Out of This World (TV series)

This article is about the U.S. television series. For the British television series of the same name, see Out of This World (UK TV series).

Out of This World
Title screen
Genre	Fantasy sitcom
Created by	John Boni Bob Booker
Developed by	Bob Booker
Directed by	Bob Claver Scott Baio Selig Frank Stan Harris Russ Petranto Jack Regas Renny Temple
Starring	Maureen Flannigan Donna Pescow Doug McClure Joe Alaskey Steve Burton Christina Nigra
Voices of	Burt Reynolds
Opening theme	"Swinging on a Star"
Composer(s)	Kevin Kiner
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	4
No. of episodes	96
Production
Executive producer(s)	Bob Booker
Producer(s)	John Boni Barbara Booker Gail Honigberg Laura Levine Mike Scully Bruce Taylor George Yanok
Running time	21–22 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	Syndication
Original run	September 17, 1987 (1987-09-17) – May 25, 1991 (1991-05-25)

Out Of This World is an American fantasy sitcom about a teenage girl who is half alien, which gives her unique supernatural powers. It first aired in U.S. syndication on September 17, 1987 and ended on May 25, 1991. It was first broadcast in the UK on the ITV network on April 9, 1990, usually at 10:00 a.m. on weekday mornings.

During its first season, the series was originally part of NBC's much-hyped Prime Time Begins at 7:30 campaign, in which the network's owned-and-operated stations would run first-run sitcoms in the 7:30-8 pm time slot to counterprogram 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 was renewed. After its first season the series was largely moved to weekend time slots, where it remained until its cancellation following the fourth season.

Show summary

The series revolves around Evie Ethel Garland, a young girl who discovers on her thirteenth birthday that her father is an alien named Troy, from the planet Antareus, who married her mother and "merged lifeforms" to create Evie. Evie's half-alien heritage gives her superhuman abilities. Most of the episodes revolve around Evie misusing her powers and causing some trouble, which she spends the rest of the episode trying to fix. Only Evie and her family know about her alien father and her powers, and many episodes depict Evie trying to hide her secret from other characters. The series ended on a cliffhanger in the Season 4 finale, where Troy came to visit and Donna took his place by accident and ended up in Antareus, leaving Troy stranded on Earth.

DVD releases

A DVD set with 35 episodes from seasons 1 and 2 are due for a DVD release in Germany on November 8th, 2011^[1]. The 6-disc set has a runtime of 875 minutes and features English and German audio, and deleted scenes listed as an extra.

Certain episodes could not be included because of music rights, on the Volume One set, these episodes are: Playing With the Power, The Nightmare, Till Then, Fifties Mom, To Tell the Truth, Pen Pals, Mosquito Man - The Motion Picture, The Russians are Coming, Boy Crazy, The Three Faces of Evie, I've Got a Secret, Evei's Two Dads, Queens for a Day.^[2]

Characters

• Evie Ethel Garland (Maureen Flannigan) — Evie is a half-human, half-alien girl who lives with her mother in Marlowe, California, in a house overlooking the sea. Evie is an only child. Her mother had always told Evie that her father was a secret agent, but on her thirteenth birthday Evie began to develop superhuman abilities and it was revealed that her father is an extraterrestrial from the planet Antareus. Evie attends a school for gifted children (run by her mother) and achieves good grades there. Her father describes her as "the perfect child: loving; caring; with the same needs of most teenagers". The series follows Evie through her teenage years, from her thirteenth birthday in the first episode to her eighteenth birthday in the final episode. Although she was the leading character, Flannigan was billed last in the credits because she was largely unknown at the time. In the first season, she received the billing "And Introducing Maureen Flannigan as Evie." In the last 3 seasons, she was billed as "And Maureen Flannigan as Evie."

• Donna Garland (Donna Pescow) — Evie's mother. Described by her husband as "an ambitious working mother with a career", Donna runs a school for gifted children, which Evie attends. She later founds her own catering company, "Donna's Delights." Toward the end of season 3, Donna becomes the mayor of Marlowe. Donna is very protective of her daughter, often to the dismay of Evie, who would like to be more independent. Donna and Evie's Uncle Beano (then later Uncle Mick) are the only regular characters on the show who know Evie's secret.

• Troy Garland (Burt Reynolds, voice only) — Evie's father. Troy is a human-looking extraterrestrial, with many special powers, from the planet Antareus. Troy met Donna when his spacecraft crashed on Earth at some point in the late 1960s or early 1970s. The two fell in love, were married in 1971, and two years later Donna gave birth to Evie. Shortly after, in 1974, Troy was called back to Antareus to fight in a war. Since then, Troy occasionally visits Earth, and stays in touch with his daughter via a special communication device known as the "cube" (see below). Troy's powers seem to be almost limitless: though he lives on Antareus, he can control many things on Earth (from computers to the weather); he can give and take away Evie's powers at will; and also seems to be aware of certain events on Earth. While Troy appears in the show's opening credits, he rarely makes a physical appearance in the series — and when he does his face is obscured (for example, via a surgical mask or shadows). Troy was credited as "himself" in the opening credits from Season Two onwards.

