Everything about My Favorite Martian totally explained
My Favorite Martian is an
American television sitcom that aired on
CBS from
September 29,
1963 to
September 4,
1966 for 107 episodes (75 in black and white
1963-
1965, 32 color
1965-
1966). The show starred
Ray Walston as Uncle Martin (the Martian) and
Bill Bixby as Tim O'Hara.
This series was produced by
Jack Chertok.
Premise
A human-looking
extraterrestrial in a one-man spaceship crash-lands near
Los Angeles. The ship's pilot is, in fact, from
Mars and is now stranded on
Earth. Tim O'Hara, a young newspaper
reporter for
The Los Angeles Sun, is on his way home from
Edwards Air Force Base (where he'd gone to report on the flight of the
X-15) back to Los Angeles when he spots the spaceship coming down.
Tim 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's
telepathic and can read minds; he can levitate objects with the motion of his finger; and he can communicate with animals.
Martin also builds several advanced devices, such as a
time machine which transports Tim and the Martian back to
Medieval England and other times and places, such as
St. Louis in
1849, the early days of
Hollywood, or bring
Leonardo da Vinci and
Jesse James into the present. Another device he builds is a "molecular separator" which can take apart the
molecules of a physical object, or rearrange them (a squirrel was made into a human). Another device can take memories and store them in
pill form to "relearn" them later. Another device can create temporary duplicates.
Tim and Uncle Martin live in an apartment house run by a congenial but scatterbrained landlady, Mrs. Lorelei Brown, who often shows up when not wanted. She later dates a vain, cold-hearted,
plain-clothes police officer, Detective Bill Brennan, who dislikes Uncle Martin and is highly suspicious of him.
The first two seasons were filmed in black-and-white (at
Desilu), but the final season was shot in color (at
MGM), resulting in minor changes in the set and the format of the show. In addition to the extraterrestrial powers indicated in the first two seasons, Martin seemed to be able to do much more in the final season, such as stimulating facial hair to provide him and Tim with a quick disguise, and levitating with his nose. Brennan's boss, the police chief, was involved in many episodes in the third season, generally as a device to humiliate the overzealous detective.
Martin's real name,
Exigius 12 1/2 (revealed in "We Love You, Mrs. Pringle") was heard again when his real nephew, Andromeda, crash-landed on Earth in the show's third season. Andromeda, originally devised to bring younger viewers to the aging show, disappeared without explanation after a single episode and was never referred to again in the two episodes filmed after it, or six episodes already filmed, but aired afterward (Andromeda was, however, a regular on the later animated series
My Favorite Martians). He had a single antenna, which Martin explains was because his baby antennae had fallen out and only one adult antenna had come in, so far.
Characters
- Uncle Martin (the Martian), played by Ray Walston
- Tim O'Hara, played by Bill Bixby
- Mrs. Brown, played by Pamela Britton
- Mr. Burns, played by J. Pat O'Malley, first season only, as Tim's boss at the newspaper
- Detective Bill Brennan, played by Alan Hewitt, second and third seasons only
- Police Chief, played by Roy Engel, third season only
Production and Distribution
The series was produced by Jack Chertok Television in association with
CBS. The show was later syndicated by
Telepictures, and later by successor-in-interest
Warner Bros. Television Distribution. The Chertok company continues to hold all copyrights for the show,
Rhino Entertainment, holds U.S. video rights until August 2008, Australian and New Zealand video rights are held by Umbrella Entertainment. Currently,
Warner Bros. holds domestic and international syndication rights for the series.
DVD Releases
The first two complete seasons are available on DVD from Rhino Entertainment. The third season exists in its entirety on
VHS (appropriately on green tapes), and was by Umbrella Entertainment of Australia in March of
2007, as Jack Chertok Productions found Rhino apparently uninterested in proceeding with a third season release.
Spin-offs
Animated series
An
animated series,
My Favorite Martians, was made by
Filmation, and ran on
CBS, from September
1973 to September
1975 on Saturday mornings. The series features Tim, Martin, Mrs. Brown and Detective Brennan (Brennan is considerably different). To appeal to a younger audience, Uncle Martin is joined by his Martian nephew named Andromeda, nicknamed "Andy", who only has one antenna and thus lesser powers than Uncle Martin. The pair also have a Martian pet named Okey, a sort of bouncing sheepdog with antenna. Tim also had a niece named Katy, living with them. None of the characters was voiced by the original actors;
Jonathan Harris voiced Martin.
Feature film
The series was also remade as a
feature film in
1999 starring
Christopher Lloyd as Martin and
Jeff Daniels as Tim. Ray Walston was featured in the film and played a Martian who had been trapped on Earth since the time of the first series and wore a similar space suit from the series. However, the premise was changed: Martians are four-armed, four-legged, three-eyed, creatures who use a "gumball" (which they call "nerplex") to assume human form. The "nerplex" comes in a selection that will turn the person ingesting it into assorted life forms, including Martian and one to "never use" (Venox 7).
In Popular Culture
Ray Walston appeared in a television commercial for AT&T in 2000. The conversation makes it evident to those who remember the TV series that he's playing the role of Uncle Martin, still on Earth. He asks if the rates AT&T offers also apply for phoning fellow Martians living in the United States.
In an episode of the TV series Picket Fences, Walston's character, Judge Henry Bone, attends a Halloween party wearing antennae like those he wore on Martian.
In the end title theme music for the film Spaced Invaders, a Halloween comedy involving incompetent invaders from Mars, one of the Martians hums the first bars of the theme from My Favorite Martian.
Gold Key Comics published a My Favorite Martian comic for nine issues, Oct 1963 - July 1966.Further Information
Get more info on 'My Favorite Martian'.
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