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52 of 52 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Continuing in the Great 3rd Rock Tradition, December 17, 2005
This season contains many great episodes. This season ran in the 1997-98 timeframe. Here's a complete list:
1. Fun with Dick and Janet (1)
Dick receives an unpleasant order from the home planet on the hour-long third-season opener: he must marry the Big Giant Head's niece Janet. As Sally, Harry and Tommy escort Janet on the rocket to Earth, the bride-to-be sets out to prove that she's a true domestic goddess, brushing up on her skills by reading The Joy of Cooking, The Joy of Sex -- and The Joy of Yiddish.
2. Fun with Dick and Janet (2)
Dick receives an unpleasant order from the home planet on the hour-long third-season opener: he must marry the Big Giant Head's niece Janet. As Sally, Harry and Tommy escort Janet on the rocket to Earth, the bride-to-be sets out to prove that she's a true domestic goddess, brushing up on her skills by reading The Joy of Cooking, The Joy of Sex -- and The Joy of Yiddish.
3. Tricky Dick
Dick and Mary take out their frustrations about their broken engagement on each other and begin an elaborate game of practical-joke one-upmanship, while Sally eyes her disinterested yoga instructor and Tommy reluctantly joins a garage band, with Harry as his roadie.
4. Dick-In-Law
Dick inadvertently lets a huge skeleton out of Mary's parents' closet when he accompanies her on a trip to see her folks, while Sally adjusts to new closet space when she temporarily moves in with Nina.
5. Scaredy Dick
Dick turns out to be a scaredy cat when faced with the prospect of a physical exam. Meanwhile, Sally and Tommy house-sit at Albright's house on Halloween night -- that's bad news for neighborhood trick-or-treaters -- and Harry stays home alone, except for some very weird noises coming from the basement.
6. Moby Dick
Dick is forced to diet when he discovers he's put on an enormous amount of weight.
7. Eleven Angry Men and One Dick
Dick longs for the chance to administer his "unique brand of jurisprudence" when he's called for jury duty; Sally falls for an "artist" [to Officer Don's chagrin]; and Tommy and Harry help Albright with a "preverbal" project [they must remain mute for five days].
8. A Friend in Dick
Dick, friendless after his breakup with Albright, tries to shoehorn Officer Don into his life as best friend and constant companion... with mixed results. Sally shanghais the slickly popular dancer Peter Connelly ("King of the Jig") to Johnny Foam's Cafe as a sacrificial lamb for her moody artist boyfriend Seth, and is horrified to learn that rather than the dark and tortured soul the fell for, Seth is a poseur... and a jig fan.
9. Seven Deadly Clips
The Solomons reflect on their sinful ways in an episode that illustrates their misdeeds in clips from past episodes.
10. Tom, Dick and Mary
Tommy tells Dick he'd really like to meet a woman closer to his real age, say someone like Angie Dickinson. Sally says it's time for her to go out and look for a real job. Dick thinks Harry's watching far too much television and orders him to give it up for a week.
11. Jailhouse Dick
Dick thinks he's doing the right thing when he offers to personally rehabilitate a criminal, but winds up doing more harm than good; Sally tries to help Mary find a new home for Pepper; and Harry struggles to complete a book report on Little Women.
12. Dick on a Roll
Dick hurts himself playing in a wheelchair, which puts him in one for real -- and turns him into an angry advocate for handicapped rights. Meanwhile, Dubcek's daughter Vicki visits but decides to become celibate, much to Harry's chagrin.
13. The Great Dickdater
Dick decides that it's time to date again, so he goes to Sally and Officer Don for advice; Harry and Tommy find a wallet with $200 in it, and return the money to the owner.
14. 36! 24! 36! Dick! (1)
Venusians disguised as gorgeous babes plot to plunder Earth of its riches in an uproarious episode that climaxes at Super Bowl XXXII in San Diego. When hordes of beautiful women start showing up in sleepy Rutherford, Ohio -- and seem enthusiastic about dating average Joes like Dick, Harry, Tommy, and Officer Don - Sally suspects that something's amiss. Before she can warn anyone that the women are really Venusians bent on dominating Earth, they discover her and force her to become one of them.
15. 36! 24! 36! Dick! (2)
In the supervixens' lair, the Solomon men seem defeated, but with the help of Sally, who only pretended to turn against them, and Venusian Mascha (Crawford), who's been won over by Harry's simple charms, Dick and company jam the commercial broadcast, explode the mother ship, and convince the supervixens that a career in modeling might suit them.
16. Pickles and Ice Cream
Harry's pet follows him to Earth -- in human form; Sally visits her first gynecologist and decides to pretend she is pregnant.
17. Auto EuroDicka
Dick has casual sex with a woman he meets in line at the movies, then doesn't understand why Dr. Albright gets upset when he keeps talking about the encounter. Dick learns that the woman is the mother of one of his students, Bug, whose father and brothers pay a visit to Dick in an effort to teach him to show a little more respect.
18. Stuck with Dick
Dick wants to get back together with Mary, so he's in luck when they find themselves locked in the school library overnight. Meanwhile, Sally, Harry and Tommy search for Dick. Their first (and only) stop: Mary's house.
19. Portrait of Tommy as an Old Man
Tommy, tired of having to handle all of the "kid" duties [when in reality he's the oldest member of the mission], decides to retire. After he spends some time at a retirement home, he changes his mind, realizing that a big part of what makes you old is acting -- and being treated - like your old.
20. My Daddy's Little Girl
Albright's father walks out on his wife and into Sally's life, while Harry walks into Rutherford College's vacant radio studio and begins his career as a shock jock.
21. The Physics of Being Dick
Dick demands that Sally and Harry go to work, so she signs on as Albright's research assistant and he gets a job tending bar. Then Dick decides on a career change for himself (he wants to be a cop) after a disastrous Career Day at Tommy's school.
22. Just Your Average Dick (1)
John Cleese puts his zaniness to good use in a two-part guest shot as a new professor who's even nuttier than Dick. And smarter. He's hotshot Dr. Liam Neesam, and he's a little too good at everything he does.
23. Dick and the Other Guy (2)
Dick has a rival for the title of Pendelton's nuttiest professor -- and a rival for Albright's affections -- with the arrival of the mysterious Dr. Liam Neesam. Meanwhile, Sally feels that she's losing her touch with men after Don seems to lose interest in her.
24. Sally and Don's First Kiss
Sally turns to romance novels for inspiration when it's time for her first kiss with Officer Don. Unfortunately, whether they try it on a windy, moonlit bluff or in the Solomons' kitchen, the kiss just isn't special enough. Sally becomes resigned to breaking up with Don, but when she goes to the police stable to tell him, the magical combination of horses, thunder, lightning, and Don's newfound forcefulness combine to make Sally realize Don's the guy for her after all.
25. When Aliens Camp
Dick takes the family camping as a mission bonding activity. At the campsite, the family and Mary all become angry with Dick -- the family because he lies about bringing Mary along after he tells them it's "family only," and Mary because he tells her the family doesn't mind she's coming along.
26. The Tooth Harry
Mary is asked to appear in a new Pendelton University promotional video. Dick whines until he is also allowed to participate. Unfortunately, neither of them shares the director's vision of what their "performances" should be like, and they are unceremoniously replaced by other "actors" (including Tommy). Harry volunteers to drive Nina to the dentist.
27. Eat, Drink, Mary (1)
The Solomons wind up their third season -- and perhaps their mission on Earth -- with a romantic dinner party that turns predictably raucous. The chef is Tommy, who has just "come out" as a gourmet. The guests: Dick and Mary, Don and Sally and Harry and Mrs. Dubcek's amorous daughter Vicki, who is back in his life. The trouble is, Vicki's jealous ex-boyfriend is hot on her trail.
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A Big Drop Off In Quality From Seasons 1 and 2, March 20, 2006
Seasons 1 and 2 were a blast, filled with great ensemble fun fueled by the sheer wackiness of the premise wherein four aliens are discovering everything from kleenex and sushi to what it means to be a man, a woman, a teenager. A big mistake that set Season 3 off on the wrong foot was the inexplicable decision to break up all of the major relationships of the show--Dick and Mary, Tommy and August, Sally and Don--within the first few weeks of the season.
The show was always madcap, but it also had a sensitivity and sweetness that are missing while the characters snipe at each other as a result of their various breakups. Tommy and August were so precociously funny, Sally and Don were straight out of film noir, and Dick and Mary were sweet and crazily witty. Because of the breakup of Dick and Mary, the show's center is now off-kilter. Jane Curtin has much less to do in this season, now that her character has separated from Dick.
I can guess why they engineered these breakups. They feared they'd written themselves into a corner. But if you're going to break up Dick and Mary, the main focus of much of the show, you should use that breakup wisely. I most certainly would have had Dick pining for Mary even while he tries to go out with other women. And the two parter where Roseanne shows up as Dick's assigned alien spouse just didn't work for me--the whole breakup seems artificial, and much of the humor in this season seems forced. Again, if you're gonna break them all up, you'd better have something good to fill the void, and they don't.
Individual episodes are still good, but some seem so forced--Scaredy Dick is the worst episode in the first three seasons, contrived and seemingly slapped together. I could see Mrs. Dubcek coming out of that basement the second I heard the first "ghostly" moan. I found myself saying "this is so sitcommy."
I would also guess that a new production and/or writing team took over this season, because so much here is just flat or not fully imagined. The show had depth AND wit, and now it just has wit, without polish which is not always enough.
Still, I give it three stars because of the wonderful, wonderful cast, even if the plots and scripts aren't always up to their talent level.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
STILL VERY FUNNY, February 20, 2006
At, what could be considered, a rather dismal time in my life these DVD presentations of "Third Rock" have brought me many hours of much needed laughter. I'm not just talking about "polite chuckles" I'm talking about laugh out loud from the gut kind of laughter. What a cast of wonderful actors this show had. John Lithgow, as Dick Solomon and Jane Curtin, as Mary Albright are so very funny leading a stupendous cast in some of the funniest episodes that I have ever seen in any television presentation. (I've been watching T.V. comedies since Milton Berle and Sid Caesar). In addition to Lithgow and Curtin there are great comedy performances by Kristen Johnston, as Sally, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, as Tommy, and MOST OF ALL French Stewart as Harry-no one on earth is any funnier than he is.
Series three continues the immense laughter the first two series delivered-if anything it is funnier than the first two series. See the previous review for a great overview of each program in series three. If you want to see one of the best American Comedies ever at its very best buy Series Three!
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