3rd Rock from the Sun is a classic but underrated sitcom from the 1990s. I was a bit too young to catch it during its original premiere, but I know I was watching well before it finally got canceled in the early 2000s. John Lithgow and Kristen Johnston did a fantastic job, and it was one of the earliest roles for Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who’d go on to have a pretty major career once he hit his twenties and thirties. Honestly, the concept of this show probably wouldn’t get greenlit today either.

The premise centers on the Solomon family, really just a group of alien coworkers who land on Earth to study the planet for their alien overlords. Thankfully, they don’t seem to have any sinister agenda, they’re simply here to observe humanity, sort of like how Earthlings study alien worlds in Star Trek. We never actually see their true alien forms, so we’re left to imagine whatever they were originally supposed to look like. The leader poses as the dad, his lieutenant poses as his sister, the intelligence officer poses as his son, and the transmitting alien plays the role of his dim-witted brother.

The best part of the show is easily John Lithgow as Dick Solomon. Lithgow is such a gifted performer, and this role gave him endless room to be genuinely funny. He’s wonderfully eccentric, unhinged, and hilarious as Dick, you truly never know what kind of chaos he’ll stir up next. And he becomes “human” faster than the rest.

What works especially well is Dick’s relationship with Dr. Mary Albright, his coworker at the college where he teaches. He quickly develops a crush on her, leading to plenty of playful teasing and pursuit. She’s clearly into him too, but his early inability to grasp basic human behavior initially rubs her the wrong way. Eventually, though, she watches him discover life with almost childlike wonder, and while she finds it strange and bizarre at first, she also finds it kind of endearing. They may not be Ross and Rachel, but they made for a genuinely solid pairing.

I always found it funny when Dick would pick on his college student Leon, treating him like the black sheep of the class. Turns out, that actor was actually John Lithgow’s real-life son, Ian Lithgow, which in hindsight makes perfect sense. Sitcoms often thrive on the biggest on-screen rivals actually being close friends off-screen, and there’s something delightful about watching him “feud” with his real son on camera. Their scenes together really shine, made even funnier once you know the family connection, and honestly, the resemblance is uncanny.

Sally was probably my least favorite of the four leads. Kristen Johnston is a genuinely talented comedic actress, though I never really saw her as a conventional beauty. That said, I loved her dynamic with Officer Don, played by Wayne Knight, who I think most people know far better as Newman, the mailman from Seinfeld. But Officer Don was a much warmer role for him, and I appreciated his devotion to Sally despite them often feeling like polar opposites.

Then there’s the lovable Harry. French Stewart may or may not actually be a genius in real life, but he absolutely nailed playing a lovable idiot on screen. Much like Joey on Friends or Patrick Star on SpongeBob, he delivers some fantastic low-IQ comedic gold. His recurring bits receiving messages from the Big Giant Head were consistently funny and became one of the show’s most charming running gags.

Tommy, meanwhile, was a mixed bag. Joseph Gordon-Levitt wouldn’t really explode in his career for another decade or so, but he was just a kid when the show began. His character evolves from sweet and adorable into a fairly typical, occasionally angsty teenager as the show progresses. Funny enough, that part most likely mirrored what he was actually going through in real life at the time.

One of the best running elements was watching the unsuspecting humans react to the alien characters without ever realizing they weren’t actually human. I also loved when other aliens dropped in, like William Shatner as the Big Giant Head or John Cleese as a super-alien, and interacted with the crew.

3rd Rock from the Sun remains one of my all-time favorite sitcoms, and it’s honestly a bit criminal how underrated it is. It’s been roughly 30 years now, and it still hasn’t earned the classic status it deserves. Friends obviously became the defining sitcom of the ’90s, while this one kinda faded into obscurity. It did fine in the ratings during its run, though it also closed out with a fairly weak final season that arguably earned its cancellation. I also think the show never really found a proper streaming home in the Netflix era, making it that much harder for new audiences to discover. But if you’ve never seen it, it’s genuinely a delight and holds up remarkably well. I make a point of rewatching it at least once a decade.