What’s Worth Watching: 3rd Rock from the Sun Takes Us Back to Simpler Times
3rd Rock from the Sun, All six seasons streaming via Netflix
Before some desperate network inevitably tries to remake this supremely weird, weirdly endearing ’90s sitcom, take a look at the original. Four aliens—Dick (John Lithgow), Sally (Kristen Johnston), Tommy (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), and Harry (French Stewart) Solomon—come to Earth to pose as humans. Appropriately, the Solomons reside not in some coastal bastion of eliteness, but Rutherford, Ohio, outside of Cleveland. Yes, there’s a laugh track, and some typically hokey jokes, but this is one of the bizarre premise shows from that period to actually age well. Others may hold up Friends and Will & Grace as the gold standard for ’90s comedy, but 3rd Rock deserves a place in that pantheon as well. Plus, neither of them had Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
