Il mio amico marziano

My Favorite Martian was an enjoyable waste of time. Starring Ray Walston as a man from Mars who had crash-landed on earth, and Bill Bixby, as Tim, the young newspaper reporter who found him. Tim saw dollar signs, fame and fortune in his eyes when he found a Martian, but unfortunately, never did get to tell his story, in spite of the fact that this Martian moved in with him. You see, the Martian, who passed himself off as Tim's Uncle Martin, would not admit to anyone but Tim what he really was, and Tim would have appeared crazy to insist that Martin was REALLY a Martian!

Martin had some interesting powers: he was able to turn invisible by raising some pretty cheesy looking antennae from the back of his head; he could also point at something and make it lift and come to him. He was also able to read minds, and had a vast knowledge of technology. Apparently the Martians were much more advanced than we were.

The show lasted for three seasons on CBS, giving lots of time for Tim and Martin to have some interesting adventures, all the while trying to repair his ship and return home to Mars. Like ALF some years later though, he never quite made it.

This was as rather cute little 1960s morality play about a friendly Martian who crashes his flying saucer on earth and is discovered by Tim O'Hara, a newspaper reporter. Tim takes him in as his "Uncle" Martin and promises he will harbor him until he can repair his craft and go back to Mars.

Uncle Martin gets his way by his extraordinary telepathic and telekinetic powers. He also is a philosopher, scientist and mind control expert. He never does anything wrong intentionally, but always seems to betray himself by his misunderstanding of the ways of our world. Still, he and Tim are a formidable team and each show always had me chuckling.

The recent movie version isn't even worth commenting on. It was thoroughly putrid and was just a way for the studios to relieve you of your hard-earned dough. Watch ANY remakes of 1960s TV shows at your own peril. You read it here first!

'My Favorite Martian' rapidly became a must-see for me once the first episode premiered on Australian television. It was cutting-edge SF-comedy in a class of its own at the time, decades before 'Third Rock from the Sun' appeared. Ray Walston was born to play Uncle Martin, just as Jonathan Harris was born to play Dr Smith! He and Bill Bixby worked well together and their relationship in some way reminded me of George Reeves and Jack Larson - 'Superman' and Jimmy Olsen'. Their teamwork gave an extra dimension to an often paper-thin script. I still have my autographed photo and the unique envelope it came in though once again (as happened with Connie Hines), the postman folded the envelope and cracked the emulsion. I almost cried at the time!

Long before the special effects department established the forefront of future shows like Bewitched,I Dream of Jeannie,or other shows that gave us the magical effect,no other show can topped off the hilarious hijinks of "My Favorite Martian". During its run the show had in my book some of the best special effects ever devised for TV,and for good reason. It may have been hokey or rather silly,but in turn Ray Walston was the genius behind Uncle Martin,who was in fact an alien from another planet who crash lands on Earth only to be discovered by a newspaper man Tim O'Hara,played by Bill Bixby who was after fame and fortune with this.

However,Tim was the only one who knew of Uncle Martin's secret identity,but other folks thought Tim was paranoid since Martin was REALLY a martian! There was other folks who knew what went on including the really nosey neighbor Lorilee Brown(Pamela. Britton) and the detective Bill Brennan(Alan Hewitt) who was always snooping around for answers,but Uncle Martin knew how to take care of them since Uncle Martin always dislikes.

Uncle Martin was always experimenting on stuff. He could defy gravity,and in one episode walk through walls,and the best part make a antenna come out of his head and many more. There were times when Martin lost his powers(in one episode dealt with a bracey kid who zapped his telekinetic powers-funny!)but as always gain them back. Uncle Martin also had the capability to bring up scientific powers in which no one understood but he explained his theory in ways that someone knew how but didn't know themselves.

Basically,all Martin wanted to do was get his spaceship repair and get home,but he never made it although he made several attempts. "My Favorite Martian" lasted three seasons on CBS' Sunday night prime time schedule producing 107. Episodes airing from September 29, 1963 until May 1, 1966. The first two seasons produced 75 episodes in black and white from September 29, 1963 until June 27, 1965 and were filmed at Desilu Studios Hollywood. The third and final season of the series produced 32 episodes in color from September 12, 1965 until May 1, 1966 and was filmed at MGM Studios. However,during the three seasons that it ran on CBS(which came on Sunday nights after Lassie and faced strong competition against NBC's The Wonderful World Of Disney) Tim and Martin had some interesting adventures and it did very well to make the transition to bring some of the color episodes during its final season. The show ended in the Spring of 1966 after 107 episodes.

The show had a Saturday morning cartoon spin-off during the 1970's titled "My Favorite Martians" that aired on CBS' Saturday morning schedule from 1973-1974. A live action theatrical feature starring Christopher Lloyd based on the 1960's television series was released by Disney in the mid 1990's. Revised on July 1, 2023.

I first saw this series when I was 12 years old and I have dearly loved it ever since because it's full of good laughs and is a great deal of fun to watch. Uncle Martin is hilarious with his Martian antics as well as Tim as the newspaper reporter who took him in after his space ship crash landed on Earth. It's always highly enjoyable to watch their adventures together. It's easily one of my favorite TV comedies of all time.