My Favorite Martian

[Kimberly]

How many Ray Walston fans do we have here ?

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

I used to watch this a lot when I was a kid. I thought it was a cute show and Walston and Bixby had a nice chemistry.

I recall an interview Walston did decades later snarling that the series "could have run eight years" instead of, what, three? But in the '60s, a lot shows were cancelled over industry politics and not low ratings. (Although I don't know how the Neilsen numbers were by the final season).

 

[ClassyCo]

You know, I've never seen MY FAVORITE MARTIAN, despite frequently seeing the complete series box set online and at my local Walmart stores. I don't have enough exposure to Ray Walston to know if I'd like the show or not, but it does seem like a show the could've squeezed another two or three seasons out of. I mean, BEWITCHED ran for eight years, and JEANNIE for five. MARTIAN and THE FLYING NUN both got three seasons.

 

[Seaviewer]

I could be wrong but I think My Favorite Martian was the first of the character-with-secret-powers sitcoms. Elizabeth Montgomery complained that I Dream of Jeannie was a copy of Bewitched, but Bewitched used the MFM template eight down to the suspicious onlooker always trying to catch him out.

 

[Crimson]

I suppose MARTIAN was the first secret powered character sitcom, but the fantastic shows of the 60s kicked off with MR. ED two years earlier and even that was proceeded by TOPPER, about two ghosts, a few years before that.

I've never seen more than a few clips of MARTIAN but I've always had a mild and inexplicable aversion to Bill Bixby.

 

[Chris2]

MFM aired between Lassie and Ed Sullivan on CBS on Sunday nights - two top 20 shows. My guess is that it was the lowest-rated of the three and CBS thought it could do better. They initially replaced it with the caveman sitcom, “It’s About Time,” from Sherwood Schwartz, and that flopped. The following season they scheduled “Gentle Ben”, which lasted three seasons and was more compatible with Lassie.

 

[Seaviewer]

I suppose MARTIAN was the first secret powered character sitcom, but the fantastic shows of the 60s kicked off with MR. ED two years earlier and even that was proceeded by TOPPER, about two ghosts, a few years before that.

Yes, you're right. I enjoyed both those shows but was consciously excluding them from the comparison here.