My Favorite Martian is an American sitcom that aired on CBS from September 29, 1963, to May 1, 1966, for 107 episodes. The show stars Ray Walston as "Uncle Martin" (the Martian) and Bill Bixby as Tim O'Hara. My Favorite Martian was the first of the "fantasy" situation comedies prevalent on American television in the mid-1960s featuring characters who could do extraordinary things, predating My Living Doll (1964–1965), Bewitched (1964–1972), and I Dream of Jeannie (1965–1970). The first two seasons, totaling 75 episodes, were in black and white, and the 32 episodes of the third and final season were filmed in color.
John L. Greene created the central characters and developed the core format of the series, which was produced by Jack Chertok.
Premise A human-looking extraterrestrial in a one-man spaceship nearly collides at high altitude with the U.S. Air Force's rocket plane, the North American X-15. The spaceship's pilot is a 450-year-old anthropologist from Mars. Tim O'Hara, a young newspaper reporter for The Los Angeles Sun, is on his way home from Edwards Air Force Base, where he had gone to report on the flight of the X-15. Returning home to Los Angeles, O'Hara spots the same silver spaceship crash land nearby.
Tim takes in the Martian, saying to other people that he is Tim's Uncle Martin. The Martian refuses to reveal any of his special traits to humans, other than Tim, to avoid both publicity and human panic. Tim agrees to keep the Martian's Earth identity a secret while he attempts to repair his spaceship. Uncle Martin has various unusual powers: He can raise two retractable antennae from the back of his head and become invisible; he is telepathic and can read and influence minds; he can levitate objects with the motion of his index finger; he can communicate with animals; he can freeze people or objects; and he can speed himself (and other people) up to do any kind of work.
Also an inventor, Uncle Martin builds several advanced devices, such as a time machine that transports Tim and the Martian to England in the Middle Ages and other times and places, such as St. Louis in 1849 and the early days of Hollywood, and brings Leonardo da Vinci and Jesse James into the present. Another device he builds is a "molecular separator" that can take apart the molecules of a physical object, or rearrange them (making a squirrel into a human). Another device can take memories and store them in pill form to "relearn" them later. Other devices create temporary duplicates, or levitate Martin and others without the need of his index finger.
Tim and Uncle Martin live in a garage apartment owned by a congenial but scatterbrained landlady, Mrs. Lorelei Brown (a former WAVE as revealed in the first episode of season one) who often shows up when not wanted. The Martian and she have an awkward romance from time to time, but Uncle Martin never gets serious for fear of his ultimately going home to Mars. She later dates a vain, cold-hearted, plain-clothes police officer, Detective Bill Brennan, who dislikes Uncle Martin and is highly suspicious of him and his activities.
"Martin O'Hara's" real name is actually Exigius 12. Revealed in the episode "We Love You, Miss Pringle", it was heard again when his real nephew, Andromeda (played by young actor Wayne Stam), crash-landed on Earth late in the show's third season. Andromeda, originally devised to bring younger viewers to the show, disappeared without explanation after this single episode, and was not referred to again in the live-action series' eight remaining episodes. Andromeda was, however, a regular on the later My Favorite Martians animated series. Andromeda had a single antenna, which Martin explained was because his baby antennae had fallen out and only one adult antenna had come in so far. Uncle Martin also reveals that on Mars he lives on Fulton Canal, which ultimately leads to comedic mix-ups and confusion with Canal Fulton, Ohio.
Cast
Ray Walston as Uncle Martin O'Hara (The Martian) Bill Bixby as Tim O'Hara Pamela Britton as Mrs. Lorelei Brown J. Pat O'Malley as Mr. Burns, Tim's boss (first season) Alan Hewitt as Detective Bill Brennan (second and third seasons) Roy Engel as Police Captain (third season)
Production
Broadcast The series was produced by Jack Chertok Television in association with CBS Productions. The show was originally syndicated by Wolper Pictures, then it moved to syndicator Telepictures, and finally by successor-in-interest to Warner Bros. Television Distribution.
Music The theme music for the series was composed by George Greeley and performed in part on an Electro-Theremin by Paul Tanner, a former member of Glenn Miller's band. It was influential in Brian Wilson's engagement of Tanner in 1965 and 1966 to work with the Beach Boys on their landmark hit, "Good Vibrations". Greeley also scored the series; an album of his music from the first two seasons was released by La-La Land Records in 2007 (dedicated to the composer, who died while the album was being prepared).
