3rd Rock from the Sun

High-pitched farce is 3rd Rock's stock-in-trade, and sometimes it just wears us out. But we marvel at how skillfully the writers and directors keep the balls in the air as they juggle as many as three situations per episode.

Relax and go with the goofiness and you could have a good time. [9 Jan 1996]

Well, the show is certainly wacky, but I didn't get a good laugh until the third episode I previewed. [9 Jan 1996]

Barely a minute goes by in this new NBC sitcom ... without another gratuitous breast reference, as though the word itself is a riot. It's too bad, because if you can get past the sense that somebody wrote much of this with a Victoria's Secret catalog close at hand, there's actually a charming and perceptive comedy lurking inside, a neat counterpoint to all those series about urbanites on the make. [9 Jan 1996]

Third Rock's creators, veteran Saturday Night Live writers Bonnie and Terry Turner, have described the show as "Carl Sagan meets the Marx Brothers." In reality, it's Maude meets Mork & Mindy.

The show ought to be more than a sophomoric aliens-meet-humans smutcom. It should be an advancement on My Favorite Martian and Mork & Mindy. But it's not. [9 Jan 1996]

It's hard to figure where the makers of "Third Rock" believe they went right. The humor never rises above high-school-lunchroom level, and even then it's not over-the-top enough to make it very appealing. The actors are talented enough -- Lithgow and Curtin certainly have nothing left to prove, and Gordon-Levitt seems to be that rarest of finds, a young actor who knows about timing. What they're doing in this mess is one of those questions for the ages. [9 Jan 1996]