|
|
THIRD ROCK FROM THE SUN |
|
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 6 OTHER SCI FI COMEDY Red Dwarf Clone Quark Hyperdrive Supernova No Heroics 
|
Episode 1:The Baby MenaceVicki’s baby is human after all, but she plans to sell her story to the tabloid press, sending the Solomons into overdrive. They try hiding, they try lying, they try running away, but in the end they find that the truth is easily the simplest way to avoid getting caught. Nobody would believe it anyway. All the gang's back and carrying straight on from where they started off. The scene in the baby ward is old, tired and completely unconvincing as it is painfully obvious that everyone is holding a doll. We were hoping for something new to pep up an idea that is already threadbare at best, but this opening episode shows no signs of providing it. TopDick for TatDuring a drunken board game, Mary lets slip that she once had an affair with Dick's nemesis Professor Strudwick. Dick decides the only way to even the score is by sleeping with Strudwick's wife and sets about making this happen. The only spark of invention in this old-fashioned farce is the fact that everyone seems to be sleeping with everyone except Dick. Laughs are very hard to find and the subplot of Sally being driven wild by Don the cop's motorcycle proves to be an even bigger laugh-free area. TopThe Fifth SolomonWhen Dick manages to write off the car, the cost of repairing it is high. The family decide to look for a new vehicle more in tune with their standing, and their budget, but then they discover an earth emotion called nostalgia. It's amazing how far this show has fallen. There is almost nothing in the whole half hour that is even remotely funny. It's not good for road safety education either. TopDial M for DickMary gets tickets to a murder mystery weekend and takes the Solomons along. They, of course, don't know that it's faked and can't understand the other guests' complacency when people start keeling over dead. Murder mystery weekends deserve to have the mock taken out of them, but it would have been nice if the episode that did it had managed to be funny. Billy Connelly guest stars and it is possibly the least funny thing he's ever been in (and that includes some of his dramatic work). TopDick and TuckWhen a comparison with Harrison Ford is unfavorable, Dick decides that the only option is plastic surgery. A trip to the doctor's leaves Sally feeling unattractive and Harry pronounced 'surgically perfect'. There are more laughs here than of late, but this is a far cry from the heady days of the first few seasons. Sally breaking up with Don because he is too handsome for her to bring down is quite fun. David Hasselhoff makes a cameo appearance to devastatingly poor effect. TopDick, Who’s Coming to DinnerDick learns that the skin colour that he chose comes with a long history of repression and cruelty towards the other races and suffers a wild bout of white guilt. This is after he has attended a white power rally and before he tries to sort out Nina's life for her as an act of contrition. Race is a tricky issue, especially in the US, but 3RD ROCK FROM THE SUN manages to treat it with both respect and the same total lack of respect that we have come to expect from the show. It isn't any funnier as a result, but it does have a delightful gospel sequence at the end. Musical interludes in 3RD ROCK always seem to be highlights. TopSex and the SallyTommy gets sex education at school and has some bad news for Sally about what sex can lead to. She hotfoots it to a doctor to learn all about birth control, but the pills give her horrible mood swings. In the meantime, Dick comes up with a whole new way of tipping. With a title like that and a subject so rife for exploitation, it is sad that the show can't come up with anything new or funny. TopCharitable DickDick attends a charity auction and is caught up into paying $1400 for a painting he doesn't even like. As a result, he gets to explore the whole concept of charity. This would almost mark a new low in the rapidly declining quality of the show, but for the scene where a child wraps himself around Dick's leg and allows John Lithgow to display a marvellous sense of timing. It's the best moment in a poor season to date. TopThe Loud Solomon Family:A DickumentaryMary gets a grant to make a documentary about the Solomons, a typical American family. Dick goes along, despite the others' concerns about security. As a result, Sally is 'outed' as a lesbian, Tommy as a bedwetter, Dick as a child beater and Harry as an alcoholic. A return to near-form, this episode has a nice concept and allows for some clever and funny comedy. Oh, if we could wish for it to stay this good. TopGwen, Larry, Dick and MaryMary suggests that Dick and she ought to be widening their social circle and so go on a double date with a couple that she knows. When Gwen and Larry start dodging their calls Dick thinks that it's because they don't like him, but it turns out to be Mary that they have a problem with. Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker from STAR TREK THE NEXT GENERATION) makes a cameo appearance and it is sad to say that this is the best thing that can be said for the show. The jokes are old and tired and the rest of the family at the launderette don't manage to make it any better. TopDick Puts the ID in CupidIt's Valentine's Day and all the Solomon clan react differently. Sally gets an anonymous bouquet (from Don) and freaks out thinking it's a stalker, Dick uses Mary's therapy sessions as an opportunity to get her real presents and Tommy plans a romantic interlude to lose his virginity to Alyssa, but gets an earlier offer. More of the same with nothing to really distinguish it from all the others. Even a therapist with her own issues can't brighten things up. TopThe Big Giant Head ReturnsThe Big Giant Head makes an unexpected visit in order to claim his child and discovers that he is actually in love with Vicky, the child's mother. Of course she hates him, so he orders Dick to make her fall in love with him if he doesn't want to get vapourised. This is a direct sequel to the multi-episode story that ended with Episode 1:The Baby Menace, so if you didn't see those then it won't make any sense at all, though this is not always a problem with this show. The only real moment of comedy is the accidental triggering of Harry's hypnotised state. This is comic genius, but then it was also comic genius when it was done in THE COURT JESTER in 1956. TopRutherford BeautyDick is shocked when he starts to have erotic fantasies about Nina. Things go from bad to worse when he admits this to Mary, who is immediately threatened. Things then go from worse to even worse when he tells Nina. In the meantime, Sally becomes houseproud. Almost nothing in this episode is funny, but it does have a number of sequences with Simbi Khali in various states of lingerie. TopThis Little Dick Goes to MarketDick and Tommy decide to take on the Stock Market at its own game. 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. TopYouth is Wasted on the DickSpring break is the time when all the students at the university kick back, drink too much and have a great time being young. Dick laments his lack of youth and determines to enjoy the break with his students. Meanwhile, state police commandeer the Solomon house to spy on a neighbour. This is an episode so utterly devoid of laughs that it must rank amongst the worst that the show has ever produced. Even the guest appearance by the usually reliable Miguel Ferrer as the state policeman who tickles Sally's fancy fails to appeal. TopDick Strikes OutThere's a new Chancellor come to the university and he has a lot fo cuts that he wants to make. Dick organises, but doesn't take part in, a mass resignation protest. Tommy is having labour issues of his own, working with his girlfriend Alyssa on the pretzel counter. More of the same old stuff and really struggling to get laughs out of old, old ideas. Maybe it's time for this show to end. TopShall We Dick?When Strudwick announces that he's entering the dance contest, Dick immediately jumps in to challenge him with Mary. Mary, though, can't dance, so Dick steals Harry's dancing partner, Nina. This would just be another not very funny episode were it not for the swing dance contest which is an absolute hoot and the Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers number that Dick and Mary do afterwards. Both of these raise enormous smiles. It's been a long time since the show was able to do that. TopDick and Harry Fall Down a HoleWhen they run out of petrol, Harry and Dick go in search of a gas station, get lost and fall down a hole. The Rutherford police call in the world's foremost hole expert, but Sally has an issue with his plans. It's a straightforwards story, ripe with comic potential, none of which is mined here in yet another rather dull story. TopFrankie Goes to RutherfordAn old friend of Mary's comes to visit and explains to Dick that he's 'from another world'. He means that he's gay, but Dick believes him to be another alien and agrees to go to an 'alien' bar. The rest of the family decide to rob a bank, but find that criminal activity breeds suspicion. It's surprising that the show has taken this long to get around to the subject of homosexuality, but no surprise that the episode is another insipid and unfunny half hour. The appearance of the 'Village People' at the end raises a smile, but that's a good as it gets. TopDick Solomon’s Day OffWhen Dick decides to pull a 'sickie' he finds that both Mary and Strudwick have done the same thing. The joy of days off discovered, he wonders if it is worth working at all. Sally, Tommy and Harry use Don's police scanner to eavesdrop on the mobile phone calls of a woman and then arrange to meet her. There is about one laugh and a couple of half-smiles in this episode, mainly thanks to the musical interlude of three people having fun, but that's it. TopThe Big Giant Head Returns Again - Part 1The Big Giant Head and his bride Vicki come back into the team's lives once again. This tme, the leader strikes up a friendship with Dick based on mutual need (his need and Dick's need not to be vapourised). Harry is dating a weightlifting cop, but Vicki decides to put the moves on Harry. The penultimate episode of a season is usually a set up for the big finale and so is usually not one of the best, but that means nothing in this show. It's not funny and the big surprise statement at the end doesn't have the same impact as when Darth Vader made it. William Shatner is less annoying than on his previous appearances. TopThe Big Giant Head Returns Again - Part 2Dick is trying to play the good son to his newly discovered father, the Big Giant Head, but draws the line when Dad tells him to dump his girlfriend Mary. Tommy is trying to get his girlfriend back after Sally dumped her on his behalf and Harry's girlfriend is likely to get vapourised by Vicki. There are a few funny moments in this episode, but considering that this is the season finale it is really something of a letdown. Top |
|
|
If this page was useful to you please sign our 
