What is it? My Favorite Martian, Complete Series, 107 episodes on 15 discs from MPI Home Video
How much? $99.98
When? Now
What makes this Martian so special? Well, he's smart and has some really cool powers.
It starts off as a normal day for journalist Tim O'Hara (Bill Bixby). He gets up and goes to work for the Los Angeles Sun, covering a story at the Air Force base and then, when he's on his way home, he witnesses a UFO crash landing. The ship was piloted by a human-looking Martian (Ray Walston) who, conveniently, speaks perfect English.
Tim does what any normal person would do: He takes the Martian home and passes him off to the police, his co-workers and his landlady Mrs. Brown (Pamela Britton) as his Uncle Martin.
It turns out, Martin is a professor of anthropology on his home planet and his specialty is Earth. He has actually been here incognito many times. Martin doesn't think too highly of human intellectual capacity although he does develop a fondness for Tim.
That's for the best, really, because Martin's going to have to hang around on Earth for a while, until he can repair his spaceship and make it back home.
In the meantime, he uses his various super powers (telepathy, mind-reading, levitation, animal communication, and so on) to help Tim and to further his own agenda.
The two men, normal, red-blooded Tim and sarcastic, matter-of-fact Martin, turn out to be quite a team. They help each other out of jams and tough scrapes. And, of course, get into them.
Martin's physical peculiarities can have unexpected consequences, like when an encounter with a phone wire means Martin begins intercepting people's phone calls, or when a rejuvenation treatment turns him into a baby.
If Tim's a journalist, why doesn't he break the story? Because Martin convinces him that 1) it would be in his best interest to keep the secret and 2) no one would believe him anyway.
Is it any good? Well, it's odd. It fits in with those other "Wait, they actually thought that up and put it on the air?" series of the 1960s. Think Mister Ed.
But it's not totally idiotic. It does have a quirky sort of charm. Bixby's amiable and likable enough and Walston manages to retain more dignity than most people would when portraying a Martian with retractable antennae.
Are there extras? A long list:
• Multiple commercials and sponsor messages from Kellogg's, some featuring the show's cast.
• Photo galleries and a comic strip
• Two TV pilots for unsold series by the same producer
• Home movies from the set
• Two "special effects" segments -- one narrated and one not and both pretty dull
• The show's soundtrack album
• A radio interview and a Merv Griffin Show appearance by Walston
• Lucille Ball radio interviews with Bixby and Walston
New this week: Doctor Who, Christmas Specials gift set; Inside Amy Schumer, Season 3.
Next week: The Bold Ones: The Lawyers, Complete Series; Fear the Walking Dead, Season 1; Mystery Science Theater 3000, Volume XXXIV; The Walking Dead, Season 5 Limited Edition Blu-ray; Zoo, Season 1.
Style on 11/22/2015