Mon Martien favori

I recently came across episodes of this show on Youtube. It is especially memorable for me because it was telecast during the same years I was in college, starting in 1963.

The overwhelming feeling watching these old episodes again is "how easily we were entertained back in the 1960s." It was a different time, shows were more family oriented, sexual references were very indirect, and there was no objectionable "blue" language.

Ray Walston was the title character who became known as Uncle Martin to avoid revealing where he really was from. After his Martian craft crashed, he was found by Bill Bixby as columnist Tim O'Hara who took him and his damaged spacecraft in. Much of Martin's thrust is to get his craft repaired so he can return home. Other than that each of the 107 episodes was acting out some humorous situation.

Fun TV series, brings back good memories.

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!

Ray Walston used his considerable acting talent & charm to create a hit series. First show, he crashes on earth. His rescue is engineered by Tim (Bill Bixby), a nosy reporter who can't believe what he has seen, & what Martin can do.

This is a family style of sitcom without kids. This show is really the talent of Ray Walston playing off everyone. Bixby is brilliant to as the single reporter who is always getting in trouble thanks to Martin. Many times because of Martin, Tim can't get that Pullitser prize he is after to become a great reporter.

What really makes this series go, is that Uncle Martin always seems to have an unending bag of tricks that only he, a Martian, can do. When we were kids, we got introduced to a friendly alien with this show. Martin would always foil Tim every having a steady girl friend too.

While the special effects seem crude now, when this show ran they were highly imaginative. There was even one episode where Martin put up his antenna & had snowy reception, just like my TV always did with the rabbit ears.

'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!

From personal opinion, the 1960s was a great decade for television, seeing shows with creative concepts and memorable characters that fascinated and appealed at the time and still hold up now ('The Addams Family', 'The Munsters', 'Doctor Who', 'Bewitched' and 'I Dream of Jeannie' are just a few examples, have a soft spot for 'Batman' too).

'My Favourite Martian' is another one of those shows. When it comes to sci-fi and comedy, individually and meshed together, 'My Favourite Martian' is a landmark and still holds up as enormously enjoyable. The third season sadly doesn't live up to the high quality of the first two, with story lines that were predictable, repetitive, disjointed (with them having one half of something and then a second half of something else entirely) and got overboard with the silliness to the point of redundancy, also relying on a formula that got stale too early.

With the first two seasons, the story lines were the complete opposite. They were engrossing, imaginative and clever, succeeding as entertainment and provoking thought. Likewise with the hilarious and intelligent writing, with dialogue that makes one laugh and think. The chemistry between the well-defined, the titular character one would go as far to say is iconic, characters is simply magical.

It is impossible to think of anybody else so well suited to the title role than Ray Walston, a role he was born to play. Bill Bixby shows remarkable and perfectly pitched comic timing and works so well with Walston. All the supporting cast are very good, J. Pat O'Malley is particularly fun and Pamela Britton is charming.

Production values don't look too primitive. Although 'My Favourite Martian' does look pretty good in colour, it fares to me better in black and white where things look smoother and more atmospheric. The sets and effects are pretty inventive. The music is a good fit and it is hard to forget the theme music.

Overall, a genre landmark and a near-classic if it weren't for its disappointing last season. The 1999 film that bases itself on this is not worth bothering with, the only emotions one will feel watching it are sheer disappointment, anger and questioning the point of it. 9/10 Bethany Cox