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THIRD ROCK FROM THE SUN |
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Dick Solomon - John Lithgow Sally Solomon - Kristen Johnston Tommy Solomon - Joseph Gordon Levitt Harry Solomon - French Stewart Mary Albright - Jane Curtin Nina Campbell - Simbi Khali Don The Cop - Wayne Knight 
OTHER 3rd ROCK SEASONS Season 1 Season 2 Season 3 Season 4 Season 5 OTHER SCI FI COMEDY Red Dwarf Clone Quark Hyperdrive Supernova No Heroics 
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Les Liaisons DickgereusesWhen Mary's much loathed and super-rich sister comes to town, Dick plans her downfall by wooing and leaving her. That is until he tastes the high life and follows the path right to the altar. The show returns for a sixth season and it is indistinguishable from the last couple if this episode is anything to go by. Not particularly funny, but it does have Dick and Mary's sister doing the Zorba dance. Megan Mullaly of WILL AND GRACE fame later cameos as Mary's sister in what appears to be a dry run for her role in that, funnier, show. TopFear and Loathing in RutherfordTommy and his girlfriend have either broken up or have eloped. No review of this episode is available at this time. If you would like to add one, click here to e-mail it to us. TopIndickscretionDick, Mary, Sally and Don go on a double date that goes rapidly downhill when the Solomons start discussing their sex lives in graphic detail. When the others don't join in, they assume that they are rubbish in bed. Tommy and Harry go in search of the open road (and Waldo). Apart from Simbi Khali's brief appearances as Nina there is nothing going on here of any real note. This show certainly has gone downhill and lost any sense of originality. TopDick’ll Take Manhattan - Part 1In a fit of boredom, the Solomons decide to go to an alternate reality through their shower. In New York they all turn out to have great jobs, loads of money and tons of respect. Tommy's on Saturday Night Live, Harry runs the studio, Dick's a lawyer and Sally writes a sex column. In this reality, Mary is a sleazy bar singer and Don's the Mayor of New York. The set up for this episode would seem really desperate were it not for the fact that this is the best idea that the show has had for a long time and that's the really desperate thing. It's nice to see all the characters in their alternate lives. Nina turns up as a judge, giving Dick one of his best reaction lines ever. Having an entirely new version of the theme tune is also a nice touch. TopDick’ll Take Manhattan - Part 2The shine is starting to come off the alternate lifestyle. Sally discovers that Don is married, Dick misses his own Mary who isn't cold and unfeeling whilst Tommy and Harry fight at the studio and both get fired. It's time to go home. 3rd ROCK FROM THE SUN hasn't been truly funny for quite some time, but this episode actually runs more like a drama than a comedy. The funny thing is that the show might have worked as a drama. TopWhy Dickie Can’t TeachTommy is faced with choosing a college and Dick suggests Pendleton. When Tommy sits in on one of Dick's classes, he points out that Dick is a truly awful teacher and Dick stamps his parental and high command authorities by ordering him to attend Pendleton. This episode actually resorts to a five minute run of gags on the phrase 'hide the salami'. That just about says all that needs to be said. TopBDOCTommy goes to college and Dick finds his replacement too hard to deal with and so concocts a plan to carry out a freshman prank so extreme that it will get Tommy expelled. Sally comes on to the new intelligence officer so hard that he files a sexual harrassment complaint. The prank is clever. Virtually nothing else is, or funny for that matter. TopRed, White and DickAfter the anthem is sung at a football game, Dick determines that the clan have to become much more patriotic. Then Tommy drops a bombshell by announcing that Dick is, in fact, Canadian What makes an American? Apparently ignorance, if you believe this show, which also has a lot to say about communism as well. If only it could have done so in a funny way. TopDick DigsMary is invited to take part in an archaeological dig and Dick forces his way along, expecting it to be just like in the movies. When he finds out that it's just digging, he finds a new way to humiliate her. The rest of the family turn the apartment into a boarding house to make money from the garlic festival. We've never been ones to find humiliation funny and so a lot of this episode was merely cringeworthy. What it does have is the sight of Dick Solomon in full Indiana Jones gear and that moment, at least, is funny. TopThere’s No Business Like Dick BusinessDick and Sally discover the joys and heartaches of the entertainment business when they form a magic act. Harry and Mary decide to take Don's personal defence class after a purse snatching. This episode is frightening in just how not funny it manages to be. TopA Dick ReplacementWhen a psychic tells Mary that she and Dick are from other worlds and that he will eventually leave, Dick plans a replacement whilst Sally plans to kill the psychic. Harry finds that he is the chosen method of execution. The idea of Dick matchmaking is embarrassing enough, but the total lack of laughs that it provides is beyond that in terms of embarrassment. TopDick’s ArkSally uses her knowledge of weather prediction to get herself a job on the local TV station. Then she predicts that a series of tornadoes are going to totally destroy downtown Rutherford, and she has never been wrong. It is amazing how unfunny this show has become. It is possible to sit through this whole half hour and not even smile. I know, I've done it. TopYou Don’t Know DickDick realises that he knows nothing about Mary's tastes and in order to prove himself to her announces that he has front row seats for her favourite singer. All he can get, however, are seats to the local icecapades. More gurning, more running around and still not a laugh in sight. TopMy Mother, My DickWhen Mary's mother comes to town, Dick steps in to try and relieve some of the tension, but then learns how hard it is to live with the woman. Harry and Sally, meanwhile, have to deal with looking after an alien brought to Earth by their messing about with the space/time portal. Elaine Stritch returns as Mary's evil mother, but even she cannot do anything with this script to make it funny. TopGlengarry Glen DickDick and Don go halves on a timeshare villa and take Mary and Sally along. It turns out to be less than they had hoped for. In the meantime, Harry is upset that Tommy is now taller than he is and decides to go to an enlargement clinic. The holiday home from hell. Neither original nor funny. At least the visit of Harry to the enlargement clinic turns out to have few amusing moments. TopDick Soup for the SoulDick reads a self-help book that Mary and Nina are crazy about and finds that the path to true happiness lies in removing all the negative sources from his life. He determines that his relationship with Mary is one of those. It is depressing how an episode dealing with a college fraternity (in Tommy's strand of the story) finds it completely impossible to raise a smile. It really is time for this show to shuffle off back to the galaxy it came from. TopMary Loves Scoochie - Part 1Dick discovers that Mary has been receiving amazing love letters from a secret admirer for three years known only to her as Scoochie. He immediately chooses to masquerade as Scoochie, but the plan backfires when the real Scoochie turns up. It's a welcome return to John Cleese as Liam Neeson (no not that one) last seen in Season 3. The alien with all the answers is back to rob Dick of his one true love. How will he cope? Obviously he won't. TopMary Loves Scoochie - Part 2When Dick admits to Liam that he is also an alien, Liam explains that seducing Mary is only part of his plan to turn the Earth in a theme park where all humans have devolved into apes. Can Dick save the planet from an alien who is always one step ahead? Despite the presence of John Cleese, this remains an essentially laugh free area. TopThe Thing That Wouldn’t Die - Part 1In order to explain his changing Liam into a chimp, Dick has to tell Mary at last that he is an alien. Once the shock is over, she warms to the idea, but a message from the Big Giant Head declares that the mission is finally over. There is a really wonderful moment here where Jane Curtin has to go through all the emotions that finding out Dick is an alien instills in her. It's funny and a comedy tour de force. If only there had been more of this. TopThe Thing That Wouldn’t Die - Part 2The mission is over and it is time for the Solomons to leave. They don't really want to, but realise that they can throw a big party and not be around to pay the credit card bills later. Final episodes of long-lived shows seem to have a gravitas that always lifts them above the average of what's gone before. Even this show manages to go out on a high with some funny moments and some touching ones as well. The sad thing is that if the rest of the show had lived up to this last episode then we might be more sad to see it go. Top |
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