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Dick is captured by a bunch of boy scouts and instantly turns "native", painting his face and sighing "The horror" in a spoof of Marlon Brando's character in Apocalypse Now. In another episode, a face-slapping session with Dick and Sally pastiches the Chinatown sequence: "She's my daughter my sister my daughter." In "When Aliens Camp," the Solomons and Mary go on a disastrous camping trip. In the episode "Dick's Big Giant Headache," both Dick and the Big Giant Head mention seeing something on the wing of the plane after having traveled by airline, a nod to both John Lithgow and William Shatner having played the same role (one in the original story, and one in a remake) of the passenger who sees a gremlin on the wing in The Twilight Zone. For example, in the episode "Father Knows Dick," when Harry finds out he is a transmitter, he "goes off the rails" (complete with red jacket as worn by Jim in Rebel Without a Cause), yells "You're tearing me apart!" and goes off to play " chicken" with a tough guy in a bar (but ends up buying fried chicken from KFC instead). THIRD ROCK FROM THE SUN ORIGIN OF PHRASE ETYMOLOGY TVSome of the episodes seemingly derive their comedy from affectionate send-ups of TV and films. The upshot is that living in an Earth culture provides the Solomons with an almost intolerable degree of emotional stimulation and conflict, which they are very ill-equipped to handle. Leaders like The Big Giant Head are unelected and assumed infallible (in fact, it is stated that politicians on their planet are chosen by seeing which one can outrun the giant fireball). Their original forms, for example, are described as nonsexual, with reproduction a matter of sending packets of genetic material to each other in the mail. His orders are received through Harry, who unexpectedly (and often in inconvenient circumstances) stands up, his arms stiff (acting as the antenna), and proclaims: "Incoming message from the Big Giant Head." Typical episode themesĪlmost all the episodes revolve around the Solomons' difficulty integrating themselves into Earth culture and understanding human customs - often their view of Earth realities is distorted by the fact that much of their understanding of Earth comes through the media, especially television, rather than firsthand experience.ĭetails about their alien nature are rarely given and inconsistent, except to reinforce the idea that their former lives were almost barren of emotion and most of the relationships humans have with each other. The family often communicates with their off-world (and usually unseen) boss, the Big Giant Head ( William Shatner). Information officer Tommy ( Joseph Gordon-Levitt) has been given the body of a teenager and is forced to enroll in high school (later college), leaving security officer Sally ( Kristen Johnston) and communications officer Harry ( French Stewart) to spend their lives as thirty somethings hanging out at home and bouncing through short-term jobs. In later episodes, they became more accustomed to Earth and often became more interested in their human lives than in their mission.ĭick Solomon ( John Lithgow), the High Commander and leader of the expedition, is the family provider, and takes a position as a physics professor at Pendelton State University. Humor was principally derived from the aliens' attempts to study human society and, because of their living as humans themselves while on Earth, to understand the human condition. The premise of the show revolves around an extraterrestrial research expedition attempting to live as a normal human family in the fictional city of Rutherford, Ohio, said to be 52 miles (84 km) outside of Cleveland, where they live in a loft apartment. He has assembled an elite team of experts: A decorated military officer ( Sally Solomon), a seasoned intelligence specialist ( Tommy Solomon) and, well, they had an extra seat ( Harry Solomon)." This is the High Commander ( Dick Solomon). In order to blend in, they have assumed human form. This is a story of a band of four such explorers. "As many intelligent people know, aliens are all around us. This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability. The extraterrestrials pose as a human family in order to observe the behavior of human beings. The show is about four extraterrestrials who are on an expedition to Earth, which they consider to be a very insignificant planet. Wayne Knight (all, seasons 3–6 recurring previously)ĬBS Studio Center, Studio City, Los Angeles, California (filming location) ģrd Rock from the Sun (sometimes referred to as simply 3rd Rock) was an American sitcom that aired from 1996 to 2001 on NBC. It needs additional citations for verification.Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page.
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