• Beano Froelich (1987–1990) (Joe Alaskey) — "Uncle Beano" is Donna's brother and Evie's uncle, who lives next door to them. Beano has a large appetite and runs "Beano's Diet Clinic". Beano is one of the three regular characters who know Evie's secret, along with Donna and Evie herself.

• Kyle Applegate (Doug McClure) — Kyle is a former television actor who is now the mayor of Marlowe. Kyle is a good friend of the family, but "the mayor" punishes even the smallest offenses. As well as being egocentric and vain, Kyle is dimwitted and gullible, often completely failing to notice Evie's "alien" antics. He clings to his former TV glory as the star of "Mosquito Man" and many long forgotten mainly Western movies. Towards the end of season three, Kyle is appointed police chief by Donna, who takes over from him as mayor.

• Lindsay Selkirk (Christina Nigra) — Evie's best friend. Evie and Lindsay spend a lot of time together drinking milkshakes at their local diner, the "Goodie Goodie" and is Evie's confidante when it comes to boys and her non-Antarian related problems.

• Chris Fuller (Steve Burton) — Chris is a surfer and high school student who later becomes a student at Marlowe Community College. He is introduced as a new student and good basketball player in the season one episode "Evie get your Basketball." Chris was Evie's boyfriend. They sometimes dated other people, but always ended up together. In an episode of the final season, Chris said Evie always had been and always would be his girl.

• Mick (1990–1991) (Tom Nolan) — Mick is Donna's brother and Evie's uncle, who was introduced in the fourth season to replace Uncle Beano. He is a former rock musician.

• Buzz (Buzz Belmondo) — One of the more eccentric characters in the town, he usually makes one brief appearance per episode, during which he performs a series of jokes which are typically puns or prop-based gags, sometimes relating to the elaborate costume that he is wearing. Sporting an unknown accent and prone to bizarre behaviour, Donna sometimes resorts to him for help, more often than not regretting it!

Evie's powers

• Evie's main power is the ability to freeze time on Earth (while time continues for her and her father on Antareus) by joining two fingers, during which she maneuvers herself or objects to alter the course of events on Earth. When she claps her hands together, time resumes as normal. She can also "unfreeze" individuals by touching them while time is frozen. In the opening sequence, she opens a door and knocks an open can of paint off a ladder, and then joins her fingers to stop it mid-fall.
• Evie later gains the power to gleep, which allows her to manifest objects by using the power of her mind. There are certain restrictions on this power, such as the inability to create complicated machinery, and overuse of this power will cause her other abilities to stop functioning.

The cube

Evie is 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 functions as a telephone line to Antareus — it can even be used to leave Troy an "answerphone" message, as seen in the episode "My Little Evie". There are no controls on the cube; Evie simply calls for her father and the cube activates when he answers, deactivating when he "hangs up". Sometimes when Troy uses his powers whilst talking through the cube, a beam of energy is emitted directly from the cube.

Evie and Donna normally keep the cube around the house, out of sight (often in Evie's bedroom), sometimes telling people it is an ornament or a talking clock. When the cube is activated, the top half of it opens up on a hinge, a magenta light pulses inside, and a "spacey" sound effect plays. The lights in the room usually dim, although not always. Troy's voice is heard clearly through the cube with reverberation.

Originally, even though everyone was able to hear Troy through the cube, Evie was the only one Troy could hear as the cube was genetic, this rule changes in the first episode of season 2 "Evie's Birthday Wish" at the end of the episode, Evie wishes her mother could talk to Troy like she can, As a result, Troy can now hear Donna and they can now talk back and forth. It is unknown whether the rest of Evie's family could also talk to Troy, but there have been other aliens that Troy could hear through the cube, as seen in Season 4 Episode 5 "Evie's Guardian Angel" an Antaerian is sent to Earth to protect Evie and Donna, and he can speak to Troy.

Celebrity guest appearances

The series featured several celebrities who made cameo appearances on the show, occasionally as themselves.

• Actor Norman Fell (as Evie's psychiatrist Dr. Hauser, "The Nightmare", 1987)
• Actress Betsy Palmer (as Donna's mother, "Uh, Oh... Here Comes Mother", 1987)
• Actor Tom Bosley (as Troy's father, "Guess Who's Coming to Earth", 1988)
• Actor and popular game show panelist Jamie Farr ("Go West, Young Mayor", 1988)
• NFL American Football Player Lyle Alzado ("Goodbye Mr. Chris", 1990)
• Actor Mr. T ("New Kid on the Block", 1990)
• Game show host Bob Barker ("Evie's Magic Touch", 1990)
• Singer and actress Susan Anton ("Best Friends", 1990)
• Pop singer Tiffany ("I Want My Evie TV", 1990)
• Scott Baio (who also directed several episodes) made a cameo appearance in "Princess Evie" (1988)
• Actress-comedienne Kathleen Freeman (as Miss Ogilvy, Evie's high school teacher, "Educating Kyle", 1991)

External links

• Out of This World at the Internet Movie Database
• Out of This World at TV.com
• Out of This World at epguides.com

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