The 25 best episodes of '3rd Rock from the Sun,' ranked

Basically, every episode of “3rd Rock From the Sun” has “Dıck” in the title because John Lithgow’s ostensible need was named Dıck Solomon. Surely that is the only reason why. We can’t think of any other reason, comedic or otherwise, why “Dıck” would be in so many episode titles. This is the first, and earliest, episode on the list, and it’s mostly here for riffing on Lithgow’s famous role in “Twilight Zone: The Movie.”

Yes, high school reunions are big in sitcoms, especially old sitcoms, but how often is an alien showing up at one of those reunions? That’s what happens in the secondary story of this episode, which features Harry accompanying Vicki Dubcek to her reunion. It’s funnier than the main story, which features Dıck going to sensitivity training. Tommy learning to drive is also good.

The sixth and final season of “3rd Rock” is a step down from the few seasons that proceeded it, in part because Joseph Gordon-Levitt was no longer around all the time. However, “Why Dıck Can’t Teach” is a nice showcase for him. Now ready for college, Tommy sits in Dıck’s physics class and realizes that Dıck is a bad teacher and thus he does not want to go to Pendleton, which goes against Dıck’s own wishes.

Dance competitions are another staple of sitcoms, but it’s the kind of broad thing that works well on a broad show like this one. Lithgow and French Stewart are rivals in a dance competition that also involves Mary and Nina, and those two were never afraid to chew the scenery when the time called for it. Dancing is definitely a time when some hamminess can lead to fun comedy.

Since the Solomons are, you know, aliens who came to Earth, they don’t exactly have much history. That can cause complications at times, and obviously none of the humans they know figure they are extraterrestrials. That leads Mary in this instance to come to believe that Dıck is a ‘60s counterculture activist in hiding that she knew back then.

Two funny storylines join forces in this episode. Dıck goes to his first doctor’s appointment but gets scared about being poked and prodded. Meanwhile, Sally and Tommy are housesitting for Mary to try and keep her house from being egged on Halloween. Unlike Mary, they aren’t afraid to get rough with the kids. They should be, because they are children, but they aren’t.

Dıck and Mary have a terrible relationship by and large, mostly because Dıck is an alien who doesn’t understand anything. However, as implausible as it is that they stay together, it lends itself to a lot of comedy. Take, for example, in this episode when Dıck fears he and Mary are in a rut, so he tries to “spice things up” within his own twisted logic.

Here’s one of the rare episodes that doesn’t have “Dıck” in the title. For a lot of the show’s run, Tommy is dating Alissa Strudwick, played by Alex Mack herself Larisa Oleynik. She also happens to be the daughter of Dıck’s rival at Pendleton. For once, though, Dıck and Strudwick join forces here out of fear that the two teenagers have eloped. It’s a fun pairing since they are basically never on the same side.

This episode’s spot here is for basically one scene and one scene only. After seeing “King of the Jigs,” a riff on “Lord of the Dance,” Dıck, Don, Mary, Judith, and a bunch of extras spontaneously break into a step dance. It’s absurd but so delightful that it makes this a standout episode of the show.

Harry accidentally ends up a political candidate after inadvertently chaining himself to a tree. While all the aliens are ignorant to human customs, Harry is certainly the most ignorant of them all, filling the role of the “weirdo” and the “dumb one” in the sitcom dynamic. That makes him quite funny in a political campaign.

Well, it’s all there in the title of the episode. Dıck and Harry fall into a hole and get stuck. This leads to a parody of high-stakes action movies or procedurals, and Alan Cumming plays a “hole expert” called in to try and save Dıck and Harry. That’s fun, and so are Dıck and Harry being stuck together and trapped.

Like in most sitcoms, there are changes to the status quo here and there during the run of “3rd Rock.” For example, there’s a time when Mary becomes Dean of Pendleton. She then begins to worry that she is going to be ousted. Of course, if Mary is paranoid, Dıck is EXTREMELY paranoid, and that drives Mary’s paranoia even further, leading to them going to great lengths to try and figure things out. It doesn’t go well.