Filming Unhappy with early script submissions from creator/producer Jack Chertok, the network hired script doctor Sherwood Schwartz to lend a hand. Schwartz changed the Tim-centric scripts to focus more on the Martian, as a "fish out of water", on, as he termed it "this backwards planet." The pilot featured Mrs. Brown's niece, Annabelle, as Tim's love interest, but she was dropped to allow Tim to become more of a playboy. In a major change, Mrs. Brown, who was multi-talented, intelligent, and suspicious in the pilot, became decidedly more scatterbrained.
Tim actor Bill Bixby said that co-star Ray Walston served as a mentor to him during their time on the show, stating that "I can see the change between the first and third year and my growth as an actor is due directly to Ray Walston. He was my teacher, my on-the-job-training teacher."
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 was able to do much more in the final season, such as stimulating mustache growth to provide Tim and himself with quick disguises, and levitating using 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 Brennan.
Episodes
Series overview
Season 1 (1963–64) All episodes in black-and-white
Season 2 (1964–65) All episodes in black-and-white
Season 3 (1965–66) All episodes now in color.
Home media Rhino Entertainment released the first two seasons on Region 1 DVD in 2004–2005. Rhino never released the third season. However, the season 3 release from Australia's Umbrella Entertainment, on February 5, 2008, was as an import to North America. This release is classified as "Region 0", making it viewable around the world on any region-free DVD player. Rhino also released a three-DVD box of "The Best of My Favorite Martian" in 2007, comprising episodes 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 14, 16, 18, 22, 24, 29, 31, 34, and 37.
In January 2010, MPI Home Video acquired the series' Region 1 rights under license from the Jack Chertok estate-owned Jack Chertok Productions. At the time, it was announced that they planned on releasing season 3 on DVD in the summer of 2010. This release, however, never materialized and was postponed. It was subsequently released on October 30, 2012.
MPI re-released season 1 on June 24, 2014. and season 2 on December 23, 2014. They would go on to release the complete series on October 20, 2015.
In Region 4 (Australia), Umbrella Entertainment released all three seasons on DVD. These releases are all region free. The season 1 release includes special features, such as audio commentary with Ann Marshall, a stills gallery, script, and interview with Ann Marshall. The season 3 release also includes special features, such as an unaired version of the series pilot, behind the scenes home movies, interviews with Stan Frazen, Ted Rich, James Hulsey, and Wayne Stam, as well as audio commentary by James's Hulsey and Chertok historian and licensing manager Peter Greenwood. In addition, there are also scans of the original comic series, scripts, and the shooting schedule.
DVD nameEp #Release dates Region 1 Region 4 The Complete 1st Season37 September 7, 2004June 24, 2014 (re-release) March 1, 2008 The Complete 2nd Season38 May 10, 2005December 23, 2014 (re-release) September 1, 2008 The Complete 3rd Season32 October 30, 2012 November 3, 2007 The Complete Series107 October 20, 2015 n/a
Reception In its first season, My Favorite Martian did very well in the Nielsen ratings, ranking at No. 10. However, by the end of the second season the show had dipped to No. 24. Still, the series was doing well enough to be renewed for a third season. Ratings dipped even further in the third season due to repetitive story lines involving Martin's time machine, and the series was canceled.
In other media Animated series
An animated series, My Favorite Martians, was made by Filmation and was broadcast as part of the Saturday morning programming on CBS from September 8, 1973, to December 22, 1973, for a total of sixteen episodes. 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 and did appear in one episode of the live-action series. The pair also have a Martian pet named Okey, a sort of bouncing sheepdog with antennae. Tim also had a niece of his own, named Katie, living with them. Brennan also had a teenage son named Brad living with him and a pet chimpanzee named Chump. None of the characters were voiced by the original actors; Bixby was at the time committed to his latest project, The Magician, and Walston tried to distance himself from the role. As a result, Jonathan Harris voiced Martin and Jane Webb voiced Mrs. Brown.
The cartoon utilized a number of scripts from what would have been season four of the live action show; as of early July 2013, Jack Chertok Television co-owned it, with the Chertok company retaining all merchandising rights to the show.
At least two VHS tape volumes were released of the cartoon series in 1989 by UAV. Distribution rights were held, as of April 2013, by Classic Media as part of their Filmation holdings.
Episodes
Feature film
The series was also remade as a feature film in 1999 starring Christopher Lloyd as the Martian and Jeff Daniels as Tim. This film was released and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. Ray Walston was featured in the film (both Bill Bixby and Pamela Britton had since died; the former in 1993 and the latter in 1974) and played another Martian who had been trapped on Earth since the time of the first series and wore a similar space suit from the series; his cover was now that of a government investigator of unidentified flying objects. However, the premise was changed: Martians such as Lloyd's Uncle Martin are now non-humanoids with four arms, four legs, and three eyes 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, Venusian and one to "never use" (Venox 7).
Comics