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American sitcom

3rd Rock from the Sun is an American television sitcom created by Bonnie and Terry Turner, which originally aired from January 9, 1996, to May 22, 2001, on NBC. The show is about four extraterrestrials who are on an expedition to Earth, the third planet from the Sun, which they consider to be a very insignificant planet. The extraterrestrials pose as a human family to observe the behavior of human beings. The show premiered three years after the film Coneheads, which was also written by the couple and featured a similar premise of aliens arriving on Earth and assimilating into American society.

The premise of the show revolves around an extraterrestrial research expedition hailing from a planet in a barred spiral galaxy on the Cepheus Draco border attempting to live as a normal human family in the fictional city of Rutherford, Ohio, said to be 52 mile (84 km) outside of Cleveland where they live in an attic apartment. The show's humor is principally derived from the aliens' attempts to study human society and understand the human condition, while living as humans on Earth, reflecting on human life from the perspective of aliens. Most of the episodes are named after the protagonist, Dick. In later episodes, they have become more accustomed to Earth and are often more interested in their human lives than in their mission. The show also takes humor from its mirroring of all human anthropological expeditions and their assumptions of superiority to the "natives", as well as their inability to distinguish themselves from the natives. Dr. Mary Albright (Jane Curtin) is a professor of anthropology at fictional Pendelton State University, and many of the issues with which the four aliens struggle appear in her conversation and work. Furthermore, these four alien researchers end up looking approximately like joyriders as they get drawn increasingly further into human life. Dick Solomon (John Lithgow), the High Commander and leader of the expedition, is the family provider and a physics professor at Pendelton (with Lithgow's eldest son Ian playing Leon, one of his less successful students). Information officer and oldest member of the crew Tommy (Joseph Gordon Levitt) has been given the body of a teenager and is forced to enroll in high school (later college), leaving security officer Sally (Kristen Johnston) and "the one with the transmitter in his head", Harry (French Stewart), to spend their lives as 20 somethings hanging out at home and bouncing through short term jobs. The show also involves their relationships with humans, mostly their love interests. The family often communicates through Harry with their off world (and usually unseen) boss, the Big Giant Head, who when he finally visits Earth, is played by William Shatner. Harry unexpectedly (and often in inconvenient circumstances) stands up, his arms stiff (acting as the antenna), and proclaims: "Incoming message from the Big Giant Head!"

The show's opening theme music, composed by Ben Vaughn, was originally a 1950s style rock and roll instrumental piece for the first four seasons; the theme was extended slightly in season three, when Simbi Khali, Elmarie Wendel, and Wayne Knight were officially made series regulars and added to the opening credits. During season one, James Earl Jones provided a voice introduction describing the crew. For Christmas episodes, jingle bells were added to the theme. The only major change to the theme was in season five, when the original Ben Vaughn version was replaced by a big band cover of the theme, performed by the group Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, and was only used during that season. For the sixth and final season, the original theme returned and a modern jazz underline version of the theme was used for two episodes.

The opening title sequence, which was produced by the London graphic design firm SVC Television, opens with computerized shots of planets and celestial bodies, some either with the planets dancing or moving in warp speed. It opens and closes with a shot of Earth (which at the open is where the show's title logo appears, after a sunburst appears on the side of Earth). For the sixth and final season only, the typeface of the cast and creators' names was altered.

In the United States, the series is distributed for syndication by Carsey Werner Distribution, and entered broadcast syndication in September 1999, where it continued until the fall of 2004, when the show moved into limited run barter syndication, where it remained until 2016; The Program Exchange handled distribution for Carsey Werner. ABC Family aired reruns between 2002 and 2006. Reruns of the series aired on TV Land from 2008 through 2010. In the fall of 2010, ReelzChannel began airing the series. The series made its debut on digital broadcast network Laff on July 16, 2018, until May 16, 2021, when it moved to IFC as well on Cozi TV beginning July 18. In Italy, this series aired on Italia 1 under the name Una famiglia del terzo tipo (A family of the third kind) in 1999. This series rerun is now also aired on Malaysia's national broadcast TV channel RTM's TV2 in the 12:30 am time slot on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. In the United Kingdom, the series originally aired on BBC Two from 1996 to 2002, and ITV2 later reran the entire series from 2005 to 2006. It has since rerun on Comedy Central, Channel 4, and 5Star. In the fall of 2011, Canada's TVTropolis cable channel began airing the show, and featured a long weekend marathon run of episodes.

Netflix made the complete series available online in March 2011. It was removed several months later in the fall of 2011, but returned on March 15, 2015, and was removed again exactly two years later. The series also was available to stream on Hulu. The series was available to stream in the United States on Amazon Prime Video, FilmRise, Tubi, Pluto TV, Crackle, Vudu, IMDb TV and Peacock, but as of late 2023 is only available on Hoopla and through TV providers carrying IFC on demand. In the UK, as of 2024, the full series is available on Sky Go and Channel 4.

A tie in book, 3rd Rock from the Sun: The Official Report On Earth, was released in 1997. It is essentially a report of the Solomons' findings during their stay on Earth. Primarily a source of humor, the book includes such features as "What to do if you encounter Jell O", a fan biography of Katie Couric written by Harry, and Sally's version of a Cosmo quiz. Portions of the book are included in the booklets inside each season set of the series. Despite the report's being set within the fictional world of 3rd Rock, a foreword written by John Lithgow himself is included in which he explains how he was abducted by the 3rd Rock producers and forced to work on their production. A Post it note is attached to the foreword, apparently written by Dick Solomon, stating he does not know why the foreword is there, but that Lithgow is an Earth actor who appeared in "some helicopter movie".