Network: NBC
Episodes: 139 (half-hour)
Seasons: Six

TV show dates: January 9, 1996 — May 22, 2001
Series status: Cancelled/ended

Performers include: John Lithgow, Kristen Johnston, French Stewart, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jane Curtin, Simbi Khali, Elmarie Wendel, Wayne Knight, David DeLuise, Ian Lithgow, Danielle Nicolet, Chris Hogan, Ileen Getz, Shay Astar, Larisa Oleynik, Jan Hooks, Ron West, and Chad Einbinder.

TV show description:      
A team of four aliens come to Earth to learn about our culture and way of life. The extraterrestrials must take on human form and deal with the emotions that come with it. Together, the aliens try to blend in and struggle to get through day-to-day life in some very humorous situations.

Dr. Dick Solomon (John Lithgow) is the leader of the earthly expedition and becomes a physics professor at Ohio’s Pendelton State University. Working alongside him is sarcastic Dr. Mary Albright (Jane Curtin) and their secretary, Nina Campbell (Simbi Khali). Eventually Dick and Mary fall in love, making Dick’s mission all the more difficult.

His second-in-command, a male lieutenant and security specialist, takes the form of female Sally Solomon (Kristen Johnson), Dick’s sister. Initially uncomfortable in his/her body, Sally finds romance with blundering Officer Don Orville (Wayne Knight).

Tommy (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is the intelligence expert of the group and its oldest member. He takes the form of Dick’s teenage son who must attend the local high school and experience the trials and tribulations of young adulthood. He eventually dates Alissa Strudwick (Larisa Oleynik), the daughter of a teacher at the University.

The team’s communication officer, air-headed Harry (French Stewart), is often seen slacking at home or bouncing between short-term jobs. He poses as Dick’s brother.

The group’s arrogant off-world commander, Big Giant Head (William Shatner), is often heard but rarely seen.

•	An alternate ending was filmed just in case NBC decided to renew the show at the last minute (though it was considered highly doubtful). It was reportedly filmed several days after the taping of the series finale. In an additional scene, Mary wakes up soonafter the aliens have beamed away. She gets up and sits in the driver’s seat of the Rambler. Dick suddenly appears in the passenger seat, fully naked. Mary’s astonished and asks who he is. Dick says that he couldn’t leave her, hugs Mary, looks up and screams “Alien abduction! Alien abduction!”. The two are beamed away, leaving the empty car behind. The scene is included on the sixth season DVD set.
•	Prior to the episode being aired, Lithgow told reporters, “We end it in a blaze of glory. It was 138 episodes, laughing all the way. I must say the feeling is melancholy; we really did love it all the way up to the end.”
•	After both having travelled via airplane, both Dick and the Big Giant Head mention that they saw something on the wing of the plane. This is a nod to a memorable Twilight Zone episode in which an airline passenger claims to see a gremlin on the plane’s wing. Shatner played the passenger in the 1963 Twilight episode called “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet.” Lithgow played the role when the episode was remade as part of the 1983 Twilight Zone movie.