My Favorite Martian: Season 01  (1963)

Theatrical Release Information:
My Favorite Martian: Season 01

Filmed in black-and-white, season one of My Favorite Martian begins literally at the beginning, when Tim O'Hara (Bill Bixby), young reporter for the "Los Angeles Sun," slows down his snazzy sports car long enough to investigate a strange object that has crashed on the side of the highway. Out pops what looks like an ordinary middle-aged man (Ray Walston), dressed in a silver lamé spacesuit. When the stranger looks up and barks petulantly, "What do you expect me to say, take me to your leader?" Tim realizes that he has stumbled upon a visitor from Mars, and that the wreckage next to him is that of a one-person spaceship. Taking the martian to his home to recuperate, Tim envisions a Pulitzer Prize for filing a story about meeting an extraterrestrial being, but the martian persuades Tim to keep his true identity a secret, at least until he can repair his spaceship and return to his own planet. Tim's landlady, Mrs. Lorelei Brown (Pamela Britton), is told that Tim's house guest is his "Uncle Martin" -- and Uncle Martin he will remain for the duration of the series. The rest of the first season is devoted to various demonstrations of Uncle Martin's awesome powers, and of Tim's strenuous efforts to prevent the authorities from finding out he has a martian in his bedroom. Two characters appear throughout season one, never to be seen in any subsequent season: Mrs. Brown's teenaged daughter, Angela (Anne O. Marshall), and Tim's dyspeptic editor Harry Burns (J. Pat O'Malley). Despite its somewhat awkward early Sunday evening time slot (smack dab opposite the popular Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color), My Favorite Martian closed out its inaugural season as America's tenth most popular program. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide