Benjamin Edge
I would like to request season two (1964-65) of "My Favorite Martian" on DVD, due in part to the episode "A Martian Fiddles Around" which depicts Martin feeling burned out over Mrs. Lorelei Brown's violin playing. When he hears the sound of the instrument, he goes transparent as his mind short circuits. Martin and nephew Tim become involved with Antonio Amalfi, a violin maker, to change the instrument's sound. Johnny initially cuts ties with his father (and the company would've expired). Martin then plays the instrument that makes him vanish and then fears over the rumor (and confesses desperately) that his transparent self is really the ghost of Stradivari, who would come back to tell Amalfi the great secret. In the end, though, Mr. Amalfi and his son's violin shop stays open due to Martin's help.This episode originally was broadcast on CBS on Valentine's Day 1965.
Ben Burgraff (cariart)
By the early 1960s, as Americans and Soviets orbited the Earth, and the race to place men on the Moon was everyone's favorite after-dinner topic, television had produced a variety of space-oriented shows, mostly stodgy adventures of square-jawed heroes facing the cosmos in fanciful rockets...yet the series that would achieve the greatest popularity didn't feature a human, at all, but a Martian in a crashed 'flying saucer', attempting to 'pass' as human while repairing his spacecraft. Similar in concept to Gore Vidal's "Visit to a Small Planet", "My Favorite Martian" was a sweet-natured comedy with low-budget FX, often silly scripts, but one of the most engaging stars in television history, Ray Walston.At 49, Walston was well-established on Broadway ("Damn Yankees") and had enjoyed success as a character actor in film (SOUTH PACIFIC, TALL STORY, THE APARTMENT), but, despite guesting on television for ten years, he had never starred in his own series, primarily because he didn't have a traditional leading man 'look'. Small, slender, with a mischievous smile and thin grayish blond hair, he was a hard actor to 'type'...which made him the perfect choice to play an extraterrestrial! "My Favorite Martian" was a wonderful showcase for his many acting skills, and, when teamed with young Bill Bixby, cast as 'Tim O'Hara', a reporter who grows to love his 'Uncle Martin' enough to keep his secret, and offer him a cover and sanctuary, there was a magic that almost leapt from the screen. Bixby, at 29, had been a regular on "The Joey Bishop Show", but seemed doomed to blandly pleasant supporting roles, until "My Favorite Martian" displayed his remarkable comic timing, and, more importantly, his 'likeability' to television audiences. The series would serve as a springboard to a very successful career on the small screen, that would continue until his tragic death from cancer, at 59, in 1993.
As the series grew in popularity, the role of snooping but endearing landlady Laura Lee Brown (Broadway/movie veteran Pamela Britton) would be enlarged and softened, eventually becoming a romantic interest for Martin, and a new regular, Detective Bill Brennan (character actor Alan Hewitt), a veteran cop suspicious of the O'Hara's, and also enamored of Mrs. Brown, would be introduced. Both actors were great fun in their roles, and provided some very memorable moments, during the second and third seasons.Among Martin's 'powers' were invisibility (whenever he raised the mini-TV antennas in the back of his head), reading minds, and levitating objects with his finger, as well as limited abilities that would appear and disappear whenever he became ill, ate the wrong foods, etc. But his greatest gift was an understanding heart; despite an occasional aside about the human race's primitive nature, he truly loved our planet, and enjoyed watching us 'mature' over the ages. For an alien, he displayed remarkable humanity!While Walston enjoyed making "My Favorite Martian", he was not devastated when the program was finally canceled, after three seasons. With some of his finest work still ahead of him (THE STING, "Stephen King's The Stand", "Picket Fences", "Star Trek: The Next Generation", and the classic FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH, just to name a few), he would be revered as one of the entertainment industry's most beloved and respected actors when he passed away, at 87, in 2001."My Favorite Martian" transcends the silliness of it's scripts with the talent and charisma of the remarkable cast. It was, and remains, a well-deserved audience favorite.
macblanc
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.
