Mars will be closest to the Earth in a decade and a half today, on the night of July 31, 2018. The Earth will have the Red Planet and the Sun on either side, with the three celestial bodies in a straight line. Though the two planets will be at closest distances to each other, they will still be 57.6 million km apart. This will be the closest distance between Mars and Earth until October 2020, but the Red Planet’s visibility as good as today's only every 15-17 years.
Those facts are completely irrelevant to the actual reason for this post. One of my favorite shows when I was growing up in the 60s, was MY FAVORITE MARTIAN, which premiered on September 29, 1963, and lasted until May 1st, 1966. The show told the adventures of a Martian who crash-lands his spaceship on Earth and is taken in by a young newspaper reporter named Tim O'Hara. Disguising himself as Uncle Martin, the alien from space tries to repair his ship hidden in the garage, but Tim's nosy landlady, Mrs. Brown, takes a liking to Uncle Martin making it very difficult to keep his true identity a secret.
The show starred Ray Walston as the Martian and Bill Bixby as Tim O'Hara and also featured Pamela Britton as Mrs. Brown and Alan Hewitt as a suspicious police detective named Brennan. The show seems quite mild and tame by today's standards and the comedy isn't that hilarious...but it has a distinctive charm and appeal all its own.
So, here's my tribute to MY FAVORITE MARTIAN!
MY FAVORITE MARTIAN is available on DVD from Amazon here:
