret at any minute.