3rd Rock from the Sun/Characters: Difference between revisions

* [[Comically Missing the Point]]: Doesn't understand sarcasm or lying very well.

** An example would be when Mary compared his family to [[The Addams Family (TV)|The Addams Family]]. Dick assumed she meant second president John Adams. When she states that wasn't what she meant, Dick thinks she meant John Quincy Adams and becomes enraged that she would compare his family to "that freakshow".

* [[Professional Butt Kisser]]: Admits he became High Commander by doing this.

* [[Sadist Teacher]]: While handing out a test to his class, he openly told them that none of them would be able to solve question four, which made up half the test.

* [[Single Target Sexuality]]: A subversion. Mary is the only woman with whom Dick considers himself to be truly in love with, and spends the length of the entire show either with her or trying to get back together with her. But he's had other relationships, including a one-night stand with the mother of one of his students.

* [[Sitcom Arch Nemesis]]: Had three, the only frequent one being Vincent Strudwick. The other two were fellow alien Liam Neeson, and grumpy lunch lady Lucy.

 

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* [[Action Girl]]

* [[Ax Crazy]]: Borders on this at times, such as when her role as the security officer would require having to kill someone deemed a threat to the mission. Her solution to stop an auditor from discovering they're aliens was to snap his neck, and then the necks of everyone they encounter on the way home.

* [[I Want My Beloved to Be Happy]]: In the last two episodes she turns Don into an effective police officer and gives him a backbone before leaving Earth, because she couldn't stand the thought of him spending the rest of his life as a muffin making coward.

* [[Mama Bear]]: Has the potential to be one.

'''Dick''': Oh Mary, why not?<br />

'''Mary''': Because I hate them. }}

* [[Dysfunctional Family]]: Her parents both had affairs while she was growing up (including one that draws doubt to Mary's paternity). She's the eldest of three children, all twisted in their own ways. Her brother Roy sells aluminum siding and tells women he was abducted by aliens as an attempt to get laid. Her sister Renata is an affected, wealthy woman who has a personal vendetta against Mary and does everything in her power to destroy Mary's life (including trying to steal Dick). Their whole family seems fond of alcohol, and Mary has apparently followed in her mother's footsteps to become a borderline [[Lady Drunk]].

* [[Hilariously Abusive Childhood]]: Well, maybe not "abusive", ''per se''. Her parents were close to emotionally abusive, however, and this is played for laughs.

* [[Love Triangle]]: Managed to have not one, but two relationships with two different alien beings.

* [[My Beloved Smother]]: Her mom's a complete bitch.

* [[Not That Kind of Doctor]]: Not matter how many times Mary has to explain it, Vicki keeps thinking that the "doctor" in her name means Mary's a medical doctor.

* [[Ted Baxter]]: Once compared herself to Abraham Lincoln in a speech to her colleagues. And, in Nina's words, "he did not come out favorably".

 

== [[Promotion to Opening Titles|Promoted To Opening Titles]] In Season Three ==

* [[Only Sane Man]]: Whenever dealing with Mary and Dick.

* [[Pet the Dog]]: Nina normally seems to hold Dick in contempt (not entirely without reason, it must be said), but there are some moments when she makes it clear that she doesn't actually hate him.

* [[Sassy Secretary]]

* [[Sexy Secretary]]: One episode involved Dick having romantic fantasies about Nina.

* [[Characterization Marches On]]: As the show went on she gradually became more stuck-up and hypocritical, until she finally broke up with Tommy after she admitted that she was cheating on him.

* [[Deadpan Snarker]]

 

 

'''Leon''' (Ian Lithgow) - The [[Butt Monkey]] of Dick's class. Ian Lithgow is John Lithgow's [[Real Life Relative|Real Life Son]].

'''Big Giant Head''' ([[William Shatner]]) - The aliens' [[Evil Overlord]]. [[The Ghost]] for most of the series, but he eventually showed up as an [[Adam Westing]] Shatner. On Earth, he goes by the alias "[[Character Name Alias|Stone Phillips]]", the name of an [[NBC]] reporter at the time of the show's run.

* [[Exactly What It Says On the Tin]]

* [[Mars Needs Women]]: Offers to marry Vicki and make her, in her own words, "Queen of the frickin' universe".

 

'''Dr. Liam Neesam''' (John Cleese) - An evil alien [[Always Someone Better|way better than Dick]] who briefly worked at Dick's college as a biology professor.

* [[Evil Is Petty]]: Was originally sent to blow up Earth. Why? We're blocking his home planet's view.