This was as rather cute little 1960s morality play about a friendly Martian who crashes his flying saucer on earth and is discovered by Tim O'Hara, a newspaper reporter. Tim takes him in as his "Uncle" Martin and promises he will harbor him until he can repair his craft and go back to Mars.Uncle Martin gets his way by his extraordinary telepathic and telekinetic powers. He also is a philosopher, scientist and mind control expert. He never does anything wrong intentionally, but always seems to betray himself by his misunderstanding of the ways of our world. Still, he and Tim are a formidable team and each show always had me chuckling.The recent movie version isn't even worth commenting on. It was thoroughly putrid and was just a way for the studios to relieve you of your hard-earned dough. Watch ANY remakes of 1960s TV shows at your own peril. You read it here first!

I would like to request season two (1964-65) of "My Favorite Martian" on DVD, due in part to the episode "A Martian Fiddles Around" which depicts Martin feeling burned out over Mrs. Lorelei Brown's violin playing. When he hears the sound of the instrument, he goes transparent as his mind short circuits. Martin and nephew Tim become involved with Antonio Amalfi, a violin maker, to change the instrument's sound. Johnny initially cuts ties with his father (and the company would've expired). Martin then plays the instrument that makes him vanish and then fears over the rumor (and confesses desperately) that his transparent self is really the ghost of Stradivari, who would come back to tell Amalfi the great secret. In the end, though, Mr. Amalfi and his son's violin shop stays open due to Martin's help.This episode originally was broadcast on CBS on Valentine's Day 1965.

'My Favorite Martian' rapidly became a must-see for me once the first episode premiered on Australian television. It was cutting-edge SF-comedy in a class of its own at the time, decades before 'Third Rock from the Sun' appeared. Ray Walston was born to play Uncle Martin, just as Jonathan Harris was born to play Dr Smith! He and Bill Bixby worked well together and their relationship in some way reminded me of George Reeves and Jack Larson - 'Superman' and Jimmy Olsen'. Their teamwork gave an extra dimension to an often paper-thin script. I still have my autographed photo and the unique envelope it came in though once again (as happened with Connie Hines), the postman folded the envelope and cracked the emulsion. I almost cried at the time!

Long before the special effects department established the forefront of future shows like Bewitched,I Dream of Jeannie,or other shows that gave us the magical effect,no other show can topped off the hilarious hijinks of "My Favorite Martian". During its run the show had in my book some of the best special effects ever devised for TV,and for good reason. It may have been hokey or rather silly,but in turn Ray Walston was the genius behind Uncle Martin,who was in fact an alien from another planet who crash lands on Earth only to be discovered by a newspaper man Tim O'Hara,played by Bill Bixby who was after fame and fortune with this.However,Tim was the only one who knew of Uncle Martin's secret identity,but other folks thought Tim was paranoid since Martin was REALLY a martian! There was other folks who knew what went on including the really nosey neighbor Lora Lee,and the detective who was always snooping around for answers,but Uncle Martin knew how to take care of them.Uncle Martin was always experimenting on stuff. He could defy gravity,and in one episode walk through walls,and the best part make a antenna come out of his head and many more. There were times when Martin lost his powers(in one episode dealt with a bracey kid who zapped his telekinetic powers-funny!)but as always gain them back.Basically,all Martin wanted to do was get his spaceship repair and get home,but he never made it. However,during the three seasons that it ran on CBS(which came on Sunday nights after Lassie),Tim and Martin had some interesting adventures and it did very well to make the transition to bring some of the color episodes during its final season. The show ended in the Spring of 1966 after 107 episodes.The show had a Saturday morning cartoon spin-off during the 1970's,and also a live-action version that starred Christopher Lloyd as the martian done for Disney. Catch the repeats here on TV-Land!