Dıck had no youth as a human, of course. He came to Earth and immediately ended up in the body of a middle-aged man. When he and Mary go on vacation during spring break, Dıck finds himself drawn to spending his time with college students partying and getting drunk. Spring break, whoo!

In this episode, Dıck is trying to use underhanded tactics to get Mary to move back into the office they used to share. However, the real fun of this episode is Sally, Tommy, and Harry hanging out in a hospital. They quickly begin living out the tropes of medical dramas, which is delightful.

The Solomons go to a sci-fi convention. Hey, this was 1996, before Comic-Con was the biggest entertainment event in the world and barely about comics. As actual aliens, though, it’s a nice little dynamic for this show. Also, George Takei has an amusing cameo as himself.

We’re combining the two parts of the series finale here. “3rd Rock” doesn’t have an all-time great finale by any means. After all, it just cracks the top 10 of the show, much less a list of series finales. Still, last episodes are always momentous, and this one is no different. After all, Mary finds out that the Solomons are aliens finally. By the way, we are ranking the episode that originally aired here. They eventually released a new version with an alternate ending, and honestly that ending kind of sucks.

The Solomons are weird. They are aliens with no understanding of how people act, and also they don’t seem terribly interested in being traditional. However, for one episode they decide they need to do the best they can to be “average.” They wear average clothes, move into an average apartment, and so on. The fun is in the juxtaposition of the characters flipping the script from their usual eccentricities to being “normal,” but still being quite funny.

“TV Guide” called “Indecent Dıck” one of the 50th funniest TV moments of all time in 1999. That’s not bad for an episode that aired in 1998. This episode won Lithgow an Emmy, and it’s also a showcase for Johnson as Sally. Sally agrees to pose for a “Playboy” analog, which obviously for a bunch of aliens posing as humans has a different connotation to it.

Christmas is a treasure trove for sitcoms, and “3rd Rock” is no different. The fact that the Solomons are celebrating Christmas for the first time ads a little extra fun to the mix as well. The family is excited for Christmas, but obviously things go a little awry, before coming together for some holiday sweetness in the end.

As humans, we are aware that someday we will die. This did not dawn on the Solomons to the same degree. Then, one day, Sally, Harry, and Tommy are almost killed by a falling chandelier. They change their lives due to their near-death experience, but the episode is even better because Dıck becomes jealous of them and tries to have a near-death experience of his own.

The first season of this show took a little while to get going, but by the end, it was clicking. That includes in the finale of season one. Dıck and Mary finally go on a date, and it goes well. It also involves Dıck being a substitute Benihana chef, which is a goofy delight. There are also some real stakes to the episode, as we find out that a replacement is going to be sent to replace Dıck as High Commander of the mission. This led to the Evil Dıck run at the beginning of season two.

Lithgow is immensely hammy on “3rd Rock,” but it’s what the show calls for. He perhaps had no better chance to go all out than in this episode. Dıck directs Tommy’s school’s production of “Romeo & Juliet.” That means we get to see an actor who is already hamming it up playing a hammy actor. It’s exactly what you want from this show.

Here’s a throwback. In this episode, Dıck becomes obsessed with Fuzzy Buddies, a parody of Beanie Babies. That’s about as late ‘90s as you can get. And yet, even if it feels immensely dated, it’s still funny these days. If anything it’s a bit of a nostalgia trip combined with the solid jokes and funny performers that were staples of the show.

This is kind of the perfect premise for “3rd Rock.” The Solomons go to a murder mystery weekend but don’t know that it’s all fake. Thus, they think an actual murder has happened. It’s broad, it’s silly, but it’s also hilarious. If you like goofy comedy, this is a real treat of an episode.

We top the list with another holiday episode, this time the first Thanksgiving the Solomons every celebrated. It’s also the first episode for Vicki Dubcek, the daughter of the Solomons’ landlord Mrs. Dubcek. She’s played by Jan Hooks in a great performance, popping up a few episodes here and there. This is also the beginning of Harry and Vicki’s on again, off again romance. Does Harry put a turkey on his head and then have sex with Vicki in the dining room? You bet. It’s also even funnier than it sounds, and a big reason why this is our favorite episode of “3rd Rock from the Sun.”