Out of This World (TV series)


Out of This World is an American fantasy sitcom about a teenage girl who is half alien, which gives her unique superhuman powers. It first aired in syndication from September 17, 1987 and ended on May 25, 1991.
During its first season, the series was originally part of NBC's campaign, in which the network's owned-and-operated stations would run first-run sitcoms in the 7:30-8 pm time slot to counter-program competing stations' game shows, sitcom reruns and other offerings. Out of This World was rotated with the original series Marblehead Manor and She's the Sheriff, a syndicated revival of the 1983 sitcom We Got It Made, and a television adaptation of the play You Can't Take It with You. NBC ended the experiment after the 1987–88 season due to the low ratings put up by three of the series, with Out of This World being one of the two that were renewed.
After its first season, Out of This World began airing primarily on weekends. Despite receiving mostly negative reviews from critics, it would last three more seasons.

Show summary

The series revolves around Evie Ethel Garland - a young girl who discovers on her thirteenth birthday that her father Troy is an alien from the planet Antares Prime, in the Scorpio Galaxy. Evie's half-alien heritage gives her superhuman abilities, with most of the episodes revolving around Evie misusing her powers and causing some trouble which she spends the rest of the episode fixing. Only Evie and her family know about the alien side; many episodes depict their efforts to hide her secret from other characters. After four seasons, the series ended on a cliffhanger: Troy came to visit and Donna took his place by accident, ending up on Antares Prime while Troy was stranded on Earth.

Characters

Evie was able to communicate with Troy through a special genetic communication device known as the "cube," which he gave to her when she turned thirteen. The cube effectively functioned as a telephone line to Antareus — it could even be used to leave Troy an "answerphone" message, as seen in the episode "My Little Evie." There were no controls on the cube; Evie simply would call for her father, and the cube would activate when he answered, and deactivate when he would "hang up." Depending on the plotline, Troy would manifest his powers while talking through the cube, emitting a beam of energy directly from the cube.
Evie and Donna would normally keep the cube around the house, out of sight, sometimes telling people it was an ornament or a talking clock. When the cube was activated, the top half of it would open up on a hinge with a magenta light pulsing inside, with a "spacey" sound effect. The ambient lights in the room would usually dim as well. Troy's voice would be heard clearly through the cube with reverberation.
Originally, even though everyone was able to hear Troy through the cube, Evie was the only one whom Troy could hear, as the cube was described to be "genetic." This changes in the first episode of season 2, "Evie's Birthday Wish." At the end of the episode, Evie uses her final wish to request that her mother be able to talk to Troy like she can. As a result, Troy could then hear Donna and they could talk back and forth. It was unknown whether the rest of Evie's family could also talk to Troy, but there were other aliens that Troy could hear through the cube, as seen in Season 4 Episode 5 "Evie's Guardian Angel".

Guest stars

The series featured several celebrities who made cameo appearances on the show, occasionally as themselves. In chronological order of appearances:

Season 1 (1987–88)

Season 2 (1988–89)

Season 3 (1989–90)

Season 4 (1990–91)

Opening credits

The opening credits for the series incorporated special effects footage from the 1979–1981 series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. The theme song is "Swinging on a Star".

International airings

Out of This World was first broadcast in the UK on the ITV network on April 9, 1990, until 1995.

Critical reception

Discussing Out of This World, Roger Fulton stated "like many juvenile US sitcoms, the series was short on laughs and long on moralizing". The book Television Without Pity contained a review of Out of This World that described the show as "quite possibly the worst sitcom ever made-it's a complete failure on every level". The review went on to criticize the show's scripts, acting and production, and unfavorably compared Out of This World to Sabrina the Teenage Witch. The Splitsider website called Out of This World "perhaps the worst sitcom ever, or at least the most '80s sitcom ever".

Home media

A DVD set with 35 episodes from seasons 1 and 2 was released in Germany on November 8, 2011. The 6-disc set has a runtime of 875 minutes, but does not include all episodes due to music rights.

In other media

As previously mentioned, during the first season, Out of This World aired on NBC's owned-and-operated stations as part of their experiment.
CityStation
AtlantaWAGA 5
BostonWCVB 5
WFXT 25
WLVI 56
CharlotteWBTV 3
Charleston, South CarolinaWTAT 24
Charleston, West VirginiaWVAH
ChicagoWMAQ 5
WPWR 50
ClevelandWUAB 43
DavenportKWQC 6
DetroitWXON 20
DurhamWPTF 28
FairbanksKTVF 11
Fort WorthKTVT 11
Grand RapidsWXMI 17
GreenvilleWFIX 8
HartfordWTIC 61
HoustonKHTV 39
IndianapolisWXIN 59
JacksonvilleWJXT 4
Los AngelesKNBC 4
KTLA 5
MiamiWDZL 39
MilwaukeeWVTV 18
MinneapolisKITN 9
New YorkWNBC 4
OaklandKTVU 2
OmahaKPTM 42
Paris, OntarioCIII 6
PhiladelphiaWPHL 17
Salt Lake CityKXIV 14
San JuanWAPA 4
SeattleKSTW 11
SecaucusWWOR 9
SacramentoKRBK 61
SpokaneKAYU 28
St. LouisKPLR 11
Washington, D.C.WFTY 50
WRC 4
WichitaKSAS 24