Out of This World (TV series)



Short Version: That show you vaguely remember about the alien girl who could freeze time.

Evie Garland, the main character, is half-alien, which gives her a variety of special powers, which get her in and out of trouble on this syndicated half-hour Sitcom which ran from 1987 to 1991. She lives with her human mother Donna, and only communicates with her Anterian alien father Troy via a crystal on her desk (voiced by Burt Reynolds, the producer of the show).

All Anterians have a variety of powers, including the ability to "Gleep", or to will simple, non-mechanical objects into existence. As Evie is only half-Anterian, her powers are less refined than a full-blooded Anterian. Evie's main power is the ability to freeze and unfreeze time by placing her fingers or palms together, respectively. Later in the show, on her sixteenth birthday, she gets the ability to teleport.

Donna and Evie must keep her powers a secret from various nosy side-characters, which include the oblivious Mayor Kyle Applegate, the dim-witted Buzz Belmondo, and Evie's high school sweetheart Chris Fuller. Donna's brother Beano is also a frequently recurring guest, and the only other character to know Evie's secret.

The show is extremely similar in format to the later Sabrina the Teenage Witch and probably second only to Small Wonder in the "Oh, that's what that show was called!" hall of fame.

Not to be confused with Eric Chahi's legendary French side-scrolling adventure game masterpiece, also known as Another World. Also not to be confused with the surreal Jam Handy short film about bread, which would eventually be riffed on Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Out of This World provides examples of

 * Alien Among Us
 * Animorphism: In one episode, Uncle Beano is accidentally gleeped into a dog.
 * Cute Alien Girl
 * The Ditz: Buzz
 * Dangerous Sixteenth Birthday
 * Drop in Character: The Garland household apparently has an open-door policy for neighbors, family members, and local government officials.
 * Extraordinarily Empowered Girl: Evie Garland
 * Fantastic Aesop
 * Fantastic Comedy
 * Functional Magic: Gleeping restrictions
 * Gender Bender: With a heady Les Yay chaser. Evie turned herself into "Stevie" in one episode to provide a date for her chronically single best friend. Yes, this was real.
 * Half-Hour Comedy
 * Human Mom, Nonhuman Dad: Resulting in a Half-Human Hybrid.
 * Hey, It's That Voice:  is Evie's Dad's voice!
 * New Super Power: Evie will occasionally develop alterations to her powers or random new super powers due to "glitches".
 * No Fourth Wall: Evie will frequently freeze time to share an aside with another character, or even the audience itself.
 * Nosy Neighbor
 * Reality Warper
 * Real Song Theme Tune: "Would You Like To Swing On A Star?" with new lyrics.
 * Secret Keeper: Donna and Beano.
 * Sitcom
 * Stupid Boss: Mayor Kyle Applegate.
 * The Danza: Donna Garland was played by Donna Pescow.
 * Time Stands Still/Teleporters and Transporters: Evie's powers.
 * Touched by Vorlons: On several occasions, Donna Garland had some of Evie's or Troy's powers transfered to her, which she had difficulty controlling.
 * The Un-Reveal: Troy, who is never seen, finally makes a trip to Earth in the Finale - where a teleport glitch renders him transparent.
 * Bolivian Army Ending: In a manner of speaking. At some point Donna and Troy swap places in the finale, and she is still stranded on Anterias (and he is still stranded on Earth) at the end. We never find out how they switch back because the series was canceled.
 * Useless Superpowers: Evie's practically unbounded "Gleeping" power is reliably unreliable at crucial plot moments in practically every episode.
 * The Voice: Troy of Anterias.
 * Wild Teen Party: Evie use her powers to clean it up. Then, when her mom is back, the effects stop and home is messy again in front of the mother.